I’m off to GSA 2010 in Denver in a little bit, but I’ll bring you a brief update of the eruption overnight at Merapi. As you might have read in […]
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“The elimination of poverty ought to be within our grasp, and yet for hundreds of millions of people over the globe, it remains but a dream. Why can’t the world’s wealth be shared?”
“Magicians dazzle us by exploiting loopholes in the brain’s circuitry for perceiving the world and paying attention.” Two neurologists follow a street magician in this Scientific American report.
“Suborbital spaceflights that rely on rubber-based rocket fuel could shrink icecaps, alter the ozone layer and affect global temperatures, according to a new study.”
“Halliburton isn’t on the ballot next Tuesday, but it might as well be.” Robert Reich says the midterm elections are a referendum on corporate control of Washington D.C.
“The Fed should buy a brain scanner.” Neuroscientist Read Montague at Baylor College of Medicine looks at the brain to explain the market’s boom and bust cycle.
“Electric cars with decent range are just around the corner.” Paul Markillie at Intelligent Life Magazine takes a G.M. car for a spin that runs primarily on an electric engine.
“Self-driving cars, a windmill farm in the middle of the ocean—what is the search giant up to? As with its once-baffling investments in the likes of YouTube, Android and Wave, we’ll see.”
In place of ethanol production largely judged to be harmful to the environment and automobile engines, new producers are making hydrocarbon fuel from cellulose.
An eighteen year-old Maryland girl has retained the body and mind of a toddler; she apparently is not aging. Scientists hope to uncover the child’s secret.
“Does a flourishing economy depend on delusion?” Virginia Postrel says the overly optimistic attitude of entrepreneurs is essential for a continually productive economy.
Give it a rest, Gawker. Don’t tell me you slut shamed Delaware Republican senate candidate Christine O’Donnell for any higher purpose: What’s missing from most of the criticism is this […]
Here is a huge UK domestic political story, with major ramifications for the future direction both for nuclear defence and foreign policy. It goes to the heart of Britain’s relations […]
It seems that every year or so, the unveiling and delivery of a new supercomputer that trumps the previous speed record sweeps the headlines. In fact, there are so many […]
“I do not support the idea of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell before our military members and commanders complete their review.” That’s what Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said to explain […]
Recently, I’ve been getting calls from the media, asking me about the 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie which shows a person talking into what appears to be a cell phone. How […]
FDR’s words about nothing to fear but fear itself proved anything but prophetic for comic book censors a decade later.
-The Central Park Zoo welcomes baby mongooses. (Yes, that is the correct plural.) -Great moments in occupational health and safety: London, 1852, the Head Keeper in the Serpent Room at […]
Every so often a meme comes along that reaffirms the positive potential of the Internet. Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better Project” is one such example. “When a 13 year-old kills […]
A new paper that finds that male professors who are “hot” are financially rewarded, while female professors who are “hot” are not.
Maurice Ashley is not your typical world-class chess competitor. For starters, he is the first (and, so far, only) African-American grandmaster. Then there is the fact that he is one […]
Merapi has dominated the volcano news this week, but there is some other things to mention! GSA 2010: Next Sunday through Wednesday I’ll be at the Geological Society of America […]
Merapi is showing no signs of slowing down, but some of the eruptive activity has changed in its character. The first reports of lava at the summit area came in […]
American University communication major Colin Campbell attended a forum in Washington, DC this week assessing the use of social media strategies in politics. In a guest post, he reports on […]
With the economy in dire straits and unemployment soaring, could Anna Wintour have some helpful advice?
“A planet census suggests that there are 50bn with the same mass as Earth and that around a fifth of these have liquid water.”
“If Israel refuses to implement a settlement freeze in keeping with international law.. the answer is to hold Israel accountable to what a just and lasting peace demands.”
“(The U. S.) government is ignoring what is likely to become the single greatest threat to the health of Americans: Alzheimer’s disease, an illness that is 100 percent incurable.”
“Why aren’t there more women math professors? Or engineering professors, or physics professors, or professors of computer science or economics?” Is motherhood be to blame?
“Unlike most claims from politicians that intellectual property only provides benefits, (the Vatican) notes that the economic research is ‘contradictory.’