While many of us were enjoying Thanksgiving meals with our loved ones (and maybe even deep-frying turkeys), the chattering classes were chewing over the interim deal signed with Iran last week. The deal seemed to signal some kind of turning point, but in this week’s essay, we asked: a turning point toward what? [O]ur first […]

Iran won’t abandon its nuclear energy ambitions in pursuit of a nuclear deal, according to leaders in Tehran over the weekend. Iran’s top nuclear official Ali Akbar Salehi reportedly considers the abandonment of his country’s Arak heavy water nuclear reactor a “red line” that won’t be crossed in pursuit of easing Western sanctions. Not only […]

[Thai anti-government protesters shake hands with policemen outside the Government house during a demonstration in Bangkok on December 1, 2013. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.]

MOOCs have their fair share of critics, but they generally fall back on the same few arguments: MOOCs offer a low-quality facsimile of in-person education, dropout rates are high, student interaction is low, and it’s difficult to assess how much students have actually learned. But over at the Financial Times Edward Luce attacks MOOCs from […]

A new research project at the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute shows us that the disruptive possibilities of 3D printing have only begun to be imagined. Live Science reports that CII scientists are embarking on an attempt to 3D print a full human heart from human cells: The heart represents one of the most ambitious goals for researchers working to […]

The protests in Thailand have just entered their eighth day, and it’s beginning to look like the anti-government “yellow shirts” are gaining momentum in the struggle. Over the past few days, yellow shirt protestors have stormed a number of Government buildings, taken over a TV station, and forced the Prime Minister to go into hiding […]

From time to time on the blog we plan to highlight a new feature: short summaries of the books VM staff writers are reading and thinking about. This week Peter Mellgard (@PeterMellgardAI), who covers the Middle East and Asia, talks about an old and uncelebrated book about WWII.Kaputt is a dark and haunting tale written by Kurt Erich Suckert, an […]

Last week was supposed to be a landmark time for Ukraine. At least, the EU hoped it might be. Ukraine was set to sign a free trade and association agreement with the EU in Vilnius until talks broke down last week and Kiev pulled out of the deal. Brussels tried to rescue the deal, but […]

Thanksgiving was going to be a big day for SpaceX—the privately owned, Elon Musk-led space exploration company. SpaceX was set to launch its first satellite into geostationary orbit, in what Musk called his “toughest mission to date.” The maiden flight was originally scheduled for Monday evening, but pressure fluctuations in a liquid oxygen tank pushed […]

As China doubles down on its new Air Defense Identification Zone, the Obama administration told US airlines to comply with new rules in east Asia. US, Japanese, and South Korean warplanes have flown through the zone, disregarding China’s rules, but after Chinese jets shadowed a joint Japanese-American exercise in the area, Washington has reportedly warned […]