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A word about Big Ideas and Themes — The architecture of Big Think
Big ideas are lenses for envisioning the future. Every article and video on bigthink.com and on our learning platforms is based on an emerging “big idea” that is significant, widely relevant, and actionable. We’re sifting the noise for the questions and insights that have the power to change all of our lives, for decades to come. For example, reverse-engineering is a big idea in that the concept is increasingly useful across multiple disciplines, from education to nanotechnology.
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Big ideas in the news from around the web
“A Nigerian man is ‘talking a lot’ to the FBI, said a senior U.S. official, after what the United States believes was an attempted terrorist attack on an inbound international flight. The initial impression is that the suspect was acting alone and did not have any formal connections to organized ...
“Much of the focus on the results of last month’s New York City elections was on Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s small victory margin, despite the more than $102 million he spent to secure a third term. But the elections also produced a seismic political shift that so far has gone largely unnoticed ...
“With the housing boom still in full force in early 2006, Long Beach Mortgage Co., one of the nation’s biggest subprime lenders, sent its eager Wall Street investors yet another package containing thousands of new home loans. Among them was a mortgage for a modest, two-bedroom home on a quiet ...
“What's the difference between Shakespeare and Dan Brown? According to a study in the New Journal of Physics, part of the difference lies in the number and frequency of the words they use. By analyzing the works of Herman Melville, Thomas Hardy, and D. H. Lawrence, researchers argued, according to ...
“Nice scoop by MacRumors , which reportedly retrieved historical evidence that Apple has acquired the domain name islate.com back in 2007. Apparently, the Cupertino company registered the domain through brand protection firm Mark Monitor to conceal the fact that the domain name is theirs, as usual ...
“’Bear sighting: An item in the National Briefing in Sunday’s Section A said a bear wandered into a grocery store in Hayward, Wis., on Friday and headed for the beer cooler. It was Thursday.’ Like a chef who becomes bored with steak and potatoes and begins seeking out the strange and sublime, my ...
“Politicians and pundits may argue about whether Limbaugh, Beck, and their ilk have real pull at the polls, but, when it comes to selling thrillers, those who work in publishing agree: Right-wing talk jocks deliver. Beck, in particular, has become a make-or-break blurb for thriller writers, with The ...
“Police in Montreal are studying the possibility of offering GPS bracelets to people suffering from Alzheimer's disease, an official told AFP. The Montreal Police Service (SPVM) is looking at ways to keep safe people suffering from diseases that degrade brain function, including memory. Those who ...
“The team of scientists is the first to uncover a central process in encoding memories that occurs at the level of the synapse, where neurons connect with each other. ‘When we learn new things, when we store memories, there are a number of things that have to happen,’ said senior author Kenneth S ...
“Just a few of the latest incidents: we've been leaked the news that Barack Obama is almost powerless to stop Israel from attacking Iran, should it choose to do so. Yet more supposedly secret and hitherto overlooked documents have surfaced, purporting to contain evidence of a weapons program in Iran ...
“Icy roads were blamed for the deaths of at least 18 people, many of them in Nebraska and Kansas. Some 100 flights leaving Minneapolis were cancelled. The US weather service said the storm was spanning two-thirds of the country. It advised against non-essential travel and scores of churches ...
“American liberals have a habit of withdrawing into cynicism and ennui at the most inopportune moments. The 2000 presidential election, and subsequent recount, was one such moment. The most die-hard reaches of the left, deeming the Democratic Party hopelessly corrupt, rallied to Ralph Nader’s ...
"’Santa is using technologies that we are not yet able to recreate in our own labs,’ explains North Carolina State University's Dr. Larry Silverberg, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering who just completed a six month visiting-scholar program at Santa's Workshop-North Pole Labs (SW ...
“The subtle changes in stress caused by tides in Earth’s crust can trigger small, deep quakes along a seismically active portion of California’s San Andreas fault, a new analysis suggests. The same forces of attraction that cause ocean tides also cause tides in Earth’s rocks, says Amanda Thomas, a ...
“A Chinese court has sentenced a leading dissident to 11 years in prison for ‘inciting subversion of state power.’ Liu Xiaobo, a 53-year-old academic, who was previously jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, had been charged for co-authoring a document appealing for political ...