How can the government change the framework of choices that particular people are faced with so that their own small errors in risk perception don’t expose the whole of society?
Search Results
You searched for: one day
Nothing says I Love You like exsanguination, whipping, and the sweet nothing whispered in the ear of a mutual pledge not to machete each other to death. Or so an […]
Tim Ferriss’s new book, The 4-Hour Chef, is a book about learning disguised as a cookbook.
ICU doctors at a Kansas City hospital received results of a baby’s complete genome within just over two days, a new record.
You know the old Facebook line: relationships are complicated. Paul C. Brunson, the Modern Day Matchmaker, knows that better than anyone else. And his new book, IT’S COMPLICATED (BUT IT […]
I recently attended the second day of the Economist’s “The World in 2013” festival, and will be writing a post soon with some of my takeaways. Today, however, I want […]
Why has there been so little discussion of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism? Aside from some jokes on late-night television, dialogue about the Republican nominee’s religious affiliation has been remarkably sparse. One […]
Part 1 of this essay appeared yesterday. Part 3 (of 3) will appear tomorrow. Where Thomas Hardy seems to me primarily a pessimist, W. B. Yeats is an ironist. A […]
As Rushdie humanised Muhammad – as he was always meant to be – Rushdie also humanised the faith.
Who will you put your money on — Richard Brandson, Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk?
For the third year running, here’s a very personal, very subjective, “I can’t read everything, so I probably left out something, so mention it in the comments, OK?” list of […]
The gap between invention and implementation is beset by a bias: when in doubt we prefer the status quo, even when solutions to deficiencies are apparent. Is it any wonder […]
Not just clean, but cheap: Researchers in India say that for less than US$3 per year, a rural family could have at least 10 liters of safe water each day using their device.
An unnamed 16-year old in the Dominican Republic has died from leukaemia complications. The “complications” were as a result of a “dilemma”: the girl was pregnant and chemotherapy, which she […]
The discovery of the Higgs boson was a real milestone for physics, a tremendous vindication of the hard work of thousands of physicists and engineers for the past 30 years. […]
As more details about the Petraeus Affair leak out, it’s becoming increasingly clear that marriage infidelity is no longer what it used to be. The digital trail of a cheating […]
When we think of technology’s early adopters, we tend to think of the young hipsters in tech hubs like New York or San Francisco, testing out all the cool new apps, gadgets […]
One consequence of mass killings like this week’s horror in Newtown, according to reporting by Kristina Fiore, is this: Involuntary commitments of mentally ill men will increase for a while. […]
My recent post “Building Justice” talked about how human beings have to work together if we want to build a just world to live in. I want to say some […]
Mark 2012 down as the year that we finally saw traditional political polls for what they are – a form of voodoo black magic mixed with Machiavellian pseudoscience. With only 10 […]
This article was originally published on AlterNet. When you hear the word “interfaith,” you might think of people from different religions working together to do charitable deeds: running a soup […]
In my earlier post about whether to vote for third parties, there were some commenters who asserted that there’s no good reason to vote at all. Since we’re now right […]
Five hundred years ago today, Michelangelo unveiled The Sistine Chapel Ceiling to Pope Julius II. The next day, All Saints’ Day 1512, the Pope inaugurated the newly decorated chapel with […]
We pay special attention to the history of an object – where it has been, who created it, what touched it – because object’s history is what really matters when it comes to its value.
Scientists have engineered HIV-immune stem cells that can carry T cells to different organs in the body, laying the groundwork for one day eliminating the virus from infected patients.
This is my second installment in a series on excellent TV shows and the 2012 election. I’m skipping over Girls for now and turning to the HBO series Big Love. […]
We’re simply not good at apologizing. It’s awkward at best, says Alain de Botton, and at its worst an apology could lead to “an escalation in anger.” That is why atonement is effective, as a ritual of mutual apologies.
Thanks to rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and computer processing ability, machines are now evolving faster than humans. At some point within the next decade, according to proponents of the Singularity, […]
For a couple of days, I was inclined to buy the theory that Obama won the election because his campaign was so “metric driven.” Metric driven in this case seems […]
Technology run amok – a classic scenario of many apocalyptic science fiction movies in recent years – has finally been replaced by another, even scarier plotline – Mother Nature run […]