Syria

Obama's threat to Syria seems empty after he failed to act in response to its use of chemical weapons. This does not bode well for America's image especially in terms of Iran and North Korea

Chemical weapons in Syria: Acid test

Bitcoins

The digital currency had garnered attention with its wild fluctuations in value, but the convenience of Bitcoins for international purchases and its independence from regulations make it an attractive currency. Its demand is still low, however, and time will tell how popular the currency can become.

Digital currencies: A new specie

Thatcher

Following the passing of margaret thatcher, the world needs to realize that it needs more of her principles to deal with the current crisis

Margaret Thatcher: Freedom fighter

Economic policy

Europe should look at the FED's boldness and creativity to learn what it has been doing wrong in terms of handling its financial crisis

Economic policy: A world of cheap money

Kim

The hope that Kim jung il's son will bring change to the country was misguided, as he has ratcheted up the tension by resuming nuclear development and threatening America.

Coping with North Korea: Korean roulette

Egypt

Egypyt's economy is sliding and its population has to vote for someone willing to push difficult and unpopular reforms to prevent economic collapse.

Egypt: It’s the politics, stupid

Global warming

Temperature may not be rising as quickly as previously feared, but even so current policies are woefully inept at dealing with climate change.

Global warming: Apocalypse perhaps a little later

India

India has great potential as a world power, but it needs to become more ambitious and be willing to take sides to have true influence in the world.

India: Can India become a great power?

Alibaba

Alibaba already handles more money than ebay and amazon combined and is poised to become one of the world's most valuable companies and change China.

E-commerce in China: The Alibaba phenomenon

E cigarettes

Electronic cigarettes should be embraced, but some are trying to ban them for fear they are a gateway.

Electronic cigarettes: No smoke. Why the fire?

Cyprus

The crisis in Cyprus is the fault of Cyprus letting its banks get too big and its creditors being too conservative to save it.

The euro-zone crisis: Just when you thought it was safe…

Cyprus

The bail out of Cyprus should not happen through its government, but through each individual bank (sadly this did not happen after the release of the article)

Cyprus: Make a model of it, not a mess

Pope Francis

The election of pope Francis, the first Jesuit and non-european pope, is important for religious and secular people alike due to the wide reach of the Catholic Church. He has a great chance to reform the church and reduce needless internal squabbles.

Pope Francis: The first southern pope

Renting

Thanks to the Internet, peer-to-peer sharing is taking off.

Peer-to-peer rental: The rise of the sharing economy

Chavez

Chavez has done nothing to further Latin America's cause, with its recent boon mainly due to rising oil prices and trade with China. His death may finally bring about democracy in Latin America.

Latin America: Hugo Chávez’s rotten legacy

The Dow

The Dow is at a new high thanks to the central bank pushing down bond yields and encouraging investor confidence in equity. This has caused American companies to become overvalued and it is unlikely that the bull run will continue.

The Dow’s new high: Rally drivers

Medicaid

Republican states are beginning to work with the federal government to expand medicaid, but reforming medicaid will be the true challenge.

Health care: An offer they can’t refuse

Penny

There is growing talk to drop the penny, which costs twice as much to make as it is worth.

The coinage: The penny drops

Italy

The Italian election results are disastrous, with the people voting for a corrupt politician and a comedian. To prevent the exit of Italy from the euro zone and the fall of the currency, more reform and less austerity is needed.

Italy's election: Send in the clowns

Mayer

Mayer is trying to force yahoo employees to stop working at home and start working at the office. Instead of trying to cure the symptom of unexcited employees, she should try to find and deal with the cause.

Yahoo: Mayer culpa

Energy

Tanks that were once meant to be used to import natural gas are now slowly being converted to export oil due to the success of fracking. However, the government has been slow to approve new exports. Exporting excess oil will reduce global use of dirty coal and bring money into America, so the administration should stop dragging its feet.

American energy and economics: Better out than in

Sequester

The sequester is under way and its execution in the next few weeks will determine whether America would rather life with fewer entitlements or higher taxes

Article

Africa

Africa is booming, but less restrictions to trade and a crack down on corruption is needed to sustain growth and prevent collapse.

The world’s fastest-growing continent: Aspiring Africa

HCP

The US is about to launch the "human connectome project" that seeks to map out every connection in the brain using electron microscopes and cognitive imaging. If it works, it will reveal life's greatest mystery.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science: mapping the brain: Only connect

Texas

The Texas budget surplus is not all it's cracked up to be, as they have to make budgets 2 years in advance and are not allowed to spend more than indicated in the budget, the flailing school system is still facing $6 billion in cuts.

The Texas budget: Too much of a good thing

Transactions tax

A tax is being proposed that will charge a minimal tax on all transactions in Europe, but such a tax will deter foreigners from investing in European assets at a time when Europe needs it the most.

Europe’s financial-transactions tax: Bin it

Illegal drugs

Banning drugs has done nothing to curb its consumption and only lead to rise in crime and loss of lives. Legalizing, regulating, and taxing drugs is a better alternative and politicians should be brave enough to enact such a change.

Illegal drugs: The great experiment

Asteroids

Apocalyptic asteroids can be detected decades or centuries in advance and acted upon, but smaller ones big enough to still kill a city can not. This is something that a NASA without a space shuttle program can divert their attention to.

Asteroid defence: The real star war

Cyber theft

China should reconsider supporting cyber theft if it wants to be taken seriously in the international community.

China’s cyber-hacking: Getting Ugly

Syria

Obama is attempting to avoid another foreign conflict in favor of dealing with the economy, but America will invariably get sucked into Syria's troubles as the country disintegrates and jihadist militias unravel everything America was trying to accomplish in the middle east.

Syria: The death of a country

Hagel

Hagel's rocky confirmation hearing shows how split the country is over matters of foreign affairs.

The defence secretary’s nomination: Hagelian dialectic

Minimum wage

Obama set out a plan to raise minimum wage, which is lower in the US than almost any other OECD country. Liberals argue that doing so would increase the spending power of the poor and boost the economy. Conservatives claim that it would cost low skill workers their jobs. Neither is quite right.

Raising the minimum wage: Trickle-up economics

State of the Union

Obama's plan to avoid the sequester is a good deal for the Republicans (cut medicare and tax reform), but whether the Republicans will agree is another matter. Obama is trying to get his way by bullying the Republicans and trying to get the public on his side. He needs to start courting the Republicans more if he wants to get his way and avoid the hostile atmosphere that dominated his first term.

The state of the union: A House divided

Microbiomes

Microbiomes have been shown to be important to various aspects of health and now, a paper shows that the kidneys can detect a substance made by gut bacteria and alter blood pressure accordingly.

The microbiome and health: Sniffing out hypertension

TTIP

In his State of the Union address, Obama mentioned lowering tariffs between Europe and America. This would be a huge Boone to the economies of both partners, but lobbies that want to protect their own interests and incomes stand in the way of implementation.

Free trade across the Atlantic: Come on, TTIP

Currency war

A lot of fuss is being made about a currency war, but the week dollar and the yen are a product of low interest rates, which will boost domestic demand and with it, import. The eurozone would do well to emulate this.

The global economy: Phoney currency wars

Tax havens

A lot to criticism has been made in America against tax havens, but America itself serves as a tax haven for certain foreign companies, and the tax code allows for legal tax dodging. Fixing corporate taxes therfore has to start domestically.

Tax havens: The missing $20 trillion

Batteries

Since lithium battery technology has probably reached its optimum, new forms of batteries will have to be invented for future gains.

Article

Sequestration

The pentagon is facing harsh cuts and reductions in personel if the sequestration hits.

Article

Murder rates

In light of the Newtown shootings, the rising murder rate has been drawing a lot of attention. It has become difficult for those in certain areas to get elected if they get an A on the NRA scorecard, something that would have been inconceivable a years ago.

Article

Online identity

It's very hard to prove that you are who you claim online. This is why sites use passwords, which can be difficult to secure and easy to forget. A third party that handles online credentials for all websites would be better, but there's a long way to go before people feel comfortable enough to give a third party proper credentials.

Article

Social mobility

With the children of rich parents getting vastly more resources and favorable treatment in terms of better school districts and admission to better colleges, social mobility is at an all-time low in America. More money should be spent on educating students who perform poorly and students from poor neighborhoods.

Article

Yuan

The yuan is getting more international use, but in order for it to become a rival to the dollar, China will have to liberalize its financial market and reform its banks to be more capitalistic and less autocratic.

Article

North Korea

Underground traders in North Korea are opening the country up, against the will of its leaders, to capitalism. With capitalism, products from the West (such as movies, shows) begin to degrade the monopoly on truth that the dictatorship has long enjoyed. Western powers and China should do everything possible to support this change and undermine the regime, as it did with the Soviet Union, in hopes of freeing North Korea from famine and dictatorship.

Article

Sleep and memory

During sleep, the brain doesn't only choose what to remember, but also actively decides what should be forgotten.

Article

Kerry

Kerry has a lot of expertise and experience for the position of secretary of state, but he may be too ambitious.

Article

Euro crisis

Troubles in Spain and Italy sent European markets downward, which could be a minor blip in Europe's road to recovery or the sign of a new crisis.

Article

Scandinavia

Scandinavian countries have become the role model for other economies as they have a great balance between fiscal responsibility and public programs. People in Scandinavia don't mind paying high taxes because they get great education and free health care in exchange. In other parts like the US, the country is too divided to embrace both the conservative philosophy of fiscal responsibility and the liberal philosophy of improving entitlement programs.

Article

Egypt

After a revolution and an election, Morsi is changing Egypt's constitution and entrenching his islamist party. His policies are very unpopular, and with an election coming up, Egypt may again descend into another revolution.

Article

Immigration

After losing badly in 2012, the republican party finally agrees to immigration reform, opening the door to changes to the currently complex and inhibitory laws.

Article

Lawyer

Expenses on legal proceedings in the US have risen astronomically. Partly to blame is the costly education process, which could be shortened as it is in many other countries. Law firms are also exclusively owned by lawyers. Allowing outside investors would encourage more efficient operation and lower operating cost.

Article

Child trafficking

Child trafficking has been a big problem in China due to the one child policy, with gangs abducting children and selling then to orphanages, which put them up for adoption at high fees. Lately, the police and parents have been reaching out to social media to crack down on the practice, but it it's difficult with local officials, especially in rural areas, protecting the criminals and orphanages failing to check the DNA of children they receive.

Article

Obama

Obama's inauguration speech hints that his second term will mainly focus on domestic affairs and that he values government programs more than attempting to decrease the debt. He also talked about gun control and fighting for gay marriage (first president to use "gay" the in his inauguration speech), indicating that he will be much less timid in this term.

Article

Cameron

David Cameron is gambling by proclaiming that Britain will hold a referendum to see whether or not it will stay in the EU. However, the prospect of Britain leaving may compell other countries, primarily Germany, to be more lenient when it comes to renegotiating Britain's terms, so the gamble may pay off.

Article

Sahara

Terrorism and war lords have risen to prominence in the Saharan region, with possibly wide-reaching consequences. Western nations shouldn't let the fear of intervention hold them back from stabilizing the region.

Article

Merkel

The CDU and FDP may not get the majority in the Bundesrat, forcing the conservative CDU to make a coalition with the liberal SPD. While Mrs Merkel is still likely to win the election, this may make her too cautious to make the aggressive changes that Europe needs to move forward.

Article

Economy

The world economy is much better off now with US housing recovering, the financial crisis over, and Europe on stronger foothold. A limit on the growth of entitlements rather than rapid austerity is part of the reason why the US fared better than Europe.

Article

Dna storage

Dna is now being used as a way to store files. It can store massive amounts of data in a tiny space (duh) and will last for thousands of years of stored correctly, but it takes a day to extract the data from Dna and storage costs are over $10000 per mb. Still, this makes it useful for achieving huge files and data that don't need to be constantly accessed.

Article

Deep Springs

Deep Springs is one of few remaining all-male schools. It is a 2-year college consisting of 26 students, most of whom go on to transfer to Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Stanford, or Oxford. In 2011 they decided to also admit women, but ran into legal troubles as a judge would not re-interpret the trust from their original founder  to allow women into the school.

Article

Gun Laws

Obama is trying to enact the most sweeping gun changes in twenty years in light of the recent shooting. He will have to go up against stark opposition such as the NRA, whose membership grew by 250000 since the Newtown shooting.

Article

California Budget

California has gotten rid of its budget deficit thanks to cutting down on state programs and higher taxes through prop 30. It's not out of danger however, as the aging demographic will require a lot in terms of financial support and better education for the current youth.

Article

Offshoring

Companies are starting to relocate jobs from abroad to back home at labor costs, especially in China, are rising. Many of these jobs require skilled workers, however, and developed countries should make sure not to fall behind the developing countries in that aspect.

Article

Sankaku / Diaoyu

China and Japan are coming increasingly closer to military confrontation and there are disturbing parallels between what is happening now and what happened 80 years ago.

Article

Obama's legacy

Obama's legacy will mainly be determined by how he handles three issues in his second term. He will have to control the deficit, improve relations and cooperation with China, and help the spread of democracy started by the Arab Spring in the Middle East.

Article

Reform in China

There has long been a deal in China between the rulers and the ruled. The rulers would ensure prosperity and in turn, the rules wouldn't ask for too much freedom. Many citizens are going back on the deal now as a growing middle class begins to demand the freedoms guaranteed to them by the Chinese constitution. Leaders in China would be wise to listen.

Article

Debt limit

The debt limit is an anachronistic remnant from the 40s when all outstanding government bonds were combined into a single debt limit. The result is that the government can pass a budget with a deficit without approving the debt needed to fund it. This creates an unnecessary source of disagreement, as the budget itself is already controlled by Congress. The debt limit should therefore be abolished.

Article

Innovation slow down

Innovation has declined by many measures over the last 100 years. Life expectancy and productivity increases soared in the first half of the century, but slowed drastically in the second half. Slowing innovation means we will one day no longer be able to support the exponential population growth. Government restrictions and unions should be reduced to decrease the hurdles many face now when trying to promote new ideas.

Article

Mass

While seconds are now defined by the wobble of a cesium atom and meters by the distance light travels in certain fractions of said second, a kilogram is still defined by the weight of a lump of metal in Paris. This lump has been slowly changing in weight overtime, which is worrying to scientists, so now a new method is being devised to have a more robust measure of mass using a watt balance.

Article

Aaron Schwartz

Aaron Schwartz, who developed a new version of RSS feeds  at age 14 and later launched Creative Commons and was vital in bringing Reddit to prominence, fought hard to create open access for everyone on the internet to those documents that he thought no one had a right to charge for access. One example is JSTOR, which charges fees for viewing articles that it did not write and not sharing that profit with the original authors. He was in the middle of a trial in which, if convicted, he could have faced up to 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine. He will be sorely missed, but his passing will no doubt continue the fight for a more open internet.

Article

Men women age gap

The gap between the life expectancies of men and women is decreasing because men are starting to drink and smoke less than before. Obesity is also harder on women than men. But women still have 2 X chromosomes and longer telomeres. Also, testosterone promotes risky and aggressive behavior and suppresses the immune system. Fuck.

Article

Biden the negotiator

Joe Biden has been very successful in the past and is now negotiating gun control, but it will take more than him to unite a country in which distrust for the opposition is so deep seated at both the citizen and executive level.

Article

India's women's rights

The latest rape in India is getting a lot of attention, finally creating a possibility of reform in India where rape and assault of women, especially in villages, are severely under-prosecuted. There's still a long way to go for women's rights to progress along with India's economic development.

Article

Rice husks

Tires lose energy as heat through rolling friction, which is when a tire compresses. This reduces fuel mileage. Many things have been used to make tires stiffer and reduce rolling friction. The most recent discovery is silica. It's too expensive to extract and process silica from sand, so pirelli has discovered that small grains of silica also exist in rice husks. Rice husks, once a waste product, are now used as fuel. Now the ashes from burning rice husks, which used to be waste, are used for their silica.

Article

Berlin airport fiasco

Berlin's new airport, planned in 96 to be completed in 2011 is yet to be opened, a big problem for a city that's so big and yet lacks a major airport due to cold war divisions. The new airport is projected to only carry half of the capacity planned and cost twice as much. Shit happens even to Germans.

article

Venom as medicine

Plan toxins (such as digitalis) have long been used as medicine and recently there has been a development to explore a new field, reptile venoms, for their curative potential. There have been several positive results from basic research and clinical trials, such as using eritostatin from the Asian sand viper to kill melanoma cells, Crototoxin from the South American rattlesnake to kill cancer cells, and hanalgesin from the king cobra as an oral pain medication 20-200 more powerful than injected morphine. Very appropriate for the year of the snake.

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21569015-snake-venom-being-used-cure-rather-kill-toxic-medicine?fsrc=rss%7Csct

Foreign Universities in China

Universities in US are trying to get a foothold in China given the countries ever-growing role, but they're finding it difficult because cheating and plagiarism in China are rampant. Discussing political topics is also hard to do in China. Oh well.

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21569070-foreign-universities-find-working-china-harder-they-expected-campus-collaboration