Call it ecodriving, hypermiling or plain old frugality, people today are trying every trick they can think of to wring a few extra miles from a drop of gas. Unfortunately, most fuel-saving tips range from the dubious to the downright dimwitted. Even the ones that work — such as making only right turns — veer into the ridiculous. In this Top 5 list, I’ve separated the classics from the clunkers and saved you the trouble of doing your own Mythbusters episode. Read on to discover….
Science still struggles to define, measure or understand intelligence, let alone definitively nail down its genetic components. Yet one Stanford geneticist argues that civilization was a bad move, and that human intelligence has gradually ratcheted down since leaving its hunter-gatherer days behind.
Is the Peter Principle killing our intellect, or is Crabtree’s model another unripe hypothesis that received too much media attention? Read on to find out.
Tragic events like the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting inspire horror and indignation. They also boost gun sales and energize campaigns demanding more comprehensive (or better-enforced) gun control. But as of this writing, the likelihood of legal reform following the events in Newtown, Conn., remains unclear.
In the U.S., the gun control debate involves deep-seated beliefs concerning constitutional law, individual rights, the proper role of the state and how to build the best and safest society. But it also encompasses an important practical question:
Do Countries with Stricter Gun Laws Experience Less Crime or Fewer Homicides?
We’ve all received the emails, posts and tweets from well-meaning friends: “It takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown. Why tire yourself?” But is it true? Has anyone actually tallied up the facial forces involved? If so, did they account for the full range of smiles we express when amused, contented, excited, proud, satisfied or relieved? And is it true that the very act of smiling can make us happy?
Thomas Edison has long enjoyed the incandescent light of public admiration and textbook domination while Nikola Tesla, the scientist and inventor who pioneered the alternating current that truly powers the modern world, has unjustly languished as a footnote in scientific history. Farsighted, quirky, driven and brilliant, Tesla frequently leapfrogged ahead of his contemporaries to the next step, and the next.
Over the course of his long career, Tesla registered over 111 American patents and around 300 patents worldwide, including radio and alternating current. He designed the Niagara Falls power station that provided electricity to most of the northeastern United States. But his loyalty to his first loves, science and progress, cost him his fame, his fortune and, some argue, his sanity. These are just a few of the …
