Last week, Big Think blogger Frank Jacobs featured “The United States of Movies,” on his blog Strange Maps. The map, originally posted Reddit, assigned a movie to every U.S. state […]
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Over at Mother Jones, Kevin Drum has nailed the real problem with the deficit-cutting ideas floated the other day by the the co-chairs of President Obama’s Commission of Fiscal Responsibility […]
Every year, millions of girls and women in the developing world miss up to 50 school and work because they are menstruating and lack access to the proper sanitary products, […]
For politicians, the election cycle never ends. Now that the 2010 midterms are over—or almost—it’s time to start thinking about 2012. Two years from now the real prize, the presidency, […]
We’ve made it through another week! Some news to round it out. Bulusan: The Philippine volcano continues to produce ash plumes, but PHIVOLCS announced that none of the ash sampled […]
In 2008, 41,269 people in the U.S. were diagnosed with HIV, an increase of 8% from only three years earlier. Known infections make up only 75% of total infections, leaving […]
Much of the privacy that so many of us cherish has been an economic fluke. Tracking technology has spun far out of control but the privacy problem is really one of our own making.
A study said to shake psychology’s foundations finds that daydreaming is rarely helpful. Furthermore, it challenges the idea that the mind responds to a stimulus out in the world.
It will take a revived patriotism to motivate Americans to do what needs to be done. …How can you love your country if you hate the other half of it?
Spiegel interprets envy and egotism at this year’s G-20 summit as a sign the days of close cooperation among the world’s big 20 economic powers may have ended.
“The ‘laws of war’ may sound like an antiquated concept in this age of robo-weapons. But, in truth, a clear international legal regime has never been more needed.”
It’s that other material — the truly vile and illegal stuff, hidden from public view — that represents the true threat to the fabric of decent society.
I secretly wish Obama was only human. As much as I admire his adult behavior, it would be understandable if he stood up to the bullies on the right.
Conceptions of even such fundamental domains as time can differ dramatically across cultures. In a remote Australian Aboriginal community, time is arranged in terms of east to west.
How have advertising’s highly-paid creatives and suits reacted to a highly-successful coffee ad featuring Al Pacino that left them completely out of the loop? Read for yourself here.
Does your sperm have oddly shaped or multiple heads? A breakthrough in fertility treatment magnifies sperm 18 times larger than seen before and eliminates DNA-damaged sperm.
“I’ll be your mirror,” The Velvet Underground sang in the song of the same name, “Reflect what you are, in case you don’t know.” In The Moment of Caravaggio, Michael […]
Talking Points Memo flags a headline today that captures some of what’s wrong with American politics. The headline, from George Stephanopoulos’ blog on ABC, reads, “Sen. Conrad: Extend All Tax […]
Wired Magazine ran a dramatic cover story this September titled “The Web is Dead,” in which Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff voiced the concern that the open Web was becoming colonized […]
So, I’m about a week late to the party, but I wanted to make sure we all recognize the 10th anniversary of the Smithsonian Institute and USGS Global Volcanism Program‘s […]
A new bioplastic made from switchgrass is durable, capable of withstanding high temperatures, and, most importantly, biodegradable. Could this technology placate critics of corn-based alternatives?
While much remains unknown about the deadly disease, advances in research have shed new light on its mechanisms, and on how dementia affects the aging brain.
“The Abu Dhabi art fair offers a glimpse of the emirate’s impressive cultural ambitions.” The city will soon host branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums.
As companies look for scalable ways to store their data, cloud computing appears more attractive than ever. The industry is receiving a good amount of venture capital.
The Federal Reserve’s planned injection of $650 billion into the Treasury is creating investment where there otherwise wouldn’t be. In other words, a bubble, says Jesse Eisinger.
“Pornography is dangerous to children because it creates an artificially sexualised atmosphere for adults.” This blurs the boundaries of acceptable sexual conduct, says Sigrid Rausing.
Harvard labor economist Richard Freeman says American labor laws are hopelessly behind the times and that New Deal gains no longer fit the economy of 2010.
Mahatma Gandhi was not the solitary hero of popular myth. He was an entrepreneur who relied on a tight-knit community of co-workers, says Yale historian Ian Desai.
Experiments suggest that people are covetous of the things possessed by angry people. The attraction could be evolutionary: more aggressive hunters capture more food.
Each device that connects to the Internet is assigned an I.P. address, but we are quickly approaching the numerical 4.3 billion limit. The Daily Beast on possible solutions.