bigthinkeditor

“Maintaining a diverse media is a crucial underpinning of democracy. As for Murdoch, the sun has shone and he has made hay. It is time he heard a regulator knocking at his door.”

“In fairy tales, ‘good’ triumphs over ‘evil,’ but how this happens isn’t simple. It’s quite common for traditional fairy tales to have complicated, even troubling, conclusions.”

Dating research shows that when we are free to choose our conversation topics we gravitate toward an easy to maintain balance that no one actually enjoys or benefits from.

“American foreign policy stands on the brink of substantial belt-tightening.” Professor of American Foreign Policy Michael Mandelbaum on the effects of the recession.

One problem with making public policy on marijuana is the drug’s unpredictable effects: dosage amount, the person and the state they are in upon consumption vary widely.

“When Democrats jump onto China bashing, they miss the real causes of the recession, and worse, legitimize us-vs.-them thinking.” Robert Reich on global economics.

“Ellington had many of the traits one associates more readily with the founders of religious orders or political movements than with lone artists absorbed in self-expression.”

“Scientists have shown what many dog owners have suspected—while some canines are joyfully optimistic about life, others have a tendency for gloomy pessimism.”

Doctors have injected human embryonic stem cells into a patient partially paralyzed by a spinal cord injury, marking the beginning of the promising but controversial therapy.

“The process of speaking two or more languages appears to enable skills to better cope with the early symptoms of memory-robbing diseases, including Alzheimer’s.”

In Germany, utility companies pay homeowners and businesses for power generated by alternative energies that is fed into the electricity grid. Should the U.S. take note?

“Sir Isaac had a whole other full-time career that he kept largely hidden from view but that rivaled and sometimes surpassed his devotion to celestial mechanics.”

“Peter Diamond’s Nobel prize in economics is an unusual example of useful economics combined with timely politics.” The Guardian on the would-be government appointee.

When a major earthquake struck Haiti in January, it caused unbelievable damage and many created a humanitarian nightmare. But it also served as a wake-up call for other Caribbean nations […]

Physicist and Big Think blogger Michio Kaku is the closest thing the world has to real-life wizard. With his shocking white hair, he makes prophesies about fantastic technologies that science […]

“Virginia Lamp Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is fighting for what she believes in, and for that she should get enormous credit.”

“As Wikileaks prepares to release more documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, will greater accountability follow?” Al Jazeera on the controversial startup.

“Faced with electoral repudiation, Democrats are unleashing government power to silence their political opponents. The press corps ought to blow the whistle.”

“When you lose your job, social stability is likely to be worse—which threatens democracy and even peace.” The I.M.F. sees no immediate end to the economic crisis.

In his new book, bestselling author Steven Johnson discusses the history and sources of innovation. Johnson asks: Where do good ideas come from?

“Poems and novels and paintings were not produced as objects for future academic study; there is no reason to think that they could be suitable objects of ‘research.'”

“The natural human optimism that allows people, election after election, to believe campaign promises also consigns them to repeated bouts of disappointment.”

“Whether on average democracies are more conducive than autocracies to economic growth is far from well established.” Nobel laureate Gary Becker on governments and growth.

“When thinking about the Columbus Day holiday it helps to remember the good intentions of the people who put together the first parade in New York.”

Humans have typically been passive listeners for alien radio frequencies. Should we actively seek out foreign life by sending pre-emptive signals into space?

“Eliminate the costs, fiscal and otherwise, of the drug war.” The Chicago Tribune’s Steve Chapman says the war on drugs is a sinkhole; the government should change policy.

“How worried should one be about [full body scans in airports]? Are they truly a grave threat to individual privacy, as civil libertarians contend?”

“Can—and should—science and religion avoid each other’s turf?” Susan Jacoby insists we mustn’t shirk from moments when science and religion offer opposing viewpoints.

“High tariffs and currency wars cost us big in the 1930s. We can avoid making the same mistakes again.” The Wall Street Journal on the history of the tariff.

“Two planets similar to Earth have been discovered circling the dwarf star Gliese 581. Using new, super telescopes, astronomers are now searching for signs of life.”