Einstein and the Old One
Mark Mortimer's review of Einstein and the Old One makes an interesting point—just because we "know" stuff our ancestors didn't doesn't actually make us smarter. We "know" without comprehending.
Wes Phillips
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Famous Last Words
I've always been partial to Rabelais' "Je m'en vais chercher un grand peut-être." (I am off in search of the great perhaps.)
You Turned the Amp Off?
Bagheera is outraged that I powered off her heated perch.
But I Like It Rumpled!
Huckleberry fails to see the appeal of a perfectly flat rug.
New Fossil
Discovery of a "hybrid" skeleton in Portugal has paleontologists speculating that it might be the result of Neanderthal/modern human mating, perhaps challenging the "out of Africa" scenario.
How Common is Your Surname in America?
Mindless fun—and it's ed-u-ma-cational!
Tiki Tiki Tiki
How sex, rum, and WWII ignited the fad that will not die.
Crypto-Musicology
How Matmos came to use an Enigma machine on For Alan Turing.
Music Training Boosts the Brain
As the US eliminates music education from its curriculum, we begin to see proof that music has "real" benefits. I thought that exposing kids to beauty and greatness was enough, but what do I know?
Alex Ross on Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
The name of the essay is "Fervor," and that's what Ross writes with. If you can read the last paragraph of this tribute to Ms. Hunt Lieberson without tearing up, you have my condolences.