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ESS, COVID-19

ESS, COVID-19

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I am reading The Selfish Gene at the moment. It’s a very good book, and beautifully written, as you would expect from Dawkins. This pair of sentences, though, stood out for their disappointing relevance to anti-vaccination, anti-mask, and otherwise anti-scientific individuals’ behavior. In the next paragraph, “ESS” means “evolutionary stable strategy”. In (too simple a summary), ESS means the strategy that evolution ‘settles upon’ which is most effective at reproducing the genes that regulate that strategy. “It is possible for…

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Is the US a first world country?

Is the US a first world country?

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Countries are often compared. Comparisons are made about wealth, about happiness, about healthcare outcomes, and about education outcomes (literacy, for example). Many people rank the United States as a developed country, because it has high rates of wealth and is “industrialized”, but in this article we will look at how the USA ranks in a lot of different areas and let you decide whether it warrants being considered a first world country: Firearm-related death rate US ranks ninth in terms…

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The filibuster

The filibuster

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I have to admit, I did not know about the filibuster’s history, nor its actual timing in the bill approval process. This video makes it very clear, and makes it very clear why it has to go:

Knowing how your gender limits you

Knowing how your gender limits you

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If you are of the belief that men and women have achieved equality, or if you are a man who believes in equality, but does not know how to make it a reality when men continue to earn more than women on average, there is an online webinar which might interest you: Josh Levs “Removing the ‘man-can’t’ myth”.

Dear Christians…

Dear Christians…

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If you believe in the Christian God, it would be evil of you not to evangelize. The alternative is to allow someone you know (and should love) to go to the hell you believe in. But what should you avoid? This article lists some of the things Christians often do, which will always fail to reach the hearts of unbelievers. Trivializing Avoid saying the following: “All you have to do is…” Those of us who do not believe there is…

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Ways you didn’t know US English and British English differed

Ways you didn’t know US English and British English differed

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Everyone knows about the differences in British and American English like the spelling of “color” versus “colour”, and the differences between word choices like “closet” versus “wardrobe” even where both the words exist in both languages. But less appreciated are the pronunciation differences of individual words. I thought it would be fun (nerdy fun) to look at the differences phonetically between English English and American English pronunciations, at least in northern New England: Tuna In the UK this is pronounced…

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Dear Christians…

Dear Christians…

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If you believe in the Christian God, it would be evil of you not to evangelize. The alternative is to allow someone you know (and should love) to go to the hell you believe in. But what should you avoid? This article lists some of the things Christians often do, which will always fail to reach the hearts of unbelievers. Trivializing Avoid saying the following: “All you have to do is…” Those of us who do not believe there is…

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