Guest Thinkers

Inspired by Tunisia, Egyptians began their protests online and then added hard tactics on the ground in their effort to bring down a crushingly effective police state.

U.S. Supreme Court justices have ruled that corporations are “artificial persons”; the Spanish Parliament ruled that great apes are “legal persons.” So just what is a person these days?

What people are saying to each other is important, but how they are saying it may be even more telling. A new study finds that people who speak in similar styles are more compatible.

[IMPT] This post is likely to offend a few people – I decided to post it anyway. If you’d like to tell me your opinion about this article? Tweet me […]

More than even faith in the market, perhaps our most widely shared belief as Americans is our deep, almost fundamentalist commitment to the ideal of science and innovation as strengthening […]

The business world is full of what can be most kindly called “empty suits”—individuals who look the part but hollowly fulfill positions of power. In the art world, the empty […]

We don’t know about you, but we’re a little tired of conventional web searches. If you want to search anything (say Egypt), Google obediently proffers a number of sites starting […]

What are the practical applications of cryogenics today?

Spacehacking is a common craft among urban dwellers who want to make the most out of their less-than-generous floor plans. From Japanese-born, German-based designer Yuya Ushida comes Sofa_XXXX – an ingenious […]

Academic journals, like universities, gain prestige by refusal. The smaller the number of applicants you admit onto your pages, the greater your glory. With logic worthy of Charles Dodgson, then, […]

Sometimes I think that people have an unhealthy obsession with Yellowstone Caldera. Sure, it is big, powerful and the stuff that disaster movies are made, but in terms of a volcanic system that poses a high threat to life/property in the U.S. on a daily basis, it is relatively low.

President Obama has fallen hook, line and sinker for the short-sided political view of our nation’s most efficient stimulus program.

Rupert Murdoch is on his way to the annual shindig of global movers and shakers at Davos. Quite what is moved and shaken at Davos is frankly anyone’s guess. But […]

At his core, Frank Sinatra was consumed by pain and anxiety. A new book chronicles his irresistible ascent then the loss of altitude which delighted those repelled by his arrogance.

This semester at American University, the School of Communication has launched the inaugural Science in Society Film and Lecture series, an initiative designed to engage students, faculty, and the Washington, […]

A recent article in USA Today suggests that infidelity is rampant among young couples. 

So, I finally got this project done! We all do a lot of webcam watching here on Eruptions. A lot of the time when a new eruption occurs, the first […]

Yesterday we talked about the kidnapping of Tawakul Karman (the government has wisely decided to release her today), but I didn’t mention the kidnapping of Taha Husayn Ali Muhsin (Ar.), […]

The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, is in trouble. Rumours of a plot to unseat him have been swirling around Westminster this week, with Deputy Speaker, Nigel […]

An amibitious project to pipe salt water from the Red Sea into the arid coastal city of Aqaba, Jordan, could turn the region into an oasis through the process of desalination.

If Western atheists left their world of books, con­fer­ences, classrooms, and com­put­ers to trav­el more in the de­vel­op­ing world, they would find some un­fa­mil­iar religious arenas.

Can you really change your partner or spouse? You can’t make them be who you want them to be. But you can make it easier for them to find their own financial solutions.

Two of today’s hottest areas of design innovation – data visualization and materials science – converge in a new project by NYU students Sue Ngo and Nien Lam. Warning Signs […]

I got a few messages on Twitter the other day about Keith Olbermann’s abrupt departure from his perch at MSNBC. But I’ve never been a fan of Olbermann’s style of […]

We see them every time we go to a museum, but we never really see them. Like Rodney Dangerfield, frames get no respect. Julius Lowy Frame & Restoring Company, Inc. […]

Two days after Tawakul Karman was profiled by Isobel Coleman in a piece for the Huffington Post, suspected Yemeni security officials, driving in three pick-ups, swooped in and arrested her […]

Stefanos Polyzoides is among the founders of the New Urbanism movement, a reaction against urban sprawl as well as the so-called urban renewal movement of the 1960s.

On Wednesday, Republicans and a handful of Democrats in the House voted to repeal last year’s health care reform bill. Repeal won’t get pass the Senate—although Republicans insist the vote […]

Is evidence of shorter sentences—or no sentences at all—evidence of shallower emotions? “A kind of death of the sentence by collective neglect,” is how Adam Haslett puts it.