All posts tagged: superpower

America abdicates as global superpower — and it’s about time

America abdicates as global superpower — and it’s about time

Published by Sam Flores

On a sweltering summer night in Cleveland 10 years ago, I witnessed Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the 2016 Republican convention — the “I alone can fix it” speech — and realized for the first time that he was likely to be elected president. Like many people in this business, I have too much ego invested in not being surprised by anything that happens, no matter how dire or ridiculous. But that was without a doubt one of the most traumatic experiences of my career: As I wrote at the time, it hit 7.5 on the Nuremberg scale. I also began to understand Trump’s rise as something more than an aberration or a flukish detour from the normal back and forth of regular-order democracy. (It has taken the Democratic Party until approximately right now to figure that out, if it has.) It was more like a dark epiphany, a moment of revelation in which unsavory but unavoidable truths about America were laid bare before America itself and the wider world. It might be the most …

Eight rules made Norway a winter sports superpower. Will they help at the World Cup?

Eight rules made Norway a winter sports superpower. Will they help at the World Cup?

Published by Sam Flores

Twenty years ago in Bryne, a small Norwegian city near the North Sea, a group of elementary school-age kids gathered most weekends to play pickup games at an indoor soccer field. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. The soccer dome was often left unlocked, allowing local kids year-round opportunities to play. The kids later told researchers that they often would break themselves into teams and imagine they were playing someplace much bigger than their hometown of about 11,000. They referred to their game as “World Cup.” One of those kids from Bryne was a tall, blond goal-scoring whiz named Erling Haaland, who grew up to be one of the most prolific and famous goal-scorers in the world. On Tuesday, Haaland will lead Norway into the real World Cup — the country’s first appearance in 28 years. There is no denying the role of Haaland’s pedigree in his rise to stardom. His father played in England’s Premier League and for the last Norwegian national team that made …

People With Neurodivergent Traits Have A Rare Social Superpower Says Study

People With Neurodivergent Traits Have A Rare Social Superpower Says Study

Published by Jenni Sidey

Historically, society has made the assumption that individuals with autism or other neurodivergent conditions lack social cues. This thinking has created a space where neurodivergent people are belittled or even infantilized.  Determined to discover the reason behind the misunderstanding, scientists have started to research the way the neurodivergent brain reacts within interpersonal relationships. A study conducted recently combats this idea of “lacking social cues” by presenting the idea that the disconnect is due to mismatched communication styles.  Those with neurodivergent tendencies communicate differently due to unique social processing. Neurodivergent people have often been categorized as “socially awkward”, with others assuming that it is due to a lack of theory of mind. The “theory of mind” is a term in psychology used to define our ability to understand what others are thinking and feeling as a cognitive resource.  However, being neurodivergent doesn’t stop you from comprehending others’ emotional states; you just respond to them differently.  Polina Zimmerman | Pixels The Double Empathy Problem highlights that neurotypical and neurodivergent people may not communicate as smoothly together because …

Some plants have a genetic superpower that may help them survive a cataclysm : NPR

Some plants have a genetic superpower that may help them survive a cataclysm : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Many plants, including many species of bananas, have more than two sets of chromosomes. This can make the species more resilient to major environmental catastrophe, researchers find. Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket/Getty Images Most people are diploid. That is, we have two sets of chromosomes — one set from each parent. But that’s not always the case for other species, especially plants. “Strawberries, for example, have eight sets of chromosomes,” says Yves Van de Peer, a plant biologist at Ghent University in Belgium. This phenomenon, called polyploidy, happens when an organism has more than two sets of chromosomes stuffed into every cell — in other words, a whole genome duplication. And it appears to allow some plant species to survive episodes of extreme environmental stress, like changes in the climate. It wasn’t obvious to biologists that polyploidy would necessarily be a good thing. In fact, having double the chromosomes can ultimately impact a species’ survival, leading to its extinction. And yet, it’s pretty common today, especially in plants. This forms what …

Claude’s real superpower isn’t code — it’s what happens when you add these MCP servers

Claude’s real superpower isn’t code — it’s what happens when you add these MCP servers

Published by skeptic

Claude can be a genuinely impressive AI tool, especially if you’re considering Claude Code’s capabilities. But apart from writing code and handling daily conversations, it can do much more as soon as you bring the hundreds, if not thousands, of MCP servers available to you. These servers let Claude talk to external tools and even turn it into a shockingly good photo editor if you use it right. MCP, or Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that Anthropic released in late 2024. Think of it as a USB connection for AI: one standardized connection type that lets Claude (or any other AI for that matter) plug into databases, web tools, file systems, design apps, and just about anything else you can imagine. The ecosystem has exploded since, and there are tons of MCP servers that make Claude much more useful than it already is. Related MCP is the tech term you’ll be hearing all year — here’s what it means A new acronym is taking over tech circles. It’s called MCP—and it might just …

The Lame-Duck Superpower – The Atlantic

The Lame-Duck Superpower – The Atlantic

Published by José Betancourt

Spare a moment, please, for the lame-duck superpower. It calls itself the leader of the free world, but the free world no longer believes it. When it extends its hand, nobody rushes to accept. When it threatens, nobody trembles. After President Trump arrived in Beijing this week, Xi Jinping showered him with pomp befitting a summit of great powers. Yet the Chinese leader permitted potshots at his guest to go viral on his country’s internet rather than suppressing them, as some observers expected he would during a state visit. Xi answered Trump’s lavish praise by sternly lecturing him about meddling with Taiwan. In the end, Xi offered nothing of great substance—no solutions to the war in Iran, no sweeping trade deals, no promises of access to rare earth minerals. Xi used the visit to humor the lame-duck president, waiting for his time to pass. Michael Schuman: A checkers player meets a three-dimensional-chess master During the first Trump administration, foreign leaders flattered and accommodated the president out of deference to American power. They feared it; they …

America Is Now a Rogue Superpower

America Is Now a Rogue Superpower

Published by José Betancourt

Whenever and however America’s war with Iran ends, it has both exposed and exacerbated the dangers of our new, fractured, multipolar reality—driving deeper wedges between the United States and former friends and allies; strengthening the hands of the expansionist great powers, Russia and China; accelerating global political and economic chaos; and leaving the United States weaker and more isolated than at any time since the 1930s. Even success against Iran will be hollow if it hastens the collapse of the alliance system that for eight decades has been the true source of America’s power, influence, and security. For America’s friends and allies in Europe, the Iran war has been a significant strategic setback. As Russia and Ukraine wage a grinding war that will be “won” by whoever can hold on the longest, the Iran war has materially and psychologically helped Russia and hurt Ukraine. Even before Donald Trump lifted oil sanctions on Russia, oil prices were skyrocketing—and filling Vladimir Putin’s war chest with billions of dollars, just as Russia’s wartime deficits were starting to cause …

China Is Rapidly Overtaking the United States as the World’s Scientific Superpower

China Is Rapidly Overtaking the United States as the World’s Scientific Superpower

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech The Trump administration has taken a bulldozer to science funding over the last year and change, wiping out more than 7,800 research grants, cutting 25,000 scientists from government agencies, and proposing tens of billions of dollars in further scientific funding cuts — scientific bloodshed that’s disproportionally targeting research into misinformation, vaccines, infectious diseases, and other crucial topics. It could easily backfire. The administration’s war on science could greatly undermine the country’s decades-long stance as the global leader in research and development investment since the end of the Second World War, a recent forecast by science policy researchers found. That could allow China, which has dramatically increased public spending on R&D while the US has been pulling back, to surge ahead as the US continues to suffer a stomach-churning brain drain. As The Atlantic points out, China’s population is four times as large and “unabashedly pro-science,” handing out twice as many STEM degrees compared to the US and almost …

‘Baby brain’ is not cognitive decline, it’s a maternal superpower — according to neurologists

‘Baby brain’ is not cognitive decline, it’s a maternal superpower — according to neurologists

Published by Daniella Wilson

A landmark new study is challenging everything we thought we knew about baby brain, and the findings might surprise you. Research has found that women lose nearly five per cent of their brain’s grey matter during pregnancy, but researchers say the change is not only normal, it is actually essential preparation for motherhood. The study, led by Professor Susana Carmona at the Gregorio Marañón Health Research Institute in Madrid, and described as the largest of its kind, tracked women’s brains before conception, throughout pregnancy, and after birth. The findings challenged many common misconceptions about baby brain. © Getty ImagesResearch shows that changes to pregnant women’s brains can support bonding What the research found Using neuroimaging techniques, the study found a reduction and partial recovery of almost five per cent of grey matter in the brain, especially in regions linked to social cognition. The affected areas are concentrated in the parts of the brain responsible for reading emotions, interpreting social signals, and attuning to others – many of the skills demanded by new motherhood. The study …

Android Auto’s Secret Superpower Is a Customizable Shortcut Button

Android Auto’s Secret Superpower Is a Customizable Shortcut Button

Published by skeptic

Even if connecting your Android phone to your car’s dashboard via Android Auto is a daily ritual for you, you may not have explored much beyond the default settings for the interface. You probably just want to get where you’re going, rather than dive through menus and options screens to tweak the Android Auto experience. However, it’s worth familiarizing yourself with a few key Android Auto tweaks that can make your time behind the wheel easier. One of these is the option to add Assistant shortcuts to the Android Auto app screen, so anything you can tell Google Assistant to do, you can put behind a button on your dashboard. We’re currently in the midst of Google moving all of its apps and devices over to Gemini from Google Assistant, but for now the Assistant shortcut option remains in Android Auto—and presumably when the Gemini switch is finally complete, the new voice-controlled AI chatbot will take over the same role on Android Auto. The possibilities for what these shortcuts can do are many and varied. …