Should you invest or pay down debt? Should you help your siblings plan for their retirement? Should you pre-pay your mortgage? Trent Hamm answers these and related questions.
All Articles
A Tibetan lama believes he cured his gangrene-stricken leg by meditating for a year. Now scientists are studying his brain, hoping to discover a medical miracle.
Television and cinema screens that produce holographic images without the need for special glasses are being developed by computer giant Apple.
The Internet is prompting some people to get it in gear by competing against each other online. The rewards include virtual badges and group encouragement.
Here are some odd questions: do you spend more time on the calls you make than on the calls you receive?
Happy holidays! Every year as I range across the web in search of news and ideas I come across a few articles that stand out as exceptionally worth reading. Today […]
Richard Goodman, a retiree from La Habra with a white beard and a red suit, ventures into a culture where most people know little about the jolly old elf and Christmas traditions.
The U.S. should follow Britain’s lead in tackling child poverty, says Charles Blow. A new method is urgently needed to stem the tide of children falling into a life of scarcity and want.
Life is not a long slow decline from sunlit uplands towards the valley of death. It is, rather, a U-bend. New statistics show that after the doldrums of middle-age, life perks up again.
The FCC’s net neutrality rule is a weak compromise that will not stop industry control of content delivery at consumers’ expense, says Beth Wellington at The Guardian.
Is the computer really a better pencil? Will it lead to better writing? Just about every other new writing instrument has been seen as a threat to literacy and a corrupter of youth.
With data use rocketing, will mobile networks be able to cope? The managing director of The Cloud says wi-fi is the best way to get the best experience.
Kwanzaa was conjured up in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, then chair of the black studies department at California State to “reaffirm and restore our rootedness in African culture.”
Studies show that happiness is directly linked to conversations that are substantial, not superficial. Yet our communications are dominated by quick electronic exchanges.
Video and photo editing, smartphone apps, email and other digital tools are gaining popularity as parents try to persuade their 21st-century kids that there is a Santa Claus.
Who did we under-appreciate in 2010? In the endless whirr of 24/7 corporate news, the people who actually make a difference are often trampled in the stampede.
Happy holidays! Every year as I range across the web in search of news and ideas I come across a few articles that stand out as exceptionally worth reading. Today […]
Over half the world’s population lives in cities, with millions more pouring in every year. Countries like China, India and South Korea are investing heavily in new so-called “smart cities” […]
Butler “challenged the status quo, looking at what could be achieved in later life, not at what might be lost,” writes Richard Hodes, Director of the National Institute on Aging.
Ryan Chin, of MIT’s Smart Cities group writes that while Mitchell was perhaps the world’s leading urban theorist, he was also a great mentor and advocate for students.
The father of fractal geometry “was one of the most visionary mathematicians from the latter part of the twentieth century,” writes Boston University professor Robert Devaney.
The key to understanding the enduring relevance of the speech is to focus on what Ike actually said and to understand what motivated the general for much of his adult lifetime.
A fake pill can make patients feel better, even when they know it’s nothing but inert ingredients, according to a new study where patients knew they were receiving a sugar pill.
By intensely focusing the sun’s rays on a rare earth oxide, researchers have discovered a reactor that could produce fuel from water in an easily stored form.
The British universities, Oxford and Cambridge included, are under siege from a system of state control that is undermining the caliber of their scholarship, says Simon Head.
It’s been a better year for God. After withering literary assaults on the Almighty from the academic Richard Dawkins and the essayist Christopher Hitchens, believers have hit back.
If you want to know what industry will power the next U.S. economy, follow the money. Where are investors really looking? And where is research and experimentation really happening?
The Mexican government has been using the army to fight the nation’s drug cartels for about four years. It isn’t working. Some critics say the army is part of the problem.
One is a gadget-maker, the other a search engine—but now Apple and Google are at odds. Robert Lane Greene reports on how each company requires a different leap of faith.
The best way to face the future and tackle diet-related problems is to arm people with knowledge and skills. The Economist compiles the year’s best dietary advice.