Democrats detonated the nuclear option in the Senate this week, eliminating a convention that required a three-fifths majority vote to end the filibuster for most presidential nominations in favor of a simple majority. We looked at how the decision chipped away at the legitimacy of our political system in an essay: The filibuster vote will […]

The newest Silicon Valley health care venture offers a window into what the American medical system could become. The Singularity Hub reports that Walgreens is partnering with Theranos, a new company that has figured out how to automate automate all blood sample laboratory work. More: Here’s how it works: Blood is drawn with a finger […]

Driverless cars have nearly arrived, and journalists are taking notice. Burkhard Bilger gave them the full New Yorker treatment in an excellent 11,000+ word piece that’s worth your time this Sunday.Bilger starts with a very simple, very compelling argument for the need for driverless cars: “Of the ten million accidents that Americans are in every year, nine and […]

(From Left) Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius react during a statement on early November 24, 2013 in Geneva. World powers on November 24 agreed a landmark deal with Iran halting parts of […]

Do the troubles of the Obama administration point to problems in the way America educates its rising leaders? Over at Real Clear Politics, Peter Berkowitz argues forcefully in the affirmative. After listing way after way the Obama administration has been ignorant of truths that it should have known, or has acted on an exaggerated sense of […]

A new report has added another arrow to the Scottish anti-independence movement’s quiver, finding that an independent Scotland would face serious, structural economic challenges. The FT has more: The IFS said that even in its most optimistic scenario – using forecasts for oil revenue cited by the Scottish government and expectations of high levels of […]

Japan walked back from emissions reductions commitments last week, admitting that closing down its nuclear reactors after the Fukushima disaster has made such targets impossible to achieve. The announcement, which coincided with yet another round of feckless international climate talks in Warsaw, put green hypocrisy on nuclear power in sharp relief: environmentalists have long snubbed […]

Mexico’s economy sputtered earlier this year, but a recovery—however anemic—is on the way, and as the NYT reports, the country is seeing promising signs for growing its middle class: [A]fter the free-market wave of the 1990s failed to produce much more than low-skilled factory work, Mexico is finally attracting the higher-end industries that experts say could lead […]

Islamic rebel groups in Syria are trying to put up a united front against Assad in a bid to regain some of ground they’ve lost to government forces during the course of the year. The Wall Street Journal: Charles Lister, an analyst with IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, estimated the new group’s fighting strength at […]

What sort of thing is an atheist megachurch, and why would something like it ever come into existence? Over on his American Interest blog, Peter Berger has a fascinating analysis of the rise of organized atheism. After noting that many of these atheist meetings are probably attended more by agnostics than strict atheists, Berger discusses how these […]