Maybe you’ve heard this one: How many legs does a spider have? Eight? Do you really know? I mean have you counted them? In 300 B.C. Aristotle said that spiders had six legs and was classified as an insect. All the world believed him, until finally in the 1400s somebody actually counted and saw they […]
Why information fails
Last month, the London Guardian reported that the mantra of the Brexit campaigners was “Facts don’t work… You have got to connect with people emotionally.” MSNBC’s Maddow Show contributors also fretted about this political information approach spreading to Europe from the United States. But emotion-heavy, data-light appeals have long been part of British and continental […]
Don’t wait too long to do the right thing
“THE BIBLE IS CLEAR: Moabites are bad. They were not to be allowed to dwell among God’s people (Dt. 23). BUT THEN comes the story of “Ruth the Moabite,” which challenges the prejudice against Moabites. THE BIBLE IS CLEAR: People from Uz are evil (Jer. 25). BUT THEN comes the story of Job, a man […]
Why Communicating Can Be So Hard
Steven Pinker is a Harvard psychologist who has spent the last few years studying language and morality. You may recognize his curly grey locks from his 2007 TED talk on the international violence rate: “The surprising decline of violence.” In a new column posted to the Chronicle of Higher Education this week—just in time to drive traffic […]
Reader Review 11 – Video Edition
For your weekly web browse. George Monbiot on Rewilding TEDGlobal 2013: “For more wonder, rewild the world.” (Monbiot) George Monbiot is a British investigative environmental journalist who has worked on domestic and international stories for more than two decades. His current work includes challenging the ultra-wealthy on population politics, but he also offers inspirational descriptions […]
Reader Review 9
Long and short reads for your next weekend. Fall 2014 edition. On Work that Works for Us Why We Have to Go Back to a 40-Hour Work Week to Keep Our Sanity (AlterNet) “Research by the US military has shown that losing just one hour of sleep per night for a week will cause a level of […]
