Goodbye, Arthur C Clark!
You will be missed. :(

What do McDonald's and a drug gang have in common?
Not cash but a solid corporate structure, say Columbia sociologist Venkatesh.

"Wir lassen nie vom Suchen ab, und doch, am Ende allen unseren Suchens sind wir am Ausgangspunkt zurück und werden diesen Ort zum ersten Mal erfassen."

The maestro on risk management
With all its mathematical sophistication, current financial and economic risk management breaks down. In an FT article, the maestro explains, "The most credible explanation of why risk management based on state-of-the-art statistical models can perform so poorly is that the underlying data used to estimate a model’s structure are drawn generally from both periods of euphoria and periods of fear, that is, from regimes with importantly different dynamics."

Adult neurogenesis
The orthodoxy is that we constantly loose our neurons as we age. Here's a heterodoxy. Plus, the idea that poverty could also be a matter of biology is something "free will" guys might not want to live with.

"Art will become a crucial source of scientific ideas"
So says Jonah Lehrer who himself has impeccable science credentials. See how Marcel Proust could be a neuroscientist!

Subprime woes
Here's the best comical presentation ever on the subprime crisis.