I, for one, welcome our new robot masters…

A novel approach to displaying worldly demographics and proportions.

Big Think Link Launched in early January 2008, Big Think is a site with short video clips of leading thinkers in business and society. The New York based start-up, founded by former Charlie Rose producers Victoria Brown and Peter Hopkins, has been getting plenty of buzz this week from The New York Times, the Telegraph and TechCrunch.

Trailer of ''Ciao Robot - The birth of Roboethics''. Ciao Robot is a documentary which deals with the relationship between science and society, between man and machine. (www.ciaorobot.org) Speaking of robots and ethics, here's a different twist. Thanks to member Churchill for the link.

http://www.ted.com - In a preview of his next book, Steven Pinker takes on violence. We live in violent times, an era of heightened warfare, genocide and senseless crime. Or so we've come to believe. Pinker charts a history of violence from Biblical times through the present, and says modern society has a little less to feel guilty about.

In a recent post on The Speculist, my co-blogger Stephen Gordon remarked: Our current level of technology and civilization is not just the product of our scientific, political, and religious heroes. Fools and villains had a role too. Without the advancements the U.S. had to make to wage World War II - and those of captured Nazi scientists - it ...

Penn & Teller Bullshit: Gun Control is examined. Some (often funny) profanity. Part 3 of 3.

Penn & Teller Bullshit - Gun Control is examined. Some (often funny) profanity. Part 2 of 3.

Penn & Teller's Bullshit - Gun Control is examined. Some (often funny) profanity. Part 1 of 3.

Charlie Rose interviews Stephen Levitt, author of Freakonomics, about his book. Explores how unlikely events can impact future trends, like the rise of legal abortions led to decreased crime 20 years later.