February 2012
17 posts
Iran Worried U.S. Might Be Building 8,500th... →
Feb 15th
Columbia Historian Claudia Bushman on Mitt Romney,... →
Feb 15th
If It Looks Like a Compliment, and Sounds Like a... →
Feb 14th
Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on... →
But the reality of life here is that Mr. Gulbranson and many of his neighbors continue to take as much help from the government as they can get. When pressed to choose between paying more and taking less, many people interviewed here hemmed and hawed and said they could not decide. Some were reduced to tears. It is much easier to promise future restraint than to deny present needs.
Feb 13th
Feb 12th
A Peaceful, But Very Interesting Pursuit →
Feb 11th
Feb 10th
The Symphony of Self →
As we awaken from sleep, our consciousness undergoes a radical transformation composed of dramatic adjustments in neural processes. Some neural circuits go quiet while others come online. The entire orchestration of the symphony of mind unfolds like changes in a music score, and while there is no single, master conductor, Damasio posits that the decentralized process does have hot spots of...
Feb 10th
The Contraception Fight →
If the audience is paying attention, for example, it will notice that Republicans are not proposing to allow employers and plans to refuse to cover blood transfusions if they conscientiously object to them (although there are religious groups that do). Or vaccinations (although there are individuals who conscientiously object to those as well). Or medicines derived from animal experimentation....
Feb 10th
Oldest Human Paintings Made by Neanderthals? →
Feb 10th
The Scale of the Universe →
Feb 10th
The Lessons of Steve Jobs →
Four is hardly a trend but it is interesting that the death and biography of the greatest businessman of our generation — someone who was responsible for so many world-changing products and ideas, who shaped our world through sheer force of will & imagination, etc. etc. — is inspiring some people to turn away from the lifestyle & choices that made Jobs so successful &...
Feb 7th
Do Manufacturers Need Special Treatment? →
Feb 6th
Tribalism in the Arabian Peninsula: It's a Family... →
Feb 6th
Feb 6th
Beyond the Sacred →
In recent decades, faith has, in other words, transformed itself into the religious wing of identity politics.  Religion has, ironically, become secularised, driven less by a search for piety and holiness than for identity and belongingness.  The rise of identity politics has transformed the meaning not just of religion but of blasphemy too. Blasphemy used to be regarded as a sin against God....
Feb 6th
Nice Things to Say About Attila the Hun →
Feb 6th