Pill Chimps Survived Data Gain Crisis
When It Comes To Sex, Chimps Need Help, Too by John Tierney (New York Times): Chimps not only use tools to find food, but they also use tools for sex. At least male chimps make noises and then drop leaves, to try and get female chimps to watch the leaf fall to the ground, and hopefully notice, as the leaf falls, the male chimp’s erection. How romantic!
Supervolcano: How Humanity Survived Its Darkest Hour by Kate Ravilious (New Scientist): Considering the title of the article and the magazine it was published in, this is a surprisingly subtle and well-written piece about the eruption of Toba 74,000 years ago, the largest eruption in the last 2 million years. The effects of which make Eyjafjallajokull look like a speck in the wind.
Why We Should Learn The Language Of Data by Clive Thompson (Wired): You know how people ask the question, “how can there be global warming when there’s so much snow?”? (not that they ask this question in Australia, except on the blogs of the far-right) The answer is mostly “because you’re statistically illiterate.” To understand the world you need to understand statistics. Unfortunately for many, this involves maths. [via]
What The Pill Gave Birth To by Michelle Goldberg (The American Prospect): Goldberg tells the history of the female contraceptive pill, and how dramatically it changed the world.
The Gain From Thomas Paine by David Nash (History Today): Thomas Paine is perhaps the only political figure in the 1800s who would still be seen as reasonably progressive today, and in a lot of ways, the arguments between Paine and Edmund Burke are not dissimilar from today’s political arguments between left and right. I suspect Burke would have phrased it slightly more eloquently than “how’s all that hopey changey stuff workin’ out for ya?” though. [via]
Time Doesn’t Actually Slow Down In A Crisis by Ed Yong (Not Exactly Rocket Science): A lot of scientific psychology confirms accepted wisdom. But then a lot of it doesn’t. But the point is testing it to find out. Anyway, turns out that we remember emotionally charged events in more detail. So it just seems like time slowed down when we think about it, because of all the detail we remember.
