⚒️🍎🧪Hey Rock Lovers of all ages!
I will be hosting a live Every Rock Has A Story Hour from 10-12am at the Discovery Museum in Acton on Patriot's Day, 4/20!
Come join me to hear some of my favorite tales!
@discoveryacton.bsky.social
@bostoncollege.bsky.social
www.discoveryacton.org/events-progr...
When I worked to keep science denial out of schools, I worked with leaders at NAS to create resources so the public could understand why not everyone
claiming there’s a debate deserves equal scientific credence. We don’t “teach the controversy.” I’m happy to connect you with NAS staff who get this.
You can. But you need a particle accelerator, and you’ll only get a couple atoms of gold.
Daniel Dennett’s Real Patterns in Science and Nature— new collected volume is now out. All chapters open access, including my paper with Acyuth Parola on what emergence can possibly mean.
direct.mit.edu/books/oa-edi...
But shall this crazed old man be tamely suffered to drag a whole ship’s company down to doom with him?
Some first-rate science writing: For this story, @jdrakephd.bsky.social carefully read our recent paper and then we spent a very fun 90 minutes or so talking on zoom. His article that gets right to the heart of our model, explains it clearly, and then explores why it will matter in the future.
Is God unable to stop Manchester City from winning trophies, and thus not omnipotent, or unwilling, and thus morally bankrupt?
I assume He knows about it because it's, like, on the news all the time.
#philsky
Does studying philosophy make you a better thinker? 🤔
A new study finds philosophy majors outperform all other majors in reasoning, curiosity, and open-mindedness—even after controlling for differences at the start of college.
What are your thoughts? 💭
#philsky #philosophy #betterthinker
A reminder of an upcoming deadline. Come join us in Vienna to talk about carbonate diagenesis. ⚒️
Great NYT piece on trusting science (by an old student of mine).
Gift link 🎁:
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/o...
Fair enough; I suppose my sample is skewed towards people more familiar with physics and its history.
But I don’t know of any serious objections to the resolutions of the dilemma (eg the via negativa of eg Montero and Wilson).
But Collins’ point about not understanding the “mind” is on target.
Meh. Could have at least mentioned the label “Hempel’s Dilemma” even if he didn’t want to mention that most of us think it’s not really a problem.
www.jstor.org/stable/41340...
Subatomic particles (electrons for example) share all their intrinsic properties with every other particle of the same type. They are therefore indistinguishable (by Leibniz’s criterion), but they are clearly not identical. Mostly true for atoms and molecules too.
Mt. Ranier large rainbow version?
#FrescoFriday - The portrait usually identified as being of Terentius Neo and his wife, from their house in Pompeii (VII.2.6). I adore the level of detail in the piece, especially on the rotulus, stylus, and wax tablet. #Pompeii #AncientBluesky 🏺
Image: National Archaeological Museum, Naples (9058)
Post the cover of a book you read way before you were ready for it.
Worried about missing posts of some of your closest colleagues/friends as Bsky grows? Use Lists feature to creat a special feed of just their posts. Instructions with screenshots ⤵️
3. In 1672, English Puritan missionary John Eliot published a bilingual logic textbook written in English and Massachusett.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
In this Quincy bar, Cheney still means Celtics guard Don. But they do know this: Democrats must appeal to Atlantic-reading neoconservatives if they want to win in 2028.
Yes. Also, find it’s hard to offer succinct advice about the appropriate level of trust/skepticism about science b/c it’s an Aristotelian mean, and it depends on the particular (pseudo-)science.
At the moment, the biggest danger is denialism. But in other circumstances gullibility would be.
Hmm.
1. Recognize the value of scientific research (both for the intrinsic good of gaining knowledge and for unforeseen instrumental goods).
2. Recognize the importance of expertise. When you don’t understand, try to learn (or just defer to expert consensus), don’t argue.
3. . . .
Meme. Scene from the Bayeux tapestry depicting King Edward talking to Harold Godwinson. Edward is sitting on this throe, holding his scepter and wearing a crown. He owns an excellent beard that forks down over his chest. He is leaning forward towards Harold, and his expression seems hopeful, and fascinated. There's the hint of smile on his lips, and his eyebrows are raised. His whole posture is anticipatory. He's invested. For his part, Harold is standing, tall and mustachioed, in the light of his monarch's attention. He is gesturing broadly with both hands. His right hand is up above his head, as if to say, "And the platypus was THIS tall!" His left hand is extended towards the king, as if to stave off disbelief. The scene looks, for all the world, like Harold telling an amazing story to an enraptured child. I hope he volunteers for reading hours at local libraries. He seems like he'd be excellent at it. Meme text reads: "I do confess... I hope it's a mighty celeelbration"
It's November, & you know what that means!
Yup. Time to start thinking about ordering your holiday eels!
Henry III knew. In November of 1256 the king ordered up 5,000 small eels from Ely, to be sent to him for the Jan. 6 feast of St. Edward.
Only the best for the Confessor.
🗃️🧪
I realized that there was no story in English that would explain what happened to my institute, so I decided to write up this blog entry, which shows how low-quality AI systems fail to assess research quality: marcinmilkowski.pl/2024/11/20/w...
I guess if you wanted a justification one likely motivation is that notes may include citations, and we expect those to follow. (I have never seen a note in a bibliography.)
Bibliography at the end (unless there’s an index), b/c that’s where it belongs.
That means notes come earlier.
Bluesky norms: add alt text to images for prior who can’t see the image, but can read.
You can turn on a reminder to do so in settings.
Post from Latino pollster Mike Madrid: “Doing some research for an upcoming article on the last “mass deportation” of Mexicans during the 1930’s. Over half of those deported were US citizens.”
Indeed. When they rounded up the Japanese Americans, myself and my family included, for internment during WWII out of fear over Japanese spies and saboteurs, two thirds of us were U.S. citizens.
Don’t think it won’t happen again when they come for the “undocumented.”
Spock is a Boston native. If you have a few bucks to support his legacy, and support science appreciation, here’s a link:
donate.mos.org/campaign/leo...