Category Archives: culture

249. Are You Real, or a Facebook Image?

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Thor

In a civ­i­lized coun­try the past is an open book and the future is an open oppor­tu­nity. As with coun­tries, so with peo­ple. There are mem­o­ries we laugh about, and things we would rather for­get, but don’t.  If we can … Con­tinue read­ing →

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248. The American Dream and Other Nightmares

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Thor

Benny Lewis is an ami­able Irish­man whose inter­est­ing blog claims he can learn a lan­guage in three months. He has, he says, learned 8 lan­guages since he was 21 by liv­ing in dif­fer­ent coun­tries for a few months. How­ever this … Con­tinue read­ing →

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225. The Outside Track

Posted on May 17, 2010 by Thor

A slice of life: a city in cen­tral China where I knew almost no one. That was OK, I’m a free spirit. But then, you never know who will come knock­ing. So one Sat­ur­day morn­ing, here was a rather attrac­tive … Con­tinue read­ing →

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223. Innovation is not Problem Solving

Posted on October 17, 2009 by Thor

Inno­va­tion is the habit, or the knack, or find­ing new premises. It is prob­lem quest­ing rather than prob­lem solv­ing. Our best schools and uni­ver­si­ties hone prob­lem solvers of a cer­tain kind. Give the finest grad­u­ates of these places a prob­lem … Con­tinue read­ing →

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222. Of Robots and Humans

Posted on September 5, 2009 by Thor

The threat from robots is already amongst us. It is not that robots are aggres­sive. It is that human beings for the most part are over­whelm­ingly lazy. Humans will kill to claim a park­ing space instead of walk­ing a hun­dred … Con­tinue read­ing →

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221. Find a Problem, Make a Job

Posted on August 20, 2009 by Thor

Give some­one a job to solve a prob­lem and you can bet the prob­lem will never go away. There is, after all, a job at stake. That is why the mil­i­tary is usu­ally a growth indus­try, not to men­tion lawyers, … Con­tinue read­ing →

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217. Articulating Failure

Posted on July 2, 2008 by Thor

It is often said that the path to sta­ble gov­er­nance lies in offer­ing the able a way to suc­ceed. Block­ing the ambi­tions of the most capa­ble, or per­haps the most ruth­less peo­ple is surely an invi­ta­tion to civil unrest. Yet … Con­tinue read­ing →

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