Why there are no more geese in Prospect Park, NYC.
Unintended Consequence #824,357 of humans “filtering” nature (aka, how evolution happens), from KingEdRa, a commenter at MetaFilter: First thereR...
Category: ideas
epistemology, philosophy, theology, religion
The small-time liar who exposes a big-time lie.
A deep discovery: The public’s distrust of the cloistered art world helps to explain why a forger, or a swindler, is so often perceived as a romantic aven...
Machete, box office proceeds and ballot box forecasting.
I’m about halfway through Inglourious Basterds and spent some time yesterday thinking about the forthcoming Machete. Both are perfectly wrought genre pict...
Two kinds of lawyers in this world.
There’s two kinds of lawyers: those who care deeply about what the law is and those who care deeply about what the law is and also care deeply about what ...
Weaving as a way of life: the global corporation.
There are crafts worth doing for the process alone, never mind the product. Weaving together the different strands of our lives is one such process which is rew...
What’s on YouTube?
Does anyone know what’s on YouTube? What percentage movies from the 80s, what percentage footage of kittens vs cats, what percentage action movies vs come...
if climate change brought “cold” summers to LA, would the culture change?
LA today (63° F) feels as cold as an SF summer – where it’s not much colder (58°F). if temperature impacts culture (amount of outdoor seating at restauran...
A modern Easter story; rebirth in Butte, Montana.
Radiolab has produced a startlingly beautiful story of hope and the awesome complexity of life. It involves abandoned mines, toxic waste and geese. It should be...
Sadistic government-funded experiment helped create a domestic terrorist?
Ted Kaczynski, The Unambomber, was once a 17 year-old test subject in a sadistic psychological study performed at Harvard at the bequest of the precursor to the...
Irony is a private channel.
what is irony but a private channel? requiring context is a way of filtering your audience, for whatever reason.
possible alternative reality games involving celebrities
you, the protagonist, are accidentally emailed the login / confirmation email intended for someone who is quite famous. you become his/her doppelganger. it̵...
Reading and writing as a natural process.
Hypothesis: all forms of writing are based on natural forms — they are a transcription of our landscapes: mountains, trees predators, prey, caves, clouds,...
The packing and unpacking game. Shakespeare, the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Communion.
I recently had to carry a few more things than I thought I could from one room to another. I stopped for a moment to think about it and devised a way to pack th...
A nation of immigrants and also, perhaps, a nation of survivors.
Those who advocate for the human rights of migrants spend a great deal of time responding to mischaracterizations of migrants, to shallow depictions, to stereot...
Our bodies, our selves. The time travel edition.
A fan of the possible, I sometimes overstate the unlikely. In recent years, I’ve toyed with the idea that the ancient past would “feel” differ...
Why so many lobbyists? Because the going is getting tougher.
Robert Reich on why corporations now spend so much money to lobby the government: The real reason is the structural shift in the economy, beginning in the late ...
Toe socks. With six toes. For kids.
If you were a company that made a popular line of toe socks for kids and you launched a new line with six toes would your consumers be delighted by the referenc...
Best Michael Jackson reflection I’ve read.
Hilton Als: Early on, he recognized the power mainstream stardom held—a chance to defend himself and his mother from the violent ministrations of his father, Jo...