Often falling on Easter Sunday, the witches’ Sabbath is an old Swedish superstition from the 16th and 17th centuries where witches were said to commune with Satan in Blåkulla, a place where everything is reversed. On Easter Sunday, Swedish youth used to dress up as witches to convince people that a real witches’ Sabbath was occurring. They would cross-dress and play tricks like knocking over wagons and pouring ash down chimneys. The tradition survives today in a different form; young girls wear aprons and visit family during Easter Sunday. Read full article here
Societal Issues
AI Predicts Crime A Week In Advance With 90 Per Cent Accuracy
An artificial intelligence model built by Ishanu Chattopadhyay and his colleagues analysed crime data in Chicago from 2014 to 2016 and managed to predict future levels of crime down to the nearest 300 metres, a week before they actually happened. While extremely useful, this artificial intelligence has been shown to expose racial prejudice in law enforcement. Hopefully, as the study’s data and methodology have been made available for others to evaluate, these prejudices can be avoided in the next iteration. Read full article here
Merv
August 15, 2022
