Orion Jones

The takeaway is that to live a better life, one that is fuller and more richly human, we need not rely on having concrete reasons for our behavior but rather ideals which inspire our decisions.

An interview Chris Rock recently gave to New York Magazine demonstrates the comedian’s prescient views on race during a very reactionary time in the media landscape.

Emerging marijuana conglomerates will use the same tactics as Big Tobacco to sell addictive substances to any market it can, including minors, argues former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy.

Hallucinogenic mushrooms are classified as a Schedule 1 drug in the United States, meaning they are considered to have the highest potential for abuse and lack any medical application.

Robots armed with weapons and programmed to act autonomously are already in the hands of national militaries.

Artificial sweeteners make it more difficult for your gut bacteria to digest sugars, increasing the chances of contracting type II diabetes. 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is giving away free bitcoin as a way to encourage wider use of the software-based currency. 

From 1950 to 1980, corporate profits accounted for six percent of nation’s gross domestic product. Since 1980, that amount has doubled to twelve percent.

When it comes to making financial gain, people would sooner inflict a moderate amount of pain on themselves than on others.

People who can identify moments of emotional expression in others tend to earn a higher salary, according to a new study conducted by the Department of Psychology at the University of Bonn.

The fortunes used for philanthropic purposes by American billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett will run dry just decades after their patrons pass away.

To be a more virtuous person, surround yourself with emblems of higher moral standards.

When we measure ourselves against someone in close geographical proximity, and if there is a history of close competition, we create a rivalry.

Small businesses that use status updates to advertise their products on Facebook will be less visible once new advertising rules take effect in January.

If we ate fewer calories we would reduce harmful farming and industrial practices, and begin treating animals more ethically. 

Banks and credit unions have found a new way to lure customers: for each deposit made, enter them in a lottery that pays out cash prizes. 

The works of abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock are providing physicists with insight into the working of non-Newtonian fluid dynamics more than a half-century after the artists death.

Black Friday is a symbol of American over-consumption and classist judgement. It’s a good thing that retailers want to do away with the event.

The freedom associated with monetary gain is offset by other demands that the educated bear disproportionately: demanding professional lives, long work hours, and family matters.

People with extremely sunny attitudes find it difficult to empathize with people who are recounting a negative experience, according to a study recently published at PLOS ONE. 

Because the tone of a conversation affects how we react, and because physical cues help set tone, emoticons are much more than cute or trite. 

The Twitter discussion about Ferguson is as polarized and entrenched as the online discussion of Israel and Palestine, according to statistician Emma Pierson.

Raising the minimum wage is presented as a solution to wealth inequality but in states that have raised the minimum wage, reality is complex. 

Airlines have a contradictory purpose: they want to fill as many seats as possible to make the operating costs of each flight as low as possible, but they also depend on ticket sales to make profit.

Food is at the center of many American holidays. And changes to the climate pattern will affect where and how food is grown.

Serious, long-term stress can have dire consequences for your brain. That’s because the immune system and the brain are intimately related.

Having job authority—the ability to hire, fire, and determine salaries—relieves men of symptoms of depression while worsening those symptoms in women.

“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied, better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied,” said John Stuart Mill.

“Frenemies” play an inevitable role in our extended social network. But our interactions with them pose real threats to our wellbeing, say researchers at the University of Utah.

A second scientific experiment, this time in America, has established that telepathy is possible.