Two U.N. rapporteurs have advised Detroit’s government that its actions risk violating international human rights norms as a result of its shutoff policy.
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Happy Pi Day! We’ve compiled some fun facts from across the internet in commemoration of 3.14.15. And just in case you’re curious, the world’s most famous irrational number boasts a “1” as its millionth digit.
Ever since the arrival of agriculture, and more recently, cubicles, modern society has begun selecting for those who can interest themselves in the repetitive, or least force themselves to tolerate it.
The future of Facebook may be as a major content-host. Instead of clicking links to visit outside sites, much of what you read on the web could soon be within Mark Zuckerberg’s domain.
“It is a curious fact that people are never so trivial as when they take themselves seriously.”
Homo sapiens aren’t alone in their division of chores by sex; our Neanderthal cousins also delegated a few tasks according to gender.
New research suggests that drinking coffee has more to do with your genes than previously thought.
By meditating on having compassion for someone in your life, a new study suggests that you can become a more sympathetic person in as little as two weeks.
A Polish man paralyzed from the chest down since 2010 has regained the ability to walk after a new treatment transplanted cells from his nasal cavity into his spinal cord.
“When you have critical mass of women [guiding companies], the companies produce better performance. So you have more innovation, you have better financial management, you have greater success rates by having more women. Why leave them out?” –Vivek […]
With the May 1st grand opening to the public of its new building in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, the Whitney Museum launches a new era not only in the New York City art scene, but also, possibly, in the very world of museums. Thanks to a Renzo Piano-designed new building built, as Whitney Director Adam D. Weinberg put it, “from the inside out” to serve the interests of the art and the patrons first, the new Whitney and its classic collection of American art stretching back to 1900 has drawn excited raves and exasperated rants from critics. Their inaugural exhibition, America Is Hard to See, gathers together long-loved classic works with rarely seen newcomers to create a paradox of old and new to mirror the many paradoxes of the American history the art embodies and critiques by turns. This shock of the new (and old) is the must-see art event of the year.
A great number of stories in the Western “literary” canon were not written to be read at all, but rather to be seen on stage in the purview of the live theatre.
If everything began with a Big Bang and is expanding, is there a center? “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out […]
Dishonesty in one domain doesn’t excuse hucksterism in another. Yet as long as healing remains a lucrative business, it’s going to remain a challenge weeding through the pretty designs and catchy slogans to find medicine that works.
When someone is diagnosed with any life-threatening disease, focus is taken off things they used to enjoy and the illness becomes an all-consuming part of their lives. Practicing mindfulness can help boost patients’ mental health and wellbeing.
The United States and Myanmar are tied for first overall, with the USA being the only nation to score in the top 10 for all metrics: giving, volunteering, and helping strangers.
Leaders are not defined by their bombastic decision-making, but by the ways in which they pool information to inform their choices.
“I’m often asked by parents what advice can I give them to help get kids interested in science? And I have only one bit of advice. Get out of their […]
NASA represents a full 50% of the world’s expenditures on space science & exploration. What should we expect from it? “This Administration has never really faced up to where we […]
Asking thirty-six specific questions plus four minutes of sustained eye contact is a recipe for falling in love, or at least creating intimacy among complete strangers.
150, 50, 15, 5. Those are the magic numbers in the sociology of friendship, according to University of Oxford professor Robin Dunbar.
Author and academic Kenji Yoshino describes the difference between passing and covering, and how companies will sometimes employ a myopic form of diversity inclusion that necessitates the abandonment of one’s identity.
“Everybody in the space program, everybody who’s a doctor, got interested in science when he or she was seven or eight years old… not when they were 16 or 18. That’s where you spend […]
Sometimes, it’s the most unexpected ingredients that give rise to the greatest results in the end. “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” –Joseph Campbell When you […]
Noted futurist and innovation expert Lisa Bodell knows all about the consequences of static and uninspired business practices. Two years ago she authored an acclaimed book, Kill the Company: End the Status Quo, […]
If our “standard candles” aren’t so standard, is dark energy still real? “Some say the world will end in fire,Some say in ice.From what I’ve tasted of desireI hold with […]
The consensus among most academics is that college students are cheating more today than ever before.
The Internet of Things is coming—are you ready? As Big Think reported recently in our interview with leading economist Jeremy Rifkin, the Internet of Things will connect everyone and everything […]
The retired congressman discusses his long history as a supporter of marijuana legalization.
Throughout the developing world, “and increasingly in Africa and Asia,” the single largest occupation for women is agriculture. Yet although they perform much of the labor, women and girls (who […]