This is a map of North America. It was made by a Dutch map maker by the name of Herman Moll, working in London in 01701. I bought it on Portobello Road for about 60 pounds back in 01981. . . .   Read More

In an article in Forbes, David Bressan writes that the giant rift in the USA’s political voting blocs is in part a consequence of collisions between continental plates, the literal giant rift that used to separate the two halves of North America, and recent glacial activity: The same region that had once . . .   Read More

Once again on the theme of how the technological/cultural pace layer’s accelerating decoupling from the ecological pace layer in which we evolved poses serious risks to the integrity of both the human body and biosphere: When daycare workers in Finland rolled out a lawn, planted forest undergrowth such as dwarf heather . . .   Read More

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.  I want to lead you through some of the research that I’ve been doing on a meta-level around long-lived institutions, as well as some observations of the ways various systems have lasted for hundreds of thousands of years.  Long . . .   Read More

Although the sensitive can feel it in all seasons, Autumn seems to thin the veil between the living and the dead. Writing from the dying cusp of summer and the longer bardo marking humankind’s uneasy passage into a new world age (. . .   Read More

The oldest beds known to science now date back nearly a quarter of a million years: traces of silicate from woven grasses found in the back of Border Cave (in South Africa, which has a nearly continuous record of occupation dating back to 200,000 BCE). Ars Technica reports: Most of the artifacts that . . .   Read More

As recently reported by the Smithsonian Magazine, a new 3-D model, created by photographer-animator Dimitris Tsalkanis, transports us digitally back into 3,000 years of ancient Athenian history. The free site, Ancient Athens 3-D, offers an online immersive experience through seven different time periods, from 01200 B.C., through to the . . .   Read More

When cretaceous-age rocks in the Southern US eroded over millions of years, they produced a uniquely rich, fertile soil that landowners realized was ideal for growing cash crops such as cotton. It was the soil from these rocks that slaves toiled over in the era of American slavery—and the same ground that . . .   Read More

Sónar seeks to bridge the worlds of art and technology, the popular and the avant garde, and club culture and cyberculture . . .   Read More

Author Neal Stephenson discusses the controversial ending to Game of Thrones and why endings are generally so hard to nail in works of fiction.

From the Neal Stephenson Conversation at the Interval, “Fall, or Dodge in Hell.” Watch the full video here. . .   Read More