How gendered narratives in reproductive biology shape our understanding
When I think about how I think, I realize that I am using words to think. When I think about the words I am using, certain thoughts or better impressions show up in my understanding. There is no exact word that I can think of to capture this experience of impressions I am having. My use of the word impressions, rather than thoughts, is an attempt to point out the way words have an impact not only on our understanding but on our senses also. I have also chosen to use the word understanding rather than mind because words do not just affect our minds in some enigmatical way. …
A framework for understanding what anthropologists study.
In the introduction of Being and Time, continental Philosopher Martin Heidegger criticizes various sciences by claiming that they have remained blind and perverted — because they lack an answer to the question “what is being.”
Interestingly, Heidegger gives us the answer in the introduction when he says that being (which determines entities as entities) is that on the basis of which entities are already understood. Understanding what that meant was an unexpected beginning for me, and it laid the foundation of my thinking on existentialism.
Expanding Heidegger’s Initial Answer To “What Is Being?”
Dasein, the being for which being is an issue, is a term Heidegger utilizes throughout Being and Time. Dasein is not a mind or a body in the Cartesian sense, rather it is a human being embedded in the world. Dasein is that being that is us, that makes choices on who we are, and whose choices redefine our identity. …
How Your Hurtful Words Get Amplified Online
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” simply does not apply in a world where those words can be amplified. When your words can be sent instantly to 1,000 people with the push of a button, the potential virality of any given post makes them exponentially worse.
Bullying is not something new, but the technology used to proliferate emotionally damaging words at an exponential rate is. Unlike bullying of yesteryear, the imbalance of power created by technology between the victim, the bully, and now enablers allows the bully to hide behind a screen, to escape any possibility of adverse consequences resulting from their behavior, and to multiply the assault through a variety of methods created by any individual social media platform. …
Politics, Racism
Slavery does not exist in America today, but not being fairly counted still does
Upon first reading, Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, you may assume that the 3/5ths rule is a simple calculation that identified slaves i.e. “other Persons”, as only 3/5ths human, but the story of racism and power in America is far more complicated then you might imagine.
“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other Persons.” — Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. …
By the time you finish reading this article, the ultra-wealthy would have amassed more wealth than you can possibly spend your entire life.
If you are a lawyer working at a rate of $250/hr, it would take you 720,000,000 hours, or 30,000,000 days or roughly 82,192 years to earn the equivalent of one man’s net worth. Jeff Bezos’ net worth is roughly $180,000,000,000. Unfathomable doesn’t quite capture what it means to have that much money.
Bill Gates is the second richest person in the world behind Jeff Bezos with a net worth of $103,000,000,000, followed by either a Mark Zuckerberg or Warren Buffet who trade spots for third at over $80,000,000,000 each. Collectively, these four individuals alone own more wealth than half the population of the United States or 164,000,000 Americans. The average middle income of someone living in California is $77,000. …
Knowledge is a flawed idea, and it has been since Plato.
Imagine an advanced civilization of aliens that visit Earth. These aliens call themselves “Dasien” and bring with them advanced technology. They offer it to us.
We do our best to try to understand Dasien and the tools they bring, but no matter what we do we are incapable of understanding. They provide manuals written in their Dasien language, which we try to decipher and translate into our own human language. Despite our best efforts, we stumble and fail to grasp anything meaningful. To us, Dasien and their technology are nothing short of magic.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
— Arthur C. …
If you are wondering what your site visitors are doing on your Mailchimp website, perhaps it’s time to set up Google Analytics
If you’ve been following along in my Mailchimp Love series you are probably discovering that Mailchimp is a very powerful tool that anyone can learn to use, but also learning that there are limitations to what’s possible. My goal is to set up a website using tools the average person (or Medium writer) has at their disposal, without spending any additional money. Or, to find a way to make the NoCode web development more accessible to everyday people with everyday budgets. The internet, after all, belongs to everyone, not just those with big wallets.
At this point, I’ve set up a very basic website that I can use to promote my brand and sell my products. I already have users visiting my site, granted not very many, but enough to start wondering what those users are doing. What I’d like to do now is implement Google Analytics in order to better understand the behaviors of the people visiting my site. …
Our struggle to find our way in a chaotic world
The world we live in is a chaotic landscape. In our everyday lives, we encounter fragmented experiences that are in constant flux like dessert sand slipping through our fingers. From our basic perceptions and introspection, we struggle to understand who we are, where we are, and why we are.
We look around in our world and we construct categories, and like empty buckets, we fill them with these experiences, as if somehow doing so provides answers to those maddening questions. …
Use Canva to unleash your creativity and meet your marketing and design needs without breaking the bank.
A few weeks ago I embarked on a new project, #ProjectDigitalSurvival. The goal of the project is to try to develop a website in Mailchimp with zero budget. The idea behind the project was really motivated by (1) my curiosity with Mailchimp's new website builder tool and how far we can test the limits of what’s possible in that system, and (2) the desire to develop a framework that anyone could adopt to develop something with little technical experience or very little money. Thus far in the project, I’ve been able to secure a domain name and host a new site, www.emanuellusca.com, …
Truth is a philosophical concept. Facts are a cultural product.
What is a fact today, may not be a fact tomorrow. Bruno Latour in his book Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts details how the “daily activities of working scientists lead to the construction of scientific facts“. Let that sink in for a second. If Latour is correct, then facts are more like cultural artifacts created by the scientist-artist.
This notion of fact as an artifact has never been more apparent than it is in today’s political climate. Every day we see political figures making statements only to contradict themselves the following week. Most often the ensuing discourse is around the truth, and that is valuable, but a more constructive approach would be to understand that the facts have nothing to do with truth, and instead have everything to do with utility and value. In other words, what I state today as fact is a tool that I’m using to obtain something of value. From a political perspective, that thing of value might be as simple as gaining favor from my base of supporters or creating an alternative narrative that supports my decisions. This has little to do with truth. …
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