“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”-Noam Chomsky (born on this date in 1928)
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Google is looking to build an artificial brain, a fact that “some may consider thrilling and others deeply unsettling. Or both.”
Mandela’s legacy of a better world, with better people behaving in better ways is often nowhere better undermined than on “social” media. During the period where the world seemed to […]
Have you ever considered all of the ways just a single poor night of sleep may be messing with you?
It’s cheaper to save people’s lives in poor countries than it is in rich countries. So how much is a life worth?
Don’t count on it.
Any biographer writing about a familiar subject faces the same towering problem—how do I make this person seem new and modern? When writing about an artist such as Norman Rockwell, […]
Archie Archambault, that’s who! The philosophy graduate turned printer struck upon the concept of circular maps after moving to Portland. In Oregon’s biggest city, he felt something that must have […]
“To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” -Nelson Mandela
The computer scientists and ranking enthusiasts Steven Skiena and Charles Ward used Google’s Page-Rank algorithm to determine the most significant people of all time.
Throughout history ideas about gender have always tended to drift back and forth into science and then back out into the culture.
Upon moving to Los Angeles two years ago last month, I was surprised by how few drivers use turn signals. For a city literally built around the car, it continually […]
The negative consequences of conducting relationships at arm’s length, round-the-clock, and simultaneously, and only with those who reinforce one’s worldview.
“What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.”-Werner Heisenberg
You know those national debt counters, with the numbers that rapidly get bigger and bigger? Or those global population counters that do the same thing? Well now comes a […]
Nitin Nohria: I don’t think what you do is you teach leadership, what you do is you help people become better learners from experience so that they can enhance their own leadership.
When large organizations bring in creative people they often want the outputs or the products of creative people, but are intolerant of the way the creative people operate.
Falcon 9 made history in 2012 when the SpaceX rocket delivered Dragon into orbit for a rendezvous with the International Space Station. Yesterday, following two postponements, Falcon 9 launched its first commercial payload.
The more scientists discover about our prehistoric ancestors, the further they seem to fall down Alice’s Rabbit Hole. Things just get curiouser and curiouser.
So the excellent editor of The New Atlantis, maybe our best journal on technology and society, reflects on the HBO series Stay of Play. It’s all about the parents finding too […]
Our understanding of neutrinos might help us solve one of the greatest questions of all time – why matter won out over antimatter, or why we are here.
“I’ve got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.”-Thomas Carlyle (born on this date in 1795)
Sometimes the toughest shadow to escape is one you cast over yourself. When artist Art Spiegelman began publishing Maus in 1980 in chapter form in the indie comics magazine Raw, […]
“The last decade has been about sharing. The next decade will be about protecting.” – Dave Pell.
This success story is an example of taking your biggest problem and deciding to skip it.
The Chinese just launched another mission to the moon, this time a lunar probe known as Chang’e-3 (named for the mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon) containing the Yutu […]
A.G. Laffley on resurrecting tired brands.
You have to have a very quick mind and you have to have this peculiar ability to speak whilst you’re listening.
“The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” – Joseph Conrad (born on this date in 1857)
A new study confirms what psychological tests have indicated for a long time, that men and women are each better at performing different types of mental tasks.