Can Society Get The Benefits Of Religion Without The Faith? Alain de Botton: "How did religion once enhance the spirit of community? More practically, can secular society ever recover that spirit without returning to the theological principles that were entwined with it? I, for one, believe that it is possible to reclaim our sense of community - and that we can do so, moreover, without having to build upon a religious foundation."

The Wall Street Journal 02/18/12

email this story | Posted 02/22/12@12:04AM

David Brooks: We've Become A Talent Society "It's more accurate to say that we have gone from a society that protected people from their frailties to a society that allows people to maximize their talents."

The New York Times 02/20/12

email this story | Posted 02/21/12@07:28AM

When Academic Economists Think About Beer "Do people drink more during difficult economic times? What effect does social milieu have on personal preference? Can television change the course of an entire industry? ... [A number of] scholars have come together to create a new field, 'beeronomics,' devoted to analyzing the economics of beer and brewing."

The Boston Globe 02/19/12

email this story | Posted 02/20/12@11:54PM

Do We Need "Reputation Insurance" On The Internet? "We need a mandatory insurance scheme for online disasters. For what is an accidental disclosure of information if not an online disaster--a ferocious man-made information tsunami that can destroy one's reputation the way a real tsunami can destroy one's home?"

Slate 02/19/12

email this story | Posted 02/20/12@08:07AM

The Science Of Willpower "Willpower--the popular idea is that it's something that you use to resist temptation and to make yourself work. But they've also found that this same energy is used in making decisions, simply deciding what to have for lunch, what to do at a meeting; all these things deplete the same resource. After a while, when you've depleted this resource, it's a state called ego depletion."

Reason 03/12

email this story | Posted 02/20/12@07:49AM

When Did 'Downton Abbey' Jump The Shark? (And What's The Deal With The Batman, Anyway?) "Certain values the earl represents (benevolent paternalism toward employees, for instance, or the ability to see when his own inherited attitudes have become outdated and inappropriate) have been carefully chosen. And it is noticeable that the aristocrats in the series, even the ones who are supposed to be the most ridiculous, never lapse into the most offensive kind of upper-class drawl one would expect of them."

The New York Review of Books 02/16/12

email this story | Posted 02/19/12@09:05PM

Without Distractions, No Opportunity For Art "For me, now, things do get done; books are finished, and other projects are started that are also finished. They take the time they take, and the breaks are as important as the continuities. Only a fool would think that someone should be able to bear boredom and frustration for long hours at a time and that this would be an achievement."

The New York Times 02/19/12

email this story | Posted 02/19/12@08:30AM

Humans May Have Parallel Moral Systems "Why do we sometimes wrestle with moral dilemmas? A twist on a classic psychology experiment suggests that our minds have two parallel moral systems, and they don't always agree."

New Scientist 02/16/12

email this story | Posted 02/17/12@12:14AM

Wikipedia, Truth, Verifiability And 'Undue Weight' Historian Timothy Messer-Kruse found a serious error of fact in a Wikipedia article on his particular locus of research. He corrected the error, with citations to the primary sources he'd studied, and his changes were undone within minutes. That was just the beginning ...

The Chronicle of Higher Education 02/12/12

email this story | Posted 02/16/12@11:57PM

Was It Evolutionary Biology That Made Men Dominate Women? No, It Was Agriculture "In hunter-gatherer societies, [the] strength differential doesn't allow men to fully dominate women, because they depend on the food that women gather. But ... [s]trength gives men an advantage over women once heavy ploughs and large animals become central aspects of food production. With this, men become the sole providers, and women start to depend on men economically. The economic dependency allows men to mistreat women."

Psychology Today 02/03/12

email this story | Posted 02/16/12@12:05AM

The Neuroscience Of Love "It turns out -- based on the levels of activity in the dopamine, serotonin and ocytocin/vasopressin pathways -- it is possible for one person to exhibit that they can love someone more deeply than another person can."

Wired 02/14/12

email this story | Posted 02/15/12@09:05AM

Can Technology Enhance Our Brains? "Advocates argue that data-management technologies, from low-tech pads to high-tech computers, don't always function as mere memory-prompting tools. Sometimes, they deserve to be understood as parts of our mind."

Slate 02/14/12

email this story | Posted 02/15/12@07:58AM

Just Can't Appreciate Abstract Art? Try Watching The Shining First "A newly published study finds people are more likely to be moved and intrigued by abstract paintings if they have just experienced a good scare. This suggests the allure of art may be 'a byproduct of one's tendency to be alarmed by such environmental features as novelty, ambiguity, and the fantastic,' argues lead author Kendall Eskine."

Miller-McCune 02/14/12

email this story | Posted 02/14/12@11:55PM

What Makes Germans Laugh? (Yes, There Is Something) There's an old English music hall sketch, "Dinner for One", that was ubiquitous there in the 1920s and '30s, was recorded for German television in 1962, and somehow caught on in the '70s, airing every New Year's Eve and becoming the most popular program in German history. Philip Oltermann explores what the sketch's popularity explains about the German sense of humor.

The Guardian (UK) 02/12/12

email this story | Posted 02/14/12@11:54PM

Brainstorming - Effective Or Misguided? "The fatal misconception behind brainstorming is that there is a particular script we should all follow in group interactions. The lesson of Building 20 is that when the composition of the group is right--enough people with different perspectives running into one another in unpredictable ways--the group dynamic will take care of itself. All these errant discussions add up. In fact, they may even be the most essential part of the creative process."

The New Yorker 02/01/12

email this story | Posted 02/14/12@08:07AM

How Nietzsche Turned Me Christian Giles Fraser: "As a good communist, atheism had always been my unexamined default position. And because Nietzsche was so passionate an atheist, I had my defences down to his unusually intense religiosity and elliptical desire for salvation. Which, I suppose, is how the question of God crept under my intellectual radar."

The Guardian (UK) 02/05/12

email this story | Posted 02/14/12@12:12AM

Flying, And Living, Solo, Within The Constant Chattering Stream "In prosperous societies, where social media is common, social lives are affordable and accessible, and families are no longer a financial necessity, is the era of communal living over and done? If so, are we losing our ability to be intimate, or are we simply evolving into creatures with different needs?"

The New York Times 02/12/12

email this story | Posted 02/13/12@08:04AM

Pirate Bay Founder Tells Content Companies 'Innovate Or Die' Peter Sunde: "We all know how evolution works, except one industry that refuses to evolve: the entertainment industry. Instead of looking at evolution as something inevitable, the industry has made it their business to refuse and/or sue change, by any necessary means."

Wired 02/10/12

email this story | Posted 02/12/12@09:28PM

Not Fade Away: Genius Older Artists Persist In Being Geniuses David Hockney's big Royal Academy show, Leonard Cohen's new hit album, Woody Allen's big success with Midnight in Paris - turns out that many artists, if they get to live that long, don't let age wither their talents.

The Guardian (UK) 02/10/12

email this story | Posted 02/12/12@10:08AM

Who Made The Rubik's Cube, Defining Game Of A Generation? Erno Rubik, of course. And it all started as foam.

The New York Times 02/12/12

email this story | Posted 02/12/12@10:02AM

Making More Makers - And Moving On From Marshmallow Cannons Joey Hudy, the boy who impressed President Obama with his marshmallow cannon, is a self-identified "maker." What's that? "Makers start with that simple idea to do something, which is why we call it DIY - for 'do it yourself.' Soon, however, they find out that there are lots of people like [them] out there."

CNN 02/10/12

email this story | Posted 02/12/12@08:31AM

When Medical Ethicists Think Too Hard "Is it really morally wrong to kill someone? That question, strange enough on its own, is downright bizarre when it's asked in the Journal of Medical Ethics. In 'What makes killing wrong?', a paper in the Journal's January issue, [two scholars] argue that there isn't, fundamentally, anything wrong with killing another person. Killing is only incidentally bad because of one of its consequences: 'total disability'."

The Boston Globe 02/04/12

email this story | Posted 02/10/12@12:01AM

Your Brain: Jolted Into Remembering "Researchers have found that sending an electrical jolt to a part of the brain that plays a key role in memory improved people's ability to learn -- and remember -- their way across an unfamiliar landscape."

Los Angeles Times 02/09/12

email this story | Posted 02/09/12@07:54AM

You Know What The Trouble Is With Confidence? It's "a completely unreliable guide to decision making. ... [We're] often confident in our intuitive judgments even when we have no idea what we're doing. And to make matters worse, we tend to evaluate the reliability of other people's decision making on the same basis - if they're confident, they must know what they're talking about."

Big Think 02/09/12 (includes video)

email this story | Posted 02/08/12@11:57PM

Good Urban Design Makes People Happy (Social Science Says So) From a study of polling data published last year in Urban Affairs Review: "We find that ... [cities] that provide easy access to convenient public transportation and to cultural and leisure amenities promote happiness. Cities that are affordable and serve as good places to raise children also have happier residents."

The Atlantic 02/02/12

email this story | Posted 02/08/12@11:55PM

Want To Make Uncreative People More Creative? Pressure Them To Conform (A Little) "Admittedly, that sounds like an oxymoron; creative thinking and conformity are usually considered mutually exclusive. But newly published research finds a specific sort of arm twisting can help people who aren't terribly innovative increase their creative output. The key is pressuring them to think independently, within the confines of a group project."

Miller-McCune 02/06/12

email this story | Posted 02/07/12@11:57PM

Forget The 10,000 Hours Of Practice! To Gain Expert Skill More Quickly, Use Electrodes On Your Brain For years, research neurologists have been trying to determine what goes on in the brains of top athletes, performers and others when they attain "flow" - that fully engaged state of mind in which they achieve at peak level. Now US military researchers are trying to speed up the learning process (of, for example, expert snipers) by inducing "flow" with electric stimulation.

New Scientist 02/06/12

email this story | Posted 02/07/12@11:56PM

Could Future Wars Be Fought With Mind Control Weapons? "Wars of the future might be decided through manipulation of people's minds, concludes a report this week from the UK's Royal Society. It warns that the potential military applications of neuroscience breakthroughs need to be regulated more closely."

New Scientist 02/07/12

email this story | Posted 02/07/12@11:56PM

First: 3D Printer "Prints" A Functional Jawbone For A Woman "An 83-year-old Belgian woman is able to chew, speak and breathe normally again after a machine printed her a new jawbone. Made from a fine titanium powder sculpted by a precision laser beam, her replacement jaw has proven as functional as her own used to be before a potent infection, called osteomyelitis, all but destroyed it."

New Scientist 02/06/12

email this story | Posted 02/07/12@07:21AM

Imaging The Entire World - A Way Of Visualizing Culture "I'm interested intellectually and culturally about how the imaged world is being knit together by technologies such as Photosynth. More or less public images on Flickr, they're all being knit together in this giant quilt. Any place you look has been photographed. Anything you want to see, from the street, from the air, by satellite photo."

Wired 02/03/12

email this story | Posted 02/06/12@06:51AM

Study: Social Media More Addicting Than Smoking Or Alcohol "Thankfully, the study showed we're all not slaves to vice and distraction, as the need for sleep and leisure topped the list. However, next on the list of 'self-control failure rates' was checking in with social media, email and work -- ahead of the urge to have a Camel Light, while sipping on that glass of 12-year single malt scotch."

Discovery 02/05/12

email this story | Posted 02/06/12@06:23AM

Spinoza, Godfather Of The First Amendment "He was an eloquent proponent of a secular, democratic society, and was the strongest advocate for freedom and tolerance in the early modern period."

The New York Times 02/05/12

email this story | Posted 02/05/12@11:55PM

Why Americans Love Zoos Diane Ackerman: "More than 150 million people a year visit zoos and aquariums in the United States. Why do we flock to them? It's not just a pleasant outing with family or friends, or to introduce children (whose lives are a cavalcade of animal images) to real animals, though those are still big reasons. I think people are also drawn to a special stripe of innocence they hope to find there."

The New York Times 02/04/12

email this story | Posted 02/05/12@11:48PM

Liberté, Egalité, Hostilité - Do America's Political Battles Have Their Roots In 1789? Garry Gutting argues that "we have never gotten over the French Revolution. The revolution introduced the basic liberal idea that government must be fundamentally democratic ... We all, in principle, share in the power to govern ourselves. But this idea led (or, at least, was feared to lead) to a much more radical one: that everyone should have an equal share in power."

The New York Times 02/01/12

email this story | Posted 02/03/12@12:03AM

Where Philosophy Class Is Mandatory For High Schoolers "A 2008 law requires Brazilian teenagers to study philosophy because it is 'necessary for the exercise of citizenship'." Carlos Fraenkel pays a visit to a class in Salvador.

Boston Review 01/25/12

email this story | Posted 02/03/12@12:02AM

When We Can't Speak, Could Our Brain Waves Speak For Us? "Researchers have demonstrated a striking method to reconstruct words, based on the brain waves of patients thinking of those words."

BBC 01/31/12

email this story | Posted 02/03/12@12:00AM

Monogamy Leads To More Prosperous Societies, Say Researchers "It would be easier for men in the top 1% to support 3 wives, at least financially, than for a man in the lowest quartile of earners to support one. ... Yet in much of the world, particularly the wealthier parts, monogamy - albeit with cheating around the edges - has flourished. Why?"

The Wall Street Journal 01/29/12

email this story | Posted 02/01/12@11:54PM

Does The Internet Change The Way You Think? "The internet may not have changed the way we think, yet. But it is affecting our ability to concentrate."

The Telegraph (UK) 02/01/12

email this story | Posted 02/01/12@05:35AM

Ancient Babylonian Yo' Mama Jokes Deciphered (Sort Of) "Middle East scholars Michael Streck and Nathan Wasserman describe and interpret some thigh-slappers scrawled on a badly damaged tablet from Babylon, circa 1500 BC." And there is indeed a yo'-mama zinger among them.

Discover 01/27/12

email this story | Posted 01/31/12@11:47PM

End Of The TV-Industrial Complex? "The mass media which has been used to sell mass products to the mass market no longer captures a mass audience. Instead, digital technology, the internet and social media have shattered the media and its audience into tens of thousands of specialised niches. Seth Godin's argument is built on his belief that people do not naturally conform to the ideal of normality sold to us by the advertising industry, and free of its coercive influence millions of us will choose our own weird ways of living and working instead."

The Guardian (UK) 01/31/12

email this story | Posted 01/31/12@05:30AM