Guest Thinkers — February 22, 2011

Starbucks and the 21st Century Suggestion Box

When in doubt as to how to run your business, open up the floor to the crowd. Companies like Dell and Delta have already experimented with these “online suggestion boxes” and now Starbucks is looking for new ideas from members of the wider Starbucks community. Under pressure from investors to prop up a sagging stock price, Starbucks just launched the site My Starbucks Idea. There’s coverage of the new Starbucks site on Wired and Mashable, and a (very brief) mention of it in today’s Wall Street Journal.

[image: My Starbucks Idea]

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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