On April 18, 1883, The Times published an article on the legacy of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield). The only prime minister of Jewish birth, Disraeli was central in building the modern Conservative Party. Much to the bitter opposition of other Tories, he successfully sold a conservative vision…

(Note: David, Akash, and Jessica are pseudonyms.) Today, I visited Utopia. It turns out that Utopia is not the Elysian Fields or the Kingdom of Heaven, but a town 10 km from the Indian city of Pondicherry: Auroville. Founded in 1968, Auroville was intended to be a hippie communist society…

What will the future bring? In January of every year, I predict what would happen during the year. At the end of the year, I score those predictions to see how well I did. Here are the results for 2019. …

It is July 20, 2019, the 50th anniversary of the first Apollo moon landing. The teenagers who watched the Apollo landings and dreamed of vacationing on other worlds are retired now, and never had a chance to even orbit Earth. They could not have imagined that in the 50 years…

The incompetence of movie villains is legendary. With hundreds of fanatical followers, all armed to the teeth with the latest weapons, they still somehow fail to kill the one hero in the story. Imperial stormtroopers in Star Wars, for example, cannot hit a human-sized target at a range of several…

What will the future bring? Every year, I make predictions for the year to come. At the end of the year, I score the predictions. You can see how I did in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Do you have predictions of your own, or thoughts about my predictions? …

What will the future bring? In 2016, I started the tradition of making predictions in January of every year. At the end of the year, I score those predictions to see how well I did. Here are the results for 2018. As you’ll see, I was generally too pessimistic on…

Isaac Asimov, the brilliant science fiction writer, tried to predict what 2019 would be like in 1984. His predictions about computerization were amazingly prescient, but his predictions about space were hopelessly optimistic. I’ll review what I see as his most interesting predictions and evaluate how they stack up against reality…

Every year, I make predictions about what will happen during the year. At the end of the year, I score them. On January 2, 2019, I will score these predictions and see how well I did. Do you have predictions of your own? Please make your own list and share…