psychology
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By learning to fight, we can make a more peaceful world.
By building confidence, we become better able to choose nonviolence, since we’ll be that much more likely to feel safe.
Abdelfattah Kilito, aggression in animals, ahimsa, baboons, Babylonian mythology, Bible, biology, black belt test, black best essay, broadcast song, caretaking, Daddy Wake Up, death gods, Determined, divine aggression, dominance, dominance hierarchy, Dr. Strangelove, elephant seals, game theory, Gilgamesh, God, history, incarceration, jail poetry, John von Neumann, Joshua Rathkamp, Karate, kihap, Kilito, Korean mythology, linguistics, martial arts, mythology, nonviolence, observational biology, Origin Myth of the House God, peace, Popol Vuh, psychology, Ramayana, religion, Robert Sapolsky, Single Father, soft song, sparrow territory, sparrows, Taekwondo, tamarins, teaching in jail, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Tongue of Adam, Tower of Babel, Travis Combs, Vishnu, Whorf hypothesis, Xibalban, Yahweh, YHWH
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On disillusionment and knock knock jokes.
Children’s trust is fragile, yet we often treat kids so cavalierly.
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
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On urgency and gender-affirming medical care.
Sometimes, young people are right to be infuriated by our lack of urgency.
access to medical care, age discrimination, Emily Bazelon, estrogen, gatekeepers, gatekeeping, gender, gender transition, gender-affirming medical care, hormone blockers, hormone therapy, LGBTIA+, medical care, medical transition, medicine, nonbinary, patience, psychology, puberty, puberty blockers, queer youth, restricting medical care, testosterone, The Battle Over Gender Therapy, transgender, transition, transitioning, urgency
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On vocabulary and time.
Psychological time is relational, but we don’t have a word for it!
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On amusement parks, depression, and familiarity with death.
Some types of fun aren’t meant for everyone …
Albert Camus, amusement park, amusement parks, car crash, death, depression, execution, familiarity with death, Fyodor Dostoevsky, gun violence, heroin, heroin overdose, Lauren Hough, Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing, Narcan, overdose, pardon, preventable death, psychology, psychology experiments, psychology of amusement parks, psychology studies, psychology study, Scarecrow Scrambler, Scramblers, self-harm, suicidal ideation, suicide, The Idiot, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Scrambler
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On bowerbirds, process, and happiness.
In a world where not everyone wins, we can either prepare to mope or learn to enjoy the process of our lives.
abolition, abolitionism, art, attention economy, Bestiary, birds, Bower, bowerbird, bowerbirds, children, corvids, crow family life, crow intelligence, crow smarts, crows, crows using tools, Donika Kelly, goal-oriented, goals versus process, jail, jail poetry, mass incarceration, mate choice, mate selection, mating, mating behavior, non-coercive mating, parenting, poetry, process-oriented, psychology, self-actualization, self-help, sexual choice, sexual selection, social media pyramid, storytelling, suffering in jail, teaching in jail, teaching poetry, teaching poetry in jail, tool use, tropical birds, War on Drugs, writing
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On power and species.
In comics, the people who believe their power gives them the right to dominate others are villains. And yet, consider the way we treat the other animals who share our planet …
All-Star Superman, animal PTSD, animal welfare, comics, DC comics, do animals feel trauma, do animals get PTSD, dominion, ethics, Grant Morrison, Harry Harlow, HIV vaccine, HIV vaccine research, how we treat other animals, hurricane, Hurricane Maria, John-Michael Bloomquist, lab animals, laboratory animals, Luke Dittrich, macaque, macaque colony, macaque PTSD, macaques, Miss Able, monkey colony, monkey PTSD, Patient H.M., Pit of Despair, poetry, post traumatic stress disorder, power, primate research, psychological harm, psychological research, psychology, psychology research, PTSD, Puerto Rican macaque colony, Rape Rack, research animals, research colony, research ethics, research macaques, research monkeys, scientific ethics, St. Francis Visits the Research Macaques of Modern Science, Superheroes, Superman, Superman versus The Hulk, Supervillains, The Hulk, trauma, vegan, vegan comic books, vegan comics, vegan superhero, vegan superheroes, veganism, vegetarian, vegetarian comic books, vegetarian comics, vegetarian superhero, vegetarian superheroes, Villains
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On storytelling in games.
Of course games can be art! There are certain stories, like tales of moral complicity, that games tell better than any other form of media.
45, Abu Ghraib, atrocities, board game design, board games, Bruce Weigl, computer games, console games, Donald Trump, experiental art, fascism, fighting fascism, following orders, game design, games as art, Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto as art, GTA, Life on Mars, Marco Arnaudo, marcowargamer, Milgram Experiment, moral complicity, moral depravity, moral failure, multimedia art, narrative potential of games, politics, PotUS, psychology, psychology experiments, psychology experiments as role-playing games, Rockstar Games, Rockstar North, role playing, RPG, second person novels, Secret Hitler, Stanford Prison Experiment, storytelling in games, Storytelling in the Modern Board Game, The Soldier’s Brief Epistle, torture, torture in Grand Theft Auto, Tracy K Smith, Tracy Smith, Trump, war crimes
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On violence and gratitude.
Although I consider myself a benevolent tyrant, some of my cells have turned against me. Mutinous, they were swayed by the propaganda of a virus and started churning out capsids rather than helping me type this essay. Which leaves me sitting at a YMCA snack room table snerking, goo leaking down my throat and out…
animal cruelty, animal life, animal welfare, apoptosis, appreciation, autotroph, biology, biology from a cell’s perspective, cancer, cancer biology, cell biology, cell death, cellular biology, cold, competition, consciousness, cooperation, cost, defection, DNA, do plants have feelings, doom, eat more plants, ethics, farming, gamete, genetics, germ cell, herbivore, heterotroph, immunology, inevitable death, irrationality, metastasis, microbiology, molecular biology, multicellular organisms, other perspectives, photosynthesis, plant-based diet, plant-based lifestyle, programmed cell death, psych experiment, psychology, Richard Dawkins, sacrifice, self sacrifice, selfish gene, sick, somatic cell, Suzana Huculano-Houzel, terrorism, The Human Advantage, the inevitability of death, tyrant, value, vegan, veganism, vegetarian, violence, viral infection, virology, virus, we value what we pay for, wine, wine tasting
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On alternate truths.
Sometimes the alternatives are jarring – you look and count a certain number, another person proffers a radically different amount. Surely one of you is mistaken. In the United States, there’s a rift between those who overestimate certain values (size of inauguration crowds, number of crimes committed by immigrants, votes cast by non-citizens, rates of…
45, almond milk, alternate truths, alternative facts, anarchy, animal welfare, capitalism, cashew milk, citizenship, civil liberties, crowd size, dairy industry, extremism, free market capitalism, government, government intervention, Henri Taijfel, overestimaters, political philosophy, politics, property rights, psych experiments, psychology, soy milk, Trump, underestimaters, us vs. them, vegan, veganism
Frank Brown Cloud 