To get a sense of what the future might look like, watch the video above (h/t Kurzweil). It may look like a kid’s toy, but it’s something far more impressive: a self-assembling, autonomous robot with pieces that can move themselves (and jump) without any external moving parts. Obviously, at this point it can’t do much […]

Iceland is sitting pretty for what will likely be the world’s next oil boom. The USGS estimates that the Arctic circle holds roughly 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil, and as the world warms, that ice is melting, uncovering billions of barrels of black gold. Countries are licking their lips at the possibility of […]

Last February, Stafford Hospital in Staffordshire, Britain made news for shocking abuses of patients that routinely happened in its halls. At the time, many people treated it as an anomalous incident that didn’t tell us anything about the NHS more broadly, but a new long-form read on the NHS in the Washington Examinier argues that Stafford […]

Theocracy panic dies hard, and a recent NYT article on the Texas textbooks shows that it’s still alive and well at the Grey Lady. The article covers recent appointments to Texas’ textbook review panel and expresses alarm that the creationist members of the panel could compromise science nationwide: As Texas gears up to select biology […]

The Indian cabinet on Thursday gave the green light to the creation of Telangana, a new state to be carved out of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. According to the WSJ, Hyderabad, the current capital of Andhra Pradesh, will function as a joint capital for one decade while the country hammers out the specifics of […]

On Monday the Swedish home-furnishing retailer IKEA announced that it would be offering cheap residential solar panels in their UK stores on a trial basis. The retailer will be partnering with the Hong Kong based Hanergy Solar Group Ltd., which will handle the installation and maintenance of the panels. The panels will be offered for […]

The news about Obamacare right now is tightly focused on the messy implementation that has gone about as bad as the ACA’s critics could wish. But assuming the administration fixes these glitches, and we move on to the next phase of Obamacare, measuring whether the law is actually succeeding or not will be tricky business.Two […]

While most of the United States media class is distracted by the spectacle of feckless politicians squabbling away in Washington, real news is happening halfway around the world. Japan and the US have signed a landmark agreement that includes provisions for a new missile defense system in Japan, stations American surveillance drones at Japanese air bases, […]

After Germany passed a law permitting ritual circumcision last December, it seemed like we could start putting the circumcision wars behind us, and that Jews would be allowed to carry out their traditional practices in peace.No such luck. On Tuesday the Council of Europe took up the issue again, calling circumcision a “violation of the […]

Two stories from Bloomberg News paint an ugly picture of Puerto Rico’s economy. First, investors are starting to think Puerto Rico’s credit has been overvalued and have started to price it like distressed debt: Yields on some general obligations set record highs last month. Investors demand about 5.2 percentage points of extra yield, or 520 basis […]