Tag: Linkonomicon

Food Sustainability – Science for The People

Science for The People, Episode #235: Food SustainabilityFood sustainability is a hot topic. Food everything is a hot topic. The most recent episode (#235) of Science for The People (née Skeptically Speaking) is exceptionally good* on this topic. Host Desiree Schell and guests Valentine Cadieux and Emily Cassidy cover standard topics of food sustainability, but address controversial areas like GMOs and “eating local” with nuance that gets beyond simplistic arguments over whether GMOs are safe or if “eating local” is environmentally friendly.

They also raise the issue of honoring food cultures as an important element of pragmatic discussions about feeding the ever growing human population. A potential result of our desire to provide adequate calories and nutrition to impoverished areas of the globe is the destruction of traditional food cultures in poor societies, while promoting those of rich societies – a kind of benign, cultural imperialism. Continue reading “Food Sustainability – Science for The People”

Observing Science Caturday at Berkeley

Yesterday, our friends at the Berkeley Science Review published “Behind the Science: Infinite Russian Cats: Part 3 of Several” by Daniel Freeman, which appears, at first, to be nothing more than an infinite series of subtitles. It turns out, however, to be an insightful post that explains the central challenges that the Schrodinger’s Cat thought experiment addressed, illustrated with a Science Caturday joke that may already be in Brian Malow‘s set. It also does an excellent job of explaining the fundamental weirdness of quantum mechanics:

What’s interesting, though, is that Quantum Mechanics is correct, and matter absolutely can be interpreted as existing in simultaneous states, up until being “looked” at—this formalism allows us to calculate all kinds of absurdly precise quantities about atoms and molecules.  Reconciling whywe don’t ever see alive-dead cats (that is, macroscopic objects made of trillions of atoms simultaneously in more than one state) with the notion that reality does really follow these rules (that is, microscopic objects being describable as existing in simultaneous states) is actually incredibly nontrivial. Continue reading “Observing Science Caturday at Berkeley”

Troubleshooting Replication Studies (in Music)

We’ve already reposted Marie-Claire’s post on Tegan & Sara’s rendition of Walking with a Ghost, which, depending on your pedantic devotion to the definition of irony, may or may not have been ironic. Marie-Claire’s post used the comparison between Tegan & Sara’s original and The White Stripes cover to talk about replication studies in science.

On Wednesday, The Nerdist Podcast released an interview with Tegan & Sara, in which they talk about their careers, motivations, inspirations, pet giraffes, and asteroid-induced apocalypses. This reminded me of a key principle of understanding replication studies in science: you need to understand not only what the people were doing, but also the people. Continue reading “Troubleshooting Replication Studies (in Music)”

We are all heretics

heresy (her-i-se); n; An opinion or a doctrine at variance with established religious beliefs… – Free Online Dictionary

A Pew survey in the UK indicates that there is far greater diversity within religions (and the non-religious) and far greater similarity between religions (and the non-religious) than is commonly portrayed in public discussions. Take a look at the highly contentious issue of abortion limits (an issue on which religious opinion is often portrayed as monolithic):

Even the religions that are somewhat distinct are biased toward “Don’t Know” rather than an extreme position on the issue.

It is notable that the opinions of the religious folks in this survey are diverse despite the official teachings of some of these religions explicitly endorsing a “correct” answer. The members of the religion may fiercely defend their faith, but they also can feel rather free to disagree with their leadership, whether they are technically “allowed to” or not.

This is not a new revelation to anyone who has spent a substantial amount of time interacting with the actual members of many different religious denominations and creeds.

It is time we realize that the “spokespeople” for religions (and atheism) are about as representative of the people in their religion as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is for some of us in the Palmetto State.

Kenan Malik has a lot more about this survey over at his blog Pandaemonium.

*Hat tip to that Ed Yong.

Get your art on(line)

The Getty has made 1000s of images of artwork that is in the public domain available online. Like Philosophy Presenting the Seven Liberal Arts to Boethius (c. 1460-1470CE) by the “Coëtivy Master”*:

“Philosophy Presenting the Seven Liberal Arts to Boethius” (c. 1460-1470CE) by the Coetivy Master

Like other museums that share portions of their collection online, this make an experience of the Getty’s collections available for people around the world, who cannot actually visit the Getty. While the works of art themselves are in the public domain, the Getty might claim copyright over the scans/photos of the art. Instead, they have taken the step of making clear that this images are available for the public to use and adapt as we see fit.

The Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. No permission is required. – The Getty “Open Content Program”

I don’t know if letting me print 300dpi images of classic art will hurt The Getty’s bottom line due to reduced gift shop sales of postcards (not from me, the gift shops never have the pieces I want). Hopefully, The Getty’s program will inspire other museums to consider following suit.

*The results of a search for “science” were a bit disappointing, but I suspect that this is mainly due to the age of many of the works. Using a historically relevant term, like “philosophy” was much more productive.
**Hat tip to Hannah Williams.