Guest Thinkers

Waterbirths are so passe. Today’s elite stunt-birther wants the obstetrical equivalent of a fish pedicure, a koi assisted birth. From the FAQ: Why koi? Koi, or 錦鯉, are ornamental varieties […]

Yesterday, we celebrated Father’s Day. Today, let’s celebrate the wisdom of the female investor – or more specifically, what it is that generally makes her more financially successful over the […]

1. So my post on NASA provoked a variety of most thoughtful responses.  The ones by Brendan were the most detailed and philosophic, but they were all worthwhile.  2. Their […]

The Pentagon now has some 7,000 aerial drones, compared with fewer than 50 a decade ago. Whether for spying or unmanned airstrikes, the technology is being tested aggressively.

If the Vorticism movement had a headstone, it would confidently read “Here Lies Vorticism, 1914-1919.” Perhaps no other art movement had such a cut and dried beginning and end, yet […]

So, what is the difference between tantric sex and regular sex? The goal of tantric sex is for the man to postpone orgasm as long as possible whereas in regular […]

Don’t pick on the sprouts, and don’t even pick on Organic. The danger here is the way you and I perceive and respond to risk, a subconscious decision-making process that often works well, but which sometimes can create risks all by itself.

The smart money is on former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney to win the Republican nomination to challenge President Obama in 2012. Romney leads the early polls, and performed well in […]

Our famous novelist Jonathan Franzen gave quite the challenging commencement address at Kenyon.  Here’s what he said about technology and eros: Let me toss out the idea that, as our […]

It has been over 3 months after the tragic accident in Fukushima, Japan, and a flood of new information has been coming out. 1. After months of stonewalling and low […]

What is information literacy in the context of an MMORPG? How do you assess learning in a tabletop RPG? What makes a proficient reader of graphic novels? How do readers […]

As we enter a new era of online education it is crucial to determine what types of tools engage students in this environment. More specifically, what is the most effective […]

Volunteers are still taking to the streets of Vancouver to clean up after Wednesday night’s hockey riots. In the immediate aftermath, citizens worked alongside city crews, sweeping and bagging through […]

My boss mused aloud about Sarah Palin’s presidential chances a few weeks ago. “She’s attractive,” he said with a bit of a gleam in his eye. “And she’s white.” It […]

Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage is one of the most famous novels ever written about combat, in general and in the American Civil War, where the book is […]

As a native Vancouverite and a Canucks fan, I was heartbroken by the riots that followed Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. Dave Zirin of The Nation has a […]

Did the Bush administration illegally spy on Middle Eastern studies professor and blogger Juan Cole in an attempt to discredit him? Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer […]

From neon-lit “La-La Land” to dark, gritty L.A. Confidential and L.A. Noire, the city of angels—Los Angeles—has occupied a place in the public’s imagination in many forms. In Julius Shulman […]

On June 14, the day designated as Titanic Takeover Tuesday, a group of hackers known as LulzSec took down the website of the CIA, hacked into 62,000 email accounts and […]

Robert Kaplan’s op-ed on Patrick Leigh Fermor in the New York Times, “The Humanist in the Foxhole,” stands alone as a cool piece of writing worth studying. Kaplan writes: Unlike […]

Motivational psychologist Scott Rigby explains why we can’t stop playing.

You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here. This simple, succinct introduction opens the door […]

There’s little doubt that sports are good for the bodies and minds of people who play them. For people who watch them, though, sports are a negative.

We just opened up a positioning on the Involver Marketing team, I’ve loved developing relationships with you all as readers – and I think some of you might be a […]

One of the most disappointing moments in an otherwise fairly encouraging Republican New Hampshire debate was that none of the seven candidates would continue federal funding for human space flight.  […]

The first day of GLS7 brought with it plenty of spirited debate and intense arguments, as you are likely to have with any diverse group of passionate professionals, but none so […]

Six months out of the year I try to spend as much time as possible on the roof of my building in Brooklyn, where I’m cooled by a non-air-conditioned breeze, […]

[If you’re willing, I could use a little help with an upcoming keynote to educators…] Digital technologies and the Internet are causing the lines to blur in a number of […]

I am busy packing up here on the eastern coast of Canada to get ready to spend next year in the sex and love capital of the world – Paris, […]

Is a virtual currency free of intermediaries tenable given the recent string of hacker attacks? One user of Bitcoin, a decentralized virtual currency, claims $500,000 was stolen from his account.