More things to read... I'll be continuing my task mop-ups given that yesterday ended up being more of a "mental health" day than "getting things done" day.

(Updated throughout the day.)

The majestic Earth as seen through the eyes of astronauts orbiting above (Aeon)

Just watch this video to feel very small (in a good way).

The 100 Pages That Shaped Comics (Vulture)

This is an amazing history, Spider-Friends!

Enlightenment rationality is not enough: we need a new Romanticism (Aeon)

Science should inform values such as vaccine and climate policy, but it must not determine all values. For instance, life scientists are pricing new drugs as high as the market will allow: a gene therapy to restore vision for $850,000; the first genetically engineered immune system T-cell to fight cancer for $475,000, eight times the median income in the United States despite manufacturing cost estimates of $25,000. Medicine or extortion? Humanitarians, not scientists, must decide.

I would love to see the author elaborate and expand on this short piece.

Want to feel unique? Believe in the reptile people (Aeon)

Interesting experimental design using a fabricated (or is it?) conspiracy to measure folks likelihood in belief by varying the amount of consensus in the theory.

(Oh, and the reptile people? They are totally real, but largely absent from world affairs, given that they prefer to mind their own business in their lost city located in the deserts of Arabia.)

The Scientific Importance of Free Speech (Quillette)

While I would have liked a more in-depth treatment of this topic (esp. the podcast controversies that it alludes to), highlighting the effects of making science acceptable to a prevailing ideology is dangerous, as shown in the Challenger explosion as well as the Soviet rejection of genetic science that killed millions through agricultural collapse.

This post will be updated throughout the day with other links I find interesting.

Image Credit: Glinda Chen (who was generous enough to allow me to include it in The Pnakotic Atlas).

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