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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social
4.6K followers 1.4K following 1.2K posts
Hi! I write about #science for Smithsonian, Discover, Quanta, Nautilus, Undark, National Geographic, CBC Radio, & many other outlets. Books include The Science of Shakespeare and In Search of Time. Co-host of BookLab podcast. 🔭🪐⭐️⚛️
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 12d
My latest video is an overview of the next two total solar eclipses -- the one on Aug. 12, 2026 (visible from Iceland & Spain) and Aug. 2, 2027 (visible from Spain & North Africa). Hopefully this will video help you as you make your plans. Cheers! #astronomy #solareclipse
youtu.be/99qmRY55iFE
Get ready for the total solar eclipses of Aug. 12, 2026 and Aug. 2, 2027!
YouTube video by danfalkscience
youtu.be
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Reposted by Dan Falk
volts.wtf
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 2d
"There are currently one to two Starlink satellites falling back to Earth every day ... Soon, McDowell told us, there will be up to 5 satellite reentries per day." 😳
1 to 2 Starlink satellites are falling back to Earth each day
earthsky.org
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 1d
Kudos to Sam Kean for a pretty solid Dennis Miller ratio: His 2025 book Dinner With King Tut (A) contains an in-joke referencing Steven Shapin’s 1996 book The Scientific Revolution (B):
Kean writes, “There was no such thing as the Neolithic Revolution, and this is a chapter about it.” Shapin writes: “There was no such thing as the Scientific Revolution, and this is a book about it.”
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 2d
Thanks!
danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 2d
Earlier this evening in Toronto:
In this telephoto image, we see a Porter Airlines plane coming in for a landing, with the nearly-full moon directly behind it.
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 3d
3/3 As a memory-jogger: youtu.be/TSpiwK5fig0?... (It’s probably just an accident -- and it’s only a teeny fraction of either song -- but you’d think people would talk about it, given that people like to talk about stuff on the Internet!) #U2 #Beatles #TheBeatles
All My Loving (Remastered 2009)
YouTube video by The Beatles - Topic
youtu.be
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 3d
2/3 If you listen to U2's "New Years Day" at 0:14 (it also repeats at 2:46) you hear more or less the exact dozen notes from The Beatles' "All My Loving," representing the lines "And then while I'm away, I'll write home every day..." #U2 #Beatles #TheBeatles
youtu.be/jeYCyCaK_5k?...
U2 - New Year's Day (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by U2VEVO
youtu.be
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 3d
1/3 So, I noticed this some years ago -- surely I can't be the first -- maybe others are well aware of it, but just haven't bothered to post anything, as it's too trivial. But (cont'd)
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 4d
I made a point of seeing the outside of the former Trident studio during a visit in August 2018 -- the 50th anniv. of Hey Jude. There was a little sign in the window indicating the historic significance -- otherwise, passers-by would have no idea. (I have yet to visit the Handel-Hendrix house!)
danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 4d
In their new book, Michael E. Mann and Peter J. Hotez present an impassioned manifesto against attacks on #science. I review “Science Under Siege” for @undark.org:
undark.org/2025/10/03/b... @michaelemann.bsky.social @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social #books
Book Review: A Call to Arms About the Threat of Anti-Science
"Science Under Siege," by Michael E. Mann and Peter J. Hotez, is an impassioned manifesto against attacks on science.
undark.org
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 5d
Awesome University Challenge category — towns that are also the names of types of ducks. You get a photo of the duck and also a dot on a map. (I’d have gotten none of them.)
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 5d
Putting aside my own contribution (see top left corner), I really love Mateusz Napieralski's artwork on the cover of the current issue of the Literary Review of Canada:
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Reposted by Dan Falk
newscientist.com
New Scientist @newscientist.com · 5d
The lasting legacy of Jane Goodall - @rowhoop.bsky.social on what she shared with Charles Darwin, her inspiration from Rachel Carson, and how she changed the world. www.newscientist.com/article/2498...
How Jane Goodall changed the way we see animals – and the world
Jane Goodall, who chronicled the social lives of chimps, has died, but she leaves a lasting legacy on how we view the natural world
www.newscientist.com
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 6d
Yikes.
cnn.com
CNN @cnn.com · 6d
A stunned Bronx resident captured the terrifying moment a nearby high-rise partially collapsed. There are no reported injuries, according to New York City Fire Department. Officials are looking into the cause of the collapse.

Read more: https://cnn.it/4okep91
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Reposted by Dan Falk
newscientist.com
New Scientist @newscientist.com · 6d
Almost 200 engravings created around 12,000 years ago have been discovered in Saudi Arabia, including depictions of camels etched into cliff faces over 40 metres high
Ancient artists created giant camel engravings in the Arabian desert
Almost 200 engravings created around 12,000 years ago have been discovered in Saudi Arabia, including depictions of camels etched into cliff faces over 40 metres high
www.newscientist.com
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 6d
...which hopefully they themselves will join at some point. :) (So far, neither the CBC, nor most of its news / current affairs shows, nor the various hosts, seems to have a BlueSky presence.)
danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 6d
Legendary primatologist Jane Goodall has died at 91:
www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...
Jane Goodall, primatologist and friend to chimpanzees, dies at 91
She used her global fame to draw attention to the plight of dwindling chimpanzee populations and, more broadly, to the perils of environmental destruction.
www.washingtonpost.com
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Reposted by Dan Falk
caseym.org
casey morell @caseym.org · 6d
well, this is a new and terrifying wikipedia article alert
a warning box at the start of a wikipedia article, reading as follows: "This article may incorporate text from a large language model. It may include hallucinated information or fictitious references. Copyright violations or claims lacking verification should be removed. Please see the associated project page for additional guidance. (September 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)"
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 7d
10/10 In spite of the many criticisms, Searle’s thought experiment got a lot of people thinking about how minds and computers may (or may not) differ. 🧠 🤖 Even Hofstadter described the thought experiment as “ingenious” and acknowledged Searle as an “eloquent opponent.” (Thanks for reading!)
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 7d
9/10 Hofstadter really didn’t like Searle’s argument! He wrote: “This religious diatribe against AI, masquerading as a serious scientific argument, is one of the wrongest, most infuriating articles I have ever read in my life.” (Ouch!)
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 7d
8b/10 "...How this can create an ‘I’ is hard to understand, but once we accept that fundamental, strange, disorienting fact, then it should seem no more weird to accept a water-pipe ‘I.’”
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 7d
8a/10 And this, from Douglas Hofstadter: “The fact that intelligence, understanding, mind, consciousness, [and] soul all do spring from an unlikely source – an enormously tangled web of cell bodies, axons, synapses, and dendrites – is absurd, and yet undeniable..." (cont'd)
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 7d
7b/10 It is the brain (perhaps with help from the body and its surroundings) that does understanding, not the individual neurons. (Daniel Dennett made basically this point. In the literature it’s called the “Systems Reply,” and it ties into the idea of emergence [topic for another day!])
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 7d
7a/10 Well, imagine inspecting a human brain with a microscope, and looking for “understanding” among the neurons. You won’t find it -- but so what? (cont'd)
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 7d
6b/10 "...Now where is the understanding in this system? ... the man certainly doesn't understand Chinese, and neither do the water pipes...”
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danfalk.bsky.social
Dan Falk @danfalk.bsky.social · 7d
6a/10 “... Each water connection corresponds to a synapse in the Chinese brain, and the whole system is rigged up so that after doing all the right firings... the Chinese answers pop out at the output end of the series of pipes." (cont'd)
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