Month: July 2010

In a desertifying world short of water, the utilitarian camel, and the ancient cultures that depend on it, offer a way to use land too poor to sustain anything else. The camel has long had a special place in the imagination of the West, from the Greek historian Herodotus telling a story about Indians using … Read more

Here’s a link to a commentary by April Michelle Herndon. She is an assistant professor of English who also teaches in the Women’s and Gender Studies department at Winona State University in Minnesota. “Would you take a magic pill to make yourself straight?” That question came from an audience member at a recent panel discussion … Read more

What can a wide-eyed, talking robot teach us about trust? A lot, according to Northeastern psychology professor David DeSteno, and his colleagues, who are conducting innovative research to determine how humans decide to trust strangers — and if those decisions are accurate. The interdisciplinary research project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is being … Read more

Oh really? The advertisement warns of speculative financial bubbles. It mocks a group of gullible Frenchmen seduced into a silly, 18th-century investment scheme, noting that the modern shareholder, armed with superior information, can avoid the pitfalls of the past. “How different the position of the investor today!” the ad enthuses. It ran in The Saturday … Read more

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