“Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world,” Percy Shelley wrote in 1821. Not surprisingly, this claim has earned some snickers from people who think of poets as barely able […]
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People who can name only one painting in the world usually name the Mona Lisa. For better or worse, Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of (probably) Lisa del Giocondo rises above […]
It only has one job: instil map readers with fear and revulsion.
Pity the poor Fifth of July. Americans don’t love it the way they love its neighbor, the loud and flag-bedazzled Fourth of July. The Fourth is hard to beat. A […]
Well, I’m really not. But a lot of BIG THINKERS must be, because we have nary a post so far talking up THE AMERICAN HOLIDAY. So HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! […]
Treasury Secretary Geithner warns that if Congress doesn’t act to raise the federal debt ceiling, it would be “unthinkably damaging to the economy.” As Ezra Klein reports, the governments options […]
Greece will default on its debt—the only question is how. Either its lenders will accept “voluntary” rollovers or risk an economic collapse similar to Lehman Brothers in 2008.
Politically and economically exhausted, Europe and America are no longer very capable of imposing their values and interests through costly military interventions in faraway lands.
One calculation puts China’s sovereign debt at 150 percent of its G.D.P., a bigger percentage than Greece’s. As China is buying up more European debt, could it be at risk of defaulting?
Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman reviews a new book on the history of overreach by American financial institutions and notes that each crash has been bigger than the last…
The government wants to double the fuel efficiency standards of cars made in America. If successful, it would bring the U.S. in line with Europe and Japan, creating a global car market.
A poll on the eve of Independence Day confirmed that more Americans see the nation as less powerful and more vulnerable. They want leaders to focus more on the challenges at home.
It is impossible for me to fathom the amount of courage it took back in 1774 for Caesar Sarter, a former slave, to publish his anti-slavery essay in The Essex […]
One of the most frustrating experiences one can have is when we are not able to understand each other. The most common but also less frustrating situation is of course […]
Parents, beware waiting until your baby nods off before arguing over the housework—new research from King’s College London suggests the sleeping infant will still be listening in.
Screening teenagers for mental illness should become routine in doctors’ offices nationwide as a part of preventative care, experts from the nonprofit program TeenScreen have said.
The super-human abilities of sports superstars like Roger Federer and Tiger Woods are self-fulfilling prophecies, says Jonah Lehrer. Because of their status, their opponents choke.
Have you ever made a mistake while trying to execute the most rudimentary of tasks? Scientists have begun to understand why the brain sometimes loses its concentration for no good reason.
Since 2007, legislative concessions won by the National Rifle Association have made it easier for the mentally ill to reclaim their right to bear arms, sometimes with terrible consequences.
Quick note for this evening – Twitter follower @ikmar made me aware of an eruption at Soputan in Indonesia. The little news I’ve found about the eruption (Indonesian) have been […]
Washington was scandalized recently when MSNBC analyst Mark Halperin called President Obama “a dick” on Morning Joe. Halperin quickly apologized and was suspended for the remark, which he admitted was […]
When I dropped my daughter and her friends off at their senior prom last week I thought it would be fun to take a walk into the foyer of the […]
The words in every story I read about the Dominique Strauss-Kahn rape case seem to trill at the thought that he may go free. I am seriously convinced that we […]
In numerous health surveys around the world many smokers report that graphic images motivate them to quit. Non-smokers say they feel deterred from ever picking up a pack.
In recent years H.I.V. has begun to take a disproportionate toll on the southern U.S., including rural areas. What explains the disturbing numbers, and what can be done about them?
The secret to “mending broken hearts” has been discovered by scientists examining ways of repairing damaged tissue after heart attacks by using proteins similar to insulin.
Cancer research has found that injecting mice with tiny magnets and turning up their body heat eliminated tumors from the animals’ bodies with no apparent side effects.
Pounding away on a machine is so boring—unless you’ve got Keith Richards with you. Author Julia Sweeney explains how she got hooked on audiobooks and learned to love exercising.
Poor regulatory standards make it nearly impossible for consumers to get the truth about the presence of the cancer-causing preservatives nitrate and nitrite in their hot dogs.
Comparing Chicago’s healthcare system to Toronto’s, columnist Margaret Wente sees an American medical industry run amok with too much money and too much business influence.