On the night of April 13, 1970, astronaut Jack Swigert famously beemed into NASA headquarters to declare “Houston, we have a problem.” A nation of inspired onlookers watched in suspense […]
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China has at once decreased it economic forecast and bolstered its military budget. The change signals its search for higher-quality manufacturing and a modest military ambition.
The Mind/Body Split in American Acting (and culture) On the whole, and with a few notable exceptions, Hollywood expects its great actors to play themselves in every role. We want […]
By Peadar Coyle It is said that education is something people have strong opinions about. A growing literature has emerged around randomized evaluations of interventions, most notably Esther Duflo’s work on […]
What is the Big Idea? Graffiti artist P183, whose real name is Pavel, canvasses the streets of Moscow at night armed with a can of spray paint. One of his […]
The robotic future is here, and it looks nothing like we thought it would. Instead of humanoid, highly-intelligent robots that do our bidding, the future is increasingly one of robotic […]
Buying California Cabernet to share with your newborn on her 21st birthday? You’re doing it wrong….
In an extraordinary move, a prominent executive at Goldman Sachs has resigned on grounds of ethical discomfort with a company culture of maximizing profits at clients’ expense. Greg Smith – […]
One theme that consistently emerges in Teju Cole’s work is an interest in creating space, through literature, for those bits of real, complex experience that can find their expression nowhere else.
It must be a terribly confusing time to be a member of the Vatican hierarchy. In an effort to stem the accelerating exodus of Catholic laypeople, they’ve been cracking down […]
With spring blooming all around us here in the United States, it’s natural that our thoughts go to, well, last spring, specifically the “Arab Spring” that saw the rise of […]
“Plan Now. Relax Soon.” The Concierge of a fancy resort has sent me this “Quick! Relax, Goddamnit!” email. My husband and I are looking forward to attending a wedding […]
With the Mega Millions jackpot now at the $640 million mark, it’s no wonder that everyday people without any prior interest in playing casino-like games of chance are willing to […]
It’s commonplace to imagine the people of the period we know now as the High Renaissance, centered in Italy from the 1490s to the 1520s, looking at the works of […]
Warning: Don’t read this if your funny bone’s in traction, or if your tongue can’t be planted firmly in cheek… On a talk show I heard an ex-agent describe the […]
The weekend is a good time to get some culture, and since there are a lot of things lately that I’m enjoying, I figured I’d write one completely miscellaneous post […]
While it’s tempting to mock the hollow chants of health care law critics as Jon Stewart did last Thursday — “what do we want? freedom! when do we want it? now!” — […]
The Daily Mail published an article this week by Samantha Brick, called, “There are Downsides to Looking This Pretty: Why Women Hate Me for Being Beautiful.” Problem is, according to […]
Bernard Savage, Head of the EU Delegation to Sri Lanka and the Maldives said: “At this stage, given our information, we would not say that there has been any legal […]
We are witnessing a paradigm shift in medicine that is equal to that of Galileo saying the Earth was not the center of the Universe or Columbus saying that the world was round, not flat.
Just as Francis Fukuyama once predicted the End of History, are we now facing a sort of technological end of history? Has truly radical innovation been forever replaced by incremental […]
If you are already toe to toe with your New Year’s resolution, gritting your teeth is not the best way to overcome the temptation to cheat. Understanding your willpower’s limitations is essential.
The incredible (and indeed untrue) story of President Taylor’s APE
“It is a sentimental error, therefore, to believe that the past is dead; it means nothing to say that it is all forgotten, that the Negro himself has forgotten it. […]
What’s more offensive than crushed heads and mangled limbs? Exposed female nipples, according to Facebook’s criteria for deleting user content, published for the first time on Gawker two weeks ago.
Tomorrow, February 21, will mark the last day of President Ali Abdullah Salih’s nearly 34 years in power, at least officially. In his place, Yemenis will head to the polls […]
Bruce Beuno de Mesquita’s Selectorate Theory explains how bad behavior is good politics. Unfortunately, well-intentioned foreign aid could be enabling bad policies and bad politicians to remain in power.
Using human stem cells to tackle human health issues remains controversial in the United States, but a team of Dutch researchers has found a potentially crowd-pleasing application of stem cell […]
Revolution in north Africa and famine in Somalia grabbed the headlines in 2011 but Africa’s underlying mantra of the past decade has been growth, growth, growth.
If you don’t like the weather in New England, wait a minute. So goes the saying that is loosely attributed to Mark Twain. The same cannot be said of the […]