Letters Remain

Author: Lloyd Morgan

  • Growing Sentences

    How to develope sentences in the style of David Foster Wallace (visit Jason’s post to see an example of how powerful this can be for prose): Begin with an idea, a string of ideas. Use them in a compound sentence. Add rhythm with a dependent clause. Elaborate using a complete sentence as interrupting modifier. Append…

  • The Future of Human Health

    In seven videos, each between 9 and 19 minutes in length, some of Stanford’s best researchers discuss cutting-edge cognitive science research. Learn about the frontiers of human health from seven of Stanford’s most innovative faculty members. Inspired by a format used at the TED Conference, each speaker delivers a highly engaging talk in just 10-20…

  • Talk to Strangers

    In an article discussing collaborative spam filtering and the Tor project, Bruce Schneier offers some refreshing advice: telling children not to talk to strangers isn’t strictly the best advice: When I was growing up, children were commonly taught: “don’t talk to strangers.” Strangers might be bad, we were told, so it’s prudent to steer clear…

  • Alibi Club

    Alibi clubs are loose collections of people willing to help each other out with alibis for every occasion: skipping work for the day, travelling to another country with your mistress, or getting out of a blind date. Your imagination—and morality—is your only barrier. There is nothing new about making excuses or telling fibs. But the…

  • Writing ‘On Writing Well’

    William Zinsser—author of 17 books—talks in length on the trials and tribulations of writing ‘On Writing Well’. My initial fear of immodesty was misguided. The best teachers of a craft, I saw, are their own best textbook. Students who take their classes really want to know how they do what they do—how they grew into…

  • Causes of Poverty and Prosperity

    Matt Ridley—author of The Red Queen, among others—discusses the causes of poverty and prosperity, offering new (to me) insights on innovation, technology and markets. It’s very clear from history that markets bring forth innovation. If you’ve got free and fair exchange with decent property rights and a sufficiently dense population, then you get innovation. […] The…

  • Grade Inflation

    With news that Cambridge University is to demand A* grades at A-Level as a prerequisite for entry (a grade that currently doesn’t exist), there is much in the news about ‘grade inflation’. However “grade inflation” is actually the answer; the problem is “grade distortion”: True grade inflation would mean each grade was equally devalued, with…

  • The Evolutionary Role of Cooking

    Cooking is “the evolutionary change that underpins all others” and is what makes us human, according to Richard Wrangham, Harvard University. The theory: the process of cooking makes our food more digestible, freeing up a huge amount of calories that are then expended on other, more important, activities. And with Homo sapiens, what makes the species unique…

  • The Decay of Social Networks

    Unaccountability and anonymity on the Internet has brought about “the end of empathy”, says Jason Calacanis, as he discusses the ‘condition’ of Internet Asperger’s Syndrome: This disease affects people when their communication moves to digital, and the emotional cues of face-to-face interaction–including tone, facial expression and the so called “blush response”–are lost. […] In this syndrome,…

  • The Nun Study

    The ‘Nun Study’ is a longitudinal study of ageing and Alzheimer’s that uses data gathered from over 600 nuns over the past 20+ years. Some interesting correlates are starting to appear: The nuns make for a very unique population to study […] because of their similar lifestyles. “They don’t smoke, they don’t drink, so you can…