“Are humans continuing to evolve or has modern culture stopped evolution?” The answer affects assumptions made by public policy says Yale evolutionary biologist Stephen Stearns.
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“Americans are mixing it up a good deal more than they have in the past.” The first comprehensive sex study in 20 years says the American sexual repertoire has expanded.
I just wanted to pass a quick new news from Colombia: Nevado del Ruiz has been placed on yellow alert status (spanish) by the Colombian survey, INGEOMINAS. The reports (spanish) describe increased […]
Biologist Robert G. Edwards has won the Nobel Prize for his work on in vitro fertilization. Edwards and his late colleague, gynecologist Patrick Steptoe, helped an infertile woman give birth […]
At the Washington Post on Sunday, columnist Dana Milbank published an excerpt from his forthcoming book on Glenn Beck, tracking the commentator’s reinvention of history and his strategic use of […]
There has been a wave of articles over the last few weeks out on the geoblogosphere on columnar jointing in lavas – with many, many great images of columns seen […]
If you are planning on holding a large political rally in Washington, and you want to do it right, you really need to buy a TV network first, so you […]
At The New Yorker this week, Ryan Lizza provides an account of why the Senate cap and trade legislation failed, told mostly from the perspective of staffers working for Senate […]
“Fiction has helped humanity survive. Even though science can explain the need of fiction, it cannot replace it.”
“Don’t trade your passion, originality, and curiosity for some second-hand notion of success.” William Deresiewicz urges freshmen not to play it safe.rn
“Through science and technology, we are getting better at bringing cosmic quantities to the human scale.” “The everyday is slowly but surely inching towards the cosmic.”
It’s possible to see procrastination as the quintessential modern problem. It’s also a surprisingly costly one. Some of us lose money and risk blindness because of it.rn
The real cost of cheap pineapples in the UK is carried by Costa Rica, where sprays and pesticides eliminates biodiversity and endanger public health.
Nate Anderson looks at the “legal blackmail” business, a pornographer who decided to take revenge on pirates and the backlash and legal changes it provoked.
“If Obama wants to save his presidency, he may have to do it the old-fashioned way: not by transcending his party’s divisions, but uniting his supporters around their common fears.” rn
“As morality merges with management, a servile readiness to fit thought and conduct to what is politically correct becomes the passport for continuing dependence on…an intrusive state.”
Angry Birds is a chuckle-inspiring game about wingless birds who have been wronged by a gang of pigs. Virginia Heffernan explains how she loves it but also now hates everything.
Can teachers do much to remedy poor academic performance that is due to low IQ, poor health, peer-group pressures, a bad family environment, or the effects of popular culture?
Last month, design and innovation firm fuseproject introduced WattStation — a revolutionary electric vehicle charging station for public spaces, developed in partnership with GE. Leveraging the technology and its critical […]
An companion piece to Indian novelist Pankaj Mishra’s elegant Times Op-Ed on India is Isaac Chotiner’s essay in the Times Book Review on (literary magazine)Granta’s Pakistan Issue. Chotiner references Pakistani […]
Does the current drinking age (21) contribute to dangerous outcomes related to both binge drinking and unplanned, unsafe sex?
“The strained economy shouldn’t keep the nation from crafting school improvements, but Obama’s pitch for longer school years is unhelpful right now.”
“As the top tax rate rises and falls, so do tax avoidance techniques—both legal and illegal. Changes in reported income, therefore, might not reflect changes in actual income.”
“How do drones change the nations that use them?” Does America need to consider the morality of increasing use of unmanned drone attacks into Pakistan?
“When Hunter S. Thompson applied for a job at the Vancouver Sun in 1958, the famously wild and inventive author wrote a cover letter that broke all the rules.”
“If there’s one epithet the right never tires of, it’s ‘elitism.’ So what do Republicans mean by this French word?” Slate reviews the history of a modern political scare word.
The New Republic explains why Palestine is unlikely to renounce violence as a political tool, give up on current negotiations or demand the right to vote in Israel.
“Malcolm Gladwell is wrong about the poor revolutionary power of social networking, as the tweeters in Kashmir show.” The Guardian responds to The New Yorker’s critique of Twitter.
“It turns out that the enemies of free expression are adept at the Internet, too.” The Wall Street Journal reports on totalitarian regimes that restrict cyber-freedom.
“For decades, antipsychotic drugs were a niche product. Today, they’re the top-selling class of pharmaceuticals in America.” Duff Wilson on the shadowy underworld of big pharma.