- The top 25 stories curated by editors and fellow readers!
Editor's Pick
Stephen Jay Gould on the Key to Creativity and the Power of Connecting Dots
 “Originality often consists in linking up ideas whose connection was not previously suspected,” wrote W. I. B. Beveridge in the fantastic 1957 tome The Art of Scientific Investigation. “The role of the imagination is to create new meanings and to discover connections that, even if obvious, seem to escape detection,” legendary graphic designer Paul Rand seconded. Indeed, longer ago than I can remember, I intuited the conviction that creativity is a combinatorial force — it thrives on cross-pollinating existing ideas, often across divergent disciplines and sensibilities, and combining them into something new, into what we proudly call our “original” creations. Paula Scher has likened the process to a slot machine; Dorion Sagan has asserted that science is about connections; Gutenberg has embodied it. And some of history’s most celebrated creators have attested to it with the nature of their genius.
A slim and near-forgotten but altogether fantastic 1991 book by Denise Shekerjian titled Uncommon Genius: How Great Ideas Are Born (public library | IndieBound) synthesizes insights on creativity from conversations with 40 winners of the MacArthur “genius” grant — artists, writers, scientists, inventors, cultural critics.
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WorkWorkHow to Regulate Generative AI in Health Care - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)A challenge confronting the Food and Drug Administration — and other regulators around the world — is how to regulate generative AI. The approach it uses for new drugs and devices isn’t appropriate. Instead, the FDA should be conceiving of LLMs as novel forms of intelligence. It should employ similar approaches to those it applies to clinicians.
WorkThe truth behind that viral study on fluoride and IQ - STAT (No paywall)Fluoride is having a rough day in the court of public opinion. The National Toxicology Program (NTP), part of the Department of Health and Human Services, has released a comprehensive study titled “Monograph on the State of Science Concerning Fluoride Exposure and Neurodevelopment and Cognition,” and longtime fluoride foes argue that it includes a supposed bombshell finding: It linked high levels of fluoride with lower IQs in children. WorkA tardy, scathing report on the Grenfell Tower fire in London - The Economist (No paywall)The worst thing that can be said of a public inquiry is that it is a whitewash. Perhaps it is too narrow, too rushed or too gentle. None of which can fairly be said of Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s final report into the fire that tore through Grenfell Tower in London in 2017, killing 72 people. The report was released on September 4th, seven years after the fire. It is almost 1,700 pages long (a preliminary report, released in 2019, was 850 pages long) and casts blame in every direction.
WorkApalachee High School students recount shootingTwo students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and two teachers, Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie, were killed during the violence on Wednesday, while at least nine other people were taken to hospital—all of whom are expected to survive. WorkHow to stop mass shootings before they startIndependent journalism is more important than ever. Vox is here to explain this unprecedented election cycle and help you understand the larger stakes. We will break down where the candidates stand on major issues, from economic policy to immigration, foreign policy, criminal justice, and abortion. We’ll answer your biggest questions, and we’ll explain what matters — and why. This timely and essential task, however, is expensive to produce.
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WorkWorkMondragon as the new City-StateIn fact, Mondragon works a lot like a federated nation-state made up of smaller city-states. Perhaps that’s why science fiction authors like Ursula Le Guin, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Cory Doctorow have all used the corporation as a model for the utopian nations in their books.
WorkWorkCannabis Use Linked to Epigenetic Changes, Study ShowsUsing cannabis may cause changes in the human body's epigenome, a study of over 1,000 adults suggests. The epigenome functions like a set of switches, activating or deactivating genes to change how our bodies function. WorkPeople told to stay indoors as air quality nears "very unhealthy" levelsAir quality at the Sidney and Glendive monitoring stations in northeastern Montana was unhealthy, with an air quality index of 190 and 193, respectively, according to a webpage for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MTDEQ). Unhealthy air quality levels occur when the AQI measures between 151 and 200. WorkDark Matter is Ghosting Us - Scientific American (No paywall)Scientists have long suspected that a see-through substance known as dark matter suffuses the cosmos, keeping the fabric of our universe from tearing. But what exactly dark matter is made of remains a mystery. Physicists have built massive underground detectors that are primed to spot rare collisions between normal matter and dark matter if the latter takes the form of theoretical particles called WIMPs: weakly interacting massive particles. Yet after decades in operation, these increasingly sensitive detectors have not picked up a single dark matter signal, leading physicists to toss out many different versions of WIMP theories. WorkAs Judge Weighs Landmark N.C.A.A. Settlement on Pay, Not All Athletes ApproveIf the proposal is approved, schools could begin to spend more than $20 million a year to pay athletes as soon as a year from now, an amount that would rise with revenues. All athletes would automatically be opted into the deal unless they request to be removed. The agreement would also allow tens of thousands of football and basketball players to be paid retroactively for lost compensation from television and marketing rights. It could also bolster the N.C.A.A.’s ability to fend off further antitrust suits that have weakened the organization’s ability to regulate itself. WorkThe Magazine for Mercenaries Enters Polite Society - The New Yorker (No paywall)In the early nineteen-eighties, Susan Katz Keating was living in California, working as a freelance journalist with a side gig waiting tables. On a newsstand, she came across Soldier of Fortune, a monthly magazine infamous for its gonzo war reporting and its gun-for-hire classified ads. “I wanted to write about mercenaries,” she recalled recently. So she placed an advertisement in the publication. “You paid by the word, and I was quite young and didn’t have any money. The ad said, ‘Are you a mercenary? Contact S. Katz.’ And then I gave my home address.” WorkHalf of Americans will start their holiday shopping even before Halloween“While some people scoff that the holiday shopping season seems to start earlier every year, getting off to an early start gives you more time to comparison shop for the best deals and spread out the impact of your purchases,” Bankrate Senior Industry Analyst Ted Rossman said in a statement. WorkVolvo gives up plan to sell only EVs by 2030Ford has also been scaling back on its EV ambitions. Just last month, the US car giant announced it was scrapping plans for a large, three-row, all-electric sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and postponing the launch of its next electric pick-up truck. WorkWorkDoJ opens investigation into sexual abuse at California women's prisonsReports have repeatedly found that sexual abuse by officers is a systemic problem in prisons across the US. The federal bureau of prisons, which falls under the justice department, has been plagued by its own sexual assault scandals, including at its women's facility in California; the US Senate reported in 2022 that staff have sexually abused incarcerated people in at least two-thirds of all federal women's prisons. WorkWorkHarris Calls for 28% Capital Gains Tax, Breaking With BidenHarris said she will set a goal of 25 million new small businesses in her first term, surpassing the record 19 million seen under Biden. “As president one of my highest priorities will be to strengthen America’s small businesses,” she said. WorkWorkWorkTax Policy Becomes a Fault Line for Harris“My plan will make our tax code more fair, while also prioritizing investments and innovation,” Ms. Harris said on Wednesday. “So let us be clear: Billionaires and big corporations must pay their fair share in tax.” WorkWorkWhat Does a Couple Do When One Partner Is Deported?But the new program was swiftly met with strong Republican opposition, and was put on hold by a federal judge in Texas after 16 states sued to block it. With former President Donald J. Trump threatening mass deportations if he regains the presidency in November, the families could not only lose their bid for consideration but also see many more joining their ranks. WorkWorkWorkOne Student Said Some Quick Thinking Saved Him and His ClassmatesWithin a few minutes, Bryan said, school resource officers responded. Bryan said he heard a confrontation involving the shooter, whom the authorities identified as a 14-year-old student at the school. The officers were engaging the suspect, Bryan said, telling him to raise his hands and surrender. WorkTrump Questions Fairness of Next Week's Debate at a Town HallYet even as he suggested the debate next week would be biased against him, Mr. Trump also tried to present himself as unconcerned about his first head-to-head confrontation with Ms. Harris since she became the Democratic nominee. He insisted that planning would only get him so far and that he would take a similar approach to Ms. Harris that he did to Mr. Biden. WorkWorkWorkWorkUS prepares to block Nippon Steel takeover of US SteelDonald Trump\'s administration was also marked by a trade fight over tariffs put in place to protect US steelmakers. Biden modified those protections, easing tensions with allies, but still kept in place some guards. WorkWorkWorkWorkSolar Farms Have a Superpower Beyond Clean EnergyInsects, those small animals that play a mighty role in supporting life on Earth, are facing alarming declines. Solar farms can offer them food and shelter by providing a diverse mix of native plants. WorkWorkWorkWorkMichael Keaton Michael Keaton Michael KeatonThe Keaton who settled into the corner booth of a hushed midtown Manhattan hotel lounge on a late-August morning didn’t seem like much of a maniac. Dressed in the dapper cool-dad uniform of fine-gauge knitwear and fitted slacks, he was still whippet-slim at 72 (he turned 73 on Thursday), and so soft-spoken in person that it was sometimes a strain to hear him over the cappuccino machine. WorkWorkWorkOpinion | Taking the City for a RideOn New York public transit, cracking down on petty crimes like graffiti, panhandling and fare evasion helped improve both the atmosphere and public safety. Between 1990 and 1992, arrests and ejections on the subway increased to between 10 and 15,000 a month from 2,000 a month; in that period, subway crime declined by 30 percent. A commission appointed by the M.T.A. to tackle fare evasion in 2022 similarly found that greater enforcement reduces evasion, particularly on buses. |
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