Art Hobson: Kim Jong Un's rationale
Although global warming poses the planet's greatest long-term danger, nuclear weapons are the major short-term threat. North Korea's recent acquisition of nucl…
Although global warming poses the planet's greatest long-term danger, nuclear weapons are the major short-term threat. North Korea's recent acquisition of nucl…
Recently my extended family got together near the beach in Venice, Calif. Like other U.S. cities, it bears the scars of our national dysfunction. By day, the b…
Today, let's stroll down my own lane of memories of America's greatest invention.
Henderson Island, an uninhabited South Pacific atoll, is so isolated as to be practically untouched, ever, by human presence. Yet according to scientists who s…
How to capture the sorry state of our transportation? There are many good books, with solutions -- James Kunstler's classic "The Geography of Nowhere"; Jane Ho…
President Trump jumped prematurely to the conclusion that Bashar Assad's air force attacked the town of Khan Sheikhoun using nerve gas weapons. U.S. Reps. Tuls…
My driving professional passion is general scientific literacy for all people. The American Association for the Advancement of Science justifies this task in s…
"Are you good without God? Millions are."
There's already a mountain of evidence for the reality and seriousness of global warming. But a recent article in the journal Science, "Regional and global sea…
Most presidents have chosen just one or two clergy to "pray them into office" -- a strange phrase that's normal usage in many newspapers. Although one preacher…
Although a case can be made for Ronald Reagan as our most consequential, and therefore greatest, president of recent times, I disagree too strongly with Reagan…
How to capture the folly of Syria's civil war, and the tragedy?
The Vietnam veteran had never talked about it, but three weeks ago in a "StoryCorps" National Public Radio interview with his wife, the story finally emerged.
Novelist and futurist H. G. Wells once said "Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." It's a notion we mi…
I seldom devote a column to elections because culture, not politics, is the real driver of human events. But 2016 is different. By changing the direction of ou…
Frankie's song said it well: "That's life. That's what people say. You're riding high in April, shot down in May. ... But I don't let it, let it get me down. '…
Three weeks ago, Chinese scientists launched into space a beautiful physics experiment that will, if successful, establish a new world record for the long-dist…
Bernie Sanders, Brexit and Donald Trump surprised us all by rising from "unthinkable" to "game-changer" within the past year. Suddenly, a socialist became a pl…
Gun violence kills far more people in the U.S. than in any other developed nation. Our per-capita firearm homicide rate is 20 times that of other industrialize…
Have we learned nothing from U.S. regime-change failures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt and Libya, not to mention counterproductive tinkering in civil wars in Som…
Barack Obama made history on May 27 when he become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, where on Aug. 6, 1945, we dropped the first of two nucl…
The astonishing fire at Fort McMurray evokes the legend of the monster destroying its maker, reveals the looming outlines of the age of human domination called…
Science has known since about 1990 that everything we hold dear is endangered by global warming. If we had taken the problem sufficiently seriously then, green…
We have entered the era of gravity waves, a window on the universe that will reveal startling new realities much as Galileo's light wave telescope, four centur…
As America’s movies, sports, gun culture, murder rate, incarceration rate, death penalty and history all testify, we are a violent nation. So it’s not surprisi…
With religious-based terrorism so much in the news, we need to recognize America's home-grown Christian terrorism. Its fundamentalist roots have important para…
Of the 136 years on the global record books, 2015 was by far the hottest. The year before was the second hottest. Fifteen of the 16 hottest years occurred afte…
Where do humans come from and how do we fit into the big universe? A motivator of both science and religion, this question has surely been on our minds for nea…
According to highway advocates, Arkansas needs $160 million more per year to maintain and expand its ailing roads. Arkansas highways are underfunded today beca…
Americans now realize our 2003 decision to wage war against Iraq's Saddam Hussein was a huge mistake.
Real change is afoot in America. It won’t happen overnight, but the beneficial effects should be obvious within a decade.
They come from the sun, from exploding stars, from the creation of the universe. Trillions of them pass, like ghosts, through your body every second, leaving n…
I just read "Fighting Back the Right: Reclaiming America From the Attack on Reason" by David Niose, former president and present legal advisor of the American …
Tunisia, which gave birth to the Arab Spring, was for a few years that movement's lone success. Then three Libyan-trained Islamic State gunmen killed 20 touris…
In a recent interview with BBC, President Obama was asked about gun violence in America. He stated, "That is an area where ... I've been most frustrated and mo…
A monster lurks at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. You won't see this monster directly, and you won't even see the stars residing anywhere near the center,…
Suppose you want to get to Dallas from Fayetteville. It's 333 miles by car amounting to 5 1/2 hours one way, not counting stops for gasoline, eating and unwind…
A few days ago, Sen. John McCain of Arizona called the capture of the key Iraqi city of Ramadi by the Islamic State terrorist group "one of the most disgracefu…
Our planet is probably beginning a transition to a new geological age caused mainly by greenhouse gases we continue dumping into the atmosphere.
In September 2001, Islamic terrorists flew hijacked planes into buildings in New York City and Washington, D.C., killing 2,952 people. According to a recent bo…
One of history's greatest tragedies was the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945, a calamity compounded three days later by a second bomb e…
Arkansas came close to another wrong turn in transportation infrastructure. Despite recent voter approval of a new half-cent sales tax that raises $2.3 billion…
At this writing, a welcome cease-fire in Ukraine has been arranged but not yet activated. If it's activated, I'm guessing it will fail once again and we'll be …
The terrorist tragedy in Paris demonstrates once again how the world is ravaged by contradictions between medieval delusions and science-based society. Think o…
Some see hydraulic fracturing, and the resulting natural gas glut, as a boon for the economy and the solution to our energy problems. But the truth is that, ab…
We are one tough nation, full of testosterone and ready to tangle. You can see it in recent policing events in Ferguson and New York City; in America's far hig…
Fayetteville is becoming a real bicycling town. The trails continue expanding, many students bike to campus, and there are more and more bikes on city streets.…
Among environmental disasters, such as increasing carbon-dioxide levels, biological extinctions equaling those caused by the asteroid collision 65 million year…
Some of my friends tell me that progressives throw away their votes when they opt for Green Party candidates. They argue Greens can't win, and that such a vote…