Guest Thinkers — August 28, 2011

Review and Images of the Martin Luther King Memorial, Washington D.C.

Twelve hours after Hurricane Irene hit Washington, D.C., it was a bright 85 degree day as I rode by bike down through Georgetown along the Potomac River and to the site of the newly opened Martin Luther King Jr Memorial. Saturday was supposed to be the official opening ceremony attended by President Obama. Despite the cancellation and the storm, the Memorial was crowded with visitors. These images are taken with a Nikon D3100 camera. Read Philip Kennicott’s review of the Memorial from this past week at the Washington Post.

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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Silver Lining In King Memorial Dedication Delay

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