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Not everyone needs heavy duty pain relief in labor, but a significant percentage of women do. Let’s not make their needs invisible.

The role of a leader is not to do a job, but to get a job done. This may sound obvious, but it is the most difficult concept that leaders […]

A year ago I wrote a piece in the National entitled “Yemen’s Coming Power Struggle.”* Much of the article focuses on what I saw then as the coming battle between […]

In casting about for an idea about how to blog on everything that is going on in Yemen, I found this Mareb Press story (Ar.) and I really like how […]

IBM’s Watson computer, though a marvel of computing power, cannot answer questions that involve the common sense of a child.

Before talking more about happiness, I need to say something about the middle-class way of life we almost all live.  To be middle class is to be a free being […]

Financial crooks brought down the world’s economy—but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them, says Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone Magazine.

Yes, that’s right: Apple isn’t the best at everything. Apple’s new fee structure for premium content not only risks anti-trust issues—its 30% cut is greedy, says TechCrunch.

The circumstances were bizarre. The sudden return, the backdrop of war, a shady banker and arms dealer as a sponsor. But it was Bobby Fischer! One could not believe it.

Washington policy wonks have been grappling with a subject that is more the province of poets and philosophers than bureaucrats: what is the value of a human life?

Technology is eating jobs—and not just obvious ones like toll takers and phone operators. Lawyers and doctors are at risk as well. Is your job an endangered species?

Hi everyone, If you type www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org into your browser, you’ll see that Dangerously Irrelevant has a new home! I’m now hosted at BigThink, which is dedicated to deep thinking on […]

A buddy of mine called me the other day with awe in his voice and asked me if I knew that Hosni Mubarak was worth as much as Bill Gates. […]

Sanaa University president,Khalid Tamim, has been removed from his post, according to reports in Yemen.  News Yemen claims it has been trying to get a hold of him this morning […]

1.  According to our really cool BIG THINK physicist, Michio Kaku, evolution has stopped for our species. 2. But that doesn’t mean we can’t change ourselves. 3. So, in the […]

Yesterday, Google announced their 2011 class of Science Communication Fellows.  This year’s program focuses on climate change and I am excited to say that I was one of the selected […]

After Mubarak who is the next Middle Eastern leader to go? Some people have been pointing to President Salih and Yemen, but experts on the country have been pouring cold […]

Do you want to have an affair? Noel Biderman is the chief executive officer of Avid Life Media, based in Toronto. “Monogamy, in my opinion, is a failed experiment,” he declares.

Alcohol’s sleepy effects have not gone unnoticed. Those who have had a night out drinking may know that booze can deepen nighttime sleep only to wake you up as the sun is rising.

There are certain aspects of economic life, such as expensive hotel internet connections, which can only be explained when we grapple with the bounded nature of our brain.

I can’t attend Educon this year. Snow in Philadelphia has canceled school today so they’re moving to Plan B. I thought I’d share some questions for attendees to ponder as […]

I’m in Amsterdam with my colleague, John Nash, for the European League of Middle Level Education (ELMLE) conference. Yesterday I facilitated an all-day preconference with a small group of teachers and […]

I’ve been using a nifty little add-in for Gmail that I thought was worth sharing. Boomerang for Gmail gives you greater control of your e-mails by allowing you to hide […]

For a student who was in a school district’s middle-school-only 1:1 laptop program, it’s tough to go back to ring-binder-and-notebook-paper classrooms when she transitions to the high school. n For a child […]

In a critique of the latest PISA results, Walt Gardner said: Shanghai is hardly representative of China because it is an industrialized center with scores of modern universities. In contrast, […]

Here are some things that you may remember from the science fiction movie classic, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial: At the beginning, E.T. is a little bit mysterious and spooky Most of […]

Well, 2010 is over; hope it was a good one for you. For those who may be interested, here are a few statistics about this blog from the past year… Overview […]

I thought maybe this was the year I didn’t blog about Christmas messages from public schools. But, of course, the topic has come up again. ‘Tis the season… n Start […]

In a recent comment, Bill Bradley said: photo © 2007 Jamie Williams | more info (via: Wylio)I used to think that the cost [of student laptops] was ridiculous, until I […]

photo © 2008 Eddie~S | more info (via: Wylio) This morning the New York Times published a phenomenal article on the struggles of parents to keep up with their kids’ […]