Weekend Reads 7/29/17

The 2017 Total Solar Eclipse Will Be 'One of the Events of the Century'

According to Rao, viewing the rare spectacle is akin to watching a Broadway theater's lights dimming before the drama begins: The excitement kicks in as one feels the temperature change and the birds quiet down. He said that a viewer will leave feeling so engrossed in every moment of a total solar eclipse that they feel like it passes in just seconds, although it lasts a few minutes.

Why Smart People Deny Climate Change

Americans tend to clump into two groups on this measure, one hierarchical-individualistic (let people alone and respect authority) and the other egalitarian-communitarian (reduce inequality and look out for the good of society). And it turned out that this measure of value was a much stronger predictor of concern about global warming than was scientific literacy or reasoning skill.

The Creationist Giraffe

However, when I brought up the problem of giraffes growing another vertebra in an argument in college, the result was a blank stare.

You see, giraffes don’t have additional neck vertebrae. They have just as many neck vertebrae as nearly every other mammal—seven. They’re just larger. I was shocked.

Wallnau: Witchcraft is Hurting Trump’s Family!

As evidence of this theory, Wallnau cited an incident in which a friend was once “casting a demon out of somebody” and the demon transferred itself into the family dog, which then jumped out of the car while it was driving down the highway and was killed.