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Javier E

How Social Media Silences Debate - NYTimes.com - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...ial-media-silences-debate.html

discourse polarization social media conformity

shared by Javier E on 28 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • Social media, like Twitter and Facebook, has the effect of tamping down diversity of opinion and stifling debate about public affairs. It makes people less likely to voice opinions, particularly when they think their views differ from those of their friends, according to a report published Tuesday by researchers at Pew Research Center and Rutgers University.
  • The researchers also found that those who use social media regularly are more reluctant to express dissenting views in the offline world.
  • The Internet, it seems, is contributing to the polarization of America, as people surround themselves with people who think like them and hesitate to say anything different. Internet companies magnify the effect, by tweaking their algorithms to show us more content from people who are similar to us.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • the Internet has deepened that divide. It makes it easy for people to read only news and opinions from people they agree with. In many cases, people don’t even make that choice for themselves. Last week, Twitter said it would begin showing people tweets even from people they don’t follow if enough other people they follow favorite them.
  • Humans are acutely attuned to the approval of others, constantly reading cues to judge whether people agree with them, the researchers said. Active social media users get many more of these cues — like status updates, news stories people choose to share and photos of how they spend their days — and so they become less likely to speak up.
  • The study also found that for all the discussion of social media becoming the place where people find and discuss news, most people said they got information about the N.S.A. revelations from TV and radio, while Facebook and Twitter were the least likely to be news sources.
sissij

What Facebook Owes to Journalism - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...cebook-owes-to-journalism.html

new york times social media language

shared by sissij on 22 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • declared that “a strong news industry is also critical to building an informed community.”
  • Unfortunately, his memo ignored two major points — the role that Facebook and other technology platforms are playing in inadvertently damaging local news media, and the one way they could actually save journalism: with a massive philanthropic commitment.
  • As advertising spending shifted from print, TV and radio to the internet, the money didn’t mostly go to digital news organizations. Increasingly, it goes to Facebook and Google.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • But just because the result is unintentional doesn’t mean it is fantasy: Newsrooms have been decimated, with basic accountability reporting slashed as a result.
  • I’m not saying that the good stuff — the mobile revolution, blocking intrusive ads, better marketing options for small businesses — doesn’t outweigh the bad. And local news organizations absolutely contributed to the problem with their sluggish and often uncreative reaction to the digital revolution.
  • sissij on 22 Feb 17
     
    This article discuss the impact of internet on local news organizations. I agree with the author that the internet do get a lot of ad money and make local news organizations have less funding. Although there are donations, it is still very little compare to what local news organizations used to have. This might be part of the reason why local news organizations don't do well on giving great informations.But I think the time is moving forward, Facebook and google should take some of the responsibility as they get more funding and resources. This article is very persuasive as it has many data and evidence in support. I really like that the author acknowledge the counterargument in his article to make it more reliable. --Sissi (2/22/2017)
dicindioha

Chinese Scientist Blasts Trump's Climate-Change Talk - China Real Time Report - WSJ - 1 views

blogs.wsj.com/...0127cpollute

shared by dicindioha on 09 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • A global-warming skeptic, Mr. Trump has vowed to cancel the accord, which the Obama administration helped broker, in his first 100 days as president.
  • “I think he is cute, saying whatever comes to his mind. I think the U.S. is a cute country too, because a person like him became the president,” said Prof. Ding.
  • The president said in a 2012 tweet that the Chinese created “the concept of global warming.”
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • His argument: that a per capita count of emissions would be more equitable and treat all people the same.
  • One cannot both enjoy the benefits of industrialization and completely avoid the damages of it, he said.
  • “Steel made in China is sold to the U.S. The emission is done in China but the consumption happens in the U.S. It’s unfair to attribute that emission to China,” he said.
  • Unlike in the U.S., climate-change skeptics in China are an extremely rare breed—something that Mr. Ding posited was the result of better science education.
  • urged other nations to stick to the Paris agreement, calling it a “responsibility we must assume for future generations.”
  • dicindioha on 09 Feb 17
     
    I previously bookmarked an article about Australia's role in the Paris accords, and then I did not realize the world is in jeopardy of losing the U.S.'s involvement in it. We are one of the leading producers of gas emissions in the world, so that is scary to think about. It is interesting to see that people in such power as the leader of a forefront country do not trust the science that supports global warming, and it is kind of scary. I think it was also interesting that Prof. Ding said steel made in China is sold to the US, where people use it, so it's unfair to attribute the emission to China. That is an interesting argument considering they are making it in order to sell it, but yes we are using it, so it seems both are at fault here, possibly not just to the US. This climate change argument is all over and after our discussions about trusting science it is amazing to see the different sides up for debate that should be difficult to debate unless people debating are expert scientists in global warming/climate change.
sissij

First-born children have better thinking skills, study says | Society | The Guardian - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...ter-thinking-skills-study-says

the guardian science research

shared by sissij on 09 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • They may be jokingly referred to as PFBs – precious first borns – on popular parenting websites, but a study says first-born children really do reap the benefits of being number one.
  • the first-born generally received more help with tasks that develop thinking skills.
  • The study found parents changed their behaviour as they had more children, giving less mental stimulation and taking part in fewer activities like reading with the child, crafts and playing musical instruments.
  • sissij on 09 Feb 17
     
    I find this research interesting. In this research, the researchers did a population observation, which is similar to the population method mentioned in evolutionary biology. The author also discussed a lot of hypothesis why the first born child tends to have better thinking skills. The author don't have direct evidence pointing to his hypothesis, the tendency is a fact. Although there are a lot of uncertainties in this research, this result might appeal to many first born children and make them feel a little more superior. --Sissi (2/9/2017)
oliviaodon

NASA Just Discovered Seven New Exoplanets... So What? - 0 views

www.forbes.com/...d-seven-new-exoplanets-so-what

science

shared by oliviaodon on 28 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • On Wednesday, the scientists at NASA kind of freaked out. They announced the discovery of some seemingly Earth-like planets outside of our solar system, a group of rocky globes they're calling 'TRAPPIST-1.'
  • To be completely blunt, the most exiting thing for actual scientists is that these planets are close enough that we're actually going to be able to study them – particularly when the James Webb Space Telescope launches (October 2018.) When that launches, it will have a real shot at actually taking a look at the atmospheres of these planets – or if they have atmospheres at all. So it's like a promise of future excitement
  • The closer the system is to our solar system – the more the star is like the Sun and the planet is like the Earth, the more likely we are to understand what we're looking at. That's what makes it exciting.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • At the moment, all you really tell from the transits is these are small black dots. We just get a radius – and if we're super lucky – as they were in the case of this system, they can get masses. The sizes and masses of these planets is really valuable information though, because it does suggests that most of them are rocky. Six of the seven planets look like they're rocky.  And being Earth-sized, we think it's a good place: an atmosphere thick enough to keep you warm and last for billions of years, but not so thick that you end up being a gas giant planet.
  • Most of them are the right distance from a star that maybe they could have liquid water on their surfaces. But that's a huge maybe
  • o it's not really that we think Earth-like life is the only life that can be out there. It's just the only life we can detect.
  • oliviaodon on 28 Feb 17
     
    This article discusses the potential of a new scientific discovery: seven exoplanets outside of our solar system. This article does a great job in mentioning the limitations of science, however.
kortanekev

The Inseparable Link Between Morality And Economics - 0 views

jpatton.bellevue.edu/...morality-economics.html

economics sociology science morality knowledge

shared by kortanekev on 02 Mar 17 - No Cached
  • Moral
  • The subject matter of both morality and economics is human action. Economic inquiry wants to know the cause and consequences of human actions.
  • kortanekev on 02 Mar 17
     
    This article discusses the fundamental problem of determining the true nature of human action. We can examine an infinite number of reactions in social situation, but our morality and our intent is not reducible to universal laws and cannot be studied like science. In order to study economics, we need a better understanding of ourselves -- if not the origin of our actions, the consequence in society.  (Evie K 3/1/17)
sissij

How "Arrival"'s Alien Language Might Actually Make You See the Future | Big Think - 0 views

bigthink.com/...e-can-make-you-a-time-traveler

science knowledge language

shared by sissij on 13 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • The language we speak can help us see the future.
  • First, learning a language makes you smarter.
  • children learn languages more easily because the plasticity of their developing brains lets them use both hemispheres in language acquisition, while in most adults language is lateralized to one hemisphere - usually the left
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Second, Time isn’t really linear
  • time is really just “your assessment of how long something took.”
  • Time can also feel faster or slower depending on how we experience it.
  • “Language doesn’t determine how you think, but it can determine how you think about things.”
  • Defining snow with such specific language grants it multiple meanings, and those multiple meanings increase its significance within the culture of the people using the language.
  • sees beyond the linear bounds of time
  • sissij on 13 Feb 17
     
    In TOK, we discussed about the what language can affect us. Language doesn't shape who we are, but it oblige us to think in certain ways. By speaking in different languages, we can switch among different mindsets. In this article, the author also uses the example of the descriptive snow words in Eskimos cliche to show that language can enable us to see through different lenses since different languages focus on different stresses and significances. The "time traveler" in the title doesn't give the literal meaning, we get to travel from time to time because we can see beyond linear bounds of time. We are switching perspective from one observer of time to another observer of time. --Sissi (2/13/2017)
sissij

Medical Chimera: Tilapia Skins Are Being Used to Treat Burn Patients in Brazil | Big Think - 0 views

bigthink.com/...product-of-medical-desperation

medical science research technology

shared by sissij on 25 Mar 17 - No Cached
  • Unlike their American counterparts, material and supply shortages have forced some Brazilian burn centers to deviate from the standard medical practice which advocates for early skin grafts, instead being relegated to using traditional gauze-and-silver sulfadiazine cream dressings.
  • After undergoing a thorough cleaning process, the sterilized tilapia skins are applied directly to the wound.
  • sissij on 25 Mar 17
     
    As the old saying goes: "natural world is our best teacher', the is a new science called biomimicry that dedicated in learning from the natural world. I found this article very interesting. It talked about the advantages of fish skin that can benefit the studies in bandages. As we discussed in TOK, the discoveries in science needs a leap of imagination and creativity, I think using fish skin as bandage is a very good example of that. --Sissi (3/25/2017)
sissij

The Danger of Only Seeing What You Already Believe | Big Think - 0 views

bigthink.com/...eeing-what-you-already-believe

research psychology bias social media

shared by sissij on 24 Mar 17 - No Cached
  • the blank canvas, an empty page, the unfilled columns in ProTools awaiting sonic imagination. Once completed, another journey begins. The distance between zero and popularity is complex. 
  • The creator is always in a relationship with their audience.
  • Humans are neopholic, by which Thompson means we are “curious to discover new things” as well as neophobic, “afraid of anything that’s too new.” 
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • For example, my dopamine receptors tingled when Thompson mentioned Joseph Campbell and Jeff Buckley, given that they’re both huge inspirations to me.
  • Thompson notes that as we age our explicit memory system wanes. We become more susceptible to confuse a statement that “feels right” with one that is correct.
  • sissij on 24 Mar 17
     
    I found this article very interesting as it discussed the logic fallacy and confirmation bias in humane mind.The danger of only seeing what they already believe is especially obvious in the era of Internet. More and more social medias use filter system to give viewers what they like to see based on their viewing history. Although this filter system can satisfy the viewers, viewers get a limited range of information. I think it limits the mindset of the viewers. --Sissi (3/23/2017)
sissij

Liberals and Conservatives Read Different Science Books, Except for One Subject | Big Think - 0 views

bigthink.com/...e-books-except-for-one-subject

science research psychology

shared by sissij on 10 Apr 17 - No Cached
  • While scientists generally try to stay out politics, letting evidence-based research to speak for itself, the strong division in American society has spread to science.
  • By analyzing millions of online purchases, researchers from Cornell, Yale and University of Chicago found that there are clear partisan preferences in how we buy books on scientific topics.
  • The study’s authors think it’s likely that people who buy political books get science books to support their views rather than out of a general interest in science.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • One topic popular with both sides - books on dinosaurs. These were bought across the whole political spectrum.
  • Is there a way science could help heal the division in the country?
  • While the study is illuminating, it  has some limitations, with political scientist Toby Bolsen cautioning that this research did not draw on a random sample of books, relying instead on how the online sellers categorized them.
  • sissij on 10 Apr 17
     
    As we discussed in TOK, people selectively read about science due to confirmation bias. When reading about science, people tends to ignore the limitation and uncertainties in science, this is because of the source amnesia. It is not surprise that liberals and conservatives read different science book because the policies they make are so different that they need different scientific paper to support. Although science is trying to stay out of politics, but it cannot stop politicians from using science. However, it is totally a surprise for me to see that science books on dinosaurs are read by author throughout the political spectrum. It doesn't seem to fit in with my hypothesis earlier. --Sissi (4/10/2017)
Javier E

The Rediscovery of Character - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-rediscovery-of-character.html

character morality social science psychology crime prevention

shared by Javier E on 07 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • broken windows was only a small piece of what Wilson contributed, and he did not consider it the center of his work. The best way to understand the core Wilson is by borrowing the title of one of his essays: “The Rediscovery of Character.”
  • When Wilson began looking at social policy, at the University of Redlands, the University of Chicago and Harvard, most people did not pay much attention to character. The Marxists looked at material forces. Darwinians at the time treated people as isolated products of competition. Policy makers of right and left thought about how to rearrange economic incentives. “It is as if it were a mark of sophistication for us to shun the language of morality in discussing the problems of mankind,” he once recalled.
  • during the 1960s and ’70s, he noticed that the nation’s problems could not be understood by looking at incentives
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • “At root,” Wilson wrote in 1985 in The Public Interest, “in almost every area of important concern, we are seeking to induce persons to act virtuously, whether as schoolchildren, applicants for public assistance, would-be lawbreakers or voters and public officials.”
  • When Wilson wrote about character and virtue, he didn’t mean anything high flown or theocratic. It was just the basics, befitting a man who grew up in the middle-class suburbs of Los Angeles in the 1940s: Behave in a balanced way. Think about the long-term consequences of your actions. Cooperate. Be decent.
  • Wilson argued that American communities responded to the stresses of industrialization by fortifying self-control.
  • It was habituated by practicing good manners, by being dependable, punctual and responsible day by day.
  • Wilson set out to learn how groups created a good order, why that order sometimes frayed.
  • In “The Moral Sense,” he brilliantly investigated the virtuous sentiments we are born with and how they are cultivated by habit. Wilson’s broken windows theory was promoted in an essay with George Kelling called “Character and Community.” Wilson and Kelling didn’t think of crime primarily as an individual choice. They saw it as something that emerged from the social psychology of a community. When neighborhoods feel disorganized and scary, crime increases.
  • he emphasized that character was formed in groups. As he wrote in “The Moral Sense,” his 1993 masterpiece, “Order exists because a system of beliefs and sentiments held by members of a society sets limits to what those members can do.”
  • But America responded to the stresses of the information economy by reducing the communal buttresses to self-control, with unfortunate results.
  • Wilson was not a philosopher. He was a social scientist. He just understood that people are moral judgers and moral actors, and he reintegrated the vocabulary of character into discussions of everyday life.
Javier E

How the Professor Who Fooled Wikipedia Got Caught by Reddit - Yoni Appelbaum - Technology - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...257134

wikipedia hoax social media verification

shared by Javier E on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • Last January, as he prepared to offer the class again, Kelly put the Internet on notice. He posted his syllabus and announced that his new, larger class was likely to create two separate hoaxes. He told members of the public to "consider yourself warned--twice."
  • One answer lies in the structure of the Internet's various communities. Wikipedia has a weak community, but centralizes the exchange of information. It has a small number of extremely active editors, but participation is declining, and most users feel little ownership of the content. And although everyone views the same information, edits take place on a separate page, and discussions of reliability on another, insulating ordinary users from any doubts that might be expressed. Facebook, where the Lincoln hoax took flight, has strong communities but decentralizes the exchange of information. Friends are quite likely to share content and to correct mistakes, but those corrections won't reach other users sharing or viewing the same content.
  • Reddit, by contrast, builds its strong community around the centralized exchange of information. Discussion isn't a separate activity but the sine qua non of the site. When one user voiced doubts, others saw the comment and quickly piled on.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Kelly's students, like all good con artists, built their stories out of small, compelling details to give them a veneer of veracity. Ultimately, though, they aimed to succeed less by assembling convincing stories than by exploiting the trust of their marks, inducing them to lower their guard. Most of us assess arguments, at least initially, by assessing those who make them. Kelly's students built blogs with strong first-person voices, and hit back hard at skeptics. Those inclined to doubt the stories were forced to doubt their authors. They inserted articles into Wikipedia, trading on the credibility of that site. And they aimed at very specific communities: the "beer lovers of Baltimore" and Reddit.
  • Reddit prides itself on winnowing the wheat from the chaff. It relies on the collective judgment of its members, who click on arrows next to contributions, elevating insightful or interesting content, and demoting less worthy contributions. Even Mills says he was impressed by the way in which redditors "marshaled their collective bits of expert knowledge to arrive at a conclusion that was largely correct." It's tough to con Reddit.
  • hoaxes tend to thrive in communities which exhibit high levels of trust. But on the Internet, where identities are malleable and uncertain, we all might be well advised to err on the side of skepticism.
Adam Clark

Philosophy Bites : Jennifer Nagel on Intuitions about Knoweldge - 1 views

philosophybites.libsyn.com/-on-intuitions-about-knoweldge

intuition Knowledge

shared by Adam Clark on 31 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • Adam Clark on 31 Aug 14
     
    Knowledge is part of our everyday lives. We know all kinds of things without even thinking about them. But what is going on here? Jennifer Nagel discusses our intutions about knowledge with Nigel Warburton for this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast
charlottedonoho

How can we best assess the neuropsychological effects of violent video game play? | Pete Etchells and Chris Chambers | Science | The Guardian - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...cts-of-violent-video-game-play

paradigm science brain technology

shared by charlottedonoho on 02 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • Every time a research paper about violent video games makes it into the news, it feels like we’re in a time loop. Any claims that the study makes about the potential positive or (usually) negative effects of playing games tend to get over-egged to the point of ridiculousness.
  • At best, the measures of aggression that are used in such work are unstandardised; at worst, the field has been shown to be riddled with basic methodological and analytical flaws. These problems are further compounded by entrenched ideologies and a reluctance from some researchers to even talk to their ‘adversaries’, let alone discuss the potential for adversarial collaborations
  • All of this means that we’re stuck at an impasse with violent video games research; it feels like we’re no more clued up on what the actual behavioural effects are now than, say, five or ten years ago.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • In stage 1, they submit the introduction, methods, proposed analysis, and if necessary, pilot data. This manuscript then goes through the usual peer review process, and is assessed on criteria such as the soundness of the methods and analysis, and overall plausibility of the stated hypotheses.
  • Once researchers have passed through stage 1, they can then move on to data collection. In stage 2, they then submit the full manuscript – the introduction and agreed methods from stage 1, plus results and discussion sections. The results must include the outcome of the analyses agreed in stage 1, but the researchers are allowed to include additional analyses in a separate, ‘exploratory’ section (as long as they are justified).
  • Pre-registering scientific articles in this way helps to protect against a number of undesirable practices (such as p-hacking and HARKing) that can exaggerate statistical findings and make non-existent effects seem real. While this is a problem across psychology generally, it is a particularly extreme problem for violent video game research.
  • By outlining the intended methods and analysis protocols beforehand, Registered Reports protect against these problems, as the review process concentrates on the robustness of the proposed methods. And Registered Reports offer an additional advantage: because manuscripts are never accepted based on the outcome of the data analysis, the process is immune to researcher party lines. It doesn’t matter which research ‘camp’ you are in; your data – and just as importantly, your methods - will speak for themselves.
carolinewren

'God made science': Louisiana teachers are literally using the Bible as science textbooks in public schools - 0 views

www.rawstory.com/...ce-textbooks-in-public-schools

science god schools

shared by carolinewren on 03 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • students in Louisiana literally use the Bible as their science textbook, according to recently obtained records
  • State law permits teachers to promote classroom discussion on evolution, but critics say the Louisiana Science Education Act allows creationism to be taught in public schools.
  • students read the Book of Genesis to learn creationism in biology class.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • “We will read in Genesis and them [sic] some supplemental material debunking various aspects of evolution from which the students will present,”
  • A teacher at Caddo Parish schools wrote a newspaper column saying that her job is to present both evolution and creationism.
  • God made science,” wrote fifth-grade teacher Charlotte Hinson.
  • “pushing her twisted religious beliefs onto the class,” another praised biology teacher Michael Stacy because he “discussed evolution and creationism in a full spectrum of thought.”
  • state law, passed in 2008, allows science teachers to introduce supplemental materials to “critique” scientific theories – lessons on creationism are still illegal under federal law.
  • schools are also violating prohibitions on teacher-led prayer in school.
jongardner04

How Our Brains Make Memories | Science | Smithsonian - 1 views

www.smithsonianmag.com/...-brains-make-memories-14466850

memory brain

shared by jongardner04 on 16 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • Most people have so-called flashbulb memories of where they were and what they were doing when something momentous happened: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, say, or the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. (Unfortunately, staggeringly terrible news seems to come out of the blue more often than staggeringly good news.) But as clear and detailed as these memories feel, psychologists find they are surprisingly inaccurate.
  • Nader, now a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, says his memory of the World Trade Center attack has played a few tricks on him. He recalled seeing television footage on September 11 of the first plane hitting the north tower of the World Trade Center. But he was surprised to learn that such footage aired for the first time the following day.
  • jongardner04 on 16 Jan 15
     
    Discusses how our brains make up memories and how they mislead us. Also talks about recollection of 9/11. 
Javier E

Global Warming 'Hiatus' Challenged by NOAA Research - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...t-a-global-warming-hiatus.html

global warming science research

shared by Javier E on 05 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • Scientists have long labored to explain what appeared to be a slowdown in global warming that began at the start of this century as, at the same time, heat-trapping emissions of carbon dioxide were soaring. The slowdown, sometimes inaccurately described as a halt or hiatus, became a major talking point for people critical of climate science.
  • When adjustments are made to compensate for recently discovered problems in the way global temperatures were measured, the slowdown largely disappears, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared in a scientific paper published Thursday. And when the particularly warm temperatures of 2013 and 2014 are averaged in, the slowdown goes away entirely, the agency said.
  • “The notion that there was a slowdown in global warming, or a hiatus, was based on the best information we had available at the time,” said Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Centers for Environmental Information, a NOAA unit in Asheville, N.C. “Science is always working to improve.”
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • senior climate scientists at other agencies were in no hurry to embrace NOAA’s specific adjustments. Several of them said it would take months of discussion in the scientific community to understand the data corrections and come to a consensus about whether to adopt them broadly.
  • NOAA said the improvements in its data set included the addition of a huge number of land measurements from around the world, as a result of improving international cooperation in sharing weather records. But the disappearance of the slowdown comes largely from adjustments in ocean temperatures.
  • A leading hypothesis to explain the slowdown is that natural fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean may have temporarily pulled some heat out of the atmosphere, producing a brief flattening in the long-term increase of surface temperatures.
  • Yet the temperature record is plagued by many problems: thermometers and recording practices changed through time, weather stations were moved, cities grew up around once-rural stations, and so on. Entire scientific careers are devoted to studying these issues and making corrections.
  • NOAA is one of four agencies around the world that attempts to produce a complete record of global temperatures dating to 1880. They all get similar results, showing a long-term warming of the planet that scientists have linked primarily to the burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests. A huge body of physical evidence — notably, that practically every large piece of land ice on the planet has started to melt — suggests the temperature finding is correct.
  • ocean measurements in particular are rife with difficulties.
  • Even if the warming slowdown in the early 21st century was real, there seems to be little question that it is ending. By a small margin, the global temperature hit a record in 2014, and developing weather patterns suggest that record will likely be broken by a larger margin in 2015.
Richard Monari

Yakko's Universe Song - 0 views

www.youtube.com/watch

Animaniacs Universe Song TOK

shared by Richard Monari on 23 Feb 11 - Cached
  • Richard Monari on 23 Feb 11
     
    This song, released on the Animaniacs in the 90s, first instilled in me a sense of relativity. Later on, I feel impressed that an animated show would include such material that discussed the largeness of the universe for small children. Also, it depressed me when they said "we're all really puny."
Javier E

The Twitter Trap - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...the-twitter-trap.html

social media technology community empathy meaning contemplative

shared by Javier E on 19 May 11 - No Cached
  • innovation often comes at a price. And sometimes I wonder if the price is a piece of ourselves.
  • I’m not even sure these new instruments are genuinely “social.” There is something decidedly faux about the camaraderie of Facebook, something illusory about the connectedness of Twitter.
  • Twitter is not just an ambient presence. It demands attention and response. It is the enemy of contemplation.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Basically, we are outsourcing our brains to the cloud. The upside is that this frees a lot of gray matter for important pursuits like FarmVille and “Real Housewives.” But my inner worrywart wonders whether the new technologies overtaking us may be eroding characteristics that are essentially human: our ability to reflect, our pursuit of meaning, genuine empathy, a sense of community connected by something deeper than snark or political affinity.
  • In an actual discussion, the marshaling of information is cumulative, complication is acknowledged, sometimes persuasion occurs. In a Twitter discussion, opinions and our tolerance for others’ opinions are stunted. Whether or not Twitter makes you stupid, it certainly makes some smart people sound stupid.
  • The shortcomings of social media would not bother me awfully if I did not suspect that Facebook friendship and Twitter chatter are displacing real rapport and real conversation, just as Gutenberg’s device displaced remembering. The things we may be unlearning, tweet by tweet — complexity, acuity, patience, wisdom, intimacy — are things that matter.
  • there is a wistful passage about the high-school cohort my daughter is about to join. Wolitzer describes them this way: “The generation that had information, but no context. Butter, but no bread. Craving, but no longing.”
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