Tuesday Poem: An Argument Against Cynicism
What surprises me more than a newmillipede species was discovered this weekin Los Angeles County is that anyone caresenough about millipedes to look for them. Entomologistsmay be the last true
Julian Assange—Journalist or Jerk?
By Matthew Gault at Newsweek: No person is just one thing. I believe that strongly and, like other strongly held convictions, edge cases test me. So it is with Julian
On the Art of Imagining in Alan Lightman’s “Einstein’s Dreams”
Alizah Holstein at Literary Hub: I first read Einstein’s Dreams in 1993, very shortly after it was published. The author, Alan Lightman, is a physicist at MIT whose writings have illuminated the
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Dan Carlin on Podcasting, History, and Hero Worship
Nick Gillespie at Reason: In March, Reason‘s Nick Gillespie talked with one of the great pioneers of podcasting:Dan Carlin, the host of Hardcore History. Carlin’s deeply researched and urgently delivered takes on
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The Problem(s) of Democracy
From Wisdom of Crowds: Institutions in decay: In the past, Ezra Klein argues, American political parties “were a bulwark against politics becoming about one person.” What we’re seeing today is
Agreeing to Our Harm
Marilynne Robinson in the NY Review of Books: Some years ago I spoke at a conservative church in northern Michigan. I talked about military-style guns and the culture of fear
Culture, Digested: The PhD in Creativity
Jessa Crispin in The Culture We Deserve: One of the more interesting asides in the extensive coverage of Philadelphia’s University of the Arts’ shutdown has been the information that in the past few
Monday Poem: ‘How to be Happy in 101 Days’ by Tishani Doshi
Adore stone. Learn to manoeuvreagainst the heat of things. Shouldyou see butterflies gambol in the air,resist the urge to pinch their wings.Look for utilitarian values of violence.Use the knife lustily:
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Alan Watts on Transcending Yourself
The following is a brief segment of a lecture Alan Watts gave on The Psychedelic Experience: In a way, all consciousness-expanding drugs have something to do with death. Why? Because
Why Medieval Philosophers Cared if Animals Made Mistakes
Sam Alma at Aeon Magazine: You are standing on a boat that is drifting down a placid river. You watch the trees on the shore glide along. For a moment,
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AI Hope or Hype?
From Project Syndicate: At the latest Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced that it is not only launching its own suite of artificial-intelligence models, but also integrating OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its
Sabina Suey: The Valencian Postwoman Who Hid the Holy Grail in Her Sofa
When the Spanish Civil War broke out, everyone from Spanish revolutionaries to M.I.6 agents wanted to steal the Holy Grail. Little did they know that a Valencian postwoman had hidden
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