What Populism Is—And Isn’t

Populism, the rule of many, and authoritarianism, the rule of one, might seem like antipoles. But they are intimately related. Wherever populism appears, so do various forms of…

What Your Brain Is Really Doing When Doing “Nothing”

The OEF is defined as the ratio of oxygen used by the brain to oxygen delivered by flowing blood and is remarkably uniform in the awake but resting state…

Thursday Poem: In the House of God

“Karan Kapoor introduced me to the form of the ghazal …I immediately took to the form and started practicing it.”

“Bangla Spring”

Just as the Arab Spring soon became what Harvard Law School’s Noah Feldman called an Arab Winter, Bangladesh’s democratic renewal could be smothered in its crib.

Finding Beauty in Biological Spaces

Shelby Bradford in The Scientist: Beata Mierzwa studies cell division as a postdoctoral researcher at the University…

Wednesday Poem: Independence

My life more civil is and free       Than any civil polity. Ye princes, keep…

Random Thoughts: VIP Jr.

by Irshad Salim: The world as was –like an extra large pizza yummy pie, was…

Managing the Sino-American AI Race

Central to the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was a rivalry to develop the technologies of the future.

Tuesday Poem: The Sum of Life

Nothing to do but work, Nothing to eat but food, Nothing to wear but clothes to keep one from going nude. Nothing to breathe but air…

When Henry Miller Met George Orwell: A Clash of Titans

George Orwell and Henry Miller, two of the most influential writers of the 20th century, had a single brief encounter in Paris in Dec. 1936. It has intrigued and baffled scholars and fans..

When Self-Correction in Science Goes Wrong

For more than a decade I have evaluated the so-called “billion dollar disaster” tabulation promoted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Why Britons Fell in Love With Suburban Life

Michael Gilson in Aeon Magazine: The Smiths had arrived on the Downham Estate, one of…