Cosmopolitanism and the duty to assist
A January 31 podcast interview with Oxford political and moral philosopher Cécile Fabre has turned out to be rather timely, concerning as it does the question of how the cosmopolitan concern for individuals, whoever they are and wherever they might…
Now we know what we know
Accurately conveying the work of academic thinkers is one of the more unexpectedly difficult jobs a beat reporter will take on: professorial prose is often abstruse and opaque to non-specialists, and it is time-consuming to develop even the minimal background…
Crucial overflow
On June 13 of last year, Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa (“peregrine falcon”) successfully completed its seven-year mission by returning to Earth samples from asteroid 25143 Itokawa. In a recent interview with monthly Japanese literary magazine Chūōkōron (translated by Japan Echo), mission…
A big lung for a big city
Future-minded magazine of architecture and design eVolo has been holding its Skyscraper Competition since 2006, seeking revolutionary new ideas in the exploitation of technology, materials, aesthetics, and spatial organization to redefine what a skyscraper is and does. For 2011 a…
Light and power
A quick glance at the all-window exteriors of modern office buildings seems to offer little hope for the application of solar power cells anywhere but on rooftops, which comprise but a small proportion of a given tower’s total surface area….
Against the vegetable monoculture
As food consumers our levels of pickiness have tended to rise over the years as agricultural producers have become more successful at growing and selecting the most attractive and healthy-looking items of food; a misshapen tomato which in yesteryear would…
