From Tea Parties to Occupy Wall Street, regular American citizens are sick and tired, and just can’t take it anymore. I am a proud tea partier, which means that I […]
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The court unanimously ruled that police officers who attached a GPS tracking device to a car without a warrant acted unconstitutionally. The case may set precedent for digital privacy.
Besides the entertainment companies that rely on pirating statistics to advertise, illegal downloading can only be curbed by sensible legal alternatives that make files more accessible.
Many of the physical spaces occupied by our institutions—office buildings, universities, shopping malls—are nothing more than low-bandwidth information transfer. Say goodbye to them.
The Year of the Dragon – traditionally the year of big, innovative ideas and breakthrough projects – might just be the year that China’s creative class enters the global spotlight. […]
Take a moment, and remember, in as much detail as possible, a time in your life when you were REALLY SCARED! If you tried, you could probably summon […]
Big Think juxtaposes two unique perspectives on the state of the union. Tea Party pioneer Keli Carender writes the blog Redistributing Knowledge, which is coming soon to Big Think. Eric Sanders is a vocal supporter of the Occupy Movement.
In this imagined, alternative State of the Union address, playwright and political blogger Eric Sanders proposes sweeping structural changes, including a “people’s congress” with veto power.
This is the first of two posts on the topic of the market for second trimester abortions. Later on in the week we will talk about the impact of government […]
–Guest post by Declan Fahy, AoE’s Science and Culture correspondent. Writer David Milch, a creator of NYPD Blue and Deadwood, was quoted in a talk by author Michael Crichton as […]
The crisis of liberal capitalism has been made more serious by the rise of a potent alternative: state capitalism, which tries to meld the powers of the state with the powers of capitalism.
The largest solar storm in seven years is expected to peak tomorrow, threatening GPS signals and the electrical grid. The cloud of particles streaming from the sun is headed for […]
“The main thing that attracts me to Buddhism is probably what attracts every artist to being an artist—that it’s a godlike thing,” performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson says in […]
Why do we not give P.E. credit for participating in football? Or any of the other various sports requiring physical activity? The kids are far more active in football than […]
Bruce Beuno de Mesquita’s Selectorate Theory explains how bad behavior is good politics. Unfortunately, well-intentioned foreign aid could be enabling bad policies and bad politicians to remain in power.
Under an agreement negotiated today, all 27 European Union countries will sign no new oil contracts with Iran and stop importing all Iranian oil by July 1. How will Iran respond?
What’s the Big Idea? As the Assistant Secretary of Education in the first Bush administration, Educational historian Diane Ravitch became known for her push to establish national standards for K-12 […]
In all of the hyperbole surrounding Newt Gingrich’s storming victory over Mitt Romney in South Carolina, little or no attention has so far been given to the slippery amphibian that […]
Islamic parties have won large majorities in the governments of Tunisia and Egypt although the revolutions of the Arab Spring were considered largely secular. How will the US react?
The United States, frequently backed by Britain, has consistently waged war against democracy at home and abroad. That war, practically never spoken of, continues today.
Deficit reduction in a depressed economy is the road not to recovery, but to contraction, says British political economist Robert Skidelsky. He argues that current efforts to repay debt are misguided.
In line with my post a fortnight ago, I recently took a second look at another inspiring book. This time I reread Hugh MacLeod’s Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys […]
New research shows that children understand the difference between a positive and negative outlook at an early age. Parents and teachers should model a sunny disposition.
Nothing keeps the mind healthy like an education, say psychologists. And contrary to past belief, recent research shows that new neural connections can be built well into middle age.
The title of the Wall Street Journal‘s recent article on enhanced e-books—”Blowing Up the Book”—strikes me as an appropriate blend of the exciting and the ominous. (See also: “Kindle Fire.”) The format is a […]
Or at least that’s what men seem to think. An economic survey shows how rates of personal debt increase in areas where men outnumber women, making the competition for a mate more fierce.
Some recently unearthed data sets allowed scientists to examine how genetics affect cognitive decline as part of the aging process. Genes are influential but not determinative.
Despite the fact that people with diverse social networks score higher on creativity metrics, we mostly prefer homogeneity, sticking close to people like us when we attend social events.
So, as I predicted, Romney is now 1-2. And he’s gone from overwhelming favorite to a probable underdog. Mitt is collapsing across the nation. It’s easy to predict that Gingrich will […]
I originally got this idea from Feministe, and I used to do it every couple of months on the old site. I think it’s about time for another. This is […]