ARCHIVE: JANUARY 2013 THROUGH DECEMBER 2013
Caveat: Inevitably, given the ever evolving state of the Internet, some of the links on past postings may be outdated.
STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION. READY SOON.
JANUARY 2013
2013-01-04—A BELATED SEASONAL SHOPPING LIST
One of the year-end traditions is compiling a ‘best of’ for that year. Often this is done well before the New Year to inspire people’s choice of Christmas gifts. Books make good presents, because unlike many other presents, the full appreciation of them comes later and is not merely momentary and fleeting. And also unlike most Christmas time purchases, we buy books almost as frequently year round. For a reader, a bookstore is a constant temptation. As Henry Ward Beecher remarked, “Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?” Here are three “best of” lists for the reader who prefers non-fiction of the scientific sort.
2013-01-11—SUDDENLY SCIENCE IS COOL
It’s happening: a long overdue bridging of the chasm between the two cultures of science and art. The reason seems to be that somehow popular culture has decided that science is ‘cool’. Being a ‘brain’ is even becoming sexy, rather than a reason for social ostracism.
SCIENTISTS ARE NOW THE IN CROWD
Here are some explanations of this phenomenon by those who are to some extent responsible for it.
LAUGHTER IS THE SECRET INGREDIENT
Scientists are not the deadly serious folk the stereotype makes them out to be. Just look at the names they give such things as elementary particles. “Quarks” is funny enough, but then they describe them as having six “flavours”: up, down, strange, charm, bottom, and top. Very strange, charming and quirky!
BIG BANG: A DIRECT HIT
It must mean something that a sitcom about four geeky scientists has become (and stayed) so incredibly popular—although real hard-core geeks are a bit ambivalent about the show.
2013-01-18—VALUE VERSUS VALUED
If it is true that you get what you pay for, then posterity will probably judge what we’re getting as being of little real value. What we apparently value, if financial reward is any indication, is not what we claim to value and respect. Civilizations are remembered and valued for their contributions to such things as knowledge, culture, liberty, and justice. But do we reward the individuals who make these contributions? Or are the wrong people being rewarded? A comparison of the real worth of what a person does with the financial remuneration he or she receives gives an indication of our real values—quite different from those we pay lip service to.
STARVING ARTISTS
The stereotype is not off the mark. We claim to value culture, but most of those who spend their lives contributing to the arts can’t survive without a day job.
FAT CATS
Income disparity is hardly news.
DO THE COMPARISON
Here is a wonderful extensive database of average salaries for different occupations. Think about how much a given occupation involves making a serious contribution to our well-being and our legacy, and then compare it with another one of less substantial real value. This exercise can keep one occupied for as long as one has the stomach for it. (These stats are for the States but would be similar for Canada.)
2014-01-31—UNPLEASANT TRUTHS
Social psychologists have a bad rep, which is sometimes justified. This is the field to look into if you want to find research with dubious ethics. Part of the problem is that their scientifically rigorous experiments often have to involve deceiving their human subjects. When that deception involves any even potential harm to the subjects, one enters the gray area between ethical and unethical research. Nevertheless, the findings of social psychologists often have immediate relevance to understanding why we too often behave so badly. Caveat: the Asch and Milgram studies have been justly criticized for not being truly representative of typical human behaviour.
DOES MONEY MAKE YOU MEAN?
Disturbing empirical evidence that it at least inclines one that way.
WOULD YOU TORTURE PEOPLE IF TOLD TO DO SO BY AN AUTHORITY?
A famous experiment that suggests too many of us would—in some situations.
WOULD YOU IGNORE YOUR SENSES IF THE MAJORITY SAID YOU WERE WRONG
Another famous experiment that reveals many of us are pathetic conformists, again at least in some situations.
INSTALLATION OF 2013 STILL IN PROGRESS
FEBRUARY 2013
MARCH 2013
APRIL 2013
MAY2013
JUNE2013
JULY 2013
AUGUST 2013
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OCTOBER 2013
NOVEMBER 2013
DECEMBER 2013