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developed by JhackAbout Skeptikai
Skeptikai defends science and exposes pseudoscience. Living in Japan also allows for an interesting opportunity to discuss fascinating stories that go unnoticed elsewhere. Psychological phenomena and intriguing cases from around the globe are also regularly highlighted.
Should You Let Your Kid Date in Middle/High School? Science Gives a Surprising AnswerYoung love can show you things about yourself you've never known. It can bring you to…
In Japan, Strangers are More Likely than Family to Give CPR for Cardiac ArrestWhen it comes to Japanese people giving CPR to someone suffering a cardiac arrest, it…
Power and Rape – Part 2: How to Create a Breeding Ground for Sex OffendersAs I mentioned in Part 1, rape is tolerated in the military because the acknowledgment of…
Power and Rape – Part 1: Rape in the Military is a Career Killer… for the VictimIf you ever wanted to know just how bad "blaming the victim" can get, look no further than the…
Does Chewing Gum Help You Concentrate?If you want to be a rocket scientist, you might want to start chewing that stick of gum.…
Possessed by Demons, Animals, and Nonsense"Japan doesn't have that stuff. That's more of a Western thing." Just like I constantly…
SATIRAN – Part 3: “Judicial Theatre,” or Judgment for the 2010 IsraeliIn May 2010, the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" was sent to give humanitarian aid and…
Study: Close Relationships Aren’t Necessarily BetterIt makes sense, doesn't it? The closer you are to someone, the better your relationship…
Are Religious People More Charitable, Generous, and Altruistic than Atheists?According to a Canadian study from 2008, religious people are "more helpful, honest and…
Gender, Age, Socioeconomic, and Cultural Differences in Social Networking Site UsageOnline social networks has become an interesting platform for research, and hundreds if…
Tag Archives: education
Should You Let Your Kid Date in Middle/High School? Science Gives a Surprising Answer
Young love can show you things about yourself you’ve never known. It can bring you to happiness and leave you in despair. It can take away the trust you thought you had with others, and make you want to give up on the world. It can teach you what it means to be human, and make you feel more real than ever before. Young love can be all of these things and more, but we never see it coming. The only thing we can really expect is that it will probably change us, for better or worse. Luckily, new research has just looked into some of the effects of dating on academic performance, drug usage, and school drop-out rates, so we know now more than ever before. The results of the research are stunning.
Posted in Culture, Psychology, Science, Sex and Sexuality, Social Psych
Tagged dating, drugs, education, happiness, love, teenagers
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Top 5 Quotes of Stupid America’s War on Smart People
The American war on smart people is incredible. For some reason, there has been a growing disdain for intellect and distrust for education in the “Greatest Country in the World,” and this year’s presidential election has never ceased to amaze me at every turn. The idea that people should not be educated, think critically, or be honest is ridiculous, foolish, and dangerous. Obviously not all education is equal (i.e,. unaccredited universities are garbage) and not all smart people are educated (nor are all educated people smart). But in general, no one should dismiss or denigrate education. So here is a list of the five most egregious quotes that demonstrate the growing animosity towards intelligence and education in America.
Posted in Aggregators/lists/rankings, Biology & Evolution, Culture, Featured, Legal Issues, Media, Psychology, Science, Skepticism
Tagged comedians, education, evolution, intelligence, politics, Santorum
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If You Study Islam, Be Careful in the U.S.
If you’re studying Islam and you’re going to America, you had better have a squeaky clean record – and even then, you still might get questioned more than a bit aggressively. This is the story of one man who went into the field of Islamic Studies for his PhD, and went through an ordeal that for no reason ended up with him having a permanent record. He was just a regular PhD student from McGill University, and the fact that he had dual American and French citizenship didn’t seem to matter – he was suspicious. Evidently, there’s something wrong with learning more about Islam in America, even when it’s done in Canada.
Posted in Biographical, Culture, Legal Issues
Tagged America, crime, discrimination, education, Islam
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Why Can’t Japanese People Say L’s or R’s?
Most Westerners who come into contact with Japanese people first wonder why they can’t seem to pronounce R’s and L’s. Those who are around them more often tend to observe that they actually can pronounce them, but they always mix them up. Neither of these assumptions are totally accurate. In order to understand the confusion with these English letters, we have to know a bit about the Japanese language.
Top 5 Commencement Speeches of 2012
I’ve done it again – watched all the commencement speeches on YouTube, just like last year. In fact, I watched all of them at least three times – I take these rankings seriously (despite the fact that no one else does). The ones that made the list usually dealt with a good message, kept attention through the use of humor, and was practical for the audience. I still think the #1 from last year’s ranking was better, but all of the ones on this list are still inspirational and enlightening. That’s true even for those of us who were not sitting in the audience at the time.
Oh, the Humanities! – Who Cares About Humanities and Social Sciences?
The “Mickey-Mouse courses,” the “fluffy concepts,” the “GPA boosters,” the “classes with all the hot girls”… or as you know might also know them, the humanities. Those artsy classes that only those theatre-types or cultural elitists understand. And then there are those social sciences, the kind that don’t deal with the real or hard sciences like chemistry or physics, but the unscientific ones like society and behavior. They don’t involve some of the hard choices that come from important fields of today like business and computer science. In fact, what good are the humanities anyways? And just who needs (or even likes) social sciences?
Are the ESL Programs in Japan Doing More Harm than Good?
When you see the same mistakes being made over and over by different people – which you will inevitably see in the English education system in Japan – then the problem is clear. It’s not an individual thing; it’s a systematic issue. Students are all somehow being taught the same mistakes, and/or not enough people are fixing them. There are hundreds if not thousands of small businesses and little organizations (especially in Tokyo) that are trying to beat the bad habits out of students, but you will be surprised at how far these mistakes reach. I didn’t have to look hard to find examples of this in the newspaper.
Posted in Culture, Japan, Media, Translations
Tagged advertisements, education, English, japanese language, languages
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Land of the Falling Sun – Japan On its Way to Becoming an Insignificant Nation
It pains me to say this nation that I love so much is falling off the world stage as a major player; but it needs to be said. A few weeks ago, India overtook Japan as the world’s third-biggest economy in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) - a calculation of the amount of money needed to purchase the same goods and services. And now, it looks like it won’t be long before Brazil overtakes Japan next. But this is not the only reason I think that Japan will lose its significance in decades to come. The fact of the matter is that the awful Japanese economy, along with the population falling off a cliff, means that we’re looking at a bleak future of Japan. In just a few decades, Japan will be dramatically downgraded unless there are some substantial changes.
Posted in Activism, Culture, Japan, Legal Issues
Tagged America, Canada, demography, economy, education, India, Russia
2 Comments
Japanese Students’ Opinions Can Be Manipulated by Stranger’s Opinion (Study)
If I asked a straight-forward question about your opinion on a simple topic, you would likely be able to articulate you thoughts. Now what if I asked that question, but before you gave an answer, you read the opinion of a stranger who answered the same question. Assuming you already have an opinion, you probably would not be affected by this, right? I have my doubts – perhaps the presentation of a relatively obvious argument might still influence someone’s opinion. Instead of sitting around wondering, I decided to find this out for myself, so I conducted a simple experiment.
The Ten Most Educated and Smartest Countries in 2012
An interesting ranking was recently reported by Yahoo! Finance, on the ten most educated countries of the world. That is, which countries have the highest percentage of people with post-secondary education. Apparently college and university graduation rates have increased in half a century by almost 200%, but the rates among countries vary greatly. And while it’s not surprising to see countries that spend a great deal of their GDPs on education, many of the countries on the list spend comparably little, and yet see high numbers of graduates. So after you check to see if your country made the list, be sure to ask yourself: Just what does this really mean?
Posted in Aggregators/lists/rankings, Culture, Japan, Media, Skepticism
Tagged America, Australia, Canada, China, education, Finland, intelligence, Israel, Korea, new zealand, Norway, UK
47 Comments