Tuesday roundup (brought to you by my flexible schedule)

The girls rescued from Boko Haram can heal, especially with the right social support structures in place.

Lais Souza misses running her hands through her hair.

You (really) won't believe how highly we subsidize fossil fuel companies.


I can't overstate this: just say no to the nuclear domino theory.

I was long in denial about my mother's condition because she had "normal memory problems" for as long as I could remember.

Leather will be environmentally nasty no matter the innovations in chemistry, because cows. After all,

"Animal farming ... is the single biggest environmental threat in the world today," given the enormous amounts of land and water needed.

The trigger-warning middle ground.

The focus on labor practices is key but I also think it's interesting that the prestige of expensive clothing is becoming a relic.

Would you sacrifice economic independence for great wealth and a wife bonus?

Here's an article about the Large Hadron Collider restart that won't make your head hurt.

 

As I said when (but not merely because) I did mediocrely on that scientific literacy quiz, the results really depend on the design of the questions (and poor design forces people into stupid answers). Jargon, also, compromises results (not only to scientists use words differently--and those words' non-scientific meaning is perfectly legitimate--but words can mean different things in different scientific disciplines). But, the take-away:

Do you want to make fun of people who are less educated than you and reinforce the stereotypes of the dumb layman and sneering scientist? Or do you want to try and learn something about the people you’re talking to and become a better science communicator?

It is true: talking about anything exclusionary makes you boring. Diapers are boring, but so are the specifics (or office politics) of any given job.