bigthinkeditor
“With interest rates near zero, the US Federal Reserve and other central banks are struggling to remain relevant.” Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz discusses monetary policy.
“Social entrepreneurs are creating multibillion-dollar businesses globally.” Forbes reports on social entrepreneurial projects that turn profits while bridging cultural divides.
“Scientists in China have developed a strong, highly conductive carbon yarn that could be used to make spacesuits, bullet-proof vests, and radiation suits.”
“Happiness, like knowledge, and unlike belief and pleasure, is not a state of mind.” University of Texas at Austin philosophy professor David Sosa on the requirements for felicity.
“A new language of pictures may be precisely what we need to tackle the world’s biggest challenges.” Wired Science looks at the power of visual thinking.
“Research suggests that the telecom regulation approach that worked with a few large companies with aligned interests needs revisiting in the Internet age.”
“The fact that government is creating by far the most jobs for young educated workers is a signal of just how weak this recovery has been.”
Financier Steven Rattner saved the U.S. auto industry. Or he didn’t. It depends on whom you ask. But either way, without government intervention last year, Rattner says the auto industry […]
“Can your social network make you healthier? It’s a question that health organizations are asking more and more as part of a wave of new gaming experiments.”
“No one wishes for a total Chinese collapse, but certain setbacks should be welcomed.” Researcher at Harvard’s Center for Chinese Studies Ross Terrill takes China’s pulse.
“Within twenty years, astronomy could become the first discipline where discoveries outpace scientists’ ability to keep up with them.”
“Values are not logical deductions from processes taking place inside peoples’ heads but are instead arrived at through an interplay of experience, reflection, and debate.”
Entrepreneurs should focus on building a brand, conserve cash and take care of their health says business consultant entrepreneur Shaun Rein at Forbes.
“Californians will have to decide how much weight to give to respect for adult liberty, protection of minors, fiscal considerations, and protection of marijuana users’ health.”
“Ever since Europe’s industrial juggernaut grew at a nine percent pace earlier this year—the best in two decades—Americans have looked across the ocean with envy.”
“The creator of some of the most iconoclastic and difficult works of 20th-century fiction was surprisingly conservative in his own musical tastes.”
Holding a pose that opens up a person’s body and takes up space will alter hormone levels and make the person feel more powerful.
Graphene is the world’s thinnest and toughest material—a transparent form of carbon one atom thick. Two Russian scientists who isolated the material have won the Nobel Prize.
Bolivian President Evo Morales says we are in the midst of a worldwide democratic uprising against imperialism and capitalism. While countries like the United States want to use the International […]
“It’s possible to find traces of the dumb-blonde concept in the ancient world. Just like modern gentlemen, Romans valued blondness.” Slate investigates the history of blonde jokes.
America’s conservative establishment has teamed up to say that the military’s budget is not the place for cutting Big Government glut. Will the tea-party movement listen?
“My turn-ons include nurturing, chamomile tea and doing more than my share of the housework. I have forsaken red meat for soy.” John Keilman is the New Man.
“The U.S. midterm elections are on course to become the most expensive in history next month, estimated at well over $5bn—an indication of how much is riding on the outcome.”
“Although in vitro fertilization has brought joy to many families, the Nobel Prize for its co-developer is also a reminder of the bioethical questions raised by IVF technology.”
“In piecing together a life story, the mind nudges moral lapses back in time and shunts good deeds forward, these new studies suggest—creating, in effect, a doctored autobiography.”
“Wasting food isn’t just bad in its own right, it also represents a profound waste of energy.” Scientific American reports on the amount of oil needed to support the food supply.
“‘We like to speculate about technology in general’, but the content of the message matters more than medium we receive it through, says The Frontal Cortex Blog.
“Are humans continuing to evolve or has modern culture stopped evolution?” The answer affects assumptions made by public policy says Yale evolutionary biologist Stephen Stearns.
“Americans are mixing it up a good deal more than they have in the past.” The first comprehensive sex study in 20 years says the American sexual repertoire has expanded.
“Fiction has helped humanity survive. Even though science can explain the need of fiction, it cannot replace it.”