How do the offices, houses, hospitals, schools, neighbourhoods and spaces that we occupy day to day affect our health? Traditionally, our understanding of how architectural design affects the human body has centred around the transmission of communicable diseases. - Psyche
"We don’t necessarily need to repeal the laws of economics or solve Baumol’s cost disease to build as beautifully as our ancestors once did. We just need to see the world more humanistically and mystically, to regard ourselves as stewards and sub-creators once again." - The New York Times
The more elite the college, the more lenient the standards. At Yale, for example, 80% of grades awarded in 2023 were As or A minuses. But the problem is also prevalent at less selective colleges. Across all four-year colleges in the United States, the most commonly awarded grade is now an A. - Yascha Mounk
“We see these celebrity replicas happening all the time, but our own data – us, the small people of the world – is being harvested at exactly the same rate … It’s not really the capacity of the technology , it’s the way flawed, dumb, evil people choose to wield it.” - The Guardian
Some education advocates tout the benefits of what’s called a “balanced calendar,” which spreads vacation time equally across the seasons—a reimagining of what school can be, for the betterment of working parents, teachers, and students alike. - The Walrus
“Vision is one of the most obvious and direct ways to process input, but when you think about it, you use your ears a lot for clues from the environment to get around. You aren’t even often aware of how you use sounds to navigate along with vision." - The Scientist
When we think about what makes our minds special, we tend to focus on intelligence. But if we want to grasp reality in all its complexity, then “cleverness is not enough.” We need to build capacious and flexible theories about the world—theories that will serve us in new, unanticipated, and strange circumstances. - The New Yorker
The intent you form, the person you are, is the result of all the interactions between biology and environment that came before.… Each prior influence flows without a break from the effects of the influences before. There’s no point in the sequence where you can insert a freedom of will. - Hedgehog Review
More than TikTok, the stage at the Reading Festival in Britain celebrates podcast stars, YouTube stars, and more. One 20-something: “Everybody watches TikTok … so to then actually see some people, and to take a break from live music - it's great times.” - BBC
I’m a serial learner and hobbyist. Maybe you’d call it being a dilettante. Over the past 20-odd years, I’ve tried my hand at painting, pickleball, chess, printmaking, rock climbing, fencing, water aerobics, crochet, table tennis, cross-stitch, lacrosse, and the violin. - 3 Quarks Daily
Our tech debates do not begin by deliberating about what kind of future we want and then reasoning about which paths lead to where we want to go. Instead they go backward: we let technology drive where it may, and then after the fact we develop an “ethics of” this or that. - The New Atlantis
Is it possible for such a civic minded person, concerned with the wellbeing of others and the events of the day, to view the world with wonder? Will the energy and compassion that led them to do the most good they can do eventually be crushed under the weight of the world’s misery? - 3 Quarks Daily
Over the course of the day, about 30 people sat with Emily. Some used their three minutes for quiet reflection. Others wanted conversation, asking her questions or sharing why they had come to see her. Usually you’d describe a project like this as performance art, but Emily isn’t an artist. - The Guardian
Originally called “Pacific Standard Time” and funded by the Getty, “PST Art,” on its third iteration, will explore connections between art and science. Artists are digging into topics ranging from climate change and ecofeminism to environmental justice and medieval astrology. - The New York Times
