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I buy books. I also have written a book. So I have a more-than-idle interest in this week's giant-monster fight over ebooks, which pitted Amazon against the big publisher Macmillan and, indirectly, Steve Jobs. My first thought as an author was for the African proverb ("when elephants fight, it ...
The Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints may be set to meet in Super Bowl XLIV in Miami next Sunday, but a side bet between the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art really caught my art-loving eye. What began as a friendly little wager involving nice but minor figures ...
Mutation of the gene dubbed the “guardian angel” for its ability to protect the body from genetic instability leads to cellular changes responsible for triggering premature birth, according to a study appearing in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. “The research by scientists in the Division of ...
Failed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is calling on the White House to fire Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for using the word “retarded” during a strategy session last year. “In a posting on her Facebook page Monday, Palin blasted Emanuel for calling an idea from some of President Obama's ...
“So what did I make of this year’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos? It felt like sitting at the bedside of somebody who had survived a heart attack but was unsure how long it would take to recover full vigour, if, indeed, he would at all. The mood of “Davos men” (yes, they mostly ...
British psychologists have discovered that people who spend a considerable time online are less likely to be happy than those who don’t, claiming there’s “a dark side” to web surfing. “A small group of the worst affected individuals were both depressed and addicted. But it was not clear whether ...
“President Barack Obama may get his wish to allow gays to serve openly in the military - not because of his powers of persuasion but because arguments against it have lost traction over time. A cultural shift since Congress passed a legal ban nearly a generation ago has changed the debate. For many ...
“It is hard to imagine two more distrusted and reviled professions. One has been accused of torturing detainees and failing to track down Islamist terror suspects; the other is widely perceived to be responsible for the worldwide recession. Now, in a move likely to provoke a perfect storm of ...
“The practice of feng shui figured prominently in the fight over the estate of one of Asia's wealthiest women, Nina Wang. Her lover and feng shui adviser, Tony Chan, said a 2006 will she allegedly signed, left her estate to him. Her family's Chinachem Charitable Foundation, claimed that will was a ...
The leader of Malaysia’s opposition party, Anwar Ibrahim, has gone on trial for sodomy in Kuala Lumpur after his DNA was found on the male aide making allegations of rape. “Mr Anwar has consistently denied the allegations, calling them a conspiracy aimed at breaking his increasingly strong political ...
The United States has reacted warily after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran appeared to accept a deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. “Ahmadinejad said Iran would have ‘no problem’ if most of its stock was held for several months before being returned as fuel rods. The US said that ...
Scientists have uncovered powerful evidence showing the connection between intelligence and madness, revealing that high-achievers are far more likely to be manic depressives. “Speculation that the two may be related dates back millennia, and can be found in the writings of Aristotle, Plato and ...
Steaming, gurgling mudpots in the active hydrothermal system of Yellowstone. For those of you following Yellowstone (I think there might be a few of you), I've plotted up the earthquakes since 1/27 (see below) - and sure enough, although there is a lot of scatter, they are getting shallower - ...
There’s a reason why the subtle trivialities of office life have long been a springboard for some of our most absurd humor: much of our day-to-day duties are arbitrary, unnecessary, yet seem to linger on in almost every profession. As today’s guest and co-founder of 37signals, Jason Fried, explains ...
Both Brian and I have taken a couple of steps back over the past couple of days (for different reasons) but also to contemplate potential changes to Waq al-waq and its future. Thus, the lack of postings. But for those who just can't get enough. Brian did a Bloggingheads segment, available here. ...