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Tom Scott returns with an excellent discussion on science, the null hypothesis, and the politics of science.

Here’s a fascinating video about the difficulty in measuring the earth, beginning with the idea that the Prime Meridian, famously running through Greenwich, UK, is actually about a hundred meters off. Or it’s not. It all depends on who is measuring, and where.

Warning: This guy covers an amazingly wide range of fascinating topics. If you’re at all the curious type, you’ll get sucked down a rabbit hole within minutes, and you may never get back out. You have been warned.

A fascinating little piece of history, courtesy of The History Guy:

Fear is more than the mind-slayer:

Actually, I probably would have, too. This video made me smile. Life is full of fun little surprises and general human decency.

Yes, that’s “on TO something”, not “on something”, though there are plenty of people out there right now who aren’t too sure. As for me, I’m kinda rethinking my opinion of Mr. West. Whether or not he practices what he preaches, I think he’s right. It all started with this tweet:

You don’t have to agree with trump but the mob can’t make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don’t agree with everything anyone does. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

This is supposed to mean that West is now a Kool-aid-drinking Trump fanatic, of course. At least that’s how the liberal crowd seemed to take it. Especially after after West tweeted earlier in support of Candace Owens, who is a liberal-turned-conservative raising questions about whether the liberals are really helping blacks.

These people are like the people who used to see the sign on the side of our house advertising “Sewing Machine Repair” and swear it said everything from bike repair to refrigerator repair. They see “the mob can’t make me not live him” and completely ignore everything else in the entire post, including the parts where West says he “love[s] everyone” and that he doesn’t agree with everything he does.

But no, they read what they wanted to see, and immediately went berserk, even pressuring West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, to get him to recant. She had this to say:

Now when he spoke out about Trump… Most people (including myself) have very different feelings & opinions about this. But this is HIS opinion. I believe in people being able to have their own opinions,even if really different from mine
He never said he agrees with his politics

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) April 25, 2018

Kanye will never run in the race of popular opinion and we know that and that’s why I love him and respect him and in a few years when someone else says the same exact thing but they aren’t labeled the way he is and you will all praise them! Kanye is years ahead of his time

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) April 25, 2018

I think she might be right. It may take years for the mindset to shift, and when it does I doubt many people will remember that West was one of the first, most influential to move that direction. Time will tell, perhaps.

Others went to the source. A friend (presumably John Legend) texted West, trying to get him to change his mind. West posted the conversation on social media:

Hey it’s JL. I hope you’ll reconsider aligning yourself with Trump. You’re way too powerful and influential to endorse who he is and what he stands for. As you know, what you say really means something to your fans. They are loyal to you and respect your opinion. So many people who love you feel so betrayed right now because they know the harm that Trump’s policies cause, especially to people of color. Don’t let this be part of your legacy. You’re the greatest artist of our generation

(And this may be one of the most well-written, well-punctuated, grammatically sound texts I’ve ever seen. I don’t even text this well!)

West doesn’t back down, and in fact doubles down on the idea that he loves everyone:

I love you John and I appreciate your thoughts. You bringing up my fans or my legacy is a tactic based on fear used to manipulate my free thought.

That’s some clear analysis, calmly expressed. I don’t know much about Kanye West beyond his grandstanding at the Grammy Awards. This depth of thought and clarity of writing is not something I would have expected. Nor is the level of respect between these two. Legend replies:

Think freely. Think with empathy and context too. Your words and actions have consequences. Much love.

And since you’re posting texts, let me add that I have a new single out haha

That’s awesome! His friend just made their private texts public, and rather than be upset he runs with it! Incidentally, their wives get in on the good-natured banter, too:

@KimKardashian are we still doing dinner Friday or no lol

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) April 26, 2018

Yes but maybe no phones 🤣📵📵📵📵😂 https://t.co/zIEZS28DXC

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) April 26, 2018

But I digress. I just liked seeing adult conversations in the media. It seems too rare these days.

Everyone does seem to me to be overreacting here. West is standing up for freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and for loving one another. He summarized this week of social media firestorm in these terms:

This is year one. We can’t ad empathy to MAGA by hating. We can only ad empathy with love and time and truly hearing all sides

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 26, 2018

Regarding claims he’s turning conservative, he said this:

I haven’t done enough research on conservatives to call myself or be called one. I’m just refusing to be enslaved by monolithic thought.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 27, 2018

He’s spot on. You’re not going to truly change anyone, let alone Trump, by hating. Most people are truly changed by those who seek to understand before criticizing. I’m pretty sure John Legend had more influence than all the celebrities who unsubscribed from West’s feed, or the frothing hoards who attacked him. In the exchanges I’ve seen in all of this he comes across as thoughtful and respectful, which is one of the most sure ways to get my attention. He’s certainly caused me to reconsider my earlier assessments of him.

It will be interesting to see where this all leads, if anywhere. I hope his stand has some impact. I’m hoping his real message doesn’t get lost in the hate. He’s not endorsing Trump. He’s just refusing to hate. He’s trying to be open minded and recognize that not everyone is completely bad or completely good, and that most people have good, solid reasons for what they believe. Is that such a bad message? Had he said the same about Hillary Clinton I’m sure he’d be the media darling.

Good for him for being willing to risk being unpopular.

“1984” is a book nearly everyone knows, but far, far fewer have actually read. It’s become such a part of our culture that many aspects have been pulled into our vocabulary, often without people knowing the source.

I know many of you have read it in high school or college, but somehow I managed to escape. Unfortunately (or fortunately–time will tell) Audible is getting better at making me offers I can’t refuse. The latest was “Two classics for one credit”. I decided to see what “classics” they were offering (I’ve found we don’t always agree on what constitutes a classic), and found “1984” on their list. I also found lots of other books I thought might be interesting, but quickly learned the sale was limited to two books.

So I picked up “1984” and “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, the former because I should probably, finally know what I’m talking about, and the latter because I’ve got a novel idea brewing that I’ve described to myself as a Scarlet Pimpernel Space Opera and I might benefit from refreshing my memory on my inspiration.

So I’ll open this up to y’all to weigh in here, too: What books do you often quote or reference without actually having read? We can go with movies, too, if that helps (for example, I often quote “Better Off Dead” based solely on quotes made by friends of mine through the years). Comment below!

I learn many lessons from social media. One of the most frequent is that it’s not okay to mock people’s beliefs–or people for their beliefs.

Unless, of course, it is.

It seems we all know better up until we come across someone whose beliefs are just so far out of line with our own we can’t respect them for holding those beliefs–even if those beliefs don’t really do anyone any harm. It’s stupid, therefore it’s okay to mock.

Take, for example, the Flat Earthers. They’ve been around for a long time. I remember hearing about them over thirty years ago in my ninth-grade earth sciences class. Our teacher made their case for us one class period, as was his habit. Every week or two he’d take some time to explore some of the more unusual theories and events in a quest to get us to think. Perhaps even more interesting/entertaining was the Hollow Earth Theory, but I found it all interesting, stored it away, and moved on my life.

Here we are thirty years later, and I’m hearing about the Flat Earthers again. As best I can tell, the only catalyst for this resurgence is a man building his own rocket in an attempt to prove the world is flat. He’s already accomplished the first stage of his effort and is now working on the next stage that will put him close to his goal.

And every few days I see something pop up in social media mocking Flat Earthers. Everyone has a good laugh at their expense, and it goes away again until someone thinks of another good jab. Harmless fun, right?

I’m not so sure. Behind it all seems to be a sense of offense. People seem offended that these people can hold on to such ridiculous beliefs in the face of incontrovertible evidence. Never mind that we regularly see that people on all sides of the socio-political spectrum doing just that, but over issues that are more mainstream. The epithet “science denier” applies in all sorts of directions, depending on the topic.

But so long as it’s someone the vast majority can all agree are blatantly foolish it seems to be okay to mock them.

It may be legal. It may be tempting. But is it fair? Is it who we claim we want to be? Though the term “bully” is thrown around far too much these days, this seems a clear case: the majority uses their position of power to denigrate those who can’t really fight back. It’s not like these people pose any threat. They’re not, as best I can tell, doing anything that would harm anyone (except themselves, perhaps, in the case of the rocket guy). So why do we need to mock them?

I’m not sure we do. It really says more about us than it does about them. We can be quite petty. I suspect that’s more harmful than believing the earth is flat.

Here’s an interesting video explaining the concept of kintsugi, in which broken ceramics are transformed, not just repaired. There’s symbolism here, I think.