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POPSPsychology, Sociology most politically correct fields The first thing that Simmons does in the study with the database — which covers a range of disciplines and institution types — is to identify a politically correct cohort, reflecting largely common views on a set of issues that are seen as defining political correctness. He finds a set of issues that produce this cohort. The views are the belief that gender gaps in math and science fields are largely due to discrimination; support for affirmative action; and belief that discrimination is a key cause of racial inequities in American society. Generally, members of this cohort see race and gender as fundamental — and share that belief much more than beliefs about the curriculum or scholarship, such that the study says that “multiculturalism trumps postmodernism.” Via Tyler Cowen
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POPS"Good Faith" Torture Deemed OK Interesting that they set a subjective standard for torture: viz., if the interrogator thought in "good faith" that the method wouldn't cause long-term mental harm. Note that it didn't require that the method would probably cause long-term mental harm, only that the interrogator didn't believe it would. By defining torture subjectively, the Bush administration: 1. Consigned the definition of torture to belief, thereby making it impossible to adjudicate by objective measures. 2. Totally marginalized the detainee's likely reaction to the method and, thereby, nullified the detainee's humanness and recognition as a rights-bearing being. This kind of sophistry one would expect of a brutal dictatorship.
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POPS What Queen Rania wants for the world Beauty and brains ..."in the West, people look at the veil as a sign of oppression or weakness. This is not true as long as a woman is wearing it because of her belief."
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POPSDinosaurs Diversified Over Time, not Suddenly During this epoch of riotous biodiversity, flowering plants, social insects, butterflies, modern groups of lizards, mammals, and possibly birds, too, all emerged. Some experts have suggested that dinosaurs were also part of the show, as so many weird fossils, such as duckbilled hadrosaurs, horned ceratopsians, pachycephalosaurs and other wonders, date from this time. But a new study, published on Wednesday in a British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, says that dinosaurs were less than a sideshow in the DNA spectacular. Researchers led by Graeme Lloyd of the University of Bristol, western England, devised a "supertree" of dinosaur evolution, patiently analyzing how more than 450 species -- about 70 percent of the known finds -- developed.
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POPSDino diversity earlier than first thought Maybe there is the idea that species including the dinosaurs were trying to deal with conditions brought about by the meteor, so many adaptations arose, but nature loves nothing more than competition, even when times are good.
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POPSMorman Christians An article that does a decent job of illustrating the differences between the Mormon faith, and Orthodox Christianity
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POPSFalse Premises I often come across people attempting to argue that atheism is some sort of a creed or even a religion. This clip touches on why this simply isn't the case. The article itself goes into much greater detail.
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POPSPoor People Are Fat and A Nation of Whiners Progressive thinking from dinosaurs? Gramm's views have not changed since the 1970's. Where are the stats? What are the solutions? Last time I looked, name calling never actually solved anything. Labling groups of impoverished people and witty adjectives for their plight might make a magazine cover, but in reality it does not make a bad situation any better. The "Al Gore Syndrome" at work agian. Talk, Talk, Talk...soluntions implemented = NONE. Perhaps he'll win the Nobel Peace Prize for his insults and remarkable discovery that "Poor People Are Fat". Pehaps if they stopped whining about us being a "Nation of Whiners" and actually started "doing" the right thing for the "Poor, Fat People" - we could get along towards a solution for the US, and Worldwide, crisis. Roll up your sleeves, Boys, and actually DO something already, will ya!!!
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POPS Blind faith brings devotees to see one-eyed Sai Baba Bangalore: It was blind belief, but people came with their eyes wide open, all for a glimpse of the one-eyed Sai Baba. A one-foot high idol of Sai Baba attracted a huge crowd as well as huge donations all through Friday, when word spread fast that Sai Baba had come to bless one and all by opening one eye on Guru Purnima, his birthday.
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POPSBook|Susana Barlow's blog A belief is an idea or a concept of the mind that one holds to for various reasons while faith on the other hand, is entirely outside the boundaries of the mind.
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POPSMAKING IT: How Chicago Shaped Obama. There was also a more general belief that, after Obama won the 2004 United States Senate primary, he ignored his South Side base. Preckwinkle said, “My view is you have to bring your constituency along with you. Granted, you have to make some tough decisions. Granted, sometimes you have to make decisions that people won’t understand or like. But it’s your obligation to explain yourself and try to do your supporters the courtesy of treating them with respect.” Ivory Mitchell, who for twenty years has been the chairman of the local ward organization in Obama’s neighborhood—considered the most important Democratic organization on the South Side—was one of Obama’s earliest backers. Today, he says, “All the work we did to help him get where he finally ended up, he didn’t seem too appreciative.” A year ago, Mitchell became a delegate for Hillary Clinton. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/21/080721fa_fact_lizza?printable=true
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POPSTo believe or not to believe? , contrasting disbelief and belief showed increased brain response in the left inferior frontal gyrus, the anterior insula and the dorsal anterior cingulate, all associated with responses to negative stimuli, pain perception and disgust. Finally, contrasting uncertainty with both belief and disbelief revealed elevated neural action in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region associated with conflict resolution. What do these results tell us? “Several psychological studies appear to support Spinoza’s conjecture that the mere comprehension of a statement entails the tacit acceptance of its being true, whereas disbelief requires a subsequent process of rejection”
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