Anything We Want to Know We Can Know With so much information available at our fingertips, there is no excuse for ignorance. In this century, from the privileged vantage point of watching the world through a screen, there is no reason why we should not have a well-informed opinion on anything that tickles our curiosity. Whether it's Wikipedia, … Continue reading Let’s Study Neuroethics Together!
"A light seen suddenly in the storm, snow/ Coming from all sides, like flakes/ Of sleep, and myself/ On the road to the dark barn,/ Halfway there, a black dog near me." - Robert Bly, from "Melancholia" in The Light Around the Body (1967). Famously, Winston Churchill referred to his depression as "the black dog." Sitting on … Continue reading The History of the “Black Dog” as Metaphor
"You know, I'm basically a scientist; I don't really think of myself as a writer," says the neurobiologist and author Robert Sapolsky. "And it's something that I need to discipline myself to do less of because it is much easier for me than doing the science ..." If you aren't familiar with Robert Sapolsky, he … Continue reading Robert Sapolsky on Writing and The Popularization of Science
This is the follow-up to my last post, "Four Men in May (Part 1): Memory, Oscar Wilde, and Aldous Huxley," where I am posting four letters written by four men in the May before their twenty-third birthday. From Part 1: The title “Four Men in May,” then, is meant to be not only literal but … Continue reading Four Men in May (Part 2): Hunter S. Thompson, Joshua Preston
Introduction: The Cold of Winter Is Just A Dream On November 8, 2013, I'll turn twenty-three years old. To many of my "experienced and enlightened" readers this may not seem like much of a milestone, but to me, though, it feels like an awakening. Here's how I see it: while the exact age is arbitrary, … Continue reading Four Men in May (Part 1): Memory, Oscar Wilde, and Aldous Huxley
Studying America in England While going through the University of Minnesota's online archives, I came across an article called "Studying America in England" from The Minnesota Alumni Weekly (December 12, 1931). Written by a fresh alumna named Mildred Boie (class of '27), in it she talks of her trip to Cambridge to study English literature. Specifically, she … Continue reading “I have never been there, but I have read Babbitt — and the villages are all Main Streetish, aren’t they?”
After reading my last post (The Virus of the Mind: Imperialism, Syria, and Selective Accountability), someone directed me to an article written by the political scientist Dr. Joel Johnson (Augustana College). In "A Connecticut Yankee in Saddam's Court: Mark Twain on Benevolent Imperialism" (2007) the author uses an analysis of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in … Continue reading What Can Mark Twain Tell Us About Syria?
Who's to Blame? Years ago, when I was a freshman in college, I remember having a conversation with a young Republican. I can't remember the context or how the subject came up, but we were discussing the blameworthiness of those implicated in the escalation of the Vietnam War. "It all began with Kennedy," he claimed … Continue reading The Virus of the Mind: Imperialism, Syria, and Selective Accountability
Since mid-August I've been working at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in their Visitor Services Department. It's a pretty straightforward job: I'm the guy who tears your ticket, tells you where the nearest rest room is and Please Don't Touch The Butterflies, Thank You. Because, you see, sometimes my job is to patrol the museum's … Continue reading The Butterfly Patrol: “Don’t Touch the Butterflies!”
#8 Lawrence Ferlinghetti Pictures of the Gone World (City Lights Press: 1955) It was a face which darkness could kill in an instant a face as easily hurt by laughter or light 'We think differently at night' she told me once lying back languidly And she would quote Cocteau 'I feel there is an angel in me' … Continue reading #8 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Joshua Panduro Preston 