David Owens recommended America's Real Criminal Element: Lead from motherjones.com:

Like many good theories, the gasoline lead hypothesis helps explain some things we might not have realized even needed explaining. For example, murder rates have always been higher in big cities than in towns and small cities. We're so used to this that it seems unsurprising, but Nevin points out that it might actually have a surprising explanation—because big cities have lots of cars in a small area, they also had high densities of atmospheric lead during the postwar era. But as lead levels in gasoline decreased, the differences between big and small cities largely went away. And guess what[…]

David Owens recommended First Person: Neil Harbisson - FT.com from ft.com:

My bedroom is black and white, which are silent and allow me to sleep. The floor of my house is painted red, which makes the lowest note and so gives a nice depth to the sound of the house.

David Owens recommended What Integration Means For Germany's Guest Workers from foreignaffairs.com:

In fact, since 2006, more people have migrated from Germany to Turkey than the other way around, with much attention in Germany paid to the fact that many of those leaving are highly qualified. Some of those who now live in Istanbul told me that the sense of alienation they felt in German society was a factor in their decision to leave.

David Owens recommended Talking to the Future Humans - The Future of Pointless Things from vice.com:

It’s like apologising for a great sci-fi film because it’s not real. You just don’t do that. You accept things as they are and you let them shape and influence and inform how and what you think about.

David Owens recommended How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy from theatlantic.com:

In fact, he says, schizophrenia did not rise in prevalence until the latter half of the 18th century, when for the first time people in Paris and London started keeping cats as pets. The so-called cat craze began among “poets and left-wing avant-garde Greenwich Village types,” says Torrey, but the trend spread rapidly—and coinciding with that development, the incidence of schizophrenia soared.

David Owens recommended Howard Jacobson: A question neither I – nor anyone – could answer from independent.co.uk:

But it is impossible, in such company, not to think you are never more than the thickness of one person's skin away from torment.

David Owens recommended Internet Access Is Not a Human Right from nytimes.com:

But the important right in that case was the right to make a living, not the right to a horse. Today, if I were granted a right to have a horse, I’m not sure where I would put it.

David Owens recommended To Know, but Not Understand: David Weinberger on Science and Big Data from theatlantic.com:

They are so complex that only our artificial brains can manage the amount of data and the number of interactions involved

David Owens recommended The Question That Will Change Your Organization from blogs.hbr.org:

No single individual can possibly have all of the answers. But an open and curious one can attract more perspectives, surface more possibilities, and enlist more help

David Owens recommended Artificial intelligence from economist.com:

The things that make people human—the ability to imagine, feel, learn, create, adapt, improvise, have intuition, act spontaneously—are the comparative advantages they have over machines.

David Owens recommended The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy from guardian.co.uk:

But wait: why on earth would Congress advise violent militarised reactions against its own peaceful constituents? The answer is straightforward:

David Owens recommended We Are the One Per Cent from newyorker.com:

You claim to know something about us. You think we are rich beyond comprehension, that we can do anything we please at any time, go anywhere we want at a moment’s notice, wander the earth in a state of constant bliss, enjoying abundant and fabulous sex. Perhaps you do know us.

David Owens recommended ReadWriteWeb from readwriteweb.com:

When a giant social network does it wrong though, that puts the whole opportunity for everyone to do it well at risk.

David Owens recommended Demonstrations' to be banned during Olympics' from independent.co.uk:

Police have been given enhanced powers to act against protests at the Olympics since the Games were awarded to London six years ago, including the right to enter private homes and seize political posters.

David Owens recommended Mildly amusing text exchange with a Times journalist from tom-watson.co.uk:

Ben. You ask why I don’t trust you. I don’t trust you because a; I don’t know you and to my knowledge have never met you b; I don’t read your work because I prefer the guardian for media stories and the telegraph for news and your paper hides behind a paywall c; you work for a company that has used private detectives to put me under covert surveillance on at least two occasions