Cryptocurrency, especially the largest, Bitcoin, is often touted as “new gold,” a way of holding wealth independent of banks. I discussed cryptocurrency briefly a few years ago (“Cash, Plastic or Bitcoin?” May 5, 2016), when I compared explaining Bitcoin to the challenge faced by Marco Polo when he tried to tell 14th century Venetian city […]
Barry Evans
Posted inLife + Outdoors
God, the Multiverse and You
“Our Universe has not been fine-tuned for life: life has been fine-tuned to our Universe.” Klaas Landsman, The Challenge Of Chanc The fine-tuning of many of the “constants of nature” is offered as evidence for both the existence of God and of an infinity of universes beyond our own, aka the multiverse. It’s pretty weird both […]
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Antarctic Atlantis?
Never mind Waldo or Bernie. Where’s Atlantis? The site of the “lost civilization” has probably caused more trees to be cut down in the service of books and magazines claiming to know the answer than any other pseudo-scientific boondoggle. As I wrote a while back (“Atlantis: The Lost Land,” Sept. 10, 2015), the mythical land […]
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How to Trust Strangers
We live in a society in which we interact with thousands of other individuals we don’t personally know, yet we have to trust those interactions. Every time we use a credit card, for instance, we’re relying on a network of anonymous people to ensure the payment we’re sending is, in fact, made honestly and free […]
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Warrior Women (Part 1)
While the election of a woman to what’s arguably the second most powerful position in the country is a newsworthy event, it’s hardly unprecedented. The world has known plenty of powerful female leaders: Queen Dido (Carthage), Cleopatra (Egypt), Boadicea (Iceni, a British tribe that nearly defeated the Romans), Elizabeth I (England), Catherine the Great (Russia), […]
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Our Social Brains
In order to appreciate this little window into the inner workings of your brain, please cover up the rest of this column, reading just one paragraph at a time. A deck of cards has, on one side, a person’s age; on the other, it has the drink they are holding, either alcoholic or non-alcoholic. They’re […]
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Our Newest Public Space: Samoa Dunes and Wetlands Conservation Area
You may know it as Dog Ranch or perhaps Dead Man’s Drop Forest, but forget that. The parcels immediately to the west of Samoa Bridge are now officially the Samoa Dunes and Wetlands Conservation Area. “We’re looking to re-introduce this place to our community,” says Mike Cipra, who heads up Friends of the Dunes, the […]
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Herd Immunity
We’ve been hearing a lot about the holy grail of herd immunity lately, especially with the introduction of vaccines to counter COVID-19 and a general sense of seeing the light at the end of this yearlong tunnel. As soon as we’ve achieved herd immunity, goes the meme, we’re out of the woods (to mix my […]
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Charon’s Obol and Other Coins
“My luggage is but a flask, a wallet, my old cloak and the obol that pays the passage of the departed.” — Leonidas of Tarentum, third century B.C. Today, we take coins for granted. But there was a time when being able to trade a small disc of metal for a sheep, a bushel of […]
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Whence ‘Britain’?
“All the Britons dye themselves with woad which produces a blue color, and makes their appearance in battle more terrible.” — Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico The etymologies of the names of most countries are mostly non-controversial. “America” derives from the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), who made two trips to the so-called New World, […]
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The Gold Bug
After having proved the metal with aqua fortis, which I found in my apothecary shop, likewise with other experiments, and read the long article ‘gold’ in the Encyclopedia Americana, I declared this to be gold of the finest quality, of at least 23 carats.” — From “The Discovery Of Gold In California,” by “Captain” John […]
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Of Course We Still Love You, Voyager!
If spacecraft have feelings, little Voyager 2 must have been feeling pretty lonely and dejected out there in the bleakness of space after Earth went quiet in March. The spacecraft faithfully sent regular signals — readings from the few instruments still powered by its ebbing batteries — but received nothing in return. Its loyalty was […]