Guest Thinkers

“Diplomats are honest men, sent to lie by their Governments”, or so runs the old adage. Ironically, Britain’s former Ambassador to the United Nations, Sir John Sawers, is a good man […]

What made the decision in Bush v. Gore so startling was that it was the work of Justices who were considered, to greater or lesser extents, judicial conservatives.

As evidenced by the Copenhagen Conference, global action is not going to stop climate change. The world needs to look harder at how to live with it, says The Economist.

When you meet a paradox, you’ve got only two choices. One is to accept that the implausible is true; the other is to reject the conclusion, and explain why the argument is wrong.

Forcing countries to agree to emissions caps will never work, argue Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. Instead, they say, the focus should be on technology innovations.

An introduction to Joomla was my birthday present to myself this year. If I had known the open source content management system was this good, I would have started using […]

I hope this puts to rest the notion that we would live in a liberal paradise had Hillary Clinton become president instead of Barack Obama…not to mention the notion that […]

Texas-based designer and builder Dan Phillips builds extraordinary low-cost homes out of reclaimed materials. In his witty and insightful talk from TEDxHouston, he showcases a dozen of his remarkable creations […]

Why are Republicans trying to block ratification of the new START? The original START—short for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty—was proposed by President Reagan to limit the number of strategic nuclear […]

After a spontaneous flight to Washington, Elvis hand-wrote a letter to then President Nixon asking for a badge from the federal Bureau of Narcotics. Nixon gave him one.

Seismic changes in the communist economy built by Fidel Castro are enriching some Cubans, scaring others, and sparking imaginations. Will the Caribbean gem shine again?

For a debate about religion and its influence on world politics and humankind you could do no better than Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens. The two met in Toronto to hash it out.

State Department cables obtained by The Atlantic detail a nuclear blackmail scheme executed by Libyan officials intent on wielding the power of their last cache of nuclear material.

Thanksgiving is the least commercialized major holiday.  There are no special items to purchase, no material obligations, and no gift-exchanging. 

It may seem crazy but virtual real estate is hot business these days. Last week, British businessman Jon Jacobs sold his Neverdie club in the virtual game Entropia for $625,000, a […]

If you were a sophisticated and up-to-the-minute science buff in 17th century Europe, you knew that there was only one properly scientific way to explain anything: “the direct contact-action of […]

A wedge issue is an issue which can be used to turn the different parts of a political coalition against one another. For the democrats, deficit reduction could turn out […]

Super-powerful desktop computers, video game systems, cars, iPads, iPods, tablet computers, cellular phones, microwave ovens, high-def television… Most of the luxuries we enjoy during our daily lives are a result […]

Energy efficiency in the home, particularly the notion of the smart grid, has been a concept of increasing interest both by ordinary citizens and large-scale corporations in the energy sector. […]

The royal nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton is welcomed by Britons—but most say they want a more modest affair that doesn’t drain the public purse.

Few presidents have lived as full a life after office as Theodore Roosevelt, but historian Michael Kazin argues that Roosevelt’s third act was a bit aimless and contradictory.

While Americans rush en masse to Wal-Mart and other retail outlets on this traditional “Black Friday” start to the holiday shopping season, why not just make presents for your loved […]

As the new Congress takes office, great opportunity exists both for innovations in climate change-related policy proposals and in public engagement about the problem.  Yet it’s been very discouraging to […]

If search traffic were votes, Sarah Palin would be the runaway Republican presidential nominee. Palin, as Nate Silver reports, is the subject of far more Google searches than any other […]

Fred Pearce looks at what hopes there are for agreement on a replacement for the Kyoto protocol as world experts get together from 29th November to 10th December in Mexico.

Recovering from making all the Thanksgiving food (and now trying to avoid any and all stores) … so only one thing today: Dear readers, have fun with this from the […]

Big Think has done a number of video interviews with green job advocates over the past several years.  You can view a summary of these interviews here. I found these […]

Last week the Washington Postran a revealing front page article on the challenges facing the Obama’s administration’s efforts to create a market for renewable energy products and so-called “green” jobs. […]

If the The Noguchi Museum’s 25th anniversary exhibition were an episode of Friends, it would be titled “The One Where Isamu Became an Artist.” On Becoming an Artist: Isamu Noguchi […]

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently ran a much-discussed essay titled “The Shadow Scholar.” Published under the pseudonym “Ed Dante,” the author vividly reveals how he earns fruitful living writing academic papers of […]