I guess many others have also experienced this: you just check in to see whether someone wrote to you on Facebook, but then, one of your friends you respect for his or her cleverness/political courage/wisdom/specialized knowledge, etc. posted something interesting. You go and read the piece. Satisfied, that your friends post interesting stuff you scroll down a bit. Oh, what's that? Another good article on a political event you are interested in...and by the time you get through a few pieces an hour has gone by, coffee time is well behind and you realize that you should be working/training/lecturing in ten minutes!
Here is a compilation of the ten links that robbed me of some time in the last couple days (and I didn't mind that they did):
1. Most interesting and one to which I could personally relate very well, thanks to two members of the family who made us go through lots of sad moments, this article about why lying causes so much harm in relationships and family is a great read. (Posted by a journalist friend.)
2. As my readers will by now surely have noticed, I'm for all things bettering human lives, be that clever policies, science, humanities, literature or other art forms. So I was particularly happy to read about the experiences that Michael Puett's classes on Chinese Philosophy provide. Read here. (Posted by a philosopher friend.)
3. On love, belonging and personality: a justly famous interview with Hannah Arendt. (Posted by a friend working on literature.)
4. I guess many have seen this joker, but I found it quite funny. How not to advertise your property. (Posted by an accountant.)
5. A conversation on freedom with some heavyweights. Especially interesting in our new era of no-privacy government policies. (Posted by a classicist.)
6. A lovely collection of mistakes made in a study published in a peer-reviewed journal. (Posted by a cognitive psychologist friend.)
7. Is open access good or not? That's not a question anymore. We have to push for it. But how? Showcasing some sad instances of trying to make a good living by betraying academic honesty and downplaying the seriousness of blind-reviews. (Posted by a neurologist.)
8. Rather sad: 2013 and your sexual orientation is still an issue. Read here. Of course since this time oil countries do it, there won't be much international pressure to stop them. (Posted by a clinician.)
This post also reminded me of the mistake many people make when they argue for the equal rights to marriage and adoption for homosexuals. So, according to some people it is okay to be a homosexual, since your sexual orientation is genetically determined. What's the problem with this argument? Well, that it does basically claim that if you are genetically determined to be gay you might be, but not in other cases. And this is not what a democrat should want. What a true democrat should want is to say that being homosexual is okay because who you have sex with and who you live with depends on your free choice.
9. A longer comic by the Oatmeal, explaining a bit didactically but still in a funny way why we shouldn't have a Columbus day. (Posted by a programmer.) On the same note: there is a post in the drawer on why it is time to change our set of heroes - both in history classes, national holidays and in public life.
10. A short video report on some new developments in robotics, that is, meet Boston Dynamics' Wildcat. (Posted by a musician.) I'm just in the process of commenting on some new reports on automated weapon system development and seeing this little gem running around made the hair on my back stand up . Wonderful and scary at the same time.
Oh, and by the way: the Nobel for Literature was won by Alice Munroe! Looking forward to read some of her stories.
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