“Today’s communes are a far cry from the free-loving, dope-smoking hippy havens of the Sixties. But can they really solve the problems of the modern world?”
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“Though Iranian officials have only just now designated the mullet as a form of ‘Western cultural invasion,’ the haircut has always been with us.” Slate gives a history of the hairdo.
“The financial crisis in America isn’t over,” says James Galbraith. The renowned economist explains how restoring the rule of law on Wall Street should be the nation’s top priority.
Microsoft’s Imagine Cup challenges high school and college students to develop apps that address the world’s most pressing problems. The result is humanitarian mobile devices.
The online cartographic authority, Google Maps has the unenviable task of drawing borders across the most hotly contested territories on earth. Sometimes the company riles border disputes.
“Higher marginal tax rates mean more resources for job-creating, wage-generating public investments.” Slate.com says liberals agree: higher tax rates are a step away from debt.
“Plato imagined philosopher-kings guarding his utopia. Here in Aspen, we have Bill Gates.” The Atlantic says Gates’ unique solutions to global problems were on display at the Aspen Ideas Festival.
I interrupt your regularly scheduled crushing negativity for a little effusive praise… I’m very proud to report that my boyfriend, Darcy James Argue, kicked all kinds of ass in DownBeat’s […]
In two days, To Kill A Mockingbird turns fifty. God bless this book. For whatever reasons, we still need this books in our lives, on our syllabi; we still need […]
Violinist and humanitarian Midori Goto stopped by the Big Think offices today. She played show and tell with her priceless violin, made in 1734, which she said she thinks of […]
Church and State both took tentative strides towards granting gays and lesbians greater rights yesterday. In Massachusetts a federal judge overturned the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which bars the […]
It’s a bit of an overstatement to say that Americans don’t care at all about what’s happening outside of our borders, but Jim Hoge, the longtime editor of Foreign Affairs […]
In the history of the Universe, life—and human life in particular—has not been around for very long. But University of Michigan theoretical astrophysicist Katie Freese believes it’s possible that life […]
The Jewish community in Britain represents only one-half of one percent of the population, but Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks believes it need not have a commensurate voice in the “human […]
The Daily Show sent its newest correspondent, Olivia Munn, to Phoenix to interview a state senator who wants to ban photo radar as an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, but who […]
The amount of money hedge funds make is only surpassed by the amount of secrecy surrounding how they make it. To pull back the curtain on these financial wizards, Big […]
Ken Coates who has died at the age of 79 of a suspected heart attack was actively engaged in radical British politics, writing and as ever bubbling with new ideas almost hours […]
There was a time when you could reliably blame just about anything gone wrong from the weather to the size of your bank account on blacks or minorities and the […]
“The spread of digital technology comes at a cost: it exposes armies and societies to digital attack,” says The Economist, which thinks cyberspace must be treated as a theater of war.
Spiegel follows the “Elvis of cultural studies” to a conference in Berlin where he presents his esoteric and eccentric ideas on the behavior of “late capitalism”.
Two independent reports have exonerated the “Climategate” scientists, but you wouldn’t know it to read the news. Salon.com takes on the wet-noodle, mainstream press.
“An aircraft fueled by the sun has accomplished its first ever manned night flight,” reports the New Scientist. The Swiss aircraft broke several records for a piloted solar flight.
“We’ve plenty to protest about in the US, but on the streets there is no dissent. Why is our liberal mood so paralytic?” Clancy Sigel blames a host of culprits, including the Internet.
Government scientists have found natural HIV antibodies necessary for an AIDS vaccine, reports Scientific American, but stimulating their production in the body remains a hurdle.
“How does a defunct and discredited diplomatic process continue to masquerade as a success despite its utter failures?” An Al Jazeera analyst writes about the Middle East “peace process”.
“By the end of next year, there’s a good chance that Android devices will have displaced the iPhone in terms of sales.” The Independent predicts closed-source programming will end Apple.
“The Gulf oil spill ranks as the nation’s worst environmental disaster only if you ignore the great ongoing spill in the sky.” The L.A. Times says air pollution gets a pass, but shouldn’t.
Thinking of launching its own social network site, Google has criticized Facebook’s “friend” function because it creates networks that don’t respect the boundaries of real life.
Growing up, I spent many a rainy or wintry Saturday afternoon watching classic old horror films such as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man or Dracula Vs. Frankenstein. It always seemed […]
Are spies like us? Just watch this. And then, well ensconced in romance and nostalgia, consider that Ian Fleming said—or did he write?—that “men want a woman whom they can […]