An Iranian Architecture Appreciation Post
Sanctions have spurred “creative destruction” in Iran where brickwork draws on the past to create shade, natural light, and ventilation.
Read more...Category Archives: Curiousities
Cybernetic Attention: All Watched over by Machines We Learned to Watch
Before the attention economy consumed our lives, “pursuit tests” devised by the US military coupled man to machine with the aim of assessing focus under pressure. What connects them to AI?
Read more...Coffee Break: Boxing Day Miscellany
Part the First: No, This Is Not Another Bell Labs. Bell Labs was justifiably renowned as the place to do high level physics and engineering. It also supported Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson in their research that identified the background cosmic microwave radiation that is the remnant of the Big Bang. But Bell Labs worked […]
Read more...Is Your Dog or Cat Getting Old? These Simple Gestures Could Help Them Live Longer and Happier Lives
Like human seniors, an old cat or dog will benefit from help with their special needs.
Read more...Book Review: Harnessing the Power of Dreams and Nightmares
In “Nightmare Obscura,” scientist Michelle Carr argues that our dreams are essential pillars of who we are.
Read more...Book Excerpt: How Coyotes Found a New Homeland in the East
The explosion of populations east of the Mississippi was made possible by logging and the slaughter of wolves.
Read more...You’ve Just Stolen a Priceless Artifact – What Happens Next?
How can the Louvre thieves—if they’re still out there—capitalize on their haul?
Read more...Coffee Break: Vaccines Continued, Ancient Art, Renewables, Ignis Fatuus Explained, Good Sleep, and Jane Goodall
This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 752 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, PayPal, Clover, or Wise. Read about why we’re doing this […]
Read more...Charlie Kirk and the Making of an AI-Generated Martyr
In the US, death and mythmaking are useful tools weilded to dictate the terms of public life.
Read more...Satyajit Das: On Reading – Textual Pleasures
On the role of reading, particulalry for book lovers.
Read more...“You Are My Friend”: Early Androids and Artificial Speech
Centuries before audio deepfakes and text-to-speech software, inventors in the eighteenth century constructed androids with swelling lungs, flexible lips, and moving tongues to simulate human speech.
Read more...Book Review: This Is Your Brain On Nature
In “Nature and the Mind,” Marc Berman uses neuroscience to show how interacting with nature benefits mental health.
Read more...Dissecting My Recent Argument (Are Error Theories Offensive?)
How do people consume arguments or make sense of them in a discursive environment devoid of generally-accepted notions of what makes an argument good or successful?
Read more...Coffee Break: Beware the Jargon, Chocolate(!), Arsenic Life Final Update, Death Becomes Us, and the Scopes Trial,
Part the First: Beware Scientific Jargon. But everyone here already knows that. Nevertheless, this is a perpetual challenge for every scientist and other scholar who wants to be understood by our fellow citizens without “dumbing it down.” Scientific jargon can be ‘satisfying’ — but misleading. Jargon works especially well for those of my tribe who […]
Read more...Skyscrapers of Babel: How Ancient Mesopotamia Shaped the Modern City
In the early 20th century, architects and artists like Hugh Ferriss drew on the myths and monuments of ancient Babylon to imagine futuristic skylines—melding ziggurats with modernism in a visionary blend of the past and the possible.
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