It’s Mother’s Day. Are you thinking about mom? No, not because it’s Mother’s Day, but because mom is a trendsetter a virtual thermometer of what’s hot and what’s not. I […]
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Oscar-winning filmmaker James Marsh discusses the moments of inspiration behind his films and emphasizes the importance of trusting your instincts.
Smaller-budget documentaries are increasingly shaping debate over energy issues, writes Michael Nagle in a guest post today. Yet widening the scope of their reach and impact has taken some investment […]
Scrolling through POLITICO last Friday night, the words “Orangeburg, S.C.” caught my eye. Colin Powell was in my hometown that day to deliver this year’s commencement speech at my father’s […]
This week I will be participating in a symposium on the “Ethical Challenges of Communicating Science in Political Controversies” hosted by the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa […]
The eurozone’s first ever bailout of a debt-laden member country is failing—Greece will not be able to meet the terms of last year’s rescue and is hoping to ask the eurozone for more funds.
The light at the end of the finals tunnel has appeared – only one set of papers (where I posed to my volcanoes class the question “if someone asked you […]
In order to grapple with the future, we must first take a big step back and understand the historical pattern of technology disruptions. The story begins by recalling the original […]
Osama bin Laden’s violent ideology may have once garnered support in the Arab world, but his death comes at a time of burgeoning pro-democracy movements throughout the Muslim world.
Here’s an exaggerated account of the slide of our professors into the proletariat given by The Nation, our leading journal on the left. Let me repeat what I’ve said before: Good […]
Speculative pricing of the world’s commodities is driving up the cost of everything from copper to wheat—while financial firms make billions in profits, it spells disaster for the world’s poor.
Despite the crisis in Japan, Prime Minister Kan indicated Sunday that, while temporarily closing the Hamaoka plant near Tokyo, his government was not rethinking the nation’s energy policy.
China’s rising wages are propelling global prices higher, heralding the possible end of an era of cheap goods just as the U.S. prepares to meet Chinese officials and push for faster yuan appreciation.
“In the long term the best way to beat radical ideas is to make them redundant,” says Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a politician and ardent critic of fundamentalist Islam.
Francis Fukuyama argues that China’s repressive state apparatus is far more sophisticated than the regimes in the Middle East that have fallen during the so-called Arab Spring.
On September 21st, 2001, then President George W. Bush gave a speech to a joint session of Congress in which he spoke about justice, and addressed frankly what the American […]
I had high hopes for Tina Fey’s Saturday Night Live send up of natural childbirth. Fey is very talented and natural childbirth subculture is ripe for parody, in part because […]
In the days of the Wild West, the posters used to read ‘Wanted! Dead or Alive’. Now in the White House we must presume they read, ‘Wanted! Dead,Not Alive!’ This […]
Pitzer College, a small liberal arts school in Southern California, will launch a Department of Securlar Studies this fall: “It’s not about arguing ‘Is there a God or not?’ ” Mr. […]
A growing body of research challenges whether most humans see “positive” emotions as better than ordinary ones—whether feeling happy actually leads, in the end, to a good life.
Cambridge University psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen argues that evil should be understood as a lack of empathy—a condition he argues can be measured and is susceptible to education and treatment.
The real reason why we succeed in our relationships and careers is the strength of our unconscious, according to David Brooks, who wants to unravel the power of our inner voice.
I briefly wrote about digital dementia in my post about demand driven education. The term deals with the fact that people tend to outsource information to digital devices we had […]
In a constantly changing world, it sometimes seems that our only anchor is personal character but put it to the test and this supposedly durable good begins to look quite flimsy.
Celebrating Osama bin Laden’s death, while allegedly cathartic, will likely bring unhealthy feelings of vengeance to the surface, opening old wounds and creating new ones, say psychologists.
It’s a common and tired trope of storytelling that the geek shall inherit the Earth. Revenge of the Nerds might actually be the pinnacle of this geeky genre. What makes […]
Francis Fukuyama tells Big Think about the pressures that one must overcome in rethinking positions–in his case, his views on the Iraq War–and how he overcame those pressures.
I was in Catholic community center today for a sporting event when a brightly colored poster on a bulletin board caught my eye. The picture was of a parachutist falling […]
Last night was Iowa State University’s largest-ever commencement for graduate students: 150+ Ph.D. students and another 280+ Master’s students. I had the pleasure of graduating three of my doctoral advisees. Pam […]
Jeffrey Potteiger, an exercise scientist at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, says that calisthenics is again becoming popular, though it’s health benefits have long been known.