Rotundus.com

How Did Roasting Vegetables Become a Thing? Didn’t Everyone Used to Boil Vegetables?

" the oven was for centuries considered to have an entirely different purpose from open fire: “The prejudice against closed-off cooking ranges was largely that they seemed too much like bread ovens. … Ovens were things that baked... ” This division persisted into the early 20th century, so it’s not surprising that many older people cook with an implicit sense that ovens are for breads and sweets and stovetops are for vegetables and proteins (except for those joints of meat that were too large to be cooked on the range)."

Netflix Binges and the New Tech Utopia: We were promised Star Trek; instead we got Wall-E.

"The most likely people to engage in free online college lectures are those who already have a graduate degree or are high-income earners. The same is true for volunteering and political involvement."

A Claim of Innocence Is No Longer a Roadblock to Parole

"Three times, the parole board rejected Mr. Cox, even though a co-defendant - who admitted to the murder, and has said Mr. Cox was innocent - was granted parole three years ago. The predicament that had confronted Mr. Cox is known as the parole paradox: Admitting guilt has historically given inmates a better shot at parole."

Are corporations people too?

The results of brain scans: "So what happened when people made judgments about the behavior of companies? Were companies understood more like people or like objects? 'The patterns of activity involved in judging corporations were almost the same as those involved in judging people,' said Savjani. 'In other words, corporations are represented by the brain as social beings rather than inanimate objects.'"

Some interesting comments on pay gaps from an article arguing that spending priorities in international development are wrong:

A primary concern is the salary gap between NGOs and state clinics. In Guinea, where the Ebola epidemic started a year ago, a physician employed by the government earns $300 to $400 a month, said Mohamed Lamine Yansane, a policy adviser at the country’s Health Ministry. The same doctor could get as much as $2,000 working for a foreign-backed non-governmental organization, he said.
In the public system, “people are badly paid and equipment is lacking,” Yansane said. “NGOs offer a more attractive work environment.”

The article might overall be best described as a call for more general focus on improved general health infrastructure rather than a disease-specific focus that might draw doctors away from where they might be most effective.

It's also worth noting that a disease-specific focus can be self-perpetuating by distorting statistics:

Benn acknowledged that services for non-communicable ailments such as cancer and heart disease have gotten less attention. There’s anecdotal evidence that people with such maladies falsely claim to have HIV to get access to better treatment, he said.

Why Most Financial Whistle-Blowers Go Unheard

"most whistle-blowers’ stories are simply not heard. In the vast majority of cases, people who speak out suffer in silence, alone and unheard. ... Successful whistle-blowers are not those with the most shocking truths, but rather they are the ones who happen to tap into a current trend. Their stories match up with what the media are excited about, what the public are angry about, or what the politicians can use for political capital at that particular time."

Messenger of the Gods

On corruption in Canadian journalism: "The website Canadaland, which exposed Lang’s conflicts last week, found that other journalists at the broadcaster were furious, but too frightened to speak on the record. But after CBC tried to dismiss the scandal as 'half-truths based on anonymous sources', Kathy Tomlinson, the reporter who had broken the story about the bank, bravely spoke publicly to the website. The following morning, staff in her office arrived to find this message spelt out in magnets on their fridge. 'Jesse Brown snitches get stitches'. Jesse Brown is Canadaland’s founder." Jesse Brown is also the guy who was first to write about Jian Ghomeshi this fall.

The Curse of Increasing Marginal Work Utility, or Why I Work So Much

"You could compare the job of an academic to having a teaching and administration job and having research as a hobby. Except that the 'hobby' is the presumed core of the job as advertised, and the reason you applied for the job." Sounds pretty accurate.

Crime and punishment: Islamic State vs Saudi Arabia

How does US ally Saudi Arabia compare to the Islamic State? "The Islamic State (IS) and Saudi Arabia prescribe near-identical punishments for a host of crimes, according to documents circulated by the militant group."

The title comes from Confessions of an Introverted Traveler and I think I, in many ways resemble that remark. Here's how the article describes the author's manner of travel:

I don’t seek people out, I am terrible at striking up conversations with strangers and I am happy exploring a strange city alone. I don’t seek out political discourse with opinionated cab drivers or boozy bonding with locals over beers into the wee hours. By the time the hours get wee, I’m usually in bed in my hotel room, appreciating local color TV. (So sue me, but I contend that television is a valid reflection of a society.)

So far my travels have involved sixteen countries spread across several continents and most of that travel has been solo. I wonder if I might be slightly less introverted than the person in question as I've enjoyed a number of conversations with cab drivers (at least where we share a common language). That said, I'm unlikely to join up with fellow travellers to go exploring destinations (excepting where safety is a significant concern) nor am I likely to wind up chatting with strangers at a bar. That said, I've never much taken to watching local TV - excepting perhaps the news - preferring either a book or a computer.

The same author also wrote Six Tips for Introverted Travelers and I think that there's some decent suggestions there.