Category: ideas

Animal psychologist Brian Hare’ research “has been constrained by the number of dogs he can study. … He is the chief scientific officer of a new company called Dognition, which produces a Web site where people can test their dog’s cognition, learn about their pets and, Dr. Hare hopes, supply him and his colleagues with scientific data on tens of thousands of dogs.”

David J. Peterson, a formerly unemployed linguist, developed from scratch the harsh, guttural tongue of the Dothraki (who have no word for “thank you”) and the sweeter sounds of High Valyrian (which he describes as “just so stupid pretty”). One of his favorite parts was “doing the Low Valyrian is that I could really take a bat to pretty, proper High Valyrian.”

“In 230 diagram-heavy pages, [political scientist Michael] Chwe argues that Austen isn’t merely fodder for game-theoretical analysis, but an unacknowledged founder of the discipline itself: a kind of Empire-waisted version of the mathematician and cold war thinker John von Neumann, ruthlessly breaking down the stratagems of 18th-century social warfare.”

“We like effects to have causes, and we detest incoherent randomness. Why else would the quintessential question of existence give rise to so many sleepless nights, endear billions to religion, or single-handedly fuel philosophy?”

Certainly not – though some of us (not all, but some) might be excused for thinking so.

“In the end, it is camp’s rare combination of respite and reflection that should keep it relevant, for there will always be paradigms to outplay and systems to baffle. … The truth may be that camp cannot die because it is just a tool; and tools, no matter how long they’ve been sitting on a shelf, are not dead. They’re merely waiting for someone to pick them up.”

“Has it become obligatory for people with terminal illnesses to work like dogs during their final months or years? Is this how we define a ‘good death’ now? Is one a slacker to perform otherwise? Is this kind of determination healthy for sick people? Is it healthy for anyone?”

“More often than not, peasant food is labelled authentic food. Even the most passing familiarity with what most poor people eat will demonstrate that people’s diets improve as their disposable income increases.”

“Thoreau recorded the exact blooming and leafing-out dates of several hundred flowers, shrubs and trees in the Concord area, compiling charts and lists so meticulous that Primack and his associates … have been able to compare them with present-­day observations at the same location.”

It’s “a hospital quiet room created by the godfather of ambient music where patients can “think, take stock or simply relax” and an Eno light and music piece in the reception of the new £34m private Montefiore hospital in Hove.”