I enjoyed this article in this weekend’s New York Times about the influence of books and ideas inside Washington. As the article states, books still matter in shaping ideas. The article, written by Emily Parker, senior fellow and digital diplomacy adviser at the New America […]

This is cool. It comes courtesy of Brain Pickings, which is one of my favorite websites. This clip shows some of the behind-the-scenes work done on the Beatles revolutionary 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine. I remember seeing the film when I was young and being […]

It seems like everybody is talking about this book right now: Coming Apart by Charles Murray. Both those on the left and the right are talking about (and arguing about) this book, most likely due to its author. Murray wrote the very controversial book The […]

A rare exhibit of Leonardo da Vinci’s work is on display at the U.K. National Gallery in London. The show is sold out. However, beginning February 16, movie theaters around the world will be presenting an HD satellite-delivered presentation of the exhibit, “Leonardo da Vinci: […]

The current debate about publishing has centered on technology. Will the world of print go away as e-readers continue to gain ground? Yet, this article by Curtis White in Lapham’s Quarterly shows that this question only gets to part of the issue. “When we speak […]

Jonathan Haidt’s research is cited in a wonderful book I am reading at the moment: Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of our Nature. Haidt, a professor of social psychology at the University of Virginia, has conducted research on how your politics really are shaped by […]

At Big Think, the writers as a good question: Are newspapers civic institutions? If so what are the implications? Or are they just algorithms? Dominic Basulto raises good questions in his post, with plenty of links to other studies and writers. More than 200 newspapers […]