After a long delay, the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) released its report on whether the Bush administration lawyers who wrote the notorious memos justifying the use […]
All Articles
As a genre, science fiction could potentially wield more influence over its followers than any other cultural force. Through film, television, and comics, it has inspired countless socially-awkward young people […]
Failing schools are everyone’s problem. In his Big Think interview this week, NYU sociologist and education reform champion Pedro Noguera provides clear, no-nonsense advice on how government, teachers’ unions, and […]
A controversial Christian “child training” practice has come under fire from other Christians who deem its processes “abusive” rather than disciplinarian.
Former vice president Dick Cheney has been hospitalised after experiencing chest pains, having previously had four heart attacks.
A Twitter typo served as inspiration for a super fast and convenient way of paying for goods online called Twitpay, invented by Alabama-based computer programmer Michael Ivey.
A regular system of 26 symbols thought to be the origins of written language crop up in stone carvings throughout the prehistoric world – now experts are trying to decipher their meaning.
The Independent’s Patrick Cockburn says the “rapid apologies” by Nato forces after the killing of Afghan civilians “show a significant political and military change in the Afghan war”.
A Texan mother was startled to find a severed snake’s head in a packet of frozen green beans while cooking for her family of four kids in Houston.
Investigation by a tenacious media organisation in Texas has exposed the shady circumstances by which the state gave away samples of hundreds of newborn babies’ blood.
An Afghan immigrant, Najibullah Zazi, 25, has pleaded guilty in a New York federal court to planning a suicide bomb attack on the city’s subway system.
Afghani Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Kabir has been “seized in Pakistan” according to American media reports which say he was picked up in the city of Nowshera.
The National Enquirer has another piece of scandalous news for its clamouring public – it hopes to win a Pulitzer Prize for its revelations about the private life of John Edwards.
The world’s coral reefs – which have been around for about 50,000 years – represent a critical treasure trove not only of Earth’s precious remaining biodiversity, but also of potential […]
In his piece in this week’s New Yorker on depression, and depression-related research, Louis Menand asks, “Is psychopharmacology evil, or is it useless?” Increasingly, skeptics say it’s the latter, and […]
Did an early mistake in Edward Hirsch’s life lead him to forge a career in poetry? “When I was eight years old my grandfather died…After he died I went down […]
“We may have democracy,” Justice Louis Brandeis once said, “or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” Justice Brandeis thought that […]
Concerns about GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s diabetes drug’s links to heart attacks have been reignited after a Senate report urged the Food and Drug Administration to make changes.
The Democrats are pulling out all the stops to entice independent voters by deploying volunteers from the Obama campaign arm known as “Organizing for America”.
A diverse range of corals harboring unusual symbiotic algae in the warm Indian Ocean suggests resilience to future global warming, Penn State researchers have found.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is calling for sweeping changes in the way food is designed and labelled to minimise children’s chances of choking after recent deaths.
The mass prescription of anti-retroviral drugs means that the global AIDS epidemic could be controlled and the disease eradicated within the next 40 years, according to predictions.
A palm-sized device inspired by a tiny purple beetle that feeds on palm leaves could one day enable humans to walk up walls in manner similar to comic book hero Spiderman.
A younger ex-con who married a wealthy octogenarian widow, in what prosecutors allege was part of a massive swindle, has drawn attention to the vulnerability of senior citizens.
The discovery of an ancient hobbit-like species is rewriting the history of the human race, with scientists believing it was the little apemen, not Homo erectus, who first left Africa.
Sudan’s government has denied reports of a secret deal with the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) which paved the way for a preliminary peace accord signed this week.
Just 24-hours after Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai warned western forces to minimise civilian casualties, a Nato air strike has killed 21 civilians including women and children.
I made a quick trip back to Orangeburg, S.C. this weekend to see my mother, whom I’ve dubbed “the Bionic Woman” because she is recuperating from her second hip replacement […]
The search among urbanites for that ideal “authentic” neighborhood, rife with rustic brownstones, a diverse, culturally robust population, artisans, galleries, vendors, mom-and-pop shops, and familiar pubs pulsating with local music, […]
Hold the front page! Hold all the front pages (well, here in Britain at least). Last week Prime Minister Gordon Brown was persuaded, against his better judgement, to reveal his […]