Politics & Current Affairs — November 9, 2010

George Bush’s Memoirs

The National Interest calls Bush’s memoir a record of how a dauphin took the world’s leading power and left it crippled. Is Bush’s legacy one with the nation’s?

bigthinkeditor

Bush’s memoir should prompt renewed reflections upon his catastrophic presidency. It is really a saga of how a dauphin could take the leading power in the world and leave it crippled. Today the Wall Street Journal features no less than two articles in which German and Japanese leaders condemn America for fiscal folly. Specifically, they’re objecting to the so-called quantitative easing that the Federal Reserve is continuing to pursue … The Fed probably doesn’t have much choice. If the American economy were to lapse into a depression, it could easily turn into a world-wide one. But it’s a potent reminder of the house that George W. Bush unbuilt. Callow, unreflective, and profligate, Bush has remained true to himself. His legacy could become America’s permanent one.

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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