Some false beliefs, such as paranoia, are ill-suited to evolutionary success, but some, like extreme optimism in the face of insurmountable odds, are a boon, says Scientific American.
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Starting today, the non-profit digital library Internet Archive will give the public access to over a million public domain books and thousands of contemporary copyrighted e-books. Copyright questions abound.
NPR recounts how a modest scientific conclusion about classical music’s effect on spatial reasoning led to a nation obsessed with making their unborn babies listen to Mozart.
“The main concern is that we can’t really predict how ecosystems and human society will respond to climate change,” say scientists who worry carbon levels could overwhelm natural systems by 2200.
Of the 4.7 million Iraqis displaced by the war, 100,000 have been relocated, one-third of those to the U.S. The Guardian echoes calls to expedite refugee processing and to provide counselling services.
“The new national space policy calls on NASA to target missions beyond low-Earth orbit — such as to an asteroid — by 2025, with the eventual goal of sending astronauts to Mars.” The CSM reports.
“It’s one thing to lose in court. Chicago has to win the daily struggle on its streets.” The Chicago Tribune reacts to the Supreme Court’s decision against they city’s handgun regulation.
“A wandering mind can protect you from immediate perils and keep you on course toward long-term goals,” says The New York Times. Researchers find benefits to being a bit airy.
Half a million people die annually in the United States from substance abuse or addiction, which represents 1 in 5 deaths overall. One-half trillion dollars are lost annually in the […]
In Scott Turow’s Times Book Review cover piece on Adam Ross’s novel, Mr. Peanut, he recalls the time a revered Stanford writing professor cautioned students against writing about marriage, “the […]
Anatoly Karpov, the twelfth world chess champion, is one of the most successful chess players in the history of the game. The Russian grandmaster was the world champion for a […]
In 2007, papermaker Stora Enso commissioned six leading designers – Paula Scher, Marian Bantjes, Christoph Niemann, Bruce McCall, Michael C. Place and Winterhouse – to create a series of posters around […]
My mother was the valedictorian of her senior class in high school over fifty years ago. She doesn’t remember exactly what she said at graduation, but she does remember having […]
William James was about the only philosopher who didn’t end up a pettifogging nit-picker or overbearing egomaniac with delusions of genius. So says New Humanist’s Jonathan Rée.
Spiegel damns the latest G-20 summit as one of “yet more vague promises”, and says national interests have once again become more important than the big picture.
Facebook’s Open Graph protocol is a shot across Google’s bow, but will the power of the “like” exceed that of the link, asks Mathew Ingram.
A porn-only internet domain, where addresses have the suffix xxx not www, could help end “accidental pornography”, according to Guardian columnist Barbara Ellen.
Our main budgetary issue is expected growth in entitlements spending, which is one key reason the retirement age should be raised to near 70. Gary Becker sets out the case.
The design of the human jaw actually makes it 40-50 percent more efficient than for all great apes, Australian researchers have found.
Are some of our elegant symbols of modernity — smartphones and so on — fueling slaughter and rape in Congo? The New York Times on the campaign for “clean” minerals.
Is financial illiteracy “rational ignorance”—inattention that is justified because the costs of paying attention outweigh the benefits? The New Yorker says no.
Retired physician and emeritus professor Arthur Rivin shares insights on the increasingly common disease which 5.3 million Americans also have.
Do claims of slave labor in the Brazilian Amazon merely reflect cultural misinterpretations? The BBC on the state of Para, where more than 1,000 “slaves” were rescued in two years.
As if further evidence is needed of the sheer parochialism ritually on display here on our media in ‘Little England’, I woke up this morning to hear a BBC reporter […]
Ever since Lafayette, some connection between America and France, however tenuous, has existed. One of the strongest bonds between the two countries is the American love of French art. When […]
Ok, I have to admit it. I did not watch the World Cup match between Germany and England. In fact the only match I have watched was the incredibly dull […]
Football fever surrounds the Fortune Global Forum here in Cape Town, South Africa! Amidst the fascinating discussions about finding high-tech solutions to Africa’s problems, one can’t help but appreciate the […]
“Imagine that right after briefing Adam about which fruit was allowed and which forbidden, God had installed a closed-circuit television camera in the garden of Eden.”
In her new book, the contemporary philosopher writes that a person who follows “argument rather than numbers is a good person for a democracy to have,” opposing the primacy of short term economic gain.