Category: Opinion

How the US Lost the Solar Power Race to China

China now produces more than 90% of the world’s photovoltaic-grade polysilicon. Back in 2010, it was a minor player.

The Last Days of Mankind

Today, each one of the assumptions that underpinned western policymaking and journalism for nearly three decades lie shattered.

Yuval Noah Harari on Why Christianity Became Popular

by Lex Fridman at YouTube: The following is a conversation with Yuval Noah Harari, a…

The Passion of the Elites

Among the topics discussed is the nature of symbolic capital; whether self interest and political idealism are necessarily contradictory…

Fats Are Actually Quite Useful

Besides storing energy as fat, lipids are best known for encircling and protecting every living cell on Earth. The molecules form an effective barrier…

On the Myth that Arabic Translations Merely Preserved Greek Literature

What is less well-known is that the point of translating foreign works was not to preserve them but to build on them.

I Quit Teaching Because of ChatGPT

This fall is the first in nearly 20 years that I am not returning to the classroom. For most of my career, I taught writing, literature, and language, primarily to university students.

What The Photographer Who’s Taken Hundreds Of Philosopher Portraits Really Thinks Of Philosophers

Steve Pyke is a renowned portrait photographer. He has published ten books, including the award-winning I Could Read the Sky.

Can the Brain Help Heal a Broken Heart?

This work could also help researchers understand the mechanisms that link psychological factors with physical health.

What is Poetry?

Poet and artist Gozo Yoshimasu defines what poetry is via Basho, Walter Benjamin, Paul Klee, smoke, Zen philosophy, and handwriting.

Global Mobility, Bordered Realities, and Ethnocultural Contact Zones

Borders no longer are mere fixed invisible divisions set under geopolitical rationales whose main objective is defining national territorialities.

Ted Nordhaus: Environmentalism is Antithetical to Abundance

Stopping the planet from warming requires that we stop emitting carbon dioxide entirely,; that means that to effectively mitigate climate change, you have to build an entirely new energy economy.