archive

So fake it’s beyond real

Peter G. Turner (St. Catharine's): Degrees of Property. So fake it's beyond real: A review of In Praise of Copying by Marcus Boon. A review of Intellectuals Incorporated: Politics, Art, and Ideas Inside Henry Luce's Media Empire by Robert Vanderlan. A review of Soul Dust: The Magic of Consciousness by Nicholas Humphrey. Cattle Call: Why is a Washington watchdog attacking an obscure USDA official? Humans are overconfident creatures, which boosts our persistence, ambition, and drive, but can also lead to disasters — we can make such false beliefs work to our benefit. People neglect who they really are when predicting their own future happiness. Lords of the rings: An article on understanding tree ring science. An interview with Nancy Brown, author of The Abacus and the Cross: The Story of the Pope Who Brought the Light of Science to the Dark Ages. A review of All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly (and more and more). Americans Abroad: Charles Glass chooses five books about his countrymen in other countries. A now infamous PowerPoint presentation exposes a lot about men, women, sex, and alcohol — and about how universities are letting their female students down. A review of Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?, ed. John Brockman. How many Gitmo alumni take up arms? Not nearly as many as the Department of Defense is claiming.