Guest Thinkers — December 21, 2010

The Losing Bet

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

My technical incompetence has forced me to re-post the announcement on the Losing Bet. For those in Washington and interested you can watch a trailer here. (Click on the announcement below to bring it to actual reading size.)

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

A digitally enhanced view of a crescent planet Earth with a galaxy in the background.

Starts With A Bang

What was it like when planet Earth first formed?

The Earth that exists today wasn’t formed simultaneously with the Sun and the other planets. In some ways, we’re quite a latecomer.

The Milky Way, a galaxy in space filled with stars, grew up.

Starts With A Bang

What was it like when the Milky Way grew up?

Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is both completely normal and absolutely remarkable in a number of ways. Here’s the story of our cosmic home.

Charles bridge in prague, czech republic.

Neuropsych

An untold story of LSD psychotherapy in communist Czechoslovakia

Uncovering the story of Milan Hausner, the Sadská clinic, and LSD psychotherapy behind the Iron Curtain.

A man with dreadlocks standing in front of a bush.

Perception Box

Shaka Senghor explains how he found inner peace after life in prison

“I was incarcerated well before I was in prison and I was free before the gates of prison opened up and let me out.”

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6 min

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with

Shaka Senghor

Aphantasia limits the ability to visualize a statue of a man in the mind's eye.

Neuropsych

My brain doesn’t picture things. What’s wrong with me?

I also can’t conjure sounds, smells, or any other kind of sensory stimulation inside my head. This is called “aphantasia.”

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Housekeeping

Given some of the comments that have shown up on the blog over the past few days, Waq al-waq has decided to disallow anonymous comments. While we encourage different views […]