Guest Thinkers

Teamwork. Support. Group (there’s that word) synergy. These are all hallmarks of positive business-speak and, one would assume, business practice. They’ve become the modern calling cards of businessmen who want […]

One of my favorite scenes from Objectified is the IDEO toothbrush brainstorm. It never struck me before how hard it would be to redesign a product that has become so […]

Our decisions matter. You don’t need me to tell you that. Of course they matter. It almost seems a tautology, a restatement of the obvious, of the very definition of “decision.” And yet, even though we make decisions at every point in our lives . . .

Released on the anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination, a new film directed by Robert Redford centers on the tension between civil liberties and national security. 

Innovative startups are using virtual worlds like Second Life and Twinity as virtual classrooms for people to learn new skills and languages. Could this one day replace brick-and-mortar classrooms?

The far-reaching political changes that have occurred across the Middle East might actually have been predicted by looking at the data about the rapid pace of technological development in the region. 

Today is the anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 by John Wilkes Booth. Shakespeare didn’t pull the trigger, of course, but his play “Julius Caesar” inadvertently triggered a series of events that inspired the act.

In a speech at George Washington university today, President Obama unveiled his plan to pay down the federal debt. Last week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) proposed his own debt reduction plan, […]

It is important to know when things work. Especially because the media bias feeds us a disproportionate amount of negatively slanted news. It is also important to know that what […]

It has now been one year since the eruption that closed the skies over Europe and captured the world’s attention. Before April 13-14, 2010, most people outside Iceland (or this […]

It’s not easy to imagine today in our world of high-speed photography and camera phones what it was like to have your photograph taken in the 19th century. The still […]

Last night three U.S. Supreme Court judges participated in the annual mock trial event in Washington D.C. Law professor Kenji Yoshino explains how these events use Shakespeare to teach us about justice. 

First off, a big thank you to James Reynolds who took questions from my Volcanoes class here at Denison today. It was a great chat with the students! Now, we […]

If anyone imagined that the act of intervention by itself is always enough for the United Nations to emerge unscathed, one only need to look at the chequered history of […]

My friends think it odd that when it comes to looking for a man I don’t really care about finding one who is tall. Sure, I understand that there is […]

These days, it seems like the reasonable promise of biotechnology has become INDEFINITE LONGEVITY.   Actually, that goal was first articulated by the French enlightenment thinker Condorcet.  In order for our […]

Economic constraints play an increasingly bigger role in choosing which programs to offer on campus. Two new startups are offering novel solutions to this economic reality.

It’s April 12, 2011. Do you know who your candidates are? It may seem early to start thinking about next year’s presidential election, but by the standards of recent history […]

The next great billion-dollar concept on the Web might just involve airbed mattresses, second-hand couches and the ability to swap and share local accommodations on a global scale. A group […]

“Like everything genuine, its inner life guarantees its truth,” German artist Franz Marc once wrote. “All works of art created by truthful minds without regard for the work’s conventional exterior […]

The startup Kiip offers a relatively simple but radical step forward in mobile advertising: why not attach brand interactions to moments of achievement/greatness where we feel elated—namely during video gameplay?

Satellite TV and social media have been front and center recently for two reasons: their role in the Mideast upheavals rolling across the region, and debates over whether social media […]

Our hyper efficient, always on modern lives don’t often account very well for those who are sick and shut in. Last week, though, I found myself going back to my […]

At the end of last week, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation officially apologised for hacking into the phones of politicians and celebrities. In doing so the company judged that it was […]

I’ve got a brief update about the activity at Taal in the Philippines to start us off: The news of a potential eruption at Taal continues – and the latest […]

The other day I participated in a bloggingheads discussion of Yemen with Charles Schmitz of Towson University.  You can view our conversation here. And to tide you over until the […]

Not unlike the generation that survived the Great Depression and spent the rest of their lives pinching pennies, some middle-class Americans are developing a lasting sense of thrift.

Though terms of a “road map” to peace in Libya are unclear, the African Union says Gaddafi has accepted conditions for a ceasefire between Libyan rebels and government troops.

In February, as part of the Science in Society Film and Lecture series at American University, we hosted a screening of the PBS series The Human Spark. Hosted by Alan […]

So I’ve taken a break from blogging for a while for several reasons.  I was at Mercer University in Macon, GA for a great conference on Alexis de Tocqueville.  I gave the […]