Isabelle Beauchamps's List: Science and Society

Labor unions in US vs Europe

Morality from within or from without

Why the mind makes quick judgements based on looks; stereotyping; the Susan Boyle story.

Matthew B. Crawford, who owns and operates a motorcycle repair shop in Richmond, Va., and serves as a fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, notes that all across the United States, high school shop classes teaching mechanical arts like welding, woodworking or carpentry are closing down, to free up funds for computer labs. There is a legion of experts denigrating manual trades like plumber, carpenter and electrician, warning that the United States labor force needs to be “upskilled” and retrained to face the challenges of a high-tech, global economy. Under this new ideology, everyone must attend college and prepare for life as a “symbolic analyst” or “knowledge worker,” ready to add value through mental rather than physical labor.

When it comes to theories of the afterlife, most of the world’s major religions have fairly prosaic stuff on offer. Only occasionally will a cosmology be really colorful, as it is in Greek mythology, where some interesting eschatological options are available. Why there should be such a failure of the imagination on this topic is an interesting question. Perhaps we feel uncomfortable in such speculation? Perhaps we feel that it’s a waste of time to talk about something people have very fixed ideas about — or dismiss as simply wishful thinking?

“Harem culture.” Is that like HBO’s series “Big Love” except Muslim, not Mormon, and with tassels, a potted palm and no bickering? Well yes, sort of. But there are a lot more women in a harem. A lot. The seraglio of the sultan of the Ottoman Empire housed about 1,600 virgins, each hoping to be chosen for one night of honor. The sultan makes Brigham Young, who had only a few dozen wives, look like a piker with low self-esteem.

Let’s begin with a quick geography quiz: Which city is farther west, Los Angeles or Reno? If you’re like most people, you carefully reasoned your way to the wrong answer. Because Los Angeles is on the coast, and Reno is in landlocked Nevada, you probably assumed that Los Angeles is farther west. It doesn’t matter that you’ve stared at countless maps or taken a road trip across California — the atlas that we keep in our head is reliably unreliable.

The effects of foreclosures and the financial crisis on a small working-class community in Southern California