I’m generally not so big in thinking in terms of decades or generations or centuries or hunks of time in general. Consider the Sixties. Is that decade really characterized by […]
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In our current “War on Terror,” it’s sometimes hard to imagine or appreciate the terrors of times gone by. For Americans of the 19th century, stories of shipwrecks struck deep […]
While literature has been criticized as a corrupting influence at different points in history, recent research suggests that works of fiction draw out the empathy in us, encouraging justice.
Never before in our nation’s history have we faced such a monumental decision. The stakes are enormous: the next President will not only be dealing with a possible recession but […]
Longtime readers of this blog may remember that I wrote a book some time ago. What happened to it is something I’ve only alluded to a few times. Suffice to […]
Once again, I’ve gotten enmeshed in a debate on Twitter. This time it wasn’t with a theist, but with two atheists, Daniel Loxton and Reed Esau. It started with these […]
What is the Big Idea? An intern in a hospital in Harbin city was stabbed to death by an angry patient last week. Three other doctors were seriously injured in […]
The basics of social behavior come from the brain’s emotional system, which is an important contributor to empathy and morality from infancy through adulthood. Babies often cry when they hear another baby crying, because knowing that another person is unhappy makes them feel bad.
In top news this week, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And in other news: • A paper in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that the […]
In defence of Alberto Giubilini, Francesca Minerva and the Journal of Medical Ethics, as per the recent publication about killing newborn infants. This essentially is an open letter of solidarity […]
We’ve been discussing Islam a lot on this blog in the past few days, and much to my amusement, I’ve seen two different commenters promoting diametrically opposite distortions of my […]
I was going to update my previous post, but this got long, so I’m spinning it off into a separate post. Read the other one first if you need more […]
As promised earlier, here’s a full wrap-up of my weekend attending Skepticon IV in Springfield, Missouri. I really have to give tons of credit to the organizers, who not only […]
The most sterling truth standard in marriage is that you’re both monogamous for life, if you vowed that you would be. You don’t flirt with intent; you don’t have boozy […]
Two articles have appeared recently on the topic of sperm snatching. The first is a new blog here at Big Think and the second is an article in yesterday’s Daily […]
OMG. I better tweet this. Or post it on Facebook. Or click that oh-so-tempting like button. Maybe tumblr? Stumbleupon? Some other sharing service that I’m too slow to have noted, […]
Britain’s Opposition leader, Ed Miliband has emerged from two national crises with flying colours. He may have been a little late coming to the first – the Murdoch hacking scandal – but […]
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal suggests that technology and, more specifically, time spent online might actually be helping people be friendlier, more empathetic, and in general, just […]
The startup Kiip offers a relatively simple but radical step forward in mobile advertising: why not attach brand interactions to moments of achievement/greatness where we feel elated—namely during video gameplay?
We know that teens text a LOT: the average teenager sends 3,339 texts a month. Many adults are worried about the potential negative impacts upon youth of all of this texting. […]
Studies show that happiness is directly linked to conversations that are substantial, not superficial. Yet our communications are dominated by quick electronic exchanges.
Okay, let me begin by stating that I know several things about this blog post: It’s probably going to make some people angry, It’s probably going to discourage some people, […]
If you’re not a gamer, it’s hard to imagine why 183 million Americans spend over 13 hours a week playing video games. It’s even harder to see why game designer Jane […]
When Greg and I started this blog, we vowed that it wouldn’t be war, terrorism, economic chaos and other depressing things all the time. In this goal we have been: […]
Since I’ve run out of blog ideas—and have New Year’s Eve parties to get to—today I’m just going to post some of the things that people who are more interesting […]
Since voters long ago stopped believing in ‘promises’ made by parties at election time, politicians now make ‘pledges’. Pledges, as opposed to promises, are made to be kept. Pledges are […]
By studying the neural networks in the brain, scientists have constructed computer-based models that mirror the brain’s complex biological networks.
nn So, there has been a lot of talk about “volcano monitoring” over the last 24 hours, now hasn’t there? nn Now, I’m not going to revisit this discussion, but […]
Where has the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) been? Many of the trades that led to the financial meltdown were legal, but many clearly were not. Even if you can’t […]