“Money doesn’t buy happiness all on its own purchasing power, but rather happiness comes indirectly from the higher status money provides.” Relative income is what counts, says new research.
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Two recent experiments suggest that taking a common pain reliever can ease emotional as well as physical pain. The Boston Globe reports on a surprising new find.
Last week, in a history book moment, an airplane was flown straight through a day-night cycle running on nothing – nothing – but the sun’s rays. Imagine the quiet, up […]
As a result of a recently leaked assessment from the UK Treasury the new British Government’s austerity budget will most likely lead to 1.3 million jobs being lost across the […]
Ethan Epstein at True/Slant says that legalizing physician assisted suicide, instead of giving individuals more freedom, would limit individuals’ control by creating a new bureaucracy.
“The Internet is a Soviet bread line,” says Damon Darlin at The New York Times. Sure we are elated at all the “free” content, but we lose hours and hours searching for what we want.
“The world we live in is so overrun with environmental pollutants that it is next to impossible to keep oneself truly healthy.” Sadhbh Walshe at The Guardian laments the lack of regulation.
“When the world’s productive capacities exceed the buying power of the world’s consumers, every government wants to increase exports and discourage imports. That spells trade war.”
Women who stay at home to raise children abdicate responsibility to themselves and therefore to their children, says Nancy Hirschmann, a professor of political science and women’s studies.
Responsible for feeding the nation, farm labor should be an honored work and respected with livable wages and good working conditions. Lest we bite the hand that feeds, says the L.A. Times.
A new Midwest coal plant marketed as a source for cheap, clean energy is expected to raise utility bills and be the largest source of carbon dioxide in a quarter century, says The Chicago Tribune.
“For conservative hold-outs, soccer may be the most capitalist game going.” The xenophobia that fears soccer as a socialist export is unfounded, says The Christian Science Monitor.
After pillaging the housing and credit markets, financial speculators have turned their gaze to chocolate. The price of cocoa has increased 150 percent in the last 18 months and producers are crying foul.
The democratic ideal of a well informed public fit to govern itself is not in line with recent behavioral research which finds people are more bullheaded when facts contradict their beliefs.
Monday, June 12th, is judgment day for Yuri Samodurov, former director of Moscow’s Sakharov Museum, and Andrei Yerofeyev, a former curator of the Tretyakov Gallery. They face the possibility of […]
I will pay $5 for just about anything, mostly because the five dollar bill is bucking mightily these days to replace the one dollar bill as the lowest acceptable form […]
“The Internet-versus-books debate is conducted on the supposition that the medium is the message. But sometimes the medium is just the medium,” says David Brooks.
“One of the most widely quoted and dissected public intellectuals on the planet is also one of the most inscrutable.” A colleague of Christopher Hitchens on the author’s personal reticence.
After Oscar Grant, some are looking to the U.K. as a model for gun-free police forces.
Lola Adesioye at The Guardian thinks non-lethal tasers could be the ideal solution.
“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?”
“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 […]