Word: stubbornest
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...belief engine, Wolpert concludes, works on wholly unscientific principles: "It prefers quick decisions, it is bad with numbers, loves representativeness and sees patterns where there is only randomness. It is too often influenced by authority and it has a liking for mysticism." It is no coincidence that the stubbornest of our "irrational" beliefs correspond to our fears of the unknown, the unknowable and the unstoppable - of disease, death and natural disaster. Although Wolpert is a passionate promoter of science, he still recognizes that religion has its benefits and that in some things "reason will never triumph over superstition." The Nobel...
...these customs are more than cultural frippery, though we don't always realize it until food and tradition come uncoupled. Among immigrants, particularly those coming to the U.S., the obesity problem has become a full-blown crisis. Even the stubbornest new arrivals may find that their food practices are impossible to maintain in a new environment, where familiar ingredients aren't available, old-world holidays aren't observed and the Mediterranean tradition of the heavy lunch must yield to the less healthy practice of postponing the big meal until the end of the day. "There's a lot of food...