A report on the worldwide covid pandemic as of 17:50 GMT on Saturday 23 October 2021.
Category: Sociality
When trying to solve a problem involving patterns, people think of adding but not subtracting – a bias with wide-ranging implications.
For a half century, doomsters have predicted the end of the world. On the opposite pole, climate change deniers increasingly seem psychotic. But optimists still hold sway: that human ingenuity can solve what selfsame ingenuity created. When does a cliffhanger become a tragic fall – or a last-minute miracle salvation?
Couples with a daughter are more likely to divorce than those with a son. The source of friction is dad.
2020 will mostly be remembered as the year of the covid-19 pandemic, but so much more served as a harbinger of the doom which lies ahead.
Innate subconscious processing predisposes individuals to paradigmatic worldviews.
Civilization as we know it now will collapse by 2070 and humans will be extinct by 2100 – an obvious destiny. Why is humanity’s imminent demise not widely recognized?
Responsibility diffuses among animal groups, influencing behaviors related to safety and morality.
Less than a year ago, an alarmed and alarming 16-year-old captured the world’s attention when she declared “entire ecosystems are collapsing; how dare you look away.” Then came covid-19 – and people looked away. “Everybody’s got such a short attention span,” remarked American musician Bob Dylan.
People are disposable in capitalist societies, the elderly especially so – a point which the covid-19 pandemic has highlighted.
Societal trust had much to do with how governments responded to covid-19, and how citizens reacted.
In a world beset with global problems, nations are acting selfishly, thereby accelerating humanity’s demise. Immigration illustrates.
Wars bring societies together. Plagues pull them apart.
Men have long admired grandeur of their own making. Industrialization magnified the scale which could be attempted. As the hoary proverb goes: the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Sociality is an exercise in communication. Nature inclines organisms to certain universal principles of social interchange, as researchers discovered when listening to jackasses talking.
Sexism is a problem irrespective of culture. A distinction between the genders emerges as a natural consequence of early cognitive development and upbringing.
Altruism is common in all kingdoms of life. From an evolutionary perspective, altruism arises when it confers a decided benefit to a population or individuals which practice it.
Freedom has a price. Does freedom have value?
One of the most telling indicators of future success seen in young children is impulse control. Sense of time defines the quality of our lives.
The only chance humanity has to save itself from self-extinction this century is to become more humane and better organized. It doesn’t look good.
Humans have always been migratory creatures. Since prehistory, communities empathically accepted immigrants. In post-modern times, men ridden with the mental disease of unbounded self-absorption have had no moral qualms in denying the desperate a home.
People are terribly gullible. In being gregarious creatures, congenital trust is a social lubricant. Cynicism is not a social grace. But the reason for innate trust runs much deeper.
Homosexuality has been a conundrum to evolutionary biologists who viewed behaviors from the peephole perspective of reproductive efficacy.
There is a decided statistical trend of Americans dying younger. The dynamics behind earlier mortality are manifold, but they solely owe to spiritual and practical ignorance.
As a treat on this most mystical of celebratory days, a history of Halloween.