Culture & Religion — August 11, 2009

Glued to the TV at 3:30PM? You Have Company.

The New York Times recently presented an eye-opening graph derived from the American Time Use Survey. This unique project seeks to map out what Americans are doing every day, broken down minute-by-minute. The results reflect our under-employed age. At 3:30 PM, 13% of Americans are watching TV and movies – 27% are working. No word yet on what percentage are reading the Big Think blog. Check out the link for more.

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

Politics & Current Affairs

Going Silent On Human Rights

One of the bad things about the Obama administration is that human rights have taken a backseat to more pressing concerns abroad. A case in point was Joseph Biden’s recent […]