Guest Thinkers
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In last month’s Harper’s, Gary Greenberg writes in “The War on Happiness: Goodbye Freud, Hello Positive Thinking,” that, increasingly and unavoidably, the concept of enlightenment via sitting in a room […]
As usual, California is the battlefront for energy and climate change issues. Oil refiners Valero and Tesoro have spent $5.5 million dollars in support of California’s Proposition 23, which would […]
Random acts of kindness have been shown to increase everything from self-esteem to happiness level. At the same time, the paradox of choice is known to increase our cognitive load […]
Delusions of control seem built into the human mind, even when they aren’t comforting. More than a few people, for example, would prefer to think hurricanes are punishments for abortions […]
Politico reports that senior Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are trying to sell lobbyists for the energy and telecom industries on the idea that the Republicans will […]
What future is there for journalism? Or is there a future in journalism for many of the bright young things who will have read a recent article titled ‘The Hamster […]
72% of women say they’ve faked an orgasm in their current relationship, while 55% of men claim they know when the woman they are with is faking.
If you watch The Daily Show, you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that host Jon Stewart’s father was a physicist. The popular program, along with its partner in satire The […]
“Just a few small changes in the social behaviors of even solitary animals may set in motion an evolutionary cascade ending in massive, globe-spanning migrations.”
“For sound mental health, the fundamental question is not whether a thought is negative or positive, but whether it is accurate.”
The German government is banking on help from imams educated at German universities to improve the integration and “success” of its young Muslims.
Tod Machover, who has been called America’s most wired composer, is poised to transform your theater experience forever. His new opera “Death and the Powers,” will be unveiled on September […]
According to a recent press release: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, will complete the exploration phase of its mission on Sept. 16, after a number of successes that transformed […]
Every week, it seems, we get more bad news about the economy. Today the Census Bureau reported that the median household income in the U.S. fell several hundred dollars in […]
If you are not a regular viewer of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, you might be surprised by results from Pew’s latest news audience report. In the national […]
Great post by Thomas MacAulay Millar on the case of “FV,” a teenage runaway who was allegedly tortured, pimped, and nearly killed by a middle aged man who took her […]
One of my roommates way back when I was an undergraduate was an Emory Scholar. I can’t remember exactly how many of them were in each class—either twelve or fourteen. […]
Despite their ideological differences, the personalities that drive the success of The Daily Show and Fox News apparently respect–even admire–each others ability to entertain and engage viewers. That’s one of […]
“The intuitive view is that the only thing that really determines whether an act is brave is whether you think the right path is the treacherous one, and take it anyway.”
“What is happening in France today would most likely be referred to as ‘ethnic cleansing’ in less prestigious countries.” Spiegel on President Sarkozy’s campaign against Romanian gypsies.
“Scientists have discovered that starting a romantic relationship typically costs two close friends from the inner circle of intimate contacts that most people rely on for support and advice.”
Unhappy with his art, Richard Wright destroyed all of his paintings in the late 1980s and gave up painting altogether for two years. Returning to the art world from that […]
Your friends likely have more friends than you do. Please don’t take that personally. As the sociologist Scott L. Feld was first to point out, this is simply a mathematical […]
Anti-masturbation crusader Christine O’Donnell beat establishment favorite Rep. Mike Castle last night in Deleware’s GOP senate primary, with a helping hand from the Tea Party Express. O’Donnell first rose to […]
Daily Show host Jon Stewart is the most trusted man in America. Or at least as Chris Smith writes in a cover story at this week’s New York magazine, in […]
Britain now faces a ‘Winter of Discontent’, which is what many commentators claim will happen each winter, taking their cue from the winter of 1979, when the country ground to […]
PopTech–an organization focused on promoting social innovation and the spread of problem-solving ideas–has announced its inaugural class of 20 Science Fellows. The fellows are early to mid-career leaders in fields […]
A quick programming note: I’ll be off on the Geosciences Fall Field Trip – this year down to the Smokies of southern Tennessee/western North Carolina/northern Georgia – so there won’t […]
The past few years have yielded a promising array of designs inspired by biomimicry, radically diverse in domain and application but unified by a common tangent of brilliant simplicity and […]
What’s going on chemically in your brain as you feel the pierce of cupid’s arrow? Biological anthropologist Helen Fisher explains the cocktail of neurotransmitters that cause you to fall in (and out of) love.