Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
Because I blog every day I find that I tend to fall into a pattern. About once a week I scan the news and list out items that happened during the past seven days that is utterly absurd and has been inspired by religious belief. Key Point 1: The list is not a suggestion or … Read more
At the recent Google I/O conference there was a demo of Google’s new Duplex AI Assistant. It was quite frankly amazing, so rather than describing it, you can instead see it yourself. Here is that demo … As you listen to it making real calls to book an appointment, you find that not only is … Read more
A new paper has been published within Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology that is titled “Cause of Cambrian Explosion – Terrestrial or Cosmic?“. The paper proposes, using several lines of “evidence”, that life did not originate on earth, but instead that … life may have been seeded here on Earth by life-bearing comets as soon … Read more
The Wall Street Journal Op Ed section has established a reputation for the promotion of anti-intellectual climate denialism. This was recently illustrated on 16th May by them publishing an Op Ed by the well-known denier-for-hire Fred Singer entitled “The Sea Is Rising, but Not Because of Climate Change”. In other words, he does acknowledge that sea level rise … Read more
I’m building up to an explanation for the “Yanni or Laurel” audio illusion. First, let’s talk about audio illusions in general. Pictured above is Ben Langley on Britains Got Talent last weekend. His act consisted of playing various very well-known songs, but he primed you to hear something distinctly different by holding up a series … Read more
I thought I was done with posts about the Flat earth conference that took place in the UK, but I find that I’m returned back to it for one more pass. Michael Marshall, who attended has an article in Gizmodo in which he expands upon much of what he saw while there. He also makes a … Read more