When companies have a "free only" business model—thinking they'll make money later—they're usually betting that "there’s going to be this magic switch they can flip."
The NASA climatologist outlines how and when the accumulation of greenhouse gases will make Earth uninhabitable for our species—and why human life cannot be transferred to a different planet. Watch
Ever have a tune run through your mind with no name or words attached—and when you squawk out what you think might be the melody, people just shrug, perplexed? Now there's a Web site that can help. Read More
Cognitive science reveals that policymakers should better understand how deeply our decisions are influenced by the presentation of choices. Watch
There will be more. Julian Assange has assured us this: there will be more. Do we want more? Will the release of more classified material place more lives at risk? Will it provide further lessons from which we can learn? How do we balance the quality of any lessons up against the threat to any lives ... Read More
Eliminate the middle-man. This classic piece of business advice recently received an unusual interpretation: the literary agent, commonly seen as the middle-man between author and publishing house, is circumventing the publishing house! The Guardian has reported on star literary agent Andrew ... Read More
Famed First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams stopped by Big Think's offices today to discuss everything one needs to know about the constitutional amendment which guarantees so many of our basic freedoms. An expert on constitutional law and an attorney with Cahill Gordon & Reindell, Abrams has argued ... Read More
Dr. Michael Stone, professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia, dropped by Big Think's offices yesterday to talk about serial homicide, torture, mass murder, sexual slavery, and other cheery topics. Host of the Discovery Channel show "Most Evil," Stone has created a 22-point scale for evildoers ... Read More
Los Angeles often feels like another planet to non-natives, from the confluence of cultures to the often unearthly architecture. In Architecture of the Sun: Los Angeles Modernism 1900-1970, Thomas S. Hines serves as our ambassador to this brave new world on the left coast that served as the perfect ... Read More
Job retraining seems like an ideal solution for the unemployed, but problems persist. Are Americans being trained for the right jobs, and what if nobody is hiring in the first place?
"Overall, social support increases survival by some 50 percent, concluded the authors behind a new meta-analysis." Scientific American reports on the effects of our spreading social isolation.
"According to a controversial new theory, our emotions have evolved as tools to manipulate others into cooperating with us." The New Scientist says emotions are the currency of relationships.
"We'll increasingly be defined by what we say no to," says Paul Graham. The essayist writes that technological development creates addictive products from drugs to the Internet.
A private university in England has changed their curriculum to offer a two-year degree and its students highly approve. A two-year degree may make more economic sense in our times.
"An anthropologist argues that polygamy is harmful as Canada considers whether having multiple wives is a constitutional right." Our neighbors to the North take a surprising turn.
History professor Mark LeVine examines the complex relationships between immigration, globalization, and natural resource extraction. He sees a system that stratifies wealth.
A new study by economists Mark Zandi and Alan Blinder says the U.S. economic stimulus averted a worse downturn, says The Guardian. Conservatives maintain the spending was ineffective.
"The most surprising thing about WikiLeaks' released trove of officially secret documents is how few surprises it contains." Doyle McManus says the government has been candid with us.
"The burqa is not religious headwear; it is a physical barrier to engagement in public life adopted in a deep spirit of misogyny," says The Stone column at the New York Times.
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