Exploring bleeding edge experiments, oddities, new and bizarre dicoveries, and fact-checking conspiracy theories since 2008. No question is out of bounds and no topic is too strange for a deep dive.
# politics
Living under constant surveillance does have some benefits like deterring crime and catching frauds and cheats, argues Charles Kenny.
# tech
Bureaucrats keep thinking about how to tame the internet, but the internet's very nature makes it trivial to resist their efforts.
# politics
Betting on tax cuts to boost the economy in the age of automation and outsourcing doesn't make sense. Yet the GOP holds on to voodoo economics with religious zeal.
# oddities
Hyperventilating conspiracy theories used to be fringe phenomena on the internet look on as curiosities. Now, they're being incorporated into the GOP platform.
# tech
Command economies haven't worked with people. Now, some groups want to try it with machines.
# oddities
A conspiracy theory can't be debunked with something as irrelevant as facts or reality. To its followers, it has to be true, no matter what.
# politics
Every tax season shows that not only are people ignorant about how their tax money is spent, they don't want to listen to the breakdowns. And that has serious implications for science and education.
# politics
We know what ails us and how to solve it. We just seem unable and unwilling to take the next step and implement those fixes.
# health
The two rules of alt med business. One, there's no regulation strict enough for Big Pharma. Two, any regulation, no matter how token, is too onerous for snake oil manufacturers.
# tech
The internet kill switch bill is back and its author and sponsors have learned absolutely nothing about how the technology works.