Technology & Innovation — September 20, 2011

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Ends Today…Will the Mutinies Begin?

In August, 2010, Paul Rieckhoff, Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told Big Think, “I will put all the money in my pocket right now on the fact that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will be repealed.” Of course, Rieckhoff turned out to be right, and today marks the day that the military’s policy has ended.

Just how good is Rieckhoff at predicting the future? Big Think asked him how the men and women of the armed services would react when the new policy goes into effect.

Watch Rieckhoff here:

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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