Guest Thinkers — December 21, 2010

Weekend Reading: or the Star goes to Yemen

For those looking for something to read this weekend, I would recommend this piece by Michelle Shephard of the Toronto Star (and not just because she says some nice things about me.) Michelle and the Star’s photographer, Lucas Oleniuk, spent a lot of time in Yemen and were able to get a great deal of access to former Guantanamo detainees (not the ones currently in AQAP – those are all Saudis.)

There is also this video with some footage and still photos of the detainees and everyone’s favorite Shaykh, ‘Abd al-Majid al-Zindani.

There is, I think, about to be a lot of attention (or at least a lot more) paid to Yemen and Guantanamo and this article is a good place to start for those looking to get an insight into the problem.

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

Our Favorite Cliche: and other errors in reporting

Despite appearances to the contrary – here at Waq al-waq we don’t actually enjoy playing gotcha, well, ok – sometimes we do. But not all the time. Case in point, […]