January 28, 2009 - 10:25pm
By Josh Pothen
"The Speeches of Barack Obama" is a textbook that compiles all of Obama's speeches from his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech to his victory speech when he secured the Democratic nomination this past year. It is written in English with corresponding Japanese translations, and comes with a CD presumably so that readers can perfect their pronunciation. It has sold over 420,000 copies in Japan since its release on November 20.
December 9, 2008 - 11:10pm
By Josh Pothen
Scientists have recently discovered one of the largest single-celled organisms in the seafloor of the Bahamas. Why should you care? Because it's providing new insights into evolutionary history.
December 2, 2008 - 12:47am
By Josh Pothen
"It's only a game". Or is it? The discussion of the line between virtual and real has reopened now that a British couple is filing for divorce because of possible cyber-adultery.
November 30, 2008 - 12:25am
By Josh Pothen
Although this story took place at the University of Illinois, it could conceivably have occurred at any college campus. A sex offender carrying a three-inch folding knife was recently arrested at 2:30 in the morning in the university's undergraduate library. The scary part? He may have been living there for a few days behind movable bookshelves.
November 18, 2008 - 1:00am
By Josh Pothen
We've heard about GPS capabilities being placed in devices like cell phones. But now they're being placed in perhaps the unlikeliest of places: lingerie! But before you get too startled or outraged like a feminist group in Berlin, you might be interested to find that the device provides women in certain violent countries protection from potential attackers or rapist
November 11, 2008 - 12:36am
By Josh Pothen
If you could make your DNA available to the world, would you? Now you can, as a result of a new scientific initative, the Personal Genome Project. The idea is simple: You send in your DNA, which is then decoded into your genome and placed on the web site. But that's not all. Your phenotype, or the resulting products from your gene sequence, is also made available.
November 3, 2008 - 10:18am
By Josh Pothen
Josh Pothen recalls the life of a woman named Lillian Doerksen, often called the "Protestant Mother Teresa" for her work in India raising orphaned girls and opening schools in Maharashtra for the deaf. She was also Pothen's grandmother, and in this blog he shares some of his own insights into her life.
October 26, 2008 - 9:02pm
By Josh Pothen
Tired of waking up on a Saturday afternoon only to discover the ridiculous emails you sent last night while drunk? Well, Google has launched Mail Googles to prevent just that. Using simple arithmetic problems to screen for drunk users, Mail Googles might be just what you need.
October 12, 2008 - 11:20pm
By Josh Pothen
In the advent of today's eco-friendly lifestyles, Manuel de Arriba Ares, a retired gym teacher in a village in Spain, has taken the trend to a new level by estabilishing a "ecological gym" made of primarily tree trunks and old pieces of lumber, in an effort to publicize his small town.
September 29, 2008 - 4:39pm
By Josh Pothen
Pothen gives his take on the Stonehenge story.