Albert Einstein famously said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” They’re both important, says physicist and Nobel Prize recipient Frank Wilczek , but knowledge without imagination is barren. Take his subject of theoretical physics. As Wilczek says a lot of what you do is to try to…

Face to face with the world’s leading memory experts, my mind is beginning to feel very humble. Ben Whately, for instance, tells me about the famous mnemonist Matteo Ricci, a 16th Century Jesuit priest who was the first westerner to take China’s highest civil service exams. The exam was an…

“Save the Bees!” is a common refrain these days, and it’s great to see people interested in the little animals critical for our food supply around the globe. But I have one quibble: you’re talking about the wrong bees. Honey bees will be fine. They are a globally distributed, domesticated animal.…

During an expedition to the Antarctic, Russian surgeon Leonid Rogozov became seriously ill. He needed an operation - and as the only doctor on the team, he realised he would have to do it himself. As the polar winter rolled in, 27-year-old Leonid Rogozov started to feel tired, weak and nauseous.…

The Secret Lives of Homeless Students After years of homelessness, I graduated college and a competitive Master’s program. What about the other million-plus homeless students in the US? Jessica Sutherland May 5, 2015 By Jessica Sutherland Did you know that there are an estimated 1.2 million homeless…

In Rwanda, Building a “University in a Box” Kepler University is blending online learning with in-person instruction — and is seeing startling results. Wyatt Orme May 4, 2015 By Wyatt Orme & Tik Root Students attend class at Kepler University in Rwanda. The university is located on the outskirts of…

When I walked into Arabic class last week, Karam, my teacher, cheerily asked me how I was doing. I said, “Tamaam, hamdulillah,” which means, “Fine, thanks be to God.” But I was lying. I’d just spent a full day at work and was sitting down at a desk for two hours of mind-bending grammar, vocabulary,…

Karma Apr 26, 2015 Unlisted If this is the first you’ve heard of Karma, I recommend that you get the appropriate context from these two short posts first: To Help Create a More Informed, Accountable, and Honest World & From Concept to Karma . I’d also like to explain why this post has been censored…

What Caused the Crime Decline? a report by Oliver Roeder, Lauren-Brooke Eisen, and Julia Bowling, with a foreword by Joseph E. Stiglitz and an executive summary by Inimai Chettiar William Widmer Chris Gage, an inmate at Louisiana State Penitentiary—where a majority of inmates are serving life…

BENGALURU: Rahul Yadav has resigned as the CEO of Housing. com, capping several weeks of drama at one of India's most watched startups and leaving investors with the challenge of restoring normalcy at the online real estate services company. Yadav, 26, wrote a scornful resignation letter on April 30…

When news broke that Founders Fund, the proudly contrarian venture firm helmed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, was going to invest a major $75 million in Privateer Holdings , a company focused on producing, distributing and educating consumers about legal marijuana, it opened the floodgates for…

Emoji have exploded in popularity over the past few years, becoming synonymous with everyday conversations over social media, from WhatsApp to Twitter to Instagram. Expressing how you feel - be it sad, happy, grumpy and so on - via an emoticon isn't new, but the popularity of smartphones and…

For years, the FBI and other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies have been using invasive cell phone surveillance equipment, called Stingrays or cell site simulators, in secret and without abiding by the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. After sustained advocacy by the ACLU and…

Cops no longer need a warrant when seeking cellphone records from wireless carriers in the US a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday—reversing its own decision from last year. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that citizens have no expectation of privacy when it…

Too old for Linux? Nonsense! Too young? Please. Linux is for anyone of any age. Linux is for everyone, everywhere. -- The Linux Foundation Consider James Anderson. He's an 84 year-old volunteer at Free Geek , a Portland, Oregon non-profit organization, which rebuilds old computers for users who need…

NASA Langley/David C. Bowman Planes and helicopters have their strengths and weaknesses. Planes are fast and can carry a lot of stuff a long way, while helicopters are slow but they don’t need enormous runways and they’re extremely maneuverable. So naturally, people want to combine them. That’s why…

Bitcoin was supposed to be a currency beyond the control of financial institutions and, through strong cryptography, allow individuals to spend their money without being spied on. That utopian dream may be over. As large companies have formalized trade of the currency and governments have patched…

BERLIN — The uproar shaking the halls of power here could aptly be titled, “NSA Scandal II: The Sequel.” But in this latest spy drama, the nefarious Americans have a co-conspirator: the recalcitrant German intelligence service. Outrage in Germany over American snooping erupted in 2013, after data…

CURATOR’S CHOICE #19: MICHAEL J. NORTH FROM THE U.S. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE Michael J. North, Head of Rare Books and Early Manuscripts in NLM’s History of Medicine Division, takes a look at one the highlights of the Library’s Turning the Pages project, a Mongolian manuscript concerned with…

Hospira LifeCare PCA 3 infusion pumps were found to contain a number of serious security holes that could give an attacker control over the devices. In-brief: A researcher studying the workings of a wireless-enabled drug infusion pump by the firm Hospira said the device utterly lacked security…

The Yahoo Trust Unconference was a great success, and we’re thankful to all of our speakers and participants who made it happen. Miss out on the conversation? You can catch up by watching these videos, which capture the highlights from the day, including: Opening remarks from Yahoo’s Chief…

Just putting the insane rent into perspective for you. 1. You could buy this castle in the Midi-Pyrénées of France for $2,659,569… It’s built on the foundations of a Roman outpost that dates back to the 14th century and spans over 1500 square meters. It has 7 sitting rooms, 9 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms,…

Walking in Memphis with Kimbal Musk, technologist turned foodie visionary Steven Levy May 5, 2015 Unlisted Kimbal Musk was being careful on the day he almost died. It was February 14, 2010. He had arrived in Jackson Hole straight from the TED conference in Long Beach to spend time with his family on…

Microsoft Corp. is evaluating a bid for Salesforce.com Inc., after the cloud software provider was approached by another would-be buyer, people with knowledge of the matter said. Salesforce, which has a market value of almost $50 billion, is working with two investment banks to determine a response…

Autoruns My favorite choice when it comes to malware persistence is Sysinternals tools, Autoruns. In this paragraph, I mainly quote the official built-in help, but bear with me, it is still interesting. On a side note, there are some problems with the Autoruns tool: it can only run on a live system.…

Mark Twain worked at what was then called the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle.Photograph: Classic Image/Alamy Scholars at the University of California, Berkeley have uncovered and authenticated a cache of stories written by Mark Twain when he was a 29-year-old newspaperman in San Francisco . Many…

The lower house of the French parliament held a vote on Tuesday to adopt new surveillance rules. Credit Ian Langsdon/European Pressphoto Agency PARIS — At a moment when American lawmakers are reconsidering the broad surveillance powers assumed by the government after Sept. 11, the lower house of the…

Bill Clark/Getty Images Bill Clark/Getty Images Let’s assume that when he woke up on the morning of Dec. 12, Michael Corbat, CEO of Citigroup, was feeling pretty good. The day before, the House of Representatives had passed a bill that would save his bank and others lots of money and headaches. The…

‘I’m not a political neophyte,’ Fiorina has told voters, ‘but I’m also not a professional politician.’ Critics question both.Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Reuters When Carly Fiorina launches her campaign for president this week, her message to the world will be emphatic: what she did for HP, she can do…

Training with a video simulation, Lt. Sekou Millington of the Oakland, Calif., police confronted an armed man during a robbery. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times WASHINGTON — During a training course on defending against knife attacks, a young Salt Lake City police officer asked a question: “How…

Importance of Place In the wake of the Los Angeles riots more than 20 years ago, Congress created an anti-poverty experiment called Moving to Opportunity . It gave vouchers to help poor families move to better neighborhoods and awarded them on a random basis, so researchers could study the effects.…

The largest libraries do more than just store books and newspapers on their shelves. When a library collection contains millions of documents, it needs complex and highly sophisticated logistical systems in order to serve its readers’ requests. It needs library robots. In many libraries, amazing…

The Persistence of Memory (1931) by Salvador Dalí. Photograph courtesy of Salvador Dalí, Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dalí, DACS, 2007Photograph: PR S ome years ago, a journalist friend, posted to Paris by his magazine, became in quick succession the father of two children. As soon as their eyes were able…