Me, Elsewhere

Me, Elsewhere December 22, 2014

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As frequent readers will know, I frequently write on religious matters outside of Patheos, and I thought that some readers might here might like a weekly roundup of my writings elsewhere. (I will try to do this on Fridays, but last Friday I was sick like a dog.)

If you want to follow all of my English-language writing as it happens, the best thing to do is to like my Facebook Page, and of course you should follow me on Twitter.

Here we go:

Hey, bosses: stop giving bonuses to your employees, The Week. A review of Alfie Kohn’s excellent and very important book Punished By Rewards, and a clarion call for privileging intrinsic motivation over extrinsic. (This, by the way, obviously has theological implications.)

Watch This Dog Run For The First Time Thanks To 3D-Printed Legs, Forbes. Self-explanatory. Technology!

How academia’s liberal bias is killing social science, The Week. A distillation of an excellent and important paper by a group of social psychologists led by the notorious Jonathan Haidt. They produce voluminous evidence to say that the liberal bias of much of the academy (a) leads to shoddy science; and (b) leads to discrimination against non-liberals in academia.

SurveyMonkey’s $250 Million Round And The Many Lessons Of This Extraordinary Company, Forbes. Again, pretty much what it says on the tin. If you care about internet business, this company offers important lessons.

How computers will replace your doctor, The Week. A small part of my jihad against the medical establishment. This trend is significant not just in itself, but because it undermines one of the great current meta-narratives, which is the idea that the 21st century economy will privilege “high-skilled” workers over “low-skilled” ones.

The Silliness of Spain’s Google News Ban and What It Says About Europe and Tech, Forbes. Spain passed an anti-Google News bill. Because reasons. This is not just a Spanish, but pan-European phenomenon, and it reveals a very destructive European cultural view of technology and innovation.

Nuclear disarmament is a thing again–here’s why you should pay attention, The Week. I was invited to a nuclear disarmament conference recently. Because Pope Francis was involved, I also wrote about it here. Since the end of the cold war, the question of nuclear disarmament has basically slipped from public consciousness, but it shouldn’t, because there are still thousands of nukes out there ready to obliterate civilization at a moment’s notice.

How to tackle racial injustice in our policing and criminal justice systems, The Week. Occasioned by the awful death of Eric Garner. I think most people (on “both sides”) look at this the wrong way. If I may say so, I think it’s an important column–and it hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves.

That’s pretty much it for my recent, non-Patheos writing. Tell me if you like this new regular feature or not. And, of course, if you do want to follow all my English-language writing, the best thing to do is to like my Facebook Page.


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