Reading Time: 3 minutes America loves its guns, even though that love affair is killing us. If you own a gun, don’t worry. I’m not coming after them. I know of many non-religious folks, like Seth Andrews, the popular Thinking Atheist podcaster, who own firearms. But as a secular humanist, don’t you want to live a life guided by […]
Health
Posted inResearch
A bridge too far: The failure to capture ‘spiritual fitness’ in the US military
Reading Time: 3 minutes After massive resources have been spent trying to assess spiritual fitness in the military, scholars now admit it is not a meaningful concept.
Posted inHealth
There’s no such thing as routine surgery, except yes there is
Reading Time: 3 minutes On a March Wednesday in 1653, a 20-year-old Londoner named Sam Pepys lay spreadeagled, four limbs tied to bedposts, screaming. He was drunker than usual for nine in the morning, and for good reason: Sam was having surgery to remove a bladder stone. He was having 17th-century surgery, the only kind available in his day. Joseph Lister was […]
Posted inCulture
Learning to love our messy activism: A podcast on quinoa
Reading Time: 4 minutes There’s the world we want to live in, and there’s the world we have. In many conversations here on OnlySky, I’ve noticed that one of the biggest mental blocks in activist discourse is our frustration that people won’t think or do differently right now. Why should we cater to their ignorance, or their obstinacy? There’s […]
Posted inScience
There is hope, too, in the well
Reading Time: 5 minutes A common belief in journalism is that you have to emphasize the horror of a situation to spur action. If people aren’t driven by an existential threat, how can we ever expect them to act for a better world? But the well of our world’s suffering runs deep enough with sorrow. We still have a […]
Posted inComedy
Scientific horoscope Sun March 20 – Sat March 26
Reading Time: 3 minutes The scientific horoscope this week covers renewable energy, spooky action, napping, and much more! Pisces You may feel like you’re swimming upstream this week. Renewable energy faces challenges, too. Gravity may just help solve solar and wind’s biggest problem. image by @worachatsodsri Aries This week will have you charging ahead, Aries. Scientists are also moving forward! […]
Posted inScience
Scientific horoscope Sun March 13 – March 19
Reading Time: 3 minutes The scientific horoscope this week will educate you on neutrinos, Mongolian voles, Elon Musk’s Neuralink, and more! Pisces You may be dreaming of summer days and nights, Pisces. And someday soon you won’t have to worry about mosquitos carrying dangerous diseases thanks to science. image by @worachatsodsri Aries You may feel like you’re hitting your head […]
Posted inHistory
COVID-19 is Boston’s 1721 smallpox epidemic redux
Reading Time: 5 minutes Although the coronavirus pandemic is clearly starting to ebb, as of March 9, 2022 an average of 35,496 Americans were still be being hospitalized daily with the disease, and it’s still killing 1,451 citizens each day on average, the New York Times reported. So, the current pandemic is far from over in the U.S., which […]
Posted inScience
Scientific horoscope for Sun March 6th – Sat March 12
Reading Time: 3 minutes The scientific horoscope this week will show you where the future of computers is headed, how to reduce plastic usage, and the latest news on climate change from the UN. Pisces Health will be on your mind, Pisces. You may feel fishy. Want some smart advice? Don’t get caught in the ever-growing net of pseudoscientific […]
Posted inPseudoscience
Demand for useless and dangerous ‘alternative’ cures hits an all-time high
Reading Time: 5 minutes In Oscar Wilde’s fabulously funny The Canterbury Ghost, an apparition haunting Canterbury Chase is both mortified and angry when the new owners of the property—American clergyman Hyram B. Otis and his family—flatly refuse to be fazed by his attempts to scare them. The ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville is particularly outraged by the clergyman’s […]