There is an expression often used to capture the power of the press: never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. Today the ink is barrelled inside algorithms we don’t own. - The Walrus
Being alone is bad for you—and it’s not all about close family and friends. “Talking to strangers,” says Robert Waldinger, who leads the longest-running study on human happiness, at Harvard, “actually makes us happier. - The Walrus
“Modern” is certainly a fluid term, and to flatly state that any one era permanently defines the term is, I suppose, arrogant. But Paris in the early part of last century, and in particular the 1920s was, indeed, a remarkable era of Modernism in which literature, visual arts, music. - The Millions
The articles journalists write will become source material to be remixed and delivered in hyper-personalized presentations. (One easy example is that most people likely prefer to read the news in their native language). - NiemanLab
There may not appear to be a reason behind it. “You’re just sort of ‘meh,’” Dr. Shanbhag said. “And you get used to being that way.” - The New York Times
Specifically, musical elements like pitch and timbre emerged as crucial predictors for values of Care and Fairness, while sentiments and emotions expressed in lyrics were more effective in predicting traits of Loyalty, Authority, and Purity. - Phys.org
The infamous Chuck E. Cheese animatronic performers were for kids, kind of. "Those were also for the adults. The robotic characters originally spoke in double entendres." - NPR
But this year, it's possible that the guy who has spawned churches, offshoots, and - of course - spendy video courses about "Apocalypse-proofing your family" finally found out. - Slate
Lately, however, the social-science world has become mired in controversy. Researchers themselves have started to note that many famous experiments have been debunked—such as, indeed, the Stanford prison experiment—or simply can’t be replicated. - The Atlantic
A small but thoughtful new study in PLOS One calls into question whether addiction is the right term for heavy social media use, and suggests digital detox, at least over the short term, may not have much impact on mental health at all. - Nautilus
A new book argues that the invention of states and corporations has something to teach us about A.I. But perhaps it’s the other way around. - The New Yorker
Human moral judgment is rich and subtle, emerging through the complex interplay of reason and emotion—not the sort of thing that you’d expect a large language model to understand. - The New Yorker
Setting aside their feelings about being an adult, what did people say defined adulthood for them? They in fact tended to place little emphasis on the traditional milestones of marriage and parenthood. Psyche
Human beings make machines, but machines remake human society, too. Reliable, spring-driven clocks enabled precision time measurement, forcing us into regimented daily schedules, but they also helped sailors calculate their positions at sea with far greater accuracy, leading to the first reliable maps. - The Wall Street Journal
Those who shun the indefinite tend to see the world in shades of black and white, ignoring the gray. They are prone to jump to answers and are distressed by chaos and surprise. - Nautilus
