Image by Wayne S. Grazio, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.
Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:
1. An article on Vox explores one of the major issues in science today—how elite scientists can hold back scientific progress simply by staying alive; in this sense, it could be said that science is advancing very slowly—one prominent scientist's funeral at a time. We see this issue when new evidence is presented that contradicts the currently-accepted scientific (and historical) model of reality, such as the recent ideas put forth by Graham Hancock, Rupert Sheldrake, and Randall Carlson. From the article, "Science is not immune to interpersonal bullshit. Scientists can be stubborn. They can use their gravitas to steamroll new ideas. Which means those new ideas often only prevail when older scientists die."
2. A feature at Mother Jones details nine ways police have more protections than average citizens do when they are arrested. Must be nice!
3. For years, people were able to opt-out of the body scanner line that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) maintains at airports in favor of a physical pat-down. However, the Department of Homeland Security has ruled that although citizens are still allowed to opt-out of the body scanner process, the TSA now has the ability to decline the opt-out request for "security" reasons. Essentially, you can say "No thanks", but the TSA can now say "No thanks" right back to you, for any made-up reason they want.
That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.