Guest Thinkers — December 14, 2009

A Stimulating History

Rarely has so much buzz surrounded a Big Think guest. It was our pleasure today to have historian of technology Dr. Rachel Maines in to discuss her bestselling 1999 volume, “The Technology of Orgasm: ‘Hysteria,’ Vibrators and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction,” as well as her participation in a recent New York Psychoanalytic Institute roundtable on “Love and Pleasure in the Age of Electricity.”

Upbeat and good-humored, Dr. Maines also discussed her new book on “Hedonizing Technologies”—that is, the technologies that have turned formerly productive tasks like hunting and gardening into leisure activities. Her interview will be posted in January.

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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