Graphic by Hilary Stohs-Krause, NET News Is your political preference based in biology? The way you act is determined by your genetic make-up. Or is it? The last decade has seen more and more academics embracing the idea that there are biological indicators for human behavior, but to what extent remains hotly contested. Read More »

At the heart of a tour de force about the manifold problems in Legend of Zelda video games since the 1987 original, and how to make new iterations stronger, Tevis Thompson has the following insight about the idea of heroism upon which all of the Zelda games are based: The point of a hero’s adventure… is not to make you feel better about yourself. Read More »

Interactive: Explore upcoming U.S. Supreme Court cases Read More »

“”Really, who can resist a film about a pirate who prays, who keeps kosher and who observes most rules? A Jewish pirate who fights back, who doesn’t take it lying down, yet who doesn’t raid ships in the Spanish flotilla on the Sabbath – but waits until Monday instead. Read More »

Meet the president before George Washington John Hanson didn’t get the props his successor did. But for eight years, Hanson led the Continental Congress — the organization that led the United States in the days before the Constitution was hashed out. Read More »

It’s the fifth episode of The Hero Report ; this week, our guest is Drew Jacob . Inspired by the ancient epic poems, Jacob is planning his own heroic journey: He’ll be walking from the northern United States all the way to Brazil. Read More »

One further word on the post I published this morning about whether or not the Bible necessarily regards conception as the beginning of human life, which has garnered a fair amount of attention. Read More »

Iranian warships dock at Syrian port after crossing Suez Canal : The warships reached the Syrian city of Tartous, northwest of the capital Damascus, after crossing the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea. The crossing was the second in a year by Iranian warships, Iran’s navy chief said. Read More »

The ‘biblical view’ that’s younger than the Happy Meal : In 1979, McDonald’s introduced the Happy Meal. Sometime after that, it was decided that the Bible teaches that human life begins at conception. Ask any American evangelical, today, what the Bible says about abortion and they will insist that this is what it says. Read More »

Victims of State Terrorism No Longer on Their Own : Mental health professionals in Argentina have accumulated such a wealth of experience in treating victims of state terrorism that they are now sharing it with colleagues across the country’s borders. Read More »

Bon Iver has posted a new video on the band’s YouTube page featuring frontman Justin Vernon and drummer Sean Carey performing five of the group’s songs on dueling grand pianos. Read More »

Back in May 2011, I wrote a post that complained about the sad state of the Tumblr Politics tag; I wrote another in July 2011 because I thought there ought to be somewhere to feature more global political content. Read More »

Poverty and Terrorism : A new article in The Journal of Politics (gated) — “Economic Conditions and the Quality of Suicide Terrorism ” (draft 2009, ungated) by Benmelecha, Berrebia, and Klora — examines one of the connections between poverty and Read More »

Earlier today, I wasn’t sure if I had the patience to keep watching HBO’s “Luck” … and I made my feelings known on Twitter. But then one of the actors from HBO’s “Luck” replied and said it would be worthwhile. So, yeah, I think I’ll keep watching. There are a bunch of things about the internet that I find really, really fascinating and fun. Read More »

All of the fuss on Twitter about Bon Iver’s win at the Grammy Awards was pretty great, though my friends at Short Form Blog clearly did the best job of all by capturing it with this delightful image. I can’t help wondering, though, why Bon Iver was eligible to win in the “Best New Artist” category at the 2012 Grammy Awards. Read More »

Mormons apologize for posthumous baptisms of Wiesenthal’s parents : The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has apologized for “a serious breach of protocol” in which the parents of the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal were posthumously baptized as Mormons. Read More »

“Tehran denies any involvement and accused Israel of attacking its own embassies as part of a “psychological war” against Iran. Read More »

markcoatney : myimaginarybrooklyn : Penguin Horror Classics. Please be real. Please be real. Read More »

Well done, internet. I hadn’t seen this before — though it’s not exactly brand new — and anything that involves both “The Godfather” and “Arrested Development” needs to appear on this blog. (via Josh Sternberg ; click to embiggen). Read More »

In this week’s episode of The Hero Report — which might be my favorite episode in this podcast’s young life — we debate the importance of success to heroism. Read More »