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Your weekend reading: Ask a Korean about Malcolm Gladwell, plus why cynics are awesome

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Some chewy food for thought this week on the Internets:

The host of the blog Ask a Korean! responds to a chapter in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers that links culture to frequency of plane crashes. (Watch an unrelated talk from Gladwell here.) Read the original post here and some updates here, which includes Gladwell’s response to the criticism. [Ask a Korean!]

Being cynical is awesome, says Julian Baggini. It’s the optimists who are too cynical about cynicism. [Guardian]

The cultural divide isn’t between scientists and humanities scholars; it’s between farmers and everyone else. [Aeon]

With their astounding built-in compasses and clocks, other animals put human transportation methods to shame. Ugh, MTA. [Nautilus]

Elon Musk’s high-speed loop reminds us of the secret 30-year history of the Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel. [Idle Words]