book review
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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.
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On Nobel laureate Linus Pauling’s contribution to the climate crisis.
When scientists behave unethically, more people distrust science.
academic research, academic science, Art Robinson, Arthur Robinson, book, book review, cancer, capitalism, carbon emissions, climate change, climate crisis, climate denial, climate deniers, climate science, conspiracy theories, David Lipsky, education, environmentalism, fossil fuel apologists, fossil fuels, global warming, harmful incentives, history, incentive structure, junk science, Linus Pauling, negative externalities, Parrot and Igloo, Parrot and Igloo book, pollution, research fraud, research scientists, science, science denial, science deniers, scientific fraud, statistical analysis, statistical fraud, statistical manipulation, statistics, taxing negative externalities, The Parrot and the Igloo, vitamin C
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On ‘Chain-Gang All-Stars.’
I went to the jail last Sunday afternoon to host our weekly poetry class. A corrections officer escorted me to the fourth floor and then down a hallway toward the room that they let me use for classes. The officer and I had briefly chatted in the elevator, but after we reached the fourth floor,…
Adjei-Brenyah, book review, Chain Gang All Stars, Chain Gang All Stars review, Correction, crime, Department of Corrections, incarceration, isolation, jail, Juan Mendez, mass incarceration, mental health, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, poetry, prison, public safety, safety, seg, segregation, solitary, solitary confinement, teaching in jail, torture, Where Life Is Precious Life Is Precious
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On ‘The Overstory.’
Trees made our world livable. Will we show gratitude … or destroy all the forests, wrecking our own chances of survival in the process?
AI, algorithms, artificial intelligence, atmosphere, bees, biomass, book review, brains, carbon, carbon cycles, chemical communication, climate, climate change, cognition, Collapse, communication, computers, consciousness, cycle of life, deforestation, Earth, environmentalism, environmentalist, evolution, extinction, forest, Fruitful Labor, global warming, Go, greenhouse gases, Jared Diamond, Mike Madison, nature, neural networks, neurology, neurons, old growth forest, origin of consciousness, oxygenation, plant communication, Richard Powers, robots, science fiction, smartphones, speed of life, sunlight, tech, technology, technology addiction, The Overstory, The Overstory review, tree communication, tree talk, trees, vegan, Walden, woodlands, woods
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On Tao Lin’s ‘Trip,’ targeted advertising, and finding scraps of life in books.
Psychedelics could help you change your life, but our government insists that they have “no accepted medical use.”
A Really Good Day, abusive relationships, addiction, advertising, Ayelet Waldman, Best of Photojournalism, better living through chemistry, body, book review, business cards, capitalism, corporations, dimethyl tryptamine, ditch your phone, DMT, domestic violence, drug rehab, drug use, drugs, entheogens, finding shit in books, hallucinogens, healing power of nature, healing power of psychedelics, incarceration, inner space, jail, jail poetry, LSD, lysergic acid, lysergic acid diethyl amide, magic mushrooms, Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project, mind, murder, mushrooms, nature, Pages to Prisoners, Perdue Meats, pharmacology, photography, prison, psilocin, psilocybin, psychedelics, psychonaut, recovery, rehab, rehabilitation, relapse, review, scientific method, self-discovery through drugs, sending books to prisoners, shrooms, slaughterhouse, smartphone addiction, spirit, state-mandated rehab, stuff inside books, Tao Lin, teaching in jail, Terrance McKenna, trip, tripping, tryptamines
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On paranoia, virology, conspiracy theories, & lemmings: my experience reading ‘Gravity’s Rainbow.’
In which our hero stumbles across a Disney-promulgated conspiracy of lemming misinformation.
1958 Disney documentary, accidental death mistaken for suicide, Apophenia, are parents trustworthy, are politicians trustworthy, are scientists trustworthy, authority figures, being honest to your kid, being honest with my kid, bibliophile, book hunting, book review, characters trapped within the grand schemes of their creator, climate change, conspiracy, conspiracy theories, conspiracy theorists, conspiracy theory, disappointment at rampant misbehavior in classic literature, Disney, Disney documentary, do lemmings commit suicide, do you know how they make pepperoni?, does life have any meaning?, Easter Bunny, evil cabal, fabricated documentary footage, faked documentary footage, fatherhood, Fred Tomaselli, Genesis 41, Gravity’s Rainbow, hidden meanings, honesty, human fallacies, human population, hunting to extinction, influenza, influenza virus is one step ahead of our defenses, is life random?, is the world random?, lemming migration, lemming suicide, lemmings, lemmings don’t commit suicide, library booksales, lying to children, lying to children about Santa Claus, lying to kids about Santa Claus, mental illness, novelist as God, overbreeding, overfishing, overpredation, paranoia, parenting, pattern seeking, pop psychology, population booms and busts, population dynamics, predator prey population dynamics, predator prey relationship, psychology, randomness, randomness is scary, Rob Brotherton, santa claus, Santa Claus conspiracy, schizophrenia, should children believe in Santa Claus, Slothrop, storing food for lean years, Suspicious Minds, Thomas Pynchon, truth, unrealistic expectations, used bookstores, water usage rights, White Wilderness
Frank Brown Cloud 