If you want to understand trends in the history of global violence, look to data, not headlines, says Harvard psychology professor and linguist Steven Pinker. The news cycle will never be a good indicator of historical trends because no reporting occurs where problems aren't also occurring. "Because you never see a reporter standing outside a school saying, 'Here I am in front of Maplewood High School, which hasn't been shot up today,' or, 'here I am in the capital of Mozambique and there's no Civil War.'" So what does the data show?
24 December 2016
Motherboard: Information Won't Make Us Immortal
In the blogosphere, a curious notion is spreading and gaining momentum: namely, the idea that information is the new soul—a kind of Soul 2.0. Something over and above the nitty gritty of the brute matter. Something better. Information is taken to be something different from matter and yet real. This view is becoming the metaphysical undertone of many state-of-the-art technological breakthroughs and commonly-accepted opinions. The view has been propelled by flamboyant declarations of savants and entrepreneurs–the ubiquitous Elon Musk, the futurist Ray Kurzweil, bold entrepreneurs like Martine Rothblatt–let alone the impact of movies–from the classic Wachowski’s Matrix trilogy to the upcoming Rupert Sanders’ adaptation of Ghost in the Shell (2017)–and countless sci-fi novels. [...]
The philosopher Luciano Floridi suggests that we live in an infosphere made of information that is getting more real than the world of objects. Several philosophers have wondered whether the universe might ultimately be non-material—a notion recapped by John Archibald Wheeler’s motto “It from bit." [...]
It is only a sad irony that the number of serious injuries and deaths in which the victims gets either wounded or killed to take a selfie is increasing every year. The craving to upload ourselves into the collective and immaterial cloud is so strong that many individuals seem ready to risk their lives to do so. Yet, this is only the logical consequence of conceiving the digital version of themselves as important as the original, or maybe even more, since it will not decay and perish. The digital version of ourselves, a sort of digital version of Dorian Gray’s painting, will remain forever young and beautiful. In a sense, death-by-selfie could be seen as a form of proto-martyrdom to the dream of a fully digital self.
National Geographic: The Legality of Gender Change
Over a third of countries allow a gender change (to male, female, or another) on documents such as passports. Researchers have only begun to document this fast-changing legal topic.
Al Jazeera: UNSC to vote on ending Israeli settlement activity
The United Nations Security Council is due to vote on a draft resolution that would demand Israel "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem".
Egypt circulated the draft late on Wednesday and a vote was scheduled for 3pm (20:00 GMT) on Thursday.
Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and seen as major stumbling block to peace efforts as they are built on Palestinian land occupied by Israel. [...]
Trump has signalled that he would support Israel in a number of critical areas and not pressure it to engage in talks with the Palestinians.
Obama's administration, however, has been highly critical of Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In October, the US joined the European Union, the UN and Russia in calling for a halt to the settlements in a report released by the so-called diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East.
Atlas Obscura: Why Some Christians Are Forsaking Christmas
Of course, there are millions of people who will not be celebrating Christmas, from followers of other faiths to atheists. Among these people, however, there is one particular group you would not have expected to find: fundamentalist Christians. [...]
It is difficult to say what percentage of Christians shares this view of Christmas, but blog posts and comments on Christian websites show that the sentiments can be strong. Rejection of the holiday is also an official doctrine followed by several churches, including Jehovah’s Witnesses and members of the Restored Church of God.
Why would any Christian be against the celebration of the birth of Christ? The answer lies in interpretations of the Bible, and a rejection of the pagan origins of the holiday. One of the main arguments against Christmas is that early Jews and Christians did not celebrate birthdays. Pagans, on the other hand, believed that on the day of one’s birth one was more vulnerable to spirits, so they celebrated with rituals such as wishing a good day, lighting candles, and eating cake—all of which were believed to help in warding off bad spirits. [...]
December 25 has long been a significant date, though. Occurring four days after the winter solstice, it marks the dawn of longer days and more sunlight. This has afforded it a special place in the hearts of people in several civilizations, including the Romans, who used to celebrate the feast of Saturnalia in honor of the god Saturn. This feast was surrounded by a spirit of joy, as families would gather together and present gifts to children.
Atlas Obscura: Odessa Catacombs
They are not being delusional, for underneath their houses run some 2,500 kilometers of catacombs, carved into the limestone that the city is built upon. (To get a sense of how much tunnel system that really is, it is only 2138 kilometers from Odessa to Paris.)
The date of the earliest catacombs in Odessa is difficult to determine (as they were all widened at a later date) but they likely date back to the 1600s if not farther. However, the catacombs began to truly grow into their astonishing, labyrinthian form in the early 1800s when the limestone quarried from them was used to build much of the city. [...]
Today there is an entire Ukrainian subculture of catacomb explorers with dozens of semiprofessional groups, often quite competitive, exploring the catacombs. They go on multi-day underground treks, known as expeditions, to document and map the system. Should someone get lost in the catacombs, (as happens every couple of years) these groups put aside their differences and mount large search expeditions. They have rescued a number of children who have wandered into the catacombs. [...]
On January 1st 2005, some Odessa teens decided to spend New Year’s night partying in the catacombs. However, in the drunken revelry a member of the group, a girl named Masha, became separated and lost in the catacombs. She spent three days wandering in the freezing cold and pitch black before she died of dehydration. It took two years before the police were able to locate her body and retrieve it from the catacombs.
Slate: What Does Lesbian Mean in 2016?
In the mid-1990s, around 140 feminist bookstores were in operation. They varied in size, inventory, and structure—some were collectives, some community-based, some had a single owner—but all were queer-friendly spaces for people of all ages. Now most are but a memory. Only a dozen or so survive—mostly thanks to a loose affiliation with local colleges, “side lines” like jewelry and labyris-shaped tchotchkes becoming the store’s main focus, or a reliance on volunteer labor. As someone who experienced all the benefits of the feminist bookstore movement, this breaks my heart. The halcyon world of my own lesbian acculturation seems more distant by the day—and shuttered bookstores aren’t the only symptom.
In recent years, lesbian—the identity, the community, the spaces and sensibilities organized under the word’s banner—seems to have fallen on hard times. According to one sociologist, 103 lesbian-identified bars have closed across the United States in the past decade or so. Younger women who love women are choosing the label queer or espousing some notion of sexual fluidity at higher rates. Radical feminist thinking, historically led by lesbians, has come under criticism in some cases as being transphobic or otherwise outmoded. Butch/femme gender dynamics are evolving, with a growing sense of porousness between butch and transmasculine identities. Although aspects of classical gay male culture (RuPaul’s Drag Race, app-based cruising, campy humor) have worked their way into the mainstream for better or worse, lesbian culture—if such a thing still exists—can feel as opaque to outsiders as ever.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)