Scientists have a lot of influence over how we live our lives. This is mostly a good thing – and will help us weed out the snake oil from the spinach – but only a terribly naive optimist could think the “Mozart Effect” won’t strike again.
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My latest article has been posted on AlterNet, Once Again, Believers Have it Wrong: Atheists Don’t Just Want Sex, Drugs, and Lack of Morality. As you might have guessed, it’s […]
“What’s a ‘natural flavor’?” my 10-year-old asks me from the back seat of our car. He’s munching on a rare treat—a snack that lists about 500 unpronounceable ingredients and boasts […]
Editor’s Note: Dennis N.T. Perkins is an explorer and author of Leading at The Edge, Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition. “For scientific discovery give me Scott; […]
Anything “organic” or “low-fat” must be good for you, right? Ask people how fattening those organic chocolate-covered peanuts are, and they’ll guess a lower number than they did for the […]
The story of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son on Mount Moriah is one of the formative myths of Western monotheism. And most theists of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions […]
Valentine’s Day is really just a massive coordinated signaling opportunity that taps into our need to think about “value” in relative, rather than absolute, terms.
The question of my last post: Why do we deny that it’s our nature to die? The answer from many of my threaders: We aren’t merely or even essentially natural […]
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, author of The Predictioneer’s Game, shares his foolproof method for getting your next car for the lowest price possible.
In defence of Alberto Giubilini, Francesca Minerva and the Journal of Medical Ethics, as per the recent publication about killing newborn infants. This essentially is an open letter of solidarity […]
This semester, students from a diversity of majors at American University are participating in an advanced seminar I am teaching on science and environmental communication. For the first part of the […]
As promised earlier, here’s a full wrap-up of my weekend attending Skepticon IV in Springfield, Missouri. I really have to give tons of credit to the organizers, who not only […]
This essay was previously published on AlterNet. The death of Christopher Hitchens in December sparked an outpouring of tributes. Most of them praised his best qualities: his ferocious courage, his […]
by Michael Garfield “As viewed by astronauts from the moon, the earth lacks those lines of sociopolitical division that are so prominent on maps. And as recognized here below, the […]
Via Dangerous Intersection, I saw this TED lecture by Daniel Kahnemann, based on his book Thinking Fast and Slow, about the conflict between the “experiencing self” and the “remembering self”. […]
How much of the GOP leader’s authority, not to mention sex appeal, depends on his black locks? The former governor’s hairdo is commanding a surprising amount of attention.
Suppose you have a disease…an incurable fatal disease…and a drug has just been approved that can treat that disease. The drug only works in about half the people who […]
What’s the Big Idea? Can economics explain everything? Some people have attempted to make that claim, but not Paul Krugman, who labels such a view “academic imperialism.” Krugman, who won […]
This author explains convincingly that we haven’t been concerned enough with our children’s moral virtue—or acquiring the habits required to flourish as free and rational animals in a society such as ours. Aristotle, […]
Surprise meeting with an old acquaintance in the Whitechapel Gallery – Grayson Perry’s Map of an Englishman (discussed in #241). “It’s the work that draws the most people, and gets […]
Read the recap of Day 1 here. Day 2! I have to admit I missed the first talk of the day by Joe Nickell (see my previous post about goings-on […]
“As a man is,” wrote William Blake, “so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.” No doubt my tumultuous childhood is a part of the reason […]
Are you done? How many more days? Tick tock, tick tock. A recent Rasmussen poll may give you comfort or a kick. The nationwide survey conducted November 29-30, 2011 gives us […]
Here’s some miscellany to accompany your morning coffee: • 70 major U.S. corporations and civic organizations call for DOMA to be struck down in a friend-of-the-court brief supporting a federal […]
Why didn’t humans become as peaceful as we are today tens of thousands of years ago?
My previous post quoted Peter Hitchens, the conservative Christian brother of the late Christopher Hitchens, to criticize some of his views on divine command morality. To my surprise, it drew […]
This essay was previously published on AlterNet. Last November, I attended a debate in the NYU Intelligence Squared series on the topic, “Would the World Be Better Off Without Religion?” […]
As a general rule, I’m a fan of changing human behavior by changing the rules we live by. Given how inconsistent people are, it seems to me foolish to rely […]