The Simulation Hypothesis
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson shocked a lot of his fans when he gave the simulation hypothesis fifty-fifty odds of being true, adding that it was hard to argue that we were not in a simulation.
By Jeannette Cooperman
The Art of Interrupting
To decide whether interrupting is rude, you cannot generalize. You need to know the style (verbal and cognitive) of everyone in the conversation, as well as its tone and its level of difficulty.
Pillow Talk
To be pillowed, the Urban Dictionary tells us, is to be so exhausted you feel giddy, a little drunk.
An Index to the Index
There is much I never knew in Index, "A History of the, whose subhead promises “A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age.” First, I never realized how jokey indexes could be, or how easily they could pop an overblown ego.
If We Were Refugees
Some of the Ukrainians fled to other parts of their own country. Keep going, I urged them mentally. You are not safe yet. But where is safe?
A Pandemic Book That Will Erase Your Cynicism
In her book "The Helpers," Kathy Gilsinan has asked questions most reporters do not think to bother with, gathering up tiny details and using the most telling to bring these people to life. You feel you know them, not just casually but the way you know longtime coworkers or neighbors.
Graffiti As Art; Art as Graffiti
Graffiti is about breaking rules. It ignores convention, shuns commerce. Once Ruggeri had lived long enough, gathered enough perspective from travel and textbooks, and running a bar where souls spilled, he figured out how to channel that energy, and he rediscovered freedom. With raw exhilaration, graffiti unlocked his art.
Sharing the Loo
How did we decide to segregate restrooms in the first place? Some say the segregation began in the rigidly gendered Victorian era, and before the Industrial Revolution, toilets were often communal and mixed. Others point to ancient art that shows the sexes carefully segregated.
Bedazzling the Male
Much of this jewelry tilts toward gender fluidity, toward androgyny. Younger men seem happy to wear it, eager to insist that it does not threaten their masculinity or that they have moved beyond traditional masculinity anyway. Yet every report on men’s jewelry is accompanied by a sidebar or guide to staying manly.
Is Quillette Left, Right, or Center (and Does It Matter)?
Designed as a forum for psychologists, "Quillette" soon became, as "Politico" put it, “the unofficial digest” of the “intellectual dark web.” The phrase added a thrill to my spy chase.
Inventing Anna for Ourselves
"Inventing Anna" was a Netflix triumph, scooping up 77.3 million hours of viewers’ time the week after its release. Critics were lukewarm, but the show was crack. And I am still trying to figure out why.
Why Positive Thinking Is Useless for the Poor and Dangerous for the Rest of Us
Self-regulation starts to look trivial, even pathetic, when most of your life’s shape is already colored in by circumstances that lie outside your control, and the surrounding society has already left you behind.