All posts
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After unprecedented horror, world governments offered only an arid, already-populated sliver of land to the survivors?
Decisions made by leaders of the current Israeli government are causing suffering in Gaza, but a long history of atrocity precedes their choices.
anti-Jewish sentiment, antisemitism, atrocity, campus protest, founding of Israel, Gaza, genocide, human migration, Israel, Jewish nationalism, Jewish quota, Jewish quotas, Jewish state, Middle East, Palestine, Palestinians, protest, refugee, refugee crisis, resettlement, survivors of atrocity, survivors of genocide, World War 2, Zionism, Zionist
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When your seven-year-old notices that some heroes are the pits.
Even when a character is clearly intended to be heroic by the author, you won’t always agree.
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Who are you going to trust, this stack of research papers or your deeply ingrained experience of the world?
The particles composing your brain should follow the laws of physics, but can you choose to believe that you can make no choices?
Ambrose Bierce, artificial intelligence, atheism, biology of choice, biology of free will, Blaise Pascal, choice, crime and punishment, criminal justice, criminal justice reform, Determined, determinism, free action, free choice, free will, magical thinking, moral agency, neurobiology of free will, neurology, philosophy, philosophy of free will, punishing a faulty algorithm, punishment, quantum computer, quantum computing, quantum mechanics, random action, random choice, reform, Robert Sapolsky, Sapolsky, science, science of free will, science of moral choice, superposition, who has free will, will
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Teaching meditation in two minutes or less (while walking through a jail).
With a repeated phrase to focus on, any of us might calm our wandering minds.
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On bias in (and against!) romance novels.
Romance novels espouse a radical philosophy, that our joy matters as much as power, progress, or fame.
aesthetics of care, AI, AI algorithm, AI algorithms, algorithm, ancestry, artificial neural networks, beach reads, bias, book review, books, Christina Lauren, Ciara Smyth, data training, dating algorithms, dating apps, dating service, DNA, genetic ancestry, genetics, guilty pleasure, happiness, Maggie Nelson, matchmaking, On Freedom, online dating, pleasure, predictive algorithm, prejudice, prejudice against romance novels, reading, romance, romance novel, romance novels, romantic compatability, silent mutations, soulmate, The Falling in Love Montage, the pursuit of happiness, The Soulmate Equation, The True Love Experiment, writing
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On skin color and sexual selection in humans.
Somehow, many male biologists failed to notice that whichever sex does more caretaking typically has more control over mate choice …
aesthetic preferences, agrarian, agrarian cultures, agriculturalists, agriculture, ancient human diets, ancient human evolution, ancient human skin color, animals, birds, bowerbird, caretaking and mate access, caretaking and mate choice, caretaking and sexual choice, childhood mortality, club winged manakin, club-winged manakins, cultural differences, Dawn of Everything, depigmentation, dietary influence on the evolution of skin color, epidermal melanin, evolution, evolution of beauty, evolution of cuteness, evolution of depigmentation, evolution of epidermal melanin, evolution of skin color, evolutionary theory, evolutionary trade-offs, female mate choice, fitness costs, folate, gamete size, human attraction, human caretaking, human culture, human evolution, hunter-gatherer cultures, hunter-gatherers, inequality, male control over reproductive success, male mate choice, mate choice, melanin, nature, peacock mating, peacocks, reproductive success, resource control, resource distribution, science, sexual attraction, sexual dimorphism, sexual dimorphism in human skin color, sexual selection, sexual selection of skin color, skin color dimorphism, skin color hypothesis, skin tone, smooth guardian frog, tamarins, Vitamin D, why are babies cute
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On the aesthetics of time.
What if we celebrated the accumulation of wisdom and experience in the people around us?
age, aging, art, beauty, beauty industry, Cara Jo O’Connell, Cara O’Connell, caretaking, elective brain surgery, elective lobotomy, experience, feminism, feminist, Free Falling into the Cosmos, horror novel, Jenn Shapland, knowledge, lobotomy, Luke Dittrich, Maui, memory loss, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Moana, Mona Awad, neurosurgery, personal growth, relationships, Rogue, skincare, staff art exhibition, Thin Skin, William Scoville, wisdom, wrinkles
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On the timescales of apocalypse.
The world is not at risk. The world has been through this before. But human civilization has never experienced such change.
10 million years of climate, 10 million years of climate change, 20 thousand years of climate, 20 thousand years of climate change, 500 million years of climate, 500 million years of climate change, assessing past climate, average global temperatures, climate, climate apocalypse, climate change, climate change and evolution, climate change during history of civilization, climate change in human evolution, climate science, environment, environmentalism, evolutionary pressure, feedback loop, global temperatures, global warming, human evolution, ice cores, isotope analysis, Kristin Bergmann, mass extinction, paleoclimatology, past climate, past climate change, science, the history of civilization, timescales of climate change, when has climate change happened before
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On learning about polyamory from Elephant & Piggie.
Despite the recent surge of art & literature about polyamory, the best depiction is still in a book for elementary schoolers …
Alex Dimitrov, American Poly, babysitting cooperative, Bill de Blasio, Bonnie Garmus, Brian Watson, capitalism, capitalist critique, Charlotte Cowles, childcare, Chirlane McCray, Choosing the Right Pond, Christopher Gleason, consensual nonmonogamy, consumerism, cooperation, cooperative childcare, Cunning Minx, Elephant & Piggie, Elephant and Piggie, Elizabeth Doerr, free love, Geraldo Rivera, group marriage, human sexuality, I’ll Be Lovin’ You, Jennifer Wilson, joy, Kamauu, Lessons in Chemistry, love, Maitland Ward, Mango, Miranda Lambert, Mo Willems, multiple marriage, My New Friend Is So Fun, nontraditional marriage, Notes for My Funeral, Olivia Goldhill, open marriage, open relationship, parenting, partible paternity, poly, poly music, poly songs, polyamorists, polyamorous, polyamorous music, polyamorous parenting, Polyamorous Sex as Political Weapon, polyamorous songs, polyamory, polygamy, raising children, Rated X, relationships, Robert Frank, romance, Ryam Nearing, Sarah Stein Lubrano, sex-positive, social justice, Storming then Performing, wealth inequality, work spouse, work wife
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Reading Jack Gilbert’s ‘In Dispraise of Poetry’ in jail.
We can be haunted by our differences, our gifts. At times, we haunt others for theirs.
Frank Brown Cloud 