archive

Playing out everywhere

From Seed, will E.T. look like us?: Evolution helps us imagine what aliens might be like. The search for life beyond our pale blue dot is fraught with dashed hopes — will the chemical and mineral fingerprints of Earthly organisms apply on other worlds? 10 years of nostalgia: The most striking thing about this decade is how much of it we spent looking back at past decades (and more on the "i-Decade"). Why the good guys wear white: Ancient fears of filth and contagion may explain why we think of morality in black and white. U.S. arms sales have not been affected by the global slowdown. From Dissent, Carole Joffe and Tracy Weitz on the assassination of Dr. Tiller and the marginality of abortion in American culture and medicine; and looking your fetus in the eye: Carol Sanger on mandatory ultrasound and the politics of abortion. While Godwin’s Law is as true today as it was then, it seems unfortunate that there aren’t more widely accepted axioms to help us geeks define the characteristics of our world; to that end, then, here are 10 geeky laws (axioms) that should exist, but don’t. Doomsday enjoying a boom: How can we be moved by the end of the world when it's playing out everywhere we look? Russia's conquering zeros: The strength of post-Soviet math stems from decades of lonely productivity. Give Precious a calculator: Why can't kids in movies ever do the math? High school delusional: Too many young people are encouraged to dream of fame when, in reality, their prospects are bleak. Mark Rowlands on fame, the modern phenomenon that links suicide bombers and hot young Hollywood.