Have you ever attended a public talk where the moderator or speaker invited audience members to ask questions afterwards? If you have, I bet you heard someone ask a question […]
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A worldwide battle for control of the Internet looms, which could soon pit the U.S. against the rest of the world. Starting this week in Geneva, at the World Conference […]
The Christian right, both Catholics and evangelicals, wants to outlaw birth control. This isn’t a new revelation, but in the last few weeks, they’ve been saying it so often and […]
A recent proposal to remove the heads and legs of chickens may be the best thing we can do for them. If we can reduce our farmed animals to vegetables, […]
In my last post, I mentioned in passing the eugenic dimensions of tax and immigration policy. The genetic quality of the national stock is a taboo subject, and for familiar, […]
When signing up for a new service on the Internet, may people use Facebook Connect to establish their identity on the new site. Could we use physical Facebook ID cards as well?
It is one of the most debated subjects of all time: What is art? Some might think it doesn’t much matter whether or not consensus is achieved on this highly subjective […]
Despite the company’s mantra, “Don’t be evil”, a spate of privacy violations have occurred over the last two months like never before, leaving many to wonder if Google has gone bad.
Pamela Druckerman, an American journalist and author, learned some unique lessons about child rearing while living in Paris with her husband and three kids. She noticed that French children are […]
Nobody seems to really like the U.S. tax system. Conservatives complain that taxes are too high, while liberals say the system isn’t progressive enough. Both may well be right. But, […]
So what will it mean if Rick Santorum wins the Michigan primary tonight if his victory is partly due to Democrats who decided to vote for him only to prolong […]
American politics are getting more Onion-ish. People are mistaking stories from the brilliant parodic newspaper The Onion for “real” news with what seems like growing frequency. Recently, Louisiana Rep. John […]
An editorial in the scientific journal Nature argues that software used to interpret data from scientific experiments must be open source so that others can attempt to repeat the experiment.
Under certain circumstances, giving authorities the password to encrypted computer files is the same as giving testimony against yourself, which is protected by Fifth Amendment.
Yesterday I griped at length over at The Economist about Rick Santorum’s so-called “economic freedom agenda.” One point of Santorum’s ten-point plan includes tripling the tax-code subsidy for kids. I […]
The stateless media organization has released five million emails taken from the private security firm Stratfor, which carries out its own assignments and those of the Pentagon.
Given the pervasiveness of information technology, electronic attacks on Internet infrastructure can prove debilitating. The stakes are getting higher as technology advances.
Guest post from Beth Becker… Social media has always been a fast moving field. What’s new and exciting one day quickly gets tossed aside for the next shiny new toy. […]
Your personal decisions don’t make a difference, argues Gernot Wagner in a provocative new book called But Will the Planet Notice? How Smart Economics Can Save the World.
Bill Nye has always mixed science and comedy, dating back to his early career when he balanced his day job as an engineer at Boeing with his nighttime routine as […]
As I have written here before, many of us are more worried about some environmental risks than the evidence suggests we need to be – mercury, bisphenol a, nuclear […]
–Guest Post by Declan Fahy, AoE Science & Culture correspondent. There is a scene in The Iron Lady when former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is asked by her doctor […]
–Guest post by American University student Becca Stern. People are often scared of topics they do not understand, explain Matthew R. Hartings and Declan Fahy in their article “Communicating Chemistry […]
Conventional measures of economic performance, such as investment and productivity, are often skewed to favor short-term profits. Here is how capitalism can take a longer view.
How can you take soup cans seriously? Is it possible to make high art out of low brow bits from comic books? Critics and even fans of Pop Art have […]
A teacher friend of mine wrote me recently. She said that her school was working on bringing in iPads for grades six and seven next year and asked if I […]
Henry Rollins says that in these turbulent times, it’s more difficult and important than ever to live heroically.
Today I thought I would throw out a question for you to consider: Since people who are married appear to be happier and healthier than people who are single, do […]
–Guest post by Kathrina Maramba, American University graduate student. Recently, Dr. David Agus appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote his new book The End of Illness. “Why […]