Things have been rather quiet here over the last few weeks. I don’t expect to be posting much over the next month or two either, but I will try to post a links post every week. The following are a selection of things that I have found thought-provoking or amusing over the last week. As usual, I will be posting items with which I may have significant differences, so my agreement with every position expressed in these pieces shouldn’t be assumed.
Feel free to add any links of your own in the comments!
2. What Strengthens or Weakens Our Integrity – Part IV: The Power of Moral Reminders
3. Why I Love Twitter and Barely Tolerate Facebook
4. Smartphones are Changing How We Worship
5. Haptography: A Digital Future With Feeling
6. Gluttony in the Bible (as Opposed to Gluttony in the American Church)
7. Competition on Faith and Writing in the Digital Age
9. Towards a New Understanding of Modesty
10. The Distinct, Positive Impact of a Good Dad
11. Impossible? No, Upsalite Really is the Wonder Stuff!
12. I and Thou and Life in Aspergerstan
13. Being Polyamorous Shows There’s No ‘Traditional’ Way to Live
14. Electrical Signatures of Consciousness in the Dying Brain
15. School Has Become Too Hostile To Boys
16. Interesting Statistics on Changing Public Opinions in America on Same-Sex Marriage
17. Browsing the Web One Step at a Time
19. I Have a Character Issue – Anna Gunn writes about the reactions that she receives to her character Skyler White, from Breaking Bad.
20. How Will Breaking Bad End? Here are 7 Mind-Blowing Theories
21. Those With ‘No Particular Religion’ Were Never Particularly Religious
22. The Real Neuroscience of Creativity
23. More Is More: Why the Paradox of Choice Might Be A Myth
25. How Old Were the Leaders of the American Revolution on July 4, 1776?
26. The Universal Rules of Civilized Discourse
28. Paperscape – A map of nearly a million scientific papers
29. Listen to Wikipedia Edits in Real-Time
30. Crazy About One Direction – Terrifying
31. Daniel H. Cohen: For Argument’s Sake
32. Magic Beard
33. LEGO The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Teaser Trailer
Alastair's Adversaria 
For me, the “boys” article (#15) has more to do with the lack of imagination in school; it so happens that this singles out boys more than girls in the beginning. That same agency in creative play that’s punished in earlier ages is necessary for academic success in college and beyond.
Very true. This also ties into debates about the merits of Tiger parenting, with its depreciation of the importance of play. I don’t think that the educational importance of various forms of play are as widely appreciated as they ought to be. The lack of it may perhaps produce hyper-efficient and skilled conformists, but the highest levels of academia and society will typically privilege those with a more developed set of creative abilities. Besides, bringing a sense of creativity and playfulness to your agency leads to so much greater independence and potential for fulfilment.
The redit link seems wrong.
Whoops! I seem to have double-pasted the link. It should be working now.
Thanks for the link!