Big Think Blog

Azar Nafisi, a professor at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, says that although she herself refuses to wear a veil, she feels that it is a matter of choice. She believes that the state should not tell people how to dress or how to relate to their religion.

This issue is playing out dramatically in France. Salon.com’s Broadsheet blog expounds story from the International Herald Tribune about Faiza Silmi, a Muslim woman who immigrated to France with her husband and has had 4 children there. Her application for citizenship was denied because she wears a niqab, the head to toe veil that some Muslim women choose to wear. In a country as adamantly secular as France, wearing any religious item is controversial. Her niqab, which Silmi wears by choice and not her husband’s insistence, has caused French immigration officials to declare that she hasn’t assimilated enough into their society. Strange that she’s assimilated enough to know that under French law she has a right to be an orthodox Muslim if she chooses to be.

Gus Speth, the Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies says that the environmental movement needs to work within our existing capitalist system rather than trying to overthrow it entirely. Socialism may seem more environmentally friendly than late stage capitalism, but it’s not really a practical solution for the free peoples of America.

Speth acknowledges that great strides have been made towards environmental protection within the current system, but it’s been like swimming upstream, he says. If we were smart, though, we could find ways to make the two compatible.

There’s no better example of capitalist waste than the junk mail industry–letters are printed, mailed, transported across to the country to your house only to be deposited directly into the recycling bin, where they get picked up and driven to a recycling plant and turned back into blank paper.

The New York Times reports on efforts by The Green Marketing Coalition, which includes companies such as Microsoft, to mitigate environmental damage by printing on recycled paper and cleaning up lists so that they stop marketing to pets and dead people. Then maybe I’ll stop receiving the AARP brochures that have been landing in my mailbox since I was 37.

David Pogue, the technology columnist for the New York Times, wonders why all our time-saving technology hasn’t given us more free time. Now that we can work anywhere at any time, why aren’t we ever finished working? Great question.

Pogue thinks that it’s a simple quirk of human nature to feel compelled to stay busy. And thanks to the Internet, there’s always another friend to e-mail, another blog post to read and another You Tube video to watch.

Now The New York Times reports on a new way to save time and keep busy all at once! The TiVo digital video recorder will be introducing a feature that will let users buy items they see on TV through Amazon.com. Soon we’ll be able to watch a snazzy commercial for a new energy drink and order up a case with a click of a button. Interested in an author promoting their book on Oprah? Don’t scribble down the title–just use your remote control. It’s impulse buying like never before. Horray! Just another way technology is making us even lazier.

The Research!America blog reported last week that Senators Arlen Specter and Tom Harkin have introduced a bill calling for an additional $5.2 billion in research funding for fiscal year 2008.

The blog noted Specter’s comment that “funding for the NIH is grossly insufficient and Congress must do something about this scandalous situation.” This isn’t news to Big Think. Specter called for the same proviso here, arguing that the United States relies on an alert Congress to correct for past mistakes of government.



When Big Think asked Pfizer research scientist Sonia Patel to describe which aspect of her job most surprised others, she said most people don’t understand how long it takes for for a drug to make its way to market. It’s a good argument for pushing through the Specter/Harkin bill.

What a messed up summer for travel. With the dollar weaker than ever and fuel costs through the roof, people are resigning themselves to sitting in their underpriced home with expensive air conditioning and complaining about not going anywhere. Peter Frank, Editor-in-Chief of CondéNet’s travel website Concierge.com recommends South and Central America and Eastern Europe for posh vacations that won’t bust the bank account. But he couldn’t resist expounding on the charms of unreachable Paris–c’est manifique–which, he notes, is currently reinventing itself with new styles of food and architecture. Is it the new president? Who knows, says Frank, but something is going on over there.

What would the great American entrepreneurs of the early 20th century have to say about the business-school trends of the early 21st, like, say, the rising popularity of yoga classes at some of the nation’s top business schools?

According to Business Week, the University of Chicago recently joined MIT, Northwestern and Harvard by initiating yoga classes specifically geared towards stressed-out MBAers.

All this raises the question: Is late capitalism antithetical to the nature of yoga? Well, maybe. But the alternatives to stress relief for twenty-somethings is usually alcohol and drugs. And perhaps, if enough business school students become yogis, it will eventually bring a sense of peaceful reflection to Wall Street. But don’t hold your stance.

The guy who opposed the buildup of over 30,000 troops in Iraq last year and has called for removal of all troops over a 16-month period, Barack Obama, is visiting the Middle East to get a first-hand perspective on the controversial war. It’s been two and a half years since his last trip, and everyone is hoping he’ll return with a renewed perspective on foreign policy.

Director of the Global Governance Initiative and Senior Research Fellow in the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation Parag Khanna thinks that America needs a president willing to talk to all foreign officials, whether some term them “enemy” or not:

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Three cyclists embark on a trip from Alaska to Panama in an effort to advocate sustainable livestock practices. By documenting their adventures on their blog CowSpokes, Tim Whittemore, Sam Stickney, and Noah Hoskins-Forsythe hope to gain donations for the charity, Heifer International. The underlying message is that you can have sustainable rolling pastures for your cow to play, and eat it too.

Through the donation of livestock and offering agroecology training to communities in need, Heifer International has, cleverly, set out to solve the hunger and environmental crises. Their argument is that by providing food and income, livestock can also be catalysts for many changes that benefit the earth.

Not everyone agrees. But Heifer International says problems arise when people are desperate for food: “Many farmers have no alternative to cutting trees for firewood or putting animals on overgrazed land — practices that harm the earth.” But long term practices such as zero-grazing and an efficient allocation of resources, can make livestock agriculture a sustainable practice.

Environmentally conscious chef, Dan Barber, discusses why cattle farming and a healthy environment are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

The Tour de France was thrown into chaos when Riccardo Ricco was thrown out of the race after testing positive to the blood booster Erythropoietin, otherwise known as EPO. His urine also contained traces of an equally banned substance CERA, according to the New York Times.

Ricco is the dual stage winner who excels specifically in the mountain stages of the race. The positive tests are an unwelcome step backward to a sport trying to rebuild a clean image after the drug scandals of 2005 and 2006.

Steroids are usually associated with the bulky, testosterone-ridden competitors in football and baseball. It may appear odd that cycling has amassed so many cases. However, ESPN Author Shaun Asseal, highlights why the effect of steroids are especially advantageous for cycling. It’s not always about simply building more muscle. It’s important to remember that steroids are also used to speed up recovery.

The Huffington Post is suggesting a potential remedy for wounds inflicted by the New Yorker’s recent Obama cover. In response to the racially-charged cartoon of a Muslim Barack Obama and a gun-toting Michelle Obama, Harvey Wasserman suggests the New Yorker follow up with a “McBush” depiction.

To parry, cartoonist Barry Blitz defends his portrayal as an important antidote to Obama rumors. “I think the idea that the Obamas are branded as unpatriotic, let alone as terrorists, in certain sectors, is preposterous. It seemed to me that depicting the concept would show it as the fear-mongering ridiculousness that it is,” says Blitz. Wasserman’s response to that, correctly, is well, okay, but equal attention should be devoted to both candidates’ ridiculousness.

When interviewed at Big Think, New Yorker editor David Remnick said his magazine would, in fact, endorse a candidate for the 2008 election. Interesting. I wonder who it will be.