Guest Thinkers — August 16, 2010

The Bailout: Among Most Closely Followed Events in Decades

More people are following the nation’s economic problems than almost any other public event over the past two decades. According to Pew, the percentage of Americans who say they are following the economic conditions “very closely” trails significantly only the 9/11 attacks and the Challenger disaster, among major news events.

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.

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7 min

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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.

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Guest Thinkers

Maher’s Religulous : More Borat Atheism

Bill Maher’s mockumentary Religulous opens in theaters on Friday. Judging by Maher’s media interviews, it’s more of the same type of sophomoric ridicule that has been so self-defeating to the […]