Guest Thinkers

Scientists claim the average hug lasts for three seconds, but it has long been claimed that computers could allow us to do so remotely using electrical sensors.

One of the true joys of the internet is that you can do pretty much anything (even blog) from the comfort of your own bedroom (maybe even in your pajamas). […]

In a guest post today, my colleague Paul D’Angelo, a professor of communication at The College of New Jersey, considers how the news media have defined the role of social […]

Part II of my notes from Cairo – note this should not be mistake for expert analysis on Egypt.  This is simply my notes of my own experiences. Friday Night, […]

I don’t often blog about things other than Yemen, mostly because I dislike reading stuff from people who speak without knowing, and as I have been forced to listen countless […]

When the late Idi Amin launched a successful coup attempt against the then President of Uganda, Milton Obote, he made sure that the latter was attending Commonwealth Conference, before sending […]

The author of the Declaration of Independence and surely our most “intellectual” president, Thomas Jefferson, wrote that we have life and liberty for the pursuit of happiness.  In his private letters, […]

The ice remains here in Ohio – and the weather is truly crazed. The temperature when I woke up this morning: 36F. Temperature an hour and a half later: 25F […]

Seven years before Charles Darwin went public with his evolutionary theories in On the Origin of Species, Herbert Spencer sketched out the basics of evolution and natural selection.

I didn’t get to watch the livestream of the first half of our Farsight 2011: Beyond The Search Box event today, but the parts I did see were enough to […]

“The future of search is verbs.” This is what Bill Gates told Esther Dyson over dinner, and what Esther Dyson told us at Big Think’s Google v. Bing/Farsight 2011: Beyond […]

For many Washington, DC readers the upcoming event at the Newseum, co-organized by the School of Communication at American University, is likely to be of strong interest.  Details are below […]

In part 2 of Big Think’s Farsight 2011 event Principal Engineer at Google, Matt Cutts and Corporate Vice President at Microsoft Dr. Harry Shum bump heads.

Some other bits of news from around volcano world (that doesn’t have to do with Japan). Eruptions readers have sent me a pile of leads/articles over the last week and […]

Vivek Wadhwa introduces the key note speaker of Big Think’s Farsight 2011: Beyond the Search Box, former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel.

GUEST POST BY LINA SRIVASTAVA “I felt if the Cairo museum is robbed, Egypt will never be able to get up again.” — Zahi Hawass. Egypt is in the midst […]

A judge in Florida ruled this week that the entire Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. According to political scientist and Supreme court-watcher Scott Lemieux, that’s probably not the end of […]

The calendar has turned to February, campus is closed because we’re encased in ice and we’re all still watching Kirishima. Yesterday, the volcano produced another impressive explosion (video), one that broke […]

I want to share with you a more personal update today — a new practice we’ve developed which has improved the marketing efforts at my company. We’ve recently begun practicing […]

A great deal has been said and published lately on changing educational paradigms. In fact, this conversation isn’t a recent development – even in the 1980s, iconic science fiction author […]

It’s clear that green technology strengthens our security and helps the environment, but can it be economically advantageous also? Harvard Business School professor Robert Eccles believes so.

I spent most of the weekend with some sort of cold/flu/virus, so I’m only now catching up with all the goings-on that I missed over the weekend (not that my […]

Morning Gloria of Jezebel asks, “Is It Ever Okay To Make a Relationship Ultimatum?” My answer: You’d better believe it. Seriously, though. I have a hard time wrapping my mind […]

The human mind readily grasps a revolution like Tunisia’s or the one in aborning in Egypt. We’re well-equipped mentally for a short-term crisis, especially one that involves the question of […]

Many people think with either their wallets or their stomachs. Taking advantage of that by taxing meat products could reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Egyptian protesters have called for a massive demonstration of more than a million people on Tuesday in a bid to force out president Hosni Mubarak from power.

In 2007, Obama called climate change the “epochal, man-made threat to the planet.” But in his State of the Union address last week, the word “climate” was nowhere to be found.

The Tiger Mom went to Davos; of course she did. And what did she say? And why do we care? Has her Battle Hymn hit a tipping point, and will […]

Watching American media outlets attempt to cover the events happening in Egypt over the past few days reminded me of just how ignorant we are about the rest of the […]

Blue Valentine is a psychologically ambitious and impressively subversive effort by a new filmmaker. It is, in a subtle but clear way, a pro-life movie. It’s quite jarring and claustrophobic; […]