Monday, November 19, 2012

Links, November 19, 2012

Scientific American article More than child's play: Ability to think scientifically declines as kids grow up "One reason for our failure to capitalize on this scientific intuition we display as toddlers may be that we are pretty good, as children and adults, at reasoning out puzzles that have something to do with real life but flounder when the puzzle is abstract, Goodman suggests—and it is abstract puzzles that educators tend to use when testing the ability to think scientifically. In addition, as we learn more about the world, our knowledge and beliefs trump our powers of scientific reasoning. The message for educators would seem to be to build on the intuition that children bring to science while doing a better job of making the connection between abstract concepts and real-world puzzles. "
Responses linked in Children Are Not "Natural" Scientists  ( via Ed Yong). Actually, I think (from my limited experience)that children also have powers of abstraction, but may be as they start doing many more things, certain aspects of their ability are not developed for many of them.
Mark Changizi: in The colossal pile of jibbersh behind discovery and its implications to science finding (via Ed Yong): "... where we see the everyday-ness of our science minds is in the discovery process itself, that is, in the efforts to find the new idea (hypothesis, theory, whatever) in the first place. Discoveries can be dressed up well, but the way we go about finding our ideas is almost always an embarrassing display of buffoonery."
Ten top myths about Israeli attack on Gaza by Juan Cole
Chapati Mystery discusses Bal Thacheray's 'legacies' See also Wall Street Journal article and Naipaul reference (possibly a reference to his descrption of Shiv Sena work at the grass roots level in 'A million mutinies now').
3quarksdaily's policy on comments, at least the expression of the policy, is causing concern to some respected commentors like Omar

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