Guest Thinkers — August 16, 2010

THE LANGUAGE OF WAR: Surge and Accelerate? Are They Serious? How the Bush Team Has Redefined the Terms of the Debate; Olbermann Channels Edward R. Murrow

Part 1 of Segment

Part 2 of Segment

Stay the Course versus Cut and Run versus Surge and Accelerate. Over the past month, as the Bush team has unpacked its new language of “surge and accelerate,” they have successfully shifted the terms of discussion away from troop withdrawal and a timeline for handover to an absurdly sexual metaphor that in reality means simply “more of the same” and “stay the course.”

There is a lot to say about this new frame device, and its power, but I think last night on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann covered much of the ground in television commentary that channels the ghost of Edward R. Murrow.

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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