February Brain Dump

Some cool stuff to check out when you have some time.

Hey all. Here’s your periodic treasure trove of cool, funny, strange, inspiring, and/or bizarre stuff that’s come to my attention recently and now I’m bringing it to yours. Hope you get a kick out of it.

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South Park on “sex addiction” and the government’s urgent response. Says it all.

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This is an excellent summary of how misogynistic bias has leaked deep into evolutionary theorizing. Probably the angriest critiques of Sex at Dawn came from people who were offended that we dared to suggest that women were every bit as sexual as men, in that our species is, by nature, omnigamous — not just men. Wow, did that piss them off! https://www.wired.com/story/sexist-pseudoscience-biology/

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One of the problems with the way health information is conveyed to people is that the conveyors tend to focus on personal-level issues (Do you exercise enough? What’s your BMI? Do you drink?) and ignore systemic issues (industrialized food production, chemicals in packaging, contaminants in water and air, etc.). It’s like making a big deal about obligatory recycling as a way of diverting attention from the plastic manufacturers and packaging companies. This article, for example, shows that poor air quality causes more deaths than cigarettes or alcohol.

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Your periodic reminder that this is one of the greatest devices ever invented.