Joe Carter

Encountering an unexpected, bizarre situation—like a a story by Franz Kafka— can improve learning : According to research by psychologists at UC Santa Barbara and the University of British Columbia, exposure to the surrealism in, say, Kafka’s “The Country Doctor” or . . . . Continue Reading »

From the October issue of Harper’s magazine: Chance a U.S. household that owns a Prius also owns an SUV: 1 in 3. Makes sense: Instead of driving the SUV 100 percent of the time, just drive if half the time and drive the Prius the other half to offset the emissions. Voila!—You’ve . . . . Continue Reading »

The city council of Camden, a London borough, tells a Catholic parish it can’t use faith-based vocabulary to advertise talks on God and climate change : St Francis is a saint normally associated with peaceful, eremetic living and an overwhelming empathy for the animal kingdom. He is invoked in . . . . Continue Reading »

From the latest Barna Update : From the early 1990s through 1999 just 5% of the Senior Pastors of Protestant churches were female. Since that time the proportion has slowly but steadily risen, doubling to 10% in 2009. Not surprisingly, a large share of the woman in the pastorate – 58% – . . . . Continue Reading »

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm , the seven commandments that guide the animals are eventually reduced to one: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” While humans have always applied this standard to the animal kingdom (e.g., house cats are more equal . . . . Continue Reading »

On Saturday, Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug died at the age of ninety-five. Few men have ever done more good for the human race— yet few people today know who he is or what he did. Classically Liberal explains why he was one of the most important persons of the modern age : In this . . . . Continue Reading »

A recent paper published in the journal  Neuroethics argues for minimizing animal suffering by creating beasts that lack the ability to sense pain . This reminded me of a collection of thought experiments, The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten , by philosopher Julian Baggini. The thought . . . . Continue Reading »

The Boston Globe notes an interesting finding:One of the classic stereotypes about women is that they’re acutely terrified by snakes and spiders. Indeed, it has been found that women are four times more likely to suffer from these phobias, but there is ostensibly no gender difference for phobias . . . . Continue Reading »

In the latest Chronicles of Higher Education , Mark Lilla explains that conservatism is a tradition, not a pathology: This month the University of California at Berkeley opened a Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements. The center is housed in the Institute for the Study of Social . . . . Continue Reading »

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