An early feminist, Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) is best known as the author of the classic American children’s novel, Little Women. The above quote is from her 1870 novel An Old-Fashioned […]
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The concept of an Internet “troll” is puzzling, if you think about it. No non-digital troll relishes anonymity or sneakily provokes or harrasses others with snarky comments. Trolls in literature […]
Sleazy, ugly, and gross are all words that come to mind when the word sales comes up. The question is, why do we shy away from a process that is […]
In what is now known in online circles as “Black Friday,” the U.S. Department of Justice imposed a heavy crackdown on major online gambling sites on April 11, 2011. Since then, American online gamblers have gotten creative in how they bypass regulations.
Social networks have allowed billions of individuals to communicate and collaborate in a variety of ways while online technologies have helped business create frictionless purchases at the consumer and business-to-business levels.
Maxims often beat maximization. Much in life isn’t quantifiable, much less numerically maximizable. It’s unwise to ignore that evolution fitted us for maxims, not math, to manage life’s complexities. 1. […]
In a new book, two technologists paint a rosy portrait of our future, describing how cutting edge technology could benefit large industry–as long as humans don’t muck it up in the mean time, that is.
As I’ve said before, technology reduces uncertainty. It does this primarily by speeding up processes, making what used to take days, weeks, or months take hours or minutes. With new […]
Although Bitcoin holds an advantage in being the first and most popular cryptocurrency, other digital denominations are attempting to cut into the market.
Recent studies have found that eating unhealthy foods, especially those high in sugar and fat, contribute directly to the biological and emotional states associated with depression.
Evernote has gone old-fashioned, creating a sister company called Evernote Market that sells physical goods like office supplies, new technology hardware, and technology accessories.
We humans like to think we’re pretty smart, that our intellect makes us special, that with enough careful thinking we can figure out just about anything. Cognitive science research has […]
3.4 million people die each year from water-related diseases 99% of which occur in the developing world. To put things in more perspective, lack of access to clean water and sanitation […]
Wences Casares is one of the most remarkable technology entrepreneurs of the past 20 years. The son of a Patagonian sheep farmer, Casares has founded and sold several major startups […]
“For over 200 years the world has been set on fire by a revolutionary message. The message is that every individual human being is divine. That all of us despite […]
While money can’t ultimately buy happiness, it does provide us with little bursts of good feeling, and the duration of that good feeling can vary depending on what kind of purchases we make.
Life is full of next steps. In the academic literature, these things would be called “second order effects”. But, in real life, they’re called consequences (or unintended consequences). Each of […]
A study completed at Cornell University found that adults who don’t eat breakfast tend not to overcompensate by eating larger or unhealthier meals during the day.
Probably the most recognisable map from the latter half of the 20th century – if you like tv westerns.
At the end of the day, the to-do list becomes a record of things you didn’t accomplish: not a great reward for a long day’s slog.
Increasingly, the Internet reflects our vision of the offline world where people naturally gravitate toward groups who already share our opinion on social and political matters.
Just as Shakespeare’s Prince Hamlet is more often bedeviled by his own thoughts, enhancing your brain might one day mean shutting parts of it down, not getting it to fire on all cylinders.
This photo was snapped by Walter Callens at Gobustan (sometimes written as “Quobustan”) in Azerbaijan. His description: Settled since the 8th millennium BC, the area contains thousands of rock engravings […]
It has been amusing listening to the religious right’s argument that marriage must be between a man and woman for one simple reason: the institution itself has been crumbling for […]
Through a telescope, this swarm of star appears extremely oblate. But is it really? Image credit: via http://vilagbiztonsag.hu/keptar/displayimage.php?album=19&pid=19138. “If I take dust in my hand and ask you if that […]
It’s fairly well-understood that the current generation of new employees doesn’t expect to remain in the same job for longer than five years. If you want to keep your millennials from moving on to new employment, you have to incentivize their staying on.
Of all the standard myths and accepted truths of the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven, the idea of the “Romantic” Beethoven—the embodiment of Germanic sturm und drang and […]
Attracting talent is important for any business. Teaming up with a university allows a company to identify and court promising new employees.
One of the scariest parts of being fired is that it seemingly affixes a scarlet letter to your chest for future hiring managers to avoid. But if you approach the conversation correctly, a recent firing could be harnessed as an asset in a job interview.
If your college-bound kid attended public high school, he/she probably didn’t receive any sort of education related to personal finance. It’s on you, as parent, to guide them toward making smart choices as an adult.