Found this tweet via Martin Robinson, and I’m flabbergasted: In 1977, media prophet Marshall McLuhan discussed CIA and FBI surveillance, and then spun it into one of the most mind-bending comments on identity in the digital age I've ever heard. pic.twitter.com/gDWVJa4Anh — Benjamin Carlson (@bfcarlson) May 10, 2023
Found this study via this tweet: "Global academic freedom has declined over the past decade for the first time in the last century… the decline of academic freedom has resulted in a global loss quantifiable with at least 4% fewer patents filed and 5.9% fewer patent citations." https://t.co/JOda3RfyPt pic.twitter.com/2R04r0PKKS — Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) May 19,… Read More Depressing pre-print on “Academic freedom and innovation”
Sometimes history can allow you to see an evolution. Take Eastern Europe: a whole society went from living in the Soviet Union to living in a very different way. A new study describes how this potentially has influenced what they call the ‘thinking styles’ of the Romanian population. What are the key takeaways: Researchers studied… Read More Is there a developmental window for learning to see different perspectives?
The title of this post is a pun for the 2 or 3 persons who didn’t get it, but this study that was published in July may come as a surprise to many as it contradicts popular thinking about beliefs in conspiracy theories, suggesting that such beliefs may not have actually increased over time. The… Read More Are they trying to hide something? “Beliefs in conspiracy theories may not be increasing”
Sometimes it seems that it has become dangerous to post something about vaccines, but this study is about an important side-effect: Receiving at least one vaccine dose was associated with statistically significant declines in multiple psychological distress factors. From the press release: Getting vaccinated for COVID-19 measurably improved the psychological well-being of participants in the… Read More An important side-effect of vaccines: boosting mental health along with immunity
When people think about the side effects of vaccines, they probably think about fever, pain, being tired,… But a new study looked at other secondary effects of vaccination: what is the effect of vaccination on anxiety and depression, the other pandemic happening because of the coronavirus: In this paper, we use data from a national… Read More Interesting NBER working paper: how Covid vaccines help fight anxiety
Sleep and exercise have been two important worries about children for the past few decades, for sure in relation to obesity. New research from the University of South Australia shows that the same decline in body mass index may be achieved by either extra sleep or extra exercise with some extra insights! From the press… Read More What’s better for children: sleep or exercise?
As I child I watched way too much television. Besides helping me learn to speak and write a personal kind of English, what has been the result? A new report assesses the values emphasized by television programs popular with tweens over each decade from 1967 to 2017, charting how 16 values have waxed and waned… Read More How has television been shaping the values of our children?
This is the presentation I used in the webinar I gave for the fine people of the EU-CONEXUS-project. In this talk, I discuss the fake, lesser important, and the real crises young people experience today.
There is more irony in this image than in the song Ironic by Alanis Morissette (H/T Jona Lendering).
From experience to meaning... 