Most people do not come to Hollywood for deep conversation, but as we explained with respect to “serious games,” the entertainment universe is producing an impressive array of products that can […]
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At the age of 14, amidst poverty and famine, a Malawian boy by the name of William Kamkwamba built a windmill from scrap to power his family’s home. Living on […]
The secularist Center for Inquiry issued a press release on Friday headlined: “The Center for Inquiry Urges That Ground Zero Be Kept Religion-Free.” The press release outraged many CFIsupporters, including […]
Beverly Willett spent five years and thousands of dollars contesting her divorce in court and lost. Now that New York has become the 50th state to adopt no-fault divorce, she’s […]
Greg Miller and Joshua Partlow report in The Washington Post this week that the CIA has a “significant number” of members of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s administration on the agency’s […]
Glenn Beck’s appeal is that he makes it all look so easy. I mean, all you have to do is wave your American flag, pledge allegiance to God (the white […]
“Swiss health care is a blend of public and private, free to those who need it but with extra options for those who can afford them.” The Adam Smith Institute asks: “Would it work here?”
Given the world economic slump, the chronic problem of exorbitantly expensive weapons is becoming acute, says The Economist. Western governments are cutting defense spending.
“English does oblige you to specify certain types of information that can be left to the context in other languages.” A researcher at the University of Manchester explains how language affects thought.
“Move over solar, wind and wave power—there’s a new renewable on the block. Researchers are experimenting with devices that can pull electricity from the air.” Wired Science explains.
“New Orleans has gone through a boom while other cities have suffered during the recent recession.” But don’t be fooled, says Slate. Katrina exiled many of the city’s poor.
“Greece is about to learn whether a modern state can withdraw entitlements that people have come to take for granted but which the government no longer can afford.”
An iconoclastic economist at Cambridge University has likened free-market capitalism to that of the brainwashed characters in the film The Matrix, unwitting pawns in a fake reality.
“Any gamer, or parent of a gamer, will know the feeling. There’s a boss that just can’t be defeated.” A gamer and father on whether discovering a game’s secrets online is cheating.
“We all know that it’s good to be honest, generous, self-controlled, tenacious, and thrifty, but it’s the doing that dogs us.” A sociologist on how to inculcate the youth with lessons on virtue.
Megham Daum wanted to avoid writing about Eat Pray Love but couldn’t hold back comment on the ostensible spiritual project that has become a major marketing brand of its own.
The secularist Center for Inquiry waded into the Park51 controversy in earnest yesterday, with disastrous results. I love CFI and I’ve been working with them for years, so it pains […]
“A new study suggests that prayer can indeed guide people away from adulterous behavior.” The Economist explains that it is God who most effectively reproaches infidelity.
“Why did our ancestors eat each other? Simple: They were hungry.” Discovery News reports on findings of cannibalism that refute explanatory theories like ritualism or starvation.
The world’s top mathematics prize that outshines even the Nobel, the Fields Medal ceremony in India contrasts the romanticized and turbulent life of mathematical revolutionaries.
“It’s possible to demean oneself by sinking to the level of those who promiscuously accept any sort of apology.” The New Yorker meditates on the politics of giving and accepting apologies.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is laying claim to Internet technologies now widely used by Google, Facebook and Ebay. The Wall Street Journal reports that patent litigation is on the rise.
A new video montage of live news reports broadcast between 9:02 and 9:03 a.m. on 11 September 2001 captures the first utterances of rhetoric that define the 9/11 narrative.
Somali fisherman have made a conscious career change to piracy with Kalashnikovs and RPGs replacing fishing poles. Stanford’s Hoover Institution looks at the burgeoning industry.
“If gold were the basis of the world economy, each ounce would be worth about $6,000.” The Christian Science Monitor asks what it would take for currency to return to the gold standard.
A field not traditionally considered profitable by men, women are taking the Pakistani art market by storm. Female artists and curators and gaining international exposure as a result.
A Columbia professor of law and economics says the U.S. is idealizing manufacturing as a solution to the economic crisis, but that service and information industries perform just as well.
On August 23rd, the Public Broadcasting System launched a new web portal for promoting the arts. PBS Artsspearheads an overall expansion of arts programming to take place over the next […]
Today’s economic news was not good. The Commerce Department lowered its estimate of second quarter growth from an annual rate of 2.4% to an annual rate of 1.6%. That’s down […]
One of my enduring memories of New York City right after 9/11 was the absence or religious or racial violence. As we stared up at the planeless sky or across […]