Was the development of computing the most significant technological advance of the twentieth century? The Economist hosts an online forum for debate.
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“Some of the boldest eco-warriors are those with the most to lose—our children.” The Independent says pester power can get parents to go green.
“Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong.” The Atlantic investigates the veracity of medical science.
A study from the U.K. says that while heroin causes the user harm, the adverse effects of alcohol on the wider community are significantly greater.
It’s actually pretty simple to get a severed mooshead delivered to your bed, Godfather style. Step One—raise money only from rich donors and foreign corporations to back GOP candidates you […]
We have all sat through the laborious exercise of having a family picture taken. The end result of the chaos is typical across almost all families: a happy picture showing two gray […]
Theodore C. Sorensen, the special counsel to President John F. Kennedy who wrote the president’s speeches and helped shape his policy, has died, according to an obituary in the New […]
I recently wrote of the bear pit into which habitual ‘Twitterers’ can fall, and today the British newspapers are full of writer and broadcaster, Stephen Fry’s Twitter comments about women […]
Let us now praise Doonesbury, a body of work and a work of art that could be compared to the Bayeux Tapestry, and which also has been compared, in the […]
“I don’t know why the telephone, the analog landline telephone, was never formally mourned.” Virginia Heffernan remembers when phones actually worked.
“It’s easy to decide to change, but harder to make that change feel normal.” Trent Hamm gives tips on how to turn good intentions into new good habits.
It’s time we accept that Halloween isn’t dangerous, says Lenore Skenazy at The Wall Street Journal. While we’re at it, we should give children their childhoods back.
While the U.K. will not prosecute Google for privacy violations, its legislature is considering whether the Internet should be more tightly regulated.
“China may not matter quite as much as you think.” The Economist says that while China is becoming the world’s biggest market, it cannot replace the world market.
“The U.S. has plenty of the metals that are critical to many green-energy technologies, but engineering and R&D expertise have moved overseas.”
“When did Halloween become, to use the marketing phrase of the moment, spooktacular?” The New Yorker’s Susan Orlean reflects on simpler Halloweens of yesteryear.
“Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are entering uncharted territory by seeming to elevate ironic detachment to the level of a political manifesto with their rally in Washington.”
If NASA is to fly space colonization missions, it may need volunteers for one-way missions to Mars or beyond. However, the 100-year Starship project remains shrouded.
After taking her notepad and pen into Boston bars, Harvard historian Jill Lepore is ready to level a charge at the Tea Party: abuse of history.
Good news if you happen to be a corporation: corporate profits went up 62% from the beginning of 2009 to the middle of 2010. That’s a larger increase than over […]
Given that machines will continue to proliferate in our environment, it behooves us to begin to develop friendly relationships with them.
In a nation of over 300 million people, you would think that ABC could find someone else besides Andrew Breitbart to analyze election results. Who are they going to feature […]
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 […]
“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.