Science
Reason magazine
PUERTO RICO INCHES TOWARD SELF-DETERMINATION
REP. RAÚL GRIJALVA (D-Ariz.), chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, was pissed. The prominent progressive had just left a July 26 committee meeting on the Puerto Rico Status Act, a legislative compromise negotiated by the territory's nonvoting House member, Rep. Jenniffer GonzálezColón of the New Progressive Party (PNP).
4 min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
RELIGION: AGAINST GAME OF THRONES CHRISTIANITY
FOR MANY MEMBERS of the so-called New Right, one thing is clear: Classical liberal principles are not getting the job done.
3 min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
HIGHER COSTS FOR HIGHER ED
WHEN PRESIDENT JOE Biden announced in August that he was canceling thousands of dollars in student loan debt for most current borrowers, he explained that his plan was partly a response to the rapid rise in the cost of higher education.
3 min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
ONE FOOT OFF THE GRID
WHEN OUR WATER was turned off one morning last January, we assumed it was due to the sinkhole slowly expanding across the width of our single-lane street in South Philadelphia. But we could only guess, as no one answered the phone at the Philadelphia Water Department, and the first city employee didn't show up on our street until four hours after the taps died. When one of my elderly neighbors asked how long it would take to restore service, the city guy said his crews were swamped. It took 27 hours.
3 min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
THE NEW DEAL AND A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN
THE U.S. SUPREME Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022), which eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, has raised the possibility of a future Republican-controlled Congress seeking to ban abortion nationwide. If that happens, the resulting courtroom battles will likely center on a New Deal-era precedent that vastly expanded the scope of congressional power.
2 min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
THE LABOR MARKET IS BROKEN
INFLATION IS UP. The stock market is down. Unemployment is just 3.5 percent. Yet labor force participation remains stubbornly low, with only 62.3 percent of the civilian population working or actively looking for work-well below pre-pandemic levels. And even before the pandemic, that figure had been steadily declining for years.
5 min |
January 2023
Reason magazine
We Are Living Robert Heinlein's Dream
A new generation of companies has made space travel affordable.
10+ min |
December 2022
Reason magazine
We Are Going to the Moon
Thanks to the rise of private spaceflight companies, mankind will have a future off-earth.
10+ min |
December 2022
Reason magazine
The Case for Space Billionaires
What critics of the private space race get wrong
10 min |
December 2022
Reason magazine
If You Want to Get High in Space
After SpaceX founder Elon Musk smoked a blunt on Joe Rogan's podcast in 2018, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was happy to cut him some slack. "Let the man get high if he wants to get high," Tyson told TMZ. "He's the best thing we've had since Thomas Edison."
3 min |
December 2022
Reason magazine
America's Other Space Agency
How the FCC went from regulating telegraphs to regulating satellites
10 min |
December 2022
Reason magazine
The Twin Crusades Against Drugs and Guns
Americans are suffering the "unjust, cruel, and even irrational" consequences of the wars on intoxicants and firearms.
10+ min |
November 2022
Reason magazine
American Elections Are a Mess, and They Always Have Been
The long, weird history of partisan electoral shenanigans
10+ min |
November 2022
Reason magazine
Qatar's World Cup Cruelty
Qatar’s bid to boost its global standing by hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup is hardly unprecedented.
3 min |
November 2022
Reason magazine
Finance for Teens
Our homeschooling family didn’t sign up for this class, but there’s lots to learn from economic turmoil.
3 min |
November 2022
Reason magazine
'This is Bigger Than Basketball'
Enes Kanter Freedom on China, the NBA, and free speech
10+ min |
November 2022
Reason magazine
It's Been 50 Years Since Humans Walked on the Moon
We were supposed to go back to the moon last week. We were also supposed to go back five weeks before that in mid-September, and six months before that.
3 min |
December 2022
Reason magazine
TERRAFORM THE GALAXY
SEVERAL INFLUENTIAL PHILOSOPHERS and environmentalist thinkers argue that terraforming Mars and other planets, making them suitable for humans and other Earth life, would be immoral. As we near a day when terraforming is actually possible, the arguments against it are worth reviewing and rebutting.
4 min |
December 2022
Reason magazine
ARE WE STILL AWED BY THE HEAVENS?
IS SPACE MORE awesome than ever, now that we've walked on the moon and beheld the stunning photos transmitted by the James Webb telescope? Or is the night sky, thanks to modernity, more meh? In particular, do kids find the universe more meh than the metaverse?
3 min |
December 2022
Reason magazine
THE FRACTAL, FRACTIOUS POLITICS OF THE EXPANSE
TAKING HUMANITY FROM EARTH TO THE STARS ISN'T EASY.
10 min |
December 2022
Reason magazine
FROM SPACE REGULATOR TO ASTRONAUT
George Nield spent his government career thinking about space. Then he got to fly.
10+ min |
December 2022
Reason magazine
SPACE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO RETHINK PROPERTY RIGHTS
HERE'S WHAT COULD HAPPEN WHEN JOHN LOCKE AND HENRY GEORGE GO TO THE MOON.
10 min |
December 2022
Reason magazine
THE MILITARY-UFO COMPLEX
HOW A MOTLEY CREW OF SAUCER HUNTERS GOT A PLACE AT THE PUBLIC TROUGH
9 min |
December 2022
Reason magazine
What Wikipedia Can Teach the Rest of the Internet
Jimmy Wales talks about why his online encyclopedia works, how to improve social media, and why Section 230 isn’t the real problem with the internet.
10+ min |
October 2022
Reason magazine
The New Abortion Prohibition Era
Americans disagree about abortion. This is the understatement of 2022, yet it bears repeating in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the June Supreme Court decision that returned abortion policy to state and federal legislatures. Ten states have already banned abortion and another four have prohibited abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which amounts to nearly the same thing.
5 min |
October 2022
Reason magazine
Workers Are Consumers Too
Since Taking Office, President Joe Biden has sought to position himself as an ally of working Americans. His administration is enacting what it calls a “worker-centric” trade policy, and the president scarcely seems to give a public address without mentioning the importance of union jobs.
3 min |
October 2022
Reason magazine
The Dangerous Lesson of Book Bans in Public School Libraries
An obscure Supreme Court case provides a roadmap through the curricular culture war.
10+ min |
August - September 2022
Reason magazine
We Have a Printing Paper Problem
A new supply chain parable for our times
6 min |
August - September 2022
Reason magazine
Grow Your Own
Always a good hobby, gardening is also a hedge against supply disruptions.
3 min |
August - September 2022
Reason magazine
Digital Immortality or Deathbot?
Would you want your persona to live forever in the metaverse after your physical body shuffles off this mortal coil? That is what the metaverse platform Somnium Space plans to offer its users, starting in the next year or so, with its Live Forever service.
2 min |