Science and technology links
Cute use of Google™ to illustrate an observer effect.
Cute new cars from Renault.
Beauty in the sky. More images here.
Identifying seven warning signs of pseudoscience.
How to publish a scientific comment in a journal in 1-2-3 easy steps (not): it is very funny in a sickly-grin sort of way.
Calculus in 20 minutes. Part two.
A nice post about the nature of science.
About American fantasies of alternate history based on wild over-estimation of America’s role in the development of modern technology.
About the evolution of empathy.
About how things seem to dogs.
About how to preserve coral atolls.
Study suggests that traditional societies do not have the same height premium as modern ones.
Prehistoric figurines now regarded as toys not sacred objects.
A physicist on Schrodinger’s cat, Schrodinger’s virus and explaining quantum mechanics interaction with classical physics. Link to a series of posts explaining quantum mechanics and related phenomenon.
About the possibility of creating pain-free farm animals.
Evidence that folk tales are very old indeed.
Company reports significant advance in solar technology.
Report of a study finding that hydrocarbons could be produced in upper mantle conditions (i.e. not biologically).
About the language of economic “stimulus”.
Interview with a professor of linguistics and author of a new book putting angst over the internet and IT into broader historical context:
Historically, when the new communication device comes out, the reaction tends to be divided. Some people think it's the best thing since sliced bread; other people fear it as the end of civilization as we know it. And most people take a wait and see attitude.
… So you still had to have uniform, legible handwriting for office work until the early 20th century when office machinery took over. That's when you start seeing the shift from everybody has to write the same way to expressing your personality. …
We have, through the history of communications, this whole tension between giving people the tools to express themselves and regulating that expression: Who should be allowed to publish?
… I think historically, professional writing is a relatively modern concept, and writers had to have independent incomes for most of history in order to be writers. They’ve had to have patrons. They’ve had to have day jobs. So what else is new? Most fiction writers don’t make a living from their fiction. A few do, but most of them have to get teaching jobs or some other kind of job to pay the bills.
Evidence of a high degree of overlap between cultures in moral reasoning by children:
“It’s remarkable how little cultural variation we have found in developmental patterns of moral reasoning,” … But each culture inspires a mix of cooperation and conflict from its members, he says. Relationships and situations in which some people wield power over others - think parents and children - generate challenges to cultural values from the weaker parties.
… “Children recognized that the threat of losing a parent’s love could effectively change their behavior, but they didn’t see it as morally acceptable for parents to use such methods,”
… Kids’ widespread endorsement of reasoning techniques that make them active participants in behavioral change suggests … that children everywhere want control, or autonomy, over what they think of as their personal domains of behavior. … members of a culture try to balance sometimes-clashing beliefs about individual rights and social obligations. '
… interviewed husbands and wives in a Druze Arab community in Israel. In this male-dominated society, the large majority of wives regarded their unequal standing in marriages as unfair. Wives routinely said that they did their husbands’ bidding only to avoid becoming impoverished by abandonment or divorce.
… teenagers and married couples label honesty as “good” in principle but see certain types of deception as justified. Most teens said it was OK to lie to get around parents’ demands seen as morally unacceptable, such as staying away from peers of another race, or as invasions of a personal domain, such as directives not to date a certain person.
… As in parent-child relationships, spouses’ moral decisions about honesty, rights and harm could well vary more from one situation to another than from one culture to another.
Cute new cars from Renault.
Beauty in the sky. More images here.
Identifying seven warning signs of pseudoscience.
How to publish a scientific comment in a journal in 1-2-3 easy steps (not): it is very funny in a sickly-grin sort of way.
Calculus in 20 minutes. Part two.
A nice post about the nature of science.
About American fantasies of alternate history based on wild over-estimation of America’s role in the development of modern technology.
About the evolution of empathy.
About how things seem to dogs.
About how to preserve coral atolls.
Study suggests that traditional societies do not have the same height premium as modern ones.
Prehistoric figurines now regarded as toys not sacred objects.
A physicist on Schrodinger’s cat, Schrodinger’s virus and explaining quantum mechanics interaction with classical physics. Link to a series of posts explaining quantum mechanics and related phenomenon.
About the possibility of creating pain-free farm animals.
Evidence that folk tales are very old indeed.
Company reports significant advance in solar technology.
Report of a study finding that hydrocarbons could be produced in upper mantle conditions (i.e. not biologically).
About the language of economic “stimulus”.
Interview with a professor of linguistics and author of a new book putting angst over the internet and IT into broader historical context:
Historically, when the new communication device comes out, the reaction tends to be divided. Some people think it's the best thing since sliced bread; other people fear it as the end of civilization as we know it. And most people take a wait and see attitude.
… So you still had to have uniform, legible handwriting for office work until the early 20th century when office machinery took over. That's when you start seeing the shift from everybody has to write the same way to expressing your personality. …
We have, through the history of communications, this whole tension between giving people the tools to express themselves and regulating that expression: Who should be allowed to publish?
… I think historically, professional writing is a relatively modern concept, and writers had to have independent incomes for most of history in order to be writers. They’ve had to have patrons. They’ve had to have day jobs. So what else is new? Most fiction writers don’t make a living from their fiction. A few do, but most of them have to get teaching jobs or some other kind of job to pay the bills.
Evidence of a high degree of overlap between cultures in moral reasoning by children:
“It’s remarkable how little cultural variation we have found in developmental patterns of moral reasoning,” … But each culture inspires a mix of cooperation and conflict from its members, he says. Relationships and situations in which some people wield power over others - think parents and children - generate challenges to cultural values from the weaker parties.
… “Children recognized that the threat of losing a parent’s love could effectively change their behavior, but they didn’t see it as morally acceptable for parents to use such methods,”
… Kids’ widespread endorsement of reasoning techniques that make them active participants in behavioral change suggests … that children everywhere want control, or autonomy, over what they think of as their personal domains of behavior. … members of a culture try to balance sometimes-clashing beliefs about individual rights and social obligations. '
… interviewed husbands and wives in a Druze Arab community in Israel. In this male-dominated society, the large majority of wives regarded their unequal standing in marriages as unfair. Wives routinely said that they did their husbands’ bidding only to avoid becoming impoverished by abandonment or divorce.
… teenagers and married couples label honesty as “good” in principle but see certain types of deception as justified. Most teens said it was OK to lie to get around parents’ demands seen as morally unacceptable, such as staying away from peers of another race, or as invasions of a personal domain, such as directives not to date a certain person.
… As in parent-child relationships, spouses’ moral decisions about honesty, rights and harm could well vary more from one situation to another than from one culture to another.