Politics & Current Affairs — April 15, 2010

Oil Intervention

Former CIA director James Woolsey says America can end its oil addiction (and its reliance on OPEC) by using more electricity, natural gas and biofuels for transportation.

bigthinkeditor

Former CIA director James Woolsey says America can end its oil addiction (and its reliance on OPEC) by using more electricity, natural gas and biofuels for transportation. “We can move quickly to strike a major blow at oil and OPEC’s dominance if we’ll adopt a portfolio approach and stop allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good,” he writes. “We can get a long way using existing vehicles, existing technology and affordable natural gas.”

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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