Is the effort extended to identify the problem matched by the effort to solve that problem? How many times have you seen an institution devote extraordinary efforts to identify a […]
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Shakespeare’s Caius Martius Coriolanus isn’t really suited to politics, but his family and friends urge him on, and so he makes a game effort at putting up with the smelly […]
The introduction of tablets to the kindergarten crowd sounds like a phenomenal opportunity to assert the leading role of American innovation.
Mitt Romney dug himself a deep hole this week when Mother Jones released a secretly recorded video of him speaking to a group of millionaires and complaining that 47 percent […]
“What are you thinking?” is a booby-trapped marriage question. I know this, but I can’t always resist its shiny lure. My husband John and I were on a long […]
“Americans censure nepotism on the one hand and practice it as much as they can on the other.” –Adam Bellow (the son of Saul Bellow)
As scientists attempt to tell the story of the last 120,000 years of human history, patterns emerge that more clearly connect the movement of humans across the continents to changes in climate.
While much of the news about ice melts has come from the Arctic, a study published this week describes interior “ice streams” and their effect on the integrity of the Antarctic ice sheet.
A recently-published study documents scientists’ use of carbon-based molecules, ice, and lasers to duplicate one theory of how life may have evolved on Earth.
A NASA scientist reveals at a recent symposium that he and his team have taken the first tiny steps towards making faster-than-light speed — generally seen as necessary for interstellar travel — a reality.
Photos released from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) represent the first step in a project that will help astronomers better understand the makeup of the universe and the causes behind its rapid expansion.
My latest column has just been posted on AlterNet, Right-Wing Religions of the World Unite to Oppress Women and Gays More Ruthlessly. In it, I write about the strange phenomenon […]
Are you planning for this week or this year? Are you planning for this year or next year? If you are meeting the needs of students today but not keeping […]
“[I]t was here that I found a scene that did not exist elsewhere. I suppose I was like a child in a sweet shop. The California beach was like heaven,” […]
Cureeo, a woman-led startup, aims to fill a gap by providing a site that saves artists time on sales and marketing and saves collectors time on searching for new works.
Despite appearances I have not forgotten about Waq al-waq, and while I’ll spare you the usual and tired excuses for my lack of posts I will direct you to the […]
A summer promotion by Sony and Amazon offering e-books at drastically reduced prices has been extended after new data, announced today, indicates a dramatic rise in e-book sales.
The Internet Archive, which has amassed 16 years’ worth of Web page data, now offers a free searchable database containing every news program produced in the last 3 years by a range of outlets.
Willpower is a limited resource easily drained by everyday activity.
A visionary developer wants to go beyond Google Translate to make the Internet available to anyone, at any time, in any language.
Brain-to-brain communication would involve not just the exchange of information, but also the transmission of emotions and feelings, “because these are also part of the fabric of our thoughts.”
The island is working with the people behind Wikipedia to provide tourists with paperless access to its culture and history.
Many of our most astute social critics, such as the Harvard progressive communitaran Michael Sandel, have warned us about recent trends that have allowed the pro-choice, “cash nexus” logic of […]
A proposal by the European Commission would allow American winemakers to use “château” on their labels, which French winemakers claim would diminish the original meaning and value of the word.
In an attempt to improve its credibility and reduce corruption, the Indian government has introducing huge reforms making it easier for foreign big-box stores and other companies to invest in and help grow the economy.
A Republican-backed bill will replace the diversity visa lottery, which offers visas to people from countries with low immigration rates to the US, with a program that focuses exclusively on people with advanced STEM degrees.
As you’ve no doubt already heard, American embassies throughout the Middle East have been attacked by violent mobs in the last few days, ostensibly due to outrage over a YouTube […]
The Russian government has revealed the existence of a field containing enough diamonds to turn the country into a much greater player in the gem industry.
The best way to conduct interviews — or any kind of research, for that matter — is to not try to make yourself look smart. Rather, asking a “good dumb question” is an approach that will often yield the best results.
Perhaps the one unavoidable fact all museums must face is the reality of limited space. Who stays? Who goes? Most importantly, who makes those decisions? In Germany, these questions have […]