Weekend Reads

The new way police are surveilling you: Calculating your threat ‘score’

Researchers have developed an extremely effective “sarcasm detector”

The monumental fall of the Republican Party

Juniper drops NSA-developed code following new backdoor revelations

Juniper Networks, which last month made the startling announcement its NetScreen line of firewalls contained unauthorized code that can surreptitiously decrypt traffic sent through virtual private networks, said it will remove a National Security Agency-developed function widely suspected of also containing a backdoor for eavesdropping.

Giving money away makes us happy. Then why do so few of us do it?

We find a strong and highly consistent association between generous practices and various measures of personal well-being like happiness, health, a sense of purpose in life, and personal growth. In our book we discuss the various causal mechanisms that produce this association. While greater well-being can encourage generosity, practices of generosity also enhance well-being.

Kenyan Muslims shield Christians in Mandera bus attack

They told the militants "to kill them together or leave them alone", a local governor told Kenyan media.

How to Drive in the Snow Like a Pro

Why This Was the Year the Traditional Presidential Campaign Died

The Hunt for Alien Molecules

Most of the wiggles in the Horsehead data were easily attributable to common chemicals such as carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and neutral carbon. But there was also a small, unidentified line at 89.957 gigahertz. This was a mystery—a molecule completely unknown to science.

The Race to Create Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Heats Up

Please don’t suddenly pretend you care about homeless veterans for just as long as it allows you to oppose helping refugees

People who genuinely care about one good thing do not treat every other good thing as competition that must be crushed and stopped.