“A eulogy, of sorts, for the would-be heirlooms of the Bush administration, the failed campaigns and fading ideologies”… “Compassionate Conservatism”, “Teaching the Controversy”, “Homosexuality as a Choice” and so on.
Category: ideas
Researchers: Drug Performance Enhancements Aren’t Cheating
“We enhance our brain function all the time, they say — by drinking coffee, by eating nutritious food, by getting an education, even by getting a good night’s sleep. Taking brain-enhancing drugs should be viewed as just another step along that continuum, one that’s ‘morally equivalent’ to such ‘other, more familiar, enhancements,’ they write.”
Reflecting On A Pair Of American Icons
Leonard Bernstein and Tennessee Williams: Both were world-famous, gay, and profoundly affected their art forms, and both had significant anniversaries in 2008 (Lenny’s 90th birthday, the 25th anniversary of Tennessee’s death). But Bernstein received big celebrations in major classical music centers, while Williams got “small, gay-themed affairs in places like Provincetown and Glasgow.” Why the difference?
‘Tortillas Of The Stone Age’
“Fire-cracked rock piles found across North America received little scientific attention for decades, but two new studies reveal… [that for] thousands of years, they were used [by Native Americans] to cook a favorite food staple: smoky, sweet camas bulbs.”
The Ten Commandments As Progressive Manifesto
“Through misreadings and mistranslations, the ten commandments have come to be seen as the rantings of a vain and vengeful God. In fact, they are an early blueprint for self-government forged by refugees escaping tyranny.”
TV Killed Reading; The Internet Makes Reading Normal
“What the Internet has actually done is not decimate literary reading; that was really a done deal by 1970. What it has done, instead, is brought back reading and writing as a normal activity for a huge group of people.”
What Flaubert Got Right About Shopping
“It is not simply that Emma Bovary wants things. Shopping is a key to her dreams, a way of widening the horizons of her provincial, bourgeois but boring, life… Shopping in modernity is not a simple matter of material greed. As Emma’s musings demonstrate, shopping links the localised world with the expanding horizons and dreams of the modern world.”
Get Dumped? Blame You’ve Got Mail
Researchers in Edinburgh claim that watching too many romantic comedies can lead to “unrealistic expectations” in real-life relationships. Fans of the movies “often fail to communicate with their partner. Many held the view if someone is meant to be with you, then they should know what you want without you telling them.”
Music And Journalism – Now There’s A Formula For Success
Could one ailing media industry–music–teach another ailing media industry–journalism–a thing or two about survival?
A Scientific Excuse Explanation For Not Paying Attention
It’s because your brain was disconnected. A U. Michigan researcher “asked volunteers to spend a tedious hour in a functional-MRI brain scanner, identifying letters that flashed on a screen. At times, their reactions slowed, showing that attention was wavering. During these lapses, communication between regions related to self-control, vision and language processing died down.”