Why do economic bubbles seem so inevitable? Why don’t we ever learn? And can they be prevented? Jonah Lehrer asks why society resolves itself to the boom and bust cycle.
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While descriptions of online addiction are controversial at best among researchers, a new study cuts through much of the debate and hints that excessive time online can physically rewire a brain.
U.S. scientists say they have developed an on-off memory switch that helped laboratory rats remember a behavior that they had forgotten. The research could benefit those with brain injuries.
Yale psychologist Paul Bloom wonders that if evil is empathy erosion, and empathy erosion is a form of illness, then is evil nothing more than a particularly awful psychological disorder?
“The trauma surgeon of Wall Street” tells Big Think about the ethical considerations he had to contend with in the years leading up to the financial crisis.
The smart money is on former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney to win the Republican nomination to challenge President Obama in 2012. Romney leads the early polls, and performed well in […]
Discoveries in recent years suggest that nature knows a few tricks that physicists don’t: Coherent quantum processes may well be ubiquitous in the natural world.
James Verone of Gaston County, North Carolina, purposefully held up a bank for $1 so he could receive medical attention in prison. After losing several jobs, he had no health insurance.
When the power imbalances between men and women are eradicated, say psychologists, women philander as often as men do. That’s because sexual infidelity is related to power, not gender.
Interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals may have given Europeans and Asians resistance to northern diseases that their African ancestors didn’t have.
Games, monitors and robots are among the tools being tested to help aging people live in their homes as long as possible, while lowering risks to health and safety.
Our famous novelist Jonathan Franzen gave quite the challenging commencement address at Kenyon. Here’s what he said about technology and eros: Let me toss out the idea that, as our […]
It has been over 3 months after the tragic accident in Fukushima, Japan, and a flood of new information has been coming out. 1. After months of stonewalling and low […]
What is information literacy in the context of an MMORPG? How do you assess learning in a tabletop RPG? What makes a proficient reader of graphic novels? How do readers […]
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As we enter a new era of online education it is crucial to determine what types of tools engage students in this environment. More specifically, what is the most effective […]
Volunteers are still taking to the streets of Vancouver to clean up after Wednesday night’s hockey riots. In the immediate aftermath, citizens worked alongside city crews, sweeping and bagging through […]
My boss mused aloud about Sarah Palin’s presidential chances a few weeks ago. “She’s attractive,” he said with a bit of a gleam in his eye. “And she’s white.” It […]
Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage is one of the most famous novels ever written about combat, in general and in the American Civil War, where the book is […]
As a native Vancouverite and a Canucks fan, I was heartbroken by the riots that followed Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. Dave Zirin of The Nation has a […]
Did the Bush administration illegally spy on Middle Eastern studies professor and blogger Juan Cole in an attempt to discredit him? Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer […]
Justine Rivero shares how her dad’s ‘foolproof’ car-buying secrets are relevant to achieving any goal. Sticking to a clear purpose and knowing when to walk away are two tips.
Jeff Haden urges would-be entrepreneurs to get some experience in a big company (not some small start-up) first. Why? They’ll get the skills and knowledge essential for success.
Author Lois Frankel talks about how to go from a nice girl to a winning woman in the workforce. Tips include to talk less and not be shy about using connections.
What’s behind Tumblr’s meteoric rise? Why are its users more engaged than those on Twitter? It meets the desire for simple, elegant, short-form-content blogs heavy on imagery.
Companies can be focused, diligent, and dedicated to constant improvement—even excellence—but when markets shift it’s easy to become obsolete. Has that happened to Dell?
From neon-lit “La-La Land” to dark, gritty L.A. Confidential and L.A. Noire, the city of angels—Los Angeles—has occupied a place in the public’s imagination in many forms. In Julius Shulman […]
On June 14, the day designated as Titanic Takeover Tuesday, a group of hackers known as LulzSec took down the website of the CIA, hacked into 62,000 email accounts and […]
Robert Kaplan’s op-ed on Patrick Leigh Fermor in the New York Times, “The Humanist in the Foxhole,” stands alone as a cool piece of writing worth studying. Kaplan writes: Unlike […]
Motivational psychologist Scott Rigby explains why we can’t stop playing.