Month: December 2008
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Remarketing the Bible
Some modernised versions of the Bible for a contemporary audience: The Jesus Loves Porn Stars Bible, The Manga Bible, The Bible in Cockney, The (Lego) Brick Testament, and the all-star Bible podcast (featuring Forest Whitaker, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Samuel L Jackson, no less). The person behind this remarketing of holy writings is Dag Soederberg, a…
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Gaza’s Underground Economy
Foreign Policy has a fascinating photo essay on Gaza’s (literal) underground economy. Except for basic humanitarian supplies, Israel has blockaded the flow of goods into Gaza since June 2007, when Hamas, a militant Islamist group committed to Israel’s destruction, ousted its more secular rival, Fatah. The blockade has led to a new economic structure—a literal underground…
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Passive vs. Active Questions
Simple advice on how to phrase questions when seeking advice: use the active voice and question marks. When seeking information from busy people via email the little things matter. Quick, minor tip: use a question mark if you’re asking a question. Compare the following cases: Case A: Do you have any feedback for me on this…
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Science and Photography
Seed presents 11 stunning portfolios of science photography. Personal favourites: Colonial Intelligence X-ray Vision Flight Patterns
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Menu Consultants (or: Tips to Hack Restaurants)
A short piece in Time profiling Gregg Rapp: a “menu engineer” who optimises restaurant menus to maximise profits. The first step is the design. Rapp recommends that menus be laid out in neat columns with unfussy fonts. The way prices are listed is very important. “This is the No. 1 thing that most restaurants get…
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The State of Science
Seed Magazine’s inaugural ‘State of Science’. Features include: Revolutionary Scientific Minds (mentioned previously). The Scientist in 2008. What’s Holding Science Back. Emergent Science Cities: Natal, Brazil; Jena, Germany; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Mianyang, China; Abuja, Nigeria. The Fundamentals: Intellectual Property, Informatics, Public Perception, Publishing, and the following excerpt from Money: Considering that science is fundamental to the world’s…
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The Correlation Between Poverty and IQ
The Mouse Trap, Sandy Guatam’s excellent blog on cognitive and developmental psychology, discusses the correlation between a low IQ and poverty, and the implications thereof. What are the implications for society of a more mechanistic understanding of the effects of childhood poverty on brain development? To different degrees, and in different ways, we regard children as the responsibility of…
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Running a Social Experiment on a City
When academic Antanas Mockus became mayor of Bogotá he used the opportunity to run a social experiment on a grand scale. Soon enough, crime was reduced, road deaths were down, and there were 400 trained mimes improving both traffic and citizens’ behaviour. Seriously. “The distribution of knowledge is the key contemporary task,” Mockus said. “Knowledge empowers people. If people…
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£1,000,000 for a Chemical–Free Material
The Royal Society of Chemistry is offering £1,000,000 to anyone who can produce a 100% chemical–free substance. Why? Because they have grown tired of the word chemical being used negatively, perpetuating the idea that anything containing ‘chemicals’ is inherently bad. The Royal Society of Chemistry is today reclaiming the word chemical from the advertising and marketing industries.…