Big Think

Big Think Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been ratified by every member of the U.N. except for the United States & Somalia

In recognition of this milestone, Big Think partnered with UNICEF to ask educators, policy makers,
and activists how far we've come in protecting children and what work
remains to be done.

Source: bigthink.com
Only two countries, the United States and Somalia, have failed to sign the Convention on the Rights of the Child. To mark the 20th anniversary of the convention, Big Think and UNICEF asked educators, policy ...
Michael G. Burbank
Michael G. Burbank
What the hell is wrong with Somalia?! Jeez...
4 hours ago
Michael Weber Goodenow
Michael Weber Goodenow
Exactly, Michael. ;)
3 hours ago
Big Think

Big Think That America is in the midst of its fourth major revivial of right-wing, religious populism is "beyond doubt."

But will its true leader arise from the fringe, or has it already reached its full embodiment in Sarah Palin? A Contributing Editor at Harper's explains.

Source: bigthink.com
Jeff Sharlet: She's a different story, but an old story. It's the George Wallace story, or maybe she's not as grand as George Wallace; maybe it's the less dramatic story as the lesser George Wallace of Georgia. ...
Yvonne Winchell
Yvonne Winchell
Big Think not thinking -- FYI: times are too serious to cover tabloid Palin. She has no understanding of policy, and the rest would take too long, dignify her nonsense, etc.
You really should cover things that matter.
Yesterday at 2:04pm
Christopher
Christopher
No, but Levi Johnston could be the next Dan Quayle!
Yesterday at 5:11pm
Big Think

Big Think In a few hours David Small, author of "Stitches," may become the first graphic novelist to win the National Book Award.

He stopped by Big Think this afternoon and discussed, among other things, why children are better readers than most bloggers.

Source: bigthink.com
David Small is an award-winning American author and illustrator of over 40 books for children.A Detroit, Michigan native, he graduated with an MFA from the Yale School of Art and published his first illustrated book in 1981. ...
Big Think

Big Think
The publication of Sarah Palin’s memoir, “Going Rogue,” is the latest
skirmish in the fierce ideological battle among Republicans. This week's series asks: who will
fill the GOP power vacuum and lead the conservative movement?

First guest is former Majority Leader Dick Armey, who argues that Palin was "everything that Hi...llary Clinton pretends to be: an independent woman making her own way on her own terms," but had her political career sabotaged by the McCain camp.Read More

Source: bigthink.com
Dick Armey: Well, there are a great many opportunities for that leader to emerge. And by the way, when the Republican Party has itself embraced this concept, it has prospered with the voting electorate.
Joan
Joan
Robert, pro life? She has a son in war. Is his life not as valuable now he is born. As for her care of her Down's child, she attacked the research that could help children like hers as wasteful spending: http://localtechwire.com/business/local_tech_wire/biotech/story/1809660/ Maybe those intellectuals have something Palin doesn't, brains. And as a ... Read Morepartial conservative myself, as are many of my Republican friends, abortion issues are not Conservatism. Try looking up Barry Goldwater and Teddy Roosevelt if you want to know what a true Conservative is.
Tue at 1:42pm
Big Think

Big Think Will Phillips, the 10 year old student in Arkansas who is refusing to pledge allegiance to a country that discriminates against gays, is in good company.

As a boy, Cornel West also refused to pledge allegiance to a country where his uncle could be lynched, and wound up punching his teacher over it:

Source: bigthink.com
Cornel West: Well, one, of course, I'm my momma's child and my daddy's kid. Irene and the late Clifton West. That West family is just so precious. I was saturated with love that's beyond description; I ...
Big Think

Big Think Another day of free stuff! We're giving away a signed copy of John Irving's newest novel to a lucky commenter as well some Ben & Jerry's ice cream coupons (compliments of our recent guest, the company's CEO).

We're also bringing you the final installment of our 11-part series on female sexuality--enjoy!

Source: bigthink.com
Our eleven-part series looks at female sexuality in all its glorious diversity, from women who have touch-less orgasms to women who choose not to have sex at all. We spoke to psychosexual therapists, gender experts, and research psychologists.
Lory Hogan
Lory Hogan
I love John Irving and I love ice cream. Oh happy day!
November 12 at 6:29pm
Martha
Martha
John Irving?! I took a creative writing class once with John Gardner and have always thought John Irving came to visit him...but I have never known whether that was true. Would love to have a signed copy of John Irving's new novel. And, since my son just got laid off from his job at Cold Stone Creamery while he was on temporary disability coupons to Ben & Jerry's would be "sweet revenge!" mmmmmmmmm.
November 13 at 11:26am
Big Think

Big Think Still ambling about with the vague intention of finishing that big project? You might take comfort in Jonathan Ames' creative schedule, who punctuates his time in front of the screen with periods of "messing around," lying down, coffee drinking, and efforts to feel a bit less afraid.

Source: bigthink.com
Jonathan Ames: I don’t have much of a routine. I’m a slightly disorganized person. I tend to resist routine. It’s been a while since I worked on a novel. When I did and let’s say ...
Big Think

Big Think Today, Big Think kicks off the first part of a series examining the age-old question: What Do Women Really Want? This first section brings together the woman who popularized the G-Spot with a scientist who believes that you can "think yourself to orgasm."

Source: bigthink.com
We've interviewed six experts on female sexuality and will be posting their ideas over the next three days. Today, we hear from two scientists who study the nature of female orgasm.
Andree-Anne
Andree-Anne
Good one, Scott! LOL!
November 10 at 3:06pm
Rimona
Rimona
not so BIG think
November 10 at 9:33pm
Big Think

Big Think As the prominent professor Cornel West explains, the great musicians—like John Coltrane, Curtis Mayfield, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan—understand life in all its bristling glory: find your passion, never leave it, and become a prisoner to the hope that it matters.

Source: bigthink.com
Cornel West: Yeah, but the thing about indifference is that it's always a choice that we make, you see. So that if you choose to have an iciness of soul and a hardening of heart and a coarsening of conscience, that leads towards indifference. ...
David W. G. Flowers
David W. G. Flowers
he might suggest Jesus as a not bad partner in that passionate and hopeful journey but I'm just guessing.
November 9 at 2:45pm
Andree-Anne
Andree-Anne
I'm totally in love wih John Coltrane's music
November 10 at 3:05pm
Big Think

Big Think For John Irving, writing about sex is far from a joyful experience. Instead, the act, laden as it is with Puritan notions of anxiety and unintended consequences, is one of the many terrible things he feels perversely compelled to put his characters through.

David Masters Olney
David Masters Olney
New England still holds fort as the sovereign consumer of Ice-Cream in-the-Winter and off-Season...
This is the panacea and Catharsis...you can't have sex, all the time, anyway. I'm sure the Fairer sex will agree...but let them have the denial, Sport.
November 5 at 7:14pm
Kim Connolly
Kim Connolly
Puritans had a lot of premarital sex, so the stereotype of Puritanism is historically inaccurate. Bundling (involving stroking and petting) was common. BUT, once a woman got pregnant, some man had to marry her so the child would be taken care of. They were absolutely adamant about that.
November 5 at 10:03pm
Jon Jacobs
Jon Jacobs
Yeah, John Irving. I only read Garp (saw the film of Hotel NH if that's the name, think that was his book)....and though I read it some 20 years ago, what little I recall of it rings very true with that opening graf of the BigThink piece: "laden with....anxiety and unintended consequences." Plenty of that in Garp. Right from the opening scene where... Read More an off-duty soldier harasses the leading lady in a movie theater and she pulls a knife and slices his arm open from wrist to shoulder; to later in the book where first Garp's lover, then his mother, then he himself each are assassinated by members of an organized gang of pseudo-feminist anti-sex fiends.
November 6 at 11:09am
Big Think

Big Think Thrilled to be sending out a signed copy of Richard Dawkins' new book to a lucky commenter! A signed copy of John Irving's new novel, "Last Night in Twisted River" will be given away in the next week.

November 4 at 12:44pm
Kalyan Ram Chintalapati
Kalyan Ram Chintalapati
Did we select the lucky commenter yet?
November 9 at 1:33pm
Big Think
Big Think
Hi, Kaylan. Thanks for your participation! The book was sent out last Friday. We will be doing this weekly, so there will be plenty more opportunity to win free signed books from our guests. This week will be John Irving's new novel, then books from Cornel West, Paul Auster, and many more-- stay tuned!
November 9 at 4:45pm
Big Think

Big Think In the digital world, there’s a disconnect between the price of production and the final price of the product. What does this mean for business? Wired editor-in-chief, Chris Anderson, explains.

Mehrtash
Mehrtash
I think problem is more with the "purpose". The majority go into business thinking how can I make more money, that is the main purpose, rather than thinking what is the purpose of my business in terms of the value it brings to the community, my clients... Of course the companies who think like that usually are more successful, Wal-Mart wanted to ... Read Moremake cheap accessible products to everyone, Google... yes profit plays a major role but when it becomes the core purpose of the business, you'll find cereal in your garlic bread...
October 31 at 12:16pm
Paul A. Toth
Paul A. Toth
I am also curious about the sudden appearance of flat-bread sandwiches and hamburgers. When did this start? Damn it, I missed another revolution.
November 5 at 6:41am
Big Think

Big Think An Iraq veteran reflects on the disturbing ratio of enemies to innocents killed in combat.

Paul A. Toth
Paul A. Toth
Yes, and where did all the yellow ribbons go? I wonder what people were thinking when they peeled them off their bumpers.
November 5 at 6:40am
Fletcher Patrick Neeley
Fletcher Patrick Neeley
Calculus? Hardly. It's really very simple. Many thanks for painting your fellow 11B's as a bunch of babykillers. While I'm sure you've impressed all your smart new friends, you neglected to mention that Haji not only targets but hides among the noncoms, meticulously manipulating firefights/ied's for maximum PR. Did you tell them about the AQ ... Read Morehellhouses we found? Or how Haji kidnaps people then blackmails their family members into driving vbied's into hospitals with delayed daisy chains set for the first responders? Do you find that inverse ratio at all disturbing? Awakening Councils? Schools, roads, bridges, hospitals, Sons of Iraq, purple fingers, MTT teams, IA? Remember? Or were you livin' large on the FOB? I know that you know you're a buddyfucker, Hartley. Burn in hell you sorry SOB.
November 7 at 11:54pm
Big Think
Source: bigthink.com
As the legendary evolutionary biologist explains, human intercourse is far from a basic fact of life as the act throws away half of our genes and is therefore entirely irrational from an evolutionary perspective. Read More
Justin Marshall Chipman
Justin Marshall Chipman
The above statement forgets about the primary fact of human existence--that we work better when we work with each other. It is like when we try to run our own business. If we think that we are "throwing away" half our profits on employees we won't get anywhere.
November 5 at 11:39am
David W. G. Flowers
David W. G. Flowers
In a paradigm that acknowledges the possibility of individual rationality, all sex outside the act of procreation is irrational.
November 9 at 6:27am
Big Think

Big Think King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia recently opened a
major research university, KAUST, with an endowment to rival Harvard's.
Will it help lead Saudi Arabia to Western-style modernism?

Source: bigthink.com
Robert Lacey: A few weeks ago I went to the opening of King Abdullah’s new university. It’s called KAUST, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and it’s supposed to rival MIT. ...
Norma Fares
Norma Fares
Great question. I'm sharing it on my modest blog so we could bring more people to discuss such a major "event" that is happening in Saudi Arabia. The first question that comes to mind is that opening a mix campus would be enough to explore the needed change in an era of globalisation?
November 1 at 6:31pm
Paul A. Toth
Paul A. Toth
It can't hurt; but the real change will come when the government stops supporting schools that promote hatred and bigotry.
November 5 at 6:39am