Author: Mr. Lakhaney

TOK Teacher

When the Government Tells You What to Eat

February 20, 2015

“Since the very first nutritional guidelines to restrict saturated fat and cholesterol were released by the American Heart Association in 1961, Americans have been the subjects of a vast, uncontrolled diet experiment with disastrous consequences. We have to start looking more skeptically at epidemiological studies and rethinking nutrition policy from the ground up.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/21/opinion/when-the-government-tells-you-what-to-eat.html

Verbal Warming: Labels in the Climate Debate

February 20, 2015

Interesting piece that focuses on the power of language and labels when framing a debate and characterizing your position on an issue. Why does it matter whether a person is called a “skeptic” or “denier?” Even if the arguments don’t change, the labels have a powerful influence on characterizing their positions and affecting the way they are perceived.

“The petition asks the news media to abandon the most frequently used term for people who question climate science, ‘skeptics,’ and call them ‘climate deniers’ instead.”

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/17/science/earth/in-climate-change-whats-in-a-name.html

Why Oklahoma Lawmakers Voted to Ban AP U.S. History

February 20, 2015

This is a story that pops up in the United States periodically but also around the world. Because public education is funded by various governments, elected officials have a say in what gets funded and what does not and by extension, what gets taught and what does not. History is an interpretation of past events and not simply a summary of all things that ever happened. What happens when a curriculum does not suit your interpretation of past events? What happens when you believe history serves one agenda and not your own?

Some further questions to consider:

  • How should we decide what gets taught in schools?
  • What makes one historical interpretation more “correct” than another?
  • What is the purpose of learning history? Should it be to promote patriotism?

From the article:

“The new AP U.S. History framework emphasizes ‘what is bad about America’ and doesn’t teach ‘American exceptionalism.’ It’s a complaint that’s been spreading among mostly conservative state legislatures in recent months and has some calling for a ban on all AP courses.”

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/02/why-oklahoma-lawmakers-want-to-ban-ap-us-history.html?wpsrc=nymag

Predictions with a purpose: Why the projections of Ebola in west Africa turned out wrong

February 14, 2015

How do we use mathematics to make predictions about the future? Upon what assumptions do we build mathematical models? Why do these techniques sometimes come up short?

“The models relied on old and partial figures. These were plugged into equations whose key variable was the rate at which each case gave rise to others. But this “reproduction number” changed as outside help arrived and those at risk went out less, avoided physical contact and took precautions around the sick and dead. So difficult are such factors to predict that epidemiologists modelling a disease often assume that they do not change at all.”

http://www.economist.com/news/international/21642242-why-projections-ebola-west-africa-turned-out-wrong-predictions-purpose?fsrc=scn/tw/te/ed/pe

Why Study History?

February 12, 2015

“Why should anyone bother learning about things that happened far away and long ago? Who cares about Cleopatra, Charlemagne, Montezuma or Confucius? And why worry about George Washington, or how democratic government and industrial society arose? Isn’t there quite enough to learn about the world today? Why add to the burden by looking at the past? Historians ought to try to answer such questions by saying what the study of history is good for, and what it cannot do. But since no one can speak for the historical profession as a whole, this essay is no more than a personal statement, commissioned by the American Historical Association in the hope of convincing all concerned that the study of history is indeed worthwhile and necessary for the education of effective citizens and worthy human beings. Historical knowledge is no more and no less than carefully and critically constructed collective memory. As such it can both make us wiser in our public choices and more richly human in our private lives.”

http://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/archives/why-study-history-(1985)

The U.S. government is poised to withdraw longstanding warnings about cholesterol

February 11, 2015

Here’s an interesting case of scientific research backtracking on a long held view about nutrition. Some things to think about are why science can do so much research to confirm a belief that turns out to be wrong. This article discusses various ways in which scientists come to conclusions including animal testing. What’s also interesting to consider is the role of intuition in belief. Because the plaque that builds up on your arteries is partially composed of cholesterol, it’s intuitively believable that cholesterol in your diet would be bad for you. Even though these warnings about cholesterol will be rescinded, people’s long held beliefs will not  change so quickly.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/10/feds-poised-to-withdraw-longstanding-warnings-about-dietary-cholesterol/

Freakonomics Podcast: “It’s Fun to Smoke Marijuana”

February 11, 2015

“A psychology professor argues that the brain’s greatest attribute is knowing what other people are thinking. And that a Queen song, played backwards, can improve your mind-reading skills.”

“‘Another One Bites the Dust‘ — when played backward — contains a secret message that, in the end, may help people communicate better.”

http://freakonomics.com/2014/03/13/its-fun-to-smoke-marijuana-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

On the same topic, here’s a compilation of songs along with lyrics played forward and then backwards with the alleged secret messages.

If you watch the video, try not to watch the words on the video when listening backwards and decide what you think the “secret” message is. It seems only to be “clear” when you see the words on the screen and are otherwise unintelligible.

Evolution vs. Creationism Debate: Bill Nye v Ken Ham

February 11, 2015

Below are some links about the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham from early 2014 about whether evolution or creationism better explains life on Earth.

Some interesting questions emerge from this debate. How do proponents of evolution and creationism approach knowledge and truth differently? This can be extended to the natural science and religious knowledge systems. Both look to find answers and truth and construct knowledge in fundamentally different ways. The two articles get into this issue a bit. You can watch the debate itself, it’s a bit long but worth watching at least a little bit.

1.Why Bill Nye Won the Creationism Debate Last Night

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/02/bill-nye-ken-ham-evolution-creationism-refuted

2. Bill Nye v Ken Ham: should scientists bother to debate creationism?

The public debate between Bill Nye and the president of a US creationist museum gives creationism a scientific legitimacy that it isn’t entitled to

http://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2014/feb/05/bill-nye-vs-ken-ham-creationism-science-debate

3.Bill Nye versus Ken Ham: Who won? 

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0205/Bill-Nye-versus-Ken-Ham-Who-won-video

Ethics of behavioral economics: Nudges or manipulation?

February 11, 2015

The field of behavior economics includes the study of how and why people make the decisions they do and consequently, it’s the study of how to change people’s decisions to push them in different directions. Governments have used these techniques and findings to promote positive behaviors like not littering and not smoking but also to increase the number of people paying their taxes. Private companies have used these techniques to increase the sales of their products and services. People employing these techniques often say they provide a “nudge.” At what point do these nudges become manipulation? Does it matter if the behavior being promoted is one we agree is positive like quitting smoking? How does the use of language affect our perception of ideas and things?

What is also interesting about this field is that some traditional economists resent the term “behavioral economics” and don’t consider it to be part of their field. They were further annoyed when a behavioral economist and self identified psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, won the Nobel Prize for economics.

Below are a couple of articles about this field.

1. Manipulate Me: The Booming Business in Behavioral Finance

“Many behavioral interventions work, whether at reducing litter and power usage or boosting savings rates and organ donations. Yet these successes aren’t the whole story. Even after rigorous experimentation and data analysis, the best-intentioned nudges can fall flat or backfire. Some may be behavioral band-aids that don’t address deeper structural problems such as stagnating wages. Nevertheless, consumers have jumped on the bandwagon, eager to be manipulated into the best version of themselves, and businesses are rushing to meet the demand.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-04-07/manipulate-me-the-booming-business-in-behavioral-finance

2. What was I thinking?

The latest reasoning about our irrational ways

“Why do people do things like this? From the perspective of neoclassical economics, self-punishing decisions are difficult to explain. Rational calculators are supposed to consider their options, then pick the one that maximizes the benefit to them. Yet actual economic life, as opposed to the theoretical version, is full of miscalculations, from the gallon jar of mayonnaise purchased at spectacular savings to the billions of dollars Americans will spend this year to service their credit-card debt. The real mystery, it could be argued, isn’t why we make so many poor economic choices but why we persist in accepting economic theory.”

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/02/25/what-was-i-thinking

3. Why Behavioral Economics Is Cool, and I’m Not

“It happens to me regularly: I’m an organizational psychologist, but I get introduced at least once a week as a behavioral economist. The first time this happened before a speech, I attempted to set the record straight, telling the executive that all of my degrees were in psychology. His response: ‘Your work sounds cooler if I call you a behavioral economist.'”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-grant/why-behavioral-economics_b_5491960.html