I'm curious how often people listen to music. Continuously? Hourly? Daily? Weekly? Monthly?
How long can you go without listening to music?
I regularly go months without selecting anything myself to listen to. I get music from the environment, of course, but I have very little 'music drive'. I...
Milan Kundera, best known for his book 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being', has died at age 94 in Paris.
I personally don't think this book is his best. I prefer 'The Joke' or 'The Farewell Party'. In any case, a great loss to literature.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66173059
Yesterday, we saw the release of a 'deep sky' image from the new Webb space telescope.
Today we see images of the Southern Ring nebula, and Stephan's Quintet.
Check them out from NASA:
https://www.nasa.gov/content/first-images-from-the-james-webb-space-telescope
For comparison, look at the...
Here is the case of a pregnant woman whose pregnancy is not viable. She is at high risk of infection because part of the umbilical cord is protruding from her cervix. She is at risk of dying of sepsis but cannot get an abortion because the heart of the fetus is still beating.
Really?
There is...
Free Will is one of those concepts that seems stranger and stranger the more I think about it.
Would I not *expect* my decisions to be based on my desires, my experiences, my biases, my psychology, what is available, etc? And, if the causal nexus of all of those leading to my 'choice' happens...
A recent discussion in another thread has pulled me back to a basic inability I have had all of my life: I cannot understand the writings of Shakespeare.
I have looked up the words, tried reading out loud, tried watching movies, tried watching plays, tried reading silently a slow, I tried...
How aware are you of the events in the sky?
Can you say what phase the moon is right now?
How about which constellations are visible? Which planets?
Can you orient yourself at night just using the stars? How about if the Big Dipper isn't visible (not relevant for those south of the equator)...
Sorry, but if you have had COVID, that is NOT the same as having a vaccine.For a number of reasons, 'natural immunity' simply isn't as good as getting the vaccine. The article goes into specifics, but here are two quotes that are relevant.
"A fundamental difference between the immune responses...
With the understanding that the US system of health care is wonky:
Should insurance companies be allowed to opt out of covering people with COVID who have voluntarily chosen not to get a vaccine?
Obviously, those who have a valid medical reason not to get vaccinated will be an exception as...
Atheists are one of the least trusted groups of people according to some polls. We're even below other theists!
Anyway, how 'out' are you to your family? At work? Do you feel the need to listen politely as a co-worker says they will pray for you, but then feel you can't say what you really...
One of the crucial parameters for our understanding of how fast the universe is expanding is called the Hubble constant. This is one of the parameters that is involved in figuring out the age of the universe and has been a number a LOT of research has been focused on for decades.
For the last...
God is a metaphor for that which transcends all levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that.
--Joseph Campbell
There is a very common viewpoint that the term 'God' is a metaphor. Not a proper name and not a job description, but instead a metaphor for all the things we aspire to and...
Early trials of a new malaria vaccine show it to be 77% effective. if this is true, it is a *major* advance in fighting this deadly disease.
Malaria vaccine hailed as potential breakthrough
Let's all hope this continues to work.
it is common to hear of various techniques to make your immune system stronger. And it appears that many people have the goal of making their immune system as strong as possible.
I just want to point out that having a really strong immune system can be a *very bad* thing.
First, allergies are...
Our first powered flight on another planet happened this morning on Mars.
The Ingenuity helicopter lifted off, flew for about 40 seconds and touched down again.
We have photos of the shadow from the helicopter and of the flight from the Perseverance Rover...
The Event Horizon Telescope, which produced the first actual image of a black hole has managed to image the same black hole (the one at the core of M87) in polarized light. This gives information about the E&M environment close to the black hole, which helps us more fully understand what is...