Wednesday Poem: The Lonely Maiden
Beyond the sea, so calm and smooth.The tide so low and the wind so cool.Far very far there is a small booth;Some Jolly called it Paradise of Fools.There’s an ugly
A Toxic Substance Found in Beethoven’s Hair May Solve an Enduring Mystery
For 200 years, Ludwig van Beethoven’s deafness has puzzled experts and fans. But a recent discovery of toxic substances in locks of the composer’s hair may finally solve the mystery.
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The Line in Neom
The Line, which is at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s mega-project Neom, is a $500bn eco-region–part of Saudi Vision 2030 strategy aimed to diversify the kingdom’s economy away from oil.
An Essay By an Artist: Nero’s Violin
Judson Vereen at Poetic Outlaws: My encounters with critics are minimal, yet explosive. They will rip everything apart if they can. Right off the bat, they want what they want,
‘The Young Engineer’ and Sibte Hasan
Habib Khan, Quetta: We had met Syed Sibte Hasan by chance. It so happened that we were roaming the corridors of a business center in Karachi’s “Qamar House”, and noticed
Tuesday Poem: The Ultimate Return
In the early dark before dawnI awake with a dreary feelingof death dripping from my eyelids.I sit up in bed and listento the echoes of oblivionhaunt my room. The emptinessof
Google and Harvard Map a Tiny Piece of the Human Brain With Extreme Precision
Our brains are like a jungle, writes Shelly Fan at Singularity Hub: Fan reports that “scientists just published the most detailed map of a cubic millimeter of the human brain.
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Teaching the Science of Happiness
“In order to help improve my students’ mental health, I offered a course on the science of happiness. It worked – but why?” Bruce Hood in Aeon: In 2018, a
Israel Can’t Win This War—Palestinians Told Us That From the Beginning
Peter Beinart in The Beinart Notebook: Our guest this week is someone I admire greatly, Tel Aviv University History Professor Yael Sternhell. We’ll talk about repression in Israeli academia following
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‘The Use of Political Power to Achieve Economic Gains’
by Umair Javed at Dawn: The Chinese state is remarkable in that it has struck a balance in using selective discretion to generate high rates of economic growth, though with
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A Top U.S. Diplomat on What America Gets Wrong
By Nahal Toosi at Politico: Victoria Nuland has long been known as a relentless, even pugnacious, U.S. diplomat, with a strong belief in American power. The approach sometimes got her
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Democracy Has Run Out of Future
Ivan Krastev & Leonard Benardo in Foreign Policy: We live today amid the dregs of time. A sense of doom is shared on all sides of the political spectrum. Democratic