They’ve reminded us that politics is not a matter of choosing among what we’re offered but of fighting for what we and others actually need, not to mention what we hope for.

• MIT launches online learning initiative
  After Stanford’s successful online courses, the MIT also develops a new online platform on top of the already cool OCW. I always welcome more good and free learning resources.
• How to Learn About Everything
  As you can see from the subtitle of this blog, this is something I’m also trying to do, with a comparable method.
• Sleep Deficit: The Performance Killer
  As someone who sometimes suffers from bouts of insomnia, I can attest to the bad effects lack of sleep can have. You may believe that you got used to it, but really, you don’t.
• Thank You, Anarchists
  I know The Nation is a left-wing magazine, but it’s still nice to see a positive article about anarchism somewhere.
• One teachers approach to preventing gender bullying in a classroom
  There should be more teachers like this.
• Which reads faster, Chinese or English?
  Once again a language related article. The comments are also quite interesting by the way.
• An Extraordinary Interview with Former Guantánamo Child Prisoner Mohammed El-Gharani
  Some bits of this interview seem a bit odd to me, but you can judge that for yourself.
• The Zelda Test (or Why no Zelda Clones?)
  I don’t spend much time on playing video games anymore, but it’s still good to read something like this by a real gaming nerd.
• Über das Leben eines Heterojungen mit schwulen Eltern
  An Austrian exchange student describes his experience staying with a gay couple (in German).
• Why We Haven’t Met Any Aliens
  While the overall gist of the article doesn’t really strike home with me, I still find it an interesting thought experiment.

The business of humanity has become entertainment, and entertainment is the business of feeding fake fitness cues to our brains.