Colossal Waste Exposed in Afghan Electric Projects
These are tough times for science and technology journalists, who, if they still have jobs, rarely have the time and travel budgets required for in-depth reporting.
Cross-Check
Critical views of science in the news
Steven Chu Defends Federal Research Against Know-Nothing Critics
I'm upset with Barack Obama for his soft treatment of bankers and other potential campaign donors and his callous treatment of civilians killed in U.S
Dear Occupy Wall Street: Read Jeffrey Sachs!
"Eat the rich, feed the hungry." "Occupy Wall Street, Not Afghanistan." "The Left Never Left." "Take the Bull by the Horns." "The Beginning Is Near." "The Empire Has No Clothes." "Frack Me, Frack You." "I am a revolting citizen." "Jesus was a Marxist." "Auto-plants fill the Earth with Machines Designed for Death." "I love this goddamn country, and we're gonna take it back." "We are the 99%."These were some of the signs I saw on Saturday when I visited New York City's Zuccotti Park, the base camp of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which boasts a kitchen, clothing dispensary, health clinic, media center and lots of cool music...
Drone Assassinations Hurt the U.S. More Than They Help Us
A lot of my liberal friends are bitterly disappointed with President Barack Obama's performance in the past three years. They complain that via action and inaction, he is perpetuating many of the policies of his predecessor...
History Suggests the U.S. Will Ban the Death Penalty Soon. Why Not Now?
There are times when I'm ashamed for my country. Last Wednesday, for example, when officials in a Georgia prison injected lethal poison into the veins of Troy Davis, a black man convicted of murdering a white police officer, Mark MacPhail, in 1989...
Michele Bachmann Wasn't Totally Wrong about HPV Vaccines
One of my guilty pleasures in this run-up to the next U.S. presidential election is watching proudly ignorant Republican wannabes like Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann lashing out at each other instead of Obama...
Did the U.S. Overreact to the 9/11 Attacks? Undoubtedly
A decade ago I was wrestling a paragraph in my home office when my wife called out from another room, alarm in her voice. The music station she was listening to had interrupted a song to announce that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center...
Why Screening Teens for Mental Illness Is a Terrible Idea
Mental illness can afflict children, just as cancer and other diseases do. Many young people quietly struggle with depression and other disorders, which may provoke them to commit suicide, the third-most common cause of death among teenagers...
Is It Wrong to Link Hurricane Irene to Global Warming?
Six years ago, experts waited until after Katrina to start arguing over whether the hurricane was a consequence, at least in part, of global warming.
Is David Deutsch's Vision of Endless Understanding Delusional?
I'm a believer in wishful thinking, in the power of our hopes to become self-fulfilling. I even believe that war is going to end! But at some point, if wishful thinking diverges too sharply from what we can reasonably expect from reality, it morphs into denial or delusion...
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Exploring and celebrating diversity in science.
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