bigthinkeditor

bigthinkeditor

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."
"Don’t trade your passion, originality, and curiosity for some second-hand notion of success." William Deresiewicz urges freshmen not to play it safe.rn
"Through science and technology, we are getting better at bringing cosmic quantities to the human scale." "The everyday is slowly but surely inching towards the cosmic."
It’s possible to see procrastination as the quintessential modern problem. It’s also a surprisingly costly one. Some of us lose money and risk blindness because of it.rn
The real cost of cheap pineapples in the UK is carried by Costa Rica, where sprays and pesticides eliminates biodiversity and endanger public health.
Nate Anderson looks at the "legal blackmail" business, a pornographer who decided to take revenge on pirates and the backlash and legal changes it provoked.
"If Obama wants to save his presidency, he may have to do it the old-fashioned way: not by transcending his party’s divisions, but uniting his supporters around their common fears." rn
"As morality merges with management, a servile readiness to fit thought and conduct to what is politically correct becomes the passport for continuing dependence on...an intrusive state."
Angry Birds is a chuckle-inspiring game about wingless birds who have been wronged by a gang of pigs. Virginia Heffernan explains how she loves it but also now hates everything.
Can teachers do much to remedy poor academic performance that is due to low IQ, poor health, peer-group pressures, a bad family environment, or the effects of popular culture?
"The strained economy shouldn't keep the nation from crafting school improvements, but Obama's pitch for longer school years is unhelpful right now."