what Dave thinks about movies, books and everything
Here are a couple of different perspectives on this topic. First, Rebecca J. Rosen on The Atlantic reports on research that suggests that reading SF can give inventors new ideas — and also anticipate the consequences of new technologies. A quotation from Dan Novy: “Fiction allows you to live more lives in the space-time of […]
Here’s an article from Heather Mallick from The Star. She points out the incongruity that taxes give us things that we treasure, yet no politician can ever say they’re raising taxes. In short, taxes are “the price we pay for civilization.” Why I love taxes — and so should you: Mallick We should be willing […]
Here’s a short but informative video about how people don’t necessarily respond to facts. But if you take into account where they’re coming from, you might be able to persuade them. Tali Sharot, neuroscientist, on Big Think uses the examples of climate change and vaccines: Facts Don’t Win Fights: Here’s How to Cut Through Confirmation […]
A population of orangutans has been studied and determined to be a distinct species, Tapanuli orangutans. They live on the island of Sumatra, which is part of Indonesia. Unfortunately there are less than 800 of them, which makes them endangered. Here’s the story from CTV News: Scientists discover new orangutan species in Sumatra Hopefully the […]
A company in Japan has decided to fight smoking and reward nonsmokers in a unique way. Someone complained that smokers take more time off, with their frequent smoke breaks. So the company is giving nonsmokers 6 extra vacation days. Since the new policy was put in place, 4 of the company’s 42 smokers have quit. […]
They’ve used a new technique to discover that there’s a sizeable void inside the Great Pyramid that no one knew about. It’s above the chamber known as the Grand Gallery. But there are no plans to use invasive techniques to find what’s in the void — and there are no tunnels leading to it. Here’s […]
These pictures will make you smile. They might even make you want to get a pet… Just To Remind You That Life Is Beautiful
Here is the previous iteration of this list. These are shows I’ve watched some of but not every episode. {4.5/5} The Daily Show (season 22) Trevor Noah and his team continue to amuse and inform. Noah talks a lot about Donald Trump, of course. Desi Lydic has a segment called “What the actual fact?” Guests […]
{4.5/5} “The Tabernacle colonists dreamed of escaping to some place out of sight of bureaucrats and Galactic clans — a place to breed freely and fulfill the old romance of colonizing a frontier. In contrast, your Danik forbears rushed to embrace a tall tale they were told by a band of smooth talkers. A flattering […]
{5/5} “Why do you want to come through anyway — grass is always greener on the other side of the interdimensional portal?” Dark Matter season 3, aired in 2017 An explosion aboard a station housing important diplomats has started a war. Five stopped a bomb from going off on the station. But Ryo, formerly known […]