Viewing profile — VerDeTerre

This was an example of the dubious kind of parapsychology experiment conducted during the period. I'm sure there were true believers, but I think healthy skepticism probably preven…

> People back at shore would dip the bandages from a wound inflicted on a dog, which would supposedly cause the dog on board to yelp. That kind of morbid experimentation was appare…

This is the way to go if you have the option. If you need to keep the bike outside but have a reliable designated area, you may want to consider leaving a heavy chain and padlock o…

I would not have guessed the scale. The article says the instrument platform weighs 900 tons, which is amazing to imagine. At first, I wondered if they could use a helicopter to br…

Your first-hand experience isn't universally applicable. Many people live in food deserts or don't have access to reliable cooking facilities. And physical exercise costs time, whi…

I had heard of the similar Purple Earth Hypothesis[1] wherein organisms with photosynthesis based on retinal arose in the oceans early on. Chlorophyll-based life developed deeper a…

I've donated in the past, but with the recent copyright debacle, I'm less inclined to—not so much because I think they're clearly on the wrong side of the law (though I do believe …

Fluoridation is by no means universal in the US—around 69.2% of public water in 2006, according to Wikipedia[1]. In some areas, resistance is strong and cuts across diverse politic…

Or, to belabor the disease analogy, an opportunistic infection. Distrust makes it easier for otherwise fringe sources to spread beyond what would be expected in a healthy media env…

While I suspect that's largely true, I was intrigued by the article about "The Great Sushi Craze of 1905" that appeared a few years ago ( http://eccentricculinary.com/the-great-sus…

As I understand it, when the Germans occupied Paris, they saw it as a key prize and were keen to keep its culture alive, at least superficially. There was a fair amount of prestige…

This analysis assumes conventional reproduction, which is probably just as interesting in the context of general population studies; when it comes to dealing with the issues in spa…

I’ve had the same thought, inspired by similar incredulity. I wonder if there’s a feeling that anything short of strict physicalism is just a flavor of dualism. Better a philosophi…

I don't think it's entirely a matter of Half.com becoming obsolete because of changes to eBay; I suspect they lost out to Amazon Marketplace, which provides basically the same serv…

In effect, it did happen. A number of American citizens were prosecuted and convicted under the Federalist-supported Sedition Act of 1798, which included the following: "And be it …

With irony in vogue but subtlety out of fashion, absurdity treads a fine line. A line no wider, even, than the itsy-bitsy Mississippi.

Of the former quotation, I at first thought, "How terrifically jejune." Then, naturally, I wondered how reading P&P became a recurring annoyance for him. Was it simply for self-ind…

Sounds like Alfred Bester's "Adam and No Eve" from 1941. It's included in https://www.amazon.com/Virtual-Unrealities-Fiction-Alfred-Be...