Polymath's Guide to News and Ideas
Myths about Neandertals
JOHN HAWKS WEBLOG : Tyler Cowen comments on last week's "Let's clone mammoths, and OOH OOH Neandertals too" article. I'm pointing to the post because the commenters embody so many popular myths about Neandertals... READ MORE
Why Do Men Buy Sex?
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN : Arthur is an alleged john, a man who patronizes prostitutes. After his arrest on September 5, 2008, a photograph of this 41-year-old appeared on the Web site of the Chicago Police Department. Arthur (not his real name) was far... READ MORE
The (Tuna) Tragedy of the Commons
DOT EARTH :There was new evidence early this week that the world has not yet absorbed just how deeply humans have depleted our “exhausted oceans.” At the latest meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas... READ MORE
The Triumph of Roberto Bolaño
THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS :Well beyond his sometimes nomadic life, Roberto Bolaño was an exemplary literary rebel. To drag fiction toward the unknown he had to go there himself, and then invent a method with which to represent it. Since the unknown place was reality... READ MORE
Truman Show Syndrome delusion: Sufferers convinced they are on reality TV
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH : The self-exposure, instant fame culture peddled by reality shows, social networking internet sites such as Facebook and – above all – the home video-sharing website YouTube has provided a "perfect storm" for vulnerable people... READ MORE
Is Canada becoming a digital ghetto?
WWW.CBC.CA : Last week the CRTC sided with Bell against a group of small Internet Service Providers who want to offer their customers unthrottled connections where what they download is their own business and not subject to interference... READ MORE
Brain exercises are 'waste of time'
GUARDIAN :Brain exercises, such as those taught to thousands of schoolchildren or advertised on television to adults as a way to prevent dementia, are a waste of time and money, a neuroscientist has claimed... READ MORE
20 Artistic Architectural Optical Illusions
WEBURBANIST : Seeing is believing… or is it? Aided by high-tech materials, today’s artists and architects are finding that if it can be imagined...READ MORE
Grand chieftain of anthropology lives to see his centenary
THE INDEPENDENT :France celebrated the 100th anniversary yesterday of the birth of one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century. This was not just a centenary... READ MORE
The 10 Most Influential People in Science
DISCOVER MAGAZINE | RSS : How would we find out where our high school crush is working, 20 years after we last saw him, without the inventors of Google? But Google brings the world much more than cyberstalking: It allows us...READ MORE