Guest Thinkers — February 16, 2011

We trust you with the children but not the Internet

The most counterintuitive, surprising, and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

Many schools filter YouTube, Twitter, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networking, and other content-rich online services for both students and employees. Why on earth would you filter the adults who work for you? This is a loser strategy that prevents educators from accessing potentially-powerful educational material and damages employee morale. Does this make sense to anyone? Nice job, administrators…

Download this file: png ppt pptx

The most counterintuitive, surprising, and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

Collage of classical art suggesting a theme related to somatic markers.

Business

How “somatic markers” can transform your decision-making

Ditch the old brain vs. heart assumptions, and instead think about a heart-led brain.

A black and white image of a bunch of spheres, symbolizing the multiverse concept discussed by scientists.

Starts With A Bang

How logic and reasoning can fail as scientific tools

In logic, ‘reductio ad absurdum’ shows how flawed arguments fall apart. Our absurd Universe, however, often defies our intuitive reasoning.

A wooden sign indicating "assisted migration rep 2" in a pine forest under a clear blue sky.

Life

Moving trees north to save the forests

As the world warms, trees in forests such as those in Minnesota will no longer be adapted to their local climates. That’s where assisted migration comes in.

Historical map illustration depicting a planned city layout with a circular central area and radiating streets.

Strange Maps

Ohio’s Circleville ditched the grid system. Then it got squared.

A small Ohio town tried to escape America’s addiction to rectangular grids. It didn’t last long.

Bullet Cluster separation mass gravity x-ray lensing

Starts With A Bang

Flagship NASA space telescope faces a penny-pinching death

NASA’s only flagship X-ray telescope ever, Chandra, still works and has no planned successor. So why does the President want to kill it?

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Two thoughts about President Obama’s speech tomorrow (and my own speech the day after)

Much ado about nothing I just read the text of President Obama’s hotly-contested speech tomorrow. I encourage you to do the same. Could it be any more innocuous? Whatever happened to waiting […]