"The evidence is not flawless." Scientists investigate claims of life after death
The University of Virginia school of medicine’s Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS) searches for scientific evidence of reincarnation or other life after death. They do a lot of interviews of small children who seem to have memories of past lives.
Former DOPS founder Dr. Ian Stevenson devised a simple test: He closed a padlock and put it in a box in the researchers’ office. Only he knew the combination. He died in 2007.
Do You Believe in Life After Death? These Scientists Study It. By Saskia Solomon at the New York Times.
I’m a skeptic, but I love that groups like DOPS exist, studying low-probability but revolutionary phenomena like life after death, reincarnation, magic, time travel, UFOs, etc.
This article reminds me of one of my favorite novels: “Summerland,” by Hannu Rajamieni. The premise is that scientists discovered definitive proof of life after death in the late 19th Century and invented a device to communicate with the dead. The novel’s action takes place in the 1930s, among British spies fighting the Cold War against the Soviet Union in both this life and the next.
“I have been saying ‘What?’ every single sentence.” Rereading “Encycopedia Brown” as an adult is bonkers..
Today I learned Chevy Chase played drums in a college band that later became Steely Dan.
“He could have been famous,” a Redditor joked, according to Carolyn Wazer at Snopes.
The band included Donald Fagen and Walter Becker and was called the Leather Canary.
According to an authorized biography of Chase, “Chevy didn’t think he was good enough and left the band, advising them to find a better drummer.”
Chase was born Cornelius Crane Chase; the nickname comes from the medieval English “Ballad of Chevy Chase,” according to Wikipedia.
I’m about to start reading: The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly. I’m reading all off Connelly’s books in order. This is number 16.
Hamilton Nolan:Here’s a New Year’s resolution for Trump’s America: no snitching. “If you saw something, no you didn’t.”
Also:
What’s giving me hope right now
Trump’s election in 2016 produced widespread shock, followed by a fruitless four years of quasi-religious belief that our precious norms would save us from his ravages. This time around, we have that experience to teach us all that those norms are utterly illusory. Resisting a slide into fascism means building institutions powerful enough to counter Trump on his own terms.
Nolan puts his hope in resurgent labor.
This is how nations decline. You don’t always turn into Nazi Germany. You turn into Russia, or Hungary, or other creaky and corrupt strongman states where everything is kind of a scam and everyone is hustling to please the gangster in charge. That, my friends, is the path we are on here.
America’s basic problem is that we have an economic system that concentrates great wealth in few hands and we have a political system in which money is allowed to buy political power in a straightforward way and now, on top of that, we have a President who fully embraces—who lives for—the opportunity to make the world bow to him by exploiting those systems. It’s a bit surreal watching this all unfold right in front of us. This is the script of imperial downfall, of a mighty nation that has been teeing itself up to crumble by having no moral scruples finally jumping onto the garbage chute with both feet. Watching all of the highly respected CEOs of America’s most powerful and respectable and, according to a widespread characterization, “liberal” companies donate millions of dollars to the Trump inauguration, unalloyed bribes paid for political protection, is just—it’s not subtle. Detecting the grand direction of America has never required less insight.
…
This is the final form of unregulated capitalism, where fantastically rich and often childlike titans run the world’s most powerful nation for their own pleasure, and what was once thought of as “civil society” cowers in the corner in an effort to avoid provoking the beast.
UCSD plans to use AI cameras in hospital rooms, but says privacy will be protected. This seems like a valid use of surveillance — if it works, about which I am skeptical.
The flu is surging in San Diego. “It went from pretty quiet to busy all of a sudden.” Yet vaccinations are down significantly. [Paul Sisson at the San Diego Union-Tribune.]
America’s self-destructive streak is discouraging.