A journalist asks a simple question: What evidence do you have? The answer comes back: I just look. (Donald Trump) It is hard to imagine a more revealing reply. “I just look” is not evidence. It is not reasoning. It is not investigation. It is intuition wearing the clothes of proof. And yet it has enormous power, because it speaks to something deep in us. Human beings are very good at rapid judgement. We look at a face and think trustworthy or shifty. We look at a crowd and s

There is a familiar image used to explain Einstein’s theory of gravity. A heavy ball is placed on a stretched rubber sheet. The sheet bends “downwards”. Smaller balls roll towards the heavy one. We are then told: this is how gravity works. Mass bends spacetime, and objects move along the resulting curve. The problem is that the image quietly smuggles gravity into the explanation. Why does the heavy ball distort the sheet? Because something pulls it down. In the classroom vers

Speed limit compliance depends on more than enforcement. It depends on clarity, consistency and credibility. Drivers are more likely to comply when the applicable limit is obvious, when the road itself supports it, and when the system communicates the rule in a way that a careful person can reliably understand. In Britain, that consistency is too often missing, both in the legislation and in the practical information drivers receive. The legal structure is part of the problem

This conversation started with my asking chatGPT whether someone could pot a red in a particular position. It replied that it is difficult because the cue ball wold be 17' from the object ball. This of course is nonsense! So I asked how long a snooker table is. Its response led me to question whether its inaccuracy was accidental or deliberate. Really interesting conversation! Geoff So how can the cue ball be 17ft away from a red, as you suggest? AI Good catch. It can’t. Tha

I'm quoting from a friend of mine who is a Conservative party faithful. Someone who delivers leaflets, always talks up the Conservative...

Recently a number of physicists and philosophers have posited the idea that consciousness may be an innate feature of the universe. This...

Well, other people really! This will be my point: other people. The word other is key, because I will argue that the root of our...

A recent post on Face Book on the "RSPB Birders" site criticised someone for trying to save a bird that was injured. 'Leave it to nature'...

There's been a fair bit of discussion recently about this. Even the 'Today Programme' (R4) asserted today that 'people are not living in...

"Once you have discounted the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" Why this is such a dangerous...