1

Brief thought exercise: have you ever stopped and realized that the reason you’re not a chimp is 1/50th of your DNA?

I read Guns, Germs and Steel on the first intercontinental flight I ever took (which sadly didn’t happen until I was 28), and while that’s maybe not the best flying-over-the-Atlantic reading material, it was pretty captivating (it has sold millions of copies). I came… Continue Reading

1

Brief thought exercise: what percentage of conversation in a given day is transactional/small talk?

Last night I was in this class, and there were eight full-time faculty members in the class to evaluate some presentations we had done, and prior to the class actually commencing there was pizza and much merriment (and some nerves… Continue Reading

1

The orca shames us all, food-chain wise; humans and pigs are on the same level

There’s a lot going on right now with orcas (killer whales), almost none of it very good. (“Nature gets revenge on man.”) Here’s some moderately good news for the species, I suppose: they’re now, officially, all the way at the top… Continue Reading

Thanksgiving is essentially a celebration of what makes us human

First off, that’s not to say a nation that doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving also doesn’t contain humans. It’s more a discussion of the core elements of Thanksgiving — thankfulness and gratitude — being far more than sentiment.  Evolutionary biologists and philosophers use… Continue Reading