Karen B. London on nectar robbing and its effects on pollination mutualisms
Posted 21 Feb 2012 / 0Arizona Daily Sun “Birds, bees, flowers and robbers“
Philip Kitcher suggests that “ethics” is a crucial human cultural technology
Posted 21 Feb 2012 / 0Philip Kitcher on the Australian Broadcasting Company “Our Ethical Progress Hangs on Knowing Our Ethical Past” Although this is just a hypothesis, it is a really interesting one. I like the idea that “cultural tinkering” with ethical rules was necessary to find sets that led to stable social collaboration. This makes studying the commonalities as Read More
Frans de Waal delivers counterpunch to inherent nastiness at AAAS meeting
Posted 21 Feb 2012 / 0ABC Brisbane “We’re not naturally nasty, says scientist” Google News “Science overturns view of humans as naturally ‘nasty’“
Daniel Levitin on how emotion can be manipulated by music
Posted 18 Feb 2012 / 0On the Media “How Music Conveys Emotion” For those who have read This is Your Brain on Music, this is standard Daniel Levitin stuff. In the context of Adele’s Grammy-winning song “Someone Like You”, Levitin introduces the idea that we want music to “surprise us, but not too much”. We enjoy music that provides unexpected change, and Read More
Elsevier under counter-attack from intrepid academics
Posted 18 Feb 2012 / 0On The Media “Trouble for Elsevier, The Leading Academic Publisher” http://thecostofknowledge.com/
Olmec stone mask highlights the convergent evolution of global cultures
Posted 17 Feb 2012 / 0WNYC The Leonard Lopate Show “Olmec Stone Mask“
How do American political norms affect the stability of international relations?
Posted 17 Feb 2012 / 0The Takeaway “Robert Kagan on America’s Global Influence” What I find really interesting about this piece is its implications for multilevel selection. Robert Kagan implies that American values have reduced competition at the very highest level, that of whole countries. What is it about American values that might lead to this stability?
Are there musical conventions that evoke particular emotions, and if so, why did these evolve?
Posted 13 Feb 2012 / 0All Things Considered “The Ballad Of The Tearful: Why Some Songs Make You Cry“
Wall Street Journal editorial questions the need to worry about climate change
Posted 09 Feb 2012 / 0The Wall Street Journal “No Need to Panic About Global Warming” This op-ed is interesting to me politically but not all that interesting scientifically. You can see where these scientists are going with this in the second paragraph, where they correctly suggest that it is weird for a scientific organization to say that any evidence Read More
Free Stanford online course provides all the learning (but none of the credits)
Posted 05 Feb 2012 / 0Stanford Engineering Everywhere All Tech Considered “Stanford Takes Online Schooling To The Next Academic Level” PhysOrg.com “Stanford Artificial Intelligence course draws avalanche of sign-ups” What is interesting to me about this model is how much chaos it creates in the world of learning. You can get the same quality coursework as elite Stanford students, including taking all Read More