Their pain and our pain

Why the sexes don’t feel pain the same way 

Coexisting with cancer

Tasmanian devils 'adapting to coexist with cancer

The great Bengal famine debate continues

A Recent study of soil moisture in Bengal indicated that there were reasonable food stocks before the 1943 famine. But studies by others used by Madhusree Mukherjee indicate that there was fungus infection which probably caused depletion of food. Sen claimed the report of the infection was only from two stations. Others contend that the stations were 150 km apart which indicated a widespread infection. But both sides seem to blame the British policies for the disaster. Amartya Sen says in his response to Madhusree Mukherjee, he says “... and in her single-minded, if understandable, attempt to nail down Churchill, she ends up absolving British imperial policy of confusion and callousness, which had disastrous consequences.” This and Some of the links to the discussion Amartya Sen, Churchill and Two Rice Research Stations in Bengal

The end of the dinosaurs

These fossils may capture the day the dinosaurs died. Here's what you should know from National Geographic by Michael Greshko. A longer article in The NewYorker The day the dinosaurs died by Douglas Preston

Different versions of reality

Different Versions Of Reality Can Exist In The Quantum World, Study Confirms “The particle assumes fixed polarization once the person in the lab measures it, but for someone outside of the laboratory who is not aware of the results of the measurements, the unmeasured photon remains in a state of superposition.” The idea is due to Eugene Wigner,called Wigner’s froend, inside and outside here are replaced by entangled particles.

Zara Bachke 1959, Same song at three places

https://youtu.be/2bXETrxeSfw

Morality as cooperation (MAC)

What’s Wrong with Moral Foundations Theory, and How to get Moral Psychology Right “According to MAC, morality consists of a collection of biological and cultural solutions to the problems of cooperation recurrent in human social life. ”
Link to a longer article Mapping morality with a compass: Testing the theory of ‘morality-as-cooperation’ with a new questionnaire 

The poor have been always with us

Pomei’s fast food bar unearthed in city after 2000 years “The 150 or so thermopolia, or snack bars, dotted across the city were mostly used by the poorer residents, who rarely had cooking facilities in their home, to grab a snack or drink. Typical menus included coarse bread with salty fish, baked cheese, lentils and spicy wine.”

Important medical news?

Scientists find genetic mutation that makes woman feel no pain “Jo Cameron, 71, has a mutation in a previously unknown gene which scientists believe must play a major role in pain signalling, mood and memory. The discovery has boosted hopes of new treatments for chronic pain which affects millions of people globally.”

Robert Sapolsky on nationalism

This is your brain on nationalism “Modern society may well be stuck with nationalism and many other varieties of human divisiveness, and it would perhaps be more productive to harness these dynamics rather than fight or condemn them. Instead of promoting jingoism and xenophobia, leaders should appeal to people’s innate in-group tendencies in ways that incentivize cooperation, accountability, and care for one’s fellow humans. Imagine a nationalist pride rooted not in a country’s military power or ethnic homogeneity but in the ability to take care of its elderly, raise children who score high on tests of empathy, or ensure a high degree of social mobility. Such a progressive nationalism would surely be preferable to one built on myths of victimhood and dreams of revenge. But with the temptation of mistaking the familiar for the superior still etched into the mind, it is not beyond the human species to go to war over which country’s people carry out the most noble acts of random kindness. The worst of nationalism, then, is unlikely to be overcome anytime soon.“

Review of a book by Sanjay Subrahmanyam

Europe's India - Words, People, Empires, 1500-1800 by Sanjay Subrahmanyam Just started reading.

Long read on American power under Trump

Is this the end of the American Century? By Adam Tooze.
“As of today, two years into the Trump presidency, it is a gross exaggeration to talk of an end to the American world order. The two pillars of its global power – military and financial – are still firmly in place. What has ended is any claim on the part of American democracy to provide a political model. This is certainly a historic break. Trump closes the chapter begun by Woodrow Wilson in the First World War, with his claim that American democracy articulated the deepest feelings of liberal humanity. A hundred years later, Trump has for ever personified the sleaziness, cynicism and sheer stupidity that dominates much of American political life. What we are facing is a radical disjunction between the continuity of basic structures of power and their political legitimation.”

Sanctions regime

Sanctions still effective but confusing “As Newman and I discuss in our research, the United States has expanded its use of sanctions in the recent past. It has been able to apply new kinds of power, leveraging the central role that the dollar and financial messaging systems such as SWIFT play in the global financial architecture. The United States has been able to rely on a sophisticated administrative apparatus, centered in the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), to administer sanctions policy. However, this power has its limits. It works best when other countries — especially U.S. allies — respect it and go along with it. ”
Somewhat related America’s Corruption Is a National Security Threat 

Two articles on Alan Krueger

A hero of the revolution By David Warsh
James Buchanan calling the kettle black By David Glaesner contains this from James Buchanan “...we have not yet become a bevy of camp-following whores.”

An extended discussion on Mueller report

As Mueller Finds No Collusion, Did Press Overhype Russiagate? Glenn Greenwald vs. David Cay Johnston There is also a discussion of an earlier interview with Noam Chomsky at the end.

Tayla Harris

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-20/tayla-harris-kicking-a-football/10921904
https://youtu.be/ZkBG33kPglw

Complex societies precede moralising gods

Complex societies precede moralising gods throughout world history by several authors including Peter Turchin  in Nature Letters. A discussion by Razib Khan here. 

Pranab Bardhan on the two largest democracies

Upcoming Challenges for Two of the Largest Democracies Towards the end, he says “But, unfortunately, the corrosive effects of majoritarian ethnic nationalism may outlast any possible changes in elections or leaders. This is because they are partly rooted in deeper social changes in these transitional societies. ” The second sentence does not see consistent with the first. Later, he expresses the hope “But ultimately the survival of some minimum quality of democracy in both countries may depend less on firmly-held secular or liberal values, which are often quite shallow in the general population in spite of a long history of syncretic folk traditions, and more on the extreme social heterogeneity and divisions at all levels in both countries. The latter can, paradoxically, act as a kind of limited insurance against a long reign of intolerance or the predominance of any particular sect or creed. Social diversity can, at least up to a point, serve as a bulwark against the politics of exclusivity.” Diversity is supposed to decrease social capital ( studies of Robert Putnam and others) but may be centuries of practice helps in survival. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-diversity-create-distrust/ 

Padmini and Ragini non classical dance

https://youtu.be/EXs5-fHUGr8 

Savitri and Meenakumari in similar dances

https://youtu.be/A4sRQxv44yUn

https://youtu.be/izCVKnHFWJg