Technology & Innovation — October 7, 2009

Male Poker Players: Chauvinists?

Professional poker champion Annie Duke is no stranger to crude name-calling at the table; it’s all part of being a successful female gambler. Duke has sat down next to so many men during her career that she’s taken the time to categorize them into four types: the rational, the angry chauvinist, the disrespecting chauvinist and the flirting chauvinist. How does Duke use her skills to compete against all of these types of bullies? Watch her latest interview with Big Think.

Duke also launches into a discussion on the game of Rock, Paper, Scissor, a challenge for which she took home the 2006 World Championship award. To her, the game’s not about luck at all; it’s about reading the patterns of your opponent– and she tells us exactly how to do that. Duke also divulges the best and worst career advice she’s ever received– it will help you understand why to never take gambling advice from strangers.

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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