January 2023 Links

Stop trusting Jordan Peterson, Mad Men's literary allusions, hacking RFID, and more.

Ten links to massage your brain. The first three are free, and the rest are for paid subscribers.

1. People should not trust Jordan Peterson, and if they have in the past, they need to outgrow him.

Peterson is a manipulator. Even if I trusted operators in the psychiatric business - which I don’t: Freud, like his nephew Edward Bernays, did much to weave the evil spell which continues to bewitch so many today - I find the way he uses language very telling. Often, when speaking publicly, he’ll slip into psychiatric jargon which might be fine if he were writing academic papers but which is wholly inappropriate from somebody who fancies himself as a public communicator.

2. Georgia sheepdog kills eight coyotes in epic battle after pack attacks his sheep - We had an old English sheepdog when I was growing up. Fierce protectors.

3. Are the James Webb Space Telescope’s Pictures ‘Real’? - Even scientists must resort to poetics and aesthetics. Scientists of yesteryear had to foster goodwill with kings. Modern scientists have to persuade the entire public. Not exactly an improvement.

   Scientists have to make adjustments to turn JWST’s raw data into something human eyes can appreciate, but its photos are “real,” says Alyssa Pagan, science visuals developer for the Space Telescope Science Institute.