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Forgery is the bane of the art world. But what does it mean when a forger practices his trade for art’s sake without accepting a cent in return?

One of the many advantages of You Tube and the social networking sites, is that it is possible to get a real measure of the de-regulated, ‘opinion led’ television the […]

Al-Qaeda in Yemen Date: Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 12:15 to 1:45 p.m. Location:Carnegie Endowment for International PeacePanel: Gregory D. Johnsen, Shari Villarosa, Christopher Boucek U.S. and Yemeni counterterrorism efforts dealt […]

Narratives are extremely important in any war, but especially in a civil war. In a civil war, or a rebellion, insurgency, justified uprising (depending on your narrative), one side is […]

Khalid al-Hammadi writes about the arms deal with Russia in al-Quds al-Arabi. (Speaking of Khalid, I would recommend his 1999 interview with Tariq al-Fadhli in al-Quds al-Arabi, which I re-read […]

Blind patients suffering from a type of eye disease that strikes in childhood will become the second group of people in the world to receive stem cells left over from fertility treatment.

Just when you think artist/charlatan Jeff Koons reaches the nadir of respectability/believability, he digs just a little deeper. As an early Christmas gift, Koons instructed his lawyers to issue a […]

My cell phone rang from the passenger seat of my car as I crossed the last intersection before a two-mile stretch of Hydraulic Road leading to Albemarle High School, my […]

Yes, a rare Sunday post, mostly because I’m not sure I’ll have a time tomorrow morning for a post as it will be the first day of the new semester […]

Well, what we reported earlier this morning with caution, is now being confirmed by the Yemen Embassy in Washington. Muhammad al-‘Awfi was arrested and sent back to Saudi Arabia according […]

“Some of the boldest eco-warriors are those with the most to lose—our children.” The Independent says pester power can get parents to go green.

I have some unexpected free time this morning, so I thought it would be nice to return to the short-lived morning papers segment of Waq al-waq.US Secretary of Defense Robert […]

“It is easy to talk about great ideas as if they were light-bulb moments, sudden epiphanies where everything comes together at once…but that’s rarely how it works.”

The shootings in Tucson, Arizona appear to have had a truly cathartic effect in the United States. It is almost as though the random actions of a mad man have […]

Happy 4th of July!  Today’s a fantastic day to hang with friends, watch fireworks, dance until 4am, and engage in all sorts of merriment. n Before I head out to […]

We see them every time we go to a museum, but we never really see them. Like Rodney Dangerfield, frames get no respect. Julius Lowy Frame & Restoring Company, Inc. […]

Scientists at Europe’s best particle-physics laboratory have been able to trap a very small amount of antihydrogen—the simplest type of anti-atom—for the first time.

“A new advance in recording and interpreting brain activity will open the door to machines that could record and play back your dreams,” say U.C.L.A. neurology researchers.

Technology goliath IBM just released its top five predictions for the next five years.  We agree with all of their sensible forecasts — with some additional thoughts. 1. Yes, You Too Can Be […]

The Independent says Aung San Suu Kyi’s release is cause for celebration – but we have to be realistically doubtful about the prospects of change in Burma.

So, the new Thomas Pynchon novel came out today. I am not that far into it, but have been re-reading a lot of Pynchon the last few weeks as a […]

A few weeks ago when I blogged about a social-psych study that found people have more empathy when they feel low in status, I wasn’t aware how much work is being done on the rich-asshole problem in social science.

The global financial crisis emptied the pockets of European governments. Although the Netherlands had it easy compared to some of its neighbors, the government still ran a deficit of 6% […]

Polemicist and atheist Christopher Hitchens met his toughest opponent yet when diagnosed with cancer. It doesn’t yet seem to have altered his beliefs on Iraq, on Islam, or God.

Most people will probably find the confirmation that another former Guantanamo detainee, Yusif al-Shihri, has rejoined al-Qaeda the most interesting part of this story, but for me the most fascinating […]

Great art can sometimes be like a magnet—attracting hordes of admirers. The Gauguin: Maker of Myth exhibition that recently closed at the Tate Modern in London, England, drew more than […]

Those of us writers who are not experts on foreign policy have done more reading than writing this week about the tense situation between the Egyptian government and the Egyptian […]

A conversation with the outgoing Dean of Harvard Business School

Two years before opening his Barnes Foundation in 1925, Dr. Albert C. Barnes vowed that in his new institution, “negro art will have a place among the great art manifestations […]

A few weeks ago, rumors started swirling that the United Nations was going to nominate Mazlan Othman, a celebrated Malayasian astrophysicist, to be the UN’s first Space Ambassador.