Picture this: you’re at your kid’s baseball game and he’s up at bat, just as you get 15 new e-mails, a text message, and some Twitter updates. Do you watch him get a home run or do you check your iPhone? Researchers worry about this dilemma, which is plaguing millions of plugged-in gadget consumers. Though [...]
The Hoover Dam was an engineering feat- a Depression-era accomplishment that harnessed the Colorado River and gave rise to cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Las Vegas. But the success of the project also represented a shift from the pioneer individualism of America's beginnings to a new ideal of shared enterprise. In his book Colossus, [...]
You may think you’re a music lover, but to a drooling fanatic, you’re simple enjoyment of Frank Sinatra or the Grateful Dead is miniscule. A “drooling fanatic,” as defined in Steve Almond’s new book <i>Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life</i>, is the wannabe rock star whose undying love for music finds solace in listening [...]
It’s not very often that America and its people can assume the underdog role. In any other global affair America is the perennial powerhouse, anything from foreign affairs to entertainment, the United States is usually the catalyst. Except for every four years when the world realigns its attention to the largest sporting event on the [...]
Cheese has been called “milk’s leap toward the immortal” and in his new book “Immortal Milk,” Eric Lemay examines the cheeses, the processes, and the people who make cheese a great culinary adventure. LeMay journeys to Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, a cheese festival in Wisconsin, braves surly cheese mongers in Paris, and dodges friendly goats [...]
The tension is building to a climax as the world focuses its attention on the largest sporting event in the world. The 2010 FIFA World Cup is set to begin action this week, the storylines are unfolding as per usual any large sporting event. But the real story might be that of the host country [...]
The 9/11 hijackers were Muslim but all of them had lived in Europe. How could such a radical group sink its roots into Western soil? Reporter Ian Johnson set out to discover the origins of this phenomenon and uncovered the story of a group of ex-Soviet Muslims who had defected to Germany during World War [...]
Delving into your family origins can be exciting or even shocking. For Los Angeles Times reporter Joe Mozingo, it was the latter. He set out to trace his father’s lineage and the origin of “Mozingo” and discovered something rather surprising. Instead of the Italian or French Basque origins for his family name, intensive genealogical searches [...]
Israel is facing international criticism after its raid on a flotilla in international waters left at least nine dead. The United Nations Security Council and others have urged an immediate impartial review of the raid on a vessel carrying humanitarian aid and passengers. Was Israel fairly enforcing its blockade on Gaza? Or was the raid [...]
After global warming became mainstream fodder for political debate and the Prius became the celebrity vehicle of choice, scientists joined the anti-global warming campaign, and published a handful of scientific reports about human’s effect on the Earth’s climate. But along came the spider of a well-established group of scientists, who planted the seed of doubt [...]
