As people around the world prepare to ring in the Year of the Snake, here’s a simple way to honor these mysterious, misunderstood animals: Keep them out of your wardrobe. Snakes and other reptiles should not have to suffer and die just for our cold-blooded vanity.According to a recent International Trade Center report, the global trade in python skins ― which is poorly regulated and often illegal ― is threatening these animals’ survival. Half a million python skins are exported each year from So

If you catch yourself feeling a little more optimistic about Europe’s economic prospects now that the cost of government borrowing has eased, take a look at Spain. With an unemployment rate of 26 percent ― about one in three of all jobless people across the euro area ― Spain is entering its fifth year of recession and the pace of contraction is actually accelerating. The country’s austerity-first approach to budget policy is a main reason. Nobody doubts that Spain needs further economic reform,

Immigration reform is having a “Kumbaya” moment, with support from the White House, a bipartisan contingent in Congress, business and labor. The Republicans are petrified after their dismal showing among the fastest-growing slices of the electorate, Hispanics and Asians; President Barack Obama wants to reward the loyalty of those voters. Business and labor, as well as many politicians, want to fix a totally dysfunctional system. There are more than 11 million undocumented immigrants, 5 percent o

The gun industry isn’t the first to try to push deadly products into the hands of children.That distinction belongs to the tobacco industry, whose efforts have continued despite federal regulation, medical evidence and decades of efforts to raise social awareness about the horrors of addiction.When government cracked down on gimmicks like “Joe Camel,” loopholes were found, and then enlarged until you could drive a truck full of cigarettes right through them. Never underestimate the motivation of

Few people were likely to have been as surprised by last week’s general election in Israel as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu thought he went into the ballot from a position of strength and expected a mandate from voters, if not for him and his party, then certainly for the rightwing of the political spectrum where he is firmly rooted.Instead, Israeli voters divided almost exactly in half, and conservatives even lost four seats from the previous Parliament. It was a stunning rebuke,

Edge.org is a website where really smart people write about subjects that make most people’s heads hurt. I check it out whenever I need to feel particularly stupid.Each year, John Brockman, the literary agent who runs the Edge Foundation, invites a group of ridiculously brilliant people to write essays about a single subject, usually a scientific one. This year’s subject was suggested by the technology historian George Dyson: “What should we be worried about?”Dyson’s premise: “(P)eople tend to w

Over the last weekend came welcome news that Obama administration officials had stopped dithering and moved to provide help urgently sought by the French in their battle against al-Qaida terrorists in Mali: U.S. officials dispatched air tankers to refuel French warplanes.We hope that ends weeks of Hamlet-like indecision at the White House over how much logistical aid to provide in the battle to keep Mali from becoming a safe haven for al-Qaida. The U.S. should provide all the support the French