12D ago
HOT
10 sources
The author argues social science should prioritize identifying mechanisms and empirical patterns over defending big, identity‑laden theories. He uses NAFTA’s failure to equalize wages—and economists’ subsequent pivot to open‑borders advocacy—as a case where theory overrode evidence. He suggests migration research that models networks fits this mechanisms‑first standard better.
— This reframes how academia should inform policy, urging evidence‑first humility rather than theory‑driven prescriptions in contentious areas like immigration and trade.
Sources: The limits of social science (I) - by Lorenzo Warby, Sven Beckert on How Capitalism Made the Modern World, Is Capitalism Natural? (+7 more)
15D ago
1 sources
Filmmakers are using crafted animation to reconstruct and publicize private testimony from victims of state repression, turning fragmentary archival traces (letters, tapes) into emotionally powerful public evidence that resists official erasure. These works function as lightweight, distributed acts of archival repair that can pierce contemporary amnesia or active denial about past atrocities.
— If adopted more widely, this approach becomes a portable, low‑cost method for preserving contested histories and shaping national reckoning, with implications for transitional justice, education and historical policy.
Sources: Father’s letters
15D ago
1 sources
Laminated carbonate deposits in wells, baths and aqueduct channels can be sampled and chemically profiled to reconstruct changes in urban water sourcing, seasonality, and anthropogenic contamination—including lead exposure from plumbing—across centuries. Applied systematically, this ‘bath‑carbonate paleohydrology’ method turns public‑bath archaeology into a high‑resolution archive of urban environmental health.
— If deployed broadly, the technique provides a new empirical route to assess historical public‑health risks, inform debates about ancient urban infrastructure, and offer lessons for modern water‑system governance and legacy contamination.
Sources: Pompeii’s Early Baths Were Petri Dishes
16D ago
HOT
6 sources
When institutions tightly guard information about large technical or military projects, local populations often generate vivid, self‑sustaining narratives to fill the information void. Those rumors may be wildly inaccurate but perform political and social functions—explaining danger, policing outsiders, and shaping attitudes toward the project.
— Recognizing secrecy→rumor dynamics matters for contemporary policy around classified labs, AI research centers, border facilities, and emergency responses because misinformed local narratives can erode trust and complicate governance.
Sources: Some amazing rumors began to circulate through Santa Fe, some thirty miles away, US War Dept’s Big UFO Lie, Would Secrecy Make Congress Do Its Job? (+3 more)