Greeks can vote for the European parliament elections by post. Credit: Europarl/ CC-BY-SA 2.0
More than 33 thousand Greeks living abroad have registered for postal voting for the European Parliament elections in June, double the votes counted at the polling stations in the June parliamentary elections of 2023.
The deadline for postal voting applications is April 29.
According to data from the Ministry of Interior, the number of registered voters outside Greece stands at 33,350, almost double the 17,365 votes counted at the polling stations in the overseas region last June.
Overall more than 114,200 voters have registered on the platform to vote by post in the European elections on June 9th.
The number of voters within Greece who have declared their intention to vote by post currently stands at 80,908, indicating significant interest within the country in postal voting.
Greece launched the online platform for registration in the electoral roll for postal voting in February.
The initiative aims to streamline the process for Greek citizens to exercise their voting rights in the European Parliament elections and national referendums.
The mail-in system applies to all citizens registered in the electoral rolls who wish to participate in the elections, regardless of their location within or outside the country’s borders.
Greek residents living abroad can only participate in the upcoming European elections through postal voting.
“For the first time in the history of the Greek state, postal voting is introduced,” said Interior Minister Niki Kerameus. “The removal of all practical barriers for our fellow citizens in Greece and abroad to exercise their voting rights. Our democracy is expanding.”
Postal voting in Greece follows voting from country of residence
Announcing postal voting last November, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, “It is a brave reform, it widens the electorate that participates in elections and is the most powerful answer to abstention and inaction.”
He pointed out that many groups of citizens, including the elderly, students, and seasonal workers far from their place of residence, can participate in the election procedure through the postal vote. Furthermore, he added that the activation of this possibility in the elections for the European Parliament this spring would be followed in the national elections.
The PM said that postal voting is a “brave institutional reform’ that follows his government’s initiative in 2021 to allow the diaspora to vote without having to fly back home.”
Until then, Greece was the only country in Europe—and perhaps the entire Western world— where full citizens living abroad were denied the right to vote in Greek elections from the country of their residence either by casting a ballot at the Greek embassy or through postal voting.
Greek soccer is plagued by endemic fan violence, which often spreads to other sports in which the main clubs field teams, such as basketball and volleyball. Credit: AMNA
Police in Greece have arrested dozens of suspects in a crackdown on soccer violence that led to the death of a police officer in December.
Greek police chief Dimitris Mallios said 60 people were arrested by Monday afternoon, in an operation that started late Sunday.
All were organized Olympiacos fans, some described by police sources as leading members of Gate 7, the most popular association of organized fans of Olympiacos. They are to be charged on a case-by-case basis with incitement and complicity in the killing of the officer.
Some of them were found to have had not only a physical presence but also an organizational role in the attacks on the riot police unit outside the Melina Merkouri Stadium in Athens.
Their involvement emerged from witness statements, videos and the lifting of telephone privacy.
The leading suspects of soccer violence in Greece
Police have identified five people at the top of the hierarchy. One of them is known in the ranks of organized Olympiacos fans by the name Joseph.
In many videos of incidents in stadiums around Greece, he appears to participate in an organizational role with a team accreditation around his neck. He was also allegedly present during the December incident, instructing people in the stadium stands to come out and attack the police.
The second of the group of five is the 26-year-old manager of a trap singer and head of an association of organized fans. The third is a 30-year-old who a decade ago had been sentenced to a prison term without parole for setting fire in 2012 to the barber shop of a Pakistani national, acting then on behalf of the now defunct extreme-right Golden Dawn party.
Mallios said the arrests followed an investigation carried out under “high secrecy” over the past four months that confirmed links between sports violence and organized crime.
“Evidence emerged about a criminal organization, consisting of 158 people, that since 2019 at least carried out criminal acts” in the greater Athens region and the cities of Volos and Ioannina to the north, Mallios said.
He added that 58 homes and 15 vehicles were searched in the crackdown, and seized items included handguns, knives, drugs and wooden clubs.
“We have an absolute commitment to fight sports violence,” the police chief said.
Greek hooligans responsible for several deaths in the last decade
Greek soccer is plagued by endemic fan violence, which often spreads to other sports in which the main clubs field teams, such as basketball and volleyball.
In February 2022 in Thessaloniki, 19-year-old Alkis Kambanos was murdered by a gang of people, who attacked him and his friends in the street. The assailants, supporters of the football club PAOK, asked Kambanos and his friends what football team they supported.
The answer did not satisfy them, and they proceeded to beat and stabbing with knives Kambanos and his two friends.
In August 2023 Michalis Katsouris a fan of AEK Athens was stabbed to death during a brawl with hooligans of the Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb.
Police said nearly 100 people were arrested after the violent clashes, which led European football’s governing body, UEFA, to postpone the Champions League qualifying third-round, first-leg match between the two sides.
Since 1983, when the first death was recorded, at least 13 people have lost their lives in Greece as a result of football hooligan violence and a plethora of violent attacks against rival football team supporters or the police have taken place.
George Papandreou calls for international help to save Greece. Public Domain
On April 23, 2010, Greece entered the bailouts era by asking its EU partners and the IMF to rescue its economy that went bankrupt.
The dramatic call for help was made from the tiny Aegean island of Kastellorizo by then Prime Minister George Papandreou, who set in motion a dark chapter of austerity and human misery in the country’s history.
Wearing a black suit and a dark pink tie Papandreou addressed the nation through a live television link and gave Greeks the bad news while the picturesque houses of the Kastellorizo were bathing in the spring sun.
“We have inherited [from the previous conservative government] a boat ready to sink,” Papandreou said. “We have inherited a country that had lost credibility and the respect of its friends and partners,” he added before warning Greeks that things will get tough.
Papandreou asked the EU partners to activate the support mechanism, “an unprecedented mechanism in the history and practice of the European Union.”
The support mechanism, which was put in place by the European heads of state and government and further elaborated by Euro Group ministers, is a European mechanism to which the IMF is associated with financing, and it involves a comprehensive three-year economic program and financing conditions.
On April 23, 2010, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that Greece made a request for a Stand-By Arrangement.
Papandreou and his Finance Minister Giorgos Papakonstantinou managed to convince the IMF and EU to participate in a €110bn bailout package on May 9, 2010. Greece’s sovereign debt crisis, considered part of the European sovereign debt crisis, was marked by massive strikes and demonstrations.
The European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund loaned debt-wracked Greece a total of 289 billion euros ($330 billion) in three successive programs in 2010, 2012, and 2015.
Greece suffered an economic hit comparable to the Great Depression in the U.S. in the 1930s. People became poorer, hundreds of thousands of businesses went bust, skilled workers emigrated, and extremist politicians made gains.
Timeline of bailouts and austerity in Greece
Here is a timeline of the bailout years since the first rescue in 2010.
May 2, 2010: Eurozone countries agree to rescue Greece with 110 billion euros (currently $125 billion) in loans over three years.
June 29, 2011: Parliament passes a 28 billion-euro package of spending cuts and tax hikes in the face of two days of violent protests that see some 300 protesters and police injured.
Oct. 27, 2011: European leaders reach a deal with Greek bondholders that would see the private investors take a 50 percent cut in the face value of their bonds. The leaders also agree in principle to give Greece a new 130 billion-euro bailout package.
Oct. 31, 2011: Papandreou announces a referendum on the bailout program, shocking bailout creditors and markets. He cancels the plan three days later.
March 9, 2012: Greece carries out the biggest debt restructuring in history, writing off 105 billion euros owed to private creditors.
April 10, 2014: Greece returns to bond markets for the first time in ten years, selling a five-year bond.
Jan. 25, 2015: Leftwing party Syriza wins the general election, pledging to tear up bailout-linked austerity deals. Relations with creditors quickly deteriorate.
June 28, 2015: Amid concern that Greece would fall out of the euro, the government limits money flows and bank withdrawals to avoid financial collapse.
June 30, 2015: Greece defaults on payment on IMF loan.
July 5, 2015: In a referendum called by the government, Greeks reject the proposed bailout deal.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras later accepts the deal nonetheless.
July 13, 2015: Greece signs up to a third bailout program worth 86 billion euros over the next three years.
June 22, 2018: Eurozone countries agree on terms to ease Greece’s debt repayment schedule, and approve the last details of a plan to end Greece’s bailout program on August 20th.
Urania, the Muse of Astronomy, Reveals to Thales of Miletus the Secrets of the Skies. Antonio Canova / Public Domain
Some scholars credit Thales of Miletus as the father of Western philosophy since he preceded Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and other more famous philosophers.
From a chronological point of view, this is true. He was indeed the first philosopher who laid the foundations of Greek philosophical thinking since he was born roughly two centuries earlier than all of the above.
Little to nothing is known about his date of birth and life. His parents were Examyas and Cleobulina and were likely wealthy. He was born in the ancient Greek Ionian city of Miletus in Anatolia. His estimated date of birth ranges from 626 to 620 BC and his death from 645 to 542 BC. There is nothing surviving of Thales’ work. Everything we know about him comes from later sources, some of which are not very reliable. We also know that in ancient times, history was interwoven with mythology.
Aristotle (384-322 BC) was the first to call Miletus the “First Philosopher” for his systematic method, accurate pronouncements, and, quite importantly, for introducing deductive reasoning.
Thales was credited for being one of the seven sages of ancient Greece. Other notable figures alongside Thales were Pittacus of Mytilene, Solon of Athens, and Bias of Priene. There are three more who are usually on the list, including Chilon of Sparta, Cleobulus of Lindos, and Periander of Corinth. Since the last three were known as tyrants, they were often replaced by more agreeable names such as those of Anacharsis, Myson of Chenae, or Pythagoras.
Thales contributed greatly not only to Western philosophy but also to mathematics, geometry, and astronomy as well. He was the first to break the tradition of using mythology to explain the physical world.
Theory in practice
Unlike most philosophers, Thales of Miletus was not only interested in theorizing. He liked to test his theories in practice, too. He famously counted the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza by studying its shadow.
On a more practical side, Herodotus wrote that he assisted the army of King Croesus of Lydia to cross the river Halys by simply instructing them to dig a dam that divided the river into two easy-to-cross straits.
More importantly, the Ionian philosopher was attributed with five theorems in geometry, including the famous one simply known as the “Thales Theorem.”
Thales’ theorem: if AC is a diameter and B is a point on the diameter’s circle, the angle ∠ ABC is a right angle. Credit: Inductiveload / Public Domain
Thales is said to have accurately predicted the solar eclipse of May 28, 585 BC. He also observed and studied constellations. It was a feat that would prove useful in sea navigation. His third most important astronomical achievement was the determination of the sun’s course from one solstice to the next.
Thales traveled to Egypt to study. The Egyptians were experts in geometry, as pyramid constructions prove. The expertise Thales developed on geometry had its roots in Egypt since the Egyptians were the first to develop the particular science. Furthermore, the Milesians had established a prosperous trading colony in Egypt, namely Naucratis. Therefore, it would have been easy for the philosopher to travel there.
“Thales…first went to Egypt and hence introduced this study [geometry] into Greece. He discovered many propositions himself, and instructed his successors in the principles underlying many others, his method of attack being in some cases more general, in others more empirical.”
Another one of Thales’ achievements was his measuring of the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza. His philosophy, exhibiting knowledge of the Egyptian views on cosmogony, is further proof of his travels.
Perhaps Thales learned the practical applications of geometry and mathematics from the Egyptians. The Egyptians had great practical skills, but they had little to do with abstract thought. The Greek philosopher would observe the land surveyors, those who used a knotted cord to make their measurements. They are otherwise known as rope-stretchers.
Egyptian mathematics had already reached its heights when The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus was written in about 1800 BC. More than a thousand years later, Thales would have likely watched the surveyors as they went about their work in the same manner: measuring the land using a knotted rope that they stretched to measure lengths and form angles.
Thales of Miletus philosophy
Scholars classify Thales’ philosophy as materialist monism. Substance monism is based on the idea that the world is created by one substance. For Thales of Miletus, this was water. He believed that matter, in the form of water, was above abstract ideas. In that respect, he was also a materialist. He held that the primary source of everything was to be found in water. The world was made of water and, at some point, everything would return to water.
Even though that was a difficult notion to grasp in his time, we can’t deny that water is one of the most necessary components for the existence of life. There is no life without water. Likewise, there is no planet Earth without the element. About 2,600 years later, scientists have found that the planet was completely covered in water 2.5 to 4.0 million years ago.
Looking for answers in the cosmogony of the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, Thales probably found a common pattern. Both civilizations, for instance, revered water as a force of regeneration. In his poems, Homer considered gods of water such as Oceanus and Tethys the parents of all divine beings.
Thales believed the Earth floated on water and that earthquakes occurred as a result of the oceans’ turbulence. In Greek mythology, the god of the seas, Poseidon, was also called “the Earth Shaker” and was considered to be the one responsible for earthquakes.
However, Thales did not believe in the divine cause of natural phenomena. His hypotheses indicate that he saw phenomena as natural events with natural causes and possible explanations. From his new perspective of observation and reasoning, the Ionian philosopher studied the heavens and sought explanations of heavenly phenomena.
Milesian school of philosophy
The first three philosophers in the Western tradition were all cosmologists from Miletus, and Thales was the pioneer. He was followed by Anaximander, who was, in turn, followed by Anaximenes. They established what came to be known as the Milesian school of thought.
According to ancient sources, Thales had been the “teacher and kinsman” of Anaximander. Rather than water, Anaximander held that all was made of apeiron or the infinite. Aneximenes, perhaps following the line of his predecessors, believed everything was composed of air.
Thales’ hypotheses were rational and scientific. He was the first who sought knowledge for its own sake. To the Ionian philosopher, the world owes the development of the scientific method, as he was the first to adopt practical methods before general principles.
Olympiacos beat Milan 3-0 in the Youth League final, giving the team their first piece of European silverware. Credit: George M. Groutas. CC BY 2.0/flickr
Olympiacos have bested Milan 3-0 in the Youth League final with the “red and white” U19s winning the first European title in its history.
The Greek team stormed to victory in the Youth League final, with Sotiris Sylaidopoulos’s team putting away three goals to beat the Rossoneri and win the trophy.
In an action-packed final, Olympiacos U19s appeared determined to win right from the outset, and although there were no goals in the first half, things changed quickly in the second.
In the 60th minute, Christos Mouzakitis put the “red and whites” in front with a well-taken penalty kick, with Antonis Papakenallos scoring in the next phase of play to double his team’s lead, after an impressive personal effort.
With a comfortable two-goal lead, Olympiacos was controlling play on the pitch and even managed to bag a third goal, this time coming from Fanis Bakula.
In the 66th minute, after a well-placed cross from Koutsogoulas, Bakulas – with an unlikely reverse scissor kick – increased the score margin to 3-0, and gave a clear victory to his team.
After their third goal, Olympiacos managed to maintain their lead with grace and style, holding on to the 3-0 score until the end of the game, when the talented youth of Sotiris Sylaidopoulos officially won the Youth League.
Once the final whistle had been blown, the Olympiacos U19 players were absolutely elated, reveling in the joy of winning this great title. This was a historic victory for Olympiacos, who managed to win a trophy that leaves a legacy for the future.
The UEFA Youth League X account posted “What a performance by Olympiacos. Your 2024 UYL champions.”
What is the UEFA Youth League, Which Olympiacos Triumphed in?
The UEFA Youth League was introduced to the European scene in 2013/14, the first season of a two-year trial.
The Under-19 competition is UEFA’s first youth tournament at club level. Borne of a request from the European Club Association, the venture aims to further develop youth football at the professional club level, reduce the gap between sides’ youth and first teams, and offer unique international experience and competition matches for youngsters. The victors lift the Lennart Johansson trophy.
The UEFA Youth League website states “From the opening season each UEFA Champions League group stage club entered their U19 side and the autumn schedule is replicated in the UEFA Youth League: the same group stage draw and fixtures, with players having the chance to travel with their senior colleagues to away games.”
“In 2015/16 a second path was created with 32 national youth champions competing in a knockout competition for a chance to play-off with the group runners-up to join the group winners in the knockout phase.
“The four-team finals are usually played at Colovray Stadium opposite UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. In 2019/20, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the quarter-finals were also played there along with two outstanding round of 16 ties. In 2022/23, due to exceptional demand for tickets, the final four was moved to Stade de Genève but the next season returned to Nyon for the tenth decider, the last before an expansion in 2024/25 to mirror the new 36-team Champions League in the league phase, with the domestic champions path expanding to three rounds.”
Greek island is Europe’s cheapest summer vacation destination. Credit: Egmontaz. CC BY 3.0/Wikimedia Commons/Egmontaz
A lesser-known Greek island, which offers everything a tourist could want for a picture-perfect getaway, has been revealed as Europe’s cheapest destination based on analysis of vacation package deals for this summer.
It may not be as famous as other Greek paradises like Rhodes, Mykonos, or Santorini, but this lesser-known island offers pristine, white sandy beaches, crystalline waters, colorful villages, and tavernas that serve up a variety of sumptuous Greek food.
According to new research from Which? analyzing more than 4,500 vacation package deals for the first week of August, it’s also the island where travelers can find the best deals and cheapest vacations. Indeed, the study found that the average price of a seven-night getaway worked out at $1,046 (£847) per person.
Moreover, as luck would have it, there are plenty of vacation companies that offer great packages, too, including Jet2, Olympic Holidays, Loveholidays, and TravelRepublic, while TravelSupermarket is a useful place for comparing flights and hotel deals.
The Greek island summer vacation destination? Kalymnos!
“The tiny island is Greece as you imagine it—boasting secluded coves, sapphire seas, rugged mountains, and charming towns,” the Which? team told The Mirror. “Travelers “fly into the island’s busier [neighbor] Kos, before departing for Kalymnos by boat—a journey that takes just 40 minutes, and is included in the price of your package.”
The team added:
“The capital Pothia is the most competitively priced resort on the island—with the cheapest package found costing £794 per person. With its delightful mix of whitewashed and brightly painted houses looking out over the Aegean Sea, the town and its surrounds offer plenty to keep holidaymakers occupied—from an open air cinema to museums and monasteries. For those looking to relax on the sand, the island’s most popular beach resort, Massouri, costs an average of £856 for a week’s stay.”
Vacationing in Greece has proven to offer some of the cheapest packages with four of the top 10 destinations taken up by Greek islands. Traditionally cheap destinations like Bulgaria and Turkey did not feature on the list, but the Which? team explained it may be down to the type of packages still available.
The team explained:
“At the moment, the Amalfi Coast for example has a wide choice of room-only, self-catering and bed and breakfast accommodation still available to book (rather than pricier full board packages) which means that prices are lower. There are also lots of budget flights to the region. However, [vacationers] should still consider the cost of eating out and activities when choosing their next [destination].”
The top 10 cheapest package holiday destinations listed by the company include:
Archaeologists discovered an ancient grave near Oppin in Saxony-Anhalt. The individual buried there was held down by a large stone to prevent them from “coming back to life” and causing trouble.
The exact age of the grave is not yet known, but clues hint it is about 4,200 years old. If this early estimate is correct, is the first time such a strange burial from that period in Central Germany has been discovered.
During excavations before expanding power lines, scientists found a grave of a man aged between 40 and 60 years old. No objects were buried with him. He was laid on his left side with his legs bent, and a big stone was placed on his lower legs.
The stone is over three feet long, one-and-a-half feet wide, four inches high, and weighs 110 pounds. This heavy stone was placed there to ensure the person wouldn’t come back to life.
“We know that even in the Stone Age people were afraid of unpleasant revenants. People wanted to prevent that with magic,” said project manager and archaeologist Susanne Friederich.
“There are graves where the corpse even lies on its stomach,” she revealed. “Back then, people believed that dead people sometimes tried to free themselves from their graves. If it lies on its stomach, it burrows deeper and deeper instead of rising to the surface.”
“There are also dead bodies lying on their stomachs” and those “were also pierced with a lance, so they were practically fixed in the ground,” explained Friederich.
Outline of a house near the two burials
Last November, Friederich and her team discovered another possible revenant burial in the Oppin region, but this one was more recent from the 2nd or 3rd century. Three large stones were placed on the person’s legs.
They found a bronze fibula in the grave, indicating the person was not poor. Nearby, they found the skeletal remains of a woman without any measures against revenants. Moreover, there’s an outline of a house near both burials, suggesting that these two individuals might have lived there, according to “The History Blog.”
The Neolithic skeletal remains have been removed from the grave and are being transported to a lab in Halle for more examination.
The burial is linked to the Bell Beaker culture, also called the Bell Beaker complex, a group of people from the Bronze Age who appeared around 2800 BC. They spread out across most of Western Europe and parts of northwestern Africa.
The digging along the power line’s expansion path is ongoing, and there’s a lot to dig through with over 90 miles just in Saxony-Anhalt (335 miles in total). The plan is to keep digging until 2025.
A 3,400-year-old statue of the head of King Ramses II has been returned to Egypt after it was stolen and smuggled out of the country more than 30 years ago, the country’s antiquities ministry said on Sunday.
The statue is being kept in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, though not on display. The artifact will be restored, the ministry said in a statement.
The statue was stolen from the Ramses II temple in the ancient city of Abydos in Southern Egypt more than 30 years ago. The precise date is unknown, but Shaaban Abdel Gawad, who heads Egypt’s antiquities repatriation department, said the piece is estimated to have been stolen in the late 1980s or early 1990s, as reported by Reuters.
Egyptian authorities noticed the artifact when it was put up for sale in an exhibition in London in 2013. It was taken to several other countries before finally making its way to Switzerland, according to the antiquities ministry.
“This head is part of a group of statues depicting King Ramses II seated alongside a number of Egyptian deities,” Gawad told Reuters.
Ramses II was one of ancient Egypt’s most powerful rulers and was also known as Ramses the Great. He was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt and ruled from 1279 to 1213 BC.
Egypt worked with Swiss authorities to establish its rightful ownership, and Switzerland handed over the statue to the Egyptian embassy in Bern last year. The country only recently brought the artifact home.
Who was King Ramses II of Egypt?
In ancient Greek sources, King Ramses II was called Ozymandias, derived from the first part of his Egyptian-language regnal name: Usermaatre Setepenre. The pharaoh was also referred to as the “Great Ancestor” by successor pharaohs and Egyptians in general.
For the early part of his reign, he focused on building cities, temples, and monuments. After establishing the city of Pi-Ramesses in the Nile Delta, he designated it as Egypt’s new capital and used it as the main staging point for his campaigns in Syria.
He led several military expeditions into the Levant, where he reasserted Egyptian control over Canaan and Phoenicia. King Ramses II also led a number of expeditions into Nubia, all commemorated in inscriptions at Beit el-Wali and Gerf Hussein. Furthermore, he celebrated an unprecedented thirteen or fourteen Sed festivals. This was more than any other pharaoh.
Estimates of his age at death vary, although 90 or 91 is considered to be the most likely figure. Upon his death, he was buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings. His body was later moved to the Royal Cache, where it was discovered by archaeologists in 1881.
King Ramesses II’s mummy is now on display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, located in the city of Cairo.
Nearly 40 researchers endorsed the research on animal and insect sentience. Credit: autan / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
In recent years, scientists have made several new discoveries about animal behavior. Bees have been observed rolling wooden balls, seemingly at play. The cleaner wrasse fish can recognize its reflection in a mirror underwater, and octopuses apparently react to anesthesia and avoid places where they’ve experienced pain or unpleasantness.
These findings, all within the past five years, suggest that, as scientists continue to study animals more closely, they uncover evidence many species might have inner lives and be sentient.
In other words, a variety of creatures, including insects, fish, and even some crustaceans, might have inner experiences or be aware of their surroundings, as reported by NBC News.
A team of leading researchers in animal cognition has released a new statement aiming to change how both scientists and society perceive and treat animals.
“The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness”
Nearly 40 researchers have endorsed “The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness,” which was introduced during a conference at New York University.
This declaration is significant, as it comes at a time when a wealth of research on animal cognition intersects with discussions about how different species should be treated.
Top researchers have declared that many animals may be sentient.
Recent discoveries and experiments on animal cognition have shown surprising results, such as bees playing with wooden balls, cleaner wrasse fish recognizing their own reflection, and octopuses reacting to… pic.twitter.com/af5r6KByjL
Based on the declaration, there is solid scientific evidence supporting the idea that birds and mammals possess conscious experiences. Additionally, it implies there is a reasonable chance consciousness exists in all vertebrates, including reptiles, amphibians, and fish.
Furthermore, the possibility of consciousness extends to many invertebrates, such as insects, decapod crustaceans (i.e. crabs and lobsters), and cephalopod mollusks, examples of which are squid, octopus, and cuttlefish.
No universal definition for animal sentience
While there isn’t a universally accepted definition for animal sentience or consciousness, these terms typically refer to the ability of animals to have subjective experiences.
This includes sensing and understanding the outside world, as well as having emotions like happiness or pain. In certain cases, it also implies a level of self-awareness.
The recent declaration challenges long-standing scientific beliefs. In the 17th century, French philosopher René Descartes proposed that animals were essentially “material automata,” devoid of souls or consciousness. This viewpoint has been a cornerstone of scientific orthodoxy for centuries.
Rajesh Reddy, an assistant professor and director of the animal law program at Lewis & Clark College, explained Descartes’ belief that animals couldn’t feel or experience suffering. Descartes viewed feelings of compassion or empathy towards animals as somewhat foolish or exaggerated in the attribution of human qualities to them.
In the early 20th century, influential behavioral psychologists advocated for a scientific approach that focused solely on observing animal behavior rather than delving into their emotions or subjective experiences.
However, a shift began in the 1960s, when scientists started to reconsider this perspective. Research efforts began to concentrate on animal cognition, particularly among primates.
Google has built an AI system that can predict extreme weather events more accurately than traditional methods. Credit: Brokentaco. CC BY 2.0/flickr
Google has created a new generative AI-based system that it claims can predict weather much faster and more economically than ever before – while also detecting hard-to-spot extreme weather events.
Google claims the model can generate accurate weather forecasts at scale, with the “Scalable Ensemble Envelope Diffusion Sampler” (SEEDS) being designed similarly to popular large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and generative AI tools such as Sora, which generates videos from text prompts.
SEEDS generates multiple weather scenarios much faster and cheaper than traditional predicting models can, and the team described its findings in a paper published in the journal Science Advances on March 29.
🤖🇺🇸 Google has concocted an AI model named SEEDS, it can whip up accurate weather forecasts efficiently and at a fraction of the cost of conventional methods. pic.twitter.com/fYNZW3nfBx
Weather prediction is challenging, with many variables variables that can potentially lead to catastrophic weather events, from hurricanes to heat waves. With climate change worsening, and extreme weather events becoming more frequent, the ability to accurately predict the weather could save lives by giving people enough time to prepare for the worst effects of natural disasters.
Physics-based predictions currently employed by weather services gather various measurements and provide a final prediction that averages many different modeled predictions, based on all the available variables. Rather than a single forecast, weather forecasting is based on a set of predictions per forecast cycle that provides a range of possible future scenarios.
This means that most weather predictions are accurate for more common scenarios such as light cloud cover or warm summer days, but generating enough forecast models to find the likely outcome of an extreme weather event is not possible for most services.
Current predictions are based on deterministic or probabilistic forecast models, in which random variables are introduced to the initial conditions. However, this results in a higher error rate, meaning that accurately predicting extreme weather and weather further in the future is difficult to get right.
Unforeseen errors in the initial conditions can also greatly affect the prediction result as the variables grow over time, and modeling enough forecasts to account for variables down to such intricate detail is very costly. The scientists at Google estimated that 10,000 predictions in a model are needed to forecast events that are only one percent likely to happen.
SEEDS creates prediction models from physical measurements collected by weather agencies. It studies the relationships between the potential energy unit per mass of Earth’s gravity field in the mid-troposphere and sea level pressure – two common measures used in forecasting.
Traditional methods typically produce ensembles of about 10 to 50 predictions. However, by using AI, the current version of SEEDS can extrapolate up to 31 prediction ensembles based on just one or two “seeding forecasts” used as the input data.
The Google scientists tested the AI system by modeling the 2022 European heatwave using historical weather data recorded at the time. Just seven days before the heatwave, the US operational ensemble prediction data gave no indication that such an extreme event was incoming, Google representatives wrote in a blog post on its research portal. Adding that ensembles with less than 100 predictions – which is more than typical – would also have missed it.
The researchers described the computing costs associated with carrying out calculations with SEEDS as “negligible” compared with today’s methods. Google claims its AI system also had a throughput of 256 ensembles for every three minutes of processing time in a sample Google Cloud architecture, which can be scaled easily by recruiting more accelerators.
Extreme Weather Events in Greece, and the Applicability of Google’s New AI System
Wildfires ravaged Greece in 2023, fueled by the hot and dry conditions caused by heat waves. The islands of Rhodes and Evia were particularly affected. On Rhodes, thousands of tourists were evacuated from local resorts as the wildfire burned out of control for several days.
In late August, a wildfire in Evros in northeastern Greece burned uncontrollably for weeks and was declared the largest the EU has ever faced. It destroyed homes and caused multiple evacuations of villages and the city’s hospital.
Floods followed the devasting wildfires in September. The flooding in Thessaly, Greece’s worst on record, devastated the fertile region, swept away agricultural land, roads, and railways, and killed 16 people.
It was the second major flood in three years to hit Thessaly, part of a pattern of worsening extreme weather in Europe. Commenting on the the extreme weather phenomena, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at the time “Greece is facing a war in a time of peace.”
Google’s new SEEDS forecasting technology may – if applied on a large scale – save people from future extreme weather events like these in Greece.
