Journal

Obama gives his blessing to an ambitious immunotherapy program against cancer, with Biden leading the government’s initiative.

It wasn’t expected to be a major State of the Union address—a final speech from a president in his last term, recounting achievements and expressing hope for the future. And then Obama made some news: “Let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all.” And to lead the administration’s effort, the president picked VP Joe Biden, who recently lost his son Beau to cancer, and who has said that finding a cure is one of his major life goals.

Read Full Story

In his final State of the Union address, the president painted a hopeful picture of America in contrast to that depicted by Donald Trump.

President Obama got some of his old oratorial flair and political grit back tonight during his final State of the Union address, determined to establish his own legacy, and painting the GOP as the “fear party.”

Read Full Story

Are you ready to get your new plumbing installed?

In what seems like a throwback to a time when a lone inventor could change the world, a German carpenter has come up with a switch that can turn off the flow of a man’s sperm. It’s effectively a vasectomy that can be switched in and out at will.

Read Full Story

As The Big Short generates award buzz, director Adam McKay discusses how he works and the critical factor in choosing ideas.

In the past, Adam McKay had to bake his political statements into the thematic background of his movies. There’s a sharp sendup of George W. Bush’s American exceptionalism lurking in the high comedy of Talladega Nights, for instance, and beneath the buddy cop parody veneer, The Other Guys is a scathing critique of the close relationship between Wall Street and federal government regulators. With The Big Short, however, McKay finally has the creative freedom to go the other way, keeping the comedy relatively low key, and bringing the message to the foreground.

Read Full Story