Closing Even More Tabs

The tabs keep on coming, but this is it for a while, I hope.

The non-binary brain: Misogynists are fascinated by the idea that human brains are biologically male or female. But they’ve got the science wrong. From Aeon.

How "not in my backyard" became "not in my neighborhood." The expectation that homeowners should be able to reach beyond their property lines has become deeply embedded. By Emily Badger for the New York Times.

A good companion piece, from the Atlantic: The criminalization of gentrifying neighborhoods. "Areas that are changing economically often draw more police—creating conditions for more surveillance and more potential misconduct."

The dangers of elite projection. Public transit consultant Jarrett Walker ruminates on whether it makes sense to design large public systems around the feelings of billionaires like Elon Musk.

Some 2014 Pew research findings on teaching back up that depressing story from Monday about authoritarian orientations. (Conservatives value teaching faith and obedience; liberals value tolerance, for one set of contrasts.)

A story from November 2017 by Michael Lewis (for Vanity Fair) on how Mulligan has been trashing the USDA from day one.

Are private schools immoral? An Atlantic interview with New York Times education (and segregation) writer Nicole Hannah-Jones. It covers a lot more than the title suggests, for instance, "tell me another country where a group of people break off from a country, try to fight that country, and lose, and those people are glorified and defended by the highest office in the land." And, "We have a system where white people control the outcomes. And the outcome that most white Americans want is segregation." And, "I'm trying to get people who say they believe in equality and integration but act in ways that maintain inequality and segregation to live their own values.... If you could just get white liberals to live their values, you could have a significant amount of integration."

Western philosophy is racist. From Aeon. Academic philosophy in "the West" ignores and disdains the thought traditions of China, India, indigenous America, and Africa. This must change.

Atlantic freedoms: Haiti, not the U.S. or France, was where the assertion of human rights reached its defining climax in the Age of Revolution. From Aeon.

Too late to operate? Surgery near end of life is common, costly. From NPR.