Brain Science vs. Criminal Law
Thursday | Today's idea: Advances in neuroscience put it increasingly in conflict with criminal law: If all our mental states can ultimately be reduced to neuro-physiological conditions, and there is...
View ArticleMusic Without Octaves
Wednesday | Today's idea: An alternative musical system has attracted adherents around the world seeking to move beyond the basic building blocks of Western music and to discover how the brain learns a...
View ArticleRethinking the Boston Massacre
Wednesday | Today's idea: Did British soldiers at the Boston Massacre get away with the deliberate murder of Crispus Attucks and others they recognized from earlier run-ins? [The Boston Globe]
View ArticleBritain’s Got Volatility
Thursday | Today's idea: Britain's own reality talent shows, and not so much American politics, are shaping the country's volatile new experience with televised debates, a commentator says. [The...
View ArticleTV: Still Watched in Real Time
Tuesday | Today's idea: Give people devices that allow them to record television shows easily, and they will still watch TV live at least four-fifths of the time -- often with other family members....
View ArticleThe iPad vs. Enlightenment?
Wednesday | Today's idea: New devices like the iPad may discourage the scholarly tradition of gathering passages of text -- a tradition dating back centuries, to the personal "commonplace books" of the...
View ArticleIn Praise of Embarrassment
Thursday | Today's idea: Embarrassment is good, an essay says; it's a social bonding agent. That's why you should worry about its decline. [In Character]
View ArticleThe Midget Sub Threat
Wednesday | Today's idea: The American Navy needs to hone its antisubmarine skills after the torpedoing of a South Korean corvette by a North Korean minisubmarine, an article says. Whether deployed by...
View ArticleA Woman’s World
Friday | Today's idea: With men now in the minority in the American work force, the postindustrial world increasingly looks better-suited to women, an article says. A gender role reversal is under way...
View ArticleBetter Off Castrated?
Tuesday | Today's idea: Castration, supposedly the "cruelest cut" to pre-pubescent boys in music-obsessed 16th- and 17th-century Italy, wasn't as cruel as it may seem today, an article says. [Failure...
View ArticleHow Wagner Called Hollywood’s Tune
Friday | Today's idea: Richard Wagner, pioneer of the leitmotif and the grand synthesis of performance arts, is also the father of the modern film score, an article says -- and the father of "sonic...
View ArticleReworking Maslow’s Pyramid
Friday | Today's idea: Maslow's "hierarchy of needs" is out of date, a team of evolutionary psychologists argues. Let's replace "self-actualization" with "parenting" to better reflect our fundamental...
View ArticleWhen Women Become Drag Queens
Monday | Today's idea: In an odd result of the mainstreaming of gay culture, ordinary women are flaunting their inner drag queen, inspired by pop stars like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, an article says....
View ArticleCan Dylan Help Us All Get Along?
Friday | Today's idea: Does Bob Dylan bridge the bitter political divide between America's credentialed "ruling class" and its "country class" of government-averse individualists? Just maybe, a writer...
View ArticleThey Want Their MTV, and to Read, Too
Friday | Today's idea: Music videos with subtitles in the viewers' spoken language can help the illiterate learn to read, an experiment in India suggests. [The Boston Globe]
View ArticleRethinking the Boston Massacre
Wednesday | Today's idea: Did British soldiers at the Boston Massacre get away with the deliberate murder of Crispus Attucks and others they recognized from earlier run-ins? [The Boston Globe]
View ArticleBritain’s Got Volatility
Thursday | Today's idea: Britain's own reality talent shows, and not so much American politics, are shaping the country's volatile new experience with televised debates, a commentator says. [The...
View ArticleTV: Still Watched in Real Time
Tuesday | Today's idea: Give people devices that allow them to record television shows easily, and they will still watch TV live at least four-fifths of the time -- often with other family members....
View ArticleThe iPad vs. Enlightenment?
Wednesday | Today's idea: New devices like the iPad may discourage the scholarly tradition of gathering passages of text -- a tradition dating back centuries, to the personal "commonplace books" of the...
View ArticleIn Praise of Embarrassment
Thursday | Today's idea: Embarrassment is good, an essay says; it's a social bonding agent. That's why you should worry about its decline. [In Character]
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