On October 15, 2013, the City Council of Cupertino, California, debated for 6 hours before finally approvingApple’s plans for a new $5 billion USD office headquarters to be built in […]
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Your computer will be able to answer your questions before you ask them or even before you realize you have a question.
Scientists have developed a way of trapping single sperm cells inside metal nanotubes. The direction of these ‘spermbots’ can be controlled remotely to deliver drugs or fertilize an egg.
Schekman compares the incentives that journals such as Nature, Cell and Science offer scientists to Wall Street’s bonus culture.
Thick clouds, rain, a bright Gibbous Moon and chilly temperatures will make for difficult stargazing. Fortunately the Slooh space camera’s broadcast team will be providing all night coverage that includes expert commentary from Bob Berman.
A human-sounding telemarketer says she is real. Can you tell from this recording?
Here is a glimpse of what our world would look like to a visitor from afar.
The image above depicts skyscrapers in the Canary Wharf business district of east London poking out as much of the rest of the city is shrouded in fog on December 11, 2013. The photo was taken by the London Metropolitan Police.
Be skeptical of any theory that produces the possibility of time travel, particularly if it relies on wormholes. That’s not a theory based on physical reality, but rather fodder for science fiction writers and television shows.
The question remains as to whether the bright spot seen moving away from the sun was simply debris, or whether a small nucleus of the original ball of ice was still there.
“No longer shall I paint interiors with men reading and women knitting. I will paint living people who breathe and feel and suffer and love.”- Edvard Munch (born on this date in 1863)
When I was 15, my geography teacher almost ruined maps for me. He stubbornly avoided what fascinated me about cartography: the why and how of those borderlines that cut and […]
By hitting snooze you are making the wake-up process more difficult and drawn out.
Whether we are buying shoes or pursuing a certain career, unconsciously we imagine “if only life could be this way…if only I could be like her, wear those shoes or drive that car.”
Pew released an interesting survey today on millennial women’s and men’s perceptions of the workplace. It makes me wonder about the role of surveys in shaping (rather than simply recording) […]
Fixated as we are on reason, humans tend to overlook other types of intelligence that animals possess in abundance.
“You only have power over people as long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything, he’s no longer in your power–he’s free again.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (born on this date in 1918)
Braving arctic temperatures and police violence, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been joining together from across the country to demonstrate in Kyiv’s Maidan Square. They are fighting to keep […]
The last foreign military invasion of the United States (which included the burning of the White House) took place two centuries ago. Half a century ago, a different kind of […]
In a way, China is already sponsoring the global X-mas fete. If the Chinese really wanted, they could make Christmas in their own image.
No one, not Charles Mingus, Art Blakey or Dizzy Gillespie is born a great bandleader. We are not deeply conscious of others. We need to train our minds to be that way.
The “visionary” and “philosopher” Zoltan Istvan says that, as an atheist, he must be a transhumanist. You probably think I’m going to start mocking transhumanism again. Once again, you’ve misjudged […]
The idea that Aaron Swartz fought for is that the public should have access to federal court documents as well as access to scholarly research that was being put behind paywalls.
Last Friday, Guelph resident Andrew McPherson’s cat, Tutu, appears to have achieved the impossible. Local residents claim their small town will never be the same again, and the future of […]
“Power is something of which I am convinced there is no innocence this side of the womb.”- Nadine Gordimer (born on this date in 1923)
“It’s funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want them to.” ― J.D. Salinger
“I don’t paint things. I only paint the difference between things.”- Henri Matisse (born on this date in 1869)
“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition.” ― Rudyard Kipling (born on this date in 1865)
“I am not disposed to complain that I have planted and others have gathered the fruits.”- Charles Goodyear (born on this date in 1800)
“Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs.” ― Guy Debord (born on this date in 1931)