45 Matching Annotations
  1. Aug 2023
    1. highlights the dire financial circumstances of the poorest individuals, who resort to high-interest loans as a survival strategy. This phenomenon reflects the interplay between human decision-making and development policy. The decision to take such loans, driven by immediate needs, illustrates how cognitive biases and limited options impact choices. From a policy perspective, addressing this issue requires understanding these behavioral nuances and crafting interventions that provide sustainable alternatives, fostering financial inclusion and breaking the cycle of high-interest debt.

  2. Jun 2023
    1. https://web.archive.org/web/20230616140838/https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/16/george-washington-university-professor-antisemitism-palestine-dc

      psychoanalysis was the guided internal journey of individuals, in the nineties CBT displaced this (visible in the sessions I did at the time), and now a new wave of psychoanalysis comes in that doesn't only take the individual as focus, but also the impact of the structures and systems around yourself. That's an interesting evolutionary sketch of the field.

      To me this article is as much about power and generations as it is about a lack of a professional field being able to apply its own expertise to itself.

      culture war as generational war and but also US specific perhaps. Also the culture war seems to be precisely about taking the individual vs the collective influence on the individual. The old guard feeling individually blamed for things that the new guard says is a collective thing to reckon with. Where again the responses of each are seen through the other lens. There's now no way to resolve that easily. Change happens when the old people die said Howard. Seems to be at issue here too.

  3. Mar 2023
    1. But why do the feeble-minded tend so strongly to become delinquent? The answer may be stated in simple terms. Morality depends upon two things: (a) the ability to foresee and to weigh the possible consequences for self and others of different kinds of behavior; and (b) upon the willingness and capacity to exercise self-restraint. That there are many intelligent criminals is due to the fact that (a) may exist without (b). On the other hand, (b) presupposes (a). In other words, not all criminals are feeble-minded, but all feeble-minded are at least potential criminals. That every feeble-minded woman is a potential prostitute would hardly be disputed by any one. Moral judgment, like business judgment, social judgment, or any other kind of higher thought process, is a function of intelligence. Morality cannot flower and fruit if intelligence remains infantile.

      I like this explanation because it gives some insight as to why feeble-minded people become delinquents. I like that it stated not all criminals are feeble-minded because there are some criminals that are very intelligent. The unabomber for example, Ted Kaczynski was a mathematics professor, and retired to later became a bomb maker. He wasn't caught for a good while which shows that he was intelligent. I think this is important to the history of psychology because we now have developed knowledge that feeble-minded people aren't always criminals, but have some potential of becoming a criminal.

  4. Sep 2022
    1. Or, take the case of unemployment as described by sociologist C. WrightMills:When, in a city of 100,000, only one man is unemployed, that is his per-sonal trouble, and for its relief we properly look to the character of theman, his skills, and his immediate opportunities. But when in a nation of50 million employees, 15 million men are unemployed, that is an issue, and

      we may not hope to find its solution within the range of opportunities open to any one individual. The very structure of opportunities has collapsed. Both the correct statement of the problem and the range of possible solutions require us to consider the economic and political institutions of the society, and not merely the personal situation and character of a scatter of individuals.16

      1. C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959), p. 9.

      I love this quote and it's interesting food for thought.

      Framing problems from the perspectives of a single individual versus a majority of people can be a powerful tool.

      The idea of the "welfare queen" was possibly too powerful because it singled out an imaginary individual rather than focusing on millions of people with a variety of backgrounds and diversity. Compare this with the fundraisers for impoverished children in Sally Stuther's Christian Children's Fund (aka ChildFund) which, while they show thousands of people in trouble, quite often focus on one individual child. This helps to personalize the plea and the charity actually assigned each donor a particular child they were helping out.

      How might this set up be used in reverse to change the perspective and opinions of those who think the "welfare queen" is a real thing instead of a problematic trope?

  5. Aug 2022
  6. Apr 2022
    1. DICER1 Syndrome

      GeneName: DICER1 PMID: 28323992 PMCID: PMC5443331 *No HGNCID found Inheritance pattern: autosomal-dominant Disease Entity: multinodular goiter and thyroid cancer Mutation: Germline Zygosity: not listed Variant: c.3726C>A; p.Tyr1242a, c.3675C>G; p.Tyr1225a Family Information: 145 individuals with DICER1 germline mutations from 48 family controls (135 individuals) that lacked the DICER1 mutation Case: male and female carriers as well as family members were studied. Ages: 20, 30, and 40 for both populations (DICER1 carriers were significantly younger than controls}. Population from Great Britain, UK, and USA (no significant difference between race, ethnicity, or sex found). CasePresentingHPOs: no previous therapeutic radiation or chemotherapy. Thyroid cancer or MNG diagnoses were likely reported with the DICER1 mutation CasePreviousTesting: Sequencing performed with Sanger or next-generation sequencing assays. DICER1 carriers underwent testing to obtain thyroid-stimulating hormone, thyroxine, thyroxine-binding globulin, and serum albumin levels as well as medical history and physical examinations (+thyroid palpation). Participants were also given thyroid US examinations. gnomAD: n/a Mutation Type: missense

    1. The way technologies like fMRI are applied is aproduct of our brainbound orientation; it has not seemed odd or unusual toexamine the individual brain on its own, unconnected to others.

      In part because of modalities of studying the brain using methods like fMRI where the images are of an individual's head, we focus too much and too exclusively on single brains bound to individuals rather than on brains working in concert.

      Greater flexibilities in tools and methods should help do studies of humans working in concert.


      Link this to the anecdote:

      I recall a radiology test within a medical school setting in which students were asked to diagnose an x-ray of a human patient's skull. Most either guessed small hairline fractures in the skull or that there was nothing wrong with the patient.

      Can you diagnose the patient?

      Almost all the students failed the question, and worse felt like idiots when the answer was revealed: the patient must be dead because the spinal column and the rest of the body are not attached. Compare:

    2. the brain stores social information differently thanit stores information that is non-social. Social memories are encoded in a distinctregion of the brain. What’s more, we remember social information moreaccurately, a phenomenon that psychologists call the “social encodingadvantage.” If findings like this feel unexpected, that’s because our culturelargely excludes social interaction from the realm of the intellect. Socialexchanges with others might be enjoyable or entertaining, this attitude holds, butthey’re no more than a diversion, what we do around the edges of school orwork. Serious thinking, real thinking, is done on one’s own, sequestered fromothers.

      "Social encoding advantage" is what psychologists refer to as the phenomenon of people remembering social information more accurately than other types.

      Reference to read: “social encoding advantage”: Matthew D. Lieberman, Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect (New York: Crown, 2013), 284.

      It's likely that the social acts of learning and information exchange in oral societies had an additional stickiness over and beyond the additional mnemonic methods they would have used as a base.

      The Western cultural tradition doesn't value the social coding advantage because it "excludes social interaction from the realm of the intellect" (Paul, 2021). Instead it provides advantage and status to the individual thinking on their own. We greatly prefer the idea of the "lone genius" toiling on their own, when this is hardly ever the case. Our availability bias often leads us to believe it is the case because we can pull out so many famous examples, though in almost all cases these geniuses were riding on the shoulders of giants.

      Reference to read: remember social information more accurately: Jason P. Mitchell, C. Neil Macrae, and Mahzarin R. Banaji, “Encoding-Specific Effects of Social Cognition on the Neural Correlates of Subsequent Memory,” Journal of Neuroscience 24 (May 2004): 4912–17

      Reference to read: the brain stores social information: Jason P. Mitchell et al., “Thinking About Others: The Neural Substrates of Social Cognition,” in Social Neuroscience: People Thinking About Thinking People, ed. Karen T. Litfin (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006), 63–82.

  7. Mar 2022
    1. Alack, and is Pharnuchus slain, And Ariomardus, brave in vain? Where is Seualces’ heart of fire? Lilaeus, child of noble sire? Are Tharubis and Memphis sped? Hystaechmas, Artembáres dead? And where is brave Masistes, where?

      Individual attributes described

    2. Cry out, and learn the tale of woe! Where are thy comrades? where the band Who stood beside thee, hand in hand, A little while ago? Where now hath Pharandákes gone, Where Psammis, and where Pelagon? Where now is brave Agdabatas, And Susas too, and Datamas? Hath Susiscanes past away, The chieftain of Ecbatana?

      Using personal narratives to strengthen story, some truth bending

    3. But now there are none to gainsay that the gods are against us; we lie Subdued in the havoc of wreck, and whelmed by the wrath of the sky!

      Punished by gods because of political reasons

    4. For dead men have no profit of their gold!

      Shame not from gods, but foolishness

    5. Zeus lours in wrath, exacting the account.

      Zeus equated more toward idea of power than directly.

    6. There is it fated for them to endure The very crown of misery and doom, Requital for their god-forgetting pride! For why? they raided Hellas, had the heart To wrong the images of holy gods, And give the shrines and temples to the flame!

      Shame for evil punished, like flood in EoG, except here, the consequences are directed at political defeat instead of death.

    7. f man may trust the oracles of Heaven

      Highlights divide between gods and man not seen in EoG

    8. Over the folk a Mede, Astyages, Did grasp the power: then Cyaxares ruled In his sire’s place, and held the sway aright, Steering his state with watchful wariness. Third in succession, Cyrus, blest of Heaven, Held rule and ’stablished peace for all his clan: Lydian and Phrygian won he to his sway, And wide Ionia to his yoke constrained, For the god favoured his discretion sage. Fourth in the dynasty was Cyrus’ son, And fifth was Mardus, scandal of his land And ancient lineage. Him Artaphrenes,

      Description of series of absolute rulers' ultimate defeat may strengthen the case for democracy.

    9. by will of Zeus!

      Greek belief system covering Persians

      Zeus' power only used to describe Athenian army's strength

    10. With awe on thee I gaze, And, standing face to face, I tremble as I did in olden days!

      May use reverence of absolute ruler to show impact of defeat.

    11. To summon up Darius from the shades, Himself a shade; and I will pour these draughts, Which earth shall drink, unto the gods of hell.

      The description of Darius as well as Atossa lends credence to the idea that Persia was well respected by Athenians, but possibly antiquated in its politics, supporting democracy.

    12. Land of the East, thou mournest for the host, Bereft of all thy sons, alas the day! For them whom Xerxes led hath Xerxes lost— Xerxes who wrecked the fleet, and flung our hopes away!

      Rule of one foolish leader can cause downfall of an entire empire (might rally more support for democracy).

    13. by aid of Heaven,

      Mortals with the help of gods, not necessarily gods themselves

    14. To no man do they bow as slaves, nor own a master’s hand.

      Superiority of individuals and democracy versus absolute rule.

      Doesn't necessarily cast Persians in a negative light, but suggests that an army with strongminded individuals will outperform one without.

    15. See, yonder comes the mother-queen, Light of our eyes, in godlike sheen, The royal mother of the king!— Fall we before her! well it were That, all as one, we sue to her, And round her footsteps cling!

      Also possibly emphasized the Persian importance on an absolute ruler (which may have been established in EoG) contrasted with an army of strong, democratically-backed individuals.

    16. How fareth he, Darius’ child,

      Absolute rulers backed Persian soldiers, but no single great Athenian ruler is really depicted in defeating them (highlighted by individual descriptions of how Aeschylus saw soldiers and superiority of the Greek gods

  8. Feb 2022
  9. Dec 2021
  10. Nov 2021
    1. 2021 has heralded the dawn of a new form of hyper-carbon-intensive luxury travel, space tourism, in which hundreds of tonnes of carbon can be burned in just a ten-minute flight for around four passengers.28

      These should be identified.

    2. Gösling and Humpe found that no more than 1% of the world population likely accounts for half of aviation emissions.30

      Wow! Will carbon neutral fuels be greenwashing or real solutions? Will carbon neutral SpaceX flights be greenwashing, or real carbon neutrality?

    3. Earlier studies also established the major contribution to carbon footprints of the rich and famous from flights, especially via private jets. Gösling’s study constructed aviation emissions estimates based on tracking the international travel of celebrities via their social media postings. Footprints – from aviation alone – were found to be in excess of a thousand tonnes per year.27

      It's not surprising that yachts and private jets, the symbols of elite luxury.are culprits. Large and multiple mansions must be accounted for somewhere as well.

    4. The fact that these countries are still not on track to reach the 1.5⁰C per capita level by 2030, and have still not delivered the minimal commitment to mobilize $100bn per year in international climate finance by 2020, is a double indictment of their moral and legal failure in view of the equity principle at the heart of the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement.

      The facts reflect the truth that developed economies are essentially unwilling to cede their way of life. The people of these economies want to cling to their high carbon way of life.

    5. The extreme difference between the expected carbon footprints of a small minority of the world’s population in 2030 and the global average level needed to keep the Paris Agreement’s 1.5⁰C goal alive is not tenable. Maintaining such high carbon footprints among the world’s richest people either requires far deeper emissions cuts by the rest of the world’s population, or it entails global heating in excess of 1.5⁰C above pre-industrial levels. There is no other alternative.

      Humanity and the entire biosphere should not be made to suffer for the whims of 1% of the population. National commitments are very difficult to negotiate. We must really begin to target High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI), for they may hold the fate of humanity in their hands.

  11. Jun 2021
  12. Mar 2021
  13. Sep 2020
  14. Aug 2020
  15. Jun 2020
  16. May 2020
    1. Grifoni, A., Weiskopf, D., Ramirez, S. I., Mateus, J., Dan, J. M., Moderbacher, C. R., Rawlings, S. A., Sutherland, A., Premkumar, L., Jadi, R. S., Marrama, D., de Silva, A. M., Frazier, A., Carlin, A., Greenbaum, J. A., Peters, B., Krammer, F., Smith, D. M., Crotty, S., & Sette, A. (2020). Targets of T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in humans with COVID-19 disease and unexposed individuals. Cell, S0092867420306103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.05.015

    1. I will need to find a workaround for one of my private extensions that controls devices in my home network, and its source code cannot be uploaded to Mozilla because of my and my family's privacy.
    2. I believe that beginning to distribute tools that patch Firefox and give back power to users and allow them to install unsigned extensions is necessary when an organization is taking away our rights without giving us a compelling reason for doing so.
  17. Feb 2019
    1. Is the freedom of the individual served by neoliberalism? Centrality of the state for this freedom, which NL denies. “neoliberal thinkers deliberately sustain the fiction that ‘the market economy’ is a natural and spontaneous order that must be placed beyond politics … The question of how authority can be something other than domination and private power shaped the ideas and action of those who built the tradition of constitutional democracy in western societies from the 16th to the 20th centuries … basic needs were those that had to be met before the individual could practically enact the status of a free subject or person. It was such needs provision that made it possible for individuals to be both personally secure and to enjoy an equality of opportunity to develop as individuals free to discover their talents and gifts … the representation of market society as a spontaneous order is pitched to the punters while, within the tent of the doctrine’s initiates, it is fully understood that the state has to be both a strong state, and to be re-engineered in order to impose neoliberal institutional design.” YeatmanFreedom.pdf
  18. Oct 2018
    1. While one might call into question the social norms that legitimize and valorize such practices, these are not persuasive reasons to forbid access to such technologies and, one may argue, their need is sincere and crucial to the individuals wellbeing.

      Author talks that even though people use technology for their personal interest, it is till not strong enough to prevent people from using technology. Previously, the author talked about the fact that technology helps people to get mental health such as obtaining confidence by doing cosmetic surgery. In this annotated sentence, author claims that people will also have cosmetic surgeries for some other intentions; however, he says, "their need is sincere and crucial to the individual wellbeing." It shows that everyone matters in this society, and technology is born to be used for people who need no matter for inner or outer needs. Technology should be access to people as long as it is in good purposes for individuals.

  19. Sep 2018
    1. overcome fundamental human limitations, and the related study of the ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies

      The author expresses a broad definition of what transhumanism is. Author does not include what transhumanism focuses on specifically as in "human limitations" This is an intent to show transhumanism can incorporate sciences and professions from across the board, being inclusive to new ideas in the process from interested individuals. Therefore, from the Transhumanist FAQ, we can conclude the broad definition was meant to draw in more ideas focused on the betterment of humanity from a diverse group of readers, available for critique and decisions.