It is officially summer now. Despite being someone who wrote an essay called, “Why I Hate the Beach,” I have begun swimming on a regular basis when the weather is warm, and I love it. I am fortunate to live half a mile from a beach, and I have friends who accompany me into the waves. Getting in the briny water each day, even briefly, has become a great summer pleasure. I hope you are enjoying some time outside, too.
Netflix recently released the documentary, “Tell Them You Love Me,” about the Anna Stubblefield episode, a famous case of sexual abuse that involved facilitated communication, the discredited method of communication that I have written about in the past. Colin Wright asked me to write about the documentary on his site Reality’s Last Stand, and I took the opportunity to give some of the history of this pseudoscientific technique and its variants. The Stubblefield story is complicated by issues of race and power, but at its core is Stubblefield’s delusional belief in facilitated communication. My article can be found here, but it is paywalled for the first two weeks of publication. Email me if you would like a copy now, and I will send it along.
My latest column in Skeptical Inquirer is about some interesting perceptual phenomena that happen when the sun or moon is near the horizon. The article, “Magic at the Horizon,” was inspired by two classic films by the French director Eric Rohmer, “The Green Ray” and “Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle,” both of which involve characters who give special significance to rare events involving the horizon. In the process, I also discuss the moon illusion, mirages, and the three phases of twilight.
Finally, I was recently interviewed by two Brazilian friends, Guilherme Brambatti Guzzo and Gabriel Dall’Alba on their YouTube channel “Nas Trilhas da Razão” (On the Trails of Reason). We had a delightful free-ranging conversation about irrationality, superstition, the beauty of science, and how to be a better person through uncertainty. You can watch the video here.
I will leave you with a picture of the local beach, where I swim. Happy summer!
SV