The people using the recent failure to replicate many psychological studies as evidence that “science is broken” are the people who keep it that way. The whole point of the Reproducibility Project is that science is too focused on snappy results and jumping to conclusions, and too afraid of failure to reproduce findings to progress. If we view the natural process of science correcting itself as evidence of terrible failure, we only cause further problems.
Obama’s comment on a Humans of New York post featuring a family in Iran is an important symbolic gesture and a hopeful sign for the future. Although… seeing as it was just signed “bo” we can’t rule out that it was the family dog.
Much better idea than fusion restaurants: alternate history restaurants. Don’t just give me modern Thai-Mexican food, give me a full menu, interior design, and waitstaff uniforms from the world that cuisine emerged from.
All things considered, President Obama’s largest impact on American culture might just be the rise of geometric sans-serif fonts.
Beliefs on the origin of jobs break down along the same political lines as beliefs on the origin of life. Most people think jobs emerge from a complex, organic process, involving demand, supply, and capital, but some on the far right ascribe their creation to an intelligent designer: an all-mighty, mostly mythical “job creator” who must receive regular tribute.
Arguably as important as the need for more strong female characters: we need more weak female characters! Successful TV shows and movies star needy, cruel, insecure, egotistic, and/or violent men all the time, and adding more flawless female superheroes is only part of a solution. (and yes, this is just a roundabout way of saying we need more female characters.)
Human intuition seems generally unaware that time passes, instead viewing everything as being just as it always was. This is why we’re so surprised at how old we are looking in the mirror, and anxious thinking about our eventual deaths. It’s also why we say dumb shit like “Sunnis and Shi’ites have been fighting for thousands of years!”
