Meta
Archives
Categories
Category Archives: culture
Thinking, Fast and Slow: A New Way to Think About Thinking
Beneath the biases of intuition, or how your experiencing self and your remembering self shape your life.
Legendary Israeli-American psychologist Daniel Kahneman is one of the most influential thinkers of our time. A Nobel laureate and founding father … Continue reading
Thinking, Fast and Slow: A New Way to Think About Thinking
Beneath the biases of intuition, or how your experiencing self and your remembering self shape your life.
Legendary Israeli-American psychologist Daniel Kahneman is one of the most influential thinkers of our time. A Nobel laureate and founding father … Continue reading
7 Must-Read Books on Time
What the second law of thermodynamics has to do with Saint Augustine, landscape art, and graphic novels.
Time is the most fundamental common denominator between our existence and that of everything else, it’s the yardstick by which we measure nearly … Continue reading
Posted in art, books, culture, philosophy, photography, syndicated
Tagged Psychology, science, syndicated
Comments Off
When autistic adults aren’t quirky geniuses
Cory posted earlier this week about Amy Harmon’s excellent profile of an autistic 20-year-old, trying to find a place in the adult world. At her Culturing Science blog, Hannah Waters adds some nice perspective to the praise for Harmon’s work, noting th… Continue reading
Posted in culture, syndicated
Tagged Autism, humanity, personal story, Post, science, syndicated
Comments Off
The questionable birth of Times New Roman
Here’s some interesting history for font-heads*.
Times New Roman has, as we know, become the default type for everything from school term papers to magazines. It’s usually attributed to Stanley Morison, who “oversaw” the design for The Times of London… Continue reading
Posted in culture, history, syndicated
Tagged dorkery, fonts, journalism, Post, syndicated
Comments Off
2011 Nonfiction Pulitzer: A Biography of Cancer
Yesterday, the 2011 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced and, as always, we were most fascinated by the highly contested nonfiction category, which is as much a measure of good writing as it is a reflection of the era’s cultural concerns. This year?… Continue reading
Posted in books, culture, health, history, syndicated
Tagged PICKED, science, syndicated
Comments Off
USPS accidentally issues Vegas Statue of Liberty stamp
How fantastically hyperreal: Turns out the United States Postal Service’s brand new Statue of Liberty stamp, seen below, accidentally features an illustration of the Lady Liberty replica at Las Vegas’s New York-New York casino as opposed to the real … Continue reading
The Hedgehog Review
The Hedgehog Review delivers insightful, accessible writing by scholars and cultural critics focused on the most important questions of our day: What does it mean to be human? How do we live with our deepest differences? When does a community become a … Continue reading
How emacs got into Tron: Legacy
Here’s a great account of the good, nerdy thoughtfulness that went into generating the command-line screenshots for Tron: Legacy; JT Nimoy decided that he’d go for a mix of l33t and realistic, and landed on emacs eshell and posix kill:
In addition… Continue reading
Posted in culture, syndicated, technology
Tagged Entertainment, geeky, happymutants, movie, syndicated, tron, unix
Comments Off
James Gleick’s tour-de-force: The Information, a natural history of information theory
I’ve just finished reading The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, James Gleick’s tour-de-force history of information theory. I read Freeman Dyson’s early review of The Information with interest earlier in the month, and fell upon the book and… Continue reading
Posted in culture, history, math, syndicated
Tagged book, featured, informationtheory, lexicography, medialiteracy, Physics, Reviews, syndicated, webtheory, wikipedia
Comments Off
First-person account from surgeon who removed his own appendix
From The Atlantic’s archives, a harrowing 1961 account of a Soviet surgeon on a primitive Antarctic base who had to remove his own appendix, stopping frequently as he battled vertigo and blood loss:
I worked without gloves. It was hard to see. T… Continue reading
Posted in culture, health, history, syndicated
Tagged antarctica, gross, science, soviet, syndicated
Comments Off
Ebook readers’ bill of rights
LibraryGoblin sez, “The Librarian in Black, Sarah Houghton-Jan, has posted this call for basic e-book user’s rights. She’s released it into the public domain and is encouraging people to spread it as far and wide as possible. Enough of anti-user DRM an… Continue reading
Posted in culture, syndicated, technology
Tagged Action, Business, drm, ebook, Gadgets, library, manifesto, submitterator, syndicated
Comments Off
What atheists are really concerned about
From the Atheism. Tumblr blog. (Thanks, Jason Weisberger!)
Spoof of classic O’Reilly geek book cover
Who needs Unix In A Nutshell when you’ve got LSD in a sugarcube. (Thanks, Chris Arkenberg!)
Book Review: Future Babble by Dan Gardner
Today’s guest post is from Darren McKee, an contributor to the Ottawa Skeptics podcast. Want to contribute a review? Contact us.
I predict that you will find this review informative. If you do, you will congratulate my foresight. If you don’t, you?… Continue reading
Posted in culture, syndicated
Tagged Book Review, Critical Thinking, dan gardner, featured, future babble, Probability and Statistics, Reviews, skepticism, syndicated
Comments Off
Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property: understanding the state of play in global knowledge politics
Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property is a book and free download from MIT press:
What might “terminator” seeds, access to medicines, free software, and free culture have to do with one another? Do the global attempts to push back… Continue reading
Posted in culture, health, syndicated, technology
Tagged Action, book, Business, copyfight, creativecommons, foss, genome, patent, syndicated, wipo
Comments Off
PICKED: The Belief Instinct, The Science of Spirituality
We’re deeply fascinated by how the human mind makes sense of the world, and religion is one of the primary sensemaking mechanisms humanity has created to explain reality. On the heels of our recent explorations of the relationship between science and… Continue reading
Posted in books, culture, philosophy, syndicated
Tagged Neuroscience, PICKED, Psychology, religion, science, syndicated
Comments Off
2010?s Best Long Reads: Science & Technology
Longreads and Brain Pickings have teamed up to highlight the most fascinating in-depth stories published on the web this year. Earlier, we featured the best of Business and Art, Design, Film & Music. Our final spotlight shines on Science, Medicine … Continue reading
Posted in culture, health, syndicated, technology
Tagged Best of, Open Source, Psychology, remix, science, syndicated
Comments Off
2010?s Best Long Reads: Business
Longreads and Brain Pickings have teamed up to highlight the most compelling in-depth stories published on the web this year. Earlier, we featured the best of Art, Design, Film & Music. Next up: Business. Here are 10 must-reads from 2010, from “w… Continue reading
Posted in culture, syndicated, technology
Tagged Best of, Business, free market, partnerships, retail, syndicated
Comments Off
The Last Psychiatrist
A blog about piracy, mercantilism and fourth generation warfare. Continue reading