OCTOBER 24, 2013 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ONLINE COMMENTS POSTED BY MARIA KONNIKOV Several weeks ago, on September 24th, Popular Science announced that it would banish comments from its Web site. The editors argued that Internet comments, particularly anonymous ones, undermine the integrity of science and lead to a culture of aggression and mockery that hinders substantive discourse. “Even a…
Rediscovering Richard Dawkins: An Interview by J.P. O’Malley Sep 23, 2013 He might be prone to controversial outbursts, but what does the world’s leading atheist and scientist really like to talk about? J.P. O’Malley visits Dawkins in his Oxford home to find out. Whenever Richard Dawkins’s name appears in the news nowadays, it’s usually for the wrong…
The Great Gatsby was originally published in April 1925, which means that those who first read it were much nearer in time to Henry James and even Charles Dickens than we are to Scott Fitzgerald. And that reflection brings a shock. For just as the book survives in our minds partly as a period…
A student critique in the main gallery at CalArts Los Angeles teaching is still top for next generation of artists Los Angeles’ art schools are the stuff of legend. Since the 1960s, students have flocked to the city to study under the likes of Allan Kaprow, Chris Burden, John Baldessari and Paul McCarthy. The…
I carried a lot of crosses as a Catholic altar boy. I also learned to mumble phrases in Latin and breathed in enough incense to choke an elephant. There is something serene about being behind a ritual. It lets you observe and reflect. And wonder why in the world people show up. Roughly six…
A year after David Choe became the most surprising multimillionaire to emerge from Facebook’s IPO, the bad-boy graffiti artist is making the publicity rounds with a new pornographic podcast featuring porn star Asa Akira. He talks to Lizzie Crocker about anal sex, his new gig, and more anal sex. Tits, ass, and goblins. Bare-chested…
Philosopher David Edmonds discusses the five books that have had the greatest influence on his work By Alec Ash, Applied ethics should interest all but the most philosophy shy, as it poses moral questions of everyday use. Applied ethics is the application of moral theory to the real world. I first read…
One day when I was drawing a young girl, I suddenly noticed that the only thing that was alive was her gaze. The rest of her head meant no more to me than the skull of a dead man. One does want to sculpt a living person, but what makes him alive is without doubt…
Op-Ed: Moroccan author and political scientist offers a subtle thesis: sexual repression is a gateway to corruption and political repression. Secret love in Marrakesh (Emanuele UbO) By Omar Saghi* LE SOIR/WORLDCRUNCH CASABLANCA – The link between sexual repression and political repression might seem like a stretch. And yet there is a clear connection between the…