GiveDirectly Gives Poor Kenyan Families $1000

Via Business Insider: Paul Niehaus, Michael Faye, Rohit Wanchoo, and Jeremy Shapiro came up with a radically simple plan shaped by their own academic research. They would give poor families in rural Kenya $1,000 over the course of 10 months, and let them do whatever...

The Folly of Scientism

Via Arts & Letters Daily and The New Atlantis: The temptation to overreach, however, seems increasingly indulged today in discussions about science. Both in the work of professional philosophers and in popular writings by natural scientists, it is frequently...

Invasion of the cyber hustlers

Via Arts & Letters Daily and NewStatesman: Like every other era, the internet age has its own class of booster gurus. They are the “cybertheorists”, embedded reporters of the social network, dreaming of a perfectible electronic future and handing down oracular...

Museum of Mathematics at Madison Square Park

Via Arts & Letters Daily and NY Times: MoMath is not what you might expect. At first you might not even guess its subject. There are a few giveaways, particularly if you recognize the symbol for pi on the door or discover the pentagonal sinks in the bathrooms....