The Church of Scientology has elaborate means of preventing its leavers from spilling its secrets, according to ex-members.
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For the first time an experimental drug to treat lupus has been found to be effective in a second round of clinical trials.
Steve Abrams wouldn’t advise dropping out of college, though it seemed to work for him. He got out of there a semester in, and is now successfully the owner of […]
John Irving came by Big Think to discuss his latest book, “Last Night in Twisted River,” and the craft of fiction writing. He explained that for each of his 12 […]
Maybe it’s because the healthcare debate has been getting so hot lately. Maybe the battle cries generated by Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth are inconveniently echoing off into the distance. Maybe […]
In 2006 incumbent Connecticut Senator—and former Vice Presidential candidate—Joe Lieberman lost in the Democratic primaries to Ned Lamont, a relative unknown who had challenged Lieberman’s support of the Patriot Act […]
Perhaps it’s not surprising that people take political results personally. We come to identify with our favored candidate—and sometimes to revile their opponent. When our party wins, we are elated; […]
Politicians like to brag about having passed their bills with bipartisan support. It shows that they are willing cooperate with their political opponents and that they are—at least superficially—more concerned […]
The ethics of more than 30 lawmakers and their aides have been under scrutiny, according to a leaked report.
Why do Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh oppose Obama’s healthcare reforms? Ask their wives.
The coronary angiogram was not discovered through scientific skill but via a medical accident.
The economic boats aren’t rising, they’re bobbing, and analysts are being swept away by the tide of numbers, writes the Wall Street Journal.
The political crisis in Honduras could be nearing its end after the de facto government agreed to let the ousted president finish his term.
An artist with autism has drawn an 18-foot picture of New York from memory after a 20-minute flight over the city.
Thousands of juvenile convictions in Pennsylvania have been chucked out following a “jailing kids for cash” scandal concerning a former Luzerne County judge.
Wal-Mart plans to cater to our cradle-to-grave needs—and is now selling coffins.
Spiders find a bloodsucking-by-proxy diet sexy—and it helps control malaria, new research finds.
For the first time in decades NASA will subject monkeys to radiation experiments to test the long-term effects of space travel on humans.
“Nobody who’s ever been poor would ever use the phrase ‘selling out.'” So said Sherman Alexie, award-winning author of “War Dances,” “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,” and […]
“If someone tells you he is going to make ‘a realistic decision,’” Mary McCarthy wrote, “you immediately understand that he has resolved to do something bad.” Calling a course of […]
Today was the last of three days of hearings this week on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (CEJAPA), introduced by John Kerry (D-Mass) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif) […]
Stories from major newspapers this week have examined this moment of crisis for American foreign policy in the Middle East. Afghanistan is expected to receive more American troops, while a […]
While sustainable agriculture is rapidly becoming one of the looming issues of our time, a myth-based propensity toward naturalness may be stripping the movement of any effectuality.
I am in the heart of Tamil territory. I am surrounded by jungles and tea plantations. A few miles north of me is a camp of 250,000 internally displaced Tamil […]
National unity can be a very elusive concept, even in a country like the United States (just ask anyone at a healthcare reform town hall). Then again, anyone who has […]
Author Janet Malcom’s book discusses the “morally indefensible” career of journalism in an industry which turns guttings into a spectator sport.
An aged Somalian man has made a 17-year-old his sixth wife after a huge wedding celebration with hundreds of guests.
New research reveals that birds use light rather than magnetic fields to aide their migration.
The Facebook game FarmVille is making agriculture sexy again. But are online farms warping our view of how food is made?