Justin Timberlake Has a Cold Caren’s rules of hit songwriting: “First, it starts with an expression of ‘Hey,’ ‘Oops,’ ‘Excuse me,’” he begins. “Second is a personal statement: ‘I’m a hustler, baby,’ ‘I wanna love you,’ ‘I need you tonight.’ Third is telling you what to do: ‘Put your hands up,’ ‘Give me all your […]

Unleashing creativity The area of the brain that evaluates creative ideas also inhibits them

The referendum question – Charlie’s Diary “And it seems to me that something goes badly wrong with representative democracy in polities that grow beyond somewhere in the range 5-15 million people; direct accountability vanishes and we end up with what I’ve termed the beige dictatorship….My feeling is that we’d be better served by a group […]

Perhaps every science must start with metaphor and end with algebra; and perhaps without the metaphor there would never have been any algebra. Max Black kenarneson.tumblr.com

Can we lead spiritually fulfilling lives without religion? – The Week “…a long series of philosophers and psychologists from the 17th century down to the present day have developed a range of concepts for understanding selfhood. At their most elaborate, they combine at least three dimensions: a range of desires rooted in the body; a […]

I think I’ve approached it rather imaginatively, rather than intellectually. I don’t believe in having a reason for everything. I think the dove should descend. And sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. Ernest Milton kenarneson.tumblr.com

Ghostbusting Lovecraft “This, then, is the world-view Ghostbusters offers in place of the Cthonic duality. As in Lovecraft we have a surface world of institutions, with a horror zone beneath—which, if you read human history, is not far from the truth. Many bodies lie buried beneath our marble facades. But if you press through the […]