The "major thesis of our lives" is that zero marginal cost technologies like the Internet are allowing systems of control to be distributed, rather than centralized.

A brief description of virtual currency and why it may revolutionize the way we pay for things on the Web.

A conversation with the chairman of Medpedia.

The best way to balance open source developing and growing your own business is to combine the two, Hansson suggests.

Hansson loves Apple’s products, but he calls their decision to restrict programming languages for iPhone apps a "fascist move."

Cloud computing shouldn’t be an either/or decision. We should definitely make use of the tremendous collaborative possibilities of the Web for some tasks but utilize "the awesome local, graphical power […]

"They have no bearing on what I do," says Hansson of the software giant. But he admits there is something sad about no longer having an "evil empire" to rally […]

Hansson merged Rails and Merb last year, and, despite initial "squabbles," the fruits of their cooperation—Rails 3—is on the verge of release.

With applications like Ruby on Rails lowering the bar for creating web applications, some programmers may complain about "the unwashed masses" overrunning their "beautiful, pristine programming communities." Hansson thinks that […]

"A big part of what makes Ruby so special to work with is just how much expression you can pack into a few lines of code," says Hansson.

David Heinemeier Hansson was so fed up with PHP and Java that he almost gave up on programming altogether—then he found Ruby and everything changed.

A conversation with the programmer and creator of Ruby on Rails.

Bioethicist Jacob Appel thinks that adding small amounts of lithium to our drinking water could potentially reduce the rate of suicide.

Los Angeles often feels like another planet to non-natives, from the confluence of cultures to the often unearthly architecture. In Architecture of the Sun: Los Angeles Modernism 1900-1970, Thomas S. […]

Ever have a tune run through your mind, with no name or words attached? When you squawk out what you think might be the melody, people just shrug in perplexity. […]

"The burqa is not religious headwear; it is a physical barrier to engagement in public life adopted in a deep spirit of misogyny," says The Stone column at the New York Times.

"The most surprising thing about WikiLeaks' released trove of officially secret documents is how few surprises it contains." Doyle McManus says the government has been candid with us.

A new study by economists Mark Zandi and Alan Blinder says the U.S. economic stimulus averted a worse downturn, says The Guardian. Conservatives maintain the spending was ineffective.