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I’m enjoying blogging. It allows me to connect with others, get ideas out that are bouncing around inside my head, and get some positive affirmation that the ideas that I […]

I have just finished a first reading of the three statements AQAP posted to jihadi forums earlier today. The one that is getting the most attention – not surprisingly – […]

Need your fix for news and information about Mt. Baker? Sure you do.

The world of parenting was presented with a gentle and nudging article in the New York Times last week on the importance of maintaining an imaginative and fun environment for children.The […]

No, no- this isn’t going to discuss the breathtaking architecture, the astonishing, fascinating history or the diverse and beautiful culture of Yemen. Don’t be absurd. Greg and I have analytical […]

Despite appearances to the contrary – here at Waq al-waq we don’t actually enjoy playing gotcha, well, ok – sometimes we do. But not all the time. Case in point, […]

Forget about 3-D movies and television, says the Christian Science Monitor. 3-D holograms, once seen only in science-fiction movies like Star Wars, are swiftly becoming a reality.

Familiar idioms like ‘a thorn in your side’ and ‘the writing on the wall’ come from the King James Bible. An English linguist has recorded 257 such idioms from the text.

The signs were all there that Merapi was headed towards a new eruptive phase and today at ~6 PM (local time in Indonesia), Merapi erupted. This is a double (possibly […]

I, for all intensive purposes, am a Libertarian. The Libertarian Party is running Bob Barr as a candidate for President. Living in California, I also happen to believe that my […]

“Two new studies suggest that Twitter isn’t exactly a font of credibility as viewed by the general public.” Many users do not hold information from the site in high regard.

Today Charlie Savage of the New York Times, who does an excellent job making complicated legal stories understandable, has a piece on the latest bit of Guantanamo Bay news.  According […]

“For millions of addicts around the world, Alcoholics Anonymous’s basic text—informally known as the Big Book—is the Bible. And as they’re about to find out, the Bible was edited.”

Why is it so important to provide the wider American public with readily available and scientifically accurate “frames” that re-package complex issues in ways that make them personally meaningful and […]

Here are my notes from Day 1 of the World Technology Summit & Awards in New York City. My colleague at Iowa State, Dr. John Nash, and I have been […]

A few days before NECC I was invited by a publicist to interview Julie Young, the Executive Director of the Florida Virtual School (FLVS), and also speak with the folks from […]

[This is Post 3 for my guest blogging stint at The Des Moines Register.] Archimedes said “Give me a lever long enough and I can move the world.” This week […]

As America becomes increasingly diverse, many school districts are experiencing changes in their traditional student populations. When districts have significant increases in the number of students of color and/or students […]

1. The study of great books is usually contrasted with the use of textbooks and other technical books. It is contrasted, in other words, with study of the studies that […]

“Big Banker is watching you—more closely than ever.” Karen Blumenthal explains new techniques used by financial institutions to asses a person’s credit.

Framing is a concept and term that is applied liberally in discussion of climate change politics and communication strategy.  Unfortunately, despite widespread use, the concept is frequently misunderstood and misapplied. […]

Most of the papers this morning are full of the news that al–Raymi and everyone else survived the attack late last week, which the Yemeni government had claimed killed six […]

Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker’s research looks at how language exists in our minds, and how it informs the way we create social relationships.

Columbia professor of philosophy Akeel Bilgrami asks why we read literature when it contains information more readily found in non-fiction journals. The answer is in the medium’s pathos.

While the U.K. will not prosecute Google for privacy violations, its legislature is considering whether the Internet should be more tightly regulated.

Breaking the analog world into zeros and ones results in some loss of information, but it allows for an infinite number of exact replications.

If you’re a frequent user of Amazon, you probably enjoy the ability to buy an item with just one click. Amazon has all your credit card information stored in its […]

Nothing like a good Nature paper to get the media’s attention, especially when it was about the biggest air traffic disruption in almost a decade. Of course, the headlines I […]

At a recent press briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs took his first question from Twitter. Ecuador’s president declared a state of emergency via Twitter. The first photo of […]

Today’s robots are less intelligent than cockroaches, but advances in quantum computing—transferring information using atoms rather than silicon—could revolutionize the field of AI.