You know, why not? Official Theory A Harvard professor and a ranking Pentagon official walk into a bar and start talking about alien motherships — stop me if you've heard this one before. No, this isn
When it comes to making predictions, Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity is pretty much unbeatable, at least in physics. The theory says that objects of mass “warp” the very fabric of space
03.28.2023 United States History With the ongoing financial crisis, it’s a perfect time to look to the Bank of North Dakota. It is the only state-owned bank in the continental US and was formed in 191
I’ve been to therapy three times in my life. The first time was when I was nineteen. My father recommended his therapist. He had found someone “down to Earth,” who didn’t dress stuffy. I should have k
"I'm so sick of this sh*t." Model Behavior AI has claimed its latest victim, now that Levi Strauss is apparently going to start outsourcing its model diversity to algorithms. Last week, Levi Strauss a
The Baffler , March 24, 2023 Fresh Hell The best dispatches from our grim new reality Jason Arias Word Factory W o r d F a c t o r y First, Do No Arm Take a walk, legs! See you later, head! Sayonara,
David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson’s Mulder and Scully from the original run of The X-Files (pictured above) hold a special place in many a fan’s heart. And while they’ve reprised their characters in
In an interview with DPReview, Sigma CEO Kazoo Tamaki made some observations about the impact of computational photography and the rise of camera phones. The technology that has impressed me the most
Trial and error: Several issues make it difficult to gauge the effects of autism interventions. Aleksandra Konoplia / Getty Images The Experts: Isabel Smith Professor , Dalhousie University Kate Tsipl
Credit: Madrock 24/Alamy Stock Photo ChatGPT is the first nonhuman subject I have ever tested. In my work as a clinical psychologist, I assess the cognitive skills of human patients using standardized
A young mountain gorilla. Credit: Ibrahim Suha Derbent/Getty Images In 2011 Marcus Perlman saw a YouTube video of a gorilla named Zola spinning in circles while playing in a water puddle at the Calgar
There’s a short essay I love by the late writer Brian Doyle called “Joyas Voladoras” in which he examines various animal hearts to talk about the emotional capacity of the human heart. “No living bein
Here are four facts about two Boston sports franchises: The Boston Celtics became the first NBA team to ever draft a Black player when, in 1950, a Jewish head coach named Red Auerbach selected Chuck C
Autism is inborn neurology, not a condition that can be caused, “treated,” or cured—not in children, nor in adults. Even so, well-intentioned but misguided researchers as well as blatant hucksters are
WSJ News Exclusive U.S. America Pulls Back From Values That Once Defined It, WSJ-NORC Poll Finds Patriotism, religion and hard work hold less importance Some 38% of poll respondents said patriotism wa
Write Less Feb 2nd, 2023 I remember when I first became aware of blogging, a little over twenty years ago. The defining quality was that there were no preconceived limits on what you could, or should,
Most Recent 2023/03/27#p1 Today is an important day in my blogging calendar – the anniversary of my decision in 2016 to reboot everything and return to the blog after what was more than two years away
For the past several decades, originalism has been the preeminent conservative legal philosophy. The basic idea of originalism—that statutes and constitutional provisions should be given their literal
I had a pretty good reaction to the first half of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds : I finished the first season yesterday with an Aliens homage, a faint call back to Shore Leave from the original series
The death of a parent can be heartbreaking. For Sero the zebra, the loss even changed his personality, according to his zookeepers. On Thursday, the male equine—born in 2021—was found trotting around
I like to think of the Hohmann transfer as the orbital equivalent of sending a ball down a hill to a friend. First you have to kick the ball to get it moving. This requires energy. The ball will conti
When the gentleman-scholar Francis Galton inspected his fellow men of Victorian Britain, he found them wanting: “We want abler commanders, statesmen, thinkers, inventors, and artists,” he wrote in an
Welcome to my personal newsletter. I’m publishing weekly essays on digital technology and culture, in the run-up to my January 2024 book FILTERWORLD: How Algorithms Flattened Culture. Subscribe or rea
By Frank Wilczek March 16, 2023 at 1:53 pm ET Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek explores the secrets of the cosmos. Read previous columns here . A couple of weeks ago I got a nice surprise f
There’s a secret mode that comes with almost all large ovens, refrigerators, dishwashers, and other large kitchen appliances. It is called Sabbath mode , and there is a very specific reason it is prov
Credit: Katie Thomas When I began reporting on autism about 15 years ago, therapists would talk about achieving the “optimal outcome” for children on the autism spectrum. What they meant was changing
An early open-plan office, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright for the S. C. Johnson company in the 1930s, was intended to boost productivity. Credit: Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images I
what a perfect little movie hi everyone. As subscribers already know , I had a week last week that involved emergency surgery for one of my cats (she’s fine now, everyone’s fine, our local vet is grea
Derek Kedziora · March 26th, 2023 While doing a bit of research for another post, I was surprised to learn there was an actual technocracy movement in the US . While it never amounted to much, some of
One particular feature of the universe has puzzled physicists for generations. It appears to be uncannily well set up for the emergence of life. The universe exists as a fabric of spacetime, populated
March has been a mega expensive month for me financially. And this has everything to do with my inability to pick the right furniture for myself. I’ve always had bad luck with furniture, especially li
This story also ran on CNN . It can be republished for free. About ‘Navigating Aging’ Navigating Aging focuses on medical issues and advice associated with aging and end-of-life care, helping America’
Most Recent 2023/03/25#p1 Now I'm done with the site tweaks. I made some more changes to the new icons on the homepage and how they respond to hover. I think it looks pretty cool. (You can hover anywh
Derek Kedziora · March 25th, 2023 This is an RSS only post. Check out the RSS Club to learn about the (open) secret. I was in an oddly public place listening to ostensibly professional presentations w
The one possible side-effect of taking Abilify that I have developed is having disturbing dreams. I dream every night, and, except for occasional nights when I dream of still-living people — like work
In The Civilizing Process (1939), sociologist Norbert Elias traces the emergence of the idea of “civility” to a single book by Erasmus of Rotterdam, De civilitate morum puerilium (1530), which itself
Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / The Daily Beast / Alamy “There’s all these assholes who, for years, have been going, ‘Oh, you know, Dark Side of the Moon absolutely syncs up with The Wizard of
Our capacity to care about others may have very, very ancient origins, a new study suggests. It might have been deep-rooted in prehistoric animals that lived millions of years ago, before fish and mam
A federal judge has ruled against the Internet Archive in Hachette v. Internet Archive, a lawsuit brought against it by four book publishers, deciding that the website does not have the right to scan