A combination of personal experiences, conversations with friends and reading feminist blogs (more serious thoughts on the Nice Guy™ concept I encountered there coming soon) have tempted me into writing a little guide to avoiding bad love, in basically two sections: Reality and Respect, with Misunderstood Romance as an overarching theme holding them together.

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In the spirit of a rainy Sunday (now that my free time is mostly concentrated on the weekend, that really sucks) I’m catching up with my blogging. So these are almost real-time pictures from my current life and work on the Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza as a WWOOFer (these are the Brazil farms, mine is BRA108). Their main product is Bob-o-link Coffee, but they also have a range of „micro-lot“ coffees, specific beans in small quantities. And there’s a café in Freiburg using their coffee: „Elephant Beans“ in Basler Straße near Johanneskirche (for the locals ), run by Jörg Volkmann who I had the pleasure to briefly talk to on Skype. Oh how the world is small!

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• While press raises worry about „Sharia“ in the new Libya, it is unquestioned in „liberated“ Iraq and Afghanistan http://t.co/T8UAlAls #
• Berlusconi zeigte, wie Anti-Parteien-Impulse antidemokratisch werden können und ein heimlich autoritäres Regime http://t.co/Ss6EyODR #
• XKCD „Missile Launch Web Interface“ http://t.co/z7WSwgNJ Which mistakes are important — also hover mouse on image and read. #
• Science tattoos. Many are nerdy, but love the finks http://t.co/pfxgtEK3 and Strebe Projection world map http://t.co/v0yw73qT #
• „Tribal Bonds“: Sometimes refreshing to see the positive sides of our species pointed out http://t.co/BZ6MXrpU how pro-social we really are #
• I didn’t think Daylight Saving Time could ever make me laugh. Can, if dogs and food come into play http://t.co/jPlqpcQo #

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This little comic comparing different gods‘ achievement made me laugh twice — first because the comparison is so sweet, and second when I talked about it with a friend who pointed to some methodological flaws in the conclusion. So I can’t resist sharing it here, and commenting on how it illustrates some problems in (especially) social science research on intervention effects.

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Following some of the feminist blogosphere since some time now, I frequently come across criticisms of „Evolutionary Psychology“. Discussing some of that with a friend who works in the field revealed that there is a lot of discontent and a feeling of being misunderstood among scholars there. A reply from an evolutionary psychologist that he referred me to disappointed me (I want to respond in detail to that later), as well as a recent journal publication with a very promising title (David M. Buss & David P. Schmitt (2011). Evolutionary Psychology and Feminism [pdf]. Sex Roles. doi:10.1007/s11199-011‑9987-3). Both show that they are at least as ignorant of what the critique is all about as their critics are of Evolutionary Psychology. I’m going to try to fill in some of these gaps in both directions, and explain why I mostly side with „the feminists“ at the end. This is at the same time part of a thought process of mine concerning epistemology („what and how can we know about the world“) and the role of science in a much more general sense. I didn’t really feel ready to write about that yet, but I might not anytime soon, and this kind of discussion arises so often that I decided to share my preliminary thoughts. I’m aware there will be holes and inconsistencies and look forward to criticism.

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• Dangers of stupid sex marketing: „Axe had essentially become the brand for pathetic losers“ http://t.co/TjKzs7EO too bad. Plus: Good music. #
• Mankiw’s textbook: rapacious monopolist or benign regulator http://t.co/nUN42Rtm #reflexiveeconomics see also: http://t.co/xKK1RnOO #
• Google’s custom-tailored search will tell you what you want to read http://t.co/sQVvg9nI and no, climate change doesn’t happen. Real Scary! #
• FDP als Anwalt der Kleinen: Justizministerin Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger will Online-Abmahnungsindustrie stoppen http://t.co/lAw8WGjk gut! #
• Worldwide facebook friendships mapped http://t.co/bXLgkaqe (beautiful, made in #R ; „light without facebook“ (NASA pic) http://t.co/3h4K1urG #
• Tunisia’s 41% victory of Muslim „fundamentalist“ Al-Nahda actually opens the door for pluralism there http://t.co/Aq7DYCOK hopeful! #
• 10 ways for a movement like #OWS to excel http://t.co/bIitED9y advise from Iran’s Green Movement coming back to the West. #ilovelivingnow #
• Amazing graph of 1% issue: If American Land were Distributed the way American Wealth Is http://t.co/vgysJJFC crazy. #
• What cause? Who with? Where? How long? Doing good the easy way — http://t.co/Zgg9U7W4 http://t.co/lYi7nVWi Cool and scary. Hope it works! #

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Johannesburg should have prepared me for crazy big city, but there’s crazy and crazy. And Sao Paulo is definitely on the top of the scale. Well, my very first contact, at the tourist information in the airport, was actually very nice. Then buying the ticket for the airport shuttle bus into the city brought the immediate realization that even in tourist-heavy places English is no option. And high tolerance for weird bureaucratic procedures, reminding me of Italy, is essential. The first bus on my line was half empty, but I had been sold a ticket for the next one, and wouldn’t be let onto the first one to leave… By the way, I think Sao Paulo has the largest Italian population of any place outside Italy.

Well, the more difficult the official way of things is, the more nice people you always encounter to smooth your way. The entry to the apartment complex of my first host already familiarized me with the security procedures which seem intense even after Johannesburg. I was waiting to be picked up in between two electric fences, a moat-like structure, where the two gates would never be opened at the same time. So this is my first picture:

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• Occupy Wall Street seen through a generational lense http://t.co/GUPvyFmx why Gen X has stayed silent with irony, and Millenials get active #
• #travelinsight 78: With a little practice, a slow old computer’s loading breaks can be wonderful to relax your eyes. Cheap solution… #
• Philosophic examination of personal freedom and economic freedom http://t.co/lQn8Nay3 are not naturally allies, actually often contradictory #
• Familienbericht 2011 fordert „Zeitpolitik“, aber zahm http://t.co/Sf4eRh7A SZ kommentiert zu Effekten von Ehegattensplitting & 400-Euro-Jobs #
• Panne beim Titelfoto für Steinbrück-Schmidt Buch: Schachbrett liegt quer http://t.co/SppcUKSO Darf nicht passieren! #
• Incredible that science, dedicated to advancing knowledge, is hiding most of it away. Support Open Access! http://t.co/mcoQEZgv #
• #ZEIT #Stimmts: Wasser sparen in Deutschland unnötig? http://t.co/gfQf87YL Informiertes Ja mit Hinweis auf Warmwasser & indirekten Verbrauch #
• Gehalt und Urlaub selbst bestimmen und vor Kollegen rechtfertigen http://t.co/Yg8WClj6 interessantes Konzept, sicher mit dunklen Seiten. #
• Map of worldwide abortion laws. Very good overview http://t.co/mZWUhOYg #
• Love these minimalist posters of classic children’s stories. As subtly creepy as the originals, too http://t.co/2jhT2tN1 #

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This are pictures and stray memories from one amazing week in Johannesburg (South Africa). I got reminded again of how amazing Couchsurfing is, staying with friends in a strange city. And the history of racial and colonial struggles was certainly a suitable end to my time in Africa.

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• #travelinsight 77: You can’t live a life worth living without putting yourself in risk of dying sometimes. #
• Press FAILS: Why US public blames politics instead of banks, presidential coverage bias& #OWS protests „unprecedented“? http://t.co/jhY4Dudf #
• Camera about to be released where you decide the focus after taking the picture http://t.co/tKWygZw4 Really a 3D picture of course. Amazing! #
• Charities petitioning in favor of AT&T — T-Mobile merger show how companies abuse „doing good“ for lobby purposes http://t.co/aS1zcG7Z #
• Consequentialist argument for a quite radical, though flexible, pacifism in both social movements and countries http://t.co/migX5zSh #
• Respect to #Mankiw for pointer to distributional effects of 9–9-9 tax proposal http://t.co/i6SwcP3X bottom 90% loose, top 1% win big time… #
• Wie sähe eine Welt ohne Vergewaltigungen aus http://t.co/fdMfqkpn Illustriert gut „male privilege“, siehe auch: http://t.co/2GrtNsFu #
• Looking at mental disorders from an evolutionary perspective leads to seeing them as caused by social problems http://t.co/wQpfXi6G #
• European „discovery“ of the Americas contributed to „Little Ice Age“ by wiping out native Americans who burned wood http://t.co/dp7ujyZ8 #

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