Portside

Chaser the border collie responds to combinations of three verbs and three nouns, demonstrating understanding of their independent meaning 

What is open access? A Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD) comic takes us through the world of open access publishing and explains just what it's all about.

Why the national debt isn't as scary as you think, in under two minutes.

Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz explains how income inequality killed the "American Dream" and he puts to death the notion that everyone has the same opportunity to achieve it.

Pete Seeger created this complex song simply by adding a title, concluding line and music to verses from the biblical Book of Ecclesiates. Here is the the Byrd's (most popular) version.  

These two previews of John Oliver's upcoming (April 27) HBO program Last Week Tonight With John Oliver parody the GOP's recent ads intended to appeal to millenials.  

John Lee Hooker's House Rent Boogie dates to the late 1950s, but it speaks to today's housing crisis.

Evidence that the universe rapidly expanded in its first few nanoseconds has been found by an instrument in Antarctica: Gravitational waves, which have long eluded astronomers, were spotted, supporting this cosmic inflation model. 

Who's angry that President Obama appeared on "Between Two Ferns (Funny or Die) With Zach Galifianakis" to promote Obamacare? 

A gorgeous public performance of Riverdance on St Patricks Day, 2011, in Central Station, Sydney, Australia.