Weekend Reads

God Or Evolution? The Answer Is Yes.

Evolution may be true, as the evidence suggests, or it may not be. But if it is not true, the reason won’t be because God did it instead.

Is Ken Ham’s Rapid Post-Flood Diversification Really Evolution?

I Want to Believe This Surprised Baboon Gets What Magic Is

Teller wasn’t quite as impressed as I was. "The sleight of hand was pretty good," he said. "But not enough to justify that reaction. What the heck was on that card? Baboon catnip? Pheromones of the opposite sex?"

Can Computer Programs Be Racist And Sexist?

Google's software is able to group together pictures of a particular friend, or pictures of dogs, cats, etc. But when it labeled a picture of one of Alciné's friends, who is also African-American, it left him speechless.

"It labeled it as something else. It labeled her as a different species or creature," says a horrified Alciné.

A Plagiarism Scandal Is Unfolding In The Crossword World

The puzzles in question repeated themes, answers, grids and clues from Times puzzles published years earlier. Hundreds more of the puzzles edited by Parker are nearly verbatim copies of previous puzzles that Parker also edited. Most of those have been republished under fake author names.

The Surprising, One-Size-Fits-All Solution To The Gender-Leadership Gap

Exoplanet Census Suggests Earth Is Special after All

A new calculation of exoplanets suggests that Earth is just one out of a likely 700 million trillion terrestrial planets in the entire observable universe. But the average age of these planets—well above Earth’s age—and their typical locations—in galaxies vastly unlike the Milky Way—just might turn the Copernican principle on its head.

That Dragon, Cancer: A game that wrestles with grief, hope, and faith

Video games have the unique power to put players in control of a narrative and then steal that control away, and That Dragon, Cancer employs that power to incredible emotional effect—after all, what can render a parent as powerless as facing an unkillable cancer in your infant child?

Neandertal–Human Trysts May Be Linked to Modern Depression, Heart Disease

Ultimately, the researchers found that Neanderthal genetic variants were significantly linked to increased risk of 12 traits, including heart attack and artery thickening. Surprisingly, the investigators also found a Neanderthal genetic variant that significantly increased the modern human risk for nicotine addiction.

Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate

Our first ideas, after all, are usually our most conventional.…When you procrastinate, you’re more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns.

The Government Might Subpoena Your Toaster