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Can video games treat depression? (Maybe!)
(Image via Kit Katherine, Flickr CC) Or: A lesson in always checking your sources I began writing this article in response to a TED Talk by Jane McGonigal about how video games could potentially prolong life.
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No Love: Tennis, Politics, and Queens, NYC
The U.S. Tennis Association just wanted to fix a few cracks in its Luis Armstrong Stadium. So what are New York City community boards, the last vestige of a millenia-old democratic process, getting worked up about?
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LOLCATS Are Good For You
What if looking at cute cats made you smarter and more attentive? By Katie Bainbridge If I told you that your habit of checking icanhazcheesburger.com was making you smarter, would you believe me? What if I pinky promise I’m not trolling you? That didn’t work either? Ok, what if I told you I had science ...
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The Weekender: Feb. 2
Hello and welcome to first edition of the Weekender of the New Year.
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Start the Press: Reading about the Publishing Industry
When researching for a project or a new article, we often come across many great reads that are worth sharing. These often turn into heavily annotated notes or even whole segments, left on the cutting floor. So we’re introducing the Reading List, a new segment of annotated research and interesting reads that we’ve done on ...
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Fixing Healthcare
How do we even begin to address health care woes? John Healy proposes we start all the way at the beginning: how do we fill out paperwork, and how does that automatically make everything just a bit more manageable? If there is one part of society that is woefully behind the times top to bottom, it’s healthcare. ...
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When Hurricane Sandy Tried to Visit the Economy
Bumper sticker spotted today: “I live in a society, not an economy” — Karl Schroeder (@KarlSchroeder) October 9, 2012 Two recent events have led the debate about America’s economic future: the first has been general election for our next President; the second has been Hurricane Sandy, its devastating effects, and how to deal with such events ...
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The Era of Byzantine Gaming
Comparing console games to smartphone games is like comparing a Kubrick film in theaters to a TV series. But console gaming has created a number of barriers to entry for creating great games. Why have we gone from the golden-age of gaming to the byzantine era? I’m certain you’ve heard the phase “The Golden Age ...
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The Weekender – The Urban Life – 06 October 2012
Welcome to the 06 October edition of the Weekender! We bring you today some of the articles that we’ve been reading for the past week or so. I’m happy to say that we are not including any following the 2012 United States elections. ‘Phew! So sit back, relax and enjoy your weekend with our personal, ...
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No Debit, No Credit, No Problem: How to Disappear into the Grey Economy
Convenience is most often exchanged for privacy, but the battle continues: can transactions still be private? By Max Gi Digital money is a fact of everyday life. It’s used on Amazon.com and eBay to buy goods; it’s used each time you pay for something with your credit card; it’s present when you receive your paycheck ...
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Think Outside of the Box
“This is a box. Your turn.” That’s how we’re starting it. For two years, What Are These Ideas has been publishing original and thought-provoking pieces, asking readers to think again about everything from genetics to social technology to today’s news. Today, we’re putting out our first contest, on the theme of “Think Outside of the ...
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The Weekender – September 22nd 2012
This week, we’ve been drawn in by great and powerful narratives: political narratives, Allied spies, consciousness and stories of how the human brain has evolved over the past thousand years. Sit back, relax and spend some time with the pieces that have kept our minds stimulated during this past week.