Robert de Neufville
Contributor, Big Think
Recent Activity
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Congress is apparently now speaking at a 10th grade level. The Sunlight Foundation recently analyzed the Congressional Record and found that the average member of Congress speaks at 10.6 grade reading level on the standard Flesch-Kincaid scale. That’s down almost a full grade level from 2005 ... Read More
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Last week the House voted 218-208 to block the National Science Foundation from funding political science research. No other type of research would be blocked by the NSF budget amendment. The NSF could still continue funding research in sociology, anthropology, and economics. The amendment would ... Read More
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On Wednesday, President Obama became the first sitting president to support marriage equality for gays and lesbians. The president’s support does nothing to alter the moral case for marriage equality. While Obama said he personally supported same-sex marriage, he didn't say he thought states should ... Read More
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In an interview in Ohio on Monday, Mitt Romney said he would “take a lot of credit” for the fact that the U.S. auto industry has rebounded. That’s a remarkable statement. In fact, it’s an outrageous statement. When the auto manufacturers were bailed out in late 2008, Mitt Romney was out of ... Read More
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Torture doesn’t work. There has never been much reason to believe that it does. Now Reuters reports that a three-year investigation by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence committee confirms what we already knew: there's little evidence that our so-called “enhanced interrogation” techniques ... Read More
About Robert de Neufville
I lecture and write about politics and philosophy. I hold degrees in politics from Harvard and Berkeley, and have studied complex systems at the Santa Fe Institute. Other interests include theoretical physics, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and the game of Go. You can find me on Twitter at @rdeneufville.