For a long time, two of the great gerontocracies were the Roman Catholic Church and the Chinese Communist Party. It is quite a thought that if Joe Biden were a Catholic bishop, he would have been required to submit his resignation to the pope five years ago. If he were a cardinal, he would, when […]
The post Eldest Statesmen appeared first on The New York Review of Books.
Our 16th most-read article of 2023.
Originally published March 20, 2023.
“As local bills on gender, sexuality, and diversity make their way through Florida’s state legislature, new legislation would ban any discussion of menstrual cycles in school before sixth grade.” – USA Today
An analysis of the 100 largest U.S. cities found that the relationship between income inequality and income segregation became stronger from 1980 to 2015.
Widely ignored official reports and never-before-seen declassified files suggest shadowy British special forces operatives played a crucial role in one of the 20th century’s most notorious and controversial massacres. In July 2023, few media observers took notice when influential British intelligence operative-turned-lawmaker Alicia Kearns issued a public call for Western boots on the ground in the former Yugoslavia. Addressing a packed session of the House of Commons, Foreign Affairs Committee chair Kearns made the alarming call: “I…urge the Government: let […]
The post Mass graves, grave questions: Britain’s secret Srebrenica role first appeared on The Grayzone.
The post Mass graves, grave questions: Britain’s secret Srebrenica role appeared first on The Grayzone.
A geological discovery shows how carbon was captured to chill the planet.
The post How Earth Once Cooled Off appeared first on Nautilus.
This is chapter 5 of “The Construction of Reality”, one of the rewards of our 2023 fundraiser.
Human at Dawn
We humans adapt to the world in two ways: thru biological evolution and thru changes in culture: where culture is everything from tools and technology to language and philosophy. We are still evolving physically, and it can be seen in different human groups. Northern Europeans are more likely to be able to digest milk properly than those of African descent, for example, while whites have less melanin due to spending time in areas with less sunlight, and so on.
But cultural evolution is far faster and it is how we have done most of our adaptation since we started making stone tools.
