Politics & Current Affairs — November 13, 2009

Homeless Veterans

A staggering third of all homeless men in America are veterans of the army – so where is the post commission support?

With a staggering 130,000 former armed servicemen homeless in America today and twice that number expected to experience homelessness at some point this year, where is the support for these veterans? A CBS News report found that over 6,000 former military servicemen commit suicide each year and among active duty soldiers 580 have killed themselves since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. “The Veterans Affairs Department received over 22,000 calls from desperate veterans in its first year of opening a suicide hotline. Over 10,000 active American troops are diagnosed with the most severe classification of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with one in eight returning troops reporting symptoms. There are increasing reports that returning veterans are not receiving proper care for PTSD and other ailments, as the suicide numbers of CBS suggest,” reports Examiner.com.

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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Surprising Science

Mad Times

Following the controversial restrictions on abortion imposed by the healthcare reform bill women are asking if congress has reverted to the Mad Men era?