Why did Texas, remarkably, escape the worst of the burst of the real estate bubble? The state has had a comparatively low mortgage default rate through the recession, and Alyssa Katz looks at the broader secret to the state’s success, and what Washington might learn from it.
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“We want to make architecture that people like to use,” said Kazuyo Sejima, who with partner Ryue Nishizawa won the 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize yesterday. “The jury somehow appreciated our […]
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver may not be starting a “food revolution” with his push to make school lunches healthier, but Marion Nestle gives him credit for trying to get “real food” back into cafeterias.
There you are, minding your own business on the outskirts of Sydney, thinking about seafood, sex, getting ahead, whatever, when whoomf, the aliens’ ship has caught you. And now you’re […]
Not long ago, a report quoting NASA scientists was issued by the National Academy of Science, the highest scientific advisory body to the United States Congress. The report said something that used […]
Journalists often fret over objectivity and neutrality, but the very language they use to report their “objective” stories undercut the possibility of these goals from the start. The headline for […]
After a series of snubs, Europe is suddenly getting a bunch of positive attention from the US. What happened? Maybe Washington is impressed that, after a prolonged struggle to deal […]
South of the Sundarbans mangrove forest, in the Bay of Bengal, lies one of those tiny flecks of land at the center of endless negotiation between two countries—a little patch […]
March has its share of strange and obscure holidays. The first of the month is National Pig Day, the fifth is Multiple Personality Day (a chance for anyone to get […]
A few days ago, I posted about an unusual ad that appeared in my local subway stop. The ad featured a kid with a broken leg hobbling down a hospital […]
While Jews across the world celebrate Passover, it’s an opportune time for many to re-familiarize themselves with the story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt. The incredible story has been […]
Like Jerry Lewis, comic books seem to be an American institution best appreciated and understood by the French. Jean-Paul Gabilliet’s Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic […]
Today’s installment of our series “The Future in Motion” features Joseph Sussman, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, and Douglas Malewicki, Aerospace engineer and inventor of the SkyTran. The SkyTran is […]
Unhappy news to banish the lingering Earth Hour glow from your cheeks: New York State is hemorrhaging environmental conservation jobs, and funding. Governor Paterson’s “winter of reckoning” (not altogether a […]
Death challenges the strength of any family. A suicide can tear a family apart. Art dealer Carl David, fourth in a line of a four-generation family owned art gallery, recounts […]
Then you’ll want to learn from Bill Brown, professor of English and the visual arts at the University of Chicago and the creator of “thing theory.” What is thing theory? […]
Today is the first day of Passover. To most Jewish people, that means a seder, matzo, wine, recounting the story that’s in the Haggadah. To Rabbi Niles Goldstein, it’s more […]
In the classic Western film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, James Stewart’s character confesses that he wasn’t a hero, only to hear the newspaper man he’s confessed to respond, […]
In his latest op/ed Nick Kristof is lamenting the fact that girls are outperforming boys at school. Kristof is as ardent a defender of women’s rights as anyone in the […]
Judith Thurman’s Talk of the Town piece in this week’s New Yorker details how an unknown Italian “journalist” fabricated interviews with Philip Roth and John Grisham (the odd selection of those […]
Michelangelo spent most of his life on a massive guilt trip. When he painted The Crucifixion of St. Peter in 1550 (pictured), he inserted not one, but two self-portraits. To […]
Now that we’ve established that attractive people earn more money, apparently it’s not just academics who are beginning to notice a difference in lifestyle. With state and federal governments looking […]
As we mentioned in a previous post, Einstein himself was worried about the possibility that time travel was built into his General Theory of Relativity. In 1949, when his good friend […]
Armageddon. Impeachment. Fascist. Communist. Muslim. Radical. Baby killer. The language of political discourse in America has been reduced to alarming idioms and dramatic phrases. It is the kind of overheated […]
As many of its activists depend on unemployment for inspiration and government benefits, can the Tea Party movement survive an economy on the rebound?
President Obama will take advantage of the Congress’ recess to fill 15 economic posts allowing him to circumvent the Senate’s confirmation process.
Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune advocates legalizing marijuana as a solution to the spiraling violence of the Mexican-American drug trade.
Absent legal protection, medical marijuana users are still subject to company drug policies which can result in being fired for drug use.
After buying 27 percent of Citibank to keep it afloat, the federal government is ready to sell its shares for an estimated profit of $8 billion.
The key to surviving global warming will be to develop an economy that empowers the impoverished to meet global clean-energy demands.