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November 12, 2017

From Evolution and Human Behavior (H/T: Kevin Lewis):
Three studies using transmission chain protocols suggest a) that there is indeed a preference for the deliberate transmission of threat-related information over other material, b) that it is not caused by a general negativity or emotionality bias, and c) that it is not eliminated when threats are presented as very unlikely.

From Teju Cole's Known and Strange Things:
To be a stranger is to be looked at, but to be black is to be looked at especially.

From The Guardian (Francis Spufford on "The book I wish I’d written"):
Either Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union or the great New Zealand YA writer Margaret Mahy’s The Tricksters. They aren’t books that do the biggest things, but what they do, they do almost perfectly.

From The Guardian (Francis Spufford on "The book that had the greatest influence on my writing"):
Can I at least have one a decade? 0-10: the Narnia books. 11-20: Ursula K Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. 21‑30: Alasdair Gray’s 1982, Janine. 31-40: AS Byatt’s The Virgin in the Garden. 41‑50: Fitzgerald/Robinson...

From The Economist:
[Many] working-age adults are finding it harder to move far from their parents than previous generations. 
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