Sir Richard Branson & Forger, aka Mark Stucky congratulate each other after the success of Virgin Galactic’s first rocket-powered flight that broke the sound barrier in a test over the Mojave Desert.
Search Results
You searched for: Richard Marks
The day marked the first time a commercial plane broke the sound barrier since the supersonic Concorde was retired in 2003. Soon, Virgin’s craft will be travelling faster than the Concorde.
Modern technology has done nothing to make humans more humble. Quite the contrary. So secure are we in our confidence of our superiority to ancient cultures that discoveries like the […]
There’s much to criticise about this map of Pangea [1], but in spite of the geological anachronisms, it’s hard to tear your eyes away from it. The map shows a […]
On May 24, 1813, just months after publishing Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen went to a show in search of her female hero. ”I dare say Mrs. D[arcy] will be […]
Google Glass. Life Extension. Life Extinction. These are among the brainiest memes included in the inaugural post of our new blog, Mind Memes, which offers quick reads on the Internet […]
One of cartography’s most persistent myths: mapmakers of yore, frustrated by the world beyond their ken, marked the blank spaces on their maps with the legend Here be monsters. It’s […]
NewSpace SmallCaps often face challenges: tight budgets, game-changing competition, lengthy development schedules and cash flow crunches. To reduce some of this pain, NewSpace companies have found significant advantages in tapping […]
Weiwei-isms distills Ai Weiwei’s thinking on the topics of individual rights and freedom of expression.
To know where you’re heading, it helps to know where you’ve come from. And with the last grains of sand slipping through the hourglass, now is the perfect time to […]
The Jokers to the Right in my title don’t require further introduction. They’re the social conservatives who belittle rape in their anti-abortion zealotry, believe that the control and suppression of […]
Willpower is a limited resource easily drained by everyday activity.
On a late winter day in 1922, the sound of a gun shot resounded with a loud boom in the hills surrounding the house of three-year-old Edgar Curtis. The sound itself wasn’t out of the ordinary, since the Curtises lived near a firing range. What was extraordinary was the question the boy turned to ask his mother: “What is that big, black noise?”
On September 30, 2011, The New York Times reported that the C.I.A. had killed a fundamentalist iman named Anwar al-Awlaki in a drone strike over Yemen. Heralding the strike, President […]
Thanks to the recent Citizens United Supreme Court decision, this campaign season will be flush with unprecedented amounts of cash, risking future corruption, says jurist Richard Posner.
“Philosopher” is one of those job descriptions in America that brings inevitable jokes about unemployability. Carlin Romano’s new book, America the Philosophical, aims at transforming the Rodney Dangerfield of academic […]
As anyone who knows me is aware, I’m generally a peaceful and diplomatic fellow. I’m not one to pick fights just for the hell of it. But that said, I’m […]
Every May brings with it a new crop of college graduation speeches. This spring, few (maybe none) were as though-provoking as multimedia artist Laurie Anderson’s at the School of Visual […]
Anne-Marie Slaughter’s new piece in The Atlantic about how women cannot “have it all” has provoked a wave of commentary, but none that I have seen has mentioned the article’s […]
The ultimate goal of any education system should be to give people the opportunity to find and bring to life that which motivates them intrinsically.
Last week, as you’ve no doubt heard, Dan Savage gave a speech to a national convention of high school journalists in which he criticized Christians’ use of the Bible to […]
Richard Dawkins, the most famous “atheist” on the planet, has argued “the existence of God is a scientific hypothesis like any other.”
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 […]
Facebook’s IPO has innovation and entrepreneurship in the news. And the face of Facebook is Mark Zuckerberg. The 27-year old Zuckerberg reinforces the image that many, if not most people, […]
The extra dimension of time embedded in each photo we see this holiday season reminds us of how fleeting each moment truly is.
The line of battle for the future of public education is clear. The first side has money, powerful political connections, and an infrastructure of nonprofit organizations with paid staff. The other side has this: the ability to become a true grassroots movement.
Just when you think a contemporary art megastar such as Damien Hirst has done his worst to make a mockery of the modern art world, he finds a new weapon […]
Two English professors have created the Action for Happiness movement which, by following a simple list of activities, aims to increase the amount of happiness in the lives of individuals.
What happens when the complexity and magnitude of the problems facing our civilization “simply exceed our biological capabilities”?
Editor’s Note: After a holiday that’s all about gratitude, it seemed appropriate to post this. Please welcome Jessa Jackson as she tells the story of how she went from Mormonism […]