Six on Geography and Science: We Forget That Everything Is Relative; 7 Favorite Science Books of 2017; $16 Billion Bottled Wa
philip panaritis
"The story of Aunt Susan and JCPenney shows some of the many effects of relativity, one of the most powerful forces that make us assess value in ways that have little to do with actual value. At JCPenney, Aunt Susan assessed value based upon relative value, but relative to what? Relative to the original posted price. JCPenney helped her make the comparison by posting the discount as a percentage and adding notes like “sale” and “special” to help focus her attention on the amazing relative price they offered.
Which would you buy? A dress shirt priced at $60 or the very same dress shirt, priced at $100, but “On Sale! 40% off! Only $60!”?
It shouldn’t matter, right? A $60 shirt is a $60 shirt, no matter what language and graphics are on the price tag. Yes, but since relativity works on us at a very deep way, we don’t see these two in the same way, and if we were a regular like Aunt Susan, we would buy the on-sale shirt every time—and be outraged by the mere presence of the straight-up $60 one."
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"Emilie Kao, director of the DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation, said Mr. Anderson’s book “could not arrive at a more pertinent time for our nation.”
“At this critical time,” Ms. Kao said, “the freedom to debate the best treatments for gender dysphoria must be protected.”
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