Thinking
In early sixteenth century, Machiavelli asks, “Of cruelty and mercy, and whether it is better to be loved than to be feared or the contrary?” Here is his answer, from The Prince: Turning to the other qualities mentioned above, let me say that every prince must desire to be considered
Film
Sea World in San Diego amazed me. I was completely mesmerized by the Killer Whales and watched them swim around the pool for most of the day. Tonight, I watched the documentary Blackfish. Blackfish tells the story of Tilikum, a performing killer whale that killed several people while in captivity.
Mind
Sheldrake proposes that “memory” is inherent in cells, and that life exhibits “evolutionary habits,” a quality that Darwin also noted. “Cells come from other cells and inherit fields of organization” and that morphogenesis innately depends on organizing those fields, which he refers to as morphic fields. For instance, since the
Culture
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela From CNN: Word of Nelson Mandela’s death spread quickly across the United States, bringing with it a mix of reverence and grief for a man who was born in South Africa but in
Culture
After Martin Luther King Jr. won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, plans for an interracial celebration in still-segregated Atlanta were not initially well supported by the city’s business elite until J. Paul Austin intervened. In his memoir, activist and former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young wrote: J. Paul Austin, the
Matthew
The Harpies’ first appearance in Greek literature is incongruously charming. For Hesiod, they are goddesses of the scudding storm clouds, “lovely-haired,” keeping pace “on their swift wings with the blasts of the winds and the birds.” Later the nastier implications of their name “Snatchers” take over. The classical Harpies are
From BuzzFeed, “The early ’90s ad campaign that made Anna Nicole a household name. In 1993, Anna Nicole Smith secured a contract to replace supermodel Claudia Schiffer as the face of Guess. Although the struggles with her weight and substance abuse overshadowed the last years of her life, here is
Culture
Let the public decide on the fate of 1% of our science budget. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin was just one of the many independent researchers who, not reliant on grants or constrained by the conservative pressures of anonymous peer review, did stunningly original work. That kind of freedom
Culture
John Maddox says of Rupert Sheldrake's work, "I was so offended by it that I said and I said that while it's wrong that book should be burned. In practice, if book burning were allowed this book would be a candidate. I think it'
Myth
A long time ago, in a land far away, a child was born. He was the son of a god and a mortal woman, and he used his miraculous powers to do good and to serve others. Tragically, he was betrayed and was killed by his enemies. But ultimately he
Tech
Humans have a powerful capacity to process visual information, skills that date far back in our evolutionary lineage. And since the advent of science, we have employed intricate visual strategies to communicate data, often utilizing design principles that draw on these basic cognitive skills. In a modern world where we
Motion
PBS posted the full episodes of The Fabric of the Cosmos. A four-hour series based on the book by renowned physicist and author Brian Greene, takes us to the frontiers of physics to see how scientists are piecing together the most complete picture yet of space, time, and the universe.