From the monthly archives:

June 2009

Ross Douthat on ‘Digital Barbarism – A Writer’s Manifesto’

Where the critics of copyright perceive the Internet age as a potential Renaissance being blocked by overconsolidated corporations, Helprin worries, plausibly, that the spirit of

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John Gray: the poster boy for misanthropy

He thinks there are far too many humans, that we are a plague on the planet and a rapacious horde, and that our desires for

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The Psychology Behind Item Collecting And Achievement Hoarding (In Gaming)

Item collection has been a staple of video games since Pac-Man swallowed his first cherry. Since then, we’ve collected stars, coins, rings, nuts, bolts, packages,

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Why companies keep ruining your favorite products

The market can’t be trusted to keep supplying you with what you like, because the goal of the market is not to have sold things

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China Creates Specter of Dueling Dalai Lamas

For centuries, the selection of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama has been steeped in the mysticism of a bygone world.

On the windswept Tibetan

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Loves Me, Loves Me Not Do the Math

[D]ifferential equations ….represent the most powerful tool humanity has ever created for making sense of the material world.

via Guest Column: Loves Me, Loves Me

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Book Review – ‘Shop Class as Soulcraft – An Inquiry Into the Value of Work,’ by Matthew B. Crawford – Review – NYTimes.com

Crawford argues that the ideologists of the knowledge economy have posited a false dichotomy between knowing and doing. The fact of the matter is that

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David Carr on Twilight in the Media Profession

[A]s recently as four or five years ago, to be a member of Manhattan media, you weren’t rich, but you lived as a rich person

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