The author of “The Bin Ladens: An Arabic Family in an American Century” details Osama bin Ladin’s indoctrination and evolution from billionaire heir to the international face of terrorism.
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As European economies continue to restructure, the polite word for defaulting, the European Central Bank has appointed Mario Draghi, a former Goldman Sachs employee, to its top post.
After a host of American-supported dictators were recently ousted, President Obama has assumed the unlikely role of appointing new foreign leaders. Will he repeat the mistakes of the past?
From the Middle East to Madagascar, escalating food prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars, says Foreign Policy’s Lester Brown.
I hate to be a party pooper. Nor am I natural believer in conspiracy theories. I tend to subscribe to the ‘cock up’ rather than ‘conspiracy’ view, and I’ve rarely […]
Corrupt business practices are triumphing over political systems across the globe and the problem is worst in rich countries supposedly with “good governance”, says Jeffrey Sachs.
Ending a ten year man hunt, the killing of Osama bin Laden in a city just north of Pakistan’s capital will unite the U.S. at a time of bitter political divide, says the Washington Post’s Dan Balz.
It will be one of the most closely—and widely—read speeches of any U.S. President in the twenty-first century, and perhaps even one of the most closely read of any U.S. […]
When the news hit that the U.S. had killed Osama bin Laden in northern Pakistan, analysts everywhere pointed out that he was no longer involved in Al Qaeda’s operations. Indeed, […]
When it comes to greenhouse gases, it’s not what we make, it’s what we consume. The Economist recently published the results of a paper that was in The Proceedings of […]
As a die-hard chocolate lover, allow me to bring to your attention this great piece of pacakaging by typography creator and graphic designer from Budapest – Lilla Tóth. And if I […]
The divide between sleep and wakefulness may not be as clearcut as we thought. Recent research shows that in visibly awake rats, some areas of the brain’s cortex go “offline”.
Why does more education lead to less accurate beliefs? The answer returns us to the difference between rational voters (what we think we are) and rationalizing voters (what we really are).
Seniors who lose their jobs or retire voluntarily are likely to gain weight, become hypertensive and even develop depression, says professor of medicine at U.S.C., Katherine Schlaerth.
In a new study, U.C.L.A. life scientists report that veterans of war, rape victims and other witnesses to horrific crimes could have the traumatic memories that haunt them weakened in their brains.
Officials in one Boston suburb are the first to move beyond the traditional measure of success—economic growth—and track their citizens’ happiness as a measure of wellbeing.
The main thing I try to remember whenever I write a piece for this blog is to stay in control of the narrative. The narrative is not just an academic […]
One of the biggest debates inside the world of art criticism and scholarship is whether art, especially world art, can be understood without the idea of culture. In the debut […]
“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks”, says Jeff Hammerbacher, the researcher who laid the foundation for facebook’s precision advertising model. […]
Yuval Levin, the most astute and imaginative of the Republican public intellectuals, has noticed that Democrats have stopped being progressive. That means, from one view, they no longer believe that History (with […]
Spring has sprung in here in New York City, stripping off our layers of winter clothes. The eye falls with pleasure on a pair of pretty feminine legs in a […]
Spring has sprung in here in New York City, stripping off our layers of winter clothes. The eye falls with pleasure on a pair of pretty feminine legs in a […]
Here’s the trailer for The Bully Project, a new documentary on school bullying. This and Race to Nowhere are the two films for which I wish my school district would […]
Biochemist Dr. Simon Easterbrook-Smith says there is no difference between eating a tomato containing a GM protein from fish, for example, and eating an unmodified tomato with a piece of fish.
Scientists have found that certain fish with complex brain functions are evolving at a relatively quick rate—will humans’ similarly complex brains inspire new species to evolve?
An anticircumcision group in San Francisco is the latest to join the fray over the alleged health benefits of the practice by pushing for a ban—is it simply a barbaric procedure?
The Federal Trade Commission has finally released rules about how foods can (and can’t) be marketed to children—but some questions remain, such as how effective the voluntary regulations will be.
When Catherine Middleton walked down the aisle of Westminster Abbey on Friday—a willowy vision in white—her noticeably thinner frame sparked rumors that she was on the Dukan diet.
As a result of the economic downturn and the cancellation of the Constellation program, it’s now Shuttle Endeavor’s turn to take it’s last voyage into space. After a postponement of […]
At Miller-McCune magazine, Emily Badger discusses several key themes of the Climate Shift report, focusing on how the reaction from several bloggers connects to the findings of Chapter 4. The full article is worth a […]