January 05, 2009
Educating Students for Life
Harvard rolls out its new general education curriculum.
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January 05, 2009
In Search of the God Neuron
Steven Rose examines the latest theories about the human brain
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January 05, 2009
For Good Self-Control, Try Getting Religious About It
"If I’m serious about keeping my New Year’s resolutions in 2009, should I add another one? Should the to-do list include, 'Start going to church'?"
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December 29, 2008
God
Philosophers weigh in...
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December 29, 2008
Is It Art?
There is no other medium that produces so pure a cultural segregation as video games, so clean-cut a division between the audience and the non-audience.
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December 29, 2008
We're All Moral Hypocrites
Most of us, whether we admit it or not, are moral hypocrites. We judge others more severely than we judge ourselves.
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December 23, 2008
Learning from Venturi
Time has killed off a lot of modernist art...But the architectural remnants of the age cannot be avoided.
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December 23, 2008
Sacrament and Suffering at the Red Lobster
During this Christmas season, perhaps more so than in any other in recent memory, the behind-the-scenes engines that power this American orgy of consumerism are more apparent to us—and more lacking—than ever.
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December 23, 2008
The Idea of the University, Again
The debate over education threatens us most, not with failure, but with boredom. Into an over-crowded and jaded environment, Gordon Graham injects a fresh and realistic analysis of the troubles plaguing the modern university.
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December 22, 2008
Is Christmas Christian?
As a Franciscan priest, I think I have the right to ask that question... We from the Catholic tradition too easily presume that because the title is right, the train following it is on the right track.
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December 22, 2008
Tea with God
After a lifetime looking for God, Sue finally finds him. And he's pretty steamy.
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December 22, 2008
Judges Junk Bogus Neuroscience
A group of 50 US judges decide that a brain scan cannot determine a state of guilt.
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December 19, 2008
The Mad Scientist Bringing Back the Dead
Bubbling cauldrons, toxic substances, insane and dangerous ideas -- whatever happened to that kind of science?
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December 19, 2008
Why Music?
Biologists are addressing one of humanity’s strangest attributes, its all-singing, all-dancing culture.
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December 19, 2008
The Nature of the Beast
"The Philosopher and the Wolf is a powerfully subversive critique of the unexamined assumptions that shape the way most philosophers - along with most people - think about animals and themselves."
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December 18, 2008
People of the Screen
The book is dead. Long live the book!
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December 18, 2008
Higher Education Without Democracy?
The calculating logic of the instrumentalized university diminishes the spiritual and political vision needed to sustain a vibrant democracy and an engaged notion of social agency.
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December 18, 2008
Trend Spotting
http://www.slate.com/id/2206516/
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December 17, 2008
He Found the Innate Humanity in the Human Brain
“Noam Chomsky’s position in the history of ideas is comparable to that of Darwin or Descartes.”
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December 17, 2008
Better Than Human
Why is the world's most prestigious science journal peddling the snake oil of cognition-enhancing drugs?
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December 17, 2008
Michael Novak on Science and Religion
"According to the conventional narrative, science and religion have been at war for some three hundred years. But the reality is deeper and more complex."
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December 16, 2008
The Bible?
Most people think of the Bible as a densely printed book with no pictures, but a version of the scripture that resembles a glossy coffee table magazine aims to change that.
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December 16, 2008
Of Primates and Personhood
Will according rights and "dignity" to nonhuman organisms halt research?
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December 16, 2008
When Jesus Met Buddha
Something remarkable happened when evangelists for two great religions crossed paths more than 1,000 years ago: they got along.
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December 15, 2008
The Evolution of Sunday
From Sabbatarianism to shopping - and why there's no such thing as a Wednesday driver.
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December 15, 2008
Double U(niversity)
How to make colleges twice as productive.
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December 15, 2008
Leaving Literature Behind
The professionalization of the field is turning students off.
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December 11, 2008
Hard-Wired Justice
Call it the justice instinct. When judging the guilt or innocence of alleged criminals, our brains seem to respond as if we were personally wronged, say researchers.
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December 11, 2008
The Simple Life?
The mixed blessings of the simple life led by indigenous people deep in the forest.
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December 11, 2008
God Enough
We should see the ceaseless creativity of nature as sacred, despite what Richard Dawkins might say.
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December 10, 2008
The Biohacking Hobbyist
Why does all biology happen in academic or industrial labs?
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December 10, 2008
Judge a Book by Its Cover
Publishers should think artistically when packaging novels.
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December 10, 2008
Newspapers Are Done For
"The terrifying problem is that a one-man blog cannot begin to do the necessary labour-intensive, skilled reporting that a good newspaper sponsors and pioneers. A world in which reporting becomes even more minimal and opinion gets even more vacuous and unending is not a healthy one for a democracy."
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December 09, 2008
Social Networks and Happiness
New study shows that birds of a feather do flock together. That is, happy people tend to have happy Facebok friends.
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December 08, 2008
The Well-Tended Bookshelf
"The biggest obstacle was my library."
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December 08, 2008
How Would Kerouac Cope with Word?
Is Kerouac's stream of consciousness style possible on a PC?
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December 08, 2008
End of the Road
"If death is an old joke that comes to each of us afresh, how is it no one is laughing?"
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