Why Thinking Like a Scientist Is Good for You. In a rapidly changing world, it’s important to be able to adapt and change rather than stubbornly adhering to old ideas and opinions.
This was one of the lessons of 2020, a year that forced us to question many of our assumptions about what behaviors are safe, how work and school can be conducted, and how we connect with others. “In a changing world, you have to be willing and able to change your mind. How dark patterns in web design trick you into saying yes. If you’re an Instagram user, you may have recently seen a pop-up asking if you want the service to “use your app and website activity” to “provide a better ads experience.”
At the bottom there are two boxes: In a slightly darker shade of black than the pop-up background, you can choose to “Make ads less personalized.” A bright blue box urges users to “Make ads more personalized.” This is an example of a dark pattern: design that manipulates or heavily influences users to make certain choices. Instagram uses terms like “activity” and “personalized” instead of “tracking” and “targeting,” so the user may not realize what they’re actually giving the app permission to do. Most people don’t want Instagram and its parent company, Facebook, to know everything they do and everywhere they go. There’s now a growing movement to ban dark patterns, and that may well lead to consumer protection laws and action as the Biden administration’s technology policies and initiatives take shape.
Sen. The value of stupidity in scientific research. Science implies the confrontation of our “absolute” stupidity. Thinking Deeper. From: Investigating Intelligence. From: Investigating Intelligence What if you could take a pill that would make you more intelligent?
Science fiction? Well, maybe not. Researchers have been studying intelligence for some time now and have begun to make significant progress. But it all starts, of course, with understanding what, exactly, we mean by intelligence in the first place. In his popular book, How Intelligence Happens, University of Cambridge cognitive scientist John Duncan sets the stage by re-introducing us to the work of the influential English scientist Charles Spearman. Back in 1904, Spearman discovered that a clear correlation existed between people’s abilities to perform various tasks. Intriguingly, some tasks proved to be fairly reliable indicators of this factor almost all by themselves: Spearman applied his statistical approach to the work of Alfred Binet and others, and the modern “IQ test” was born. Covid-19: Can 'boosting' your immune system protect you? - BBC Future. “Spanish Influenza – what it is and how it should be treated,” read the reassuringly factual headline to an advert for Vick’s VapoRub back in 1918.
The text beneath included nuggets of wisdom such as “stay quiet” and “take a laxative”. Oh, and to apply their ointment liberally, of course. The 1918 flu pandemic was the most lethal in recorded history, infecting up to 500 million people (a quarter of the world’s population at the time) and killing tens of millions worldwide. But with crisis comes opportunity, and the – sometimes literal – snake oil salesmen were out in force. Political dramaturgy and character in 2012. By Jeffrey C.
Alexander In the wake of the party conventions, the shape of the Presidential contest has crystallized. Are Colors Real? How to be happy: Try saying it in another language. Part of The Happiness Issue of The Highlight, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world.
“Happiness is a butterfly which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” Screw that. The saying, sometimes attributed to the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, cautions us to not pursue happiness aggressively; we’ve got to just let it come to us. But for many of us today, such 19th century romantic musings seem quaint, if not downright un-American. The pursuit of happiness inscribed into the Declaration of Independence has grown into a national obsession. My Drive. Kilogram, redefined: Why the world’s new definition of mass is such a big achievement. On Monday, May 20 — World Metrology Day — humanity will have a new definition of the kilogram, the standard unit of mass used the world over.
The change will occur more silently than when a leap second was added to a year. It will disrupt nothing. The number on your bathroom scale isn’t going to change, for better or worse. But still, it represents an impressive achievement: a victory of humankind against the chaos that pervades the universe. When scientists met at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles in November, and voted for the change, they were realizing the founding dream of the metric system. Until now, the kilogram hasn’t been for all time. Halima Aden Becomes Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue's First Hijab-Wearing Model. The secret to scientific discoveries? Making mistakes - aplakmeyer - IST Mail.
BQ4 Knower/s - Home. Thinking Maps & Graphic Organizers. ToK.