Fortunately, there is a formula to solve this problem without unrealistically suggesting that we dispense entirely with our competitive urge: Instead of always going for gold, shoot for the bronze. - The Atlantic
The study showed that "while people with higher intelligence scores solved the easy problems quicker, they took longer to solve the difficult ones, apparently because they spent more time inferring hidden rules before reaching the correct solution." - Big Think
Readers interested in isms—feudalism, imperialism, capitalism, etc.—won’t find these subjects explicitly discussed. Rather, the author addresses the faceless structures of human existence by writing about who advocated for and implemented them, and who benefited from or suffered under them. - Wall Street Journal
The science of bioacoustics opens up a novel window into worlds of sound unheard by human ears. Across our planet, sound is a primordial form of conveying complex ecological information; a vast range of species — even those without ears — are remarkably sensitive to sound. - Noema
People have believed in this moral decline at least since pollsters started asking about it in 1949, they believe it in every single country that has ever been surveyed (59 and counting), they believe that it’s been happening their whole lives and they believe it’s still happening today. - The New York Times
Despite a vast effort, researchers still don’t understand how our brains produce it, however. “It started off as a very big philosophical mystery. But over the years, it’s gradually been transmuting into, if not a ‘scientific’ mystery, at least one that we can get a partial grip on scientifically.” - Nature
It's now clear that practically everything Web technology touches starts down the path to gratis. Basic economics tells us that in a competitive market, price falls to marginal cost. There's never been a more competitive market than the Internet, and every day the marginal cost of digital information comes closer to nothing. - Wired
Travel gets branded as an achievement: see interesting places, have interesting experiences, become interesting people. Is that what it really is? - The New Yorker
Elizabeth Alexander: Art "has to start from a place of finding the truth: What is the light that you’re trying to share? Then, what does your craft allow you to do with it? I think what is beautiful contains within it human exchange." - Fast Company
"What we find, then, is what we’ve previously called 'generalized skepticism,' whereby people are skeptical of all forms of news selection, whether done by humans or by algorithms." So ... er ... should we ask dogs and cats to do this work? - Nieman Lab
"Bronzes of arms, feet, ears and other body parts ... the various ailments that were treated at the thermal baths." And then there are two bronze plaques with a "'very accurate' depiction of internal organs." - The New York Times
The whole point about academic freedom: the freedom to exercise academic expertise in order to discriminate between good and bad ideas, valid and invalid arguments, sound and hare-brained methods. This is what academics do when we curate syllabuses, make appointments, allocate graduate places and funding, peer-review papers and books, and invite speakers. - London Review
Some 19th-century artists saw the advent of photography as a threat to painting. Instead of replacing painting, however, photography eventually liberated it from realism, giving rise to Impressionism and the Modern Art movement. - Science
“We have seemingly been hardwired with a number of cognitive biases that impede our ability to take appropriate action to address seemingly distant, gradual and complex challenges such as climate change.” - The Guardian
You imagine the American city in the 1940s and ’50s and you think so many challenges being confronted—substandard housing, deindustrialization, racial strife, pollution—all this stuff is going on, and yet city leaders are obsessed with parking? But in fact they are. - Wired
