(no subject)

[conuly]

Maverick scientist thinks he has discovered a magnetic sixth sense in humans

Solving a Neighborhood Mystery Reveals Forgotten African-American History

Anonymity Doesn’t Always Promote Online Aggression

Deaf teacher's quest for armed service inspires students

One Drop of Water Makes This Wonder Material Roll Itself Up

East Coast states want to tax drivers’ travel, not their gas

Remains of a mammoth uncovered near Mexico City

The Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf Life

Silk-based filtration material breaks barriers

The Blobby, Dazzling World of Insect Eggs

182 Paraprosdokians (It's not really, as there are several duplicates and some triplicates, but it's a cute list.)

Synchronized Swimming is Really Hard, and Really Weird

Pigeon foot feather genes identified

School’s Out for the Animals, Too

Study: Rotting trees caused mysterious holes in huge dunes

The discovery of infectious cancers – once thought to be rare in nature – in three different kinds of shellfish 'raises questions about the implications for cancer transmission in humans', expert says.

To Diagnose Mental Illness, Read the Brain

Few vets expelled under 'don't ask, don't tell' seek remedy

The Lopsided Geography of Wikipedia

Interviewing the Country's Preeminent Bed Bug Lawyer

Bacteria in soil affect farming and global climate

Confessions of a Payday Lender: I Felt Like a Gangster

IMF warns the US over high poverty

Income inequality in the United States

Why some of America’s richest people are living in the middle of nowhere

Underneath Five-Star Veneer, High-End Restaurant Employees Get Worked Over

DOJ's refusal to turn over code complicates child porn cases

Snapping a picture of your hotel room could help stop human trafficking

Greek crisis cuts children in care adrift

Tears of joy as rebels sign ceasefire with Colombian government

Young Colombians look ahead to a peace they've never known

NYC faked day care centers' lead water level test records

Street performance by Syrians in Lebanon opens wounds

Strangers in a strange land: Refugees face hurdles to American dream

On the road in Agadez: desperation and death along a Saharan smuggling route

Tourists pick up antibiotic-resistance genes in just two days

IS captures 900 Kurdish civilians in north Syria in 3 weeks

CIA: Islamic State's global terror capabilities are 'formidable'

Comments

[alatefeline]

Great links as always. I think that the "Read the Brain" one reveals some really problematic attitudes and unconscious biases on the part of either the scientists or the writer, though. Right there in the article it's discussing how mental illness shows up differently in different cultures, but the point is never made that what constitutes an illness instead of a neutral or positive difference is a value judgment. The same brain wiring could be construed to be an illness needing fixing or a gift by different individuals. The discussion there is solely centered on how cool and rational it is that they are finding out these facts about firing patterns of our brain cells and these possibilities for intervening to alter that pattern. There is tremendous potential to help many people in what they are finding out, but not if all the information discovered is used to center the power to talk about and understand the mind in the hands of laboratory professionals. We've seen how that goes with people's physical health - you have to have a diagnosis to get help, and your input doesn't matter, and we end up perpetually treating illness instead of promoting wellness or permitting difference. Unless the information they find is integrated into a societal context that acknowledges the negative effects of disparities in power and in access to information, everything they discover will end up as a tool to cloak discrimination in the language of science.

[conuly]

I'd like to add on to that, but I have no idea what to say other than "yeah, totally" so... yeah, totally :)

[alatefeline]

*smiles back*