My Favorite Bit this week was about the advice that Patrick Haggerty’s father gave him in 1959 to embrace his sexuality and not sneak around hiding the person he is.
Ana Homayoun shares more parenting advice about how to disrupt ‘bro culture’ by providing opportunities for boys and young men to develop empathy and develop better communication skills. Curbing aggressive masculinity also calls for acknowledging that the problem of sexual assault includes men who are raped.
Other civil rights issues to include allegations that Israeli troops are deliberately maiming Palestinian teenagers as well as the systematic disenfranchisement of poor citizens in Alabama (and around the United States) who are prevented from voting due to unpaid fines. Ben Mattlin, who was born with spinal muscular atrophy, weighs in on the issue of legal assisted suicide pointing out the lack of protections for people with disabilities who are often made by society to feel like a burden on others.
Becoming a parent is well-known to be a transformative experience and just becoming pregnant changes the structure of a mother’s brain. Parenting can be even more challenging when adopting children with a different racial identity; one white mother discovered the racism at her own church when she adopted two black babies.
Racism is an integral part of the history of the Mississippi Delta (“the most Southern place on earth”), but Jemar Tisby moved there anyways and developed an appreciation for how apparent the racial wounds are and how these wounds shape American culture. Institutionalized racism is not confined to American shores; Sujatha Gidla shares her experiences as a member of India’s “untouchables” caste. Combating all of this racism requires more white people to speak out, like NBA coach Gregg Popovich who provides an example of how to use white privilege against white supremacy..
In legal news there is a growing movement in the United States to call a new constitutional convention which would put the United States in unchartered legal territory. Clarence Thomas, however, doesn’t need a convention to change the constitution and has cultivated a network of clerks turned lawyers and judges to promote his “once-fringy legal vision”. Whatever happens, there is one piece of advice that law professor James Duane wants you to know – don’t ever talk to the police.
Scientists in a variety of fields continue to break ground from declaring Zealandia to be its own continent to helping a paralyzed man stand again. Octopus researchers provide insights into the origins of consciousness as these curious mollusks show signs of consciousness that developed independently of humans and our closer relatives. In outer space, astrophysicists think they have found half the missing matter in the universe.
Analyzing word frequency in five decades of sex research show the evolution of what society feels is normal bedroom behavior. Evolving norms of acceptable sexual behavior and relationships may reduce the number of marriages that are ruined by monogamy; monogamy is not the only successful arrangement for a happy relationship and some cultures already embrace the idea of taking multiple husbands.
The last hodgepodge of articles spans advice on learning how to learn, the Swedish tradition of death cleaning, the tragedy of permanent psychological damage inflicted on children who experience violence, a formula for figuring out when humans will go extinct, research showing that embracing negative emotions can be healthier than always trying to be happy, and the advantages of acting like a sociopath.
Finishing off your week in review is an awe-inspiring photo collection of the best astronomy photos of 2017.
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Have a great rest of your week!