Daniel Lemire's blog

, 3 min read

Science and Technogy links (June 3 2023)

    1. There are fewer serial killers these days. Some suggests it is due to better forensic techniques: we catch the killers faster and more efficiently.
    2. Between the beginnings of the Web (1996) and today, the household Internet connection bandwidth got over 5000 times faster. Thus what took nearly two hours of download time back then can now be downloaded in a second.
    3. Managers make a difference: The abilities of retail store managers explain most of the store-to-store variability in productivity.
    4. Rausch et al. report that the latest generation of college students favours emotional well-being, and is less interested in academic rigor.
      But female and male students differ in what they favour. Males tend to value academic freedom, while females value emotional well-being.
    5. Switching away from sugar-sweetened beverage to water or unsweetened beverage had little effect over a twelve-week period. However, switching to water had a significant effect in that it reduce how much people sought sugar. I have switched my own diet away from sugar many years ago, and I find sugar in coffee offensive. This may be surprising to some but sugar is an acquired taste.
    6. Giving old mice both glycine and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) reverses age-associated cognitive decline. Glycine is a cheap and safe supplement which you may take right now. NAC is also available as a supplement.
    7. The rate at which people die of a heart attack has fallen massively: Researchers found the overall rate of death from heart attack, adjusted for age, fell from about 87 deaths per 100,000 people in 1999 to about 38 deaths per 100,000 people in 2020. (source) Unfortunately, there was a setback during the pandemic era.
    8. There is ongoing research to find out why some dogs tilt their head when hearing a verbal command.
    9. Eat less might be an effective way to improve your cardiovascular health: Weight loss was found to promote atherosclerosis resolution independent of plasma cholesterol. It seems that as you reduce your food intake, macrophages help clear out your arteries, at least if you are a mouse.
    10. Consuming large volumes of vitamin C might clear your allergies (speculative).
    11. White people tend to avoid Black people on the street in New York City.
    12. About 12% of total atmospheric CO2 in 2018 was due to fossil fuels.
    13. Organic agriculture could support up to 4.7 billion human beings. There are 8 billion people on Earth currently.
    14. An increase in regulatory costs results in lower sales for small firms, and higher sales for large firms. In other words, government regulations lead to market concentration in the hands of fewer large players.
    15. Start-up founders who are low in conscientiousness are at disavantage when first raising capital, but they have an overall advantage when it comes to success.