Guest Thinkers — August 16, 2010

For Second Straight Week, Edwards’ Affair Ranks as #4 Most Talked About News Story

At the end of July, I predicted that the Edwards affair might turn out to be the dominant news story for August. It turns out I was wrong, but very close, and it was only a very strategic and effective crisis communication effort on the part of Edwards that helped stave off a media tsunami.

Still as Pew reports , despite Edwards best attempts to downplay attention, his affair for the second straight week remained the #4 most covered news story filling 4% of the newshole and trailing only the Olympics at 14% of total coverage, the general election at 22%, and the invasion of Georgia at 26% of the news hole.

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

▸

7 min

—

with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Gore at the Democratic Convention: Does He Send Mixed Messages about Climate Change and Partisanship?

One image of Gore: A partisan activist and leader.CNN reports this afternoon that Al Gore will have a major speaking slot at the Democratic convention, joining Obama on stage the […]