Politics & Current Affairs — April 23, 2010

Mapping Climate Politics

How will the effects of climate change impact politics in America over the next 25 years? Internal migrations could "open up all sorts of new routes to the magic number, 270."

bigthinkeditor

How will the effects of climate change impact politics in America over the next 25 years? Hotter summers might curb the trend of moving to the Southeast and the coasts, and Northern state populations could swell by 20 percent by 2035. And urban centers are likely to expand. “Taken together, these changes could disrupt political patterns that have taken hold over the last two decades. … Shift electoral votes from the Sunshine State to the Great Lakes, or from California to the Dakotas, and you open up all sorts of new routes to the magic number, 270.”

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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