November 2, 2012

Two Things for those with Electricity

Hurricane Sandy hit Waq al-waq hard – although, mercifully, not nearly as hard as many who are still suffering – knocking out power and forcing us to become one of those people of the dark, scurrying about town trying to find a place to plug in a trio of mac products with laughably short battery life.

But while blogging has been knocked off schedule, I did come across two things that I wanted to bring to your attention from my outpost in a kind coffee shop.

The first is this wonderfully deep piece on politics in Yemen by April Longley Alley, one of the very best Yemen analysts out there. If you want to know what is happening in Yemen, this is the piece for you.

Next is a series of 27 photographs of Sanaa by Michael Kirby Smith from Guernica in what is accurately entitled: A Fractured State. To see the human side of suffering in Sanaa, click through Smith’s photos.

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

The Expert’s Ear: Expertise And Aesthetic Judgments

The first time I listened to Pinkerton, Weezer’s second studio album, I hated it. And so did almost everyone else. Rolling Stone readers ranked it as the third worst album […]