Robert Wright says that the Internet is scattering our brains, sacrificing individual coherence for a superorganism where people are but single cells of a greater, electronic being.
All Articles
Queen Elizabeth II is here, and today she spoke about peace. She said, in her speech at the United Nations, “the waging of peace is the hardest form of leadership […]
I’m nearly done filming a second season of “SCI-FI Science: Physics of the Impossible” on The Science Channel. In this exciting new series, I’ve identified 12 more familiar science-fiction movie, […]
As the Queen addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and pays her respects to those – including sixty three Britons – who lost their lives in the […]
Ten people were arrested in the suburbs of New York, Boston, and northern Virginia last week, accused of being part of an elaborate Russian spy ring. According to the New […]
There is plenty to be said for the strong Dutch team at the World Cup in South Africa. With players like Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder, they’re among the tournament’s […]
Fact: over half the world’s population lives in cities. Fact: all developed cities like New York, Tokyo, Singapore and London, are in a race to become “wired”. Fact: the most […]
July 1st marked the 100th day since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, a major part of the Obama administration’s health care overhaul. The same day, the administration unveiled a […]
Articles at The Times (of London) now sit behind a paywall: two bucks a day or four bucks a week; The New York Times is building a paywall as you […]
Online dating is “an incredibly unsatisfying experience,” says Duke behavioral economics professor Dan Ariely, the author of “Predictably Irrational.” In fact, his research has found that each date you set […]
We’ve covered variousdesignsolutions for the vision-impaired. But what about the hearing-impaired? While the sight is visual in nature and thus more organically linked to design, can the auditory sense be […]
“Corruption has marred every aspect of Somali society,” says Afyare Abdi Elmi, a professor of International Affairs. It is, he says, the most corrupt country in the world.
Personalities are typically thought to be genetically determined; not so, says the New Scientist: “We may learn our personalities, and adjust them to situations we find ourselves in over time.”
“Scientists are trying to regulate the weather with ambitious experiments that may even tackle global warming. Is this a great step forward?” The Independent looks at the strangest of these ideas.
The author of a new book on race begins with a controversial hypotheses: it was desegregation that destroyed thriving black schools and created a culture of underperformance.
“New research finds that attractive people in the business world or academia may be at a disadvantage when they’re evaluated by a member of the same sex.” More at Miller-McCune.
The language police at Salon lament the rise of “No problem” over “Thank you” because, they say, the former shrugs off bonds created by social interaction instead of affirming them.
Jeffrey Wasserstrom gives five reasons why we need not fear the rise of China. Among them: “Some of the really scary things about China have U.S. parallels,” such as environmental disregard, he says.
Jagdish Bhagwati, professor of economics and law at Columbia, dispels five common myths about free trade such as, “Free trade may increase economic prosperity, but it is bad for the working class.”
Prior to the famous extinction of the dinosaurs, another mass extinction paved the way for their emergence, an emergence that happened much faster than previously thought, says The Economist.
Be an individual, just like everyone else. Laurie Essig at True/Slant says American culture prioritizes creativity in romantic relationships in a way that dictates conformity and materialism.
New York magazine’s cover story on the (negative) impact of children on happiness begs a larger question—and one appropriate so near to Independence Day (“life, liberty, and the pursuit” etc.): […]
In The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson referred to his fellow Americans as “citizens.” But in an early draft of the document, it’s clear that he originally used some other […]
The vuvuzela is not a popular instrument outside of South Africa. World Cup players from other nations complain that it breaks their concentration, broadcasters have trouble making their commentaries heard […]
“Those who haven’t abandoned Juárez may be watching the death of it, both day and night.” Sarah Hill gives a tragic account of the Mexican city gone from boom to bust to nearly dust.
One of the big business stories this side of the pond, is Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to buy the 61% of shares in Sky Television that he doesn’t own. Mr Murdoch, […]
“It seems like we in the West have made a tradeoff between self-reliance and physical comforts and social well being. So, which is more important?” asks a Notre Dame psychology professor.
“What exactly is the Iranian threat?” asks Noam Chomsky in his latest article. The linguist turned political activist finds glaring hypocrisies in U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East.
“Fiction has now become a museum-piece genre most of whose practitioners are more like cripplingly self-conscious curators or theoreticians than writers,” says the polemical Lee Siegel.