“What’s wrong with praising our troops to the rafters and adding them to our pantheon of heroes? A lot.” A retired lieutenant colonel laments the blanket praise heaped on our troops.
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Dani Shapiro’s recent New York Times editorial was not the first shot fired in the never-ending debate about the limits of artistic license, but it is one of the most […]
Phoebe Prince hanged herself in her bedroom in South Hadley, Massachusetts at the age of 15. Six students from her high school are charged with hounding her to suicide. Emily […]
Entomologist Mark Moffett stopped by the Big Think offices today to share a few lessons that he’s gleaned from his work studying ant societies and his time as a nature […]
In 2008, filmmaker and activist Annie Leonard launched The Story of Stuff – an ambitious animated web film aimed at raising awareness about the various systems of consumption and creating […]
I’ve been critiquing the Tea Party since its first stirrings in 2009. I’ve blogged, tweeted, reported, and even given public lectures about its roots in the socially conservative New Right, […]
Big news for publishers and bookish types: the number of electronic books sold on Amazon’s Kindle has exceeded the number of hardcover books sold through Amazon’s website, and by quite […]
Tomorrow at 2:00 PM EST, Big Think will host a live-streamed interview with the Jason Fried, co-founder of 37signals and author of the modern workplace manifesto “Rework.” Fried’s thoughts on […]
Novelist Bret Easton Ellis is used to people asking him about the numb, disconnectedness of his characters—and whether that’s a reflection of his own worldview. Not so much, he says: […]
Paul Di Filippo on, “How a long-dead Frenchman became one of the most important science fiction writers in current American culture.” Join the Jules Verne revival at Salon.com.
“If something has been around longer, it must be better. New research suggests we hold onto that bias even in instances where quality has nothing to do with longevity.”
“Thanks to period-music evangelists, breathtaking virtuosity, and millions of listeners, the art form remains vibrant.” The City Journal on the relevance of classical music today.
The arms industry, much like our domestic pacific economy, is looking for a bump in exports given the recession. Weapons manufacturers want to sell arms in the Middle East and Asia.
Is freedom of religion still a valued principle in America? “The Ground Zero mosque is only one of several mosques that are being strongly opposed. Opposition to mosques is on the rise.”
“Experts writing this year’s dietary guidelines say strong evidence indicates that moderate alcohol consumption results in a longer life and slower cognitive decline.”
Without the ability to daydream and hallucinate, computers will never think as humans do. David Gelernter, Yale professor of computer science, predicts the next stages of AI.
“Amazon reports that sales of e-books have finally surpassed sales of hardcovers. That’s a pretty momentous development.” Megan McArdle at The Atlantic thinks the Kindle’s day has come.
“MIT political scientists demonstrate how much candidate appearances affect election outcomes, globally.” Good looks seem to win out across cultures with very different histories.
“So even though a meat-free world sounds good on paper, it is likely that a utopian future will still have some animal products in it. And we are talking meat, not just milk and eggs.”
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 […]
“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 […]