"The significance of man is that he is insignificant and is aware of it." - Carl Becker

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'More to quit' in drug advice row - "The UK's chief drugs adviser is predicting there will be resignations after he was forced to quit for criticising government policy... The professor most recently criticised the decision to reclassify cannabis to Class B from C... He told the BBC he stood by his claim that cannabis should not be a Class B drug, based on its effects. He described his sacking as an example of the government's "Luddite attitude" towards science and accused Gordon Brown of making "irrational" remarks about the dangers of cannabis... The professor said smoking cannabis created only a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness. In the past, Prof Nutt has also claimed that taking ecstasy is no more dangerous than riding a horse... "It is disturbing if an independent scientist should be removed for reporting sound scientific advice""
Addendum: Science chief backs cannabis view - "The UK government's chief science adviser has told BBC News that he supports the former chief drugs adviser's scientific view on cannabis"

Bering in Mind: Are there asexuals among us? On the possibility of a "fourth" sexual orientation - "Yet many asexuals are also perfectly willing to have sex if it satisfies their sexual partners; it’s not awkward or painful for them but rather, like making toast or emptying the trash, they just don’t personally derive pleasure from the act... while many asexuals are virgins, others are ironically even more experienced than your traditionally sexual friends... the only good way to solve the riddle is also a bit unsavory. But unless psychological scientists ever gather a group of willing, self-identified asexuals and, systematically and under controlled conditions, expose them to an array of erotic stimuli while measuring their physical arousal (penile erection or vaginal lubrication), the truth of the matter will lie forever hidden away in the asexual's pants"

Secrets of the Phallus: Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? - "In a series of studies published in a 2003 issue of the journal Evolution & Human Behavior, Gallup and a team of his students put the “semen displacement hypothesis” to the test using artificial genitalia of different shapes and sizes. They even concocted several batches of realistic seminal fluid. Findings from the study may not have “proved” the semen displacement hypothesis, but it certainly confirmed its principal points and made a believer out of most readers"

Art Wars: Hong Kong vs. Singapore - "Hong Kong also has another advantage: a livelier local artists scene. "Singapore is very planned," Mr. Tan says, and in the long run, that can mean missing something that "can happen if things are allowed to grow organically... while Hong Kong's overall arts scene has improved in recent times and draws such international attractions as the Chanel Mobile Art show, much of the focus, unlike Singapore's more diverse regional offerings, is on Chinese-oriented art and antiques displays"

Making the Grade Isn't About Race. It's About Parents - "Both had hit upon an essential difference between the kids who make it in school and those who don't: parents. My students knew intuitively that the reason they were lagging academically had nothing to do with race, which is the too-handy explanation for the achievement gap... They knew that excuses about a lack of resources and access just didn't wash at the new, state-of-the-art, $100 million T.C. Williams, where every student is given a laptop... Achievement gaps don't break down neatly along racial lines... Community activists and school administrators at T.C. Williams or around the country... cast the difference between kids who are succeeding in school and those who are not in terms of race and seem obsessed with what they call "the gap" between the test scores of white and black students... Administrators focused solely on race are stigmatizing black students. At the same time, they are encouraging the easy excuse that the kids who are not excelling are victims, as well as the idea that once schools stop being racist and raise expectations, these low achievers will suddenly blossom"

Tiny banner ads attached to flies generate buzz

stuff white people do: wonder where to start when they join the fight against racism - "The definition of racism that you probably have... "prejudice against someone based on their skin color or ethnicity" is NOT the definition that's commonly used in anti-racist circles [but] the accepted sociological definition... commonly used in academic research: "racism is prejudice plus power"... Only white people can be racist, because only white people have institutional power.... If you start talking about "reverse racism" you're going to either get insulted or laughed at, because it isn't possible under that definition; PoC don't have the power in North America, so by definition, they can't be racist. Crying "reverse racism!" is like waving a Clueless White Person Badge around... Pointing out that the colloquial definition is how Webster's Dictionary defines racism is not going to make anti-racists [admit that they're engaging in doublespeak]... [Do not use your "privilege"] to hurt PoC inadvertently (for example, by going into a PoC "safe space" and taking over the conversation)... Accept that you will make mistakes and you will show your privileged ass and people will get upset at you about it... Just make a sincere apology, figure out your mistake, and keep learning. (If you don't know how to make a sincere apology, it goes like this: "I'm sorry I hurt you by saying XYZ." Statements like "I'm sorry I did XYZ, but [offer excuse here]" or "I'm sorry if I upset you" or "I'm sorry you found my statements offensive" are not sincere apologies and they won't help the situation.)"
Translation: Due to Original Sin, white people are evil and if you point out the People of Colour are wrong (even if they are), you're being "racist" and "hurting" people. However, if you're accused of upsetting People of Colour, suck it up.

Even Babies Discriminate: A NurtureShock Excerpt - "Hardly any of these white parents had ever talked to their children directly about race... They wanted their children to grow up colorblind. But... they weren't colorblind at all. Asked how many white people are mean, these children commonly answered, "Almost none." Asked how many blacks are mean, many answered, "Some," or "A lot." Even kids who attended diverse schools answered the questions this way... For decades, it was assumed that children see race only when society points it out to them. However, child-development researchers have increasingly begun to question that presumption... The unfortunate twist of diverse schools is that they don't necessarily lead to more cross-race relationships. Often it's the opposite... the more diverse the school, the more the kids self-segregate by race and ethnicity within the school, and thus the likelihood that any two kids of different races have a friendship goes down... Harris-Britt warns that frequent predictions of future discrimination ironically become as destructive as experiences of actual discrimination: "If you overfocus on those types of events, you give the children the message that the world is going to be hostile—you're just not valued and that's just the way the world is.""
Ingroup/outgroup discrimination is hardly surprising. It is only surprising that people think it wouldn't exist without an evil society.