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"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?