Category: Whatever
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Article: Scientists love to hate greens, because what greens say matters
…many scientists suggest that human progress, understood in such a way, cannot reach ever greater heights. Indeed, the impacts of environmental shocks, food shortages, or technological developments may cause civilisation to break down. Martin Rees’s Our Final Century, Jared Diamond’s Collapse and Stephen Emmott’s 10 Billion, by a physicist, biologist and computer scientist respectively,…
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Neuromorphics: Engineering the Shape of Thinking
ANALOGIES change. Once, it was fashionable to describe the brain as being like the hydraulic systems employed to create pleasing fountains for 17th-century aristocrats’ gardens. As technology moved on, first the telegraph network and then the telephone exchange became the metaphor of choice. Now it is the turn of the…
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Socrates was Right – Part 2
And so was the laughing Buddha! A piece from the Atlantic sent to me by my good brother Griffen R. This is a companion piece to two other reblogs: Obviously it expands on the shorter Economist article I reblogged early this morning. But it is wrtten by Emily Esfahan Smith who…
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Socrates was Right
THE Greek founders of philosophy constantly debated how best to live the good life. Some contended that personal pleasure is the key. Others pointed out that serving society and finding purpose is vital. Socrates was in the latter camp, fiercely arguing that an unvirtuous person could not be happy, and…
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Wolverine: A Film By Woody Allen – YouTube
In the trailer for Woody Allen‘s new X-Men blockbuster, Wolverine, we meet Logan Singer a mutant-writer who is in love with Rogue – a woman he can never kiss. He’s indestructible but totally crippled by his insecurities. Related articles ‘The Wolverine’ tops ‘The Conjuring’ and ‘Despicable Me 2’ at box…
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Dinosaurs developed bird brains before they could fly – Telegraph
Analysis of the skulls of feathered but flightless dinosaurs shows they developed bigger brains that may have paved the way for them to take to the air. Scientists have found that the reptiles’ brains were much more like that of Archaeopteryx, which is thought to be the first bird and…
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12 Absolutely Terrifying Two Sentence Horror Stories
More than a few of these 12 Absolutely Terrifying Two Sentence Horror Stories.made me cringe… one even made me look over my shoulder and check the dark room behind me. You can read them all at the above link. To whet your appetite for terror…
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Clarity vs Popularity – A word called “Sustainability”
Originally posted on Linking Sustainability: GUEST POST by Ideas Roadshow A friend of mine has long argued that there is an inverse relationship between the popularity of a word and its meaning. The trendier a word has become, he says, the fuzzier it is, until eventually it’s used everywhere and…
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How Saturn’s tiger moon got its stripes | New Scientist
Here is the story of how Saturn’s geyser moon got its stripes. Once upon a time, in the blackness of space, there lived a giant gas ball known for his vanity. Unlike most of the other denizens of the solar system, mighty Saturn wore great big rings of ice that…
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“I’m not a businessman: I’m a business, man.”
…“A big part of entrepreneurship is the ability to learn from mistakes,” said Anthony Frasier, founder of The Phat Startup. “When you hear rappers rap about their upbringing, you can learn a lot because they always sprinkle lessons of things they don’t do anymore, things that they do now, things…
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Summer To Do List: Tank The Economy | Esquire
As I have noted again and again, op/eds and reporting at Esquire are so far beyond the majority of what is found at major networks and a good portion of newspapers. What are you doing for the rest of the summer? If only your plans were as solid as House Majority…
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The Hole in Our Collective Memory: How Copyright Made Mid-Century Books Vanish – Rebecca J. Rosen – The Atlantic
…Last year I wrote about some very interesting research being done by Paul J. Heald at the University of Illinois, based on software that crawled Amazon for a random selection of books. At the time, his results were only preliminary, but they were nevertheless startling: There were as many books…
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Libertarian Populism Isn’t Populist | Business Insider
…a slash-the-federal-entitlement-state view also just isn’t populist. Federal entitlements protect the masses against problems like unemployment, retirement insecurity, and poverty. Seeking to dismantle them is the opposite of defending mass interests against elites. You can frame your desire to shrink these programs in terms of a desire to cut relatively…
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The trouble with Zuckism | PandoDaily
Good engagement on the disconnect between how many people complain about Facebook despite its growing profitability. How do we square Facebook’s data with the complaints we hear about the company — complaints that go far beyond the usual ones about the Internet and ascend to a new level of discontent…
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Wordless Wednesday : Summer Living at Deep Creek Lake
I See Beauty All Around, by Rob Paine View original post
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Are Movie Theaters Fading? Ctd
Originally posted on The Dish: Hollywood screenwriter and director Paul Schrader revives a Dish thread: Films were never communal just because people wanted a communal experience‒it just happened to be the economic model that made the most sense. You could sell a lot of tickets and show the film at the same…
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