Guest Thinkers — February 22, 2011

The most innovative ads of 2007

The USA Today recently highlighted the best ads of 2007 – including the “Evolution” Web video from Unilever’s Dove brand and an ad for wind energy from GE’s “Ecomagination” campaign.

While both of these ads were game-changing, the USA Today opines that the best ad of the year wasn’t created by a high-profile ad agency in New York or London – it was actually a short clip for Frito-Lay Doritos that was made by an amateur video enthusiast on a budget of just $12. The ad was created for Frito-Lay’s “Make Your Own Doritos Super Bowl ad” contest last February and was viewed by millions of consumers.

[image: Frito-Lay Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” ad and Dove Real Beauty ad]

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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