Politics & Current Affairs

There is no way to understand tragedies like these in an ontological framework of the cosmos. 

Today, oceans are much louder than they used to be, and the noise is putting marine mammals’ ecosystems in danger. The US is beginning what could be the world’s largest shushing effort.

On Tuesday a judge will decide whether to authorize yet another round of evictions from a forest north of Nantes that is home to a growing number of international squatters protesting plans for a proposed airport.

Cities and towns across Britain are raising much-needed cash by offering landmark public sculptures, paintings, and other art to the highest bidder. Opponents say the value of art to a community goes far beyond money.

The government has been taking several steps to mitigate the pressure put on its students, including a recent decision to stop releasing the names of top performers to the media, which publicizes them widely.

Currently the Eiffel Tower and businesses with neon signs turn their lights off after 1:00 am. Now a new proposal aims to save even more energy by requiring all French shops and public buildings nationwide to follow the same rule.

The best case against drone warfare as it is being waged lies in the fact that the campaign is being conducted in secret, shrouded from public view, unguided by any clear standards and immune from oversight.

As government budgets continue to tighten, several Web sites are enabling citizens to contribute funds towards building, repairing, and/or maintaining public spaces.

Bob Costas’ Sunday Night “perspective,” his celebrated half-time denouncement of American gun culture, wasn’t just dissonant hectoring. It wasn’t just a burlesque of Murrow or Cosell (USA Today‘s forced, but […]

By Zane Friedkin (guest blogger) The drone war being waged by the Obama administration in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia has elicited more media attention than is typical of […]

The rate represents a drop over the past year compared to the previous year, but almost 1800 square miles was still lost, possibly due to rising deforestation in some Brazilian states.

UK aviation experts are weeks away from performing a test in which a pilot will fly a twin-engine Jetstream from the comfort of a control room on the ground.

Days before climate negotiations resume in Qatar, the organization’s Environment Program has released a report claiming that governments aren’t doing nearly enough to fight global warming.

Last week the member states voted to approve a draft law that would put more women on publicly-traded company boards by 2020.

It turns out that Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” gaffe in October wasn’t a gaffe at all: it was, as some observed at the time, a reflection of how the Republican […]

The move coincides with the recent arrest of a gang of youths suspected of being behind a wave of attacks on homeless men in the city.

The controversial tax, which increased prices for high-fat foods by as much as 9 percent, was introduced a year ago in an attempt to address the country’s growing obesity problem.

Now that the long presidential campaign is over and a winner has emerged, the blogosphere is asking the question we hear every four years at this time: does the president-elect […]

As of yesterday, Amazon Wine offers 1,000 choices and can send them to people living in those states where it’s legal to receive alcohol by shipment.

Immanuel Kant, the 18th-century metaphysician who remains “the central figure in modern philosophy,” has wrangled up a Twitter account from the ether and this morning tweeted an endorsement in today’s […]

When you enter the voting booth on Tuesday and pull a lever or jab a touchscreen for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, you will be registering a vote not only […]

The law is supposed to focus on sites considered harmful to children, but critics warn it could be used to block political debate.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t give in very often. During his reign, Bloomberg has pushed for smoking bans in bars, restaurants and city parks. He has wrested control […]

With new reforms under Cuba’s President Raul Castro, Cubans will be allowed to leave the country without exit permits, which were expensive and difficult to obtain.

Fellow party members of of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner are looking to lower the voting age to 16 in order to bolster the country’s youth movement.

Companies that help circumvent internet censorship from controlling governments, such as China and Iran, are finding problems in their over-popularity.

A new class of pharmacy, in which drugs are mixed for individual patients, lacks regulation, says the FDA. The practice is a result of higher drug prices and the allure of “personalized medicine.”

In his post at The Stone on Wednesday, Gary Gutting urges us to recalibrate our assessments of presidential candidates in two ways: (1) by putting less stock in candidates’ successes […]

After his loss in Tuesday night’s debate, the Republican nominee for president is now known as the candidate who goes out of his way to compile resumes on female job candidates and […]

Advertisers, browser manufacturers, privacy advocates, Congress, and government entities are literally tangling with each other over online data-collecting mechanisms.