Technology & Innovation — July 23, 2010

One and a Half Dip Recession

“We’re not in a double-dip recession yet. We’re in a one and a half dip recession.” Robert Reich says the President should advocate a WPA-style public works program.

bigthinkeditor

“We’re not in a double-dip recession yet. We’re in a one and a half dip recession.” Robert Reich says the President should advocate a WPA-style public works program. “The 1.5 dip recession should be causing alarm bells to ring all over official Washington. It should cause deficit hawks to stop squawking about future debt, blue-dog Democrats to stop acting like Republicans, and mainstream Democrats to get some backbone. The 1.5 dip recession should cause the President to demand a large-scale national jobs program including a new WPA that gets millions of Americans back to work even if government has to pay their wages directly.”

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.

Up Next

Personal Growth

The Sumo Wrestling Crisis

“The dignity of sumo wrestling vanishing. Allegations of match-fixing, dope-smoking, orgies, and ties to gangsters among the sport’s top stars have enraged the Japanese public.”