Politics & Current Affairs — December 13, 2011

A 2011 Technology Review

Assessing a momentous year for new technology, John Naughton says Twitter rules and BlackBerry crumbles, and warns politicians that silicone start-ups generate few local jobs.

bigthinkeditor

What’s the Latest Development?

Reflecting on another big year for new technology, John Naughton says 2011 was the year Governments all over the world had to deal with the power of social networking, “and their reactions were not exactly an endorsement.” “The prominence of social networking and SMS in political upheaval is simply a measure of the extent to which these technologies have become mundane.”

What’s the Big Idea?

Naughton cautions optimistic U.K. politicians that start-ups and “creative industries” are wonderful things but that start-ups, especially in the tech field, create very few jobs in their home countries. “Most of the manufacturing jobs go to China or Taiwan.” the most exciting product of 2011? An iPad app, Touch Press’s magical evocation of TS Eliot’s great poem, The Waste Land.

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

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