Guest Thinkers

Illustrator Jess Bachman diagrams Glenn Beck’s shady links to Goldline in an accessible infographic. To summarize: Goldine is a sponsor of Beck’s TV and radio shows. Beck tells his audience […]

The big cognitive and emotional news in the Mind Matters household is that it is expecting the arrival in a few weeks of a demanding, very long-staying guest, whose personality […]

The newspapers of yore had two dependable revenue streams: subscribers and advertisers. Today’s broadsheets draw money from the same sources, but funding problems at even the most mainstream papers are […]

Trypanophobia – the extreme, irrational fear of needles – is said to affect 10% of American adults. And then there are the merely squeamish ones, for whom getting a shot […]

In my most recent book “Physics of the Impossible,” I define three classes of impossibilities in regards to technology. Class One impossibilities are technologies that are impossible today but don’t […]

Big ideas are usually too big, says Jason Fried, co-founder of the software company 37signals and co-author of the workplace manifesto “Rework.” “If we have a big idea, let’s chop […]

“A reduction in crop yields caused by climate change could mean up to 6.7 million additional Mexicans will emigrate to the United States by 2080, says a study by Princeton University researchers.”

“The communist government of North Korea, currently bouncing through the headlines once more, was supposed to have gone out of business at least a generation ago.”

“People are turned on by photographs of people who resemble their close genetic counterparts,” say researchers. The recent findings shed light onto who we are attracted to and why.

“There was a time when building the future was inspirational,” Brian Fies writes in his new graphic novel, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? “Ambitious. Romantic. Even enobling. I […]

Whether or not there is a creativity crisis may be up for debate, but one thing is clear: Our current education system is failing to create an environment that truly fosters creativity . . . Now, a new application out of MIT Media Lab is aiming to address some of these issues.

It is no wonder that the Government of the Maldives has been talking about buying up a tract of land elsewhere in South Asia to evacuate its people to if global sea levels […]

“They sure buy a lot of cars for a society built on collective ownership.” Slate says that while China’s political party is highly centralized, most Maoist concepts have been abandoned.

“If we want to protect traditional marriage, we should be prepared to sacrifice our love affair with equal rights and sexual freedoms.” An author at 3 Quarks reflects on the nature of tradition.

I thought I had seen all there was to be seen about Shirley Sherrod, until I can across an article titled Sherrod Story False in American Spectator by Jeffrey Lord, […]

We physicists used to laugh whenever we talked about some of the topics that I mention in my book, “Physics of the Impossible”—some of these include such ideas as invisibility […]

Those who oppose allowing a mosque to be built near the World Trade Centers have lost sight of America’s tradition of religious tolerance and the simple facts of the mosque’s construction.

Ross Douthat at The Times admits that the GOP is responsible for cap-and-trade’s failure in the Senate, but he thinks his party is demonstrating “the wisdom of inaction” vis-a-vis climate change.

Inception is a film that entertains, but also one that may pride itself on making viewers think. It’s your choice. This art of coupling entertainment with (the possibility of) puzzles, […]

“The upper-crust of extremely wealthy families are hell-bent on destroying the democratic vision of a strong middle-class which has made the United States the envy of the world.”

“No other rich country is nearly as punitive as the Land of the Free. The rate of incarceration is a fifth of America’s level in Britain, a ninth in Germany and a twelfth in Japan.”

“Brion Gysin was a true subversive,” writes Laura Hoptman in Brion Gysin: Dream Machine, the text accompanying New York City’s New Museum’s exhibition of the same name. “Gay, stateless, polyglot, […]

Spiegel says that despite Israel’s declared freeze on building West Bank settlements, construction continues with the support of Jewish-American aid foundations.

“Where does our sense of right and wrong come from?” David Brooks at The New York Times prefers a naturalistic explanation of moral code over a purely divine or rational one.

If people realized how different they are from their fellow citizens, the country would fall apart in a weekend. Working as a journalist taught me that. I can’t help noticing, […]

BP/Transocean’s concern for rig workers is touching. Key alarm systems on the Deepwater Horizon were disabled to “help workers sleep”: Vital warning systems on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig were […]

A new study published in the journal Psychological Science has found that people have “two concurrent, yet paradoxical and conflicting, desires: They (a) dread idleness and desire busyness, but (b) […]

“Stature and beauty aside, trees have a positive effect on physical and mental health, they bring financial benefits to the cities where they grow and they are good for urban wildlife.”

“Some astronomers believe a hidden mini star nicknamed Nemesis is orbiting the sun, but a new analysis of life extinction cycles on Earth suggests this dark companion may not exist.”

“It makes no difference whether determinism is true or false. We can’t be ultimately morally responsible either way.” A philosophy professor takes the gravity out of the free-will debate.