George Monbiot wrote an opinion column that draws attention to how conspiracy theories are appealing to people on both ends of the political spectrum. It is a useful reminder that there seems to be something structural about conspiracy theories that captures our attention. One can think about all the popular podcasts that traffic implicitly and […]
I am always happy to see bits from the history of science playing some role in contemporary political culture. So I delighted in hearing that as Portugal handed over the presidency of the EU to Slovenia, the Portuguese also gave them an astrolabe. I wonder, though, was it an astrolabe or a mariner’s astrolabe? The […]
Since 1991 the astrolabe has appeared on Jeopardy[1], either in the clue or as the answer 13 times.[2] After being an answer twice in 1991, the show seemed to forget about the astrolabe for more than a decade before slotting it in with some regularity. Most often the astrolabe appears in Double Jeopardy (10 of […]
Perhaps it was just a coincidence. Perhaps it was fated. Either way, The New York Times published a sort of “how-to” article on Tarot on, of all days, April 1: “How to Get Started With Tarot.” As the subtitle suggests with its invocation of “introspection,” and the first paragraph confirms, they were not suggesting Tarot […]
In “Taylor Swift Is Bringing Us Back to Nature,” an opinion piece it the NY Times by the conservation scientist Jeff Opperman, reflects on the ways that Taylor Swift’s lyrics are foregrounding nature. In her two recent albums, we are told, Swift uses “nature-themed words” seven times more frequently than artists from a sampling of […]
The podcast “Science Vs” promises to take “on fads, trends, and the opinionated mob to find out what’s fact, what’s not, and what’s somewhere in between.” It covers a range of predictable, conspiracy tinged and fad issues and pressing issues, e.g., episodes on ancient aliens,[1] snake oils and essential oils, and bigfoot, intermingle with episodes […]
The BBC has joined the growing number of articles that try to explain away rational and intellectual interest in astrology: “The Anxieties and Apps Fuelling the Astrology Boom.” In this case, the author does a better job distinguishing astrology from the dross we see in newspapers.[1] But the basic assumption that animates this article is, […]
A recent “The Morning” Newsletter from the NY Times suggested seven podcasts about science for those “trying to learn more about the wonders of science.” Among other pressing wonders of science, these podcasts will let us know “whether there’s any scientific basis to astrology.” Why is the press, science popularizers, and many scholars, whether scientists […]
A friend who knows of my interest in sundials gave me fabulous little, pocket sundial. While it is nothing fancy, it recalls to my mind the 16th- and 17th-century sundials from Nuremberg. Sure, mine is not made of ivory and wasn’t fabricated by some famous artisan, but I can pretend. The best study on these […]
Tarot cards do not have a particularly long history. With some effort people trace their origins back to 15th-century Italy. But those origins seem to be more like playing cards than some form of divination. Tarot cards as a form of divination seem to be an 18th-century trend that exploded in the 19th and early […]