Regular Readers If you are a regular reader here, you might be interested in reading a guest essay I wrote in Forbes. It’s about how marketers are being challenged by […]
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What is the Big Idea? If rocket launches are a symbol of a country’s ambitions, then what the world witnessed on Friday was North Korea’s failed attempt at a Sputnik […]
I’m eager to join in the “Which five books on a desert island?” game suggested by Big Think editor Dan Honan in a recent post. As a blogger, would-be critic, […]
In a previous post about debating on Twitter, I wrote that I conduct most debates these days through the Socratic method. I find this more effective than arguing by assertion, […]
The brain is a complex and demanding machine. Given the amount of resources required to run the average brain, it’s no surprise that it takes a few shortcuts when it […]
In the near future you will be able to manufacture a wide array of presents right in your own home with a 3D printer. Think of it as a high tech Santa’s workshop, without the elves.
Human irrationality is an important and fascinating subject, especially when it’s pitted against the assumption that people are rational, which still dominates modern life. Sometimes though evidence of human irrationality […]
Critics of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to ban the sale of soft drinks over 16 ounces in convenience stores, movie theaters and street carts are having a […]
There’s been some interesting responses to my post on our obligation to eat headless, legless chickens (aside from the vague namecalling and useless expressions of outrage and disgust. Something is […]
I have spiritual goals and I have socio-political goals. My spiritual goals, which I won’t go into too much detail about, are probably similar to many other people’s: increase my […]
“Bread. Kasha. Sometimes fish. Water.” Those are the things that Maryna Vroda, winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year for the best short film, lists […]
Doctors have successfully transplanted human windpipes grown in laboratories but vital organs, like hearts and kidneys, are much more complex. How far away is that technology?
Michael Sandel, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard,writes: As naming rights and municipal marketing appropriate the common world, they diminish its public character. Beyond […]
I got a call from a friend last year. He had prostate cancer and wanted some help thinking through what to do. He had gone to his doctors for the […]
Like many others I mistook the first John Carter trailer I saw for a Pepsi commercial. And like so many others, I did not go to see the film when it opened […]
Here’s a quite engaging and very sensible interview with Bennett Foddy on the possibilities for and the ethics of life extension. I would put this philosophy professor in the moderately […]
Who would have guessed that, in 2012, radio could rival video as a medium for communicating complex scientific and mathematical concepts?
Noah Millman intervenes sensibly in the great Douthat–Sanchez debate about morality and religion: Okay, so humanists don’t have strong reasons for their faith in human rights. Do Christians have strong […]
In response to a lot of feedback on yesterday’s post, the loudest and nastiest of which came from people who deny climate change, I have revised the essay to […]
A number of grocery companies are testing virtual storefronts which allow shoppers at bus stops and subway platforms to buy groceries with their smartphones. Do you dread the supermarket?
The idea of creating mixed boards is gaining significant traction, due to several key global trends.
For those of you who missed last night’s debate on China vs. American capitalism hosted by Intelligence Squared U.S., here is the video. There was one decided winner with 85 […]
By taking advantage of the low refractive index of low-density aligned nanotubes, University of Michigan researchers have made 3-D objects appear as nothing more than a flat, black sheet.
If President Obama is re-elected in the Fall, he is likely to face a Congress even more polarized than today, with the ideological divide greater than at anytime since before […]
What matters in life? Will Wilkinson wrote wrote a nice Big Think post on Friday quoting some recent psychological research and suggesting the answer is “memorable social experience”: A number […]
Well, he was, according to Jonathan Cohn in the New Republic: What’s more important, for the rest of us, is that Obama corrected and clarified the misstatement one day later. Striking […]
“Scientifically literate government leaders who push for evidence-based policies and demonstrate a scientific outlook are needed more than glib panderers with attitude.”
16 year-old Nick D’Aloisio has raised a quarter million dollars to develop an app that condenses any webpage’s content into summaries of three different, but brief, lengths.
This is just stunning. In fact, it’s hard to believe it’s true. But the Heartland Institute, a fiercely conservative and libertarian think tank that champions denial of climate change, […]
My friend Matt Zwolinski, a professor of philosophy at University of San Diego, wonders why folks who think taxes ought to be higher, like Warren Buffett, don’t just go ahead and […]