“I know who the smart people in America are”

John McCain courts the tech industry.

Delight in disorder

Now that the Web has made everything miscellaneous, as David Weinberger argues in his new book, we're free to remix the world.

Are we playing dice with the biosphere?

Veteran tech writer Denise Caruso warns us how little we really know about genetic engineering -- and says there's a smarter way to place bets on new technology.

History as written by a “SimCity” freak

Gifted amateurs defeated London's cholera epidemic in the 1850s, says culture/tech visionary Steven Johnson, and today a similar bottom-up approach to knowledge can improve neighborhoods, reform cities, even thwart terror.

Lawbreakers, paradigm shifters, opportunity scoffers and letter writers

Today's must-reads from TPMMuckraker, William Gibson and more.

Bush: We have to destroy Lebanon in order to save it

Plus: What the Israel/Hezbollah war has to do with 9/11.

The Shlemiel way of software

Author Joel Spolsky talks about what Microsoft has in common with his grandparents and what Isaac Bashevis Singer has to do with code-generating schemes.

Bush’s speech: Conciliation or “mandate”?

Code that kills, for real

Future military combat systems will require ever more complicated code, but writing software that is bug free and ready for a firefight is a challenge that gets tougher every day.