News that the Dalai Lama may retire in the next year is to be welcomed by all those sick of flattery and new age-type nonsense. The New Statesman goes on a diatribe.
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Richard Thaler of the U of Chicago catalogs wrong scientific beliefs that were held for long periods of time, the flat earth and geocentric world among them.
Two years after the onset of the financial crisis, the stock market is recovering and Wall Street’s moneyed elite are spending again, sometimes with a familiar swagger.
A single pill could reduce your risk of HIV infection dramatically, but are you willing to spend $12,000 a year and risk headaches and nausea just to stay HIV-negative?
Is Hawking right to claim that reality is dependent on the model used to describe it, that models generated by biochemical processes in our brains constitute “reality”?
Our national myth of the heroic entrepreneur is dangerous, says Esther Dyson. Encouraging everyone to strike out on their own robs industry of effective middle management.
Among the scientific concepts involved in cooking a turkey, controlling moisture is perhaps the biggest challenge, said John Marcy, a poultry-processing specialist at the U of Arkansas.
Will Saletan of Slate has made a career of suggesting ways that women can compromise their bodily autonomy for the greater good. So, maybe I should take his latest column […]
Traumatic brain injury increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease—a problem that could affect thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Technology already allows for primitive versions of superhuman abilities. One day we might also have contact lenses that allow us to surf the Internet and see infrared radiation.
The scholar and performer gives the new movie “Burlesque” two thumbs down for claiming to portray “original” burlesque while ignoring the art form’s history and vocabulary.
Indonesian Update for 11/23/2010: Bromo at highest alert, Merapi still erupting, Krakatau from space
Well, yesterday I needed a day off – Thanksgiving Break had just begun here and my brain was not ready for any productivity, so now I have a little catching […]
Aside from the almost comically anatomically incorrect shark, the aspect of John Singleton Copley’s 1778 painting Watson and the Sharkthat most catches my eye is the black seaman standing in […]
At birth, children’s brains are prepared to learn from social agents—other members in a group. New research suggests this “social brain” helps a person learn over a lifetime.
Tough problems often demand radical solutions. We should give serious consideration to providing free college and trade school education to all, says Dr. C. Alonzo Peters.
Authenticity is an imprecise, continual assessment, prone to personal bias and human error—not exactly something to build a whole musical movement upon.
The humanities will continue, even if the discussion is between a carbon based intelligence and a silicon or virtual one. Curtis Carbonell says science doesn’t put the humanities at risk.
In the next phase of the world economic crisis, the euro will either consolidate or collapse. And with it, Europe faces the looming prospect of social unrest, says the New Statesman.
Chinese dairy farming is a growing source of greenhouse gas, but a massive biogas facility in the northeast will turn manure from farms into electricity and fertilizer.
From the standpoint of innovation, entrepreneurs may be changing the way they are thinking—they are becoming less ambitious, says Sean Parker, creator of Napster and Facebook.
Certain groups of people, such as gamblers, smokers and the obese are portrayed a drain on the economy, but Forbes’ Tim Parker says they are a bottomless money pit.
The Web is critical not merely to the digital revolution but to our continued prosperity—and even our liberty. Like democracy itself, it needs defending.
A growing body of research suggests that maintaining an attitude of gratitude can improve psychological, emotional and physical well-being. That’s something to give thanks for.
Or, could Call of Duty: Black Ops take precedence on syllabi over The Illiad? This question has fresh relevance when considering Charlie Crist’s current dilemma: to pardon, or not, the […]
Pilots who shun full body scans are exempt from the TSA’s new “enhanced” body searches. Flight attendants are not. Their respective unions complained about the searches, but only pilots got […]
If we want to keep our strong military and provide health care for the elderly, we’re going to have to make sacrifices. It’s the responsible, patriotic thing to do.
The science community needs to partner with expert organizations in creating a new communication infrastructure about climate change that isn’t centered on scientific-information or the communication of risks.
Asymmetric information creates a moral hazard problem if one party in a transaction cannot observe the (possibly bad) behaviour of the other party. It was moral hazard that caused the […]
Unsurprisingly perhaps there have been more than a few eyebrows raised in British political circles at the decision by an apparently cash strapped UK Government to loan the even more […]
While there is little doubt that regulatory failure played an important role in the recent economic crisis, the solution should not be to walk away and leave systemic risk in place.