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So a professor of philosophy—Gary Gutting—opinionating for the NYT invites us to think about the relationship between politicians and intellectuals.  He says that politicians, to be credible, don’t have to […]

In Monday’s GOP primary debate, Newt Gingrich earned praise from conservatives while drawing justifiable anger from many for his labeling of Barack Obama as the “food stamp president.”  As the […]

Now that the silly season of American politics revs up for another presidential election, it’s a fair question to ask who will be the next great caricature? Nixon cast his […]

This semester I am teaching a doctoral seminar on the important questions and trends related to media, technology and democracy. In this post, I introduce several major topics and provide […]

“Doomsday.” “Lehman times ten.” “A catastrophe.” “A political basket-case.” The ways of describing the potential outcome of the current U.S. government debt imbroglio continue to pile up, with the adjectives […]

Apple has a long track record of introducing innovative new products, such as the iPod and the iPhone, to popular and critical acclaim. In a witty satire piece, The Onion […]

Not a long post here. I’ve been buried (new classes, final week of production of my first documentary, two new areas of responsibility at work), but I want to share […]

I have been religiously watching the TEDTalks series, a group of videos produced by TED. Overall I’ve been mostly impressed with the speakers, very cool stuff. Here’s an EXCELLENT spoken […]

See below – a message I sent out over a few listservs – thought I’d post it here too. Please forward on to others and consider participating yourself (if appropriate). […]

A new law overhauls the way the federal government supports private-sector R&D, and one of the main ways the government hopes to support R&D is with prizes. Lots of prizes.

"David Simon, the creator TV hit 'The Wire', has it in writing from as unimpeachable a source as you could think of: he is a genius." And he gets $500,000 for it.

[This is a guest post from Doug Green. If you’re interested in being a guest blogger, drop me a note. Happy reading!] Update: see also Don Watkins’ response to this […]

Dear Reader,  I apologize for the length of this article. It’s actually two articles smashed into one.  All together this post will take roughly 5 minutes to read.  I generally […]

As neuroimaging labs use scanners to reveal more and more details about how the brain works, their findings are increasingly affecting the legal system.

Most people consider anonymous sex in public places to be a crude, rude and immoral act. But “all that is rude ought not to be civilized with death,” as Walter […]

In a series of tweets Sunday, Sarah Palin first “invented” the word “refudiate” (while, perhaps, trying to come up with “repudiate”), and then defended her word choice in another tweet […]

 I used to work for a couple of small mortgage lenders a few years ago. We probably closed somewhere between 150 and 200 purchase and refi loans a month at […]

The McFarthest place is somewhere in South Dakota

Recently we wrote about emerging models for Research (the “R” in R&D) and how the US government can encourage and support them. But what about Development – the “D” in R&D? […]

n “(…) for the last two years, I’ve been taking pictures of Britain on world maps,” writes Ben Terrett, graphic designer and blogger at Noisy Decent Graphics. Well, not too bad, if that’s […]

Previously, I’ve noted the major hole that the IPCC digs itself by releasing its consensus reports on Fridays, only to be lost in the weekend news cycle. Back in February, […]

The fourth in my ongoing "Volcano Profile" turns our attention to the southernmost (known) active volcano, Mt. Erebus in Antarctica.

The D.C. think tank archipelago constitutes a kind of shadow government. These organizations house policy shops, lobbying and advocacy campaigns, media production, education and training programs, and much more. They […]

The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed By John Valliant Knopf Canada (2005) I picked up a copy of John Valliant’s “The Golden Spruce” in a […]

Last week our narcoleptic Lenovo laptop dozed off into permanent slumber. Not terribly saddened at its untimely demise, we nonchalantly recycled it (using Gazelle.com) and bought ourselves a shiny new […]

Senator Richard Shelby isn’t so sure we’d be able to reinstitute the separation between commercial and investment banks. He is sure that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be gone.

Today’s interviews with Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Richard Shelby mark the final installment of What Went Wrong?, Big Think’s series on the financial crisis. Over the past few months, we sat […]

When I was a kid, I was an avid reader of just about anything between two covers, but I had a special place in my heart for encyclopedias. Back in […]

Right now, just hours after someone detonated an improvised explosive device and killed four Canadian soldiers and one Canadian journalist in Afghanistan, I’m reflecting on words Canada’s defense minister spoke […]

I buy books. I also have written a book. So I have a more-than-idle interest in this week’s giant-monster fight over ebooks, which pitted Amazon against the big publisher Macmillan […]