This year the CBC Massey Lectures celebrates fifty years with bestselling author, essayist, cultural observer, and famed New Yorker contributor Adam Gopnik.
His subject is
winter - the season, the space, the cycle. Gopnik takes us on an intimate tour of the artists, poets, composers, writers, explorers, scientists, and thinkers, who helped shape a new and modern idea of winter.
Listen to Winter: Five Windows on the Season Streaming files for this years lecture will be available until Friday, November 18. [more inside]
posted by infinite intimation
on Nov 14, 2011 -
11 comments
Social consensus through the influence of committed minorities: We show how the prevailing majority opinion in a population can be rapidly reversed by a small fraction
p of randomly distributed
committed agents who consistently proselytize the opposing opinion and are immune to influence. Specifically, we show that when the committed fraction grows beyond a critical value
pc ≈ 10%, there is a dramatic decrease in the time,
Tc, taken for the entire population to adopt the committed opinion.
[.pdf] [more inside]
posted by troll
on Jul 26, 2011 -
56 comments
A bridge builder, a student of how societies hold together; an advocate of dialogue. Standing against polarized and simplistic styles of thought. Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor is Canada's best known and most widely read contemporary thinker. In books like Sources of the Self and A Secular Age, he has attempted to define the unique character of the modern age. He maps the fault-lines in our modern identity, and points to both the pitfalls and the promise of our condition. Learn about his life, history, upbringing, and... ideas.
Now available, CBC
IDEAS in five one-hour parts: the malaise of modernity (this special program has the same title as the 1991 Massey Lecture of the same name, but is not the same [MP3's, get them now, they will go away, and then you can only stream them]).
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
[more inside]
posted by infinite intimation
on May 20, 2011 -
4 comments
"The paper puts forward a small but novel idea of how we can cut down the incidence of bribery. There are different kinds of bribes and what this paper is concerned with are bribes that people often have to give to get what they are legally entitled to. I shall call these 'harassment bribes'. Suppose an income tax refund is held back from a taxpayer till he pays some cash to the officer. Suppose government allots subsidized land to a person but when the person goes to get her paperwork done and receive documents for this land, she is asked to pay a hefty bribe. These are all illustrations of harassment bribes. Harassment bribery is widespread in India and it plays a large role in breeding inefficiency and has a corrosive effect on civil society. The central message of this paper is that
we should declare the act of giving a bribe in all such cases as legitimate activity [PDF]. In other words the giver of a harassment bribe should have full immunity from any punitive action by the state."
[more inside]
posted by vidur
on Mar 31, 2011 -
37 comments
Karen, Rick, Luke and Rachel are four people marooned in an airport lounge sometime in the very near future. The price of oil goes through the roof, and a kind of apocalypse takes over the world- or at least the world that they can see through the windows of the bar and on the crackling, intermittent news reports. Thick ash falls from the sky. The taps are dry. Cellphones don't work. Sealed in, the four can only talk to each other, examine their lives and the meaning of love, and try to confront their own demons. There is no turning back, they realise. [more inside]
posted by infinite intimation
on Nov 9, 2010 -
21 comments
An internationally recognized Kanien'kehaka (Mohwak) intellectual and political advisor, Taiaiake Alfred is well known for his incisive critiques and groundbreaking work in the fields of Indigenous governance and political philosophy.
In the past, Taiaiake has served as an advisor on land and governance and cultural restoration issues for many indigenous governments and organizations, and he has authored several important books including Wasáse: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom and Peace, Power, Righteousness. Currently, Taiaiake serves as a Professor of Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria.
Recorded March 23, 2009 at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, University of Victoria Professor of Indigenous Governance; a broad, deep, and beautiful discussion of pathways toward the future for indigenous people, Gerald Taiaiake Alfred talks about the “Resurgence of Traditional Ways of Being: Indigenous Paths of Action and Freedom” [more inside]
posted by infinite intimation
on Oct 26, 2010 -
14 comments
Spike Magazine offers up a splendid enchanting
598 page behometh anthology of interviews, features and book reviews taken from the last 15 years of this wonderfully eclectic magazine (
Direct PDF /
Zip) . Nicely formatted and with enough content to keep even the most avid britlit fan happy. Highlights include interviews with (among many others)
Will Self (p451,460,464,467) ,
JG Ballard (p27,32,35, 39),
Iain Banks (p54),
Nick Hornby(p276). Enjoy.
posted by numberstation
on Oct 22, 2010 -
5 comments
You know about
TED, but do you know about the
WGBH Forum Network? A project of the venerable Boston
public TV station, the Forum is a web platform which aggregates lectures from cultural institutions, museums, libraries, bookstores, and colleges across the US - everything from current research in social science and hard science to author and poet talks. Presentations vary in topic, length, format, and level of eggheadiness, but if you love ideas, you'll find some good stuff here. Streams on demand, downloads often available if you register.
posted by Miko
on Jul 19, 2010 -
11 comments
How to be cool? How to stay calm? How to have better conversations? How to make love last?
The School of Life is a place to step back and think intelligently about these and other concerns.
[more inside]
posted by jonesor
on May 18, 2010 -
12 comments
"Modern societies have tended to take science for granted as a way of knowing, ordering and controlling the world. Everything was subject to science, but science itself largely escaped scrutiny. This situation has changed dramatically in recent years. Historians, sociologists, philosophers and sometimes scientists themselves have begun to ask fundamental questions about how the institution of science is structured and how it knows what it knows."
How to Think About Science is a 24-part series from CBC Radio's
Ideas, featuring interviews with
Steven Shapin,
Ian Hacking,
Bruno Latour, and others. The streaming audio links on the show's website seem to be out of commission, but direct links to all of the episodes can be found
here.
posted by bewilderbeast
on Nov 27, 2009 -
77 comments
Dude, wouldn't it be
totally cool if there was an
opposite microwave to cool tasty canned beverages in seconds? What if underwear had
pockets? They'd be called
Underawesomes! And don't you think
ketchup packets should be bigger? Oh man, speaking of munchies, what if you had
see-through fudge? You could see right through it! Dang, it would be rad if there was
smokable tape you could use to repair your busted spliff, huh? But I mean, dude, there should like really be a website where stoners could post and discuss the ideas they get when they're super high. I'd call it
highDEAS.
posted by carsonb
on Aug 3, 2009 -
99 comments
Innovation, Ideas and the Global Standard of Living by Charles Kenny: "
The Success of Development acts like a sword through many of the Gordian knots plaguing the development community, especially those surrounding the rate of economic growth in many developing countries. Put that question to one side, says Kenny, and suddenly a lot of much more interesting questions, about issues like education and healthcare and clean water and human rights, come into a lot more focus. And if you use those metrics,
rather than GDP growth, to judge the success or failure of developing countries, then things look rather more optimistic than you might think." (
pdf)
Glenn Hubbard's review, cf.
Technological Creativity and Economic Progress [more inside]
posted by kliuless
on Jun 25, 2009 -
2 comments
The Signtific Lab invites people to develop cutting-edge ideas through experiments of imagination and discussion.
Experiment One: what would happen if outer space becomes as accessible as the Web today?
posted by divabat
on Feb 18, 2009 -
12 comments
"What are the new
liberal arts?",
asks SnarkMarket, inspired by
Jason Kottke's tagline and
Edge. The blog post has turned into a pitch for a new collaborative book,
with spirited discussions and over 100 suggestions including photography, design, relationships, mythology, intuitive thinking, synthesis, knowledge mastery, search, archiving, play, and home economics.
posted by divabat
on Feb 4, 2009 -
44 comments
Philip Pullman interviewed about the ideas behind "His Dark Materials" [YT,1 hour, South Bank Show,parts
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7]. Inside, and hidden from those who don't want spoilers, are links relating to the ideas raised and about the books generally.
[more inside]
posted by rongorongo
on Jun 23, 2008 -
85 comments
My Million Dollar Ideas "Ever since I thought up of the basic idea of the World Wide Web in 1990 and didn't write it down, I thought I should start documenting these more." Jon Konrath takes notes on certain of his harebrained ideas. Examples to date: the pneumatic-tube-food-delivery theme restaurant '
Tubes,' America's next hit gameshow '
Heads or Tails,' and several ideas that combine the concepts of American status-seeking image-consciousness,
SUVs,
car conversion kits, and
hybrids.
posted by mwhybark
on May 22, 2007 -
37 comments
What is Web 2.0? [PDF] The best description of Web 2.0 that I have read.
The six big ideas...
1 Individual production and User Generated Content
2 Harness the power of the crowd
3 Data on an epic scale
4 Architecture of Participation
5 Network Effects
6 Openness
posted by bobbyelliott
on Mar 8, 2007 -
78 comments
Random Friday!
pictures,
confessions,
quotes,
wiki,
word,
kittens,
livejournal,
family circus,
flickr groups,
essay,
comic strip,
idea,
haiku,
howto,
bullshit,
inspiration
posted by petsounds
on Feb 16, 2007 -
22 comments
Some new gadgets, things and inventions:
solar bikini that charges your ipod,
paper soft wall,
waterproof laptop,
million dollar fishing lure,
Obvio hybrid micro-car,
needle-free injection,
hi-tech dummies that can speak, breathe, bleed, react to drugs & die,
dragon bag. Interactive sight, sound and physical
objects from the student artists of the NYU
Interactive telecommunications biannual showcase [video], including
Animalia Chordata and Botanicalls, building telecommunications between people and their plants.
posted by nickyskye
on Jan 7, 2007 -
22 comments
Steven Foster is the perfect bartender. He wants to share his
ontology,
his reflections on what it means to be happy,
bird aquariums,
how to make margarita mix from scratch, solutions to the world's five most pressing problems [
1,
2,
3,
4,
5, or just read the summary on every page towards the bottom], and more drink recipes than you can shake a stick at. This man delivers.
posted by trinarian
on Oct 12, 2006 -
20 comments
The Open Mind. First Broadcast in May, 1956, The Open Mind is still produced weekly by Richard D. Heffner, host, historian, and University Professor of Communications and Public Policy at Rutgers University. These conversations with some of the most creative thinkers of the last half-century are available on the Internet.
posted by semmi
on May 13, 2006 -
1 comment
Conversation is an art. "Hume suggested that politeness was not, in fact, "natural to the human mind," but "presumption and arrogance" were. Society depends on artifice. Conversation is an art."
"American conversation now prides itself on angry authenticity or on being kind and "nonjudgmental"; it is meant to be "natural" and full of "self-expression." This does not make for great conversation or a vital political life."
posted by semmi
on Mar 20, 2006 -
21 comments
