Guest Thinkers — February 22, 2011

Her Majesty’s Royal Innovation: The Queen of England on YouTube

Not only does the British monarchy have an official website — they also have a brand new YouTube channel (“The Royal Channel“), launched in October. In just a few months, the channel has already lined up nearly 10,000 subscribers. Currently, the featured video on The Royal Channel is the Christmas Broadcast of 1957 — the monarchy’s first-ever televised Christmas Broadcast to the British people exactly 50 years ago today. On Christmas Day at 3 pm GMT, the royal elves will be putting up this year’s Christmas Broadcast on The Royal Channel. Although the Queen has disabled the embedding feature on the YouTube site, it’s still nice to see that the British monarchy is slowly – ever so slowly – adapting to the 21st century.

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for 2008!

[image: Christmas Broadcast of 1957]

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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