Much is being made of efforts to prolong human life. Lots of money is available, it appears, to fund research on allowing those who can afford it, to live until they are 120 and beyond. I think this is a simply dreadful idea. Already there are too many people on a planet where food and …
The notion that melancholia spurs creativity is widespread, but in science it has been controversial, and research has not really demonstrated a direct link between sadness and many of the most lasting achievements in art history. Now, a new study from an economist at the University of Southern Denmark appears to show that link. The researcher, Karol …
When Amazon launched the Kindle, in 2007, the death of the printed book was confidently predicted. But while e-books make up a significant share of the market—between 20 and 25 per cent—sales slowed sharply in 2015. In the US, the number of people reading books primarily on e-readers fell from 50 per cent three years …
My apologies for a two day break in posting. I will also not be posting for four further nights from Saturday. Normal posting will hopefully be resumed thereafter. Please give yourself a short break from this blog, but I will be delighted to welcome you back, approximately next Wednesday. ——————————————————————————————– Today’s post “This year, shootings …
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Fear of machines taking jobs dates back at least as far as the Luddites. Two centuries on, many of us could face the same predicament. In 2013 Carl Frey and Michael Osborne of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology at the University of Oxford looked at 702 types of work and ranked …
