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Only recently has vegetarianism become a diet that could survive natural selection, so could it be that vegetarians are smarter than the rest of us? Surprisingly strong evidence says yes.
Barry Estabrook says the common knowledge that locally grown food is the most sustainable form of agriculture is incomplete and should allow for regional distribution networks.
Ross Douthat asks why adoption is so difficult while going to a fertility clinic is so easy, especially when children of anonymous sperm donors often have deep psychological dilemmas.
Evolutionary biology may explain differences in mortality risks between genders, says Daniel Kruger at the University of Michigan; men take more risks to attract a mate, i.e. to have sex.
“Nowhere is it written that the United States can never decline,” says Richard Posner in his analysis of the economic problems befalling the E.U. and U.S. He and Gary Becker propose solutions.
In his new book, Clay Shirky says that what we do with our free time is changing: from passive TV watching to active online engagement, we are motivated by a desire for self-fulfillment.
When a college degree no longer guarantees a good job after leaving university, maybe it’s time to be less pragmatic about career choices and prefer a cultural education to a vocational one.
“He was almost certainly the best-known man in England in the middle of the nineteenth century, and certainly the most loved,” but was Charles Dicken’s internal life as celebratory?
A new pill which a German pharmaceutical company will soon present to the FDA for approval raises medical and safety concerns since it claims to boost women’s libidos.
“Retirement, like other post-industrial inventions like electricity or television, has become a luxury we’ve come to expect and rely upon,” says the Economist, but it hasn’t always been this way.
“Can aquatic snails better remember lessons learned when they are hopped up on methamphetamine?” Scientific American says the answer could give insight into the nature of addiction.
“The things patients complain about, like excessive noise, may be more than a nuisance. They may actually be bad for their health,” writes Drake Bennett on noise pollution in hospitals.
The British Petroleum rig spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico pales in comparison to amount of oil spilled annually in Nigeria, a reminder of the double standard when it comes to poor countries.
Nancy Cohen at the L.A. Times says the traditional terms “pro-choice” and “pro-life” are too simplistic to have a constructive debate over abortion; she calls for more nuanced language.
Generation Y is often mocked for its narcissism and supreme self confidence, but Judith Warner writes that pumped-up egos may be just the thing for weathering our economic storm.
“Today’s college students scored 40 percent lower on a measure of empathy than their elders did,” according to a new study that demonstrates the selfish, competitive nature of the times.
“US fashion commentators are now suggesting that economic strength might also be reflected in the length of men’s swimming trunks,” reports The Guardian. But is it a truncated theory?