Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"Suppose an event has two possible explanations. The explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is usually correct. Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68515515
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7cgRMY4opc&ab_channel=80%27s90%27sMusic...
https://metamodel.blog/posts/texas-heat-wave/
9 Comments
'No Mans Land'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"Fiction reflects cultural anxieties at large. Last week, the Times’ Matthew Parris lamented the skills being lost to information technology: map reading, handwriting, mental arithmetic. Our ability to remember any information that can be Googled is often added to such lists. A second concern is that automation is making our lives less healthy, and more artificial."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/09/cannot-read-a-map-...
"Officials working for Gove, the secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, have drawn up plans for “trailblazer” departments to pilot the scheme, according to documents that have been circulated."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dt7JpN7Bv0
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/mar/09/legal-row-banksy-re...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo&ab_channel=RareEarth
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/08/pentagon-ufo-report-hiding...
"The transition to station life was “not that hard” since both had previous stints there, said Williams, who will soon take over as station commander. “This is my happy place. I love being up here in space,” she said."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/sep/14/we-retraced-captain-cooks-...
"This huge road trip, including encounters with crocodiles and dingy motels, formed the spine of a book, but the book itself is not our story. It is the stories of the 70 or so people who shared their lives, history and perspectives with us."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/13/stuck-astronauts-boeing-...
'Advanced Astronomy'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"The prime locations are free from ground vibration, shielded from Earth’s noisy broadcast signals or profoundly cold – making them uniquely well-suited for sensitive equipment that could make observations impossible from elsewhere.
But the pristine spots, known as sites of extraordinary scientific importance (Sesis), are in danger of being ruined by an imminent wave of missions such as lunar navigation and communications satellites, rovers and mining operations, with experts warning on Monday that safeguarding the precious sites was an “urgent matter”."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK_M_XhocXo&ab_channel=Lumen
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/25/scientists-call-for-prot...
""You have to constantly talk, which isn't a problem for me," she said. "It's when your feet start to hurt and you rock side to side. But I absolutely love it.""
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68631692
"So what are these ghostly particles and why was a new approach needed to detect them?
The current theory of particle physics is called the Standard Model. It says that everything in the Universe is made up of a family of 17 particles - well known ones such as the electron and the Higgs boson - as well as the lesser known but wonderfully named charm quark, tau neutrino and gluon."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy47g4FtiSU&ab_channel=Happi3r
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68653311
Meanwhile:
"Archaeologists have concluded that they could have been Amazon women who lived 4,000 years ago. These fearsome women were famed for their male-free society and their prowess on the battlefield, particularly with a bow and arrow."
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/24/truth-behind-the-myths-a...
'Polaris Dawn'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"Under the water, construction of an alternative future is well under way, in the shape of the world’s longest immersed tunnel – the term for a tunnel built elsewhere and then sunk into place. When the Fehmarnbelt tunnel opens in 2029, people will be able to cross the stretch of water in as little as 7 minutes by train and 10 minutes by car."
https://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/24532419.illuminated-sheep-set-emb...
"“They’re also going to a much higher altitude, with a more severe radiation environment than we’ve been to since Apollo.”"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgGdv-i9N9c
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/23/record-breaking-tu...
"...to attempt the first ever private-sector spacewalk, with innovative slim spacesuits and a cabin with no airlock."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-XQ26KePUQ
"At the end of the art trail, the sheep will gather as a flock and be transformed into the Illuminated Sheep art installation."
https://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/24539911.tiktok-user-shares-hilari...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSddD6w5SKc
"Websites, meanwhile, are wary of the shifting sands of online advertising - and fearful of losing revenue to more upstart parts of the online world, such as influences."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93599ejdeno
'Smart Masks'?
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"While politicians have shown that no one is above a night out, those seeking to avoid the glare of cameras in the foggy smoking area may be out of luck. Rayner’s lively getaway came as Keir Starmer signalled support for plans to restrict smoking outside pubs and restaurants, including in designated areas on-site and pavements."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/30/angela-rayner-r...
The War of the Roses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WbvhTzitN4
"A number of independent experts have argued that the fiscal rules are not the best way to set out a path for government spending, and that the measures the government has to do to meet them are not necessarily the best decisions."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvdv4pKU8Qw
Sugar Cubes.
'Space Permitting'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"An Illustrated History of All World Events Ever, Space Permitting. We caught up with the amateur historian and presenter turned author to chat ghosts, politics and Monster Munch …"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clylvz1ppdmo
"Dickens is a ghost now. Shakespeare is a ghost. Everything that gets taught for GCSE is written by a ghost"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4y7q2dyndo
"I think you should stop teaching reading at the point that a child is able to read. Otherwise the child will find it a bit patronising."
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/sep/28/philomena-cunk-history-w...
"There isn’t a BBC cafe any more: everything’s been turned into a meeting room named after a Del Boy or a Teletubby or whatever."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tto_nmsND_o
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3w4nld5e3o
'Musical Fandoms'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"Along the way, she stops at a spot overlooking a hydroelectric dam and points to mountain slopes that used to be covered in snow."
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/sep/30/mountain-boli...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L51lTppnYe4
A 'Red-Headed' Read
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"He has flown straight from Texas in his Gulfstream to bask in the adulation of his new lord and master. He has also paid several hundred million dollars, plus a month of his time, to be here. But now his time has come."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwygxe102ydo
"Thomas Cromwell made himself indispensable to Henry VIII in the 1530s and – as viewers of Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light are soon to discover – ultimately that was not a great career move."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2e71pl4yrjo
"Gavin allegedly came up with the scheme after reading a Sherlock Holmes story, The Red-Headed League. In it, Arthur Conan-Doyle's hero waits in a vault for burglars planning to tunnel in."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jp7JzaOrao
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/16/elon-musk-donald-trum...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gB3U70zE5g
lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dABcmAbm-fk
'Moe’s Tavern'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"A few, should the predictions get worse, may go full survivalist, filling their bunkers with tinned carrots. But their number will be small. The news cycle is hardly relaxing at the moment, the old order as frangible as digestive biscuits."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y494xkp3yo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=733O0xJDx8o
"The tone, and length, of the announcements has varied, sometimes leaving Pope-watchers to attempt to read between the lines."
https://www.theguardian.com/science/commentisfree/2025/feb/22/the-observ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjIDkbt4Cy0
Bless his little Cotton Socks.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/feb/28/cornish-lighthouses-fog-...
'Spectrum Bandwidth'
Submitted by Captain Qalypso on
"“There are now 40 tonnes and a million pieces of debris. Ninety-eight per cent of satellites are uninsured. As the global commercial space sector takes off and more and more businesses are reliant on satellites, space is not unlike the early days of the automobile. But who wants to drive down a highway where 90% of vehicles are unmanned, have no insurance and you have to navigate around debris and broken down vehicles?”
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/apr/07/first-trailer-for-wes-ander...
"A paradigm shift. “We had to do something in a more practical way,”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/06/cant-delete-whatsa...
A Smile a Day...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/07/italy-bears-conserva...
Phoenix Nights.
"It’s almost impressive that one small icon can be so infuriating."