• The Fatima Sun Miracle: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
  • 13 Oct 1917, near solar noon: clouds part, a “painless” sun appears to spin, pulse through colours, and lurch downward; crowd panic ensues for ~10 minutes .
  • In a fascinating article, Scott Alexander tracks ~60 clean chains to original testimonies and church/parish inquiries; the shrine’s 633-page Documentação Crítica de Fátima (DCF) anchors much of the record, alongside contemporary press such as O Século and later Haffert interviews.

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  • Geography test: if the sun “really” moved, nearby towns should’ve seen it en masse. With ~300k people within 20 miles, we get only 4–6 credible outside-Fátima testimonies vs 100+ on site - awkward for a cosmological event, suggestive of localised perception dynamics .
  • Primed perception: similar “solar signs” were reported on earlier 13ths and in later pilgrimages, hinting at a repeatable psychophysical recipe - anticipation + crowd focus + glare viewing - rather than a one-off celestial anomaly. Incidentally one that appears rather common - there are reported sun miracles in Italy, Bosnia, and the Philippines, some regularly occurring to this day.
  • Safety note from the author (and common sense): don’t stare at the sun—no, really
  • The Fatima Sun Miracle: Much More Inexplicable Than I Realised – Astral Codex Ten
  1. Agent detection - An interesting concept
  • Definition: our tendency to infer a purposeful agent behind ambiguous patterns (often framed as a “hyperactive agency detection device”).
  • Evolutionary wager: false positives cost little; false negatives can be fatal, so the system is biased to over-trigger.
  • Classic demos: Heider–Simmel animations, pareidolia, superstition; links to theory of mind, teleology, and the intentional stance.
  • Dial turns up under threat, uncertainty, or low control - helping explain spikes in conspiracism and supernatural attributions.
  • Agent detection – Wikipedia
  1. EuropeVersus - A website I’ve built
  • Mission: evidence-led comparisons of Europe versus the US, India, and China across economy, social indicators, environment, and innovation, designed to rebalance one-sided narratives.
  • Data standards: accepts only reputable sources (e.g., World Bank, OECD, WHO, IEA), with timeliness, consistent methodology, and a review/moderation pipeline; GPL-3.0 licence.

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  • Contribution model: submit via web form, issues, or PRs; clear DATA_SETUP guides, rake tasks, and translation support encourage reproducibility and community growth. Contributions welcome, see link below!
  • EuropeVersus – GitHub