Guest Thinkers — November 18, 2011

See You At Skepticon!

As I mentioned earlier, I’ll be at Skepticon IV this weekend in Springfield, Missouri, and I’m eagerly looking forward to it. Given the sheer number of fantastic speakers, we’re at serious risk of overwhelming the laws of physics and collapsing the fabric of reality into a singularity of skeptical awesomeness.

There’s going to be a meetup for atheist and skeptic bloggers Saturday night at 9:30, at the Farmers’ Gastropub, and I definitely plan on attending. If you’re also going to be there, come and say hi! I’ll also be in the area on Friday night and Sunday night, and I assume other gatherings will be taking place, so I’ll post details on those if and when I have them.

I’ll report from the convention if I can, though blogging will most likely be light through the weekend. (I hear that PZ is glad for all the young people coming this year, as we’re needed to, quote, “soak up all the alcohol”. Eek?)

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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