Through luck or sheer force of will, these seven former interns all managed to make it from paper-pushing, truck-loading, and (literally) shit-shovelling to the very top of their fields. Many went […]
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My eighth grade art teacher was the first to introduce me to the concept of “right-brain thinking.” He brought his copy of DRAWING FROM THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN […]
Plenty of people are happy for their leaders and bosses to make choices for them, as long as they probably would have made similar choices themselves. Yet when leaders and bosses don’t truly represent the interests of their constituents and employees, nudging can be toxic.
In 1990, Kate O’Connor was the aide for the lieutenant governor of a small, largely inconsequential New England state. Fourteen years later, when Howard Dean became a front runner for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, that job — her first — suddenly changed.
Before the FDA starts meddling with the legality of bio-implants, rogue hackers are pushing the man-machine boundary in an attempt to augment and improve our natural senses.
Software developed for Microsoft’s workplace social network, Yammer, can gauge the emotions of employees using the network by analyzing the messages they sent through it.
A lingering problem with renewable energy is that it is not a consistent producer. But a new battery can store energy for later use, making renewables more cost-effective for business.
There’s growing concern that tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea could escalate into a military confrontation between China and its neighbors—a confrontation, many argue, that would inexorably […]
Several research projects are currently working to make robots more responsive to children’s needs, and new research suggests that the physical presence of robots helps kids learn.
The latest US Jobs report diffuses concerns about America heading back in a recession.
Female Olympians are rightly angry that their bodies have been criticized in petty ways. The Brazilian soccer team was called “a bit chubby,” and weightlifters have been called “fat” and […]
Google’s attempt at building a piece of hardware to manage your household’s digital media flow has been pulled from the shelves, demonstrating the difficulty of all-encompassing technology.
Today Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan gave a detailed overview of US policy toward Yemen at the Council on Foreign Relations. Marc Lynch over at Foreign Policy has provided the good […]
My latest article has just been published on AlterNet, Why Is America’s Most Progressive Voting Block Often Overlooked? In it, I discuss the strong progressive leanings of American nonbelievers, what […]
Brent Sherwood of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory wants the agency to take a hard look at its plans to send humans to Mars, perhaps concentrating on colonizing the Moon instead.
A British computational scientist has built a presentation reminiscent of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, this time showing the consequences of the Earth’s population boom.
Watching the London Olympics, I can’t help but marvel at the dedication the athletes have exhibited to compete on their sport’s biggest stage. For most of these men and women, […]
The freewheeling, rabble-rousing Internet hacktivist collective known as Anonymous thus far has played little or no role in determining the outcome of the 2012 Presidential Election. With the exception of partnering […]
Today’s mobile phones are yesterday’s supercomputers, which make them powerful enough to suit the needs of aerospace engineers, who want to create a future of micro-satellites.
A new study authored by some of the nation’s leading climate scientists suggests that droughts and heat waves since 1980 were caused by anomalously high temperature fluctuations.
Now that Curiosity has safely touched down on the Martian surface, it will get to work calibrating its scientific instruments, which will search for past signs of life on the planet.
NOTE: I recommend you click “View Entire Story”, so the endnotes work. When prostitution cases are brought before a judge in Britain, a particular kind of “John” (or customer) will […]
New York, 1964. The World’s Fair is in full gear, as 50 million people make the trek to Queens to see what the future has in store. The exposition showcases […]
Back in May, I reviewed Steven Pinker’s hugely ambitious new book The Better Angels of Our Nature, about the decline of violence through history. I couldn’t do justice to all […]
In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America, as a private membership-based organization, had the right to discriminate against gay people by expelling them or barring […]
I want to issue an apology and a goodbye to many frequent commenters, who I consider my intellectual mentors. Comments are now turned off on the blog. Many will see […]
NASA went for the Gold with the Curiosity space probe, and scored a perfect 10. Perfect start, perfect execution, perfect dismount. And Curiosity is the Godzilla of space probes, with 10 […]
We already know that supercomputers, sophisticated algorithms and mathematical models are at the very heart of the modern financial markets. Now, with l’affaire Knight Capital we’ve just seen how robot traders and rogue […]
If you’ve been watching the Olympics, you’ve been treated to a steady stream of ads for what promises to be NBC’s lamest comedy in recent memory: “Guys With Kids.” As […]