SCRAPINGS OF THE DAY – 11/27/22

On The Media explores the connection between anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and the Club Q shooting. And then, how talk radio got so bad (Hint – $)

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/on-the-media-2022-bark-bite

Teri Kanefield considers why social media have such a hard time functioning as an effective public square in a democracy, and how they might be fixed, or, at least improved.

Curing the Ills of Social Media

Male wolves infected with toxcoplasmosis are 47 times more likely that the uninfected to leave their birth packs and become leaders in other packs. The how and why, and what sort of leaders they become are yet to be discovered, but that is a huge effect from a microscopic parasite. I looked up the symptoms of the infection in humans. Most show no symptoms and many experience a flu-like episode, but there was nothing about cognitive or personality change.

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/27/1139307778/what-makes-a-wolf-leader-of-the-pack-new-research-says-its-parasites-in-the-brai

When listening to a melody, our brains are busy predicting the next note. That has a lot to do with what we find interesting.

Why Certain Types of Music Make Our Brains Sing, and Others Don’t

I always try to balance the climate bad news with some good news. This is the very bad for today.

Large Parts of Europe Warming Twice As Fast as the Planet – Already Surpassed 2°C

And, this is the good, or at least hopeful for the day.

https://phys.org/news/2022-11-light-powered-catalyst-key-hydrogen-economy.html