Guest Thinkers — December 21, 2010

Early Reports

I caught the tail end of a report on al-Jazeera this morning about the happenings in the south – it did not look good. News Yemen is reporting at least one protester killed in clashes with security forces in Aden, but much of the news from today is still yet to be reported.

I’ll be on the road (or rather tracks) much of the day and away from the computer, so you are on your own. For those in Washington, feel free to come by Carnegie at 12:15 for the talk on security and Yemen.

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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