Hi and welcome back! Earlier, I saw a story in Science News about an advance in chocolate tempering that might really help candy makers in the future. It’s a cool story, don’t get me wrong. Just for my money, nothing beats the sheer glorious chemistry of one particular use of chocolate. Today, Lord Snow Presides over the perfect marriage of science and deliciousness: chocolate ganache.
I can easily see why 3rd-and-4th-century Christians felt an irresistible urge to edit Josephus’ work to better support their own claims. Around then, they were just starting to wonder why they lacked that kind of corroboration, and it bothered some of them a lot.
Hi and welcome back! The other day, I showed you an odd little essay by Amy Laura Hall, a Duke University ethics professor. In it, she twice displayed a cognitive bias called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias, if allowed to rule people unchecked, can prevent their ability to learn and grow. Today, Read more
Today, Lord Snow Presides over the way one ancient human species, the Denisovans, reached the present day through our DNA.
One of her biggest mistakes might be how she views COVID denialists themselves. They are, in essence, griefers. And ignoring griefers does not make them go away.
Hi and welcome back! My mind was blown by this opinion piece in Religion News recently. In it, a Duke University ethics professor tells us she wants us to stop talking about COVID deniers getting COVID and dying. Instead, she wants us to focus on happy things and bringing about Read more
Recently, a Great White Pelican in Ireland found his freedom — again (archive). I loved this story. Who couldn’t empathize with him? Indeed, his attempts to gain freedom seem to have stirred something in his captors, who don’t seem to be in a huge rush to recapture him. Today, Lord Snow Presides over all of us large birds who would rather fly free than stay captured.
Today, Lord Snow Presides over new discoveries about dreams: their function, their necessity, and the distinctive AI weakness that got us thinking about it all.
Granted, a worldwide slate-wiper genocide like the Great Flood, which we discussed just last week, would have caused even more devastation than the Chicxulub asteroid impact. I mean, that asteroid just wiped out most of all life on Earth — 75% of all plant and animal species, including every four-legged animal that weighed more than about 25 kilograms (55 pounds). That’s kinda small potatoes compared to what would have happened if some petulant man-child of a god had actually suddenly submerged the whole planet in many oceans’ worth of water for a while.
Hi and welcome back! News of the COVID-19 surge has been unrelentingly awful. One theme dominates that news, too: almost all of the people dying in this surge are unvaccinated. Sure, some of those unvaccinated folks just never got A Round Tuit. But a lot of others have turned out Read more