Spotted In Cambridge

Christmas Card

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Tom Waits.

Happy Holidays.

Forty Years On

Oliver Morton's excellent op-ed piece in the New York Times.

On This Day, Forty Years Ago

'And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, and a Merry Christmas to all of you, all of you on this good Earth.' John Borman, Commander Apollo 8.

Beyond Coffee

In the commentary section of the science journal, Nature, a group of academics go cyberpunk, and call for serious consideration of the use of cognitive-enhancing drugs to make students smarter:

Human ingenuity has given us means of enhancing our brains through inventions such as written language, printing and the Internet. Most authors of this Commentary are teachers and strive to enhance the minds of their students, both by adding substantive information and by showing them new and better ways to process that information. And we are all aware of the abilities to enhance our brains with adequate exercise, nutrition and sleep. The drugs just reviewed, along with newer technologies such as brain stimulation and prosthetic brain chips, should be viewed in the same general category as education, good health habits, and information technology — ways that our uniquely innovative species tries to improve itself.

After the Cold War, the IQ race ...