TheConversationUS

TheConversationUS, 8 months ago to mastodon

We passed 20,000 followers in this week on #mastodon!

In less than a year, we've accumulated 29% of the followers we got in 9 years of regular posting on the #birdsite, and we get far, far more engagement with our content here.

Thank you.

We will continue to post regularly here because we have found it is a community that values our kind of thoughtful journalism, written by experts for the public.

If you know folks who haven't discovered us yet, we'd really appreciate a boost #Newstodon

TheConversationUS, 10 months ago to USpolitics

This #FourthofJuly weekend, stop using #nationalism and #patriotism as synonyms.

🇺🇸Patriotism encompasses devotion to the country as a whole – including all the people who live within it.

🇺🇸Nationalism refers to devotion to only one group or people over others.
https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-difference-between-nationalism-and-patriotism-208170

Pictured ⬇️
A 1950 poster shows Superman – a refugee from another planet and a character created by two Jewish immigrants to the U.S. – teaching this lesson to school kids. #USPolitics #American #4thOfJuly

TheConversationUS, 11 months ago to histodons

Two Southerners serving in the U.S. Army in 1861 made different choices when the Civil War began.

Robert E. Lee has been looked on as a source of pride by White Southerners.

But perhaps, according to historian Christopher Einolf, a better source of pride today would be Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas – another Virginian, who honored his oath to defend the Constitution.

https://theconversation.com/us-army-maj-gen-george-h-thomas-journey-from-enslaver-to-union-officer-to-civil-rights-defender-205950

#History #BlackHistory #Histodons @histodons

TheConversationUS, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to philosophy

Blaise Pascal, the philosopher born just over 400 years ago, made what is know as "Pascal's Wager" about the existence of #god.

He argued for betting on the existence of God. “If you win, you win everything; if you lose, you lose nothing,” he wrote, positing that although one cannot know for certain whether or not God exists, we are better off believing in God’s existence than not.

His #philosophy is all of life is a wager.

Read more:
https://theconversation.com/400-years-ago-philosopher-blaise-pascal-was-one-of-the-first-to-grapple-with-the-role-of-faith-in-an-age-of-science-and-reason-199659

And would you take his wager?

TheConversationUS, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to news

On Nov. 27, 1978, the late Dianne Feinstein, then the 45-year-old president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and two-time failed mayoral candidate called a press conference to announce her retirement.

That afternoon, a supervisor killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.

Feinstein handled the moment with poise, and went on to serve 9 years as mayor and 3 decades in the U.S. Senate.

A SF historian has more: https://theconversation.com/sen-dianne-feinstein-a-trailblazer-from-san-franciscos-city-hall-to-capitol-hill-199948
#News #Feinstein #uspolitics @histodons

TheConversationUS, 10 months ago to science

The first lab-grown burger cost $330,000 to create in 2013. The price has fallen to just under $10 per burger today, which is remarkable progress in just a decade.

It’s a remarkable scientific success, but the general public is divided over whether it will eat cultured meat (CM) products. Would you?

https://theconversation.com/lab-grown-meat-techniques-arent-new-cell-cultures-are-common-tools-in-science-but-bringing-them-up-to-scale-to-meet-societys-demand-for-meat-will-require-further-development-208343

#science #labgrownmeat #food

TheConversationUS, 7 months ago to news

Happy 9th birthday to us! 🎂🎉

Since The Conversation U.S. launched in 2014, we’ve published almost 19,000 articles by over 13,000 experts that have been read well over a billion times.

Thank you to our authors, donors, university members, staff – and especially to you, our readers. We appreciate your attention and support.

Below are links to some of our most popular stories from each of our 9 years 🧵
#News #Newstodon

“l am so glad | stumbled across this exciting academic site. | am not an academic, but enjoy reading learned viewpoints and increasing my own knowledge.” LISA, READER The Conversation US: Celebrating 9 years of sharing fact-based news
“You are greatly needed, much appreciated and very refreshing.” ANNE, READER The Conversation US: Celebrating 9 years of sharing fact-based news

TheConversationUS, 7 months ago to tech

An Israeli technology company has developed the means of delivering spyware via online ad networks. There’s no defense against the spyware and the Israeli government has given the company approval to sell the technology.

For now, take comfort in the fact that it’s a hefty $6.4 million price tag for a single ad infection.

https://theconversation.com/spyware-can-infect-your-phone-or-computer-via-the-ads-you-see-online-report-213685

#tech #technology #cybersecurity

TheConversationUS, 5 months ago to FreeSpeech

Is free speech in trouble on college campuses?

The controversy over university presidents who gave lawyerly answers in Congress about punishing students who call for genocide reflects the reality of college free speech codes that try to both encourage debate and stop hatred.

A #FirstAmendment expert provides some needed context:
https://theconversation.com/why-university-presidents-find-it-hard-to-punish-advocating-genocide-college-free-speech-codes-are-both-more-and-less-protective-than-the-first-amendment-219566
#FreeSpeech #AcademicChatter @academicchatter

TheConversationUS, 6 months ago to news

We've been on Mastodon for a year now! 🍰

Thank you to all of our followers who have made engaging on this platform so much more rewarding and civil than that other place!

The Conversation exists to inform you, to feed your curiosity and to bring you knowledge to help you understand the world.

If you know folks here who you think would find value in our work, please give this post a boost.

https://theconversation.com/us/who-we-are
#News #Newstodon

🧵 of some of our most popular posts from the past year:

TheConversationUS, 10 months ago to random

Why is fashion considered unserious, but sports taken seriously?

One queer feminist philosopher, Carol Hay, is working on breaking free of her #femmephobia.

In our society, femininity and things associated with females (like #Barbie) are consistently given lower value than things men traditionally like.

"I’m coming around to the recognition that performances of femininity can exist for purposes other than snagging a man."

And she links this issue to #transphobia

https://theconversation.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-doll-a-feminist-philosophers-journey-back-to-barbie-208730

TheConversationUS, 7 months ago to Health

It’s never a good idea to hit someone on the head as a cure for any type of concussion or brain injury.

Yet surveys of the public find that around 40% believe that a second blow to the head can help someone recover forgotten memories.

And this myth goes way back in popular culture.

https://theconversation.com/the-curious-origin-of-the-double-conk-theory-for-curing-amnesia-63903

#Histodons @histodons #Health #Amnesia

TheConversationUS, 3 months ago to history

If history had taken another path, bar codes would look dramatically different today. Pictured: Here’s some of the options that were being considered, and the bull’s-eye was a favorite ⬇️

“Even in their wildest dreams, [the committee members] could not have imagined how consequential their decision ended up being,” writes Jordan Frith of Clemson University.
https://theconversation.com/how-we-almost-ended-up-with-a-bulls-eye-bar-code-219194
@histodons #histodons #history #technology

TheConversationUS, 10 months ago to technology

Bank fraud is on the rise.

Remember:
• Use only one credit card for online shopping, and never use a debit card.
• Shred your financial information; don’t simply throw it out.
• Never give out personal information to anyone contacting you through unsolicited phone calls or emails.

More tips to protect yourself:
https://theconversation.com/how-to-protect-yourself-from-drop-account-fraud-tips-from-our-investigative-unit-206840

#fraud #crime #technology #security #safety

TheConversationUS, 7 months ago to USpolitics

Why are we so into campaign polls?

Sure, reporters – and readers – like a sense of what lies ahead, but polls are at best inaccurate and as we’ve seen in history, often wrong

https://theconversation.com/often-in-error-but-still-seductive-why-we-cant-quit-election-polls-213835
#uspolitics #PoliMastodon

TheConversationUS, 5 months ago to history

17th-century New England farmers moved a mind-staggering amount of stone to build walls – an estimated 240,000 miles of barricades, most stacked thigh-high and similarly wide.

That’s long enough to wrap Earth 10x at the equator – and is larger in volume than the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall in Britain and the Egyptian pyramids at Giza COMBINED.

https://theconversation.com/new-england-stone-walls-lie-at-the-intersection-of-history-archaeology-ecology-and-geoscience-and-deserve-a-science-of-their-own-216701
#agriculture #history @histodons #Histodons

TheConversationUS, 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago) to news

The people who exploit Amish life as a tourist attraction have a target market: Christian Nationalists.

The Amish are deeply committed to pacifism: many went to jail as conscientious objectors to America’s wars -- and they won’t even sing the National Anthem.

But Amish Country souvenirs are covered in the Stars and Stripes, and include many tchotchkes featuring extreme gun rights slogans.

And the trend is accelerating.

https://theconversation.com/amish-culture-prizes-peace-but-you-wouldnt-necessarily-know-it-from-a-stop-in-amish-country-tourist-towns-212419
#News #ChristianNationalism #Tourism

TheConversationUS, 7 months ago to Health

Your friendly reminder to get your updated #COVID-19 shot and your seasonal #flu shot as soon as possible.

https://theconversation.com/vaccines-against-covid-19-the-seasonal-flu-and-rsv-are-our-best-chance-of-preventing-a-winter-surge-215390

#health #MedMastodon #VaccinesWork

TheConversationUS, 7 months ago to random

The word “sonder” means “the profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it.”

#Humility grants you the ability to experience sonder as one of its many benefits.

Jen Cole Wright, a psychology professor at the College of Charleston, has studied this often overlooked virtue, and how your life can benefit from it:
https://theconversation.com/humility-is-the-foundation-to-a-virtuous-life-207897

TheConversationUS, 9 months ago to Marriage

More than 20 million Americans are ministers of the Universal Life Church – but the first was Kirby J. Hensley, who founded the church in California in 1959.

Hensley kept getting kicked out of churches he had founded, so he started a ministry where anyone could believe, teach and practice whatever they wanted.

The ULC was a pioneer in mail order ordination, as well as one of the first churches to sanctify #SameSexMarriage marriages, starting in 1971.
https://theconversation.com/just-about-anybody-in-america-can-officiate-a-wedding-thanks-to-the-internet-and-one-determined-preacher-207953
#Histodons

TheConversationUS, 9 months ago to random

Yes, watching a video on #gunsafety made children more cautious when they discovered a gun.

It’s a simple but effective method to help decrease the increasing and heartbreaking statistics of gun-related deaths in the U.S.

https://theconversation.com/a-1-minute-gun-safety-video-helped-preteen-children-be-more-careful-around-real-guns-new-research-207404

TheConversationUS, 1 month ago to USpolitics

Is being ‘woke’ a badge of honor?

Historically, the word was used as a warning to be aware of racial injustices.

https://theconversation.com/back-in-the-day-being-woke-meant-being-smart-215635
#racialinjustice #equality #USPolitics #BlackMastodon @blackmastodon

TheConversationUS, 9 months ago to ai

Google lards its search results with paid links.

Alexa won’t speak ill of Amazon.

Facebook and TikTok manipulate the content they show you.

It’s reasonable to expect that #AI assistants sold by these or other tech companies will steer you to the products and services that make the most profit for the tech companies.

And users have no way of knowing whose interests are being favored, or how they are being data-mined.

#ArtificialIntelligence #Privacy #ChatGPT
https://theconversation.com/can-you-trust-ai-heres-why-you-shouldnt-209283

TheConversationUS, 18 days ago to religion

To make the moon a graveyard goes against the beliefs of various human religions.

Here’s a look at what believers would say about this winter’s attempt to send a probe holding the remains of paying customers to the lunar surface

https://theconversation.com/why-having-human-remains-land-on-the-moon-poses-difficult-questions-for-members-of-several-religions-221399
#religion #indigenous @philosophy

TheConversationUS, 7 months ago to Health

Many movies reach sound levels of 85 decibels and beyond – the approximate level where hearing loss occurs.

https://theconversation.com/loud-sounds-at-movies-and-concerts-can-cause-hearing-loss-but-there-are-ways-to-protect-your-ears-211484

#health #healthstodonn #science