Have the environmental benefits of energy efficiency have been oversold? Paradoxically, there could even be more emissions as a result of some improvements in energy efficiency.
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A showdown over the course of Solar System exploration has ended with a qualified victory for Mars. NASA firmly favours a mission to Mars over a rival one to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
The best portraits look as if the subject could step right out of the frame and walk among us, maybe even sign an autograph or two. Recently, something like that […]
The Internet, the European Union, and the Olympics are all signs that, within the next 100 years, mankind will forge a truly planetary civilization.
This diagram—not technically a map, but strange all the same—shows the relationship between European countries and the supranational institutions like the EU that govern their interactions.
Google the words ‘baby’ and “owned” and you’ll find a curious phenomenon: many people have put up vids of infants and toddlers getting conked, clobbered, whacked and tripped.
When the Chief Executive of Barclays Bank, Bob Diamond made his appearance in front of a House of Commons Select Committee recently, he said that “the time for remorse was […]
Activity along the newly-formed rift that opened between Napau and Pu`u O`o craters this weekend continues to be active. It isn’t in constant eruption, but it does cycle through periods […]
In the near future, foreign language students will interact online with other students around the globe, creating communities for exchanging language skills.
This drone-like computer virus, radically different and far more sophisticated than others seen before, appears to have attacked Iran’s nuclear program. Its source remains a mystery.
New research suggests that anger makes us more likely to consider a different point of view. So welcome that angry individual playing the role of devil’s advocate at your next meeting.
Wondering how Apple might fare without Steve Jobs? Kevin Kelleher says to look at another hugely successful American company that decades ago lost its iconic CEO — Walt Disney Co.
Planetary geologists appear to have found water on Mars near the equator, where the red planet is milder and more hospitable. This may be key to us being able to go there.
Web visitor tracking and ad tailoring is about to undergo a big shake-up. From 25 May, European law will require explicit consent for users to be tracked via cookies.
Michael Esposito takes the TV ad industry to task over the recent flurry of silly or mocking commercials depicting a world “where a subspecies of addlebrained humans thrives.”
British engineers have warned that the UK may be dangerously over-reliant on satellite-navigation signals, with little or no back-up and risk of cascade failures.
Elizabeth Bernstein on how to avoid the accidental reply all. After almost two decades of constant email use, why aren’t we all too tech-savvy for this mortifying mistake?
Scientists are slowly unraveling the marvels and potential of silk, which is a liquid inside the organism so exquisitely producing it yet becomes a solid upon leaving it.
It is the sense that pervasive corruption must end — more than poverty and unemployment and low wages — which is at the heart of the complaints by protesters in the Arab world.
Hillary Clinton, of all people, made my day last week when she said the news in the United States consists of “…a million commercials and, you know, arguments between talking […]
The Web of the immediate future is one that is increasingly visual, empathetic and design-centric. If it had a gender, it would be female.
Benjamin Dueholm has a cover story in the Washington Monthly assessing sex advice columnist Dan Savage as an ethicist: Savage yields to no one in his sexual libertarianism, but he […]
The Hybrid Reality Institute recently announced Data, a robot actor and celebrity, has joined the Institute as a Fellow, making it the highest ranking non-human entity to join a think tank.
Impaired judgement aside, I bet a lot of men would like to know exactly how much they have to pay to sufficiently obligate their dates to have sex with them.
UPDATE: Contest Deadline is Friday, March 11th at 8 a.m. EST and the Five Winners will be Announced Next Week – Stay Tuned! Imagine, if you can, the world in the […]
The economist and former World Bank analyst explains how disastrous his former employer’s policies have been for the developing world, amounting to “a punch in the face” for the poor.
Seemingly every year there are new reports that something we consume or use on a daily basis is carcinogenic. But what exactly does that mean on a biological level?
I will talk about the work of each of the speakers below over the next few weeks. But it should be clear enough that this conference will explore most of […]
The new fissure eruption on Kilauea is going strong – the fissure has been erupting(video) over the last two days, sometimes producing fountains as high as 25 meters, but usually […]
Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek argues that what Israel needs is not segregation, but unity and free contact between its peoples.