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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.

Themes are the seven broad umbrellas under which we organize the hundreds of big ideas that populate Big Think. They include New World Order, Earth and Beyond, 21st Century Living, Going Mental, Extreme Biology, Power and Influence, and Inventing the Future.

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Blog Posts

Daylight Atheism

Why I Am Not a Communist

Dabanner
about 5 years ago

Last summer, I wrote a three-part post series, "Why I Am Not a Libertarian", which explained my disagreement with this political philosophy. However, I've realized that despite writing an essay addressing the crimes of communist regimes as they reflect on atheists, I've never written a post on my ...

Eruptions

Ubinas, Peru

Missing
about 5 years ago

There are, indeed, other volcanoes erupting right now worldwide other than Chaiten. Of course, when you have an eruption like Chaiten going on, it is hard to pay attention to other eruptions. Ubinas, Peru Ubinas, in Peru, has been having intermittent ash eruptions for the past few months ...

Eruptions

Chaiten Eruption, Day 7

Missing
about 5 years ago

Another day, another development at Chaiten. Military stationed near the volcano helping with evacuations reported "booming noises" and saw incandescent blocks getting hurled from the vent area. This suggests that lava is at the surface and potentially that the edifice itself is beginning to ...

Eruptions

Air travel in Patagonia

Missing
about 5 years ago

The eruption at Chaiten has now begun to have widescale effects on the region of Patagonia, beyond the ashfall. Air travel has been disrupted due to the amount of ash in the air. It is well-documented that ash posed a significant hazard to aircraft, so this seems like a wise move on the parts of ...

Daylight Atheism

A Critique of the Learning Annex

Dabanner
about 5 years ago

The Learning Annex is a privately owned continuing-education school in New York. As a resident of New York City, I can testify to its success - its kiosks of free course catalogs are on nearly every street corner in Manhattan. It was founded in 1980 by Bill Zanker, who sold the company ...

Endless Innovation

The best business gurus in the world

Missing
about 5 years ago

The Wall Street Journal recently unveiled its picks for the best business gurus in the world. These gurus - led by Gary Hamel, Thomas Friedman, Bill Gates and Malcolm Gladwell - regularly command $75,000 speaking fees and million-dollar book deals, in addition to the undying appreciation of top ...

Eruptions

One more Chaiten Image

Missing
about 5 years ago

NASA captured this great image of the ash plume from Chaiten, which has reached 15-km into the atmosphere. Following this eruption, I'm sure there will be a lot of work into why no one had any clue an eruption of this magnitude was about to occur.

Eruptions

Chaiten gains force

Missing
about 5 years ago

Well, this is getting rather harrowing. Volcan Chaiten, the Chilean volcano that sprung back to life last Friday after anywhere between 2,000 to 7,000 of quiet, is apparently erupting lava along with ash now. Sounds like its a good rhyolite/rhyodacite lava based on the description: "very small ...

Eruptions

Kilauea Eruptions 2008

Missing
about 5 years ago

For those of you who have missed it, Halemaumau Crater at Kilauea (Hawai'i, USA) have been experiencing new eruptions - some of them explosive - for the last couple months. These are the first eruptions at Halemaumau since the 1980s and the first explosive eruptions at Kilauea since the 1920s ...

Eruptions

Chaiten Images

Missing
about 5 years ago

Monsters and Critics has some truly fabulous images of the ongoing eruption at Chaiten in Chile. The pictures of the extent of ash fall are quite remarkable. It is hard to tell exactly how deep the ash is or how far from the vent these pictures were taken, but one can imagine that if a ...

Daylight Atheism

Wind and Water

Dabanner
about 5 years ago

"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it." —Matthew 16:18 (RSV) The biblical metaphor of the church built on rock is interwoven throughout Christianity, used as a metaphor for the presumed stability and ...

Eruptions

Chaiten Eruption Update 2

Missing
about 5 years ago

Update 5/4/08: Looks like there is now officially a deathtoll for Chaiten, as an elderly woman died during the evacuations. The volcanoes continues to spew ash and I wouldn't be surprised if it did so for at least a few more days. There have also been reports of a sharp increase in earthquakes ...

Eruptions

Chaiten Eruption Update

Missing
about 5 years ago

Update 5/3/08: SERNAGEOMIN (the Chilean Geologic Survey) is now concerned that the eruption of Chaiten may be a the precursor of a larger eruption, mostly owing to the long (~9,000 year?) repose time. This could be the beginnings of a southern Andean Pinatubo. The towns around Chaiten are ...