This brings out the horror of solitary confinement. The author, Lisa Guenther, pulls in phenomenology explaining how “Meaning… emerges through an ever-changing relation between the act of thinking and the objects of thought.” and then she makes everything more poignant, using Heidegger and examples of prisoners to show how solitary confinement annihilates you. Why solitary confinement degrades us ... continue reading

Some old philosophical questions in demonstration. This article also describes a few behavioral things that are quite clear and yet I bet they’re really easy to never consider. Raising a Moral Child ... continue reading

Yesterday’s drugs are tomorrow’s medicines –“ Benjamin Breen –“ Aeon ... continue reading

The Mental Life of Plants and Worms, Among Others by Oliver Sacks ... continue reading

Une exposition sur les «sons» de la Première Guerre mondiale ... continue reading

Essay from Caspar Henderson stands out for some great appreciation on wonder. It reminded me of a good friend that once, in our early 20s, told me he was afraid of losing his sense of wonder. I made it a point after that always remember that comment. It’s important. Wondering About Wonder ... continue reading

Proposing a buyout of the coal industry of $50bn to save $100-500 bn every year is a fascinating idea. It’s impressive how they’ve mapped out components like retraining workers, and far-reaching effects the industry has on other industries (not to mention the environment, of course). Deal of the century: buy out the US coal industry for $50bn ... continue reading

Speech from Angela Merkel has this thoughtful conclusion “Millions of people who live in undemocratic states are watching very closely how the world’s democracies react to threats to their security: whether they act circumspectly, in sovereign self-assurance, or undermine precisely what in the eyes of these millions of people makes them so attractive—freedom and the dignity of the individual.” ... continue reading

It’s not as though an abundance of information, in and of itself, leads to meaning. And our greater access to it, all the time, shouldn’t be an end in itself. Now that we’ve got it (or are getting it), we need to calm down and improve our selectivity, criticism, and very importantly, reflection on what we’re doing with it. This article makes some nice points on the subject. The problem with ... continue reading

An engineer friend once told me about a course he’d taken in which one of the things they learned was how to design for planned obsolescence. Disturbing. This article however has some very nice thinking on how we ought to value stuff more (in a sense) and how that changes the consumer impulse. I really like the bits like this: “…the term ‘inanimate object’ is similarly inadequate to d ... continue reading

Meet the Dropleton—a “Quantum Droplet” That Acts Like a Liquid ... continue reading