The dispute between America’s proposed deficit spending and Germany’s belt-tightening grows larger as the nations meet at the G-20 summit. The world’s economy could be at stake.
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A new technique for transferring data across fiber-optic lines could increase the speed of the Internet by 100 times because information need never be converted into electrical signals.
“More women are going kid-free by choice, thanks to more accessible and better contraception and a decrease in social stigma related to non-motherhood.” Salon looks at motherhood data.
Environmental friendliness is an added bonus for consumers looking to save money by purchasing cars with smaller engines. American car companies are looking to Europe, says Wired.
By examining the brain patterns of people who demonstrate courage in the face of fear, scientists are hoping to find a way to rid people of their most irrational phobias.
Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, imagines a national clean-energy grid in the near future. Scientific American conducts an in-depth interview.
“A civilised dialogue between the arts and sciences would be a marvellous thing, a takeover would not.” The Telegraph laments the rise of Darwinian analysis in the humanities.
The G-8 should treat African development like an investment rather than a charity case, says the Christian Science Monitor. It may be an opportunity the industrialized world cannot afford to pass up.
David Brooks at the New York Times says the exposure journalism that ousted McCrystal does a disservice to everyone by creating mistrust between the government and the press.
One of the eerier themes in psychology papers is the extreme susceptibility of people’s thoughts and acts to incidental details in their surroundings. For instance, this paper from a recent […]
My friend and former colleague Dave Weigel resigned from the Washington Post after someone leaked emails he sent to a private listserv. Until today, Weigel wrote a popular and well-respected […]
Yesterday, Congress overwhelmingly—in the Senate, the vote was 99-0—approved new sanctions against Iran intended to punish the country for its pursuit of nuclear weapons in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation […]
Is Alvin Greene the kryptonite the Democrats needed for Jim DeMint all along? Has DeMint become allergic to the bombastic press conferences he used to conduct once or twice a […]
George Packer’s review of Peter Beinart’s book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris, is itself an elegant analysis of American history. Packer highlights some of choices our leaders […]
By mid-century there will likely be 9 billion people on the planet, consuming ever more resources and leading ever more technologically complex lives.
Captain Mike Ellis of Venice, Louisana describes how BP is incinerating endangered sea turtles in its attempt to burn off spilled oil floating in the Gulf of Mexico near the […]
China’s currency, the renminbi, closed Friday at its strongest level against the US dollar since China revamped its currency policies in 2005, The New York Times reported. This development comes […]
A new partnership between design hotshop IDEO and furniture-maker Steelcase aims to address one of the biggest design challenges of traditional classrooms – the static, linear and restrictive nature of […]
If I want you to give time or money to my cause, I’ll say your sacrifice is for “people just like you, just like me,” for “communities like yours, all […]
Back in the summer of 2002, I tried unsuccessfully to be selected as the Labour Party candidate for the South Wales constituency of Ogmore, named after the former mining valley […]
“For me, the lesson…is that obstacles can also be advantages, that who we become is deeply influenced by what we cannot do” — Jonah Lehrer on stuttering and Tourette’s.
“Next time you visit a car dealership, avoid sitting in soft chairs and you’ll negotiate a better deal.” Psychology Today on the unconscious impact of texture, hardness and weight.
“I realized they were this…enormous force of nature…who determined how the West opened.” Author S.C. Gwynne’s on what inspired his new book.rn
The L. A. Times says plastic bags are a nuisance to the land, sea and animals and calls for the Californian Senate to stand up now to the bag industry and ban them.
Spiegel considers if the rush to uncover Europe’s most pious Muslims can be explained solely by a new-found desire to protect the rights of women.
The New York Review of Books considers claims that Americans do not read enough foreign fiction and examines the cost of this alleged, “culturally catastrophic American isolationism.”
Sarah Jessica Parker’s Manolo Blahniks are out and Grandma Walton’s sensible apron is in in The Economist’s depiction of the world in the aftermath of the age of easy credit.
When you celebrate yourself online, are you part of a brave new social future, or are you just being an ass? Evan Ratliff, in Wired, says it’s the former, if you strike a balance.
Science journal Nature defends the World Health Organization’s handling of the H1N1 pandemic, amid a European council’s claims of unjustified fears and wasted spending.
“The greatness of Australia was on display…when a migrant woman became the nation’s 27th prime minister”, The Australian newspaper writes of new leader Julia Gillard.