I haven’t looked at a weather report today but last night they were saying possibly a foot of snow. The weather people run a Monte Carlo simulation then incorrectly take an average of the results. This is stupid because the European model is sometimes so far off the American models that the average is wrong, […]
Into the Void
Back off, man, I'm co-creating my reality.
Posted in History & geography
Lamento Di Arianna by Monteverdi
Lamento Di Arianna by Monteverdi (1608) Arianna has been abandoned, left to die on the island of Naxos by her lover Theseus. Arianna’s despair is conveyed most eloquently. The opera itself has been lost to time but this achingly beautiful aria has survived and is still performed. This lament reshaped the nascent genre of opera […]
Dogs and Vegetables
Caveat: I am NOT an animal expert. I don’t have a dog, I have cats. Dogs have around 15,000 years of selective breeding behind them. Of course they can eat our foods… or most of them! Despite what the premium brands tell you, a dog is not a wolf and it doesn’t require the same […]
Well Known Canadians
To my friends of the Canadian persuasion, here’s a list of Well Known Canadians to help you celebrate Canada Day. And a nice video of the flag. :-)
Derivation of the Name "Ellis"
The ancestry sites like to say that Ellis became a popular baby name after the Crusades1. Something about the prophet Elijah, a tribute to the Holy Land. Since people were named by who their father was, it became a surname. That might be the case. They also like to say Ellis is a Welsh name. […]
Kwashiorkor
You don’t make sense « Life-changing things that don’t matter Came across this while researching PlumpyNut. The United States are inhabited by about 300 million people with an unemployment rate of about 5 percent. If you’re interested in the rest of the world, look up Kwashiorkor. According to Medline, Kwashiorkor is a form of malnutrition […]
Informed Consent
“The patient is an ignorant person who does not have the knowledge, the intellectual capacity or moral authority to oppose or disagree with the wishes and decisions of the physician…”
Foreign Investors
A friend recently consulted me about a rumor he heard. He wanted to know whether the Muslims are investing money in the US in order to take over. This is my reply: The simple answer is “No, and if they did it was an amazingly stupid investment.” But I don’t do simple. :-) I’ll start […]
Makin’ Thunderbirds
We filled conveyors
We met production
Foremen didn’t waste words
We met production
Foremen didn’t waste words
We were young and proud
We were makin’ Thunderbirds
Why We Like Belgian Chocolate
A bit of history. The story is that in WWII the GIs used to steal the chocolate bars out of all the boxes of K-Rations and use them to buy (rent?) whores. Problem 2 was that fine chocolate doesn’t hold up very well in a tropical climate. Hershey’s set to work on it. The result […]
Author! Author!
BlipVerts
Politics
Sponsors
Bad Behavior
Member of American Mensa, Ltd.
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
Potential Threat To The Nation
Amazon.com Daily Deals