A review of Abrahm Lustgarden, “On the Move” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2024) The sky was burnt orange and the smoke was coming. If the fire advanced through the buffer zone, it would reach his California town and then his porch. He suddenly understood why Ellen from down the road was considering fleeing to somewhere like...
Legal documents are notoriously difficult to understand, even for lawyers. This raises the question: Why are these documents written in a style that makes them so impenetrable? MIT cognitive scientists believe they have uncovered the answer to that question. Just as “magic spells” use special rhymes and archaic terms to signal their power, the convoluted...
Vance offers little experience and few connections to support Trump in a second term, but it doesn’t seem like Trump wants a vice president anyway. Editor’s Note: The role of the vice president varies by administration, but certain characteristics make them more influential. The University of Maryland’s Aaron Mannes details these characteristics and argues that, should...
Researchers outline dangers of developing AI-powered autonomous weapons For decades, the military has used autonomous weapons such as mines, torpedoes, and heat-guided missiles that operate based on simple reactive feedback without human control. However, artificial intelligence (AI) has now entered the arena of weapons design. According to Kanaka Rajan, associate professor of neurobiology in the Blavatnik...
For decades, winning an Olympic medal has been described as the Holy Grail of sports. Athletes aren’t the only ones in search of a Holy Grail. For example, in 2012, when physicists discovered the Higgs boson, a particle viewed as one of the fundamental building blocks of the universe, it was described as “a true...
.jpg?sfvrsn=6b10cf8f_5 "AI Will Displace American Workers—When, How, and To What Extent Is Less Certain")
Policymakers have tools available to mitigate the resulting economic instability and insecurity, whenever and wherever it arises. There’s a tussle over the future of AI regulation. One camp insists that “x-risk,” or existential risk, warrants the preponderance of regulatory focus. Another camp demands that privacy be the primary concern. A third cohort wants climate impacts...
Allies and adversaries will take note if U.S. foreign policy swings wildly from one administration to the next. A version of this piece originally appeared in the Substack “Blue Blaze.” The United States remains a superpower—indeed, the superpower. As such, its policies and preferences will shape every region of the world in the coming years and decades. The post-World...
The 2024 Summer Olympics are in full swing. One of the marquee events is of course the marathon, a grueling test of fitness and athleticism. When it comes to endurance running, humans are among the very top mammals in their athletic prowess. While we may not be the best sprinters in the animal kingdom, we...
-(1).jpg?sfvrsn=cd4b276e_5 "Throwing the Book at Foreign Influence: the Menendez Verdict and Going Beyond FARA")
Effectively countering foreign malign influence requires leveraging the full weight of the very institutions such efforts seek to undermine. July 16 was a busy day for the Southern District of New York. Around 12:30 p.m. ET, a New York jury informed the court that it had reached a verdict in the criminal prosecution of New Jersey’s senior...
The first modern barcode was scanned 50 years ago this summer – on a 10-pack of chewing gum in a grocery store in Troy, Ohio. Fifty is ancient for most technologies, but barcodes are still going strong. More than 10 billion barcodes are scanned every day around the world. And newer types of barcode symbols,...
