What if the freshly-dead refused to drop as gravity intended -- and instead, simply floated away? In my latest short story, "Exodus of the Dead," I answer this question, envisioning a world where crime scenes are harder to discern without a victim and nobody fights over the airplane window seat. Written in the magical realist … Continue reading Read “Exodus of the Dead” in Popshot Magazine (UK)
Recently on Fiverr, I was asked to write a letter, which being a (militant) advocate for written-correspondence I was glad to comply. The only problem, though, was that I was asked to talk about "Hope." Where does one even begin? Deciding not to focus on my own experiences, I wanted to investigate what Hope actually is -- and I wanted be more practical and philosophical than merely (and often unfulfillingly) poetic. You'll find here no allusions to spring or sunrise. For such a nebulous but necessary emotion, I think it requires more seriousness than that.
According to neurolaw, a successful and just legal system will be one that concerns itself with the steps moving forward with the specific brain on trial. If our behavior is influenced by our biology and circumstance, it is irreducibly complex to assess a criminal’s culpability in a way that is both satisfying and scientifically-informed. Instead of comparing and judging the sizes of one’s frontal lobe or another part’s propensity for firing (or not firing) certain chemicals while also factoring in one’s upbringing and the effects social institutions can have on our behavior, our legal system should focus on rehabilitation rather than strict punishment. ...
This is my "Voices in Bioethics" write-up of last month's Atlanta Neuroethics Consortium. It was my first foray into the law and neuroscience world -- and I loved it. What I don't talk about is my experience using Couchsurfing.com (great!) or why I missed the Sunday panel. With my flight leaving Sunday evening, I spent … Continue reading The Atlanta Neuroethics Consortium: Neuro-Interventions and the Law
Ever since I joined the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law, I've had a growing interest in big data analysis. With so much information being digitized -- whether it's criminal records, government documents, or historical archives -- researchers can engage with old resources in new ways and ask questions on scales previously unimaginable. Though I'm not too vocal about it here (yet), right now I'm working to apply what I've learned at the Initiative to the Library of Congress' "Chronicling America" archives. This crossing of fields, for those who are curious, is called the "Digital Humanities." (If you'd like to know more, I suggest checking out the historian Dan Cohen's blog. Fred Gibbs also has a helpful introduction to historical data analysis here). I won't reveal any of my graphics here (I'm saving them for a future post), but here's an example of the Digital Humanities that everyone's familiar with: Word clouds. Technically, these were possible before the digitization of famous works, but it's the kind of work that required slave labor teaching assistants. The following I put together in a few minutes using Project Gutenberg and Wordle.
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
(February 4, 2013) The following is a flash fiction submission for a contest hosted by the Loft Literary Center. I was looking for an exercise to keep me busy since, when the semester starts, my creative writing (basically) stops. The mystery genre is worlds removed from my comfort zone but, having thought more about the … Continue reading Flash Fiction: “The Night Before the Madness”
Even though my reading list is long and includes several titles that will, when I don’t get to them over break, slide onto the list of “Books I Should Ready but Somehow Never Find the Time for”, I decided to kick off my Winter 2010/11 with a more obscure title. Now, for as much of … Continue reading The Six Most-Interesting Excerpts from Vladimir Putin’s Autobiography
Morris Student DFL Column On Monday, October 11, from 4:00pm to 7:30pm on the Mall, your life is going to change. As you nestle yourself in the cool grass, look to the soft sky outlined by the auburn shades of autumn, counting its days until the first frost, sight will fade to black as you … Continue reading DFL Victory Rally – October 11, 2010!
Joshua Panduro Preston 