Culture & Religion — June 2, 2009

Flash Mob Creator Comes To Big Think

Harper’s senior editor Bill Wasik comes to Big Think tomorrow to discuss viral narratives, social media and his new book, And Then There’s This.

In addition to a career in the magazine world, Wasik is infamous for his invention of the flash mob, one of social media’s most effective offline iterations.

Akin to earthworms spontaneously generating from puddles after a rainstorm, flash mobs unite up to several hundred people in public spaces for publicity-style stunts like pillow fights and silent discos.

If you are unclear, post your questions for Mr. Wasik here.

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

Surprising Science

Doctors, Not Toys, Make People Feel Better

Introducing quality assurance into the American health care system is one of the topmost priorities of the administration’s reform plan. To explain just what quality would look like, Big Think […]