Guest Thinkers — August 16, 2010

Public Blames Media for Too Much Celebrity Coverage

As I’ve documented several times here at Framing Science, despite record amounts of news attention to climate change, the issue has often been eclipsed by coverage of “Paris Nicole Smith” and other celebrity scandals. So who is to blame for the skewed priorities of the press?

In a survey out this week, Pew finds that 87% of the public believes that the media has gone overboard on celebrity coverage and a majority of respondents think that it’s news organizations who are to blame rather than public appetite.

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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Paul Kurtz on What’s Missing from The New Atheism

The philosopher Paul Kurtz has published a new position booklet that addresses much of what I have been arguing is missing–and so deeply troubling–about the New Atheist movement. Below is […]