“Pain is more than one thing,” explains Dr. Jeffrey Mogil, the head of the Pain Genetics Lab at McGill University. It’s a sensation, like vision or touch; it’s an emotion, like anger or sadness; and it’s also a “drive state” that compels action, like hunger. This is a neat little piece on what separates the…
I first came across Michael Steinhardt in the original Market Wizards book. He always seemed to be a larger than life character with a wicked sense of humour – most of which was directed at hapless brokers.He retired from the hedge fund business many years ago but is now back apparently this time in a…
It is early in the year but we have a clubhouse leader for my favourite paper of the year. A higher chocolate consumption has been linked with reduced risks for the development of cardiometabolic disorders.1 The authors’ experience is that chocolate consumption in a hospital environment is a relatively common occurrence, and that gifts from patients…
STOCK market investors who buy and sell on the flip of a coin might sound irresponsible, but a handful of random traders could be just what markets need to avoid bubbles and subsequent crashes. Financial booms and busts occur when traders all rush to purchase or sell stock just because others around them are. “I…
I had been planning to write a piece on that thieving prick Jordan Balfour since he is so archetypal of what is wrong with the finance industry. But every now and again someone comes along and does a much better job than you could and saves you the trouble. Sure, it has a big star…
Local chemistry teacher James Kennedy has done something very clever – he has given a breakdown of all the chemicals that occur naturally in food. This seems to be somewhat of a pushback to the knee jerk reaction people have when they see lists of ingredients in food and then freak out that it is…
The Long Now Foundation’s monthly Seminars About Long-term Thinking were started in 2003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking; to help nudge civilization toward our goal of making long-term thinking automatic and common instead of difficult and rare. Click player image.
Here are some bits and pieces I have been putting away for the weekend. The six things that make stories go viral will amaze and maybe infuriate you Sit Back, Relax, and Read That Long Story—on Your Phone Whats That You’re Calling a Bubble? 16 Basic Principles for Avoiding Stupidity Dropbox and Uber: Worth Billions,…
If you were anywhere near any of the financial media’s outlets in the past few days you could not avoid being bombarded by the superannuation industry trumpeting the returns of last year. If you missed the sycophantic, over the top, jingoistic wank fest that was the reporting of these results here is a glimpse of…
The long knives have been out for TED Talks for some time. Benjamin Bratton called them “middlebrow megachurch infotainment.”Evegny Morozov called the TED publishing arm the “insatiable kingpin of international meme laundering.” The gist of these arguments is that TED Talks are vapid, culty mass-selfies that fetishize technology for every solution. It is “placebo science” meant to…
