The Czech dissident Jan Prochazka was spied upon for years by the Communist government in Prague, but he didn’t let this inhibit his conversation. He spoke to his friends as […]
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Mind, soul, personality: whatever you call it, most people agree that their memories, thoughts, and perceptions reside in the brain. Yet for all its importance, the brain has been notoriously difficult […]
When a sick kid is too young to speak, doctors naturally ask a parent or other caretaker how much it hurts. Only half of the answer, according to this study […]
Despite heavy news and advertising attention, and the Obama Administration’s attempts to grow the market for fuel efficient cars through major tax breaks, sales of small-size cars were flat in […]
Richard Dawkins on his lifelong love of the King James Bible, which will be 400 years old next year: “Everyday speech is laced with biblical phrases from quotation to cliché.”
Nichi Vendola is one of the country’s most popular politicians, social-networking confident, adored by the young and might lead a leftish coalition in the next general election.
Close to 90 percent of U.S. households still subscribe to pay TV in one form or another but 2011 may be the year of “cord cutting” and the end of cable television.
Once a company has 500 shareholders, it must register its private shares with the S.E.C. and publicly disclose its financial results. Is Facebook approaching the limit?
Multiculturalist thinkers frequently dismiss liberal moral principles such as freedom and tolerance as illusions, or as not being good enough, says Frank Furedi.
Can the leak phenonomen WikiLeaks sustain the continued assault by the corporate sector to prevail in the first ever cyber-war? Mark LeVine says capital will likely win out.
Google will use satellites to scour Sudan for evidence of state-organised violence before next month’s referendum that could see the country split in two.
The America Competes Act, passed by Congress shortly before Christmas, calls for $46 billion in science and technology research funding over the next three years.
Genetically modified plants could sequester more carbon and make better biofuels, possibly offsetting five billion tons by 2050. So what’s standing in their way?
A British study shows conservatives’ brains tend to have larger amygdalas, which are responsible for more primitive emotions such as fear.
The state of the art of art in the United States and beyond in 2010 reflected the larger unrest of the world itself. I originally wanted to compartmentalize things into […]
Raising money from people who are passionate about a particular cause is easy, but how do you convince those who have no connection to an issue to give their time and money?
Former Shell Oil president John Hoffmeister has been gaining considerable news attention this week for his warning that gas prices might reach $5 a gallon by the 2012 election. His […]
Most hot ideas and discoveries fade with time. But some scientific papers are genuine breakthroughs, whose importance only increases as the decades pass. This one, published in Science last week, […]
Niko Bell says that finding a man is not as easy for Chinese women as we might think.
Katrin Bennhold of the New York Times has a heartwarming piece for anyone planning a New Year’s Eve hookup. According to Bennhold’s friends, consenting to any sex with a dude […]
Pre-industrial societies with polygyny as the dominant marriage institution consume less alcohol than those with monogamy.
So my “True Grit” post got a lot of response (unfortunately not below) on Facebook and by email and all that–mostly critical. One particularly astute critic–Ken Masugi–accused me of being in […]
Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, and his prime minister, Vladimir Putin, apparently cannot agree on which of them will be running for the Russian presidency in March 2012.
The now-prevalent pattern of flag-rank military officers going to work for defense contractors as soon as they retire is a form of corruption, says James Fallows at The Atlantic.
The U.S.’s failure under Barack Obama to impose peace between Israel and the Palestinians makes a new war likely, says Le Monde’s Alain Gresh.
Harvard scientist Jeff Lichtman wants to build a full map of the mind by carving off slivers of a mouse brain and passing the portions through a powerful electron microscope.
The Valkyrie, slated to become the world’s first nuclear powered bomber, was a plane decades ahead of its time, pushing aeronautical engineering beyond what had been thought possible.
The Economist has invited four career economists to predict what changes will take place in the global economy during the following year. Deficit reduction is one possibility.
What is wrong with Broadway? A record number of shows are closing, with producers millions in the hole. The answer is: nothing we didn’t already know.
Maybe age really is just a number. How young or old someone feels has a huge influence on their health and how other people view them—if you feel young, you are young.