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The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.
When Jill Tarter was growing up, she remembers walking along the beach with her father, gazing up at the night sky. Well before she would become a leader in the […]
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From the Yale Whiffenpoofs to the Internet, Jonathan Coulton reflects on his career, including his breakout song about a sad software developer.
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A conversation with the singer/songwriter and Internet sensation.
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What makes the famous skeptic feel awe? Great magic tricks, of course. And sunsets.
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As a teenager in the '40s, James Randi "would have gotten stoned" for being gay. But when he outed himself to the world in 2010, the reaction was "wonderful."
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Hi, Mom?...Yeah, I’m in a coffin at the bottom of the La Hogue River."
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The James Randi Educational Foundation has never met a “psychic” it couldn’t discredit—easily. Still, Randi understands why such frauds appeal to people.
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What prompted the skeptic’s public crusades against Uri Geller, Sylvia Browne, and other self-proclaimed mystics?
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Real magicians don’t pretend to be mystical characters. By telling us they’re just performing tricks, they make their feats all the more breathtaking.
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What does it take to outperform the master escape artist? Common sense, a good night’s sleep, and shallow breathing.
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Conjurers perform skillful tricks, not miracles. But when the magician first saw one of his idols perform, he wasn’t sure whether he was seeing "a demon or an angel."
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A conversation with the magician and scientific skeptic.
A 22-year-old U.S. intelligence analyst has been arrested for allegedly giving classified combat footage of a U.S. helicopter crew killing civilians to Wikileaks, an online repository of leaked documents. The […]
Britain’s Prime Minister, David Cameron announces today that deep cuts in public expenditure “will change British life”. They will in short be the most drastic public spending cuts in a […]
Gary Becker and Richard Posner weigh in on African development, which has weathered the current economic storm better than any advanced economy. Will Africa finally take off?
"Is a world with people in it better than one without?" asks Peter Singer of Princeton. How do we justify brining new human life into the world amidst so much suffering and unprecedented crises?
Those who worry that the Internet promotes mediocrity should consider the printing press, says Clay Shirky: pulp writing accompanied peer reviewed science and booming literacy rates.
The bad name given to corporate oversight, i.e. government regulation, deligitimizes its role in society and makes ready financial crises; among other things, regulators deserve more pay.
In our world of infinite and instant information, learning one skill deeply could equip us with critical thinking tools necessary to cope with our times, which change faster now than ever.