The more ambitious economics becomes the more it has to engage with hard moral questions.
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If you look at the terms of political discourse today in the United States, it’s not a pretty picture.
We need to step back and have a morally robust debate about where markets belong and where they don’t.
Decision Academy, brought to you by ClearerThinking.org in association with Big Think Mentor uses insights from cognitive science to help people recognize their own blind spots and make better decisions.
I’m getting old – my God, you know. It’s horrible because I am, in a way, in a good sense, a pathological person, in the sense that for a long […]
University of Strathclyde scientists have identified 12 asteroids that could be retrieved using current technology within the next three to eight years…assuming they work very, very carefully.
Virtually, that is: Researchers at Switzerland’s CERN laboratory have launched an app that allows the public to view and mark animations of particle tracks. Their discoveries could eventually help determine how, if at all, gravity affects antiparticle movement.
If it’s natural, that is: A recent study attempts to link the dyeing and medicinal capabilities of certain plants, and posits that minute quantities of dye absorbed from clothes into skin could improve wellbeing.
Time magazine covers seem custom-designed to annoy me. The latest example is their “The Childfree Life” cover. Stories of the childfree lifestyle are always illustrated this way. They feature a […]
This video, commissioned by WWF Germany, will make you think twice about throwing away an apple.
Specifically, five humble drive-ins: A Web site launched last week invites visitors to decide which ones will receive new digital projectors — and stay in business a little longer — courtesy of the automaker.
You may not make it to space in this life, but your ashes could be sent there after you die.
Would an astronaut who falls into a black hole be “stretched like spaghetti” or flash-fried by a firewall of energy? The answer to this question has great significance.
Two weeks ago, after turning onto Route 10 from Santa Monica, a truck sped by in the center lane. A hand truck flew from the back as it hit a […]
Literally: Pixelate is a head-to-head tabletop video game that uses real plates of fruit, special forks, and on-screen positive reinforcement.
According to a meta-analysis published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review, there is a “reliable negative relation between intelligence and religiosity” in 53 out of 63 studies.
More than 60 years after her death, Lacks’ genetic material can no longer be used by researchers without family consent. Is the same true for the rest of us? Not exactly.
Background: I came across a remarkable story, from some years ago, where someone was rather upset with Canadian game developer Bioware for including an optional homosexual element in a, now […]
For those of us who think there’s something not quite right about playing “Pac Man” on a PC, there’s San Francisco’s All You Can Arcade subscription service, which delivers machines to homes and businesses for a monthly $75 fee.
At NASA the waste management engineers are incredibly important to the entire mission, says Mary Roach.
A Quebec designer set up an installation that combines a standard “For Rent” sign with a surveillance camera, computer software, and a motorized track.
Elon Musk released the conceptual design for his Hyperloop passenger transport capsule.
A few months ago I posted a piece which has become my most popular blog post by quite a landslide.The postcovered various techniques for learning and looked at the empirical […]
When Fast Company came out with its 96 lessons for 2013 from leaders across the business spectrum, I expected to find a stereotypical list of lifestyle changes and recommendations for […]
Ideology often drives people to madness. History is full of frightening examples. The most recent may be California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a member of the House Science Committee, which […]
Adding to international pressure on Russia is the country’s ambition to host international sporting and business events, such as the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
Much of the NSA’s data collection efforts simply work to skim private information from the vast consumer caches held by corporations like Facebook, Google, and Amazon.
Hon. Shira A Scheindlin has struck major blow to Michael Bloomberg’s and Ray Kelly’s racist and megalomaniacal “Stop and Frisk” policy. Bloomberg’s and Kelly’s policy acts in direct opposition to both the progress of our culture and of the laws they have sworn to uphold.
A team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, conclude that rising temperatures and wetter seasons will aggravate regions across the world already prone to conflict.