Justice as a project
The sense of injustice appears early. Children notice an unequal share-out of sweets long before they study law. That feeling does not prove there is a universal formula for justice.…
Do Not Break the Immersion
Concentration has an entry cost. Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudith and Ulrich Klocke observed office work and experimentally interrupted participants with messages. After an interruption people often returned to the task…
Damascus: What Gets Sold Under That Word
Damascus steel is not in fact a type of steel. It is a method of manufacture and, in the overwhelming majority of cases on a kitchen shop shelf, a method…
Neighbours as infrastructure
Getting to know the neighbours is useful before a leak appears between you. You don’t have to become close friends. Names, a way to reach each other and a few…
Food without religion
Food culture builds hierarchies too: a real ingredient needs no sauce, correct taste needs no additions, and the wrong sort of person ruins everything with mayonnaise. Cooking, however, has been…
Faith and accounting
Public argument about religion usually offers two caricatures: pure spirituality above earthly interests, or an outright business under a sacred sign. Faith belongs to private life, and organised religion inevitably…