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While the British Navy may have secured military victory for the British Empire, Shakespeare’s words secured the peace.

“…Should I stay or should I go now?If I go there will be troubleAn if I stay there will be double…”           The Clash (1982)       […]

People have been thinking strategically forever, but game theory as a real science dates back less than 100 years to the mathematician Joseph von Neumann.

GUEST POST BY JASON SILVA “Intertwingularity” is a term coined by Ted Nelson to express the complexity of interrelations in human knowledge.   He wrote: “EVERYTHING IS DEEPLY INTERTWINGLED. In an […]

We didn’t mind Maureen Dowd’s dismantling of (whatever remains of) the mythologizing of Dylan as a hero for/of protest. There was a moment in time when Dylan was hero for […]

Despite its significant downsides, nuclear energy is still absolutely vital for America’s (and the planet’s) future. This will become all the more true when cleaner fourth generation reactors become available.

Many thanks to the American Prospect for giving me the opportunity to guest blog at TAPPED last week. Thanks also to my friends, family, colleagues, and loyal readers who helped […]

The iPad. It’s new. It’s cool. And, it’s a terrific designexperience that is likely to excite and delight your grandmother…and you. It isa stellar example of what designers should consider […]

This is Twilight, for poets. It’s not designed to fly over your head; it’s designed as to shoot straight to your heart.

I’ve been asked whether I should reconsider my recent praise of AMERICAN IDOL as an admirably and characteristically American mixture of wisdom and consent.  Although I can’t really speak as […]

One of the more exciting frontiers in geology is that of planetary volcanology – that is, how do volcanoes work on other planets. We know at least a few in […]

Last week the MIT Center for Real Estate convened the MIT 2011 Real Estate Symposium engagingleaders in real estate finance, design, development and management. JoiningAvalon Bay’s William McLaughlin, AC Nielsen’s […]

By intensely focusing the sun’s rays on a rare earth oxide, researchers have discovered a reactor that could produce fuel from water in an easily stored form.

Michigan does not have a monopoly on hand-based cartography.

My mother had always been a suspicious and secretive person, but it wasn’t until I was 14 that she really went nuts—with many of the same symptoms described in Rachel […]

It is a rare day when the US budget, or US domestic politics at all for that matter, is featured on Waq al-waq.  But today is that day.  Over at […]

My letter to Secretary Spellings in the previous post about online multimedia textbooks is the outcome of a conversation that I had with Jim Hirsch, Associate Superintendent for Technology and […]

Rupert Murdoch is on his way to the annual shindig of global movers and shakers at Davos. Quite what is moved and shaken at Davos is frankly anyone’s guess. But […]

Alcohol’s sleepy effects have not gone unnoticed. Those who have had a night out drinking may know that booze can deepen nighttime sleep only to wake you up as the sun is rising.

The fact that many sun sign horoscopes are based on badly outdated information is troubling to many people, but what may be even more disturbing is astrology’s close similarity to racism.

A renewable energy startup is making deals that are attracting business. The company helps its clients to get photovoltaics on the roof without putting them on the books.

SETI’s search for extraterrestrial life has failed for decades. A likely reason might be they are looking for aliens who look like your neighbors at twilight.

Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal published a book review of Year Million, a collection of essays by 14 prominent futurists and thinkers who collectively ponder the fate of […]

An amibitious project to pipe salt water from the Red Sea into the arid coastal city of Aqaba, Jordan, could turn the region into an oasis through the process of desalination.

Here it is, the answers to your volcanic questions for Dr. Clive Oppenheimer. His new book, Eruptions that Shook the World, comes out this week and I’ll have a review […]

So much of what makes for a great innovator is not the ability to come up with a great idea — but, rather, the ability to “merchandise” that great idea […]

There seems no end in sight to Japan’s current decline, as jobs are lost, pensions cut, companies move overseas and social cohesion disintegrates.

Walk down the street of any community in America and look up – what do you see? A mass of tangled wires that comprise the high-voltage tranmissions lines of the […]

Recovering from making all the Thanksgiving food (and now trying to avoid any and all stores) … so only one thing today: Dear readers, have fun with this from the […]

British scientists celebrate a groundbreaking experiment that generated temperatures a million times hotter than the Sun’s center, reports The Independent.