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The new Atlantic magazine has an intriguing dispatch about how “Iranians line up daily to cross the Astara River to buy and sell jeans, chickens, bras, laptops—and often sex and […]
It looks like the Iranians have balked on their promise to ship lowly enriched uranium to Russia. One wonders if the whole thing was a ruse to tamp down the […]
An Australian senator has accused the Church of Scientology of being a criminal organization and has called for its investigation by the police.
Stewart Brand’s latest book, “Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto,” contains a dagger in its subtitle. To write a manifesto on behalf of “ecopragmatism” is to imply that the current […]
It’s becoming a familiar theme. An election is held somewhere in the developing world that is hotly contested. The opposition cries foul and demands a recount. Allegations fly as both […]
Spare some change? This past Thursday, the New York Times ran a special section on giving, the big front page story of which was all about giving small. You know, […]
After Israel released photographs claiming to prove Iran was importing weapons to Hezbollah militia, Iranian news agencies have retorted claiming the images were forged.
The police reportedly suggested that gay a gay teenager brutally murdered in Puerto Rico deserved what he got due to his “type of lifestyle”.
Maybe everyone else already knows this, but I was stunned to learn that an utterly pedestrian detail — the reliability of translation services — has hurt America’s efforts to negotiate […]
My own presumptions about Pakistan did not prepare me for the sight of this, this, this, or any of Kate Brooks’ other photos from Karachi’s “fashion week” — a glitzy […]
In 1968, a highly-respected population biologist at Stanford named Paul Ehrlich published a best-selling book called “The Population Bomb,” warning of global famine as the global population grew faster than […]
What if you could clean a load of dirty clothes and linens with just a spoonful of laundry detergent and a single cup of water? As soon as late 2010, […]
We need to disabuse ourselves of several untruths being told about our war efforts in Afghanistan. One is that we are fighting for democracy. Democracy is fine for Norway and […]
Gardeners at a UK heritage property are urging visitors to urinate in the gardens to help the gardens “go green.”
The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington has said it will stop its social service programs if gay marriage is legalized.
Police in Georgia say a pilot tried to hit officers with his plane at a small airport.
Israel claims it has seized a cargo ship containing evidence that Iran is supplying Lebanese militant group Hezbollah with weapons.
The brown pelican has been removed from the endangered species list after a century of special protection.
A British police-man sacked for believing in psychics has received backing from judges in an employment tribunal.
Senior executives at Blackwater Worldwide bribed Iraqi officials with around $1m to silence them after civilian deaths.
A prominent professor punched a female university employee in the face during an argument about race relations.
Former astronaut Lisa Nowak pleaded guilty to burglary and misdemeanor battery in an attack against a love rival.
It’s unbelievable, really. The US military is holding up Iraq as a model for Afghanistan. They’ll tell you it took a few years to get right but by golly, Iraq […]
The appearance of an expensive mosque in impoverished and predominantly Catholic Nicaragua has got the rumour mill turning.
A deer was fatally injured after it jumped into the lion’s den at the National Zoo.
Defense contractor KBR has been accused of exposing 100,000 people, including US troops, to cancerous toxins in Iraq.
An agent for a covert secret society has been accused of “torturing” a French aristocratic family for whom he was acting as a guru.
Knowing full well that I tee myself up for easy, Whitney-Houston-themed ridicule, I’m here to say that the children are our future, and that childhood in the Gaza Strip — […]
Because government troops in Guinea massacred civilian protesters at about the same time as I started blogging for Big Think, I’ve committed myself to using this space to track events […]
One word haunts Seymour Hersh’s new investigative piece about the potentially shaky security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal: “mutiny.” As Hersh writes, “the Taliban overrunning Islamabad is not the only, or […]