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Truly nuanced, self-aware social discussion may still be in the future but among educated Chinese the government’s baldest self-contradictions no longer pass unremarked.
They may be getting more graphic, says Harriet Walker, but sex scenes in the movies are no more true to life than they ever were—and no less uncomfortable to watch.
Perhaps happiness is a bit like self-esteem: You have to work for both. You can’t get an infusion of either one from a therapist, says Dr. Richard Friedman.
Despite the important role of the arts in enabling public expression, learning, and participation relative to science, there is an unfortunate tendency to think about the relationship in terms of […]
So, I said that I was going to try to make MVP #31 a little harder than some of the last few Mystery Volcano Photos, and I was right. In […]
Researchers at Kyoto University claim they will be able to clone a baby mammoth from the DNA of a 10,000-year-old woolly mammoth. The time frame: 5 to 6 years.
Look for the answer to MVP #31 later today, but for now, I have a brief update on Bulusan in the Philippines. We ended 2010 with the restive volcano producing […]
Sex educator Jessi Fischer on why and how we vilify male sexuality: “The falsehood that men are brutes who can’t control their sex drive is harmful to everyone.”
I’ve yet to go to the cinema to watch ‘Kings Speech’, which is currently the talk of Hollywood. Those who have come back enthused, including some of those who are not […]
Staying Grounded Last week’s out-of-nowhere smash hit “Things Real People Don’t Say About Advertising” isn’t just a source of hilarity, it’s also a good reminder that we as marketers often […]
BIG THINK displays a large number wonderful accounts of how science today is transforming our lives–appealing to our hopes, our pride, and, occasionally, our humility. I thought I’d share with […]
If Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today, would he be counseling us on how to find happiness, or would he merely be setting an example of how to […]
Turkle rightly asserts that such familial association is what we will all come to have with machines, and that children are the only ones who understand it right from the start. Children recognize the powerful magnetism of robots that are programmed to respond to human affection (by purring, chatting, batting eye lashes and so forth). Some of them say that they would like to give a robot as a companion to their grandparents, but worry that the grandparents might prefer the robot to them in the long run.
Not a lot of time today for a substantive post, but seems like a good day for a new Mystery Volcano Photo. We’re into the third decade of photos, so […]
It’s been a tough week in Georgia, with heavy snowfall last weekend that paralyzed the northern half of the state. Now businesses are playing catch up. The mail is being […]
The shootings in Tucson, Arizona appear to have had a truly cathartic effect in the United States. It is almost as though the random actions of a mad man have […]
Last week, I was sharply critical of the way Sarah Palin handled accusations that she was in some way to blame for the Tucson shooting. It is easy to understand […]
Yes, a rare Sunday post, mostly because I’m not sure I’ll have a time tomorrow morning for a post as it will be the first day of the new semester […]
Mysticism has no past, no genealogy, and yet it walks and knows why. How do we account for the religious imagination in the U.S. while Europe grows more and more skeptical?
Mobile-phone companies across Africa are drawing battle lines to capture the rising middle-class consumer. But in Kenya, the war already is well under way.
Living at a higher altitude may be a risk factor for suicide, a recent study in the journal High Altitude Medicine & Biology has found. The study may help develop new treatments.
New York taxis are known for lots of things, most of them bad. Thanks to a new advertising campaign, 500 Big Apple taxis will be known for something great—great art. […]
Most of you won’t believe this, but I’ve actually gotten several requests to say more about Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, rightly called the best book ever written on […]
There’s no reason why education environments in the developing world shouldn’t be as elegant and functional as those in the developed. At least that’s the premise at the heart of […]
Former New York commodities trader Vincent McCrudden was charged in federal court this week with threatening to kill 47 current and former federal regulators from the Securities and Exchange Commission […]
In a major environmental decision, the Environmental Protection Agency has vetoed the largest mountaintop removal mining permit in the history of West Virginia.
The question is not whether culture matters, but whether it is an independent and self-sustaining factor in the production and reproduction of poverty.
Tourists have been evacuated and a state of emergency declared as one of North Africa’s longest-standing regimes falls to popular protest with its President flees the capital.
A story that the astrological chart has shifted, changing many people’s signs, has caused panic. But calm down! “Everything stays the same,” says astrologist Susan Miller.
The health care reform bill is still unpopular. Almost no one is completely happy with the compromise bill right now. A recent Gallup poll found that 46% of Americans want […]