Slippery-slopes are all around us, and they can be dangerous. But, the appeal to a slippery-slope fallacy is not always legitimate. To be fair, most people (myself included) are unclear on the types of slippery-slopes and what may or may not make their use a fallacy. On an episode of the STR podcast last year, […]
To my readers, I apologize for the disruption in my regular, weekly posts, which began last week (12/1/2024). I had been getting increasingly sick in the preceding weeks and finally ended up in the hospital early Thanksgiving morning (11/28/2024). Without going into detail, they kept me there for a week until they got a handle […]
“That’s insane!” — Jared Dirac, Special Forces soldier The following conversation — technically just half of a conversation — is an excerpt from the science-fiction novel The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi. Normally, I would be more likely to share something like this on my “Heroes and Aliens” blog. But, this section (and the book […]
I’m gonna go somewhat off-topic for the Xmas holidays. I know, I know. Some people (maybe you?) strongly dislike these songs for one reason or another. But, I like ’em. Such songs can trigger nostalgic feelings or memories from one’s childhood or some other event, and sometimes they just add a nice bit of Christmas […]
Kanye West — I refuse to call him ‘Ye’ — gets a lot of grief. This has been especially true in recent years, now that he has adopted a largely conservative political view and become a Christian (of some sort). As with Donald Trump, some of the criticism is fair, thanks to his big ego […]
“We’re kind of the chimpanzee ‘fighting’ civilization. Some other civilization just may have a basically more peaceful personality, like bonobos do.” — Stuart Taylor, SETI astrophysicist The technology to send it isn’t in place yet, but JPL astrophysicist Jonathan Jiang and other researchers have already drafted a new message to broadcast to any alien intelligences […]
In case you are wondering, the titular question (or some form of it) is one of those that historic mythbusters like to test regular folk with. I don’t typically count myself as a “mythbuster”, but I do like trivia, and I thought this topic appropriate to address as we Americans celebrate Independence Day. Before answering […]
“Waste is an apolitical issue that transcends socioeconomic status and has remained essentially unchanged since the time of the Romans. For generations, we have buried our trash in the ground and our heads in the sand, unwilling to break from a broken business model or take a serious look at how our waste impacts the […]
I was reminded the other day that this is Black History Month. I don’t normally go out of my way to note, let alone celebrate, this. As Ryan Bomberger (who is bi-racial) of the Radiance Foundation recently wrote, “There are so many incredible stories that should be intertwined in an educational fabric that celebrates every […]
I thought I’d start the year by sharing a couple New Year’s traditions I read about on ‘Atlas Obscura’…. Instead of welcoming the New Year by toasting with champagne or kissing their significant others, some people in Spain and Latin America stuff their mouths with twelve grapes — preferably white Aledo grapes from Alicante, Spain. […]
