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There are circumstances where violence is necessary, says Andre Dubus III, author of Townie, but it always takes a heavy spiritual toll. 

In the first of my posts summing up the Reason Rally, there was a commenter who said that gathering on the National Mall was “sink[ing] to the level of the […]

Your clothes may become the medium through which all the world’s electronic devices are connected. Soft screens woven into fabric may mean one less thing you must carry with you.

Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, has just released his eighth book, Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World (New York: Portfolio: 2012). When he first […]

Item:A study finds that between 1970 and 2009, melanoma skin cancer cases increased eight times in women aged 18-39, and four times in men, apparently from increasing use of tanning […]

This is a tale of two drones. One is the stuff of crazy science fiction. The other is a reality. Now here’s the twist: individuals are making DIY drones a reality while large government-sponsored researchers are the ones writing the science fiction.     

President Obama has unveiled his proposed 10-year budget today, and while there’s nothing particularly shocking included for those who have been following the ongoing debate between the White House and […]

It’s Sunday morning, and I’m writing this on the train from Washington, D.C. back to New York. I’m exhausted, washed out, and my calves are two knots of pain from […]

Google-funded research shows America’s potential for extracting geothermal energy is huge, but that harvesting it could cost a lot and even cause small earthquakes in the process.

America’s most powerful physics experiment, the Fermilab particle accelerator in Batavia, Illinois, is planning to test the results of a European experiment that claims to have seen the impossible.

Our neighbor to the north is quickly finding itself beneath a new spotlight as a world energy power. Attempts to finalize pipeline deals to export crude from Canada’s tar sands have begun.

Tom Jacobs of Miller-McCune reports on a study from Scott Eidelman, et al, finding that “Low-Effort Thought Promotes Political Conservatism.” Here’s Jacobs’ summary: A research team led by University of […]

Increases in government spending, reflected by the ballooning global debt, have only papered over a serious structural problem in the economies of industrial democracies.

In a previous post, I indicated what I consider the “dangerous” realisation that there is no top-down meaning; that our actions aren’t found to be important by anyone (or One) […]

There is only one measure of time that matters to the current Internet generation: the here and now. The Cult of Now is influencing everything that we do and every […]

What if all the study habits you were taught in school are wrong? Psychologists now say not to take notes, to stop studying for extended periods and to study in many different places.

What’s the Big Idea? The solution to global poverty, according to Jeffrey SachsDirector of The Earth Institute and professor at Columbia University, is a mix of government and the private and […]

The Being Human Conference, which took place at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts this weekend, was designed to explore the science of human experience. The speakers ranged from neuroscientists, […]

Figures like Bill Clinton and Arianna Huffington have spoken publicly about the deteriorating effects of sleep loss in our personal, political and work lives. When will we learn to rest well?

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 […]

The Economist hosted its “Ideas Economy” event this week at the Berkeley Haas School of Business to talk about disruptive technologies, entrepreneurship, and economic growth.  The focus of the event […]

Democratic operativeHilary Rosen got into trouble the other dayfor saying that Ann Romney had “never worked a day in her life.”Her comment’s getting widely criticized as rude. I think it’s […]

Bano, a mother of five who lives in the ancient quarter of Lahore—the cultural center—was without power for days. She wanted to make goat stew, a family favorite and a […]

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?

We generally assume that if we use more energy-efficient machines we will use less energy. If we install energy-efficient light bulbs in place of incandescent bulbs, for example, it will […]

Read Part 2 here. I’ve talked about the weather, the crowds, the protesters and the speakers, and I wanted to end up with some overall impressions. One of the things […]

Arthur Brooks, president of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, wants to help you, a stalwart supporter of the free enterprise system, to prevail in the coming Thanksgivings’ dinner table debates. […]

In response to a federally mandated deadline of February 21, the Obama administration has rejected a Canadian company’s application to build an oil pipeline that crosses US territory.

The dust has cleared from Super Tuesday, and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has a 243 delegate lead over Rick Santorum, who has the next highest delegate total. At this […]

‘Headline thinking’ — which last week I defined as the natural human tendency to “equate the actions of a certain person (or certain specific people) with the actions of a generic […]