> …measures of intelligence at baseline (ages 9–10) and after two years. At baseline, time watching (r = − 0.12) and socializing (r = − 0.10) were negatively correlated with intelligence, while gaming did not correlate. After two years, gaming positively impacted intelligence (standardized β = + 0.17), but socializing had no effect. This is consistent with cognitive benefits documented in experimental studies on video gaming. Unexpectedly, watching videos also benefited intelligence (standardized β = + 0.12), contrary to prior research on the effect of watching TV. Although, in a posthoc analysis, this was not significant if parental education (instead of SES) was controlled for.
A few interesting points:
- This was measured for children 9-10 yo and then two years later (11-12 yo). Children is a very broad category, but they’re not talking about toddlers, but closer to adolescence.
- Watching videos has a positive correlation similar to playing video games (but not quite as great), but only when parental education rather than socioeconomic status is controlled for in the data. Does this imply that the more important factor is how educated the parents are? Or do they mean parental education to be involvement of the parent in educating the child?
Anecdotally, my much younger nephew (almost 5yo) watches YouTube videos on how to draw Spider-Man and cars. It’s all self directed and stuff that he’s choosing to engage with. as a parent, I definitely see the educational value, and maybe even a glimpse of how unschooling could be effective practice.
If this interests you, it’s worth taking a look at Genetic Programming. I find it to be a simpler approach at the same problem, no math required. It simply recombines programs by their AST, and given some heuristic, optimizes the program for it. The magic is in your heuristic function, where you can choose what you want to optimize for (ie. Speed, program length, minimize complex constructs or function calls, network efficiency, some combination therein, etc).
I’ll add the Humies Awards that highlight human-competitive results. One can learn a lot about what can or can’t be done in this field by just skimming across all the submitted papers.
There is also a Python implementation in the repo. I’m using Kubelka-Munk for pigment mixing, but the gradients it produces are so lovely that it really should be used in generative art more.
This is pretty common in 3D work. Blender has a feature called “blend shapes” that implements a similar interface, and is commonly used for complex facial animation and general model parameterization.
The title put on here is very misleading, the actual title from the article is “Fish fed to farmed salmon should be part of our diet, too, study suggests”.
Nio, a Chinese EV manufacturer, allows batteries swap instead of charging.
They have swapping stations where you just drive the car in and the battery is swapped through an automated process in under 5 minutes, then you drive off with a full charge.
I bought a used EV back in 2016 (2013 Leaf, certified preowned from dealer, just off 3 year lease), and negotiated 25% off asking price, coming in at $9k.
I have had $0 in maintenance costs, the battery health meter (and approx range) is still exactly where it was when I bought it, despite tripling the miles. I drive it every day for in city driving.
Meanwhile my Jeep of the same era required a new crate motor be installed after a cooling failure, and I’m pretty sure the transmission will need replacing in the next 5 years. The repair costs on this vehicle have been well over $10k. We ended up giving it to my sister in law after fixing it up, then bought a Subaru (which the assisted cruise control on is basically highway self driving, so good for long trips!).
A lot of ICE cars end up as junk too. The EV is actually more promising to me BECAUSE of the battery swap. I can put a battery in my Leaf from a newer vehicle and increase range to a couple hundred miles (I’ll do this eventually, maybe in another 10 years). This increases the longevity of the vehicle (it’s a great car aside from range).
Honestly, the Leaf was the best car purchase I’ve ever made (I’ve owned 7 in my life, all for > 10 years, aside from the latest car and another which was stolen). I’d highly recommend people buy used EVs (but I would do a certified preowned vehicle from the dealer again, you want to know that it doesn’t have said costly damage to the vehicle, but that’s true of ICE cars that require major work too).
PS: we use the EV for city driving (easily 90% of our car use) and the ICE car to go long distances (visit relatives, camping, road trips), and only leaves the garage 2-5 times a month (but packs on the miles!).
“I can put a battery in my Leaf from a newer vehicle … and increase range to a couple hundred miles“
I think you’ll find putting a battery from a newer LEAF generation is not going to be trivial or cheap. Cars invented planned obsolescence, computers have nothing on them, so there’s likely to be non-trivial differences between batteries.
Wrong in this case. It's a straightforward common swap on these, at most needing some brackets and an intermediary on the can bus, and stronger rear springs depending on the exact swap.
There is more than one company out there shucking old Insights and Leafs for their battery modules for stationary storage applications, check with them wrt resale value if they're procuring in your area before DIYing or trading the vehicle in to a traditional auto market maker.
If you can afford it, I recommend folks buy new EVs and leave old EVs to be repurposed for stationary storage (as current grid demand is voracious for storage, which will drive fossil generation out of the electrical mix faster). If you can't afford a new EV, certainly, a used EV is fine if you can live with the reduced range and fast charge challenges.
Wow nice deal! I wish I could keep a car for 10 years. I have had some cars that are pretty old, like my 2001 Ranger, but either major mechanical failure or crashes have taken them all from me within less than a decade of ownership.
The equivalent car to your 2013 leaf today would be from 2019 or 2020. I wonder if I could find one of those for under $10k. That would be pretty awesome. The truck could get demoted to living outside and I would save some cash and CO2 when I drive around town.
Just started to learn to sew as an expectant father (to make blankets and clothes) and remembered my favorite interaction design computer science researcher, Takeo Igarashi, and his awesome work on Teddy3D, and later, Plushie.
Plushie is based on the Teddy3D software, which lets you create 3D models by using a 2D drawing interface. Plushie takes it a step further and simulates stuffing and creates a sewing pattern for you to make stuffed animals from.
They have a demo video on the page showing a workshop they did with kids designing and sewing plush toys. Definitely worth a look!
