The evolution of the eye
Anti-evolutionists sometimes use the human eye as an argument for a creator; here’s David Attenborough explaining why that’s tosh [via frosty].
Jared Diamond on Collapse
One of the best books I’ve read in the last few years was Collapse by Jared Diamond. It’s meaty, well researched, well argued, systematic, fascinating, and fairly terrifying (though with the possibility of hope, at least).
In this 20 minute video, Diamond pretty much summarises the whole book. If you think it’s something you might want to read, watch the vid, because everything he talks about is explored in much more depth in the book — and all the book’s major themes are touched upon.
If still unsure, check out Diamond’s Long Now seminar (audio here), which is where I first came across him.
It’s just another (possibly even manic?) Monday
Lovely write-up by Ben Goldacre on why the whole Blue Monday most-depressing-day-of-the-year stuff is utter bullshit. In essence:
- It apparently originates with a travel firm’s PR company feeding a formula to a not-very-distinguished scientist, who publishes it.
- If you dig into the scientific literature and actually look for evidence of any seasonal variation in, say, suicide or depression, you find nothing conclusive whatsoever — lots of contradictory reports, many of which point to the spring or summer as being worse, in fact.
Classic stuff. Welcome to the Delusional Race.
