This is inimitable Harper’s: contrasting the unbearable lightness of a medium (in this case, chat) with the often sublime depth of its subject (here, terror). One of the June issue’s […]
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As the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico enters its third month, a variety of efforts to stop the flow of oil have come and gone, all inspiring governments […]
Solar Impulse, a Swiss venture launched by explorer/innovator/engineer/psychologist/businessmen Betrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, is shooting beyond the moon and aiming for the sun. Their mission: build a solar aircraft that […]
“In fact, it is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. Some say that the only thing that quantum theory has […]
“I prefer fiction because in fiction I do whatever I want,” says Chilean-American author Isabel Allende, who has published 18 books of fiction, non-fiction and memoirs over the past three […]
“Why do males of some species attend to their offspring prolongedly, while others tend to spring off post-coitally?” asks Natalie Angier. The answer may relate to the varying social role of infants.
It is an event with which I am slightly ashamed—and even the excuse that it happened over twenty years ago and that I was only a bit player does not […]
“The poor need not always be with us. That goal can be achieved if we ensure that workers are paid enough to feed their families,” says The L.A. Times, whose city has pioneered legislation on the living wage.
Charles Krauthammer disputes the Obama administration’s claims that Iran is more isolated in the world. Russia, China, Brazil and Turkey have all sought to assist Iran with its energy ambitions.
“Researchers determined that the lunar water likely originated early in the moon’s formation history, suggesting that it is, in fact, native to the moon,” reports the Christian Science Monitor.
Although this week is Homeopathy Awareness Week, Edzard Ernst at The Guardian finds the medical practice more threatened than ever as scientific establishments attack its medicinal claims.
By all officials estimates, the Earth’s population is scheduled to grow rapidly during the coming decades, but this long-term problem ill-suits short term political careers, says The Independent.
Skeptic Michael Shermer thinks we deceive ourselves because “we did not evolve a baloney-detection device in our brains to discriminate between true and false patterns.”
Contrary to popular belief, high crop yields created by industrialized farming have greatly slowed global warming by preventing deforestation for new farmland, says a new study from the Carnegie Institution.
“Fossilized corals and lasers beamed at a receding moon have revealed that over the ages the length of time it takes Earth to spin once on its axis has increased significantly.”
More legislative oversight is needed to control the unofficial expansion of the U.S. forensic DNA database to ensure that innocent citizens are not unfairly implicated in crimes, says Slate.com.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation today released over two thousand pages of its files on former U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, who died last year after a battle with brain cancer. […]
Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly has served as a style icon for decades, but the subtle complexities of Truman Capote’s heroine are less discussed. Today’s Times review of Sam Wasson’s new […]
Toddlers in tiaras are so passe. Poodle pageants are this season’s hot new reality phenom. Extreme Poodles premiered on TLC yesterday. This is no ordinary dog show. We’re talking poodle […]
Against-the-grain linguist Guy Deutscher thinks that language isn’t completely a product of nature, but that it influences how we perceive the world and, in turn, how we express it.
“A Japanese space probe has landed in the Australian outback after a seven-year voyage to an asteroid, safely returning a capsule containing a unique sample of dust,” says Reuters.
“The bad news for Dad is that despite common perception, there’s nothing objectively essential about his contribution,” says Pamela Paul at the Atlantic. “The good news is, we’ve gotten used to him.”
“Today, black nonmarital births have soared to more than 72 percent among non-Hispanic blacks, compared with about 28 percent for whites,” laments Clarence Page at the Chicago Tribune.
“There are signs that technologists are waking up to the benefits of minimalism,” says The Economist amidst a technology culture that values as many new features as possible.
Astronomer Chris Impey surveys the possible causes of earth’s extinction. Whether it come from an asteroid or the sun’s implosion, the rock we live on is by no means an eternal home.
Should a new term be introduced to define a class of foods of higher quality than “organic”? Some growers say “authentic food” would eliminate undue corporate influence over food production.
In between the extremes of being a slave to your whims and trying to master every emotion, there must be a middle road. Psychology Today talks of a “probabilistic approach” to expressing emotion.
Buying a home could prove an economic disadvantage now that mobility is necessary to find new opportunities, but moving is an emotionally trying event, says Caitlin Kelly at True/Slant.
Scientology’s religious order, Sea Organization, has been accused by its female members of forcing them to have abortions, the reason being that children make the women unproductive.
Lead paint has been banned in the states since 1978, but if you’re like me, you still wonder about the paint debris you inhale in your home, in your office, […]