“The strained economy shouldn’t keep the nation from crafting school improvements, but Obama’s pitch for longer school years is unhelpful right now.”
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“As the top tax rate rises and falls, so do tax avoidance techniques—both legal and illegal. Changes in reported income, therefore, might not reflect changes in actual income.”
“How do drones change the nations that use them?” Does America need to consider the morality of increasing use of unmanned drone attacks into Pakistan?
“When Hunter S. Thompson applied for a job at the Vancouver Sun in 1958, the famously wild and inventive author wrote a cover letter that broke all the rules.”
“If there’s one epithet the right never tires of, it’s ‘elitism.’ So what do Republicans mean by this French word?” Slate reviews the history of a modern political scare word.
The New Republic explains why Palestine is unlikely to renounce violence as a political tool, give up on current negotiations or demand the right to vote in Israel.
“Malcolm Gladwell is wrong about the poor revolutionary power of social networking, as the tweeters in Kashmir show.” The Guardian responds to The New Yorker’s critique of Twitter.
“It turns out that the enemies of free expression are adept at the Internet, too.” The Wall Street Journal reports on totalitarian regimes that restrict cyber-freedom.
“For decades, antipsychotic drugs were a niche product. Today, they’re the top-selling class of pharmaceuticals in America.” Duff Wilson on the shadowy underworld of big pharma.
“The chief executive of Microsoft is going to the U.K. to explain the multi-billion dollar bet that the world’s biggest software company and a poster boy for corporate America is making.”
It’s sad to watch someone drift over to the dark side. I’m not talking about Anakin Skywalker. I’m talking about renowned Guardian art blogger extraordinaire Jonathan Jones. I don’t know […]
When I first launched my blog in March, you may remember me writing about a blog post entitled “IMAX Hubble 3D & The James Webb Space Telescope.” The new telescope […]
I got an email yesterday from Pubit!, a new service that will allow writers to publish their own ebooks and offer them for sale on Barnes & Noble’s website, announcing […]
Ed Balls may not have been elected Labour leader, but over the past few months he has certainly emerged from under Gordon Brown’s wing. Tribalistic, pugilistic, Balls is something the […]
CNN anchor Rick Sanchez was fired after letting loose an anti-semitic tirade against Jews in the media in general, and Daily Show host Jon Stewart in particular. Here’s a transcript […]
At The Guardian site, Martin Robbins has nailed everything that’s wrong with science news on “general interest” websites in this pitch-perfect parody. It gets at the heart of the uneasy […]
“Now that gold has crossed the magic $1,000 barrier, why can’t it increase ten-fold?” Harvard Economics professor Kenneth Rogoff on the world’s most unpredictable precious metal.
“Instead of the vast expanses of leisure time imagined by science fiction writers, we now get one hour less sleep per night than our parents’ generation did.”
“When Mao Tse-Tung launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966, one of the principal targets of attack were intellectuals whose death warrants were signed by fellow intellectuals in the West.”
“What is it about the presumptuous use of ‘we’ that inspires so much outrage, facetious or otherwise?” Ben Zimmer on the contentious use of the plural subject pronoun.
“The letters reveal that the discovery of the double helix could have turned out differently if the characters involved had a little more information.”
“China is pouring another $7 billion into Brazil’s oil industry, reigniting fears of a global ‘land grab’ of natural resources.” The Independent on a rising China’s geopolitical strategies.
“Amish values of hard work, humility, loyalty, and community make for surprisingly—or maybe not-so-surprisingly—successful entrepreneurs.”
“Part of our current malaise is sheer fatigue with the old forms of politics. Can the Comedy Central duo break the mold?” The Guardian on Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.
“‘The average American doesn’t realize how much of the laws are written by lobbyists’ to protect incumbent interests, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Atlantic editor James Bennet.”
An idea proposed by the Third Way, that government issue an itemized taxpayer receipt, has the support of many commentators who want to know what their tax dollars are used for.
When Maurizio Cattelan unveiled his 30-foot-high sculpture titled L.O.V.E. in front of the Milan Stock Exchange recently, many people were wondering exactly where the love was. The massive hand with […]
Last night I appeared on a panel here at AU with the editors and contributors to the bold new book “The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice.” The goal of the book […]
Since its invention in 1859, the escalator has been the most widely used mode of non-vehicle urban transpiration, ubiquitous everywhere from airports to shopping malls to subways. It is estimated […]
Yesterday, Ezra Klein flagged an excellent idea from progressive think tank The Third Way: why don’t we give taxpayers a receipt for their taxes? As The Third Way’s David Kendall […]