Monthly Archives: December 2011

237. What is a Civilization?

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Thor

A civ­i­liza­tion is a shared sys­tem of val­ues. To those not shar­ing the par­tic­u­lar val­ues, that civ­i­liza­tion may appear defi­cient, even unciv­i­lized. Then we have a clash of civ­i­liza­tions. Inter­na­tional agree­ments try to man­age clash­ing civ­i­liza­tions, and mostly rely on … Con­tinue read­ing →

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236. Eyes Wide Shut, and Energy of the Human Kind

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Thor

What do you see when you see? What do you hear when you hear? Dur­ing World War II the Aus­tralian mil­i­tary com­mand brought some New Guinea vil­lage chiefs to see the city of Bris­bane. Shock and awe? They went home … Con­tinue read­ing →

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235. Burning Brightly on Serotonin

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Thor

“Hun­dreds of inter­views with peo­ple who took part in the dis­tur­bances that spread across Eng­land in August revealed deep-seated and some­times vis­ceral antipa­thy towards police.… Just under half of those inter­viewed in the study were stu­dents. Of those who were … Con­tinue read­ing →

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234. The Corruptible Career and its Friends

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Thor

The bot­tom line in most orga­ni­za­tions is that if you don’t at least appear to be cor­rupt­ible, they don’t want to have you there. Hmm, that sounds extreme, doesn’t it? The HR euphemism is that you should “fit the com­pany … Con­tinue read­ing →

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