History and Pop culture

We’ve made the difficult decision to shut down Pocket on July 8, 2025. Thank you for being part of our journey over the years—we're proud of the impact Pocket has had for our users and communities.

Religiosity tends to decline across generations

first, public ritual participation declines; second, the importance of religion to individuals declines; and third, people shed religious affiliation

we recommend caution in interpreting longitudinal claims, due to limited data

It is well established that religion declines in Western countries

The model links modernization, particularly institutional and technological innovation, to a decline in the symbolic and social functions of religion3

biomedicine replacing religious healing, welfare states replacing spiritual reassurance—religion loses functional relevance

credibility enhancing displays (CRED’s

The central idea of CRED’s is that individuals will believe and imitate others with a higher probability if these others back up their words with hard-to-fake deeds6

Because of the increasing efficiency of secular goods, parents may still teach their children religiosity—but stop backing it up with religious behavior. This will lead children to drop their religiosity levels.

The term has become an idiom describing a group of persons, each agreeing to perform an impossibly difficult task under the misapprehension that someone else will be chosen to run the risks and endure the hardship of actual accomplishment

I like the Retro Game Mechanics channel on YouTube. What was possible was limited by the hardware, and in a weird way it forced games to be good. Skill was apparent by a quick viewing, and different skill is usually highly correlated. Good graphics meant good story – not true today

What if the Internet was a mistake? I feel like it’s breaking my brain

not having the Internet with you will be a choice, not a real barrier. There’s nowhere to hide

Chris McCandless wanted to be an explorer, but being born in 1968 meant that the world was already all explored. His clever solution, throw away the map. But that didn’t make him an explorer, it made him an idiot who died 5 miles from a bridge that would have saved his life

The TikTok brainrot kids will be nothing compared to the ChatGPT brainrot kids

It will be whatever it is

playing the Nazi card,[1][2] is an attempt to invalidate someone else's argument on the basis that the same idea was promoted or practised by Adolf Hitler or the Nazi Party.[3]

"You know who else...?" with the deliberate intent of impugning a certain idea or action by implying Hitler had that idea or performed such an action

No other signal like it has been detected before or since.

the signal was much more powerful than had previously been predicted at 250 Janskys, four times larger than had previously been estimated.

We propose that the Wow! Signal was caused by the abrupt brightening of the hydrogen line of these clouds triggered by an intense radiation source, such as a magnetar flare or a soft gamma repeater

Merlin displays what he knows so shamelessly that he throws everyone off

the “shameless” approach is becoming a dominant strategy today. It was first popularized in modern canon by Paris Hilton, who played the “dumb blonde heiress

people were dismissive of Paris because validating her playbook would mean admitting that they were playing an inferior game

Today, it seems like punishing shamelessness only increases social rewards to the transgressor. What’s changed?

In the past, if the size of your community was finitely bounded (like a village, or an aristocratic social class), people didn’t enter or exit these communities as frequently. Under these conditions, sanctions are probably still effective, because members of the community want to be liked and accepted.

But the borders to online communities are much more fluid - perhaps even nonexistent

will backfire, because they just serve as a signaling boost for the transgressor, attracting outsiders who resonate with that person’s message.

forms the basis for an entirely new community.

A common critique of shameless people is questioning their intelligence

it doesn’t actually matter how aware that person is

The shameless person is simply a host for a set of ideas, which, like any virus

Economics

Nata in Egitto, la danzatrice ha parenti in Veneto e si è sempre definita “più italiana che egiziana”. Conosciuta con il nome di Linda Martino, la donna ha sposato un italiano

Amazon is full-stop evil, no caveats, and is undeserving of your money on a moral and ethical level no matter what your values are.