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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Fear and Loathing in Mosquito-Land

We hate mosquitoes.

But why?  I mean, yes --- West Nile, dengue, malaria, Zika…not to mention ruined picnics, sleepless nights, and bites you scratch until they bleed … Those are logical reasons to dislike mosquitoes.  But admit it – they also just creep you out.

Jeffrey Lockwood gets at the psychology in his book “The Infested Mind.” He’s an entomologist who once had a truly horrific encounter with a swarm of grasshoppers.   He was left traumatized. Afterwards he wondered why we all fear and loathe insects so much.

Lockwood told Rehman Tungekar the answer is deep deep in our psyches.

 

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Cindy Engel on Animal Self-Medication

Biologist Cindy Engel tells Steve Paulson that wild animals self-medicate in a number of ways and that there is really no difference for animals between nutrition and medicine.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

David Weinberger on "Too Big to Know"

Information, information everywhere... where's knowledge? David Weinberger from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society says knowledge lies in the links between data and info. 

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

BookMark: Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem bookmarks "Kafka Was the Rage" by Anatole Broyard.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ben Folds on A Cappella

Ben Folds is fascinated with the human voice, especially in the genre of A Cappella music.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

David Bainbridge on the Natural History of Teens

Biologist and science writer David Bainbridge tells Steve Paulson that a prolonged adolescence is unique to humans and one of our greatest evolutionary advantages.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Brian Swimme on Mechanical Clocks

The invention of mechanical clocks created a kind of artificial time which permits greater efficiency, but cuts human beings off from the rest of nature.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Black Nature on the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars

A young man named Black Nature is one of the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars. He tells how the group formed while fleeing from the brutality and bloodshed of their country's civil war.

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