The WikiLeaks drama is only the latest in over a century of new technologies heralding the demise of professional diplomacy—yet such rumors always prove to be greatly exaggerated. One defense […]
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He didn’t look back. David Remnick’s recent thoughts on the Khodorjovsky trial, its parallels—and non-parallels—to an earlier Soviet prosecution (of poet Josef Brodsky) made us think about poets, diplomats, and […]
The anti-slavery researcher and advocate says that slavery and human trafficking are already becoming huge problems in China.
A whole generation of only children is coming of age in China, notes the NYU professor. What will their mentality mean for business, government, and foreign policy?
Epidemiological studies and public health awareness have drastically reduced the number of people who are struck down in their prime by deadly diseases.
So, as usual, the annual AGU meeting has been incredibly busy. When I first started attending the meeting, I was able to go to lots of talks and posters and […]
Even if science is able to teleport humans across large distances, would the teleported human really be the same person or just an exact replica? What would happen to the soul?
If you manage to find a match through an online dating site, that match is more likely to commit to meet if they have paid a fee for the service.
So I was a guest on the local Tea Party radio program yesterday. I disagreed with the tea partisans about everything–mainly to provoke discussion but also because I’m not exactly their […]
When The New Yorker Probes the “Decline Effect,” An Opportunity Emerges to Rethink Science Education
At the New Yorker last week, science journalist Jonah Lehrer penned a conversation-starting feature on the so-called “decline effect,” the tendency across scientific fields for a new and exciting finding […]
‘Young Mandel’ is a portrait that is likely to rankle some but Mandela is in no need of more hagiography and Smith’s account makes the hero more fully human.
When Customers Go Ballistic.” Barlow and Moller outline five principles to handle “difficult customers.” Among them are aikido and euphemism.
Why are effective obesity drugs so hard to develop? The brain circuits responsible for appetite overlap with those that control other important functions, raising the risk of side effects.
What did Einstein mean by “God” playing dice, or “us believing physicists”? Was he speaking literally or metaphorically?
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke for many when she said on Monday that she had never so admired, so depended on and so cared for someone who drove her so crazy so often.
It’s not just MasterCard and Visa cutting off WikiLeaks’ access to donations, it’s the government and corporate intervention, unsupervised, into the rights of people.
Defenders of copyright law often talk about how copyright is a ‘right’ for artists but ignore that at the same time it often takes away the rights of users.
Do you know what Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo stands for? The Chinese dissident has praised the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and said China should be fully westernized.
The world system is being challenged by two new forces: a rising superpower, called China, and a rising collection of superempowered individuals, as represented by the WikiLeakers.
The father of microfinance, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and folk hero Muhammad Yunus, has been accused of misusing development aid — a claim he says is “a total fabrication.”
Sorry about the lack of updates – I’ve had some computer-related issues here at the AGU 2010 meeting, but hopefully tomorrow I can highlight some cool stuff I’ve learned about […]
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. […]
The beauty of the allegations against the Wikileaks progenitor is that no one, save his accusers and Assange himself, knows the truth.
The NYU Economist who famously saw the global financial crisis before it happened shares his methods on how he did it, and what he sees next.
The open-source movement’s capacity for collaborative innovation on the content and productivity side is a well-established reality, with success stories like Wikipedia, WordPress and Firefox to show for. But open-source […]
Tests for a specific gene can indicate elevated risk of the disease. But would you really want to know that you may get it?
The Columbia Business School professor thinks the country could be a world leader in solar energy production.
On the 9th of December, Astronomers Madhusudhan, Harrington and colleagues recently discovered a massive gas giant planet, orbiting a star which they have coined the first carbon-rich world ever observed. […]
Raising a country from poverty to affluence should make the nation’s population happier, right? Wrong, according to a new study of 54 countries worldwide.
Prehistoric humans, along with Neanderthals and Homo antecessor, made meals of each other, suggests new research on human teeth marks found on prehistoric human bones.