"Charleston and the vast middle zone of judgment"

"Since we already know that the policy response to this attack will be “nothing,” it is worth considering whether there are non-governmental actions that can reduce the likelihood of this kind of terrorist action from happening again...

My Washington Post colleague Karen Attiahwrote that this murderer “violently shatters one particularly entrenched myth that society holds about racism — that today’s millennials are more tolerant than their parents, and that racism will magically die out as previous generations pass on.” But Tyler’s quote suggests a slightly different problem — some millennials are so tolerant and non-judgmental that they will not even weigh in when a friend spouts racist views."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/06/19/charleston-and-the-vast-middle-zone-of-judgment/

Is that it? Or does ANYONE know what to do when a friend starts to indicate violent racism? Literally, think of a person in your life who you know and like and imagine of they started revealing this side of themselves. Denial or running away come to mind. Those are bad options, but they are the only obvious ones in a society that doesn't have any other tools for dealing with prejudice.

We need more tools.
(credit to KE, I think)

"Map of Modern Science"

"A whistle-stop journey through modern science from the Science, Reason & Critical Thinking blog"

http://www.crispian.net/CrispiansScienceMap.html

A “subway map” of the history of science – starting at pre-modern science and ending in stops in the scientific fields of the 21^st century. It’s fun to look and think about how different fields overlapped to become what we have today; secretly peeved it doesn’t have neuroscience but fine whatever.

“How to Get People to Pitch In”

“What does consistently work may be surprising: interventions based not on money, but on leveraging social concerns.

There are two ways to do this, both building on people’s desire for others to think highly of them. One is to make people’s cooperative (or selfish) choices more observable to others, like neighbors or co-workers. The second works in the opposite direction, providing people with information about how others around them are behaving (this is called a “descriptive social norm”).

To see how this might work, consider the California drought. The state could set up a website where homeowners pledge publicly to reduce their water consumption by 15 percent. Those who do would get a lawn sign that would say something like, “My lawn is yellow because I took a pledge to help California. Join me at yellowlawns.ca.gov.”

And what about norms? Innovative companies and public utilities are already on the case. A San Francisco-based firm, WaterSmart Software, sends mailers that allow homeowners to compare their water use to their neighbors’. Estimates suggest that these mailers reduce water use by 2 to 5 percent — the same as a 10 percent price increase.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/opinion/sunday/how-to-get-people-to-pitch-in.html?rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article

I love “yellowlawns.ca.gov” – or, more likely, scrubbydesertareainfrontofmyhouse.ca.gov.

Also, this is a reminder that capitalism is an artificial system of incentives and resource distribution, and that social rules are the real situation.

“You are when you eat: A new study finds that limiting flies to specific eating hours protected their hearts against aging”

“In a new study published today in Science, researchers at San Diego State University and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies found that by limiting the time span during which fruit flies could eat, they could prevent aging- and diet-related heart problems. The researchers also discovered that genes responsible for the body's circadian rhythm are integral to this process, but they're not yet sure how.

Previous research has found that people who tend to eat later in the day and into the night have a higher chance of developing heart disease than people who cut off their food consumption earlier...

Next, the researchers sequenced the RNA of the flies at various points in the experiment to find which of their genes had changed as a result of time-restricted feeding. They identified three genetic pathways that appear to be involved: the TCP-1 ring complex chaperonin, which helps proteins fold; mitochondrial electron transport chain complexes (mETC); and a suite of genes responsible for the body's circadian rhythm.

Melkani and Gill repeated their experiments using mutant strains of flies with nonfunctional versions of the TCP-1 and circadian rhythm genes. In these flies, time-restricted feeding granted no health benefits, strengthening the case that these genetic pathways play key roles.”

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-03/sdsu-yaw031115.php

There is also a bunch of stuff about regulation of circadian rhythm by meal times. Like, when you are traveling between time zones and want to adjust quickly, be sure to eat meals at the normal time for that time zone.

"Crowdfunding Greece's debt"

"There are incentives though. A €3 donation will get you a postcard of Alexis Tsipras, apparently.

At the other end of the scale, a €1 million donation wins you the eternal gratitude of the Greek people.

(It was not certain whether Mr Feeny was in a position to deliver these prizes.)

It's a nice thought, but unlikely to be a magic debt bullet. At the time of writing, €18,577 has been donated in a day, by 1,326 charity-minded people."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33326534

Adorbs. Also, economies are terrifying.
(Credit to WS)

“From soda bans to bike lanes: Which 'natural experiments' really reduce obesity?”

“Diet & Food Policy Changes

Changes with strong impacts were ones that improved the nutritional quality of foods:

• Trans-fat bans
• Sugary food and beverage availability limits
• Higher-fat food availability limits

Changes that had smaller or no impacts in the research to date included:

• Nutritional information requirements
• Supermarkets built in underserved areas

Physical Activity Focused Changes

Changes with stronger impacts included:

• Active transportation infrastructure improvements
• Changes studied after longer-term follow-up periods

More research is needed to look at physical activity effects (not just use of amenities) for built environment changes including:

• Park improvements
• Trails
• Active transportation infrastructure

The researchers noted that a common shortcoming in many studies is that they only measured process outcomes such as food purchases or use of bike/transit infrastructure, rather than measuring the desired health outcomes, such as weight loss.”

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-03/du-fsb032015.php

“Why we like to watch sad films. The pleasure of being moved in aesthetic experiences”

“This article investigates an age-old, puzzling question: how can a negatively valenced emotion such as sadness go together with aesthetic liking and even pleasure? We propose that an answer to this question must take into account the feeling of being moved, a complex emotional state that plays a major role in the history of poetics and aesthetics and has recently begun to attract interest in psychological research. We conducted a study in an actual cinema using film clips as sadness-eliciting stimuli. In total, 76 participants watched 38 clips that presented variations of the same sad scenario: a character or a group of characters learns about the death of a close person. The study revealed a highly significant positive correlation between sadness and enjoyment. However, this correlation was almost fully mediated by the feeling of being moved. Hence sadness primarily functions as a contributor to and intensifier of the emotional state of being moved. Furthermore, the study revealed that being moved is a positive term in two senses. First, it refers to an overall positive feeling. Second, it indicates a positive value judgment regarding the power of a film to elicit such feelings. Therefore, we conclude that it is the overall positive feeling of being moved itself that recipients of sad films and other forms of art enjoy-we simply like to be moved. Taken together, our findings are significant for investigations of the so-called 'sad-film paradox' and the aesthetic pleasure associated with negative emotions more generally.”

http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayrecord&uid=2014-07164-001

Randomly stumbled upon this.

I wonder if we have a fundamentally flawed understanding of positive and negative emotional states; happiness is not THE positive emotional state; sadness is not the negative one. What are the components of feeling ‘good’; feeling ‘bad’?