Words of Wisdom — June 9, 2014

Jean de la Fontaine on Passion

“Man is so made that whenever anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.” – Jean de la Fontaine

bigthinkeditor

“Man is so made that whenever anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.” – Jean de la Fontaine

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.

▸

7 min

—

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

Politics & Current Affairs

Prime Minister Abe Calls Whaling a Japanese Cultural Right

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to resume his nation’s commercial whaling ventures in the Antarctic seas despite the International Court of Justice’s ruling in March forbidding it.