cats
-
Quickies
Quickies: Helping each other, understanding data, and empathy…
Hello, friends! This weekend I finished the Impossible Semester, so I look forward to putting the Cute Animal Fridays BACK on actual Fridays. For now, here are some good reads from the week. As we struggle through *WAVES ARMS* all this, CNN has a list of places where you can give or get help with charitable organizations. Via Muscadine I…
Read More » -
Quickies
Quickies: Perspective on Iran, Presidential primaries, and lots of science…
This week, the headlines were dominated by military action between the United States and Iran. I am in no way qualified to begin to comment on these matters, but I do recommend an early episode of the NPR podcast Throughline on the history of US-Iranian relations. I have found Throughline’s deep dives into the history behind current events to be…
Read More » -
Quickies
Quickies: It’s the first Cute Animal Friday of 2020!
Welcome to the first Friday of the new year. It’s going to take me a while to get used to it being “The Twenties.” Though sometimes, it feels like we’ve regressed to the 1920s. Horrific anti-semitic attacks are on the rise in New York and elsewhere. Here are some things you can do to be an ally against anti-semitism. A…
Read More » -
Quickies
Quickies: Civility and protest in the face of challenges to our democracy…
It’s Friday, and today, I have some longer, more thoughtful reads bookmarked for the quickies. Civility is Overrated – at The Atlantic, Adam Serwer digs into the history of how Reconstruction failed Black Americans and how the false veneer of political civility has often masked rampant oppression and violence in this country. “The true threat to America is not an…
Read More » -
Quickies
Quickies: 2019 only gets more depressing and even weirder…
Happy Friday, everyone! Or is it? It’s been a bit hard lately to think positively in this country when we’re caging immigrant families and recreating fascist symbolism in the capital. Let’s take a closer look at the first week of July in the bizzarest timeline. Vermin Supreme is running for President in New Hampshire once again, but this time, with…
Read More » -
Quickies
Quickies: The “real” Captain Marvel, teapot physics, same-sex marriage in Taiwan…
Today is a special Cute Animal Friday because you get not one, not two, but THREE adorable puppers! Say hello to Rocket, Booster, and Comet, furbabies of the amazing Surly Amy. It is a life goal of mine to have a pack as sweet as these three. I think it’s safe to say that we could all use a cuddle…
Read More » -
Skepticism
So You Want to Understand Bayes’ Theorem and/or Look at Photos of Cats
Back in 2010, researcher Daniel Daryl Bem at Cornell University supposedly proved that psychic precognition exists. He did a variety of tests on college students in which he reversed some common psychological tests and found that the students were able to predict something that had not yet happened. For example, he put pornographic photos behind one of two curtains. The students had…
Read More » -
Meta Stuff
Skepchick Sundaylies: “Poorly Written, Abusive Erotica,” Racist Color Names, Scottish Independence, and Boy/Girl Sleepovers
Sunday Funny: Love Your Body (HT: io9) and Writing Skills (via xkcd) Teen Skepchick The Physics Philes, lesson 112: Sea Shell Resonance Why do hear the ocean in sea shells? Physics, of course! 50 Shades of Fail: Chapter 2 Yeah Uh, I totally Love DIY, Yeah Ha Ha Ha, This Isn’t Wildly Inappropriate at All. “Come with me and you’ll…
Read More »
