Our problem with drugs. Which is not the same as our drug problem.
Knowledge is shaped by subjectivity. This is not my opinion but rather an objective fact that has been independently confirmed by many different disciplines, fr...
Category: ideas
epistemology, philosophy, theology, religion
A massive multiplayer movie experience.
Reading Michael Heilemann’s celebrated investigation of how the character of Chewbacca was crafted, it struck me that movies are multi-player text-based v...
“Languages differ in what they must convey and not what they may convey.” – Roman Jakobson
Roman Jakobson: “Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey.”
Happy labor day!
There was a time – a very long time, in fact – when the U.S. economy was based in part on slave labor. In a slave economy, legal entities like businesses and in...
What’s good for the capital is good for the labor.
A great quote on immigration: Borders are imaginary lines across which capital flows freely. The idea that labor should not flow freely across borders, whether ...
Sleep on it.
“Sleep on it.” To the extent that we use and believe in this phrase, we understand the fundamental role that the unconscious plays in human existenc...
A few thoughts on planning for the future.
The act of making and keeping an appointment is an effort to change one’s thinking (“now, you must think about this”) but such changes can be ...
Earbud headphones you wear all the time for enhanced sensory perception
Are wireless, motion-powered earbuds coming soon? We wear contacts to improve our sight. Why not wear miniature headphones to improve our ability to hear “...
Who benefits from “holy war”? The extremists on both sides.
Josh Marshall points out that the anti-Islamic fear mongering being perpetrated by right-wing activists is hurting America’s counter-terrorism efforts. He...
Which online habit makes you happier?
It would be interesting to test whether users of the popular online tools (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Orkut) have devised uses (habits, activities) that makes ...
Do Americans listen as much as they talk? We might be able to answer that.
In “Go West,” Peter Hessler returns to America after years of living in China and finds that we Americans like to talk about ourselves and are good ...
Nothing is solid; gorgeous prose from The Ecomomist
Gorgeous writing from The Economist: The Earth is a recycling scheme that has been running for a third of the age of the universe. Microbes and plants endlessly...
Will computers in 2050 finally look like the ones we imagined in the 1950s?
A user on MetaFilter has argued that a well designed item is that which lasts a long time – or, perhaps, an item which the owner values for a long time. Here...
Google Wave, the failed MOO.
A few days ago I joked that Google Wave has a lot in common with Dungeons & Dragons. The next day Google announced it would abandon Google Wave. After read...
Will OMG go the way of OK? (A facetious phrase that became commonplace.)
I enjoy saying “oh em gee” and wonder if my grandchildren will still use this phrase just as we still use the phrase “oh kay” which in i...
Toys for telepresence.
AR.Drone, a hovering video camera you control via your phone combined with “augmented reality” gaming software. Racer, a racing video game with actu...
Countering a movement of feelings, not ideas.
Or, why a sustained, national commitment to mental health will do wonders for our constitution. As prompted by this post on Metafilter. Richard Hofstader writin...
First, they came for the art I did not care for, and I said so many things…
I was surprised to find yet another conversation about the Rodarte makeup line for MAC on MetaFilter this morning, some two weeks after the controversy began. T...
Stock prices Will Be What they Will Be
This is one of those super obvious things that you realize after years of bumping up against it: The price of stocks is a look into the future. You sell it base...