Guest Thinkers

Getting kids to eat their vegetables has been one of the age-old frustrations of modern parenting. While much has been said about causality – from the enormous advertising budgets poured […]

‘Humor is the great thing,’ wrote Mark Twain.’The saving thing.’ The irreverent satirist blazed a wayward path that happiness gurus should not ignore.

Scrolling through the 2010 Power 100 of Art Review, I almost immediately had two reactions.  First, I’m not on it!  (Bloggers get little to no respect.)  Second, so many of […]

The Democrats are likely to take a beating in the fall midterm elections. Right now FiveThirtyEight projects that they will lose almost 50 seats in the House, and come close […]

Everywhere you turn, there is much commentary these days about the education oriented documentary Waiting For Superman. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but it really doesn’t matter, because I […]

BY delicious irony, the local Member of Parliament for the impoverished Atacama region of Chile – which includes the doomed mine of San Jose – is none other Isabel Allende.  […]

Dr. Kaku’s Universe and Big Think want to make you even better informed than you already are with subscriptions to four great magazines. To enter, simply post a comment in […]

At the NY Times today, beliefs correspondent Mark Oppenheimer reports on last week’s Council for Secular Humanism conference in Los Angeles.  His article discusses the infighting within the movement.  As […]

“In response to China’s dominance in rare-earths production, researchers are developing new materials that could either replace rare-earth minerals or decrease the need for them.”

“The more ‘harmony’ is celebrated, the more chaos and antagonism there is in reality.” Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek says China is more unstable than we realize.

Men and women make think similarly about sex: “New data is undermining the evidence that has long been proposed to support the eager males—choosy females paradigm.”

At the end of September, a federal court struck down an Ohio law forbidding companies from labeling dairy products as made from milk that is “rBGH free,” “rBST free,” or […]

On Thursday in Washington, several dozen futurists, military strategists, investors and journalists gathered to honor the inventors of futurism, Alvin and Heidi Toffler, and celebrate the 40th anniversary of Future […]

A thought occurred to me last night as I watched one of the BBC’s Diplomatic Correspondents, Mark Urban on the channel’s flagship current affairs programmes. Newsnight.  And it was that […]

At least five major porn studios have shut down after an actor tested positive for HIV this week. In my latest story for Working In These Times, I report on […]

The word “slavery” has a very specific resonance for Americans. But slavery is a practice that has existed since the very first records of human history, and it continues to […]

Research indicates that unique among major news outlets, Fox News viewing is significantly related to belief in false rumors and misinformation, especially for conservative viewers predisposed to accept these claims. […]

We now have some more information (Note: pretty much all the information on this eruption is in French) – and more importantly, some great images – of the eruption that is ongoing […]

“A new report reveals just how fast we are consuming the Earth’s resources – and the dire consequences.” By 2030 we will need the capacity of two Earths to absorb greenhouse gas.

House Democrats are in trouble. Even with substantial majorities in both houses of Congress, Democrats have been unable to get the economy back to operating at full capacity. Whatever the […]

The very first post on Dollars and Sex asked the question: “Do Women Really Value Income Over Looks in a Mate?”  The research we talked about in that post also […]

A survey analysis released today by Ohio State researchers finds that Fox News viewing contributes significantly to the spread of false rumors about the New York City mosque.  Moreover, respondents […]

We spoke a few weeks ago about how Piton de la Fournaise on Reunion Island was looking like it might erupt soon. Well, “soon” was a little later than predicted […]

Here’s an interesting event taking place tomorrow as bloggers across the world collectively focus on the topic of water.  Watch the video below and go to the Blog Action site […]

Well, when it rains it pours in the world of theNASA Earth Observatory – and this week we’ve been treated to three great images of volcanoes or volcanic landscapes from […]

Let’s be honest: when we think about the futuristic scenarios, we don’t think of Tom Hanks. Most frequently associated with his brilliant portrayal of Forrest Gump, Hanks exudes the kind […]

“The greatest of all freedoms, the one that more people want more than any other, is the freedom from responsibility and consequences,” says Theodore Dalrymple.

“Climate change activists no longer dwell on impending climate doom, but on the economic windfall that will result from embracing the ‘green’ economy.”

A photo of one’s beloved activates the brain’s reward centers like a drug might; learning how to harness love could help relieve pain without drug-induced side effects.

The World has watched and cheered to the rafters the human drama unfolding in Chile. That thirty three miners could be trapped underground for two months, survive and be winched […]