Sam Tanenhaus interviewed Harold Bloom for The New York Times; the video is here. It’s a very cool, very short, interview. It will be historic, too—not only for capturing Bloom […]
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On a recent sushi night out, a friend of mine attempted to joke with the waitress asking her whether the sushi she had just served him was radioactive. She didn’t find it […]
Alice Bell, science communication lecturer at Imperial College London, is a visiting scholar this month at American University. At the end of the semester, she gave a guest lecture to […]
Actively pursuing happiness may not lead to an actual increase in happiness. In fact, it can do the opposite and make you less happy at the end of the day.
We’re now into the third day of the new eruption from Grímsvötn in Iceland. So far, the ash from the eruption has fallen only on Iceland and the North Atlantic […]
A new study led by my brother Erik Nisbet, a professor of communication at Ohio State University, offers several revealing implications for public diplomacy across Arab states. From the OSU […]
While the development of emerging economies seems well anchored, n advanced economies, projected rates of growth are not sufficient to avoid mounting debt and deficit problems.
The I.M.F. will need strong leadership as it continues to help euro-area countries deal with massive debt problems. Some think it is time the institution picked a non-European boss.
French social scientist Emmanuel Todd says the rapid increase in (women’s) literacy, a falling birthrate and a significant decline in the custom of marriage between first cousins are to thank.
President Obama will urge British Prime Minister David Cameron not to withdraw troops from Helmand, Afghanistan on his European tour, but Cameron wants more help fighting Gaddafi in return.
In Francis Fukuyama’s new book, the author of the The End of History lays down the conditions required for a nation to become a democracy. He is both worried and optimistic about the future.
As developing countries become richer, their diets shift from staples like rice and wheat to meat and dairy products, which along with use of corn in fuel, is taxing world grain supplies and driving up prices.
While President Obama may see the Arab Spring as a chance to pursue peace between Israel and Palestine, distrust among governments may yet again foil even the best of intentions.
The Viennese Waltz differs from other waltzes in the speed of the rotation—a dervish-like dance in which the dancers are spun out of their normal existence. That dizzying disorientation helps […]
I’ve been asked whether I should reconsider my recent praise of AMERICAN IDOL as an admirably and characteristically American mixture of wisdom and consent. Although I can’t really speak as […]
One or two decades ago we still lived in a world in which contacts with other cultures were rather peripheral. Sure, there used to be immigrants from other countries and […]
An update for today (May 22, 2011) on the eruption at Grímsvötn in Iceland: The eruption itself (video) is still ongoing, albeit possibly with a slight decrease in intensity according […]
The role of gut bacteria may extend beyond the stomach and intestines all the way to the brain. In a new study, disrupting the normal gut flora of mice leads to changes in the animals’ behavior.
Even though the magnets, crystals and ultra-dilute solutions of alternative medicines are, by themselves, completely useless, the placebo effect they induce in patients sometimes is not.
This post is a review of The New Cool: A Visionary Teacher, His FIRST Robotics Team, and the Ultimate Battle of Smarts by Neal Bascomb. My short recommendation? This book […]
Duke University neurologist Miguel Nicolelis has shown through experiments that the mind can be liberated from the body—in time, we will have out-of-body experiences that feel real, he says.
Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, on Twitter: “The things we may be unlearning, tweet by tweet—complexity, acuity, patience, wisdom, intimacy—are things that matter.”
Christian radio broadcaster Harold Camping estimated that 200 million people would be carried to paradise yesterday—they weren’t, so how are his followers coping with the disappointment?
We’re supposed to be about learning in schools, right? How many schools have a mission or vision or purpose statement that says “blah blah blah life long learning blah blah […]
As many of you know, today we saw a new eruption at Grímsvötn under Vatnajökull in Iceland – its first eruption since 2004 … and boy, it was a doozy. […]
Understanding the human ability to distinguish different odors may open the door to new ways of thinking about how the brain processes information and how we learn.
Resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is one thing that could really make a lasting difference in our relations with the Middle East.
Well, it looks like Iceland is going to be in the news again this summer. Jon Frimann and others noted a sharp increase in seismicity under the Vatnajökull icecap at […]
In his interview with BigThink, Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria quotes Lincoln on the relationship between character—moral character—and power. There are many celebrated quotes about character, and Nohria references […]
The other day I was stopped by police officers as I was going through security at the House of Commons. Astonishingly they took me to one side and confiscated a […]