Is Technology Killing The Art Of Conversation?

“Worries about the effect of technology on conversation are not new; George Orwell bemoaned houses having a radio in every room. And this was no class of Luddites. Everyone said they were on Facebook and several were avid tweeters. However, there was unease about how email, instant messaging and texting had crept into the space formerly occupied by conversation.”

The Bilingual Brain, And Its Powerful Abilities

“There is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.”

How To Build For The Apocalypse

Artist Chris Hackett likes to improvise with things he finds on the streets of Brooklyn. “Nathaniel Grouille, a television producer who produced Mr. Hackett’s most recent show, ‘Stuck With Hackett,’ for the Science Channel and is helping him pitch the new show, said, ‘There’s an elegant, design way to make things, and then there’s a Dunkirk, let’s-get-it-done-with-baling-wire-and-string way — that’s Hackett’s way.'”

Young Architects Stop Waiting And Head To China For Jobs

“This is the expected global economic formula flipped on its head: instead of American workers losing out to the Chinese, China is providing jobs for foreign architects. Even more surprising is the degree of imaginative license that China offers, even demands of, its foreign building designers. With new cities materializing seemingly overnight, international architects are free to think big, to experiment with cutting-edge designs, to introduce green technologies.”