Guest Thinkers — February 22, 2011

The New York Times: the building goes up, as the stock price goes down

According to one academic study that became popular a few years ago, companies erecting brand new skyscraper headquarters will soon become victims of a downward spiraling stock price. (Similar studies show a strong negative correlation between CEO home prices and the stock price of the company.) For supporting evidence, one need look no further than the New York Times, which is in the process of building a heroic monument to Old Media right in the heart of the Times Square area of New York City. The building is a tangled mass of steel that reaches into the sky like a Colossus. At the same time, savvy fund managers are now dumping the stock as fast as they can. Shares of New York Times Company reached a 10-year low recently and are down more than 21% in the past year. Ah, hubris.

[image: the new New York Times headquarters]

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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