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...
Author: sp (sp )
What Will the End of the U.S. Foreign Policy Consensus Mean for the World?
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...
Humans Are Born to Run
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...
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...
Happy 50th Birthday to the UPC Barcode – No One Expected You Would Revolutionize Global Commerce
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,...
Can a World Cup Run Drive Interest in a Nation? New Study Finds Evidence of the “Flutie Effect” Off the Field
Nearly four decades ago, Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie launched a game-winning, mid-field touchdown pass to upset the University of Miami on the game’s final play—prompting a subsequent surge in applications to the school in what has been dubbed the “Flutie Effect.” A team of NYU researchers has now found evidence of this effect beyond...
Climate Misinformation Is About More Than Denialism
Lies, misconceptions, and propaganda about intensifying climate change and policy responses will increasingly shape security and geopolitics. In May, southern Brazil experienced devastating flooding that killed more than 160 people, displaced 600,000 residents, and drew in the military for a lengthy recovery. It was another harbinger of our age of climate insecurity. But despite likely scientific explanations, recovery was complicated by...
More Black Americans Die from Effects of Air Pollution
Everyone knows that air pollution is bad for health, but how bad depends a lot on who you are. People of different races and ethnicities, education levels, locations and socioeconomic situations tend to be exposed to different degrees of air pollution. Even at the same exposure levels, people’s ability to cope with its effects —...
Ukraine’s Largest Music Festival Returns with a Break from the Inescapable Reality of War
This year, Ukraine’s largest music festival struck a different chord. Gone were the international headliners, the massive performance halls and the hundreds of thousands of visitors. Instead, beloved local artists graced the stage this past weekend at the Atlas Festival — the first since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 — for a smaller but...
When Aiming for Your Adversary’s Achilles Heel May Lead to Shooting Yourself in the Foot
A review of Steve Coll, “The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq” (Penguin Random House, 2024) Steve Coll’s latest work, “The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq,” seeks to explain why Saddam Hussein would put his regime at risk...
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