Super-agers

Aging is our fate. Our physical ability is declining through aging. As well, the cognitive function becomes inferior. It is said a fourth of people in the age of eighty has dementia.

However, you may know some people who are still energetic in spite of their age. What is the difference between elder people in the cognitive function?

A recent study suggests there are some super-agers. They reduce less brain volume than others at the same age, according to the study.

Hindustan Times: Age-related cognitive decline is not inevitable: Study

Unfortunately, this study has some limitations to prove the hypothesis that the brain cells of some people have specific attributes. They might have a larger brain inherently.

Furthermore, how to protect your brain from shrinking is still yet to be discovered. If super-agers are genetically determined, it is disappointing. Physicians recommend you to take an exercise and balanced meal. It is because their positive effect on your health has been proven, even if not guaranteeing to keep your brain young.

Couple having dominated a woman as sex slave jailed

Recently, a couple living in Northern Ireland was sentenced to imprisonment for the crime of keeping a woman in their house and raping her several times.

The victim had a learning disability and was kidnapped from her home in 2004. Her husband reported her missing to the police, but her footprint could not be traced. Indeed, the couple deceived her to invite their house. And they locked her in a tiny room, and encouraged the man's friends to raped her. The victim was fed with sweets only so that her teeth but one were rotten.

The man had several histories of sex crimes. The man was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, and the woman took three years.

Mail Online: Husband and wife who kept a disabled woman as a sex slave and filmed dozens of men raping her in a squalid den before paying her with Quality Street chocolates are jailed 

It is a horrible story. Regardless of the victim's disability, slavery is never acceptable.

I have to be cautious with evaluating the perpetrator's mental status based on the media report. But it is certain that the man has psychopathic tendency and paraphilia. Such a person tend to offend several times, partially due to lack of empathy and diminished learning from punishment. Thus, after released from prison, I am afraid he would target another woman again.

In my sense, 15 years of imprisonment is not enough for the penalty of ruining a woman's life and dignity. On the other hand, long sentence is not proven to be effective in preventing reoffending. There is no resolution established for psychopaths to reduce the risk of recidivism.

Kyushu trip

Last weekend, I visited Kumamoto, the center of Kyushu.

During the trip, I went to Takachiho, located in Miyazaki prefecture. It is called the place of the god. Indeed, Takachiho shrine was quite solemn.

Amano-Iwado shrine deifies Amaterasu Omikami, a Japanese ancient goddess. One day, she hided herself in the cave because of her brother's rude behavior. As she was the symbol of the sun, Japan encountered a total eclipse. Other gods made a conference for the way to bring her on the ground again. The place where the conference was conducted is Amano-yasugawara.

The next day, I visited a couple of farms. Sheep and goats were kept with free range. Goats were eager to eat.

And young one expected me to feed it, following me for a while.

The water was extremely clean in Kyushu. This is Shirakawa Spring Source.

I also went to Kokonoe-Yume-Otsuribashi. It is the largest suspension bridge in Japan.

Kyushu has several attractive places. Some day I will visit there again.

Suicidal bombing at St Petersburg subway

On Monday, April 3, 2017, an explosion occurred at the subway station of Petersburg in Russia.

CNN: St. Petersburg metro explosion: At least 10 dead in Russia blast

It is suggested that a homemade explosive object with TNT was placed on a carriage. According to the latest report, at least eleven people were killed and more than a dozen was injured.

The authority deemed the incident as a terror attack caused by a suicidal bomber who was close to an international terrorist organization. The station and the airport in the city became closed.

The Telegraph: Everything we know about the explosion in St Petersburg

Russia itself has frequently been targeted to a terror attack. At present, who is responsible for the attack has to be clarified. But an Islamic group is suspected to have been involved in the act, according to the local media. Anyway, we have to wait for a claim of responsibility.

The New York Times: Explosion in St. Petersburg, Russia, Kills 11 as Vladimir Putin Visits

The terrorism is widely spreading over the world. It is a common shape of asymmetric war. The government should protect the present administration and citizens' lives, whereas terrorists only have to damage it. Different from an international conflict, terror organization need not consider what to do after the attack succeeds. Unfortunately, an effective solution to win the asymmetric battle is yet to be established.

Russia might hire 1000 hackers for the victory of Trump, so what?

Some US politicians claim that Russia had been involved in the victory of Donald Trump in the latest Presidential vote.

According to Senator Mark Warner, Vladimir Putin directed to interfere the election with broadcasting fake news about Clinton, the competitor of Trump, in some states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, where Trump had won. It was suspected Russia hired a total of 1000 hackers.

International Business Times: Russia 'hired army of 1,000 web trolls to make up fake news about Hillary Clinton in swing states'

I have heard this kind of suspicion. And Russia's intervening to the Presidential vote seems somehow true. It is quite natural that Putin would prefer Trump as the next President because Trump made some favorable comments about Russia. Thus, this idea is no more a conspiracy theory.

Nonetheless, I do not believe this fact deemed of value. First, the magnitude of influence of fake news on the Presidential vote is limited. If Russia had not been involved in this issue, it is doubtful that Clinton would have won.

My past entry: The influence of fake news on the Presidential vote is limited: A study suggests

Second, Trump would also suffer from some fake news, even if it was less than Clinton.

And third, political interaction is a quite ordinary event when a decisive vote is conducted. The US itself has repeatedly intervened the elections in other countries. Voters are absolutely responsible for the result of the vote, regardless of the movement o other nations.

Finally, if Russia's jamming is unfavorable to the US, the US government should have treated it. Obama administration was on the side of Clinton undoubtedly. If the government had failed to shut out Russia's influence, it would be the proof of the incompetence of the administration, unfortunately.

TV talk show regarding AI in Tokyo

Recently, I attended a conference where a TV talk show was recorded. In this session, the usability of AI was discussed by some specialists. Panelists were a professor of applied science, a biologist, and a founder of a start-up company.

The facilitator asked some questions to the audience. Some of the attendees seemed fearful about the rise of AI. They were concerned about the risk AI would get rid of their jobs. One of the audience was a translator. Indeed, an auto-translating machine was introduced. It could speak what it heard in English translated into Japanese instantly even when it was off-line.

However, one of the commentators suggested that we need not worry about AI threatening our job as far as we are proud of it. Actually, after Alpha Go defeated the world champion, professional Go players became enthusiastic considering AI programs would make an innovation in the Go world, according to the commentator. In contrast, if you believe your work is silly and easy to be mastered, AI will overwhelm the performance of human soon.

Approximately 75% of the audience believed AI would enrich the world. But, one commentator was worrying about the possibility of people with malice to utilize AI for improper purposes. After all, the human is more dangerous than AI, according to him.

The conference was very exciting. The facilitator was good at managing the discussion, and all panelists were smart to describe the future with AI. It was fascinating time of two hours for me.

Face cognition program can sense Praecox-gehuehl

Have you hear the words "Praecox-gefuehl?" It is a psychiatric term in German, Praecox feeling in English. "Dementia Praecox" is an old name of schizophrenia.

The other day, many psychiatrists believed they would be able to make a precise diagnosis of schizophrenia at a glance after well trained. An experienced psychiatrist can sense the extraordinary atmosphere in a person with schizophrenia when facing him. Praecox-gefuehl was the most powerful diagnostic criterion of schizophrenia. Ridiculous? It is true that many great textbooks described Praecox-gefuehl even in the 20th century.

Of course, Praecox-gefuehl is a myth. It has been proven not to be trustworthy to identify schizophrenic patients.

On the other hand, some researchers are eager to identify some facial signs in psychotic patients. Dilated pupils, flat cheek, and less locomotive mouth were suspected to have a specific psychiatric symptom. There was a study to evaluate the mental status of a client with the tone of voice. However, these attempts had not shown a positive outcome.

And just recently, Google revealed a surprising result.

Facial recognition is a modern technology to distinguish one person from others. The preciseness of this technique is now so good that many people make use it for unlocking their smartphone. But it is still not perfect. In a recent incident, the program misidentified a black woman's face as a gorilla.

And now, researchers is utilizing deep learning to prove the existence Praecox-gefulhe. Millions of pictures of schizophrenic patients were recorded to be a subject to be learned by a supercomputer. If this trial is successful, a camera will be able to diagnose schizophrenia more precisely than human psychiatrists even without make a conversation with the patients.

Thus, I will lose my job. I hope this major trial will result in a failure.