I have long believed that any American general or senior diplomat who wants to work in Iraq should have to pass a test. It would be a very simple test. It would consist of only one question: "Do you ...

What is the shortest distance between two lines? As we learned growing up in school, it is a straight line. When we look at two dots on a blank sheet of paper, that is the correct answer. Yet, unlike ...

The Brachistochrone curve shows that the quickest route between two points isn’t a straight line but a cycloid—like the path ...

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has 15 different definitions for the word ‘line’ as a noun. There are 11 more ways one could use the word as a verb. But the dictionary is too stringent, too limiting.

Instead, their routes zigzag between points, curve across the globe, or sometimes even appear longer than necessary. So why ...