Guest Thinkers — March 14, 2011

Israel Quickens Settlement Construction

Israel said that it would build hundreds of new housing units within the populous West Bank settlement blocs, ending a slowdown in government-supported construction that had lasted several months.

bigthinkeditor

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Israel’s West Bank settlements, which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once denounced as “illegitimate”, will continue being built at a new a rapid pace: “The announcement, which came from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the government’s Ministerial Committee on Settlements had decided to approve construction in Gush Etzion, Maale Adumim, Ariel and Modiin Ilit—areas of the West Bank that Israel intends to keep under any permanent accord with the Palestinians. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the decision, calling it ‘wrong, unacceptable and objectionable.'”

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Guest Thinkers

Israel’s False Settlement “Freeze”

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

A statue of a thoughtful, seated philosopher on the right seems to be contemplating a calling, while a standing figure holding a lyre on the left adds harmony against the textured background.

Thinking

Everyday Philosophy: Can you have a “calling” without a caller?

If you’re an atheist with a vocation, who laid that path for you?

Close-up image of a human iris featuring vibrant blue and yellow hues with a dark pupil in the center.

The mystery at the heart of consciousness

“Is it possible that consciousness is a much more basic phenomenon in nature and is essentially pervading everything?”

▸

10 min

—

with

Annaka Harris

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Does the CMB really “prove” the Big Bang?

Since the mid-1960s, the CMB has been identified with the Big Bang’s leftover glow. Could any alternative explanations still work?

A wasp illustration in blue on grid paper is overlaid on a close-up image of effervescent bubbles in a golden alcoholic liquid.

Health

The first known animal that’s “immune” to alcohol intoxication

Could studying the Oriental hornet lead to a treatment for people with alcohol use disorder?

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Libyan Rebels’ Last Stand

As Gaddafi hangs on to his military might, rebel forces have abandoned the town of Brega leaving open the road to Bengazi—the last major rebel outpost in the anti-Gaddafi east.