Carl Zimmer has an interesting article on the biology of smell. It is truly remarkable how our noses can detect the presence of a tiny amount of one type of molecule in the vast expanse of other molecules.
He first describes the process by which we register the presence of a smelly molecule. [Read more…]
The Daily Show gives a summary of all the assurances we were given about what the NSA was doing that turn out to have been false. [Read more…]
Soon after the Satanists announced their intention to put up a monument next to the Ten Commandments on the Oklahoma Capitol grounds, Hindus have come forward saying that they too want to have their religion acknowledged. [Read more…]
The Washington Post has yet another article based on Edward Snowden’s documents revealing yet greater expansion in the US and UK spying apparatus. [Read more…]
So Time magazine has chosen Pope Francis as its Person of the Year. I can’t say that I am surprised. It is just the kind of choice they like, that will generate interest and perhaps hits and sells magazines, but not arouse any great controversy. [Read more…]
I try to see the silver lining in clouds, the bright side to every dark piece of news. One of the incidental benefits of the NSA revelations that it had plans to use the online viewing of adult online content as a means of discrediting people is that as more and more people are revealed as watching such content, it will reduce the stigma it once had. [Read more…]
When situations change, people tend to react to it based on whether their personal situation changed for the better or worse than what it was before, rather than where they stand with respect to other people. So for example, during the time of the financial downturn that began in 2007, we had the spectacle of people working in investment banks lashing out angrily because their usual hefty bonuses had been reduced, and we heard complaints from them about how hard it was to live on incomes of $250,000 or more (private schools and live-in help and summer homes cost so much) and thus how unfair it was to increase taxes on them. From their point of view, a lowering of income was an intolerable hardship even if they still were in the top 2% of income earners in the country and extremely well off according to any objective measures. [Read more…]
Role reversal can be a useful gauge of when something is unfair, but not always, and it has to be used judiciously. Take the case of racism. One occasionally hears complaints that minorities or people of color can say things that would be condemned as racist if others did it, and this is labeled as a form of ‘reverse racism’. [Read more…]
There has been an increased interest in protecting people’s privacy online. But what seems to be driving some of the push is not a fear of the NSA grabbing people’s communications in the wake of the NSA revelations or of hiding wrongdoing but just the desire to not have a permanent record on the internet of one’s messages. [Read more…]
Much attention has been focused on the internal battles that risk tearing the Republican party apart. But Alex Pareene points out that there is a battle within the Democratic party as well in which left-wing activists are trying to steer it away from its traditional Wall-Street friendly approach, represented by groups like the Third Way that are friendly to CEO’s and Wall street and pour money into candidates they like, such as Cory Booker. [Read more…]