Technology & Innovation

“One obvious problem for many porn users is the conflict between their stated belief in equality and respect for women, and the material they’re watching in private.”

Why is it that we when we talk about our work, we inspire neither those we address nor ourselves? 

People who live in religious neighborhoods buy just as much pornography as people everywhere else. They’re just less likely to subscribe to an online porn site on a Sunday.

As car ownership rates drop in urban areas, B.M.W. has a foreword thinking business idea. The company will rent its cars by the hour to customers in Munich, Germany.

“Will the average earnings of women begin before long to exceed that of men after being so far behind in the past?” Nobel Laureate Gary Becker on women’s propensity for education.

The Iraq War Logs released yesterday by WikiLeaks demonstrate the discipline and accountability problems inherent in the practice of contracting mercenaries.

An initiative at M.I.T. that helps to connect venture capitalists with inventors and innovators may spur the creation of a new social network. The government is watching for results.

Which will prove better: austerity or deficit spending? The respective approaches taken by Britain and America to recover the economy may prove a useful historical experiment.

“As the sales of e-books finally start to soar, what effect will this digital revolution have on publishers, readers and writers? Will the novel as we know it survive?”

In the greatest leak in the history of the United States military, WikiLeaks plans to publish 391,832 classified documents on the Iraq on the Internet.

The life of a microcredit loan is often very short—lengthening the repayment window would allow borrowers the opportunity to create bigger gains, says Forbes’ Eva Pereira.

Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla plans to create an investment fund for companies fighting poverty in India and Africa that provide social services like health, energy and eduction.

Harvard economics professor Martin Feldstein says the U.S. dollar will remain a strong reserve currency, but that our national debt makes the Euro a competitive alternative.

“Panic among policymakers about the high level of government debt is misplaced. The real economic menace is budget-slashing,” say two economists for The Guardian.

“The emotional roller coaster captured on Twitter can predict the ups and downs of the stock market, a new study finds.” Wired Science on the unexpected correlation.

“If you are green or broke, as many people are these days, buying seems wasteful.” The Economist says people are growing impatient with ‘idle capacity’, i.e. waste.

A study found that lap dancers make $90 more per shift when they are ovulating than when they are in their luteal stage, and $170 more than when they are in their menstrual phase.

Both in the U.S. and abroad, women’s progress has been cast as a struggle toward equality between genders. Yet now, in certain key power areas women are outpacing and outperforming […]

“Economics was founded by moral philosophers, and links between the two disciplines remain strong. So why won’t economists make judgments on the gap between rich and poor?”

As women gain more financial clout, their spending patterns direct more money toward education, health and community.

The subject of buzz has generated a burst of scientific attention. When choosing products to buy, research demonstrates that we’re much less autonomous than we imagine.

“The invasion of privacy—of others’ privacy but also our own, as we turn our lenses on ourselves in the quest for attention by any means—has been democratized.”

“Steven Rattner talks to Foreign Policy about how he pulled Detroit back from the brink — and what lessons that success could have for Obama going forward. “

“Judges and investigators need to be unflinching in their inquiries into the paperwork debacle and must hold the banks fully accountable.”

“Chinese manufacturers have helped send the price of conventional solar panels plunging and grabbed market share far more quickly than anyone anticipated.”

Facebook and other social media present challenges like brand management and opportunities like cost-cutting for business willing to embrace modern technologies.

“With nearly one fifth of workers unemployed or under-employed, the best way to save jobs and boost productivity in the short term is for workers to accept lower wages.”

Northwestern University professor Alice Eagly says the highest leadership positions today are more open to women than ever—but there are female-specific branches at each career stage that lead many away.

“Maintaining a diverse media is a crucial underpinning of democracy. As for Murdoch, the sun has shone and he has made hay. It is time he heard a regulator knocking at his door.”

“When Democrats jump onto China bashing, they miss the real causes of the recession, and worse, legitimize us-vs.-them thinking.” Robert Reich on global economics.