“From lower birthrates to decreased civic participation and volunteerism, economic downturns have many non-economic effects.” The L.A. Times says people “hunker down” during hard times.
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A veteran Google algorithm engineer wants to deliver search results to its users, “even before they know that they want the information.” The idea is called “searching-without-searching.”
“The innovation economy depends on inventors. And inventors need more support.” An energy CEO proposes bridging the Green Grand Canyon: the divide between inventors’ prototypes and production.
“There is certainly some strange power that has some overlook on me & directing my life,” Winslow Homer wrote in a letter to his brother late in his life. “That […]
One of the most memorable moments during the recent World Cup in South Africa was the series of games played on that nation’s Youth Day on June 16th. This confluence […]
David Mitchell is the subject of the latest Paris Review Interview. He is charming. When asked, “Are you a storyteller outside of your writing?” he replies, “No. I botch jokes […]
If your company were taking steps to reduce its carbon footprint and promote sustainable practices, you’d probably be shouting it from the rooftops, right? Actually, says Greenbiz.com editor Joel Makower, […]
Did you know that clothes dryers – generally speaking – use about nine times as much energy as do clothes washers? An energy-and-the-home graphic spread in Dwell Magazine’s July/August issue […]
Unsettling news about Afghanistan today: the Army released its suicide data for the month of June. The deaths of 21 active soldiers and 11 reserve soldiers are being counted as suicides, […]
A story in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine focuses largely on Jared Cohen, who at 28 is the youngest member of the State Department’s policy planning staff. He and […]
What is the future of the workplace? Is new technology making the traditional office more efficient or is it making it extinct? Which innovations provide real solutions? These are some […]
While Old Spice’s “Smells Like a Man, Man” viral marketing campaign is an enormous success—the Old Spice Channel on YouTube has received 6,589,665 views and gained 94,580 subscribers—the ad campaign […]
Yesterday, President Obama traveled to Holland, Michigan, a city on the western shore of the state’s Lower Peninsula, to attend the groundbreaking for a factory that will manufacture high-grade lithium-ion […]
A single gene has been found to be shared in nearly all living animals—”including sea anemones, worms, insects, marine invertebrates, fish and humans.”
The Israeli parliament may soon offer a legal definition of who is actually Jew, giving the country’s Orthodox rabbis control of all conversions in Israel.
While mobile technology was supposed to liberate us from our desks, Rebecca Traister writes that they now make us feel like we never have any free time.
“France has no interest in becoming a multicultural society—or, to put it traditionally, a mosaic society or a tapestry of loosely bound communities,” writes Jane Kramer. “It is not the Ottoman empire.”
The Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill gives regulators the power to break up too-big-to-fail banks. The first time this is done it will send a powerful message, says Simon Johnson.
British gerontologist Aubrey de Grey and nine other co-authors are urging the United States and other nations to “set up a Project Apollo-scale initiative to avert the coming ‘global aging crisis.'”
Wall Street II features a hedge fund manager. What will he be like? N+1 editor Keith Gessen has published a book,Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous […]
Shares of private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) began trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, concluding a multi-year plan to take public a firm that helms billions of dollars […]
Financial regulatory reform will soon be a reality, almost two years after the devastating financial crash of 2008. A 2,300 page bill was passed by the Senate in a 60-38 […]
“Just rejoice at this news!” So said Mrs Thatcher outside Downing Street as Prime Minister on news that the Royal Marines had recaptured the uninhabited, ice bound island of South […]
If I were Obama–I would have taken a different approach after hearing about the BP Oil Spill. 1. I would have removed BP from being in charge of this operation […]
We’ve all had well-meaning friends remind us that there are “plenty of other fish in the sea,” but the phrase may not be the most fitting fortune-cookie counsel for breakup-ees […]
Today marks the first time anyone has ever brought an axe to an interview here at Big Think! The Reverend Dr. David Adamovich, a.k.a. The Great Throwdini, just stopped by […]
The tremendous environmental disaster that has resulted from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a singular event, but Seventh Generation CEO Jeffrey Hollender thinks it’s emblematic of […]
I watched TV last night with a buddy of mine whose wife is out of town. That means we got to drink beers and curse at the people on TV […]
“Human rights advocates fear that political reconciliation with the Taliban could erase the fragile progress made in improving the situation of Afghan women over the past nine years.”
“Biography may have little to tell us about why a novelist writes well, but it can sometimes be helpful in understanding why a novelist writes badly.” TNR discusses E.M. Forster’s sexual naiveté.