Surprising Science — February 21, 2014

Study: Online Trolls Are Sadists

A team of Canadian scientists have confirmed what Internet users already know: trolls are sadists and suffer from other personality disorders. In the wild worldwide web, where anyone can be anonymous and spout off anything they please, sadists and narcissists like to take full of advantage. They enjoy harassing and hurting others through cyber bullying, a serious problem that can lead victims to suicide. As Daniel Honan wrote for Big Think, it’s time that we married the freedom of the Internet with an intolerance for sadistic behavior online. To read more about the study, Internet crime author Nate Anderson breaks it down for Ars Technica.

Image credit: Jens Rost/Flickr

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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