In March 2003, social psychologist Richard Nisbett published his groundbreaking book “The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently…and Why“, which challenged the received wisdom that all human groups perceive and reason in the same way. He came to the conclusion, based mostly on observation and social psychology studies, that Asians and Westerners
“Have [...]
Friday, February 22, 2008
The happy innocent days when Serbs thought that with Slobo gone, they would be treated fairly.
I have received a number of emails from friends curious to know the inside track on the Kosovo situation from their man on the ground in Serbia.
The problem is that when one is very close to the situation, and are [...]
Also filed in Civil Liberties, Contemporary Culture, Crime, Economics, Education, Hotties, Images, Internet & Online Culture, Law, Linkdumps, Media, Militaria, News, Philosophy, Politics, Propaganda, Psychology, Science, Travel & Transport
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Friday, February 22, 2008
Belgrade’s Holocaust Memorial - one of several in a city populated by a people famed for their resistance to the Nazis
I am used to reading lies and vitriol about Serbs and Serbia but an article emailed to me today is one of the most racist, hateful and biased articles I have read in a [...]
Friday, November 30, 2007
Carlos Rotella at Slate has a good article on “The art, the poetry, the idiocy of YouTube street fights” - the posting of online fight videos. He reports from the virtual ”Land of a thousand asswhippings”.
The fight video is a compelling genre and holds a grim fascination for many. There are some great “stories” in some of these [...]
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
From Neurodudes:
So, Edge has a new question for 2006 for its All-Stars of Academia to answer: What is your dangerous idea? (Suggested to Edge by Steven Pinker, who perhaps got the idea from a colloquium series at his old haunting grounds.)
Offhand, one might expect a broad range of perceived dangerous ideas, varying by research [...]
INSTANT EVOLUTION: The Influence of the City on Human Genes by Howard Bloom, Visiting Scholar, New York University.
Howard Bloom is a genius. I rate him as one of the most interesting living intellectuals. He is an intellectual idol of mine, king of the The Omnologists, polymath, gentleman and scholar.
Just look at any of his [...]
Also filed in Contemporary Culture, Critical Thinking, Energy and Environment, Geography, Images, Interesting People, Language & Writing, Militaria, Psychology, Religion & Spirituality, Terrorism
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Thursday, October 13, 2005
From the Guardian: Golden curtain divides old and new Russia
An excellent article looking at how New Russians (the Russian super-rich) are coping with the threat of crime and kidnapping by sequestering themselves.
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
From The Times:
WHAT DOES science teach us about war?
…when different group identities exist, war is the default position. Nature is unkind, so we primates have evolved to be highly suspicious of anything different, and our suspicions will spill over into the instinctive killing of strangers. War is endemic amongst tribal peoples, and Charles Darwin reported [...]
From the New Scientist:
Facial attractiveness and smell give us contradictory messages about how to select mates, new research has revealed.
Previous research on smell suggests that humans prefer odours from potential partners who are genetically dis-similar. But new research in which women rated the facial attractiveness of men suggests the exact opposite. So sight and smell [...]
Islam does incubate terrorism By Mark Steyn
“…When events such as last Thursday’s occur, two things happen, usually within hours if not minutes: first, spokespersons for Islamic lobby groups issue warnings about an imminent backlash against Muslims.
In most circumstances it would be regarded as appallingly bad taste to deflect attention from an actual “hate crime” [...]