Forty percent of the world doesn’t use toilets, says UNICEF, resulting in disease carried by dust and flies and contaminated food and water supplies — the toll is 2 million dead annually.
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NASA says our sun is preparing for a stormy period and, according to the National Academy of Sciences, “A major solar storm could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.”
Ideological debates that lack context during a financial crisis are like a bikini, says Marc Lackritz of the Financial Times: “What they reveal is suggestive; but what they conceal is vital.”
Stanford Economist Paul Romer wants “dysfunctional nations to kick-start their own development” by leasing territory to foreign governments, an idea criticized as “neo-colonial”.
Garrison Keillor eavesdrops on some twenty-somethings at a local cafe and reasons that instant communication would have sapped modern literature of its best tropes, e.g. longing and reflection.
Among children whose parents consistently use mobile devices, “feelings of hurt, jealousy and competition are widespread,” says Sherry Turkle, director of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self.
NYU professor Tunku Varadarajan asks: How can we account for the success of Indian American political candidates in the South given the region’s history of institutionalized racism?
Incumbent senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AK) narrowly managed to hold off a labor-backed challenge in the Democratic primaries from Lt. Gov. Bill Halter. Ben Smith reports that after the election a […]
The established poet William Carlos Williams wrote in 1956 of newcomer poet (and friend) Allen Ginsberg that he “sees with the eyes of the angels.” Williams most likely referred to […]
UCB Comedy shows what happens when someone upends a cup of joe at BP HQ. Photo credit: Flickr user TN Something Special Cakes, licensed under Creative Commons.
Speaking of green prefab houses, how many square feet, exactly, do you require before you’ll call it home? What about 220? I realize that, as a recently apartment-searching New Yorker […]
In just under a month’s time – July 7th to be precise – many Londoners will have cause to stop, think and remember that terrible summers day five years ago […]
Penn Jillette visited Big Think and talked about his early conversion to atheism, his libertarian views, the unique chemistry between him and Teller, the history (and the future) of magic, […]
The Middle East isn’t just the geographic center of the planet. With so much activism on different sides regarding the region, particularly with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict recently stoked […]
Bottled water is one of the environmental movement’s biggest scapegoats – and for a reason: Only about 10% of plastic bottles are recycled; the rest end up in landfills, or […]
Singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton is so famous that you might never have heard of him. That’s because he’s “internet famous” (i.e. he has a passionate fan base that he’s built up […]
USC’s vice provost of innovation, Krisztina “Z” Holly, thinks PhD programs need to change. If you think about it, it takes even the most amazing PhD candidates around the world […]
Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder and CEO of Seventh Generation—the eco-friendly manufacturer of cleaning, paper, and personal care products—stopped by the Big Think offices today to talk about about his thoughts on […]
There is a phenomenon going on out here in the blogosphere called “good information dissemination”, a trait that often distinguishes us lower paid or usually unpaid bloggers from the members […]
Having your body freeze-dried instead of cremated may reduce carbon and mercury emissions, Helen Knight finds in her look at how to make funerals more eco-friendly.
The potential for psychiatry to pathologize normal human behavior is under the spotlight during the ongoing revision of an official list of mental disorders.
The latest Global Peace Index shows the world has become less peaceful in the last year. Liz Ford asks if the rankings should prompt donor governments to rethink aid strategies.
“It is a sad finale for someone who helped break down barriers for women journalists at the center of American power,” so says the L.A. Times of Helen Thomas.
With alleged breaches of the Nuremburg Medical Code in the news, Brian Palmer looks at whether any useful science came out of Nazi experiments on unwilling subjects.
Some see a shallow sitcom or feather-light comedy. Matt Zoller Seitz sees “radical sincerity” in Glee, “one of the most stylistically bold broadcast network shows since Twin Peaks.”
Has how we think about lofty things – like the meaning of life – been hijacked by a deep-pocketed foundation that successfully combines elite research and broad dissemination?
Long-time veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas is retiring in the wake of comments she made at a recent celebration of the Jewish Heritage at the White House. When Rabbi […]
There was brief speculation in the media about using nuclear weapons to seal up the raging oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. I think this is a bad idea, […]
Here’s a shocking bit of news: Plans for a big, shiny Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem are not going smoothly. This multi-part attack last month in the newspaper Haaretz blames […]
