On Poipu Beach on Kauai, bikini-clad humans are sometimes joined by two endangered species: monk seals* and green sea turtles. Both are there for the same reason we are—to bask in the sun. But while the only beings taking notice of me as I lie supine on the soft beige sand are the fearless wild […]
Ethics
I attended a repatriation of artifacts and bones under Native American claim recently. The remains of 41 people and the artifacts buried with them, retrieved from an archaeological collection, went back in the ground. There’s not a lot I can write in detail. Returning the dead of a millennia-old village is an involved procedure and […]
Jacy Reese wants to end animal farming. You can tell, because that is the title of his new book: The End of Animal Farming. Reese is a committed “effective altruist,” which means that he spends his time thinking about what actions will most efficiently help as many sentient creatures as possible and eliminate the most […]
* It’s October, which means pink ribbons everywhere you turn. These breast cancer awareness campaigns can be hopeful and empowering, but they can also be deceptive and unscientific and can mask the realities of what it means to live with cancer. Catherine Guthrie’s new memoir, FLAT: Reclaiming My Body From Breast Cancer offers […]
I have a friend who is worried about our country. Haw haw. Who am I kidding? All my friends are worried about our country, every single one of them, even the Republicans I know. We are living through an incredibly bonkers and troubling moment: climate change is starting to actively bite us in the ass […]
This post was originally published all the way back in 2015. I thought the internet was weirdly corrosive and anxiety inducing then, and the past three years certainly haven’t removed that feeling. I stand by this analogy today. Like many of you, I suspect, I have a love hate relationship with the internet. I love […]
I’ve been talking to Richard Garwin recently and thought I’d run this again. The original had an update, not included here, that read: This post originally said the document on the computer screen is classified, and though it once was, it certainly no longer is. No one who knows Garwin would think he’d allow the […]
It looks like the Basilisk definitely got him, so it’s worth resurfacing the explainer I wrote earlier this year. If you’re like most people, you haven’t heard of Roko’s Basilisk. If you’re like most of the people who have heard of Roko’s Basilisk, there’s a good chance you started to look into it, encountered […]