Outside the Beltway

If Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t invented Facebook someone else would have. Probably within a month or two of his invention.

Thirty-two years after the first “Test Tube Baby” was born, the doctor who pioneered the procedure that created her has been recognized with a Nobel Prize.

They might not be able to fix the economy or the healthcare system or agree on an efficient tax policy but Congress has managed to reach accord on one of the most serious problems facing America: loud television commercials.

Has modern life robbed America’s youth of their ability to think? Or simply caused them to think in different ways about different things?

In news that will no doubt please the estimable Glenn Reynolds, DARPA has taken a big step toward the long-awaited flying car: Flying Humvees

Three lives intersected last week at Rutgers University, but one person didn’t make it out alive.

Business is booming for box sets of 1960s acts remastered into the original mono.

A new study suggests that laws banning texting while driving don’t actually have any impact on accident rates.

An amusing parody of the typical press report on a new scientific finding.

If the Obama Administration gets it’s way, your secure Internet communications won’t really be all that secure.

Thanks to the Internet, there are a lot more Willy Lomans out there.

Facebook’s 26-year-old founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is one of the wealthiest men in America. Most of his work force is unpaid.

Blockbuster is trying to reorganize itself, but it’s probably too late.

Can OTB build a better $500 computer than PC World? Let’s find out…

Why do innocent people confess to crimes they didn’t commit, and what should we do about it ?

Is our problem that the very rich have too much money? Or that the rest of us don’t have enough?

Has the digitization of entertainment — DVRs, iPods, iPods, digital cameras, Netflix, and so forth — transformed it from fun into work?

The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart is suffering a little New Media embarrassment after writing a blog post based on comments by a Congressman who doesn’t exist.

What’s the deal with iTunes?

The world’s smartest scientist says there is no god. Or, at least, no need for one.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has proclaimed, “The most significant threat to our national security is our debt.” Is he right?

A federal appeals court has ruled that there’s no link between autism and childhood vaccines.

Firefox 4 Beta doesn’t work well with Gmail, or at least Gmail as I have it configured with various Google Labs add-ons like “Send & Archive.”

Technology guru Leo Laporte had been using Google Buzz to aggregate his social media presence for a few weeks and discovered that his feed had stopped going out and discovered that nobody gave a damn.

Manned flight is more than a century old. Why are the airlines still so clueless?

What do the critics mean when they say that the United States should be more like Germany?

Renowned author Ray Bradbury hates big government but wants it to fund the colonization of Mars. That a man of his intelligence and insight can hold such diametrically opposed thoughts is an amusing reminder of the limits of human rationality.

The secret to getting big traffic on the Internet is to target bored office workers and crazy people.

Mutated bacteria spreading in India could mark the end of effective antibiotic drugs. The medical repercussions would be enormous.

Despite 9.5% unemployment, American firms are struggling to find qualified applicants for job openings.

For-profit universities are defrauding their students. Indeed, it’s their business model.

Google has an inordinate amount of information about you and your circle of friends.

Congress has been wrestling with the net neutrality issue for years. Two major players may force a decision soon.

Google now lets you sign in to multiple accounts in a single browser.

General Motors, and Barack Obama, are betting the future on a car that may be nothing more than an electric lemon.

U.S. passports still aren’t perfect.

The Obama administration is refusing to enforce border security, right?

Should we just accept that people are going to be on their iPhones and BlackBerries and redefine rudeness?

The Internet has given us many good things, but it’s also led to a decline in political discourse that we’d do well to reverse before it’s too late.