How To Kill A Chicken: Thoughts on The Morality of Killing from the Barnyard. Ever since reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, I have been thinking a lot about his defense of carnivores. Although his latest book suggests a simple, somewhat vegetarian mantra (Eat food, not too much, mostly plants), Om…

Putin: An Ever-Growing Threat to World Stability Putin’s been around long enough by now for most people to understand the measure of the man. Many people have spoken out about and against him over the last twenty years. For decades now, Gary Kasporov, better known for his chess moves, has…

Why Amazon is not a river, and other capitalist oddities: On naming, language and reality. Mention the word “Amazon” these days and chances are people will assume you are talking about online shopping. “My odyssey” likely brings to mind a family minivan. And in that flagship vehicle you will also…

Many people on the Left have for decades considered Republican politics anathema. But as the twenty-first century advances into ever-more perilous territory, Republicans are clinging to political and ideological stances which simply defy common sense, logic, reality and efficacy. Bearing in mind the existential nature of the problems facing the…

Why Government Needs to be Better Than the People The truth is, Democracy is not God-given. Neither is it inevitable, “normal” or required. Democracy is, like all other human ideas, just that — an idea. And as such, its value can rise and fall. Strangely, perhaps, many well-known Ancient Greeks…

How Humans Adapt: Plague, Government, and the Rise of Science Throughout ancient history rapacious diseases repeatedly devastated populations — in many cases proving that bacteria and viruses are far more of a threat than human violence or malfeasance. …

How Learning Some Basic Math Will Help You Look Smarter: A true Story (sorta) Excerpted from Look Smart: How To Appear Intelligent (When You’re Not). Let’s face it; before mathematics, everything we knew came from religious texts. It didn’t matter if you were Mayan, Muslim, or Manichean, you had a…

Bad Men, Great Artists: How to Reconcile one with the Other Pablo Picasso was an awesome artist. No one really argues about that. He was the founder of Cubism, a movement which lay the foundation of much Twentieth Century art, and he is probably the best-known and most influential artist…

The Value of Corporate History Everything has a history, simply because everything exists in time (except of course Monty Python which is timeless). Starting with nations, which are the best-known kind of histories, we drill down to regions, states, cites and towns. …