Why the biggest, most expensive NASA telescope ever is also the most important thing we’ve ever attempted. “Where there is an observatory and a telescope, we expect that any eyes […]
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Baggy pants. A cane. A bowler hat. A mustache. These are the unlikely visual ingredients of one of the most important fictional characters of the last century around the world. […]
“Crazy at any price!” read a sign above the modern art masterpieces at the Nazi-sponsored Entartete Kunst (“Degenerate Art,” in English) exhibition in Munich, Germany, in 1937. The fevered brainchild […]
The stars, gas and dust of our own galaxy dominates our night sky. But what secrets does the Universe hold beyond that? “Who are we? We find that we live on […]
When William Shakespeare’s friends and fellow actors and authors published his collected plays in 1623, 7 years after the Bard shuffled off this mortal coil, that book, now known as […]
You’ll frequently hear people say “the science is settled.” Scientifically speaking, can it ever be? “All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to […]
Good versus Evil will always be the stock and trade of storytelling, especially in comic books. The skill of separating good guys from bad comes early to readers, with the […]
Across the long distance of a clear Atlantic Ocean, the Blundell Hunter lands on the shore of Old Harbour, Jamaica. The ship had docked two days prior in Morant Bay, […]
Well, okay, maybe you are dumb, drunk, vapid, and horny (oh, and also, lazy and narcissistic—see Time). You’re young, after all. In case you’ve not seen them, some Colorado ads […]
It is quite possible that future generations will view A-Rod, and his baseball peers who have used PEDs, as victims of circumstance.
We should be cautious about assuming that we know the shape of the future.
So I’m teaching a seminar this semester on Technology, Biotechnology, and Democracy. Its balanced effort, of course, will be show how technology makes our lives both better and worse, as […]
“Poe is one of the writers who make us who we are,” wrote E. L. Doctorow. So how is it that Poe’s countrymen could be so hostile to the man? As it turns out, there was villainy at work.
To the limits of our observable Universe and well beyond, here’s what we know the minimum size of the Universe must be, along with how we know it. “The greatest enemy […]
Today we are celebrating 7 of the most popular – and indeed they turn out to be among the most interesting – ideas of the summer of 2013.
Answer: Hormones. That’s true, but not the whole predicament. Middle school has issues. The problem is often folded into a larger, if illusory, “problem” of the U.S. public school system […]
Shengren, Junzi, Ruxue: The Chinese World is Coming Back in Full Circle “…the creator, when he arises, always finds himself overwhelmingly outnumbered by the inert uncreative mass…” – Arnold J. […]
The modern dictator needs only to become a client-state to Russia or China (or to be Russia or China), and there is nothing he can’t get away with. We members of open societies have the power to change that. All we need is the resolve.
A new report shows worrisome incompetence among Air Force nuclear missile launch officers.
“How I’ll gobble Paris up, if I’m lucky enough to go back there!” painter Fernand Léger wrote in a 1915 letter home from the front lines of World War I. […]
Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation, responded quite positively to the final point of my appreciative comments on his book. I said liberal education is always countercultural. Mark wisely […]
President Obama gave a stirring speech today in Washington, D.C. He reflected on those who marched 50 years ago today. He praised the “brilliance” of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. […]
“People as old as 90 who actively acquire new interests that involve learning retain their ability to learn. But if we stop taxing the nucleus basalis, it begins to dry up.”
Why are all the radicals on the right today? My argument is that we have two problems in Washington: One is hyperpartisanship, as a Washington Post article details. Because of […]
Seventy-five years ago, The Museum of Modern Art staged their first exhibition devoted to the work of a single photographer—Walker Evans: American Photographer. That show brought together many of Walker […]
Don’t worry. Be happy. Live in the present. The philosopher Rousseau said that was the natural condition of man, before he was screwed up by self-consciousness, time, awareness of death, […]
Sometimes the toughest shadow to escape is one you cast over yourself. When artist Art Spiegelman began publishing Maus in 1980 in chapter form in the indie comics magazine Raw, […]
On macro and micro levels, longer life is not working out. Almost all nations are aging and will confront the disruptive demographics of an aging society, some sooner than later. […]
The tens of thousands of turbines generating power around the world on land and, increasingly, at sea, represent a stunning reversal of fortune for an industry that fifty years ago was virtually non-existent.
Today’s decision warns colleges and universities across the country that they need to be very careful about how they use race in admissions. But the headline is clear: they still may do so.