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"The Internet has been lauded by Nobel Peace prize-winning Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo as 'God's gift to China'." Xiaobo says activists can use the Internet to their advantage.
"Community is built upon conversations. People like to eat, and they like to talk about it. ... The new food movement is still labeled as Do It Yourself, but it’s really Do It Ourselves."
"The powers that be have yet to agree on how to compare electric cars with conventional ones, making it difficult for consumers to work out how much money, if any, they will save."
"The impulse to be social is so deep-seated in human consciousness that it’s even evident in the womb, suggests a new study on the interaction of unborn twins."
"When we talk about the hipster, we’re talking about a cross-subcultural figure who emerges by 1999 and enjoys a narrow but robust phase of existence from 1999 to 2003."
Many of the guests who we interview at Big Think can be described as “giants” in their fields, but this week we actually hosted our tallest guest ever. John Amaechi, […]
J. M. Coetzee on Philip Roth's 'Nemesis': "A good education, and not just for older persons: how to dig a grave, how to write, how to face death, all in one."
A young violinist was made suicidal because of a critical byproduct of our time: the small inviolate zone of privacy that we all need has now become virtually impossible to maintain.
"Laptops in college classrooms are no longer just educational tools – they're distracting our future workers. During class, students tumble down these rabbit holes of diversion."rn
"Renowned Mexican historian and journalist Enrique Krauze on how Mario Vargas Llosa's novels revealed Latin America's soul — and exorcised its demons."
New research suggests that laughter, in the form of a reflex-like reaction to touch, has been adopted into human social behaviour from animal behaviour.
"'The Social Network'...does a brilliant job dissecting the sorts of people who become stars in an information economy and a hypercompetitive, purified meritocracy."
"A taste of the small-government, anti-spending Tea Party would do a world of good to conservatives in Australia and Europe," opines columnist Janet Albrechtsen.
Greece is broke so Prime Minister George Papandreou has cut spending, raised taxes and is trying to reeducate his people and steer them away from tax evasion and corruption.
"Debunking the myth of the lone maverick, health researchers suggest that groups of doctors outperform individuals not only in diagnosing problems but also in treating them."
'Waiting for Superman', David Guggenheim's documentary about the fissures in public education system, made Helena Andrews re-examine her privileged private education.
Can work make you happy, and—more than that—can work be driven by a higher purpose? While a professional calling or high-profile occupation has long been seen to bring purpose and […]
"The same Washington policymakers who inveigh against the deficit want a strong dollar—clueless about the contradiction." Dean Baker gives an Economics 101 lesson.
World authority on ants E.O. Wilson explains what humans can learn from these tiny animals that work together, share food and send elders into battle to protect the young.
"Pain makes us loyal, and the surest way to improve the performance of a product is to raise its price." The Frontal Cortex on our irrational devotion to the things that vex us most.