Math and the Mayans: an archaeologist brings his engineering experience to bear in reinterpreting pre-Columbian calendars. From the article: Archaeologists have long looked to Venus to understand Maya calendars and tradition. But now, a fresh look at an ancient text called the Dresden Codex suggests that our understanding of how the Maya tracked Venus for their celestial calendars [...]
Solve problems, find work, enjoy automation: how technology enhances the value of the humanities. From the article: The final section of this paper reflects on how recent and future advances in artificial intelligence and robotics should shape our thinking about the likely trajectory of occupational change and employment growth. I argue that the interplay between machine and [...]
Therapy and the nurture of nature: how landscape and the natural world foster (from the Greek, therapeia) wholeness. From the article: For many writers, the act of observing nature has healing properties. Amy Liptrot found it from returning time again to the same spot, and feeling more aware each time of “the height of the tide, [...]
Voyages of Discovery: what are our certainties, when we, and what we find, are constantly in flux? A swifter and more obvious stream lays hold of mankind, for although the waters of a river flee, its appearance is the same. However, as the years of a man's life slip away, his appearance is so different [...]
Good books in Damascus: how a library can offer a respite from war and civic disintegration. From the article: I ask [Abdulbaset Alahmar], in a besieged town that has only had access to two aid convoys in nearly four years, wouldn't it make more sense for the library enthusiasts to spend their time looking for [...]
The mission and meanderings of learning: thoughts on the purpose of education 2000 years ago. You have been wishing to know my views with regard to liberal studies. My answer is this: I respect no study, and deem no study good, which results in money-making. Such studies are profit-bringing occupations, useful only in so far [...]
Business people need the liberal arts: why more than specialization is required to succeed in business when you're really trying. From the article: Businesses want workers who have “the ability to think, the ability to write, the ability to understand the cultural or historical context of whatever business decision they’re making,” added Rachel Reiser, assistant [...]
Science, industry, and racial barriers: one of America's most eminent historians reflects on a lifetime of change and stasis But the challenges I, my brother, Buck, and my sisters, Mozella and Anne, faced were always formidable. Living through years of remarkable change, the barrier of race was a constant. With the appearance of each new institution [...]
Caring for the soul: where psychiatry and religion meet. Religion and science collaborate in order to help the spiritually afflicted, and thereby challenge the doctrinal conventions of each. From the editorial: Is it possible to be a sophisticated psychiatrist and believe that evil spirits are, however seldom, assailing humans? Most of my scientific colleagues and [...]
Identity and Difference: can we become part of another society without losing ourselves? A man who gives himself to be a possession of aliens leads a Yahoo life, having bartered his soul to a brute-master. He is not of them. He may stand against them, persuade himself of a mission, batter and twist them into something which [...]
