By the time the Persians destroyed the Roman military garrison at Dura-Europos in 256 AD, the city high above the Euphrates River existed for almost six centuries since its founding […]
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Most of us have little idea what the fighting in Sanaa over the past several days has been like. We can imagine if not quite comprehend the daily struggles that […]
At a time like this, when so many of us are dependent on the brave reporting of journalists in Yemen, it is fitting that the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression […]
A friend of mine posted a snarky comment on Facebook about how foolish FEMA sounds, announcing it’s preparing for the crash landing of a satellite somewhere this week. Somewhere […]
So there’s a lot of excitement about dolphins on BIG THINK these days. If we can figure out how to communicate with them, we can figure out how to communicate […]
Since its peak in 2007, the U.S. economy has lost almost 7 million jobs. Although the economy has begun to recover, jobs have been slow to return. Recent job growth […]
Today the Washington Post has a story up about the constellation of secret drone bases the US is building in and around the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa […]
The Spaceship Company, a joint-venture between Virgin Galactic and a California technology company, has opened the doors of a new facility to manufacture suborbital spaceships.
Following up on her first book, renowned physicist Lisa Randall’s newest work explores the cosmos, from the atoms being smashed at the L.H.C. to physicists’ search for dark matter.
Over the past couple of weeks practicallyeverymedia site has run a piece on a new “economic theory” that argues that gender equality is driving down the price of sex. Valid […]
The same basic impulses – insatiable curiosity, good people skills, an appetite for risk – that led Kevin Mitnick into a decade-long game of cat-and-mouse with the FBI are richly rewarded in more prosocial professions.
Europe and America are now in a race against time to rescue their plans for joint missions to Mars. Unless solutions to budget woes are found, launch opportunities may be missed.
The Chinese government will launch a test module next week for the 60-ton space station it hopes to send into orbit by 2020. The unmanned module will be called the “Heavenly Palace”.
Nature may abhor a vacuum but it seems to tolerate just about everything else. Scientists have found yet another species, this time a deep-sea squid, that engages in same-sex sex.
The Denver Green School, classed as an Innovation Status school by the Denver Public School system, is trying out yet another innovation – growing their own food and serving it […]
To Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, and all other African American pundits who want to own the conversation about the black community—President Barack Obama is not Captain Save-A-Negro. He is the […]
The U.S. currently has the world’s largest prison population – not just on an aggregate basis, but also on a per capita basis. In fact, the U.S. now accounts for […]
The Nantucket Project, a festival of ideas held this month on Nantucket, Massachusetts, was an event filled with big names. And yet, one of the most memorable performances came from an up-and-coming poet few had heard of.
Ray Kurzweil is an expert at predicting the future. In tracking our progress in the technological-evolutionary journey, Kurzweil has identified six epochs, each of which is characterized by a major paradigm shift.
With the global financial crisis ongoing, the concept of “short-termism” has emerged as one underlying explanation for our current woes. Larry Summers and Eric Schmidt, among others, tackle this question during a lively panel at The Nantucket Project.
Hey, Michele Bachmann, you know who was really, really pro-vaccination? The Founding Fathers. Read all about it in my new article at The Nation. George Washington argued for mandatory inoculation […]
Sir Brian Urquhart, one of the oldest surviving senior UN staff members, reminded us recently in an article in the New York Times that a former Secretary General of the […]
1. So the best news from the Emmys is that FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS won two key awards—for writing and for lead actor (Kyle Chandler as the Coach)—in the category of […]
It’s been over a month since the last MVP, so I thought it might be time to throw out another. Last time, Chris Reykjavik got the right answer – Kaula […]
I’m on the road, so posting will be a bit light until tomorrow. Until then, enjoy philosophers Jason Brennan and Kevin Vallier’s on Philosophy TV discussing whether political beliefs based […]
In August, 2010, Paul Rieckhoff, Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told Big Think, “I will put all the money in my pocket right now on the fact […]
Most scientists in the US and UK blame public ignorance of science for flawed policy preferences and political choices. They tend to be critical of media coverage, yet rate favorably […]
[This article appeared in the Daily Mail] The British people understand what politicians and diplomats euphemistically refer to as ‘realpolitik’. They accept that sometimes their leaders have to sit down […]
Over the past couple of days as the international media has once again focused on the bloody fighting in Sanaa, they have invariably asked themselves, Yemenis, and outside observers the […]
Readers in the Washington, DC area are invited to join us at American University this Fall semester for a seminar series sponsored by the Doctoral program in Communication. The seminars […]