Despite what it may look like on X, a majority of U.S. adults trust what scientists say about the environment.

That trust, however, may be shaky. According to research by the Political Psychology Research Group at Stanford University, the percentage of Americans who say they trust scientists on the environment has declined to 67% this year from...Read more

When COVID hit the U.S. and many public health experts were trying to act strong and confident, epidemiologist Michael Osterholm took a different approach. Asked about the novel coronavirus, he often replied honestly, “I don’t know.”

But Osterholm, now 71, knew at least as much as anyone else about infectious disease. He had spent his ...Read more

Even before special counsel Jack Smith submitted his extensive and revealing recent brief in the Jan. 6 case, it was evident that Donald Trump’s statements to then-Vice President Mike Pence would become a crucial legal battleground.

The brief plows through every snippet of the evidence Smith proposes to use to prosecute Trump for his efforts ...Read more

Approaching downstate Decatur by car, it’s not unusual to smell the huge Archer Daniels Midland industrial complex before seeing it. The sweet aroma of fermenting grain wafts through vehicle windows and air vents, a sign that ethanol fuel is being brewed. That process, in turn, produces carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas that ...Read more

An executive from a large technology firm has just won a Nobel. On Thursday, the top prize for chemistry went to the head of Alphabet Inc.’s AI efforts, Demis Hassabis, along with two other key scientists, for a years-long project that used artificial intelligence to predict the structure of proteins.

The day before, Geoffrey Hinton, a ...Read more

Multibillionaires are eccentric. It's common knowledge, like water is wet, fire is hot, "Joker: Folie à Deux" is a terrible film.

From Jeff Bezos to Peter Thiel to Richard Branson to Howard Hughes (adjusting for inflation), they do weird things: shoot themselves into space, invest in treatments to "cure" aging, buy islands and wash their hands...Read more

“I’m a big Lord of the Rings guy,” JD Vance once told a podcaster. The running mate of former and perhaps future president Donald Trump went on to explain that “a lot of my conservative worldview was influenced by Tolkien.”

It’s always a good idea to re-read the classics, and JRR Tolkien’s trilogy is certainly among them. One mark...Read more

It’s no coincidence that anti-Israel student groups at Massachusetts colleges and across the country called for a “Week of Rage” starting on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas as progressive lawmakers demanded a cease-fire.

The protesters who swarmed Storrow Drive, the “ragers” who reportedly vandalized the John ...Read more

There’s only a few weeks remaining before the 2024 presidential election comes to a close — that is, pending election certification, recounts, challenges and lawsuits. Ed Kilgore, political columnist for New York magazine since 2015, estimates that only 4 percent to 7% of the electorate is genuinely undecided.

However, there might be a ...Read more

In the span of two or so years, OpenAI, Nvidia and a handful of other companies essential to the development of artificial intelligence have become economic behemoths. Their valuations and stock prices have soared. Their products have become essential to Fortune 500 companies. Their business plans are the focus of the national security industry....Read more

Stepmothers don't get enough credit.

Parenting someone else's offspring can be a really tough job. As a stepmother myself, I understand the challenges that often accompany being part of a blended family, and it's admirable that Vice President Kamala Harris manages to have great relationships with both her stepchildren, who call her "Momala."

...Read more

In the year since the attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, much has changed.

Israel launched a large-scale military operation on Gaza, the geographic base of Hamas. The lives of millions of Palestinians have been thrown into destitution, in addition to the tens of thousands killed. Hamas, which governs Gaza, has been ...Read more

Seattle's star socialist is at it again. This time, she's making news with some uncomfortable truth-telling about her own aims that's bound to make many Seattleites squirm.

Former Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant was out in Michigan over the weekend, stumping for the Green Party presidential campaign of Jill Stein.

Democrats have long ...Read more

Political centrism has a bad name.

In fact, it has a lot of bad names. Centrists have been denigrated as squishy, weak in the knees, guilty of being sellouts — and worse, unpatriotic.

However, the idea of centrism has been getting a second look recently. Americans are feeling like they are imprisoned for life in the politics of extremism and...Read more

“Human beings have dreams. Even dogs have dreams, but not you, you are just a machine. An imitation of life.” — from the 2004 film I, Robot

More money is always good, but it’s clear now that wages were never the most critical issue leading to the now-suspended three-day strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association. The ILA�...Read more

As the Nov. 5 election swiftly approaches, the nation’s razor-thin presidential race hangs on one truth. It’s all about the base.

That mantra applies to Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. There’s a wrinkle, however, for the Democrats.

Trump has locked up his GOP base. The challenge for Harris is that she must...Read more

It used to be common to see Let’s Make a Deal contestants leave the TV game show smiling after winning $100 for every coin they could pull out of their purse or pocket. But as America moves ever closer to becoming a cashless society, it’s just as likely to see contestants who couldn’t scrape up a dime.

About 41% of Americans no longer use...Read more

Donald Trump's fascination with genetics, especially his own "good genes" of the white European sort, as well as the "bad genes" of the you-know-which types, has always been creepy. I won't compare him to Hitler; I leave that to historians and JD Vance.

Here's Vance in 2016, before Trump's election: Writing to a former Yale Law classmate, Vance...Read more

With North Carolina still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton landing in Florida, it is natural to ask: What is the best way to help the victims of these storms, and how can society best protect itself from such damage in the future? As an economist, I realize that I come at these questions with a bit of a ...Read more

Should so-called ghost guns — assembled at home from kits in as little as 20 minutes — be counted as guns for purposes of federal law?

If you have an ounce of common sense, the answer is obviously yes. The relevant law defines a firearm as “any weapon … which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by ...Read more