Politics

Could An Evil Mega-Corporation Ever Exist In Real Life?

Dystopian stories are full of evil corporations that rule the world. But writers seldom explain how they rose to power in the first place. Could an amoral mega-corp really exist? We talked to a couple experts to find out. The good news: It probably couldn’t happen. Bad news: We may already be getting something worse.…

A Federal Judge Has Struck Down An Anti-GMO Law In Hawaii

Last year, Hawaii’s fourth-largest island, Kauai, passed a local ordinance restricting the use of pesticides and genetically modified crops. But,a federal judge has ruled the county overstepped its legal authority — which has potentially huge implications for whether local communities across the U.S. can ban GMO crops. The Kauai County ordinance known as Bill 2491…

The Political Views Of U.S. Religions In A Single Graph

Relying on data from Pew’s Religious Landscape survey, Tobin Grant, a political science professor at Southern Illinois University, produced this graph representing 44 different religious groups — and their views on the extent to which the U.S. government should be involved in moral and economic issues. Grant highlights some key takeaway points: Churches that are…

Why Aren’t We Fully Monitoring These Active Volcanoes in the U.S.?

The U.S. is one of the most volcanically rich countries in the world, with 169 active volcanoes. 57 of them are deemed high threats. But efforts to predict potential eruptions are being hampered by outdated equipment and lack of funding for scientific monitoring. As we are currently seeing in Iceland, volcanoes can show signs of…

People in the U.S. Fear War More Than Economic Downturn

In a national survey, U.S. residents said that the biggest global threat to the country today will come from extremist militant groups or nations. But they nevertheless said that other big threats include pandemics and global climate change. This survey reflects a change from last year. War and violence are rated as a bigger threats…

Cosplayers Fight for Online Anonymity and Privacy During Dragon Con

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), io9, and a coalition of fan communities are launching “Project Secret Identity,” a cosplay photo campaign to raise awareness of the importance of anonymity and privacy during the annual pop culture convention Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia, Aug. 29 – Sept. 1. The campaign, online at ProjectSecretIdentity.org, is supported by…

Chinese Government Tries to Quell Unrest with an Animated Princess

Uighers are an ethnic minority in western China, largely Muslim, who have been protesting the Chinese government for its discriminatory policies against them over the past several years. Now the Chinese government hopes to appease the protesters with a bizarre princess story. Historically, China has been ruled by the dominant Han ethnicity. But in the…

Secrets of the Manhattan Project Leaked 1500 Times During World War II

The World War II program to develop an atomic bomb was the largest secret project ever undertaken by the U.S. government. But newly-declassified documents reveal how it hard it was to keep things secret as the weapon neared completion. Information leaks were everywhere, even in church sermons. Trinity Test plutonium bomb image courtesy of Truman…

Robots aren’t taking our jobs — but they are creating a wider gap between the haves and have-nots. This is the intriguing argument of MIT economics professor David Autor, which you can read about in the Wall Street Journal today.

Marijuana Legalization Could Keep Democrats In Control Of The Senate

The Republican Party has an excellent chance of winning the majority of Senate seats this November. Alaska could make the difference, since incumbent Democrat Mark Begich is particularly vulnerable. But a ballot initiative on legalizing pot could keep him in office, and maintain a Democratic majority. There are several reasons why the Alaska Senate race…

Which Lucky State Will Get a Useless $4 Billion Defense System?

At the urging of Congress, military officials have begun considering East Coast sites for an anti-ballistic missile system that doesn’t work and the Pentagon doesn’t want. But members of Congress can’t let such details stand in the way. Now states are vying to score the $4 billion allocated for this dubious effort. The missile defense…

Which Character Is A Hero To Us, But A War Criminal To The Other Side?

Sometimes, one culture’s hero is another culture’s villain — especially if they were on opposite sides of a conflict. Everybody always says that the winners write history, but often both sides have different versions. So which character is either a savior or a butcher, depending on whom you ask? Please include a link to a…

Are Americans Becoming Less Isolationist?

A new poll by the Pew Research Center finds that 54% of Americans support airstrikes in Iraq, while only 31% disapprove. That’s a huge turnaround from last year, when a Pew survey reported that a record 52% felt the U.S. should keep out of world affairs. What’s going on here? The latest poll results are…

Stop Pretending There’s a Line Dividing Politics and Tech

“Silicon Valley is a place where seemingly impossible problems are solved every day,” Ezra Klein writes in a new post for The Verge. “…while Washington is a place where solvable problems prove impossible to do anything about.” Klein presents a huge chasm dividing the worlds of technology and politics. This idea is misguided at best,…

D​id Harry Potter Influence The Political Views of Millennials?

Kids who grew up reading the Harry Potter books are voting in U.S. elections. And now a new study says the adventures of the young wizard might have cast an enduring spell on its fans, subtly shaping their values and political views. The Millennial Generation is actually the Muggle Generation. Anthony Gierzynski, a political scientist…

50 Years Of U.S. Political Polarization In One Gif

Recent surveys reveal that during the last two decades, an increasing number of Americans have chosen to veer Right or Left in their political orientation — with almost no center ground. That trend becomes especially apparent when looking at U.S. election results, county-by-county, since 1960. The red-blue maps that we’re accustomed to seeing during presidential…

New Ad Campaign Targets Medical Marijuana As A Date Rape Drug

Florida voters will soon decide whether they want to legalize medical marijuana in their state. As November election day draws closer, polls indicate the ballot initiative, known as “Amendment 2,” has strong popular support — and its opponents are descending ever further into reefer madness. The anti-legalization group “No On Amendment 2” says the ballot…

The Greatest Fake Religion of All Time

Over fifty years ago, a group of pranksters founded a satiric religion devoted to creating conspiracy theories so insane that nobody would ever believe uncritically in conspiracies again. They called themselves the Discordians. And their weird ideas are still influencing us today. Painting of Eris by Emily Balivet History does not record Robert Welch’s reaction…

How Much of Iraq Does ISIS Actually Control?

In light of President Obama’s decision to authorize air strikes in Iraq, a think tank has just released an interactive map to track the movements of the Sunni jihadist group, the Islamic State (IS)— formerly known as ISIS and ISIL—with updates on how much territory it controls in the fractured country. According to the New…

CIA Analysis Of The War Of 1812 Finds Same Failures That Led To 9/11

This month is the 200th anniversary of the British capture of Washington, DC, and the torching of the White House. How did this disaster happen, despite ample warnings? A CIA analyst who pored through historical documents blames the same types of intelligence failures that preceded Pearl Harbor and September 11th. The British invasion of Washington,…