If you listen to the entire video of Shirley Sherrod’s infamous NAACP remarks, somewhere around the 14 minute mark, your stomach will start to curdle as you hear her describe […]
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“It gives you a whole new way of looking at the day,” Dennis Hopper’s character Billy says in the unforgettable film, Easy Rider, which the then 33-year-old Hopper also directed. […]
Scientists’ understanding of Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, changed dramatically this past week, thanks to images and data from the satellite Messenger. In September of last year, the […]
I am taking a couple of weeks off. But while I’m away, I thought I’d share with you some of the what I consider to be this year’s essential readings […]
A friend of mine, who works in the sustainable food industry, was alarmed by my recent post on overfishing. Not alarmed to learn about the demise of marine ecosystems (she […]
The national security business is booming, even bloated, according to “Top Secret America,” an in-depth investigative report published Monday in the Washington Post. Among the findings: an estimated 854,000 people […]
If you knew exactly how much electricity your home consumed, would you be more mindful of your carbon footprint and adjust your habits to lower consumption? Textile designer Cecil Marcq […]
How can companies like BP recover from devastating PR disasters like the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? Just get the cleanup done, and keep the public informed, […]
Are CEOs rewarded more for their perceived success or the success of their companies? In his recent Big Think interview, biographer T.J. Stiles says robber barons like Cornelius Vanderbilt may […]
Love songs may actually help your love life, a recent study shows. Researchers in France conducted an experiment in which 18- to 20-year-old women were exposed to songs with either […]
Today I was given some pause before writing this post by a friend who made what I thought was a crack about Glenn Greenwald. But now that it’s been cleared […]
“You had better shove this in the stove,” wrote Mark Twain in a 1865 letter, adding, “I don’t want any absurd ‘literary remains’ and ‘unpublished letters of Mark Twain’ published […]
Mr Cameron has gone to Washington. Have any of you noticed? David Cameron is the new British Prime Minister, and today he is meeting with President Obama in the White […]
“In a marriage, the common symptoms of A.D.H.D.—distraction, disorganization, forgetfulness—can easily be misinterpreted as laziness, selfishness and a lack of love and concern.”
“Is our modern mobility sustainable? We are facing an energy crisis, a climate crisis, and an economic crisis—and perhaps a mobility crisis as well.” An urban studies professor on the car.
Apart from being a past sponsor of international terrorism and the West’s new best friend in North Africa, Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi is also a crackpot dictator with the bizarrest […]
Charles Simic recalls the excuses he offered the first time he watched his native Yugoslavia lose at the World Cup. The poet lists the four universal excuses given when a soccer team loses.
A new history of voting through the ages is timely, says The New Yorker, as the U.K. prepares for electoral reform while the U.S. holds out against newer and fairer electoral methods.
“Marijuana is one of the top cash crops in the United States. So why is there so little coverage of this business, as a business?” The Big Money inaugurates a blog on the marijuana trade.
“Scientists yesterday hailed a potential breakthrough in the fight against Aids after a vaginal gel was found to cut HIV infection rates by up to 50 per cent.” The Independent reports
“How can the United States legitimately claim the right to promote democracy and human rights at the same time that, at home, it is becoming somewhat less democratic, and a great deal less just?”
“Despite the hype surrounding microfinance as an answer to solving world poverty, new research shows it isn’t the savior economists envisioned.” Read more at Miller-McCune.
The head of the UN Environmental Programme’s Green Economy Initiative, Pavan Sukhdev, sits down for tea with The Economist to discuss how to assign an economic value to nature.
A lengthy investigation by the Washington Post reveals the resurgence of the military-industrial complex since 9/11 and how expensive and unaccountable private contractors fill our ranks.
Leonardo da Vinci didn’t invent the sfumato technique, which produced the “smoky” effects of masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa, but he may have perfected it. For centuries, art experts […]
Paris doesn’t pause. The New York Times cover story today on a scandal consuming the city noted that “this being France, a film will be made, and comparisons to the […]
The key to fighting Alzheimer’s disease may be a single brain protein called amyloid beta, which is the subject of dozens of current scientific studies. A recent New York Times article […]
In a series of tweets Sunday, Sarah Palin first “invented” the word “refudiate” (while, perhaps, trying to come up with “repudiate”), and then defended her word choice in another tweet […]
Racial animosity is racial animosity, whatever flavor it comes in – southern redneck scorn, poorly disguised northern liberal contempt, conservative country club hatred, or the calculated disdain of minority elites […]
Last week, the NAACP passed a resolution at its annual convention asking Tea Party leaders to condemn the racists in their ranks. The NAACP was right on the money. Regardless […]