The Guardian - on research and evidence

In this Guardian piece, questions are raised about recent claims made regarding scientific evidence and the impact of the media. A good discussion of HOW we know.

No, research does not say that ‘iPads and smartphones may damage toddlers’ brains’

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Guardian - Allow me to womansplain the problem with gendered language

Image
In this opinion column, journalist Arwa Mahdawi explores the limitations of gendered language such as mansplaining  and girlboss. These neologisms seem to have been created to illustrate a criticism of gendered language, but end up having the reverse effect. Mahdawi explores how we create language to subvert the sexism within current phrases, titles or expressions, but in the end Mahdawi argues that  " It doesn’t tear down the sexism encoded in language, it reinforces it." Sophia Amoruso, who popularised the term girlboss, at the premiere of Netflix’s Girlboss TV show. The problem with gendered language
Read more

BBC Travel - The language at the end of the Earth

Image
"To speak our language is to preserve who we are. It is the most profound expression of our Rapa Nui and Polynesian spirit.”  - Rapa Nui linguist Viki Haoa Cardinali Easter Island remains a remote island quite isolated from the world around it and as it was formed less than a million years ago, it remains one of the youngest inhabited areas of the world.  "Over centuries, Polynesian explorers braved the Pacific Ocean in search of new worlds. By 1200 AD, settlers had reached Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, bringing crops, customs and language with them.... Clues to the complex society that emerged on Rapa Nui can be found everywhere; the island’s volcanic landscape boasts one of the richest collections of rock art in Polynesia. But barely a trace remains of what is Rapa Nui’s most tantalising cultural legacy: a mysterious form of writing called Rongorongo." Efforts to decode the language have been met with frustration and failure.  Since the ...
Read more

CBC - How a psychiatry professor accidentally discovered he was a psychopath

Image
No one told James Fallon he was a psychopath.  Or maybe they had. When he was young, he'd heard again and again from people in positions of authority – a priest, a professor, a friend's father – that there was something off about him. Something dark that they couldn't quite name. But Fallon brushed it off each time. Many years later, as a professor of psychiatry at the medical school of the University of California, Irvine, Fallon discovered his psychopathic mind for himself.  James Fallon, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, describes himself as a ‘pro-social’ psychopath. (Daniel Anderson) A witty and light look at one man's path to self-discovery and self-control, one that also delves into the nature versus nurture debate , looking at whether   we are a product of our environments. Are we subject to imbalance due to our biological makeup?  Where do the lines between the natural sciences and the human sciences blur...
Read more