The Hampshire Skeptics Society @hantsskep@qoto.org

Your brain comes with its own mental photoshop. In this image there is no yellow. Mouse over closely and you'll see that each line in that circle is white. Your brain--a brilliant three pound mass of fat, water, protein, carbohydrates and salts--fills in the yellow colour for you.

Babe, wake up, a new #JWST image just dropped.

Light from the protostar L1527 escapes above and below an edge-on protoplanetary disk (the dark line at the center of the image), creating an hourglass shape. This illuminates the cavities carved as ejected material from the star collides with the surrounding, dusty nebula.

Dust scatters shorter wavelengths of light, so blue areas are where the dust is thinner and orange areas are where the dust is more dense.

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2022/news-2022-055

#astronomy

Another music recommendation!

'The Race for Space,' the second studio album by Public Service Broadcasting, relives the story of the American and Soviet space race from 1957–1972, conveying all the tension and breathless wonder.

Public Service Broadcasting have been "teaching the lessons of the past through the music of the future" for more than a decade now.

#Alternative #ArtRock #Indie #Electronica #DancePunk #Krautrock #NerdCore

https://open.spotify.com/album/65KwtzkJXw7oT819NFWmEP?si=Fo0fr2hdRNihsZvr9FfHBQ

25 years ago today, Lisa the Skeptic became The Simpsons’ critical thinking icon
by Trevor Sloughter

In a show that was never shy to take a satirical look at religion, Season 9's "Lisa the Skeptic" - broadcast 25 years ago today - established The Simpsons' skeptical credibility

https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2022/11/25-years-ago-today-lisa-the-skeptic-became-the-simpsons-critical-thinking-icon/

I'm doing a talk about the History of Emotions for Skeptics in the Pub online tonight.

Join me via twitch!

https://www.twitch.tv/sitp?sr=a

RECOMMENDED FOLLOWS:
#COVID, #PANDEMIC, #VACCINES
======================
@gorskon Dr. David Gorski
Surgeon who publishes The Skeptical Raptor, with hilarious sarcasm and pointed critique of #antivax lunatics.
==========================
@HelenBranswell Excellent established credible journalist infectious disease, pandemic, public health.
#evidencebasedmedicine
#science #medicine
#antiantivax #covid #vaccines #vaccinesavelives
#FollowRing #BestFollows #SmartFollows.#sciencebasedmedicine

I used to wave a shitty stick at irrational nonsense, but it seems like a lot of effort these days so I can’t generally be arsed, so I tend to just rant about the bleddy Tories instead. You could follow me anyway, you never know I might cone up with another witty Venn diagram or periodic table at some point. Worth a punt.

Coffee conversion

Every day there is a huge injection of energy from the Moon to the ocean via tides. I've been skeptical about extracting significant tidal power near coastlines because of the difficulty & ecosystem effects, but maybe tidal stream turbines offer a more realistic solution in the long term, if they can be deployed safely and (relatively) non-intrusively: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/23/tidal-stream-energy-costs-ebb-reliability-flows #Ocean #Tides #Energy #Sustainability

What is a skeptic? Here is Dr. Steven Novella’s summary:

“A skeptic is one who prefers beliefs and conclusions that are reliable and valid to ones that are comforting or convenient, and therefore rigorously and openly applies the methods of #science and #reason to all empirical claims, especially their own. A skeptic provisionally proportions acceptance of any claim to valid #logic and a fair and thorough assessment of available #evidence, and studies the pitfalls of human reason and the mechanisms of deception so as to avoid being deceived by others or themselves. Skepticism values method over any particular conclusion.”

#empiricism #criticalthinking #askforevidence #secularism #philosophy #ethics #freethinkers #brights #atheist #agnostic #humanism #freethinkers #rationality #reasoning

https://skepticalscience.com/argument.php

A good collection of "favourite" #ClimateDenial talking points

Mastodon, will probably be a tad slow for the coming days. Please post reasonably, and give everyone some time to settle.

Maybe you can repost, summarize, or reflect on the best posts you've seen on Twitter and other sites. Doing a compilation of some of the greatest stuff we've seen elsewhere is a good way to set the tone.

Where are we now...?

It looks like 42 really might be the answer...

https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/S021988782350069X

#physics #SFF