English-only policies run contrary to America’s concept of liberty and fears of a multilingual society ignore many of the world’s nations which officially recognize multiple languages.
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali thinks the American Academy of Pediatrics’ proposal to aid in female genital mutilation gives tacit support to a practice which should be condemned outright.
While Facebook and Google have come under recent attack for alleged violations of privacy, enforcement of existing laws should be prioritized over new regulation, writes the Economist.
Husna Haq at The CSM explains why she is and other Muslims are so offended by depictions of Mohammad and why it’s no surprise Pakistan has banned Facebook for the rest of May.
An American biologist, Craig Venter, is making waves after creating the first self-replicating cell whose DNA is synthetic; immediate uses could include synthetic vaccines and biofuels.
The Impressionists now stand as the ultimate in artistic comfort food for the mainstream public. The billowy softness of their images graces office walls in framed reproductions and countless calendars. […]
In light of the French Council of Ministers recent approval of a measure to ban the wearing of full-face veils, Joan Wallach Scott’s discussion of France’s battle against the burqa […]
Caitlin Flanagan’s essay, Love Actually, in the new Atlantic, reminds us why mothers and daughters find adolescence uniquely challenging. A girl becomes a woman, and yet her relationship to that […]
Don’t look now, but John McCain is in trouble. The latest Rasmussen poll finds that 52% of Arizona Republicans support Sen. McCain (R-AZ), while 40% prefer former Republican Congressman J.D. […]
The University of Alabama in Huntsville – in partnership with NASA and NOAA – has taken Earth’s temperature, and determined that (based on satellite data collected over the past 32 […]
He is serving a life sentence in a Parisian prison and considered an icon of a bygone Cold War-era type of terrorism. So you wouldn’t expect to hear much from Ilich […]
“Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box,” says a researcher who sees similarities in the brains of creative people and schizophrenics.
The New Yorker asks what disagreement between the Gospels means for Christian faith and why the public is still intensely interested in the topic given our secular times?
Cheese, among other organic material, may power the future since sugars like lactose can be fed to bacteria cultures inside of full cells to generate electricity; the Economist wheys in.
Steve Chapman sees the Supreme Court’s recent decision to ban life sentences for minors as a much needed compromise between conservative and liberal views of the Constitution.
“Researchers at UC Berkeley are perfecting microscopic fibers that can produce electricity from simple body motions such as bending, stretching and twisting,” reports the L.A. Times.
People who deny generally accepted scientific truths use fragile reasoning to regain control over their lives from an indifferent Nature, such as claiming that business created swine flu.
Mark Levine of UC Irvine laments Obama’s pragmatic path where his empty promises to change America’s foreign and energy policies mark the way.
The number of marriages where women earn more than men is on the rise according to the Pew Research Center due to the recession and educational opportunities available to women.
Alison Kilkenny at True/Slant documents recent cases of domestic terrorism that have been ignored by media outlets in their search for more sensational stories.
New York psychotherapist Charley Wininger recalls that “hippidom (at its best) was an alternative to this dillusional pathology of separation that has been forced upon us.”
The argument that “we take the internet for granted” may seem like a tired straw man. But perhaps the ideology of the internet could stand a second look. Maybe we […]
Lionel Tiger, the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University, is no stranger to controversy. He has made a career out of “telling it like he sees it” when […]
The results from yesterday’s “Little Tuesday” collection of primaries and special elections around the country are in. They were bad news for many established political figures. But they may nevertheless […]
There’s hardly a feat of industrial design more emblematic of consumerism than the vending machine. But while vending machines may perpetuate a number of social ills – from conspiculous consumption […]
2010 marks the 40th anniversary of the Boston Women’s Health Collective, also known as “Our Bodies, Ourselves.” Executive Director Judy Norsigian sat down with Big Think to talk about the […]
On the heels of the untimely passing of heavy metal legend Ronnie James Dio, it’s worth analyzing the social and political force of Dio and his hard-rocking brethren. Dio’s work […]
Despite colloquial wisdom that social networking sites deprive teenagers of contact with the real world, new research shows that users are quite well adjusted.
Moral dogmatism is the true enemy of free thought, says Jonah Goldberg, not ideology; attention to the facts must supersede commitment to a scripted morality.