Feisel Abdul Rauf returned to the United States last weekend and yesterday began the urgent process of telling his side of the story. As I wrote previously, power in politics […]
All Articles
“My problem is that consumer technology moves in a single direction: It’s constantly making it easier for us to perceive the content.” Jonah Lehrer laments the rise of e-books.
“Basically, we’ve bought into several misconceptions about excellence, which are not only wrong but affirmatively counterproductive.” Peter Orszag on how to be successful.
“American investors have filed several lawsuits to pressure Germany to honor bonds issued by the Weimar Republic. Berlin says a deadline for registering the bonds passed decades ago.”
“We have entered the post-art era, Kundera declares in Encounter—’a world where art is dying because the need for art, the sensitivity and the love for it, is dying.’”
“A unique particle physics detector will be attached to the space station to study the universe and its origins.” The machine will be carried on the last scheduled shuttle launch next February.
“We shouldn’t forget that the modern market economy is the greatest communal enterprise ever undertaken.” Jonah Goldberg praises free market capitalism for its complexity.
“Study shows that fatter men last longer in bed. Should Americans rejoice?” Slate covers Turkish research concluding that the less masculine a man’s body, the better lover he is.
“Most artists have shied away from 9/11 as a theme in recent years, and who can blame them?” Art critic Richard Woodward says artists should again take on the events of 9/11.
“Google has announced that it will begin to roll out ‘Instant’ search results around the world.” The Telegraph reports on the Internet giant’s innovation in search technology.
Forget height and social status when you are on the dance floor, it is all about how you move. New research identifies the dance moves that make men most attractive to women.
I found myself in a movie theater this weekend, cooling my heels along with the rest of my tribe as we watched the movie Takers. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t be writing […]
“Hey, Kiddo.” When she was a young girl, Berkeley Reinhold would pick up the phone and hear Andy Warhol greet her with those words. Although he was calling for her […]
President Obama doesn’t get enough credit. As fellow Big Thinker Kris Broughton wrote in a recent post, it’s ridiculous to say that Obama hasn’t accomplished much while in office, whatever […]
So let’s now speak about the future. You may have heard about the asteroid Apophis, which is about the size of the Rose Bowl Stadium. It’s said that the large […]
University classes are starting so I thought I would write a blog post that would encourage students to think about the world. This idea came from a project that was […]
How about this for some real corporate mumbo jumbo? BP’s own internal report into the Deepwater Horizon disaster mixes the technical with the pseudo diplomatic. But there is no doubt […]
Dr. Norman Frost of the University of Wisconsin at Madison tells Big Think “drug-testing policies in professional sports are completely illogical.”
Like any sensible person, I worry about the imminent arrival of Skynet and the Cylons, in the form of artificial intelligences that could be physically, intellectually and perhaps, as J. […]
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa wasn’t fazed after a gang of baseball-bat-wielding Gambino crime family members nearly beat him to death for making disparaging comments about John Gotti Sr. on […]
A recent study by members of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has been getting a lot of attention – one where it was suggested that we are very close to the […]
The most interesting and important things about science often go uncovered in the news media. Journalists and editors–especially in today’s world of cutbacks–have always tended to define what’s newsworthy in […]
“Can the Ten Commandments be understood apart from religion?” William Galston reviews a new book which argues the Ten Commandments are not religious in nature.
While philosophers of yore postulated on human nature, today’s thinkers approach tough questions with the tools of cognitive science. A philosophy professor on ‘experimental philosophy’.
“Heavy drinkers also live longer than abstainers. In other words, consuming disturbingly large amounts of alcohol seems to be better than drinking none at all.” The Frontal Cortex explains why.
“Despite being pilloried by the public lately, a banker’s lot can’t be all that bad. At least, that’s what Wal-Mart executives must be thinking.” Forbes on the retail giant’s new banking ideas.
“Shouldn’t we expect a scramble to put forward plans for promoting growth and restoring jobs? Apparently not.” Paul Krugman is critical of backward-looking economic theorizing.
“Free exercise of religion? No, thanks. The taming and domestication of religious faith is one of the unceasing chores of civilization.” Christopher Hitchens on the freedom to practice faith.
“What does it take to trade in a commodity that cannot be seen or touched—and isn’t even a commodity in the United States?” Scientific American reports on traders in the global carbon market.
“The magic income: $75,000 a year. As people earn more money, their day-to-day happiness rises. Until you hit $75,000. After that, it is just more stuff, with no gain in happiness.”