Forget Robocop: The future belongs to Robosurgeon.Popular Mechanics offers an informative look at the role robots are already playing in operating rooms across the country. Currently most robosurgeons are artificial arms that must be controlled by humans. Their inputs can be smoothed to reduce the unsteadiness human hands bring into the OR, but they still require a human operator. That’s […]

Nearly a hundred Muslim fighters are returning to the Netherlands from conflicts in Syria, Africa, and elsewhere in the Middle East. The Dutch government has announced that it is now “monitoring” them for signs of extremism, says the BBC: “The chance of an attack in the Netherlands or against Dutch interests abroad has risen,” said […]

Historians may mark 2012 as a key year in tracing Europe’s decline as a global military player. For the first time in centuries, annual defense spending among Asian countries has exceeded that of European countries.Reuters summarizes “The Military Balance: 2013“, an annual report by IISS, a British think tank: China’s defense spending in real terms rose […]

Even if Europe manages to put off the worst of its economic crisis, it will soon have an even bigger problem on its hands: the alienation and desperation of an entire generation of young people. Fifty-seven percent of Greeks ages 15-24 are out of work. Spain, Italy, and Portugal show similarly high numbers of unemployed youth. As European […]

Your car has a computer, but chances are you’re not very good at using it. That’s not your fault. A lot of that computing power is under the hood, so to speak, and your car’s user interface needs to be simple enough to be operated while driving. But a new service promises to sync your […]

G.K. Chesterton tells the story of the time that St. Francis of Assisi visited Rome and the pope of the day proudly showed him all the wondrous treasures of the Vatican. Referring to a story in the Biblical Book of Acts in which St. Peter spoke with a beggar in Jerusalem and told him he […]

At least one law school is getting its head out of the sand. According to the WSJ, Northwestern University’s law school recently announced that it will cut its incoming class size by 10 percent: “We’ve seen a decline in applications, and there’s clearly been a huge shakeout in the legal marketplace,” Daniel Rodriguez, the school’s dean, said […]

Mexico imported a record amount of American natural gas in 2012, according to a new report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Mexico’s appetite for energy is increasing as its economy grows, but thus far its domestic production is unable to keep up with demand. Fortunately, thanks to the shale gas boom, the US has […]

The low and middle classes are being priced out of a life in New York City. Even as many residents spend fifty percent or more of their earnings on housing, the majority of the city’s “affordable homes” are still out of reach. House prices and rent have risen by more than forty percent since 2001, […]

Egypt’s death spiral is now scaring off even its closest friends. Last year, Qatar give an Egypt in crisis $5 billion in aid money. But Qatar won’t help Egypt anymore, according to the FT. Qatar’s decision comes as Egypt continues its downward spiral: Shortages of diesel in recent weeks have already created long queues in […]