Wikipedia China Becomes Front Line for Views on Language and Culture - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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The Chinese-language version of Wikipedia has become more than an online encyclopedia: it is a battlefield for editors from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong in a region charged with political, ideological and cultural differences.
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Wikipedia editors, all volunteers, present opposing views on politics, history and traditional Chinese culture — in essence, different versions of China. Compounding the issue are language differences: Mandarin is the official language in mainland China and Taiwan, while the majority in Hong Kong speak Cantonese. But mainland China uses simplified characters, while Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional script. That has led to articles on otherwise innocuous topics becoming flash points, and has caused controversial entries to be restricted.
Does reading fiction make you a more empathic, better person? - 0 views
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Who really knows if reading will make you a better person? More to the point, why should it matter?
The Impossible Geometry of Fanette Guilloud | Colossal - 0 views
No, dogs aren't people! - Salon.com - 1 views
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Rather than selectively allowing certain critters into the club of species that are like us, we should probably simply remember that humans aren’t as special as we think we are. Instead of advocating for the protection of animals by leaning on their apparent similarity to our own species, perhaps we can just work to avoid needless suffering in all animals — human-like or not.
Unusable Words : The New Yorker - 0 views
Placebo-philes - Anxious Machine - 1 views
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It's easy to sneer at the placebo effect, or to feel ashamed of it when you're its victim. And that's precisely why I found Felix Salmon's piece revelatory, because instead of sneering at the placebo effect of fancy wine, its marketing, and its slightly higher prices, he thinks we should take advantage of it. If the placebo effect makes us happy, why not take advantage of that happiness?
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n a recent article for the Atlantic, David H. Freedman argues that there's virtually no scientific evidence that alternative medicine (anything from chiropractic care to acupuncture) has any curative benefit beyond a placebo effect. And so many scientists are outraged that anyone takes alternative medicine seriously. However, there is one area where alternative medicine often trumps traditional medicine: stress reduction. And stress reduction can, of course, make a huge impact on people's health. The Atlantic article quotes Elizabeth Blackburn, a biologist at the University of California at San Francisco and a Nobel laureate. “We tend to forget how powerful an organ the brain is in our biology,” Blackburn told me. “It’s the big controller. We’re seeing that the brain pokes its nose into a lot of the processes involved in these chronic diseases. It’s not that you can wish these diseases away, but it seems we can prevent and slow their onset with stress management.” Numerous studies have found that stress impairs the immune system, and a recent study found that relieving stress even seems to be linked to slowing the progression of cancer in some patients. Perhaps not surprisingly, a trip to the chiropractor or the acupuncturist is much more likely to reduce your stress than a trip to the doctor. If anything, a trip to the doctor makes you more anxious.
Henry Gustave Molaison: The Basis for 'Memento' and the World's Most Celebrated Amnesia... - 0 views
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"Scoville later called the operation "a tragic mistake" and warned neurosurgeons never to repeat it, but neuroscience and cognitive psychology benefitted hugely. The operation could not have been better designed if the intent had been to create a new kind of experimental object that showed where in the brain memory lived: there was no other way that Molaison's brain injuries could have occurred, and no other way that the precision of his memory damage could have been brought about. Molaison gave scientists a way to map cognitive functions onto brain structures. It became possible to subdivide memory into different types and to locate their cerebral Zip Codes."
WISH: A Monumental 11-Acre Portrait in Belfast by Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada | Co... - 0 views
Why Abraham Lincoln Loved Infographics : The New Yorker - 0 views
Pakistani Girl, a Global Heroine After an Attack, Has Critics at Home - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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That cynicism was echoed this week across Pakistan, where conspiracy-minded citizens loudly branded Ms. Yousafzai a C.I.A. agent, part of a nebulous Western plot to humiliate their country and pressure their government. Muhammad Asim, a student standing outside the gates of Punjab University in the eastern city of Lahore, dismissed the Taliban attack on Ms. Yousafzai as a made-for-TV drama. “How can a girl survive after being shot in the head?” he asked. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Maybe Economics Is A Science, But Many Economists Are Not Scientists - 0 views
The Peril of Knowledge Everywhere - NYTimes.com - 1 views
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Thanks to advances in technology, we may soon revisit a question raised four centuries ago: Are there things we should try not to know? That’s because the collection of data is increasing, in both scale and type, at a phenomenal rate.
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“Big Brother couldn’t have imagined we’d tell him where we were, who we talk to, how we feel – and we’d pay to do it,” said Vivek Wadhwa, a tech entrepreneur and social critic. “We need an amendment in the Constitution that says you own your data.”
BBC News - Sleep's memory role discovered - 0 views
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The mechanism by which a good night's sleep improves learning and memory has been discovered by scientists. The team in China and the US used advanced microscopy to witness new connections between brain cells - synapses - forming during sleep. Their study, published in the journal Science, showed even intense training could not make up for lost sleep. Experts said it was an elegant and significant study, which uncovered the mechanisms of memory. It is well known that sleep plays an important role in memory and learning. But what actually happens inside the brain has been a source of considerable debate.
What is art for? Alain de Botton's animated guide - video | Art and design | The Guardian - 0 views
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