Deep Dive: A questionable iOS feature; US Disease Burden from plastics; interesting recent articles
—- These are ideas, articles, news and commentary I found interesting. In general, I write ideas I hope will help me and perhaps others live better in the world. As such, I will usually avoid politics, science, and news in that area.
An iOS “feature” Apple (and you) may want to rethink. Not all features are created equal. Jake Peterson posted an article on Gadget Hacks that you might want to review if you own an iPhone. I won’t steal his thunder but you might have noticed your iPhone has some unusual behavior. It’s intended to help you. Indeed, it could. But, it’s just as likely that - after you’re boss sends you a text questioning something you did - you may inadvertently reply leaving some choice words for them. Go there, read the post, understand why your phone is doing this unusual behavior, and fix it.
Chemicals Used in Plastic Materials: An Estimate of the Attributable Disease Burden and Costs in the United States - (I’m not sure if this is paywalled but you can see a nice summary of this article on Medscape. ) I worry a lot about the role of science in a society where truth is determined by who wins an arm wrestling match. Or, any other contest (money, “likes”, academic recognition, status, national office, loudest voice, threats, or trolling). In that society, truth is only and finally determined by the havoc, loss, and pain resulting from failure to pay attention. So, any studies implying society would benefit by changing social norms raises my concern. Some segments of the population see conspiracies at every turn, especially since COVID. Anytime scientific circles publish studies about threats to the environment, public health, and social behaviors, the “scientists as doomsayers” go up. In fairness and in my opinion, the halls of academia have brought some of this on themselves. The methods of science are lost on modern society.
Moreover, academia has given the impression that it can explain everything, promoting a distinctly materialistic view of all things. In the modern scientific world, there is often no place for faith, for what cannot be seen and quantified. All those outside the sterile and hallowed halls of academia can’t possibly understand what’s going: it’s too complicated. In fairness, thanks to the erosion of education in the West and our failure to understand the reason to educate, the academics are also correct. Under the right wing regime everyone is free to create their own science, essentially sorcery.
Only dialogue and understanding can fix our current dilemma. The Doctors ( the science types) and the Farmers (the common types) must sit and patiently eat at the same table, casually sharing what each of them know, releasing their judgements and assumptions about the answers of the other. Ms. Farmer. Could you please pass the mustard? And, while you’re at it, could you tell me again about that trick your dog does? I think that’s amazing. I just can’t make sense about how a dog could possibly do that. It requires some human characteristics that we just don’t see in the lab. Followed by: Here’s the mustard. You know, when I see my dog do that, it surprises me, too. How do dogs make sense of the world? So, scientists are doing studies on these kinds of things? How does that work? These are the kinds of conversations we need. Science must always be guided by the spirit of inquiry not its pre-suppositions. Science must be willing to examine its positions. It must also be telling us - in ways we understand - how it works. In short, science must tell a believable story.
New articles I added to my Zotero Library
- Doing no harm in mindfulness-based programs: Conceptual issues and empirical findings
- The Magnificent, Mysterious, Wild, Connected and Interconnected Brain - Mindful - the short version? Think twice before trusting the word neuro in anything.
- A Brief Compassion Focused Therapy Intervention Can Increase Moral Expansiveness: A Randomized Controlled Trial- I don’t have a lot of time to read this article right now but the title and abstract are interesting. Here’s the abstract: This study investigated whether training in compassion can broaden individuals’ moral circles. In total, 102 participants, including 87 females, took part in a brief seminar on Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), which is a psychological intervention aimed at cultivating greater levels of compassion.