Traditional communication campaigns seek to raise awareness, change behavior, or change policy. The FrameWorks Institute, in contrast, seeks to fundamentally reframe how Americans understand social issues, and through this new […]
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I have a ton of respect for Facebook’s product team, they consistently launch innovative products that pull their users, often kicking and screaming, into more engaging experiences. This requires two […]
House Democrats are in trouble. Even with substantial majorities in both houses of Congress, Democrats have been unable to get the economy back to operating at full capacity. Whatever the […]
No one has a crystal ball, but some predictions that I made in recent years are coming into sharp focus with every scientific advance. For starters, every year, more organs […]
“Recent research points to a smarter way to tackle climate change.” Bjørn Lomborg says governments should increase energy R&D efforts and invest in climate engineering.
“Ellington had many of the traits one associates more readily with the founders of religious orders or political movements than with lone artists absorbed in self-expression.”
Bill Gates says the government should do more R&D in the energy sector, that a Manhattan Project for sustainable energy won’t work and that a carbon tax is necessary.
Congress is unlikely to pass any serious climate change legislation now that the Republicans have retaken the House. If you doubt that, consider the leading candidates to replace Rep. Henry […]
Today, Mike and I collaborated on the best bug ever filed. You can see it in it’s original glory here, or read the “edited for ease of reading” text version […]
For many in the Labour Party, the promotion of Ed Balls to Shadow Chancellor was as inevitable as it was long overdue. I was among many party members who argued […]
Either the eruption at Fernandina has kicked back up again, or, based on the accompanying photo, we’ve landed on Gliese 581 D.
A website will analyze your emails and chats and estimate how well you are in sync with your partner, frenemy or whoever.
One of the frustrations that comes with a new and interesting idea is the large number of people who will tell you that you’re actually saying something old and familiar. […]
Feminist attorney Jill Filipovic takes a closer look at the sex crime allegations against Julian Assange of wikileaks. I think the post strikes exactly the right balance between being skeptical […]
In the future, we may manufacture the products that we used to buy at the store right in our very own homes. We may also find ourselves buying products that […]
It’s plain to see that I’m an optimist, sometimes more than is socially comfortable. The ease with which I dismiss the disastrous economic decline above serves as one example of that. I wrote that the recession will benefit our political system, and, before I cut this line, as having “rewarded our company for methodical execution and ruthless efficiency by removing competitors from the landscape.” I make no mention of the disastrous effects on millions of people, and the great uncertainty that grips any well-briefed mind, because it truly doesn’t stand in the foreground of my mind (despite suffering personal loss of wealth).
Our species is running towards a precipice with looming dangers like economic decline, political unrest, climate crisis, and more threatening to grip us as we jump off the edge, but my optimism is stronger now than ever before. On the other side of that looming gap are extraordinary breakthroughs in healthcare, communications technology, access to space, human productivity, artistic creation and literally hundreds of fields. With the right execution and a little bit of luck we’ll all live to see these breakthroughs — and members of my generation will live to see dramatically lengthened life-spans, exploration and colonization of space, and more opportunity than ever to work for passion instead of simply working for pay.
Instead of taking this space to regale you with the many personal and focused changes I intend to make in 2009, let me rather encourage you to spend time this year thinking, as I’m going to, more about what we can do in 2009 to positively affect the future our culture will face in 2020, 2050, 3000 and beyond.
This week, the global cities of Bogota, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Milan celebrate “Social Media Week,” with events and seminars focused on the use of digital media for building […]
“Mr. Allen, who has made most of his recent films overseas where it’s easier for him to secure financing, says ‘You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger’ is a good title for the United States.”
Africa is breaking up! Alright, its not new news, but you’d think we had no idea if you read all the media lately.
The past three days I’ve gotten in two political arguments with folks who I perceive as creating rifts in the political process and slowing things down. The first was with […]
This week’s theme is epistemological unease in the sciences: Complaints in a number of disciplines that studies didn’t really find the effects they’re reporting. One reason for these worries is […]
After reading George Lakoff’s diary “Untellable Truths” over at Daily Kos this morning, which methodically described why the progressive wing of the Democratic Party always seems to get the short […]
I’m putting out the last call for questions about Mt. Hood magmatism for Dr. Adam Kent of Oregon State University. He has offered to take your questions about his recentNature […]
The recent shuttle launch has a strange passenger: a 330-pound humanoid robot called Robonaut 2, or R2 for short. It’s the first humanoid robot to be sent into space, and […]
“David Simon, the creator TV hit ‘The Wire’, has it in writing from as unimpeachable a source as you could think of: he is a genius.” And he gets $500,000 for it.
Busy weekend (well, mostly grading, but that does eat time like you wouldn’t believe), so here are some quick hits from the news file: Busy Indonesia: As people begin to […]
Sustainable farming is a topic of pressing interest and a domain of growing innovation in agriculture, but it’s an incredibly complex issue involving multiple interrelated factors. A new partnership between […]
A couple of updates on two of the volcanoes that have caught people’s attention right now! Oh yes, and sorry about the brevity of many of these updates lately – […]
Every once in a while, scientists come up with an clever idea that is so novel and unexpected that it catches you by surprise. The idea by itself may not […]
“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t,” Polonius says in Act 2 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet after an exchange with the title character. After encountering the unique sculpture of […]