I’ll be posting another actual ATNT post tomorrow. For now, I just want to indicate other posts I’ve written recently. 1. MAKING MONSTERS [link] At my friend Martin Pribble’s blog, […]
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The new CNN poll has Obama leading Romney 52-45. That’s close to the margin separating the two candidates among independents. It’s also close to the distance between them when it […]
Dear Readers, I made a mistake. In the article below, I said it would take some very high rates of growth to close the $7 trillion gap in Mitt Romney’s […]
So, here’s the question for today: How should we respond when people we admire make serious missteps? Just so there’s no confusion, I want to say right up front that […]
Someday soon you may be able to create replicas of 3D objects by taking their photo and feeding the data to your at-home printer. Will that be the end of the manufacturing-based economy?
Jaron Lanier: if we don’t learn to acknowledge that real people are actually creating the value online, we’re never going to learn how to create the information economy that can really create employment and self-determination.
The redoubtable fashion critic Simon Doonan, author of Gay Men Don’t Get Fat,observes that a unique appearance is a political liability in the United States. Mitt Romney, he observes, is “so handsome that he runs the risk of looking too “plastic…like a TV anchor.”
Data-mongering is how Americans try to explain or control someone’s actions. And yet, statistics about people in general, or about some category of people, tell you nothing certain about any one individual.
The Brooklyn Book Festival took place last weekend, and I still can’t stop thinking about Mary Higgins Clark. She’s a GILF, a grandmother I’d like to “Friend,” and leave inside […]
The multicultural joke goes like this: The Lone Ranger and Tonto find themselves in a tough spot, surrounded by hostile Native Americans. “We’d better get out of here,” the Lone […]
Over the past decade, there have been several studies suggesting potential gene variants that may be linked to IQ.
What is the strongest motivation for space exploration today? According to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, it’s the promise of economic return.
New York, 1964. The World’s Fair is in full gear, as 50 million people make the trek to Queens to see what the future has in store. The exposition showcases […]
“We see on the basis of what we believe, not the other way around,” Errol Morris told Big Think in a recent interview. In other words, our relationship to the truth is never neutral nor “value-free.”
Rapid cost reduction, or demonitization, has led to breathtaking innovation in the field of unmanned air vehicles (or UAVs), and UAV advocates see the FAA issuing personal and commercial licenses by 2015.
Does democracy require universal suffrage? Yes, I think so. So does the Supreme Court. Economist Bryan Caplan isn’t so sure. A few years ago Caplan identified several pernicious biases individuals […]
The Jokers to the Right in my title don’t require further introduction. They’re the social conservatives who belittle rape in their anti-abortion zealotry, believe that the control and suppression of […]
Sometimes the urge for instant gratification makes perfect sense.
Modern American society is built on the twin concepts of “democracy” and “freedom.” But if we truly believe in democracy and freedom, then we have no alternative but to get rid of the archaic laws that force us to vote for only one candidate.
So I’ve gotten a lot (meaning several) emails complaining that I haven’t gotten around to keeping my promise of talking about Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind. Well, sorry. […]
Neuroscientists at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have published the first set of data which they collected by examining thin slices of a mouse’s brain to create a 3D diagram.
In the past year, there have been a few studies that suggest that volunteer work is as healthy for the aging body and brain as exercise and the right diet. […]
Seven years ago, FEMA was a four letter word. Public faith in the Federal Emergency Management Agency was decimated by the agency’s poor response to Hurricane Katrina. President Bush […]
“John Quincy Adams said that the United States should be the ‘well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all . . . , the champion and vindicator only of her own.’”
A few weeks ago, I received a few emails and Tweets asking my opinion of Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist and intelligence researcher from the London School of Economics, joining […]
Distinctions matter in debate. When we conflate and equate, for example, controversial groups of people that are not the same, it means we are not reacting accurately. For example, just […]
[Editor’s Note: These mysterious messages seemingly always come in pairs, so after receiving the last one, I was expecting a counterpoint to arrive in my inbox soon. I wasn’t disappointed, […]
In her new romantic comedy, 2 Days in New York, musician, actress, and screenwriter Julie Delpy proclaims, “You know why I don’t believe in the soul? Because the soul would […]
This post was originally written for the “Because I Am An Atheist” series at The Crommunist Manifesto. Thanks to Crommunist for the inspiration! Because I am an atheist, I don’t […]
An article published in The Telegraph over a month ago remains on The Telegraph website with a headline that is so spectacularly incorrect that the BBC has reported that the article […]