We’ve already seen commuting linked to mental illness and obesity. Now Erika Sandow of Sweden’s Umeå University, the social geographer who noted the obesity-commute link back in March, has outlined yet another reason to avoid the trip into the office altogether: commuting breaks up couples. The Atlantic reports: Sandow reached her conclusions by analyzing a unique dataset that tracked millions […]

India unveiled its first domestically produced aircraft carrier on Monday, just hours after turning on the reactor of the country’s first nuclear-powered submarine. The 850-foot, 37,500-ton INS Vikrant is built of local steel, the “crowning glory” of India’s navy, a vice admiral said.The Vikrant makes India one of five countries in the world capable of constructing an […]

There’s a real shortage of trained doctors in the United States, something that Obamacare will make even more apparent in the coming years. There are also thousands of foreign-trained doctors living in the United States who are being prevented from practicing medicine by a series of barriers erected by a medical guild system that’s attempting to […]

The BBC often provides good news coverage and analysis, but today it dropped the ball. Its coverage of the news that Israel green-lighted a series of settlements ahead of negotiations with the Palestinians is a bit misleading.Here’s the key passage, buried at the very bottom of the piece: A housing ministry spokesman told the BBC […]

Today, Sunday August 11, I’m leaving for a visit to India, returning September 1. Fortunately, we’ve built up such a robust team that even in my absence Via Meadia will continue to highlight important news for our readers. And just as we did last year, I’ve recruited some guest bloggers to put their two cents […]

This week’s essay took note of the Grey Lady’s criticism of President Obama’s decision to shutter 21 embassies across the Middle East for fear of a terrorist threat. The criticism by the NYT is yet another sign of the Obama administration’s diminishing prestige: Hmm: the New York Times says that key allies believe that the Obama administration is panicky […]

Crony capitalism is alive and well in today’s America. It of course continues to flourish in political machine cities like Detroit, but it’s found higher up the political food chain too. Two excellent articles from this week illustrate the point beautifully.Take first the case of Newark mayor and Senate hopeful Cory Booker, whose startup, Waywire, […]

Solar energy has been one of those technologies that is perpetually “30 years away” from commercial viability, but a recent article in the Financial Times argues that the green energy source’s day has finally arrived. More efficient panels, along with a crash in panel prices, the FT argues, has made solar price-competitive with fossil fuels in […]

India recently passed a major milestone in the development of its blue-water navy: The country’s first nuclear-powered submarine successfully activated its reactor yesterday. As The Hindu reports, the sub—named the Arihant—is the first of four, all of which of the subs will carry K-15 missiles which can be launched from underwater and carry a nuclear warhead and hit […]

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, bought the Washington Post last week, and we’ve got to imagine the pink slips are coming. The newspaper’s previous owners, the Graham family, sold the paper for less than a quarter of what Yahoo paid for the blogging platform Tumblr two months ago. But while the WaPo has […]