Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin has been praised as one of the finest novels of the year—one of the finest books, full stop. Tina Brown loved it. Jonathan […]
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As we usher in a new year and say good-bye to the old one, let’s take a last look at the ten most watched Big Think videos of 2009. You, […]
The U.S. is planning military retaliation against Al Qaeda training camps in Yemen in response to the Christmas Day plane bombing.
Scanners which could have foiled the Christmas Day bomber will soon be used to screen passengers flying from the Netherlands to the U.S.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed eight American C.I.A. agents in Afghanistan.
The Russian space agency wants to deflect the asteroid Apophis from its course toward the earth by 2032.
Speculators are inflating the price of real estate in China while mortgages are taken in record numbers presaging a bubble burst.
Fox will pull its programming from Time Warner Cable by midnight tonight unless it receives direct payment to broadcast its content.
New scientific data suggests that natural variability explains this year’s cold winter and that global temperatures are still on the rise.
House members are now concentrating on what they can get in return for making concessions on the public option during the reconciliation process.
The first Blue Moon in 19 years will usher in the New Year imbuing an already crazy night with more superstitions.
A group created by the DNC is recommending the removal of superdelegates to better reflect the popular vote in presidential races.
Right now, just hours after someone detonated an improvised explosive device and killed four Canadian soldiers and one Canadian journalist in Afghanistan, I’m reflecting on words Canada’s defense minister spoke […]
The Obama Administration gave Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a big Christmas present last week. By issuing an executive order removing the 400 billion dollar bailout caps through 2012, the […]
As the year draws to a close, I want to finish by passing along my personal list of the most interesting essays on political issues from 2009. My selections are […]
Today and tomorrow I depart from commenting on the media in order to raise awareness of a contemporary political injustice. The story of Don Siegelman, former governor of Alabama, is […]
When it comes to emotion, most people don’t deal in shades of gray. We’re either happy, miserable or (in some cases) embedded with enough pharmacology to render us aloof and […]
Pakistan’s Chief Justice has ordered the government to recognize a third gender, so that the nation’s 80,000-300,000 hijras may fully exercise their civil rights. Hijra is a term from a […]
Former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff says the U.S. has grown complacent about airport security.
A controversial full-body scan that examines private areas is scheduled to be used increasingly across U.S. airports including O’Hare.
President Obama will establish a new federal agency to create new classification procedure and declassify some 400 million pages of government documents.
The Obama Administration is gearing up to support immigration reform that improves border security and provides a path to citizenship.
New research suggests that scrambled connections in brain regions that process fear and emotions are to blame for anxiety disorders.
A complex algorithm ensuring eighty percent of cell phone calls are kept private has been hacked by a 28 year-old German who says he acted in good faith.
The U.K. is putting up $2 million to fund paid theater internships for young adults in order to develop the country’s cultural ambitions.
The Republican strategy to run on repealing healthcare legislation in the 2010 midterms will surely backfire, writes the New Republic.
An Illinois physics professor helped the Secret Service to break up a ring of businesses making huge profits by selling fake diplomas.
The Japanese have created a robotic hummingbird that weighs two and a half grams and flaps its wings 30 times per second.
Kudos to Matthew Urbanksi, the principle landscape architect (Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates) charged with mapping the natural layout of a new $3.8 million Manhattan playground. Urbanski thought to consult experts […]
While flipping through a copy of the New Yorker magazine earlier today, I came across an article written by Burkhard Bilger titled “Hearth Surgery”, which took a look at the […]