Culture & Religion — April 16, 2010

Do Not Go Gentle…

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

“If film criticism really is dying, it’s doing so with all the dignity of a bunch of clucking old hens, squawking in despair while the fox gnaws his way through the wire,” writes Andrew O’Hehir. “Film criticism, at least meaning the elite cultural institution pioneered by Manny Farber, James Agee and Pauline Kael, had a nice 50- or 60-year run, and is now a thing of the past. My opinion about whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing isn’t interesting to anyone, least of all me.”

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

A digital illustration of a human brain with blue veins and a glowing light at the top, set against a black background.

The Future

How Neuralink’s chief competitor is tapping into the brain without surgery

“Neurotech is not just about the brain,” says Synchron CTO Riki Banerjee, explaining how their tech can help with paralysis, brain diseases, and beyond.

An abstract illustration features a bell curve with red dots and a percentage labeled 49%. The background includes a monochrome portion of a face with wide-open eyes peeking below the curve.

Thinking

Everyday Philosophy: Bad at probability? That might be a blessing.

How black and white is your thinking?

Image of Earth set against a black background with the text "A Volatile World" in large white letters.

Why does it feel like the world is falling apart?

“We’ve engineered a volatile world where Starbucks is completely unchanging from year to year, but democracies are collapsing and rivers are drying up.”

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11 min

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with

Brian Klaas

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Do gravitons need to exist?

Electromagnetism, both nuclear forces, and even the Higgs force are mediated by known bosons. What about gravity? Does it require gravitons?

A close-up of a neoclassical building's facade with ornate carvings and columns, featuring an emblem at the center, reflects the grandeur often associated with the global elite.

The Present

A surprising share of the global elite went to Harvard

A survey of more than 6,000 of the world’s richest, most influential people shows that 9% of them attended Harvard University.

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Temperature Tracking

Roughly half of the heat that is believed to have built up on Earth in recent years due to global warming is unaccounted for, and scientists worry that it is gathering deep in the ocean or elsewhere.