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"New research finds that attractive people in the business world or academia may be at a disadvantage when they’re evaluated by a member of the same sex." More at Miller-McCune.
The language police at Salon lament the rise of "No problem" over "Thank you" because, they say, the former shrugs off bonds created by social interaction instead of affirming them.
Jeffrey Wasserstrom gives five reasons why we need not fear the rise of China. Among them: "Some of the really scary things about China have U.S. parallels," such as environmental disregard, he says.
Jagdish Bhagwati, professor of economics and law at Columbia, dispels five common myths about free trade such as, "Free trade may increase economic prosperity, but it is bad for the working class."
Prior to the famous extinction of the dinosaurs, another mass extinction paved the way for their emergence, an emergence that happened much faster than previously thought, says The Economist.
Be an individual, just like everyone else. Laurie Essig at True/Slant says American culture prioritizes creativity in romantic relationships in a way that dictates conformity and materialism.
"Those who haven’t abandoned Juárez may be watching the death of it, both day and night." Sarah Hill gives a tragic account of the Mexican city gone from boom to bust to nearly dust.
"It seems like we in the West have made a tradeoff between self-reliance and physical comforts and social well being. So, which is more important?" asks a Notre Dame psychology professor.
"What exactly is the Iranian threat?" asks Noam Chomsky in his latest article. The linguist turned political activist finds glaring hypocrisies in U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East.
"Fiction has now become a museum-piece genre most of whose practitioners are more like cripplingly self-conscious curators or theoreticians than writers," says the polemical Lee Siegel.
In just 3,000 years, an evolutionary microsecond, Tibetans have developed a unique version of a gene that helps them adapt to living at high altitudes. This according to a study published in Science.
"Just as healthy optimism can turn into irrational exuberance, a clear-eyed realism about the challenges facing the United States can gradually inflate a pessimism bubble," says Ross Douthat today.
If Americans have an impending sense that our present moment represents a capitalized End of Something, let us take the moment to exhale and appreciate the tranquility of finality.
Gary Becker and Richard Posner at the University of Chicago weigh in on the Gulf oil leak. Did BP make a good-faith estimate of the risk entailed by deep-water drilling or was it negligent?
If not humans, is God to blame for recent natural disasters? What are the limits of divine and human agency? The New Yorker explains a philosophical twist whereby divinity is expressed through free will.
"With deception so significant a part of the natural world, it's little wonder we resort to it almost reflexively. Indeed, who's not to say that lying isn't an in-built part of human nature?" asks the Independent.
Theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku, who writes the Dr. Kaku’s Universe blog for Big Think, is appearing on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” tonight at 11:30 to talk about […]
Murdoch is putting up paywalls and Jobs is censoring risqué apps. Have we reached the limits of free information exchange that everyone predicted from the Internet? What's coming next?
The novels of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, along with relics of Victorian technology, have inspired a new cult following called "Steampunk." The group celebrates the Victorian spirit.
Just give money to the poor, says a new book by the same name. In it, three British professors say direct cash payments to the developing world's poor will help economies to grow.