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

[i_kender]

I'll just leave this here:

http://www.metalsucks.net/2015/04/16/david-hasselhoffs-true-survivor-music-video-just-broke-internet/

[andrewducker]

I'd seen the Kung Fury trailer before - the additional of The Hoff fits perfectly!

[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.

I love it when science catches up with my Grandma

[gwendally]

My Grandma, a Jewish immigrant born in 1910, told me that we had to give children piano lessons to "stretch their brains". Apparently she meant "thicken the cortex".

And this is the best argument I came up with while talking to my family about the #don'tstayinschool video. You aren't learning these subjects to know these subjects, you are stretching your brain so you can learn in these fields later.

[kalimac]

" not voting is such a pitifully ineffective form of protest "

It is, however, an excellent form of not giving a $%*! which is why most people I know who don't vote don't.

[andrewducker]

Oh, absolutely. If you don't care who runs the country then not voting makes perfect sense.

[witchwestphalia]

Or if you feel that either voting won't change
1) who's running the country or
2) how it's run
Then not voting makes sense.

I'm in Massachusetts. For US presidential contests my vote is meaningless. The state will go for the Democratic candidate. No matter what. If I like him or her, great, but I don't need to vote for hir. If I don't like hir, too bad, my vote for the Republican candidate is useless and ineffective.

[alextfish]

Here in the UK, there's definitely a concept of a "safe seat", which far too many seats are... but which ones are safe seats does change with time. A safe seat where the Evil candidate wins 70% of the vote can become a safe seat where they win 60% of the vote, and can then become a contested seat where they win 50% of the vote and the nearest competitor is up at 40%. It shifts gradually, over decades, but it does happen. And it wouldn't if nobody bothered to vote in safe seats.

Things are naturally rather worse in the US, where there are almost everywhere just the two candidates.