Category: Uncategorized
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How Cats Control Human Culture
I’ll admit I may have overstretched myself slightly with this sensationalist title. What it should say is, “How the Toxoplasma Gondii Brain Parasite May Influence Human Culture“; but that’s not nearly as fun. Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled brain parasite spread by cats. Our feline companions are its preferred home and […] like most parasites,…
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The Senseless Censorship of Swearing
Expanding on concepts from his latest book, The Stuff of Thought, Steven Pinker discusses swearing and the superfluous censorship of today’s media. [S]wearing is not just a puzzle in cognitive neuroscience. It has figured in the most-famous free-speech cases of the past century, from Ulysses and Lady Chatterley to those of Lenny Bruce and George…
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Time’s 100 Best Novels: 1923–2005
2005 saw Time produce a list of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923. There are some greats there, but I’ve read embarassingly few of these: at least it’s giving me more material to add to my ever-expanding reading list.
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The Journey of North Pacific Pollution
The North Pacific Gyre is the ocean current vortex responsible for transporting huge amounts of pollution into the ocean from the land alond the Pacific coastline. In this Greenpeace animation, we can see how trash moves around the Pacific over a 6-year period, eventually accumulating as the Pacific’s ‘trash carpet’. It’s also worth noting that…
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World War II Posters
Ridiculous, shocking, hilarious, offensive: just some of the many adjectives you could use to describe these excellent World War II posters. She may look clean—but Pick-ups “Good-time” girls Prostitutes Spread syphilis and gonorrhea You can’t beat the Axis if you get VD Always good advice!
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Overcoming Stigma with Personal Incentives
Elizabeth Pisani, author of The Wisdom of Whores, writes about HIV from various perspectives: social, scientific, and political. In a recent article she notes how personal incentives are enough to overcome the stigma of HIV-infection. Malawi is suspending its payments to HIV-infected civil servants because so many uninfected people are trying to cash in. A…
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Colin Powell on Muslim-Americans
This past weekend saw Colin Powell endorse Barack Obama for president on NBC’s Meet the Press. However, the most important and touching part of his speech came when he discussed Muslim-Americans: Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That’s not America. Is there something wrong with some…
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The Economics of Faith
When a recent survey found that 44% of adults have switched their religious affiliation, the Christian church realised that it has a bad case of declining “brand loyalty”. Now, in order to combat this, they have started to employ “mystery worshippers”. The Wall Street Journal profiles Thomas Harrison, a mystery worshipper, and uncovers the strange—yet…
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Library of Economics and Liberty
Approaching its tenth anniversary, the Library of Economics and Liberty still continues to be the première resource for economic reference and thought. Highlights of the site include: EconLog, written by Arnold Kling and Bryan Caplan: “issues and insight in economics” The award-winning EconTalk podcast: “economics in daily life” In addition to the multitude of online…
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Fast Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread
At last! After trying to modify the original no-knead bread recipe into a wholemeal alternative, my lack of culinary skills proved fatal. Now Bittman has modified it himself, coming up with the definitive whole wheat no-knead bread recipe. Even though it was never an issue for me, it now only needs to be left to…