Good summary of the past thirty years’ discoveries of new planets.
Phil Plait, Scientific American, 6 Oct 2023: The Sky Is Full of Stars—and Exoplanets, Too, subtitled “Of the thousands of stars visible to the eye, only a few hundred are known to have planets. But that number may be far higher in reality”
I’ve mentioned “Project 2025,” the Heritage Foundation’s plans for dismantling the US government as soon as a Republican gets into the White House again, several times. Here’s a one-stop-shopping summary by Hemant Mehta. (Including a link to the 920-page plan!)
Hemant Mehta, Friendly Atheist, 3 Oct 2023: Project 2025: A Christian Nationalist fever dream that would destroy American democracy, subtitled “The 920-page document details how a future Republican president could turn the nation into a Christian theocracy”
NY Times, Ross Douthat, 23 Sep 2023: The Permanent Migration Crisis
Does Douthat really understand why it’s permanent? Well, he identifies what I think are the two obvious factors, but also a couple I hadn’t considered.
The pieces today echo other recent items: the Veritasium piece (posted on the 5th) on cognitive ease (say something over and over…); Adam Lee’s item about book bans (posted on the 6th) from conservative parents so absolutely certain of their dogma they insist on imposing it upon everyone else; and the item about that obscure Christian text (posted about on the 1st) once popular, now forgotten.
This is from one of NY Times’ conservative columnists.
/>
NY Times, opinion by Ross Douthat, How the Extraordinary Became Normal in Catholicism
Big Think, Jonny Thomson, 3 Oct 2023: Apocalypse philosophy: What science fiction teaches us about existence, subtitled “There’s nothing like the end of the world to make you a philosopher.”
Key Takeaways
• The best science fiction presents philosophical thought experiments that make us ask deep questions. • Here, we look at a broad range of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic scenarios and isolate four themes common to them. • As it turns out, science fiction has a lot to teach us about existence.
Whenever you see an article like this in a general publication (whether website, newspaper, or magazine), it’s invariably mostly about SF movies and TV. And that’s true here. The few titles that are books are here because they were later made into movies or TV series. Let me see if I can find any exception…? Nope. It’s not that long an article.
Veritasium on Facebook: Cognitive Ease and the Illusion of Truth
Just mention something a few times, and claims you make about it will more likely be believed. Authoritarians and pastors count on this. Here’s the end of the video:
Cognitive ease is useful for being creative and intuitive, but it also makes you more gullible. So, for the written part of your driving test, going with your gut is probably a good strategy. But it areas like physics, where the answers are counter-intuitive and there are many common misconceptions, it’s important to be more skeptical.
Here’s a “quiz” I composed way back in 1996 or so, inspired by an earlier list by Connie Willis of quotes and names from classic (1950s and 1960s) works of SF, that she read off at some convention in 1995, and which was subsequently published in Locus Magazine. I composed a follow-up list from more recent works, the 1970s through the 1990s, and when I created Locus Online in 1997, I posted it there. It’s not a “quiz” exactly; it’s not a test you can take and be scored. It’s intended as an evocation of classic works. Here’s a link to the original post post in 1997:
Locus Online: My Locus Quiz
I am now reproducing it here. Below the ‘quiz’ I’m now providing answers. Except for one I don’t remember. I think if you are well-read in science fiction, you will recognize most of these. I suspect that many of the newer 21st century writers and fans will not. (But then, I wouldn’t recognize an analogous list from 21st century works.) Science fiction has a history of building upon the past, developing and recreating ideas from earlier works. But I suspect that’s fading.
NY Times, Paul Krugman, 2 Oct 2023: Why MAGA Wants to Betray Ukraine
Big Think, Elizabeth Gilbert and Nick Hobson, 1 Oct 2023: Is psychology good for anything?, subtitled “Recent high-profile instances of fraud in psychology have led some to wonder if there’s anything useful about the field at all.”
So how’s that impeachment hearing going?
The New Republic, Michael Tomasky, 29 Sep 2023: Impeachment Hearing Proves Even Dumb Fascists Can Be Dangerous, subtitled “The House Republican effort to make a case against Joe Biden is mostly blundering—but their collective face-plant can still cause some significant damage.”
/>