“Frightened citizens, sheltered in place, with no means to defend themselves or their families from whatever might come crashing through their door. How many Bostonians wished they had a gun two weeks ago?” — The National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre, quoted by the Huffington Post. Mr. LaPierre’s characterization of non-gun owners is so IGNORANT that […]
Into the Void
Back off, man, I'm co-creating my reality.
Posted by Void
Michael Shermer On Patternicity
Patternicity is Shermer’s name for apophenia, the tendency to find meaning in noise. This is how we see constellations in the stars, faces on Mars, and Kaziklu Bey’s visage grinning evilly from a slice of cinnamon toast. In its negative form, patternicity is behind many forms of self-deception, from superstition to conspiracy theory. This video […]
Diagnosing Rabies
Perhaps you remember the Walt Disney classic “Old Yeller” in which a frontier family’s dog contracts “the hydrophobie” from fighting a rabid wolf. Who could forget the tear-jerker scene where, after telling his mama “He was my dog… I’ll do it,” young Travis ends Yeller’s suffering. Although it is a vaccine-preventable disease, rabies still poses […]
Global Warming and Poison Ivy
I hate Global Warming skeptics. Ecotoxicity Excerpts: /PLANTS/ … It is not known how poison ivy might respond to increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO(2)), but previous work done in controlled growth chambers shows that other vines exhibit large growth enhancement from elevated CO(2). Rising CO(2) is potentially responsible for the increased vine […]
Sometimes There Is No Movie
Conversation: K: It just ocurred to me. A major flaw in the premise of the movie “Signs “. Why would anyone go to a planet that contained such vast quantities of a substance so extremely toxic to them? Me: USUALLY they don’t. In those cases the native species all die and there is no movie. […]
WordPress 3.5 Issue – Add New Post Toolbar
I upgraded to WordPress 3.5 and some plugins last night. The automatic install went smoothly as always, but dammit! something went wrong. Problems: “Add New Post” won’t switch from Text to Visual Quicktags toolbar was blank or missing “Add Media” popped up a red box alerting me that the WP 3.5 media uploader was New […]
Best Books EVER
A conversation with my husband: DH: How could you not have read “Tale of Two Cities”? It has the most famous opening line ever… Me: “Call me Ishmael?” DH: Ok, the second most famous opening line ever. As it happens, we read the same authors but different books. In grade school I slogged through Dickens’ […]
In Spiritus Sanctum
To the Native Americans, breath and spirit were one and the same. A baby wasn’t instilled with a soul until he took his first breath. In Latin “spiritus” can mean either breath or soul. Dying, “expiration,” means both that final breath and the departure of the soul. Photo CreditsPodSource: FlickrAuthor: Raymond Larose
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