Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2788
July 4, 2010
Between Revolution And Prudence
United States Declaration of Independence - Declaration of Independence - United States - History - Thomas Jefferson
July 3, 2010
How Should We Deal With Conflict Minerals? Ctd
Texas In Africa keeps up the drumbeat against "good intentions are enough" bills:
Why on earth do advocates think that passing legislation in the United States will end violence in Africa?
Inthe case of the conflict minerals legislation, the idea is thatviolence in the [Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC):] can be mitigated by creating an auditing andcertification system for the mineral supply chains. I've alreadyexplained at length why I think this won't work; the complexity of themineral...
How What We Touch Changes How We Feel
A guide:
Weight is linked to importance, so that people carrying heavyobjects deem interview candidates as more serious and social problemsas more pressing. Texture is linked to difficulty and harshness.Touching rough sandpaper makes social interactions seem moreadversarial, while smooth wood makes them seem friendlier. Finally,hardness is associated with rigidity and stability. When sitting on ahard chair, negotiators take tougher stances but if they sit on a softone instead, they become...
The View From Your Window
Galway, Ireland, 8.36 am
Republic of Ireland - Ireland - Recreation and Sports - Thierry Henry - 2010 FIFA World Cup
Where Monarchy Rules
Toby Jones profiles Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah:
While making small social and economic concessions, the king is in fact turning the clock back in Arabia, using his popularity to confront clergy and restore the kind of unchecked authority his family enjoyed in the 1970s. Although the royal family has been the preeminent political force in the Arabian Peninsula since the early 20th century, its supremacy was challenged in 1979 by the spectacular siege of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which...
The View From Your Window Contest
This photo was taken late at night. You have until noon on Tuesday to
guess it. Country first, then city and/or state. If no one guesses the
exact location, proximity counts. Be sure to email entries to
VFYWcontest@theatlantic.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.
Country music - Web Design and Development - Hosting - Free - Arts
Quote For The Day
a good thing, a moral thing, to behave as though there's still hope.
Hope is as contagious as despair: your hope, or show of hope, is a gift
you can give to your neighbour, and may even help to prevent or delay
the destruction of his world,"- Primo Levi, 1985
Primo Levi - Hope - Levi - Death - Poetry
The Evolutionary Case Against Monogamy
Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá have a new book on the evolution of sexuality. They argue - duh - that monogamy is unnatural:
Biologists distinguish sexual monogamy from social monogamy. As DNAtesting has grown cheaper in recent years, we've learned that mostspecies formerly classified as "monogamous" (primarily birds) are socially monogamous, but not sexually so.In other words, they form pairs that cooperatively care for thatseason's brood of young, but the male may well not be the...
Movement And Emotion
Jonah Lehrer praises the Wii:
For decades, video game designers have been obsessed with visualrealism, as if the eyeball was the key to our emotional brain. Butaccurate graphics have diminishing returns. At a certain point, wedon't need more pixels - we need more physicality. For the first time,video games are taking advantage of their specific medium, exploitingthe features that other entertainments (such as movies and novels) aremissing. No other form of culture, after all, depends on the...
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