We at Via Meadia believe that telecommuting will play an important role in the new information economy, reducing outmoded commuting practices along with greenhouse gas emissions. But not everyone is so sure. Evgeny Morozov, writing in Slate, argues that telecommuting makes it hard to manage employee productivity and sucks up people’s free time by expanding the number […]

Connections between the adult Jesus, his childhood and the family in which he was raised aren’t easy to make. At first glance, the gospels don’t offer much; whatever the gospel writers had in mind, producing complete biographies of Jesus wasn’t it. Mark omits Christmas altogether, and starts with Jesus getting baptized and launching his career. […]

They’re at it again. David Cameron and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the loud and proud leaders of the UK and Argentina, resumed their diplomatic brawl over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.In a letter penned for the Guardian, Kirchner claimed that today is the 180th anniversary of Britain’s “theft” of the islands from Argentina. She […]

The wind power industry just dodged a bullet. As part of the fiscal cliff deal, Congress has renewed the wind power tax credit, whose expiration could have caused the industry to shrink by 95 percent. Prior to the deal, uncertainty over the industry’s future lead many wind power companies to slow down or halt their […]

Every week brings new evidence of the unexpected greening of America. According to the Wall Street Journal, electricity use is falling in America even as our use of gadgets is on the rise: The Energy Information Administration is projecting that electricity use in the U.S. will rise an average of just 0.6% a year for […]

Our friends at the FT have brought us some good news for the new year: The private sector added more than 200,000 jobs in December, growing at a ten-month high, according to a monthly report by ADP. Even better, the number of job losses has fallen by more than 40 percent since November, nearing pre-recession levels: […]

Pessimists move so fast they can make your head spin. A few months ago, the conventional wisdom held that America was running out of oil and gas—and so was the whole world. Peak oil and an age of scarcity were falling upon us. Alas and alack, o woe!But then a few people and publications, including […]

Japan today took steps to strengthen its relationship with Myanmar, a potential new ally as it continues to jockey for resources and influence: Japan’s new government confirmed its support for the emerging democracy in Myanmar on Thursday when Finance Minister Taro Aso visited the country to reaffirm Japan’s intention to cancel debt and help develop a […]

China is building a railroad from Kunming in southeastern China through Laos to Thailand, a significant upgrade to the Laotian transport network and an extremely lucrative link between China and Southeast Asia. But because of a very skewed financing agreement between Chinese, Laotian, and international banks, Laos is footing the bill for its section of […]

There’s nothing new about governors competing to bring jobs to their state, but rarely has it been this brazen. The Wall Street Journal reports that neighboring states, as well as some states as far flung as Georgia and Tennessee, are stationing official “business recruiters” in California to convince businesses to move their operations out of state.It’s […]