When we are standing under the stars, the sky seems unmistakably two dimensional — just up there, like the light-flecked ceiling of the terrestrial ballroom.
Articles from July 2021
Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash
Photo by Juliane Liebermann on Unsplash
There’s no order like birth order
Frank Sulloway thinks he has discovered the driving engine of history: birth order.
Photo by Joshua Newton on Unsplash
A matter of mind over mind
For you, dear readers, I put my foot in the fire. But more about that in a moment.
Photo by Külli Kittus on Unsplash
The skulking grave robbers of fall
A fabulous autumn for mushrooms. More mushrooms than I can ever remember, particularly impressive after last year’s drought. In the woods, the meadows, the garden paths. A Halloween bounty of fungal spooks, eating the detritus of summer.
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
What’s progress got to do with it?
We’ve all seen the familiar image of a fish waddling onto the shore, preceded by a quadruped rising onto its hind legs, a knuckle-dragging simian, thick-browed Neanderthal, and — leading the parade of progress — bright-eyed Homo sapiens striding erect.
Photo by Thanhy Nguyen on Unsplash
No thanks, Ma’am, to ‘spam’ ban
Remember the Fuller brush man? The Avon lady? There was a time when a knock on the door might be the unwelcome intrusion of a salesperson into the privacy of our homes.
Photo by Mathew MacQuarrie on Unsplash
Get the science you pay for
Should scientists studying the health effects of nicotine accept funding from the tobacco industry?
Photo by Johannes Plenio from Pexels
A new angle on peace and patience
LegPull Press has just published “The New Compleat Angler” by Izaak Walton XII.
Engraving from ”De humani corporis fabrica” (1543)
Eyeing the machinery of the spirit
More than three centuries ago, Pascal said, “Man considering himself is the great prodigy of nature. For he cannot conceive what his body is, even less what his spirit is, and least of all how body can be united with spirit.”
The lifeless surface of Mars • NASA/JPL/MSSS, processing by Olivier de Goursac (CC BY-SA 3.0)
All you need is (eons) of time
The first media reports of evidence for life on Mars were pure NASA gush. Scientists discover evidence of life on Mars. Give us a few billion bucks and we’ll go look for it.