The old regulated taxi system was one of the classic examples of the blue model system. Internet startups, tapping into long-simmering consumer discontent with the old ways, are hastening its demise. It’s a representative slice of a much bigger trend.

We give to you, our readers, an essay and some meaningful Thanksgiving music for the holiday.

Angela Merkel is considering opening trade talks with Putin—partly in response to rising criticism at home, as well as growing discontent in the broader European coalition, over her being too tough on the Russians.

China is making nice with Sri Lanka in order to have a place to set up naval bases and resupply ports for its future in the Indian Ocean region. But India and Japan won’t be happy about that.

A major British investor recently warned that online shopping could unseat “brick and motor” supermarket chains. The sooner, the better.

Two potential candidates to succeed Chuck Hagel have publicly withdrawn themselves from consideration. It’s not surprising given how dysfunctional the President’s National Security Team appears.

If pluralization depletes social capital, then might cross-cultural non-believers find some way to join together to create new forms of social capital, both in situ and virtually via the internet for example?

With Monday’s deal between Russia and the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, Putin has managed to take over a Russian-speaking piece of a neighboring country’s sovereign territory. Sound familiar?

The surprise aerial attack will be seen as a sign of a tacit alignment between the U.S. and the Butcher President of Syria.

We know atheism in its Jewish or Christian context, as a rejection of the Biblical God. What would atheism mean in a Muslim, or Hindu, or Buddhist context?