The Recession Started 35 Million Years Ago
Professor of Psychology, Yale University
Dr. Laurie Santos’s studies of monkey “economics” suggest that greedy, loss-averse human behavior may have deep evolutionary origins.
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Imagine a performance where the furniture were characters. It’s called “Death and the Powers.” Watch
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Why Cubans Live Longer Than Americans
The systemic problems of inequality penetrate the entire social hierarchy, giving wealthy, but disparate societies like the U.S., greater health problems and shorter life expectancies than many, less economically developed, nations. Watch
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Can Cloud Computing Change Everything?
The founder of 37signals explains cloud computing, its role in the future of technology, and the overblown anxiety around its security. Watch
Featured Blogs
The Voice of Big Think
February 9, 2010 — 12:27 AM
Who're You Calling a Dumb Ape?
The capuchin monkeys that Dr. Laurie Santos and her research team work with are "clever—sometimes more clever than we are." Not only do they sometimes get the better of humans, they also yield a font of insights into the evolutionary origins of human psychological phenomena—including, as the Yale psychologist explains in her Big Think interview, the loss aversion and greed that caused the global financial meltdown. Read more
The Voice of Big Think
February 8, 2010 — 1:32 AM
Why Donating Is More Popular Than Voting
These are, to say the least, intimidating times for non-profits. With the coffers of even the wealthiest companies and individuals under such pressure, efforts to find a donor can seem fanciful and futile. Luckily, as today’s guest and president of the Lincoln Center Rey Levy makes clear, such fear is unjustified. Even when money is scarce, the prospects for donors are still ripe, as giving has shifted to the most legitimate form of active citizenship in America today, with more people donating to charities and non-profits each year than vote. Read more
Resurgence
February 7, 2010 — 11:54 PM
Can A Retired Alan Greenspan Still Produce A "Greenspan Effect"?
Alan Greenspan issued his own verdict about the American economy earlier today when he appeared on Meet The Press with former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. When Meet The Press host David Gregory asked Greenspan about the country’s economic prospects in the near future, Greenspan said the recession "is essentially over." Read more
Novel Copy
February 7, 2010 — 5:48 PM
A Diet of Facebook and Twitter
That’s what five French journalists have been living on for the last five days as they were holed up in a farm house in the south of France. The journalists were taking part in an exercise in conjunction with Radio Canada to see how informed people could be—or perhaps how informed many people are—if they were to only read posts on Facebook and Twitter. The results demonstrated the good and the bad of both social media platforms. Read more
As I Please
February 7, 2010 — 4:32 PM
Three British Labour Members of Parliament and one Conservative Peer are facing charges under the Theft Act, and could if found guilty, be facing up to seven years in jail. This then is the culmination of a quite remarkable series of revelations, which show that nearly half of Britain’s Members of Parliament exploited an expenses system that existed to hand out free money. Most of these MPs will not be facing criminal charges, although many have already been obliged to hand back thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money. Read more
Daily Ideafeed
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Aimless Target
“Zen” Bats It - Egyptian fruit bats apparently hit their food targets by deliberately not aiming at them. They point their sonar sound beam to either side of the target instead.
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“Run, Sarah, Run”
Palin Revolution - Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin says President Obama needs to go to war with Iran to boost his chances of re-election, adding that the US is “ready for another revolution”.
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Snowpocalypse?
"Snowmageddon" - A deluge of snow has hit Washington, leaving 200,000 without power and the streets deserted as a mammoth blizzard holds Capitol Hill in its freezing grasp.
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Sheikh Mohammed
NYC 9/11 Trial? - Obama “has not ruled out” a New York federal court trial for 09/11 planner Kalid Sheikh Mohammed, but is considering objections by the city’s mayor and police commissioner.
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Toad Rulers
Amphibian Empire - Toads have "taken over" almost all of the modern world after an ancestral mutation allowed the creatures to thrive under drier conditions that their amphibian peers.
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Ukraine Run-off
Viktor Victory - Ukraine’s opposition leader and former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych has lived up to his name by claiming victory in eastern European country’s election run-off.
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Super Bowl
Saintly Triumph - The New Orleans Saints danced as they celebrated trouncing the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 yesterday, marking the team's first ever Super Bowl win in its 43 year history.
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First Lady
Chinchilla - Costa Rica has elected Laura Chinchilla as its first female president. The protégé of Nobel peace laureate President Oscar Arias won a landside victory.
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Connecticut
Deadly Explosion - A massive gas explosion ripped through a Connecticut-based power plant yesterday morning as workers cleaned a piping system, killing at least five and injuring many more.
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No Lookout
“High Traffic” - Tourists will be disappointed by that the vertiginous observation deck of the world’s tallest tower has been unexpectedly shut down after just four weeks.
