Weekend Thoughts - 7.30.16

Image by Matt, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. From beanies to capes, man shorts to leggings, hipster clothing carries with it a bit of nostalgia. Why is that? Well, it turns out that the origins of today's hipster clothing trends has its roots in colonial times. For a brief history of the influence that colonialism had over today's hipster fashion sense, take a look at the linked article.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 7.23.16

Image by Eddie Yu, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy (belated) Saturday y'all! (Last week's posts are coming out late due to some issues on my end. My apologies!) Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. I thought this video depicting how tennis balls are made was pretty interesting, and you might too. It's a typical assembly line factory job, and it looks pretty terrible for the people working there, but the actual process of making the balls is visually compelling.

2. A 3.7 magnitude "earthquake" that was reported 168 miles off of Daytona Beach, Florida, turns out to not have been a natural event at all. In fact, it was a military test. The U.S. Navy performed a "shock trial" for a new combat ship, the USS Jackson, which was interpreted as an earthquake. Interestingly, seismographs as far away as Minnesota, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, and North Carolina registered the event.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 7.16.16

Image by David, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. Ah, physics. Prepare to be mesmerized: here is a video of 32 out-of-sync metronomes that become in-sync due to the transfer of force.

2. New research shows that half of all food produce in the United States is thrown away. In fact, discarded food is the largest component of landfills and incinerators in the country, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. This is a terrible tragedy—there are plenty of people that could be eating that food, and we could be giving back to the Earth by composting food waste rather than throwing it in the garbage.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 7.9.16

Image by Andrea Kirkby, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. This the best video on why the war on drugs has been a huge failure in the past ten years. It's fairly dense, so you may want to watch it more than once.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 7.2.16

Image by Andrea Kirkby, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. With all of the negative news surrounding us, it can be easy to think that the global state of affairs is getting worse. A lot of that is due to the way news organizations play off of a natural human trait—we are wired to pay more attention to negative news than positive news because that helps us survive in the wild. However, although we may fantasize about things being better "back in the day", the truth is the exact opposite in several ways. The author of the book Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think, Peter Diamondis, has written an article that shows "Why the World is Better Than You Think in 10 Powerful Charts". Among some of the most powerful trends include a significant decline in people living in absolute poverty, a sharp decrease in teen birth rates, homicide rates have dropped to nearly zero compared to the past several hundred years, and both the global years of education and literacy rates have skyrocketed to all-time highs. Rather than obsessing over the negative news that the news organizations want us to focus on, it can be more powerful and inspiring to embrace the evidence that shows that things are getting much better, not worse.

2. Let's face it, getting stopped by the cops sucks. PBS put together a quiz that presents several different investigatory police stop scenarios which asks the reader to determine which of the situations constitute an illegal stop. It's fairly thorough, and definitely worth a read.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.