Friday, January 02, 2015

What are the “unknown unknowns”? Not his finest hour

In fairy tales, family members are murderers while animals are saviors. These doses of amorality and anarchy are desperately needed.why we need fairy tales and realities of cold rivers now more than ever...
Fairy tales are capable of depicting the hardest challenges we face as human beings The fairy tales validate our own fears...

The Truth about free will: does it actually exist?

Listen closely to two decades of The New York Times’s nonfiction best-seller list and you will hear a shrill cry for help from the American people... ouch

Philosophy Bites has compiled the answers philosophers have given to the question, “Who is the most impressive philosopher you’ve ever met?


Throughout the debate, no one (not even Marat or Robespierre) took the truly revolutionary position of suggesting venal offices might be illegitimate privileges that could be cancelled without payment.

This book is interesting throughout for its treatment of fiscal and monetary issues during the time of the French Revolution.  It is not geared toward current macroeconomic debates, but arguably that liberates it to be more interesting on the historical side.  The author is Rebecca L. Spang, of The Invention of the Restaurant fame.

Taken together, one appealing ‘pop-psychology’  interpretation of these results would be that being excessively honest with ourselves (‘faking bad’ at self-deception) is our least indulged in pursuit while giving out the best possible image of ourselves to other (‘faking good’ at impression-management) is a behaviour with which we are much more familiar and practised Self

‘Some Sort of Hell': How One of the Wealthiest Cities in America Treats Its Homeless Alternet

Exclusive: U.S. minimum wage hikes to affect 1,400-plus Walmart stores Reuters. Because the minimum wage went up, not out of the goodness of Walmart’s corporate heart, as the headline does not make clear.

Not his finest hour: The dark side of Winston Churchill Independent

Ways to Avoid Email Tracking New York Time

It’s a Wonderful Life, Comrade Truthout

Spectacular real virgin births BBC

Mary’s Immaculate Deception Counterpunch

Unexpected Life Found In The Ocean’s Deepest Trench NPR

Behind the Daily Paywall: The Site that Pays You to Read Pirated Articles Vice