Georgia’s upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for October 1, may result in violence. Mikhail Saakashvili’s United National Movement, which currently holds almost 80% of the seats in parliament, is facing stiff opposition by an coalition of parties called Georgian Dream.At the head of the coalition is Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire businessman who made his fortune in Russia, […]

As everybody knows, there is no such thing as a global war on terror anymore. Instead we live in a harmonious world of interfaith comity with only the occasional criminal act that is quickly and competently handled by law enforcement officials. As a result we can cut our defense budgets and get on with the […]

Reuters reports some disturbing news from Egypt: Most Christians living near Egypt’s border with Israel are fleeing their homes after Islamist militants made death threats and gunmen attacked a Coptic-owned shop, a priest said on Friday.The departure of nine families that made up the small Christian community in the border area of Egypt’s Sinai peninsula […]

Technologist Brad Templeton has a few thoughts on how driverless cars might revolutionize modern transportation (h/t Alexis Madrigal). Think on-demand robo-taxis which are much more fine-tuned for the task they’re used for. The key insight: If one can hire a cheap specialized “robotaxi” (or whistlecar) on demand when one has a special automotive need, car users […]

You may have noticed a new trend among smaller retailers in your town: they’re foregoing traditional cash registers for iPads. Apart from making it quicker and easier for employees to ring up customers, these systems are increasingly making it possible for customers to pay using their smartphones by installing an app and paying over the […]

There is bad news and good news from the latest comprehensive survey of world fisheries. As reported by the Financial Times, a recent study carried out by the University of California at Santa Barbara looked at the consequences of intensive fishing around the world, and found a situation that is both worse and better than […]

Surreal is how many people around the world describe the situation in Iran: one of the world’s great and sophisticated cultures under the rule of backward-looking mullahs who think stoning adultresses, hanging homosexuals, threatening Israelis with annihilation and building a bomb is all in a day’s work. Complete with a hate-spewing, Holocaust-denying demagogue who thinks […]

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez calls him a pig, a Nazi and other names that don’t pass our strict, family-friendly editorial policies here at Via Meadia, but in spite of all that, and in spite of Chávez’ shameless and blatant use of state resources and media power, challenger Henrique Capriles is making a surprisingly strong run […]

Scientists, economists and ordinary enthusiasts have all been excited, each for their own reasons, about the potential of 3D printers. We doubt many had this in mind: WikiWeapon, a small tech project founded by a group of young libertarians, has just received thousands of dollars to create a blueprint for a plastic gun which users […]

France’s Socialist government today revealed its solution to the country’s economic malaise: soaking the rich so it won’t have to cut spending. The Wall Street Journal has the details: [T]he government aims to lift revenue from household income taxes by 23% next year, while revenue from business taxation is expected to rise almost 30%.The budget […]