Sciency Saturday afternoon roundup

Last year had some substantial environmental wins.

Benjamin Bratton's TED talk taking down TED.

You probably know better than to have tried to float today, but that's as much a function of your skepticism as it is of your intelligence:

Smart people fall for silly things all the time, and intelligence isn’t really the prime factor here.

Skepticism is. In general, schools don’t teach people how to analyze a claim, how to tell if something makes sense on the surface of it, or how to go about looking into the claim. I knew right away to do the math, and to see if Pluto and Jupiter really were aligned as the article says. But all too often, people don’t think carefully (or at all) about these claims, and simply spread them through social media. All it takes is literally the click of a “Share” button. Pseudoscience thrives via this virulence, whereas truth must take a harder path.

But let's also indulge in some science porn, in the form of stunningly beautiful frozen soap bubbles, which you can apparently make without freezing your butt off. Which we all will very soon. I sure picked the right time to get my under-attack insulated. Now I'll just sit back and cue up the Cowboy Junkies' "F*, I Hate the Cold" and look at pretty pictures of snowy things. Hope everyone stays warm.