“Fake medical treatment can work amazingly well,” writes Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow. Members of the medical community are increasingly asking whether they should put placebo treatments to work.
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Nobody likes a showoff, China, and now that you’re rising like the sea level during a tsunami, the world’s nations are trying to put you down. Will the world ever […]
Testing for creativity, and its corresponding physical attributes in the brain, requires defining the term, but creativity is not so easily broken down.
The Journal of Cosmology has gathered responses from the scientific community to Stephen Hawking’s warning about colonial aliens—one biologist even wrote a limerick.
“You can fight fire with fire,” says Steve Chapman at the Chicago Tribune who is bothered by an overly reactive American culture, “As a rule, though, it’s better to use water.”
A new study shows that just five minutes in a natural, green environment—rather than an urban one—can improve our mood and self-esteem.
A new U.N. report says that one in three plant and animal species face extinction given the rate of human production and consumption.
Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, thinks the influence of pharmaceutical companies has grown too large in our academic institutions.
Melting ice caps in the Arctic are creating new trade routes and exposing untouched natural resources, but just who is filling the legal and political vacuum of the North?
The Guardian reports that unaccountable Middle Eastern governments limit freedom of the press by creating threats real and imaginary to justify their habit of censorship.
Ian Bremmer says the financial crisis is putting the brakes on the expansion of free-markets and accelerating the development of “state capitalism”.
Despite the TV industry’s efforts to push 3-D televisions, the technology may be best suited to cinemas where people can devote their full attention to the screen, writes the Economist.
Although federal law prohibits discrimination in the workplace on the basis of race, national origin, age, sex, and disability, there are no federal laws protecting people from discrimination on the […]
It looks like the mainstream media has finally decided to quit ignoring the rancid stench of race based hatred that fuels a lot of the anger behind the Tea Party […]
David Brooks’s meditation on “dual-conscious” thinking in yesterday’s Times is an excellent piece leading into Mother’s Day tomorrow. Mothers are natural dual-thinkers; it is a mother’s work, perhaps uniquely, to […]
Psychology Today comments on a survey finding that one in ten people think it appropriate to interrupt sex to send a text message. Is nothing sacred?
Professors Gary Becker and Richard Posner at the University of Chicago discuss the benefits and risks of financial speculation in a shaky economy.
Sharon Lerner at The Nation appreciates Mother’s Day but laments the illusion that women’s generosity is infinite; generosity without support—real support—is unsustainable.
The “special relationship” between the U.S. and the U.K. is likely to change because Britain has less than ever to offer America as David Cameron seeks to be a domestic policy Prime Minister.
“Rigor leads to rigor mortis,” says MIT’s Sanjoy Mahajan who teaches his students to use common sense and best guessing to arrive at practical solutions problems great and small.
The answer to religious extremism cannot be secularism because familial and cultural roots run too deep in the Middle East, writes Rima Merhi. A more inclusive religious education is needed.
Raymond Carver was deeply bothered by the fame his stories brought him because his editor, Gordon Lish, had written such dramatic improvements to them.
Orion Magazine tells the strange story of how bottlenose dolphins passed through Cold War brain experiments and LSD doses to fascinate and entertain humans.
Gail Collins writes that although the science of birth control has advanced marvelously, America’s ability to have a reasonable conversation about contraception is lagging.
Privacy concerns aside, the millions of dollars needed to maintain surveillance cameras would be better spent on beat cops, writes Steve Chapman at the Chicago Tribune.
Just as the Philadelphia Museum of Art set to close its showcase of in-house Picassos in Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris, The Metropolitan Museum of Art revved up their […]
The devil is in the details. In the modern world, that’s more true than ever. No one can realistically hope to keep track of or understand all the legal and […]
The financial crisis threw a lot of us into a funk: either we lost our jobs or questioned what we were doing with our lives in the first place. Some literally packed their bags and went on 6 month trips around the world. If you can’t do the global adventure trip, but would love to ‘reset’ your thinking and career, start by living the kindergarten life!
The American Academy of Pediatrics is under fire for revising its guidelines on female genital mutilation (FGM). U.S. federal law bans all forms of female genital cutting for minors. However, […]
He’s already considered one of the most iconic Ohioans ever. Not bad for a 25-year old. But while countless fans are worried about Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James’ injured elbow, […]