Guest Thinkers
All Stories
As I tracked with several colleagues in a 2009 paper, climate change-related health impacts such as extreme heat, disease, and respiratory problems, and more vivid threats such as hurricanes have received relatively […]
A couple of days ago Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave a wide-ranging interview to the Associated Press, touching on Yemen. The secretary, who earlier this year admitted the US […]
Well, I finally wrote the article I always wanted to write: a letter to my 3,000+ faculty peers in Educational Leadership preparation programs all across the country about how our […]
Why the urban model of widely separated high-rise towers in single-use residential districts—the “tower-in-a-park” model invented in the 1920s in Europe—is inefficient.
When George Washington (with some help from the French) forced the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Yorktown to end the American Revolution in 1781, the British played […]
Are we truly looking forward to an “Age of Abundance,” as Peter Diamandis suggests? A Big Think panel debates the future of business in the 21st century.
Presuming we can be über rational about risk denies the reality of the risks that arise because we CAN’T be.
Read about it here. The movement for a generation or so has been toward a lifestyle of increasing freedom on our college campuses. That’s meant “no rules” (beyond those connected with health-and-safety, and […]
In early 2009, I came across a new trend on the social web that immediately resonated with me. Local communities used a new platform called Meetup (www.meetup.com) to organize offline events . . .
Note to the Republican Party Debate Committee: you are free to appropriate the term “preseason exhibitions” from the NFL, since it looks like they won’t be using it any time […]
Heading into one of the first major Presidential debates of the 2012 election campaign, it’s time to ask: What role will social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube play […]
This weekend I flew to lovely Pasco, WA to officiate a friend’s wedding — it was an amazing event and was truly enjoyable. On my way back, I had an […]
Iceland’s 320 000 citizens all have a say in the writing of their new constitution. With the help of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, the 25-member council drafting the constitution […]
The perennial question: how does media affect action? Or, to put it in more specific terms, does watching violent things on TV, reading about risk-taking on the internet, or playing […]
As we head off into the weekend, I thought I’d put up a new Mystery Volcano Photo. If you remember the last one, it was a doozy submitted by my former introductory […]
UPDATE (10 AM Eastern): Well, leave it to an eruption this week to not be simple. It appears that the eruption in Eritrea from not from Dubbi but rather from […]
The crossing of Syrian refugees into Turkey demonstrates the Syrian government has given up any pretenses of democratic reform while it crushes those who resist the ruling Assad family.
In his forthcoming memoir, boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard describes being sexually assaulted by an unnamed Olympic boxing coach. This is the first time Leonard has publicly identified himself as […]
When scientists looked at how the existence of political boundaries affects our behavior, they found we invest them with irrational significance. Ditto for the ego, says Oliver Burkeman.
Mr. Gates has forcefully reminded our allies that, to be credible politically, they have to pay for their own defense. Here’s a taste of the NYT article on his fine […]
On May 26, Congress approved a four-year extension of major surveillance powers in the PATRIOT Act by wide margins in both the House and the Senate. President Obama, who was […]
The Add Health survey that was conducted among US adolescents has been widely cited in the media recently. It was this data set that got evolutionary biologist Satoshi Kanazawa into […]
Want to have a great experience at the 2011 ISTE Conference? Here are 7 tips to get you started… Approach every vendor booth and presentation with one question in mind: […]
My friend Josh Knobe has an interesting piece in the New York Times about his research on the concept of the true self. Most people would agree that the crusading […]
New York Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner’s misadventures with his digital camera, Twitter account, and boxers have given us yet another “-gate”— Weinergate. But Weiner’s not the first male figure in […]
The Newt Gingrich presidential campaign has suffered more mishaps than you are likely to see in a marathon of The Three Stoogesepisodes. Almost a dozen campaign staffers have pulled a […]
Accidents happen. Their causes are physical, and it’s our actions that make them likely or unlikely, not the names we call them. I know this. Yet the inherent biases of […]
Professionals who use ingratiation as a career aid may avoid the psychological distress that affects others who are less cunning about their workplace behavior, says new research.
When I was a grad student at Berkeley years ago, it was famous for not only finding new elements on the periodic chart, but also finding the anti-proton, the anti-particle […]
The latest great announcement by Steve Jobs, eagerly awaited by the Apple faithful, was not a shiny new product like the next iPhone or iPad – it was something much […]