Guest Thinkers

George Packer’s review of Peter Beinart’s book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris, is itself an elegant analysis of American history. Packer highlights some of choices our leaders […]

Captain Mike Ellis of Venice, Louisana describes how BP is incinerating endangered sea turtles in its attempt to burn off spilled oil floating in the Gulf of Mexico near the […]

A new partnership between design hotshop IDEO and furniture-maker Steelcase aims to address one of the biggest design challenges of traditional classrooms – the static, linear and restrictive nature of […]

If I want you to give time or money to my cause, I’ll say your sacrifice is for “people just like you, just like me,” for “communities like yours, all […]

Back in the summer of 2002, I tried unsuccessfully to be selected as the Labour Party candidate for the South Wales constituency of Ogmore, named after the former mining valley […]

The L. A. Times says plastic bags are a nuisance to the land, sea and animals and calls for the Californian Senate to stand up now to the bag industry and ban them.

Spiegel considers if the rush to uncover Europe’s most pious Muslims can be explained solely by a new-found desire to protect the rights of women.

“The greatness of Australia was on display…when a migrant woman became the nation’s 27th prime minister”, The Australian newspaper writes of new leader Julia Gillard.

Thanks to years of conservative pushback, the United States Census looks like a huge waste of time and taxpayer money to many Americans.  Even worse, many Americans misconceive the census […]

Sharron Angle is running for U.S. Senate in Nevada on the GOP ticket, but the Tea Party darling wasn’t always a Republican. Angle’s political career began in the far-right fringe […]

Is it fun to watch our finest writers being witty with one another, as it’s fun to watch Federer play Nadal? There are similarities. They rise to the occasion. Lauren […]

Juries are disproportionately white. Although it is illegal to dismiss potential jurors on the basis of their race, lawyers can give any reason they want for dismissing a juror, and they […]

2010 is barely halfway through and it’s already been the most disastrous year in modern history. Suddenly, disaster relief becomes not just a playground of humanitarian agency manifestos but a […]

One of industrial life’s strange traditions is the pinup calendar that shows nubile young women posing provocatively around tractor parts and turbines. Eizo, a maker of medical-imaging technology, decided to […]

Garrison Keillor on the myth of merit: “I was brought up imagining that cream rises to the top, merit wins out, the race is to the swift and riches to men of understanding, but it ain’t necessarily so.”

This summer at The Phillips Collection there’s a different kind of colorblindness going on. White is the “new black,” or at least the color telling the most interesting stories in […]

BP has been using controlled burns to limit the spread of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. In the process they are burning much of what wildlife remains in the […]

Last month, we looked at a design vision for sight – how designers are revolutionizing low-cost corrective eyewear. This month, a new device out of MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture […]

Should the government protect society from the bad effects of violent videogames? Game-makers invoke freedom of speech to stave off such laws—including California’s 2005 attempt to ban violent-game sales to […]

To be alive spiritually is to feel the ultimate anxiety of existence within the trivial anxieties of everyday life, believes Christian Wiman.

Facing economic woes, the Kremlin has decided that Russia needs the equivalent of a Silicon Valley. Leon Aron doubts it can succeed unaccompanied by a spirit of free inquiry.

This morning on Morning JoeNiall Ferguson compared General McChrystal to Joseph Conrad’s Kurtz from Heart of Darkness, a character uniquely immortalized by Marlon Brando in Francis Ford Coppola’s film (inspired […]

Any art lover who has been to Paris knows what it’s like to try to see everything in a finite time frame. Cruel choices must be made, masterpieces must be […]

If your mother is elderly, requires 24-hour attention, and has Alzheimers, would you care for her yourself at home, hire a nurse, or put her in a nursing home? These […]

That certain dolphin and whale species possess “self-awareness, suffering and a social culture” is a strong moral reason to finally halt the ongoing hunting of large marine life, says Al Jazeera.

“By prompting President Obama to suspend deep-water drilling in US offshore waters, the Gulf oil spill is pushing up the date at which the world’s conventional oil production peaks,” says the CSM.

The New York Times cover story on John Updike’s archives reveals a writer who took care to develop and preserve his literary legacy. While an instinct for careful self-preservation is […]

Everyone loves labels. Italian Renaissance, French Baroque, Classical Greek—such little conveniences help us understand and comprehend the often tangled and messy reality of artists and art movements, which, like any […]

Two fathers at True/Slant reflect on the sports culture that pushes kids to succeed at sports against better parenting judgement. “Benign neglect” is perhaps a better method, they say.

Due to the country’s one-child policy and a cultural preference for boys, “The Chinese Academy of Social Science estimates that by 2020, 24 million Chinese men will be unable to find a wife.”