Interesting Links for 18-04-2015

[andrewducker]

• New research sheds light on how popular probiotic benefits the gut
  (tags: microbiome bacteria )
• Many teens try e-cigs, but very few become regular users
  (tags: cigarettes technology nicotine children )
• When insanity is contagious
  (tags: disease mentalhealth )
• Psychology students are seduced by superfluous neuroscience
  (tags: neuroscience

Comments

[nancylebov]

Supposing that young men need war to feel like they've become adult men, and the rest of us don't want to live on battlefields, then what?

[andrewducker]

Then understanding that, and giving them other outlets, would be key to finding a solution?

[nancylebov]

I agree, but what other outlets would be satisfactory?

[nancylebov]

I was half-listening to a radio piece about people and their boats, and someone said it was a worldwide fraternity because people had to trust each other for help in live and death situations. Perhaps a boating challenge would do the job.

This being said, in contemporary society I don't think there's a legal way for people to risk their lives without putting a chunk of money into it, and that might be its own problem.

[strawberryfrog]

Football?

[newandrewhickey]

Tell the young men "tough". I'm a man, and I became an adult man without ever once needing to kill anyone. The idea in that piece, that "men are wired for war", is clearly nonsense -- the supermajority of men, now or ever, have not fought in wars, have not wanted to fight in wars, and haven't been any less men as a result.
Which is not to say that aggression isn't biologically driven, and that those drives don't need an outlet, but *war* is a social construct, and its appeal is very limited even among men.

[nancylebov]

Good point.