Everyone Wants a Piece of Kafka
Benjamin Balint at the NYT: In his novella “The Prague Orgy,” Philip Roth has a Czech writer say: “When I studied Kafka, the fate of his books in the hands
Vichch Pulase (Which Place)
Habib Khan, Quetta: More than twenty years ago, I was returning from a short trip to Nairobi. I had to check out early in the morning, and my flight was
A Theoretical ‘Case Against Education’
Scott Alexander at Astral Codex Ten: There’s been renewed debate around Bryan Caplan’s The Case Against Education recently, so I want to discuss one way I think about this question. Education isn’t
Fish Around the World are Shrinking
By Devika Rao in The Week: The world’s fish supply is getting smaller, physically. A study published in the journal Science said that body size trends “varied across communities,” but
Translating is Like X-raying a Book. You Get a Deep Tissue Read.
Hephzibah Anderson in The Guardian: Sam Taylor, 53, was living in rural France with four well-received novels to his name when he realised that he wasn’t going to be able
Continue readingTranslating is Like X-raying a Book. You Get a Deep Tissue Read.
Why the OpenAI Team In Charge of Safeguarding Humanity Imploded
Sigal Samuel at Vox: For months, OpenAI has been losing employees who care deeply about making sure AI is safe. Now, the company is positively hemorrhaging them. Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike
Continue readingWhy the OpenAI Team In Charge of Safeguarding Humanity Imploded
Working the System: For or Against Democracy
Mary L Trump at The Good in Us: The system which, depending on your perspective, is either broken or working exactly as designed, is something Mitch McConnell has worked within
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Learning to be Happier
Bruce Hood at Aeon: My own tutee students, whom I met on a regular basis, were reporting poor mental health or asking for extensions because they were unable to meet
Climate Change is Linked to Worsening Brain Diseases – New Study
Jo Adetunji at The Conversation: Climate change is making the symptoms of certain brain conditions worse, our new review has found. Conditions that can worsen as temperature and humidity rise
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Could Eating Less Help You Live Longer?
Dana Smith in The New York Times: If you put a lab mouse on a diet, cutting the animal’s caloric intake by 30 to 40 percent, it will live, on average,
Why a Forefather of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Fears the Future
“AI systems are going to be like a new species that might be smarter than us, and I think we should be very careful before we make these kinds of
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Imagining a Free Palestine
Ahmad Ibsais in Time Magazine: “Where is Ahmad?” The soldier called my name while we were stopped at the last Israeli checkpoint on the way from Ramallah to Jerusalem. I am