Orion Jones

In about five billion years, scientists estimate, the Earth will be engulfed and burned up in the expanding radius of the Sun as it evolves into its slightly cooler but much larger phase.

In the last four months, three large spacecraft have fallen to Earth, including a Russian probe loaded with toxic fuel. As low-Earth atmosphere gets more crowded, who is looking out for us?

Future missions to space should concentrate on eliminating threats to Earth, expanding civilization beyond our planet and harvesting extraterrestrial energy resources. 

A rise in temperature of a few degrees could benefit colder regions by lengthening farming seasons, introducing new crops and changing immigration patters. It’s a big ‘could’.

The largest solar storm since 2005 has engulfed the Earth, surrounding it in solar radiation capable of disrupting satellite communication. This time, however, the Earth seems to have lucked out.

Thanks to 3D printers, digital Internet files will soon take on a new direction. They will include design specifications for 3D objects ranging from a pair of sneakers to a new car.

What kind of insurance does a self-driving car need? Can a police officer pull one over? While technological challenges to the new autos are being overcome, legal ones remain far from resolved.

The court unanimously ruled that police officers who attached a GPS tracking device to a car without a warrant acted unconstitutionally. The case may set precedent for digital privacy.

Besides the entertainment companies that rely on pirating statistics to advertise, illegal downloading can only be curbed by sensible legal alternatives that make files more accessible.

Many of the physical spaces occupied by our institutions—office buildings, universities, shopping malls—are nothing more than low-bandwidth information transfer. Say goodbye to them.

The crisis of liberal capitalism has been made more serious by the rise of a potent alternative: state capitalism, which tries to meld the powers of the state with the powers of capitalism.

Under an agreement negotiated today, all 27 European Union countries will sign no new oil contracts with Iran and stop importing all Iranian oil by July 1. How will Iran respond?

Islamic parties have won large majorities in the governments of Tunisia and Egypt although the revolutions of the Arab Spring were considered largely secular. How will the US react?

The United States, frequently backed by Britain, has consistently waged war against democracy at home and abroad. That war, practically never spoken of, continues today.

Deficit reduction in a depressed economy is the road not to recovery, but to contraction, says British political economist Robert Skidelsky. He argues that current efforts to repay debt are misguided.

New research shows that children understand the difference between a positive and negative outlook at an early age. Parents and teachers should model a sunny disposition.

Nothing keeps the mind healthy like an education, say psychologists. And contrary to past belief, recent research shows that new neural connections can be built well into middle age.

Or at least that’s what men seem to think. An economic survey shows how rates of personal debt increase in areas where men outnumber women, making the competition for a mate more fierce.

“The only constant is change, continuing change, inevitable change: that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not […]

I noted the moment when sales of Amazon’s Kindle outpaced the site’s hardcover sales. Now, only a short time later, two new significant events signal the end of book publishing […]

The specter of $10 is lurking in the corners of the startup industry. The figure is common to two aspects of the website business. As I wrote about earlier, blog […]

Building on yesterday’s post, today I examine some more implications of the claim made by The Times of London that it found the names of Afghan informants in the secret […]

Today and tomorrow I’ll hopefully make peace with my curiosity about WikiLeaks and the accusation that it disclosed the names and locations of Afghan informants serving the U.S. and coalition […]

Front-lighting technology similar to Amazon’s Kindle will eventually be standard on computers and up-coming e-devices, meaning the computer display currently burning holes in your eyes won’t last forever. The problem […]

Google, whose genius was born in the search engine, is now looking at itself from beyond the grave. CEO Erich Schmidt is preparing his company for the next round of […]

That’s right. It’s happening. Print is being phased out and new digital platforms, which will require subscriptions to read, are being phased in. Today, a news corporation, a journalist and […]

Following up on Monday’s post about WikiLeaks, today I address the moral correctness of the organization. There is no evidence that WikiLeaks disclosed the names of Afghan informants; there is inductive evidence that […]

Here is the uncomfortable truth for those, like me, who oppose Google and Verizon’s policy suggestion to the FCC concerning net neutrality: money talks and money walks. Investment and innovation […]

Now that the dust has settled after the immediate reaction to WikiLeak’s release of secret Afghan war logs, clearer lines can be drawn concerning the event’s significance. The most fundamental […]

In a recent interview with Der Spiegel, Random House CEO Markus Dohle explained his company’s outlook on the future, why he’s in no rush to bargain with Apple, and what […]