In last week’s cover story at New York magazine on the forthcoming Facebook biopic “The Social Network,” the film’s screenwriter Aaron Sorkin offers his pessimism about the nature and impact […]
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In 1994, as part of their successful gambit to gain control of the House, Newt Gingrich and other GOP leaders issued the “Contract with America,” a promise to pass eight […]
Three days ago, I predicted here that Ed Miliband would be elected leader of the UK Labour Party. He was, and on the narrowest of margins. Ed Miliband is of […]
When Dr. Francis Collins was nominated by President Obama to be director of the National Institutes of Health in the summer of 2009, there was little dissent in Congress. One […]
Who will be the Republican candidate for president in 2012? Sarah Palin recently said after a trip to Iowa that she would run “if nobody else stepped up” with solutions […]
“In sending troops into Somalia, the Ugandan president is doing Washington’s bidding and endangering his country.” England’s The Guardian assesses U.S. foreign policy.
“Playing hours of video games won’t necessarily turn your brain to mush. In fact, playing action video games rewires how the brain steers hand-eye coordination.”
“The passive-building standard is only now getting off the ground in the United States—despite years of data suggesting that America’s drafty building methods are wasteful.”
“Tariq Ramadan says [the Ground Zero Islamic Center] should be built elsewhere. He debates Mustafa Bayoumi, an associate professor at Brooklyn College.”
“Historians say it is time to radically rewrite America’s slavery story to include its buried history in New England. More than we like to think, the North was built on slavery.”
“The philosophy that became known as ‘Tolstoyism’ was essentially a form of Christian anarchism based on the doctrine of non-resistance.”
“Now that twentysomethings cling on to adolescence and adults live in perpetual kidulthood, Susie Mesure finds sociologists need a new lexicology for adults.”
“The process of death can damage organs, rendering them useless for others. Ethicists now debate whether transplant surgery should begin before the heart stops.”
“New energy technologies blossom when oil gets expensive. We can raise the price of fossil fuels again without hurting consumers—if we implement a fee and rebate system.”
“In the future, the computational module of a brain coprocessor may be powerful enough to assist in high-level human cognition or complex decision making.”
From restarting the economy to dealing with climate change, society’s biggest questions turn on how they are defined by advocates and the news media and acted upon by the public […]
“Is this my new reality?” is the question by the CFO at the CNBC townhall program earlier this week that should have gotten all the attention. Because it is at […]
The bicycle has come a long way since the kernel of its invention in 1817. One of the most interesting innovations in cycling over the past few years has been […]
When the price of a high-quality wife—the type who will produce high-quality children—is high then polygyny becomes less affordable for high-income men. Monogamy emerges because of the increasing value of high-quality women in the marriage market.
Nearly fifty years into mankind’s space exploration, we have littered the heavens with our garbage. There is an incredible amount of debris that that is literally stuck in Earth’s gravitational […]
Is there a truly “revolutionary” element in the current surge of anger in American politics? What is the place of madness and irrationality in revolution? If we want to speak […]
“Stop economic growth in its tracks, start living locally, at a slower pace, and share more—that was the remarkable demand yesterday at the beginning of the Sustainable Planet Forum.”
“Women’s relatively rapid rise seems to have become unexpectedly entwined with patriotism—proof of this country’s belief in fairness, equality, upward mobility.”
“Congress wants to weaken the buck against China’s currency, and a broader devaluation could help the Federal Reserve stave off deflation pressures.”
Is human nature selfless? The conclusion of many biologists that life is a series of fierce competitions for resources is put in doubt by the seemingly selfless behavior of many species.
“The case for natural wines has always been philosophic and aesthetic.” Slate’s Mike Steinberger says the word ‘natural’ is meaningless in the wine industry.
“Intellectual property law should protect businesses, but too often can be used to stifle the spread of ideas.” The Mises Economic blog on copyright sensibility, or lack thereof.
The beat goes on: “Andvinyly, a UK-based outfit, has this offer: after you die, you can have some of your cremated ashes pressed into a vinyl record.”
“We think of terraforming as something we’ll do in the future to other planets, but we have thousands of years of experience changing the shape of our own planet in profound ways.”
“Efforts to make education more ‘relevant’ to black people can be both patronising and harmful. The western literary canon should be taught to everyone.”