Culture & Religion — October 15, 2009

The Annals of Annoying Required Reading

When Josh Lieb set out to write a book about a 12-year-old billionaire from Nebraska, the comedy writer and producer of The Daily Show, didn’t incorporate too many details from his own life. One detail, however, he couldn’t leave out was his disdain for the preposterous and bathos-laden text we all got stuck reading at some point: Fahrenheit 451.

In his new Big Think interview, the author explains why he couldn’t ever bear to re-read the classic prior to writing I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President. Lieb also explains why he’s not all that excited about the idea of immortality, suggesting that hobbling around sober for centuries on end, without the same indulgences that, say, his grandfather enjoyed, doesn’t sound all that appealing.

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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