Technology run amok – a classic scenario of many apocalyptic science fiction movies in recent years – has finally been replaced by another, even scarier plotline – Mother Nature run […]
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What’s your Halloween ideal: Alfred Hitchcock or Wes Craven? If you pick the Master of Suspense over Nightmare on Elm Street, then I have the ultimate Halloween artist for you: […]
After dropping a defamation case against a local cartoonist, President Jacob Zuma is proposing the creation of a media appeals tribunal to help ensure press freedom. Industry experts say self-regulation would be better.
The success of this weekend’s protest against a chemical plant’s expansion underlines the growing care the government is having to take with its restless, wired middle class.
According to Matt Ridley, as long as we trust each other we will be able to trade knowledge and expand knowledge at accelerating rates.
The psychologist Paul Ekman says you need to keep a diary of your emotions during an emotional episode. This will enable you to determine what is triggering certain emotional responses, and control them.
Last week, four third-party U.S. presidential candidates had a debate in Chicago. As is usual in American politics, third-party debates tend to be all over the map: a mixture of […]
James Ceaser, perhaps our most distinguished student of American politics on the conservative side, isn’t about predicting the outcome of elections. That’s actually hard to do. And those political scientists […]
The director of the world’s largest physics experiment—the CERN laboratories in Europe—has called a meeting to discuss how scientists may engage more effectively with faith-based groups.
A new study funded by the National Institute of Aging at the National Institutes of Health has established that exercising just a little longer than usual can improve your outlook on life.
Evolutionary pressures have made women more attracted to sexy men during the peak of their ovulation cycle, say researchers at UCLA who have completed an interesting new study.
Why has there been so little discussion of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism? Aside from some jokes on late-night television, dialogue about the Republican nominee’s religious affiliation has been remarkably sparse. One […]
Losing just a couple nights’ sleep is enough to cause hormonal imbalances in the body. The result is that we feel more stress and less satiated by the quantity of food we eat.
While the presidential candidates have been quiet about their mental health agendas, President Obama is the clear choice for those concerned with mental health parity.
I just came across a blog post where the author put the One Laptop Per Child computer on the Deathwatch.The crux of the post is that XO laptops, with great […]
Well, once again, a major storm is heading toward the East Coast and New York is in the bullseye. (Climate change? What climate change?) Last year, it was all about […]
How does nearly six decades of work sound? We have all read the promising stories – ‘60 is the new 30’. According to some observers, 60 year olds may be just […]
A new medical procedure which swaps some DNA contained in a woman’s egg with a third person’s could help eliminate certain genetic diseases, if the public finds the treatment ethical.
The American cupcake craze has come to savory foods. Dishes like pizza and lasagna are being served in dessert tins, perhaps because we have an evolutionary attraction to cute things.
Among the baker’s dozen of legends obscuring the true origin of the croissant, the one repeated most often transports us back to Austria in 1683. Up before dawn, Vienna’s bakers […]
New research suggests that while moderate drinking does not poorly affect the brain in the moment, negative effects can build up over time and make it harder to learn new things.
New research from Oxford University concludes that the physical effect of laughing helps us enjoy a funny moment, just as physical exercise helps us feel better emotionally.
Spanish cancer survivor Albert Espinosa says we need to rethink our traditional notions of friendship and allow ourselves to form relationships with people who are different from us.
Mark 2012 down as the year that we finally saw traditional political polls for what they are – a form of voodoo black magic mixed with Machiavellian pseudoscience. With only 10 […]
A new online platform encourages Ukrainians to report election violations at a time when corruption has pushed back some of the gains made towards democracy.
Dutch engineers are working on several ways to modernize Europe’s highways, including lanes that change color in bad weather and charge electric cars while they’re in motion.
This week the Washington Post published a three-part series it entitled “Permanent War.” The first piece, by Greg Miller, talks about the disposition matrix and sets the stage for the […]
The Jokers to the Right in my title don’t require further introduction. They’re the social conservatives who belittle rape in their anti-abortion zealotry, believe that the control and suppression of […]
Sometimes the urge for instant gratification makes perfect sense.
In this dispatch from Beijing, artist and political activist Ai Weiwei explains the powerful effects of social media on political freedom in China.