Guest Thinkers — December 21, 2010

Where to even start …

… with this confused and contradictory article. I have no idea who wrote this, but whoever it is needs a better editor – can one really say: “The last thing al Qaeda wanted was lots of counter-terrorism activity in Yemen,” at the beginning of the article and then say: “Al Qaeda in Yemen operations had actually peaked in 2000, when a suicide bomber took a boatload of explosives into Aden harbor and badly damaged a U.S. destroyer (the Cole).”

Obviously one can make such confused statements, but …

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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Jabal Dukhan

News Yemen helps to explain the strategic importance of Jabal Dukhan and gives a bit more information, which is helpful since the mountain is not in my mu’ajim al-buldan.