The great American poet Wallace Stevens, author of “The Emperor of Ice-Cream” and many other famous works, was also a longtime insurance executive. While researching him for my previous post, I decided […]
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As government budgets continue to tighten, several Web sites are enabling citizens to contribute funds towards building, repairing, and/or maintaining public spaces.
A videoconference scheduled for tomorrow will bring together 6,000 people from opposite sides of a 40-year-old conflict in the hope that they can begin the hard work of peace.
New times demand new journalism, Rupert Murdoch said at the time of The Daily’s launch in February, 2011. That still holds true today, even as we hear the news that […]
Bob Costas’ Sunday Night “perspective,” his celebrated half-time denouncement of American gun culture, wasn’t just dissonant hectoring. It wasn’t just a burlesque of Murrow or Cosell (USA Today‘s forced, but […]
Country motto: Don’t do today what you can put off until tomorrow. Aren’t we all honorary citizens?
Optimism Bias – “Things will work out okay” or “things will work out better for me than the next guy” or, simply, “It won’t happen to ME!” – is one the mental games we play in order to do the things we want to do even when those choices come with costs or danger.
Our leaders in Washington are playing an irresponsible game of chicken with the American economy.
On the one hand, some smokers say the new labeling — complete with gruesome images — is the “final push” they need to stop. On the other hand, the illicit tobacco market is expected to grow.
Big Data is becoming as powerful an asset as oil, and it will be the source of many high quality jobs in the near future.
Despite the fact that the label has been on restaurant menus for years, the authentic version never left Japan until this year. The US is the third country to receive shipments.
The sight of a grown man trying to stuff a bobbing plastic doll into a jar of what he claims to be his own urine is a sad thing, but […]
Legalizing the buying and selling of homes between residents and foreigners with “permanent” residence status has created a massive real estate boom in Cuba’s capital.
“Now” trends are those with high energy and can be leveraged in the present; “Next” trends will begin to manifest towards the end of 2013 and gain traction through 2014; “Future” trends are fringe signals that will play out in 2015 and beyond.
A government-commissioned 152-page brochure gives school educators some much-needed guidelines, but it also discusses alternative lifestyles to a detail that some groups say is unacceptable.
London’s Pearson College, open since September, is the first institution of its kind to develop within a large, diversified, and distinguished corporation.
This weekend I saw Lincoln, which was a tremendous movie. Daniel Day-Lewis gives a compelling performance as President Abraham Lincoln during the closing days of the Civil War, when he […]
Technology is always evolving. That’s why smart organizations stay ahead of the trends by anticipating them, adapting them to their unique environment before the competition does, and ultimately enabling the organization to profit from them.
Research shows that the exciting emotional bonds created by marriage begin to fade after just two years, but that introducing variety into the relationship has restorative effects.
Canada’s University of Waterloo claims to have the world’s largest and most complex brain simulator. Called Spaun, it can model eight distinctive functions of the human brain.
A new three-dimensional chip that emits light at different depths in the brain’s tissue could help scientists better understand distinct thought patterns and the sources of neurological disease.
The notion that men are only interested in one thing is a false one, says professor Andrew Smiler. He has compiled statistics suggesting that our culture’s view of the young male is all wrong.
The rule of reciprocation is deeply rooted in our behavior such that we return the favor even when we don’t want to. The behavior has helped our species survive by creating community.
Hemant Mehta has just published a new book, The Young Atheist’s Survival Guide. It’s about the growing and increasingly important demographic of atheist high schoolers – their trials and travails, […]
For a study I am working on this semester while on sabbatical at Harvard University, I wanted to try to estimate book publishing trends over time related to climate change, […]
In September of 1965, Life magazine ran a piece on medicine’s “astonishing” and “audacious experiments” that might even promise a “kind of immortality.” The first article dealt with reproduction. The […]
A new handheld medical device that non-invasively measures your vital signs could replace visits to the doctor with digital diagnoses. The machine is modeled on Star Trek’s tricorder.
Doctors and medical professionals critical of patents on individual human genes have won their day before the Supreme Court, arguing that monopolies on scientific research are harmful.
Given a choice between gifting a smaller reward now and waiting to gift a larger reward later, it’s more likely that you’ll forego rationality and choose immediate gratification if the beneficiary is related to you.
Poetry critic and Harvard professor Helen Vendler has published a refreshing article in Harvard magazine, in which she encourages the school to welcome mediocre students who also happen to be great writers. […]