Elon Musk and the Glory of Liberal Democracy

Was Brexit Inevitable?

Trauma creep

Open Thread

Thirty-seven paintings, 15 children, 43 years, and almost no paper trail: Vermeer is known to us only through crumbs and scraps

Neanderthal 1

Open Thread

A better way to model the behavior of metal alloys

The U.S. and Iran Are Exchanging Nuclear Concessions for Economic Relief. That's Compromise, Not Surrender.

Paracelsus & the Womb of Being

Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal

$1.77 trillion, in stacked hundred dollar bills, compared to the Statue of Liberty, Elon Musk, $1.7 billion, a Tesla Model X and a SpaceX Starship

The Limits of Democracy

Free-Market Capitalism Is Destroying US Democracy

Today in Supreme Court History: June 15, 1804

Today in Supreme Court History: June 14, 1810

Toni Morrison believed that racial blackness and whiteness and redness — potent though they may be — are just that: stories 

Plagiarism: Nabokov called it unconscious. Dylan told his accusers to rot in hell. Both had a point

Open Thread

MIT’s Initiative for New Manufacturing builds momentum

AI may be sycophantic, but that is just one expression of its structural bias toward familiarity and averageness