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Brain damage linked to increased likelihood of religious fundamentalism, new study finds
  • I mean, from the abstract it looks like what the study did was localise the specific network of right hemisphere neuronal clusters that, when damaged, predict religious fundamentalism. Since they only studied patients with TBIs, they weren't testing the claim that brain damage increases the likelihood of fundamentalism. The rate of fundamentalism in the general population could, hypothetically, be higher than among TBI patients (i.e., if brain injuries actually reduce fundamentalism) and this study's insights would still hold.

  • How can I improve my communication with a friend I like?
  • Your and his age are gonna be major variables here. Conversations and relationships work very differently at different life stages.

    You sound like you're maybe a teenager? Try asking interesting questions that require some thought to answer, but still leave room for your friend to give an easy thoughtless answer if they want to. Where do you think we'll be in X years? What's something you thought you wanted but as you've gotten okay have realised you actually don't? What do you think we do now thar future generations will think is crazy? Listen to his answers and ask followup questions.

    Personally, I've always been most impressed by directness, honesty, intelligence and courage.

  • Radiohead 'Leaked' Their Own Track in 2009, Now We're Accused of Pirating It.
  • Yeah, the point that the musicians seem to be making, from the very brief quotes he shares (I haven't been following this independently), is about the efficacy of music boycotts as a tool for political change. You can object to a nation's political actions and still think that performing music for your fans in that country will make things better.

    The author just insists that Israeli government genocide is bad and that the ordinary citizens are complicit. I think the implicit logic must be: bad people should be punished, depriving them of music punishes them. While it might satisfy a craving to hurt the bad guys, I think it's much harder to claim that this would help stop the genocide.

    I think the musicians have a stronger case that actually performing would be more likely to change people's minds and improve the situation. Plus the broader benefits of keeping music and art apolitical, rather than trying to make everything in life a tool for political manipulation. I'd have actually been really interested to hear some substantive arguments about those points, but was disappointed to discover that, as you say, it was just a hit piece.

  • Radiohead 'Leaked' Their Own Track in 2009, Now We're Accused of Pirating It.
  • Wow, what a terrible article. The author doesn't engage with any of the substantive points Radiohead and Nick Cave are making, he just disparages them and insists on his obvious moral superiority. It's dressed up in some, admittedly, very nice writing, but this is just childish name calling.

    Still, interesting read. Thanks for sharing.

  • The inner circle is a dot
  • Nah, that's great because you can so easily escalate to heavy talk. Disagree with the political opinion. Insist car culture is just pointless fashion fads. Dive into the morality of reality TV.

    Either they disengage and you're free, or you get to have an actual meaningful debate instead of echoing hollow platitudes.

  • Autism
  • Scientific papers are often titled "What it's actually about: something witty." This one is about object personification and so after the colon they personify the paper itself by giving it an emotion.

  • Twenty-nine research teams analyzed the same data, and they all reached different results.
    1. the whole point of statistics is to extract subtle signals from noise, if you're getting wildly different results, the problem is you're under-powered.

    Thanks for taking the time to post these links, just letting you know you're efforts have benefited at least one person who's gonna enjoy reading this.

  • Check out this time-saving lifehack
  • You say you stand up right away because you've been jammed into your seat for hours, so I'm wondering why you didn't stand up during the flight. Then you wouldn't be jammed in for hours...