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Frank Brown Cloud

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  • On scientific misconceptions, Eurocentrism, and the evolution of skin color.

    We shouldn’t consider the pressures faced by one group of people to be the default against which all others are measured.

    February 27, 2023

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Evolutionary biology
    A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, Adam Rutherford, Against the Grain, anti-racism, Bruce Degen, cow milk, Crawford, dairy, dark skin, David Graeber, David Wengrow, dietary vitamins, Eurocentric, Eurocentrism, Europe, evolution, evolution of human skin color, evolution of lactase persistence, evolution of skin color, famine, farming, folate, Gail McCormick, Genome-Wide Patterns of Selection in 230 Ancient Eurasians, George Chaplin, human evolution, human migration, human skin color, hunter-gatherer, impact of farming on human evolution, influence of diet on human evolution, Jablonski & Chaplin, Jablonski and Chaplin, James Scott, Joanne Cole, lactase persistence, lactose intolerance, lactose tolerance, light skin, Loci Associated with Skin Pigmentation, Mathieson, melanin, migration, natural selection, Nina Jablonski, nutrition, nutrition in human evolution, racism, racism in science, scientific racism, skin color, sun screen, The Dawn of Everything, The Evolution of Skin Color, The Evolution of Skin Coloration, The Magic School Bus, The Magic School Bus Explores Human Evolution, uv light, uv penetration, Vitamin D, when did light skin evolve, why did light skin evolve, why did skin color evolve, why do we have different color skin, why do we have different skin color
    On scientific misconceptions, Eurocentrism, and the evolution of skin color.
  • On disillusionment and knock knock jokes.

    Children’s trust is fragile, yet we often treat kids so cavalierly.

    February 27, 2023

    Frank Brown Cloud

    Parenting, Psychology
    belief, belief in science, bullying, Celeste Kidd, child psychology, children, children as research subjects, children as scientific subjects, children as study subjects, delayed gratification, devious licks, experimentation on children, Facebook, faith in science, Holly Palmeri, Insta, jokes, kids, kids' jokes, knock knock joke, knock-knock jokes, marshmallow task, marshmallow test, parenting, patience, psychology, Rational Snacking, remote schooling, Richard Aslin, science, scientific experimentation, soap, social, social media, telling jokes, Tik Tok, trust
    On disillusionment and knock knock jokes.
  • On ‘We Do What We Do in the Dark.’

    In Michelle Hart’s We Do What We Do in the Dark, a college freshman named Mallory has a tumultuous, clandestine, semester-long relationship with a professor. The novel explores infatuation, transgression, and pleasure. During their relationship, Mallory occasionally arrives at the professor’s office to talk. More often, Mallory arrives at the professor’s house to have sex.…

    February 21, 2023

    Frank Brown Cloud

    Book reviews
    adrienne maree brown, fiction, LGBTQ fiction, make-up, Michelle Hart, Pleasure Activism, relationships, review, transgression
    On ‘We Do What We Do in the Dark.’
  • On Narcan and the perception of care.

    I was talking to someone recently about the availability of Narcan where we live (a college town in southern Indiana, population 80,000). Narcan is a medication that blocks opiate receptors. When given to someone who recently overdosed on heroin, fentanyl, or painkillers, Narcan can save their life. # In the lobby of the county jail,…

    February 10, 2023

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts
    chaotic drug use, drug use, fentanyl, heroin, jail, mass incarceration, naloxone, Narcan, opiate epidemic, opiate use, opiates
    On Narcan and the perception of care.
  • On the case against God.

    Before and after Dobbs, many pregnancies were terminated by God. Should we bring charges?

    February 3, 2023

    Frank Brown Cloud

    Politics, Violence against women
    abortion, abortion access, access to abortion, choice, conception, Criminalizing a Constitutional Right, Dobbs, feminism, food access, genetic testing, God, health care access, healthcare, life, Madeleine Schwartz, miscarriage, murder charges, neglect, nutrition, personhood, politics, poverty, pregnancy, prenatal care, prenatal health, prenatal nutrition, pro-choice, pro-life, stillbirth, universal health care, universal healthcare, women's right, women's rights
    On the case against God.
  • On eating plants.

    In the mid-1800s, Claude Bernard – the “father of experimental physiology” – began a series of experiments to create carnivorous rabbits. Don’t worry: Bernard wasn’t cultivating predatory beasts like the angry rabbit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. At first he was simply starving animals until their acidic urine indicated that they’d begun to…

    January 31, 2023

    Frank Brown Cloud

    Ecology, Evolutionary biology
    animal experimentation, animal models, animal research, animal testing, animal welfare, bacterial influence on our minds, carnivorous rabbits, Claude Bernard, diet, Evolution of Diet Across the Animal Tree of Life, first multicellular animals, gut microbiome, heterotroph, Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine, meat-eating rabbits, microbiome, plant based, rabbits, Roman-Palaclos, Scholl, scientific research, vegan, vegetarian, we are not alone, Wiens
    On eating plants.
  • On human babies and adult octopuses.

    For a short time, as infants, we felt the world as octopuses do.

    January 17, 2023

    Frank Brown Cloud

    Psychology
    animal minds, babies, baby, baby cognition, baby perception, bat, bats, cephalopod, childhood, Christina MacSweeney, cognition, consciousness, decentralized minds, distributed minds, Gluck, how do babies experience the world, how do babies see the world, human babies, infant, infant cognition, infant experience, infant mind, infant perception, infants, Jazmina Barrera, Katie Schmid, Leslie Jamison, Linea Nigra, Louise Gluck, Marigold and Rose, medieval art, Megan O'Rouke, mental perception, mind, perception, The Bear's Kiss, The Boatman, the experience of babies, the lives of babies, the lives of infants, Thomas Nagel, What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
    On human babies and adult octopuses.
  • On bravery and Uncle Max

    Uncle Max was a good dog.

    January 11, 2023

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Parenting
    childhood trauma, David Foster Wallace, dog, eulogy, Mike Milks, pet, pet eulogy, pets, pitbull, pitbulls, poverty, The Pale King, trauma, Uncle Max
    On bravery and Uncle Max
  • On ‘Babel,’ ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once,’ and violence.

    Violence begets violence; to create a better world, we must act as though it could possibly exist.

    January 6, 2023

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Book reviews, Religion
    Abel's sacrifice, Abraham, An Arcane History, authority figure, Babel, Bible, binding of Isaac, blessing, Cain and Abel, Cain's sacrifice, capitalism, curse, disease resistance, disruption, diversity of languages, Edenic language, electrical shock, Everything Everywhere All at Once, fantasy, fear, film critique, film review, folktales, Genesis 22, Genesis 4, germs, great floods, gun violence, guns, Guns Germs and Steel, Ham, hierarchy, hubris, human migration, immunology, inequality, language, leap of faith, love, Michael Bazzett, Milgram Experiment, Milgram shock experiment, Milgram test, multiverse, myths, Noah, Noah's curse, obedience, Old Testament, origin of Bible stories, origin of inequality, origin of languages, parallel worlds, quantum mechanics, R. F. Kuang, Rebecca Kuang, religion, slavery, spoken word, Stanley Milgram, Steel, The Matrix, The Necessity of Violence, The Popul Vuh, Tower of Babel, Translation, why did humans build the Tower of Babel, Yahweh
    On ‘Babel,’ ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once,’ and violence.
  • On ‘Existential Physics’ and free will.

    If a physicist says you can’t have free will, but you can lift your arm when you want, who should you believe?

    January 2, 2023

    Frank Brown Cloud

    Physics, Psychology
    brain chemistry, computability, consciousness, continuous space, digital mathematics, discontinuous space, Existential Physics, free will, Hossenfelder, is our universe pixelated, physics, physics of consciousness, physics of free will, physics of thought, pixelated space, Sabine, Sabine Hossenfelder
    On ‘Existential Physics’ and free will.
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