Guest Thinkers

In a guest post today, AU graduate student Allison Kind takes a look at the social media campaign behind the launch of comedian Conan O’Brien’s new show on TBS.–Matthew Nisbet […]

While rail passengers are being warned to expect fare increases of up to 40% – possibly even more – over the next four years it’s bonanza time in the boardrooms […]

Surveys show that religious people prefer secular justifications for their political stances while secularists presume they don’t. Is religion getting an undeserved bad name?

“Many reasons have been given for the West’s dominance over the last 500 years. But, Ian Morris argues, its rise to global hegemony was largely due to geographical good fortune.”

“A Swedish study finds that 70-year-olds in 2000 did better on intelligence tests than 70-year-olds had done in 1971.” Scientific American reports on the aging process.

Is an Obamaville in your future? That’s the question asked by a mailer sent in by one of Greg Sargent’s readers. The mailer is sponsored by the 60 Plus Association, […]

Willow Smith, Will and Jada Smith’s precocious 9 year old daughter, just released her single “Whip My Hair,” a smash hit that heralds a great career. Are 9-year old superstars […]

It is not because Julian Assange reminds us of Errol Morris. It is because Julian Assange reminds us of Robert S. McNamara. His precision and self-assurance are coupled with mission, […]

There are seismic events which have such import, that it is possible to remember exactly where one was and what one was doing when the news first broke. I was […]

The anti-plastic crusade of the past few years has focused largely on bottled water, but the beverage market isn’t the only culprit for the plastic bottle epidemic. Replenish aims to […]

When I wrote a couple of days ago that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is wrong to blame immigrants to Germany for failing to adapt to German norms quickly enough, one […]

When an industrialized nation’s population shrinks, fewer and fewer working-age people have to support more and more retirees.

Dogs and other furry mammals shake to dry themselves off. Experimenters at the Georgia Institute of Technology calculated how fast an animal has to oscillate to overcome surface tension and throw water off its hairs.

Colombia A number of Eruptions readers have noted reports that Galeras in Colombia appears to be increasing its activity this week. Well, the rumors are true – an official from […]

Insects’ benefits are valued at £134bn and coral’s at £109bn in a pioneering report equating biodiversity to cash in the hope of encouraging conservation.

“We would all be better off — Muslim Americans first and foremost —if we could have a more open discussion about Islam, Islamic militancy and what … it means to be Muslim.”

Finding frozen water in some parts of the moon has implications for space exploration including the possible supply of water and oxygen for a manned moonbase.

What if you had a crystal ball that could predict the rise and fall of the stock market? Or that predicted which candidate would win the election and thus if […]

There is a popular narrative in the West that Islam is sexist. But aside from fundamentalist practices like honor killings, does moderate Islam actually deny women freedoms?

Conservatives have long accused billionaire George Soros of funding activist watchdog group Media Matters. Soros has been suspected of being behind every liberal group after giving more than $23 million […]

Do you acquire power and exercise control with assertive authority like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—or do you lead with sociable consensus like media queen Oprah Winfrey? Take this Big Think quiz to find which well-known female leader your style is most like.

Last night on CNN, Jon Stewart told Larry King that the Rally to Restore Sanity “is in fact not a political rally,” and instead will be an extension of the […]

It sure has felt like a quiet fall – at least volcanically-speaking – and this week’s Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcanic Activity Report seems to back up that feeling. There […]

Can social network friends be real friends when relationships are pursued and developed in such facile and costless ways? Philosopher Roger Scruton says real friendship involves risk.

“Distrust of big pharma is stifling research into the real problem of female sexual dysfunction.” Suzi Godson says further research stands to benefit millions of women.

“I’m the plainest kind of fellow you can find,” painter Grant Wood told an interviewer in the 1930s, the height of his fame. “There isn’t a single thing I’ve done, […]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is wrong. At a meeting in Potsdam, Merkel told young members of her own party, the Christian Democratic Union, that attempts to build a multicultural society […]

Environmental groups–backed by clean energy investors and Hollywood moguls– have raised $26 million to defeat California’s Proposition 23, a measure that would rollback the state’s laws limiting greenhouse gas emissions. […]

A few weeks back, the old-school anti-fertility group Optimum Population Trust issued its index of “overpopulated” nations. It names 77 countries which, it says, are “consuming more resources than they […]

This today is the scene from battle ground Britain, as the Government announces the biggest austerity and cuts programme in living memory. The Markets reacted well, but then they would. […]