All posts tagged: experts

Abortion is a nonpartisan issue, experts say. It could still affect the outcome in swing states

Abortion is a nonpartisan issue, experts say. It could still affect the outcome in swing states

In this election, 10 states will ask voters how their states should regulate abortion — including a couple of presidential swing states like Arizona. The ballot initiatives come two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs decision, which led many states nationwide to restrict abortion access.  According to an abortion policy tracker from KFF, 13 states have banned access to abortion, 6 states have gestational limits between 6 and 12 weeks from a pregnant woman’s last menstrual period, and 5 states have a gestational limit between 15 and 22 weeks. Most of the initiatives in the 10 states would allow abortion until fetal viability and guarantee access to abortion by adding amendments to the state constitutions. Pro-abortion advocates are hopeful these measures will pass, as similar ballot measures have succeeded in every state in the past, including conservative-leaning ones, in the 2022 and 2023 elections. The shift speaks to the changing landscape of the issue of abortion and how voters value it in a post-Dobbs landscape. As a bonus, …

The Best Easy Zone 2 Workouts, According to the Experts

The Best Easy Zone 2 Workouts, According to the Experts

If you feel too exhausted from the workout after the hour, you’re probably going too hard, so slow down! Stationary Cycling A steady 45-minute session on a stationary bike is great for staying in Zone 2 as well as building endurance and strengthening the legs, and it won’t kill your knees, either. “Set the resistance to a moderate level and maintain a consistent pace,” advises Davidson. “As you’d imagine, a common mistake is increasing resistance or pedalling too fast—keep it manageable to keep it in zone 2.” Struggling to stay in the zone? Use a heart rate monitor to stay in the 60-75 percent range. Dance Cardio Now for something a bit different. “Dance cardio is a fun way to keep your heart rate in the zone 2 range,” says Dase. “It involves continuous movement, often with high repetitions of simple steps and rhythms, making it accessible to all fitness levels.” Breakdancing probably isn’t the best discipline here, but there are all sorts of classes suited to beginners or those with experience: zumba, ballroom, jazz, …

Is generative AI doomed? An expert’s take on the “model collapse” theory

Is generative AI doomed? An expert’s take on the “model collapse” theory

Artificial intelligence (AI) prophets and newsmongers are forecasting the end of the generative AI hype, with talk of an impending catastrophic “model collapse”. But how realistic are these predictions? And what is model collapse anyway? Discussed in 2023, but popularised more recently, “model collapse” refers to a hypothetical scenario where future AI systems get progressively dumber due to the increase of AI-generated data on the internet. The need for data Modern AI systems are built using machine learning. Programmers set up the underlying mathematical structure, but the actual “intelligence” comes from training the system to mimic patterns in data. But not just any data. The current crop of generative AI systems needs high quality data, and lots of it. To source this data, big tech companies such as OpenAI, Google, Meta and Nvidia continually scour the internet, scooping up terabytes of content to feed the machines. But since the advent of widely available and useful generative AI systems in 2022, people are increasingly uploading and sharing content that is made, in part or whole, by …

Boomer Parents Are Addicted To Facebook – But This Expert’s Reason Why Is Gutting

Boomer Parents Are Addicted To Facebook – But This Expert’s Reason Why Is Gutting

“Yeah, you youngsters spend way too much time scrolling,” your parent exclaims, sitting hunched over their iPad, glasses at the end of their nose as they share a post of a cat missing in Los Angeles to their Facebook timeline, despite the fact that they live in Leeds. “I’m nowhere near as bad as you,” they add, as they go into their 75th minute of not looking up from their screen despite the fact you’ve come to visit them. “Did you know that Brian I went to school with and haven’t seen since and who is of absolutely zero significance to any of us was on holiday in Florence last week? Difficult for some.” Sound familiar? Well, you might just have yourself an iPad parent. Chances are you’ve heard the term ‘iPad kid’ – a condescending phrase used to describe screen-loving Gen Alpha children (people who were born from 2010, the year Apple iPads were first available to the public) who are quite simply never not staring at an electronic device. And despite our boomer …

Even Republicans alarmed by new Georgia election rules — but experts worry “nothing will be done”

Even Republicans alarmed by new Georgia election rules — but experts worry “nothing will be done”

Even Republicans are ringing alarm bells about the last-minute changes Georgia’s State Election Board is making to election procedures in the state. Despite a multiple challenges to the new rules — which could sow chaos in the election — many are doubtful that any action will be taken to clarify the state’s rules before Election Day. Earlier this week, a group of Republican and independent attorneys and interested parties penned a letter to Governor Brian Kemp, Attorney General Christopher Carr and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger expressing concern about the recent rulemaking of Georgia’s State Elections Board. The board is an unelected five-member body charged with ensuring “the fair, legal, and orderly” administration of elections across Georgia as well as keeping uniform electoral procedures across the state’s 159 counties. This year, however, a three-member pro-Trump majority consisting of Rick Jeffares, Janice Johnston and Janelle King, passed a spate of new election rules that even has Republicans concerned. The two rules that have raised the most eyebrows are the “reasonable inquiry” rule, passed in August, and a hand-count rule passed …

A Russian warlord said he’ll take Cybertrucks into Ukraine; some experts think that’s unwise

A Russian warlord said he’ll take Cybertrucks into Ukraine; some experts think that’s unwise

In August, a Russian warlord posted a video on Telegram, showing a pair of Cybertrucks patrolling a road in Chechnya, armed seemingly with heavy machine guns. Leaving aside unanswerable (for now) questions about how the vehicles were obtained, Wired thought it worth digging into whether a Cybertruck actually makes sense as a “technical,” the term for modified civilian rides used by militaries and military groups. What did the outlet find? Well, it’s complicated. One expert noted the Cybertrucks’ stainless steel makeup can take some abuse, and that they’re both fast and quiet, a plus in a stealth operation. A second expert described the trucks’ heavy reliance on software as potentially catastrophic; they’re also insanely heavy, making maneuverability and traction on certain terrains tough. (As a reminder, they appear not to do all that well in sand.) Said that first expert to Wired: “It’s great that [the Cybertruck] is safe in a crash and can take a bullet. But if you break a control arm and can’t get the part, it’s pretty useless.” Source link

How Defense Experts Got Ukraine Wrong

How Defense Experts Got Ukraine Wrong

One might think that an intelligence failure can be benign: The good guys do far better than expected, the bad guys far worse. In fact, erring on the side of pessimism can be as big a problem as being too bullish. The period just before and after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, is a good example of this. At the West’s most influential research organizations, prominent analysts—many of them political scientists who follow Russian military affairs—confidently predicted that Russia would defeat its smaller neighbor within weeks. American military leaders believed this consensus, to the point that the Joint Chiefs of Staff chair reportedly told members of Congress that Kyiv could fall within 72 hours of a Russian attack. Although those analysts’ gloomy assessments turned out to be wrong, they’ve nevertheless made the United States and its allies overly cautious in assisting Ukraine in its self-defense. Both of us are military historians who have a keen interest in contemporary strategic issues—and who, at the outset of the war, harbored grave doubts …

Why Tailoring Experts Swear by This Classic Menswear Book

Why Tailoring Experts Swear by This Classic Menswear Book

The process of choosing, wearing, and caring for a suit is often fraught with tough decisions, confusing jargon, and conflicting opinions. That’s why we’ve assembled an all-star roster of menswear experts to definitively answer all your sartorial queries. Welcome to GQ’s Ask a Tailor. If looking good in a suit is a science, then Alan Flusser is one of the field’s pre-eminent PhDs. Flusser is known for outfitting generations of men at his eponymous NYC haberdashery and designing the power suits Michael Douglas wore in Wall Street, but his most lasting legacy might be his genre-defining menswear book, Dressing the Man. Published in 2002, Dressing the Man is a richly illustrated 300-page tome covering every aspect of classic men’s clothing from suits to socks. Unlike other how-to guides, however, Dressing the Man is less concerned with telling you what clothes to wear than teaching you how to assemble a wardrobe that works with your face shape, body type, and skin tone. From what shade of blue best suits your complexion to which tie knot complements …

Experts Find NASA Is in Major Trouble

Experts Find NASA Is in Major Trouble

“One tends to neglect the probably less glamorous thing.” Death Becomes Her In a new report, a group of aerospace experts have declared that NASA is at a turning point — and the agency’s death could be imminent. As the Washington Post notes, the new report, fittingly titled “NASA at a Crossroads” and published at the behest of Congress by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, highlights in grim detail just how much trouble the agency is in. NASA has for a while now been hemorrhaging talent as its best engineers retire or take higher-paying jobs in the private sector amid cut after cut to the agency’s funding. Though it continues pursuing complicated and attention-grabbing missions like the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, others like the Mars Sample Return mission have been delayed, leaving openings for rivals like China to forge ahead and leave the US in its space dust. Clocking in at roughly 200 pages, the report features committees comprised of dozens of experts from both public and private entities including …

Experts dissect ‘enigma’ of defendant’s ‘split personality’

Experts dissect ‘enigma’ of defendant’s ‘split personality’

Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, speaks to the press at the Avignon courthouse, France, September 9, 2024. MANON CRUZ / REUTERS Dominique Pelicot appeared in court for precisely two minutes on Monday, September 9. This was the time it took for lawyer Béatrice Zavarro to mention her client’s “intestinal difficulties” and “possible urinary infection,” and to get the presiding judge Roger Arata to excuse him from this sixth day of hearings, which would be entirely focused on him. It was therefore, strangely, in his absence that a personality analyst, an expert psychologist and two psychiatrists took turns before the criminal court in Avignon, southeastern France, to dissect the background and profile of Pelicot, whose reactions to certain statements made on the stand would have been welcome. “No salient personality traits,” “correct relationship with reality,” “no mental pathology,” “no psychiatric antecedents,” listed the specialists who had examined Pelicot. He was also described by close friends and family, during the course of the investigation, as “an undeniably present and loving father,” “very involved in the education of …