Today I had lunch with...

An anthropologist who studies the socioeconomics of chess: he looks at the race, ethnicities and genders of the people who play the big tournaments for money, and then he compares those players' backgrounds and circumstances to those of the chess hustlers. What he's learning might surprise you.

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Yesterday, I had lunch with...

A professor of ethaesthetics. Her most recent work is on the anethaesthetic effect of certain social behaviors, especially avatar-based gaming. Her doctoral dissertation was on the coercive physiology of morality; she told me about this study.

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