ARCHIVE: 2013
To link to ideas associated with a posting, click on the topic heading or the link under the topic.
Caveat: Inevitably, given the ever evolving state of the Internet, some of the links on past postings may be outdated.
2013-01-04—A BELATED SEASONAL SHOPPING LIST
One of the year-end traditions is compiling a ‘best of’ for that year. Often this is done well before the New Year to inspire people’s choice of Christmas gifts. Books make good presents, because unlike many other presents, the full appreciation of them comes later and is not merely momentary and fleeting. And also unlike most Christmas time purchases, we buy books almost as frequently year round. For a reader, a bookstore is a constant temptation. As Henry Ward Beecher remarked, “Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?” Here are three “best of” lists for the reader who prefers non-fiction of the scientific sort.
2013-01-11—SUDDENLY SCIENCE IS COOL
It’s happening: a long overdue bridging of the chasm between the two cultures of science and art. The reason seems to be that somehow popular culture has decided that science is ‘cool’. Being a ‘brain’ is even becoming sexy, rather than a reason for social ostracism.
SCIENTISTS ARE NOW THE ‘IN CROWD’
Here are some explanations of this phenomenon by those who are to some extent responsible for it.
LAUGHTER IS THE SECRET INGREDIENT
Scientists are not the deadly serious folk the stereotype makes them out to be. Just look at the names they give such things as elementary particles. “Quarks” is funny enough, but then they describe them as having six “flavours”: up, down, strange, charm, bottom, and top. Very strange, charming and quirky!
BIG BANG: A DIRECT HIT
It must mean something that a sitcom about four geeky scientists has become (and stayed) so incredibly popular—although real hard-core geeks are a bit ambivalent about the show.
2013-01-18—VALUE VERSUS VALUED
If it is true that you get what you pay for, then posterity will probably judge what we’re getting as being of little real value. What we apparently value, if financial reward is any indication, is not what we claim to value and respect. Civilizations are remembered and valued for their contributions to such things as knowledge, culture, liberty, and justice. But do we reward the individuals who make these contributions? Or are the wrong people being rewarded? A comparison of the real worth of what a person does with the financial remuneration he or she receives gives an indication of our real values—quite different from those we pay lip service to.
STARVING ARTISTS
The stereotype is not off the mark. We claim to value culture, but most of those who spend their lives contributing to the arts can’t survive without a day job.
FAT CATS
Income disparity is hardly news.
DO THE COMPARISON
Here is a wonderful extensive database of average salaries for different occupations. Think about how much a given occupation involves making a serious contribution to our well-being and our legacy, and then compare it with another one of less substantial real value. This exercise can keep one occupied for as long as one has the stomach for it. (These stats are for the States but would be similar for Canada.)
2014-01-31—UNPLEASANT TRUTHS
Social psychologists have a bad rep, which is sometimes justified. This is the field to look into if you want to find research with dubious ethics. Part of the problem is that their scientifically rigorous experiments often have to involve deceiving their human subjects. When that deception involves any even potential harm to the subjects, one enters the gray area between ethical and unethical research. Nevertheless, the findings of social psychologists often have immediate relevance to understanding why we too often behave so badly. Caveat: the Asch and Milgram studies have been justly criticized for not being truly representative of typical human behaviour.
DOES MONEY MAKE YOU MEAN?
Disturbing empirical evidence that it at least inclines one that way.
WOULD YOU TORTURE PEOPLE IF TOLD TO DO SO BY AN AUTHORITY?
A famous experiment that suggests too many of us would—in some situations.
WOULD YOU IGNORE YOUR SENSES IF THE MAJORITY SAID YOU WERE WRONG
Another famous experiment that reveals many of us are pathetic conformists, again at least in some situations.
2013-02-01—THEME: HAVING A BAD DAY
We all have them, and some really are bad. But, frankly, most are not—at least not in the grand scheme of things. So when we’re feeling sorry for ourselves, it’s probably worthwhile, albeit very difficult, to remind ourselves that other people have it far worse. (The one exception to this statement is that poor soul who really is worse off than all of the other approximately 7,059,000,000 inhabitants of this planet!) Perhaps that is why we take perverse delight in other’s misfortunes and find it comforting. Humour helps too.
EVEN OUR PETS HAVE THEIR BAD DAYS
GOOD NOT TO BE IN THESE PICTURES
2013-02-08—THEME: THE EYE OF BIG BROTHER HAS IMPROVED GLASSES
Surveillance cameras have become virtually ubiquitous, but we are usually oblivious of being so closely watched (and our every action recorded) as we go about our business. Not only are we often in the eye of a camera in many stores, but also as we walk the halls of a university—or even public streets. The argument in favour of this Big Brother Eye is that one shouldn’t mind being watched unless one is doing something wrong. Presumably those presenting that argument don’t mind that anyone monitoring these cameras can watch and record them picking their nose when they think no one is watching. And they shouldn’t object to surveillance cameras in toilet stalls, for certainly some people do use their presumed privacy for illegal activities such as shooting up. But no matter what one’s position on this ever widening surveillance of our daily activities, it is unnerving to realize how powerful the tools for spying on us have become. And there is no control over who is using these tools. Governments’ ability to invade our privacy is improving at a frightening pace.
BEING WATCHED FROM 15,000 FEET
Forget CCTV and store video cams! You now can be monitored from an eye in the sky wearing incredibly powerful glasses.
There are rather belated attempts to try to regulate this invasion of privacy. No doubt there is some justification for some surveillance cameras, but the potential for abuse is frightening.
Some people are taking their concern for privacy to a radical extreme. They’ve devised what might be called a ‘video game’. But this game is played in the real world and involves destroying real video cameras.
2013-02-15—THEME: SOMETIMES TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION
Everybody loves weird factoids. Unfortunately, many are just fictoids. Still, there are enough bizarre, but true, facts to make us wonder at the world we live in.
SHIT YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT BIOLOGY
This is both informative and solid science—and written with wit.
SHIT THAT DOESN’T APPEAR TO BE BULLSHIT
This is full of oddities. I cannot vouch for the truth of all of them—but a cursory check of quite a number of them seems to confirm their validity. Anyway, it's a fun exercise to research them.
SHIT FATHER DIDN'T KNOW AND SUBSEQUENTLY LEARNED
This is an expectant father's report on research that he’s not sure he should have done.
2013-02-22—THEME: UNSOCIAL NETWORKS
Your Man Friday may live on an island, but he didn't always. He grew up on the infamous South Side of Chicago. His Alma Mater was Harper High School, a small high school where last year 29 current and recent students were shot, eight fatally, in separate incidents. It is a place where no young man is an island.
An in-depth look at what life is like for some young people in a violent world they can't escape.
The other time Harper made it into the news. There is a painful and tragic irony to this upbeat and optimistic report from only a few years ago.
A personal memoir.
2013-03-01—THEME: CANADIANS’ IDEAS ABOUT BEING CANADIAN
It’s a cliché to say Canucks have an identity problem—unlike Yanks, who have no such problem because they are quite comfortable wearing their superman costume. The truth, however, is we’re not really envious of our neighbours with their delusions of grandeur. The stereotype of Canucks being modest and self-effacing has only a grain of truth. Underneath our polite persona we are a very proud lot. We only compare ourselves to our southern neighbour because they make us look good. There is, however, one thing Yanks do have that neither Mexicans nor Canucks have: good neighbours.
…to have the beaver represent us.
…to say these seven things about our country—even if some of us think them.
…just to be Canucks, cuz it’s cool. (Even sometimes f’ing cold!)
2013-03-08—THEME: YOU COPIED THAT!
Plagiarism has been in the news a lot lately, so much so one would think it is a virtual epidemic in academe and politics. And being labeled a plagiarist has dire consequences: students are expelled from university; politicians are forced to resign. Reputations of historic and heroic figures are besmirched, as when evidence surfaced that Martin Luther King plagiarized parts of his doctoral thesis. The phenomenal increase in access to information coupled with the obsession with intellectual property rights has made it much easier to ‘catch’ the plagiarist. But is plagiarism really such a huge offense? Isn’t that idea a fairly recent one and perhaps ethnocentric? Is it clearly defined? Can you plagiarize yourself? How similar does a new thing have to be to an existing one to justify the accusation of plagiarism? How much credit are you really required to give? Is plagiarism always conscious and deliberate? Cannot memory be confused with inspiration?
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON PLAGIARISM
2013-03-15—THEME: THE SECRET ALL POETS KNOW
“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” is the name of a great film. (It would also be a great title for a book about poetry.) How do you convince people who say westerns are boring to watch this so-called “spaghetti western”? How do you convince people who say poetry is boring to read a great poem? Ain’t easy! The reason is their previous experiences with westerns—or poetry. With most westerns, the problem is that someone who enjoys watching films finds they’re often too easy. With most poems, the problem is that someone who likes reading finds they’re often too difficult. The secret all poets know is that poems are not really difficult. They only require approaching them in the right way. And the rewards they offer are more than worth the effort. Poems are not defined by having rhymes or consistent rhythm or line breaks. What defines poetry is exceptionally powerful use of all the tools of language. We implicitly acknowledge this when we say of any verbal expression, be it a novel or a witty remark, that it is poetic. So if it's the best of verbal expression, why is it the least appreciated? Because many people don’t know how to approach it, and so never know what they’re missing.
“The first thing to understand about poetry is that it comes to you from outside you, in books or in words, but that for it to live, something from within you must come to it and meet it and complete it. Your response with your own mind and body and memory and emotions gives a poem its ability to work its magic; if you give to it, it will give to you, and give plenty.” (James Dickey)
OVERCOMING THREE FALSE ASSUMPTIONS
“Most readers make three false assumptions when addressing an unfamiliar poem. The first is assuming that they should understand what they encounter on the first reading, and if they don’t, that something is wrong with them or with the poem. The second is assuming that the poem is a kind of code, that each detail corresponds to one, and only one, thing, and unless they can crack this code, they’ve missed the point. The third is assuming that the poem can mean anything readers want it to mean.”
Poetry was originally oral. A major component of poetry is the sound of the words. We usually read so fast we don’t really hear the poem clearly in our heads. So hearing poetry read aloud is another route into the enjoyment of it. Here is a good example—and, incidentally, one that should put to rest another false assumption: that poetry has no relevance to contemporary life.
2013-03-22—THEME: DEMOCRACY IS COMING…
…to the U.S.A." or so sings Leonard Cohen in typically ironic lyrics. The key word is "coming". While it is true that there is a worldwide movement toward democracy, achievement of the ideal of a truly functional democracy that respects human rights and serves the common good has not been achieved—anywhere. What is most disturbing and challenging to the belief that democracy is a panacea is how very dysfunctional so many new (and centuries old) democracies are. As a form of governance it may indeed be the lesser of many evils, but finding a way to make it really work toward the commonweal is far more difficult than simply holding elections. Here are some thoughtful TED talks addressing that complex problem.
THE OPTIMIST
http://www.ted.com/talks/beth_noveck_demand_a_more_open_source_government.html
THE PESSIMIST
http://www.ted.com/talks/ivan_krastev_can_democracy_exist_without_trust.html
THE REALIST
http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_stewart_how_to_rebuild_democracy.html
2013-03-29—THEME: WHO NEEDS TEACHERS?
Curiosity may have killed a cat now and then, but it evolved the human. It is responsible for all of science and art: home sapiens’ two unique accomplishments. It may, of course, eventually kill us, for the incurious cockroach has been doing just fine for many millennia more than us. Still, most folk prefer the risky path we humans trod. It is a cliché that all children are naturally curious and creative. So then, one might ask, what happened to all those allegedly inquiring minds on their way to adulthood? Often the regimentation of the formal educational system is blamed. Might we not be better off letting those young inquiring minds inquire on their own?
Maybe adults only need to increase access to information, and allow children to let curiosity be their only guide. This famous TED talk by Sugata Mitra argues for the efficacy of doing so.
ARE CHILDREN REALLY BETTER LEFT TO THEIR OWN DEVICES?
But maybe serious curiosity isn’t as universal among children as we’d like to believe. And maybe it isn’t as good a guide to learning as a knowledgeable adult. This sobering evaluation of the claims of Sugata Mitra is by someone whose curiosity made him look more closely at the question of self-directed learning.
There is no doubt that intrinsic motivation (such as curiosity) is more lasting and less fragile than extrinsic motivation. Another intrinsic drive is to play. Even a child who isn’t naturally curious about the science of physics is still motivated to play games—including good ones that teach physics. The EdGE organization is “investigating the possibilities—and challenging the assumptions—of game-based learning environments.” (Link is just to the general information page, but check out the whole site—and their online games.)
2013-04-05—THEME: MASS HEALTH HYSTERIA
We all get sick—and eventually die. It is natural to try to find someone to blame for the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. But where once we cried, “Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?!”, now we’re more likely to place the blame on “unnatural” modern science and technology. Of course our lives really are “unnatural”. In a state of nature, such as that ‘enjoyed’ by early man, the fossil record suggests that only 25% of the population survived past age 40.
Who would have thought windmills were hazardous to our health? It’s amazing what people can become convinced of.
Don’t answer that! It’s a call from the Grim Reaper. Or worse still, for many people, it might be a scientist—who surely is getting kickbacks from the smart phone industry.
Mark Twain was fond of saying, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Misuse of statistics has become a very common kind of damned lie. And it can be a lucrative one.
2013-04-12—THEME: MIND AND MATTER AND ME
In his book, Consciousness Explained, the philosopher Daniel Dennett writes, “Human consciousness is just about the last surviving mystery... Consciousness stands alone today as a topic that often leaves even the most sophisticated thinkers tongue-tied and confused. And, as with all of the earlier mysteries, there are many who insist -- and hope -- that there will never be a demystification of consciousness.” But there are also many others who love mysteries not because they prefer the comfort of ignorance, but rather because mysteries present a challenge. Despite the title’s presumptuous claim, Dennett doesn’t really succeed in explaining consciousness. No one has yet, although a lot of people besides Dennett are trying—and making some progress.
BEYOND CONSCIOUSNESS LIES A GREATER MYSTERY
Here the neuroscientist, Antonio Damasio, takes a shot at explaining consciousness and points beyond to the even deeper mystery of the self. Who am I? Where am I?
TRYING TO COMPREHEND CONSCIOUSNESS
Here a good review of the mystery of consciousness. Is consciousness just being good at believing our own lies?
THE FUZZY BORDERLINE BETWEEN CONSCIOUSNESS AND UNCONSCIOUSNESS
Here the practical and important implications of getting a better understanding of consciousness. Can you be conscious of the surgeon’s knife slicing your flesh while under anaesthetic?
2013-04-26—THEME: “TO SLEEP, PERCHANCE TO DREAM…
Ay, there’s the rub!” This is because that sweet “sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care, / The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, / Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, / Chief nourisher in life’s feast” can be as elusive as our memories of dreams during the harsh light of day. One has to suspect the Bard of the same disorder that plagues so many of us, or he couldn’t write so longingly and lovingly of sleep. Those who have no trouble sleeping take this vital balm for granted. Lovers secure in love don’t write poignant love poems. It is only those who have lost their love who do. For many, love of sleep is unrequited love.
COUNTING THE ‘BLESSINGS’ OF INSOMNIA
2013-05-03—THEME: THE BIG BAD RICH
Many people have a very ambivalent attitude toward the rich: they want to be rich but don’t like the rich. Ironically, liberals, who are often quite well off, blame the rich for all the evils in the current economy, while the less well off are the support base for the current Republican party in the States, which wants to decrease taxes on the extremely wealthy and cut social services to the poor. "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." If that’s true, why do so many people want to be filthy rich, especially when they claim to believe that “money can’t buy happiness”? It is only natural that when income inequality is extreme—and just getting worse—to tar every wealthy person with the same brush, but it is really unfair.
WHEN THE RICH GET RICHER, THE POOR GET POORER
And the rich are not really any better off.
Maybe, if you can give it away.
If these folk are camels, that needle’s eye is pretty big.
2013-05-10—THEME: THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE
And the message is that anything can be an artistic medium. No culture has ever existed that did not create art, yet many cultures don’t have a word for ‘art’. They just don’t feel the need for a special term for aesthetically pleasing and interesting creations that meet some arbitrary criteria. The 20th century saw a radical redefining of ‘art’ in Europe and North America, and contemporary artists treat anything as a potential medium for artistic expression.
20 OTHER UNUSUAL ARTISTIC MEDIA
2013-05-17—THEME: IT’S FUNNY: THAT MAKES NO SENSE
What makes something humorous? There are two ingredients of humour that seem to be virtually universal. One is the pleasure we get from feeling superior to the butt of the joke. That sense of superiority is even more enhanced if you get the joke, and someone else doesn’t. The other essential ingredient is surprise: that perverse pleasure we get in having our expectations dashed. Jokes lead us into making false connections, which the punch line deflates.
Because evolution has wired our brains to find connections, often we imbue coincidence with significance. Conspiracy theories are made of this. And so is humour.
THEDISPUTABLE EVIDENCE FOR ALIENS
In serious argument, incongruity and non-sequiturs are annoying, but in other contexts, such as surrealism and humour, they delight us.
Wit is all about surprises: being cleverly presented with another’s unexpected and unusual perspective.
2013-05-24—THEME: PUB CULTURE
Anyone from North America who has been to Great Britain (and isn’t a teetotaller) has had some experience with British pubs, which are very different from drinking establishments on this side of The Pond. The pub has been a central, defining characteristic of life in England for centuries. Some of the pubs mentioned in Samuel Pepys’ 17th century diary (e.g., Ye Olde Cock Tavern) are still around today. Some cultural anthropologist should do a compare and contrast study of England’s pub culture with, say, Parisian café culture. One can get a pretty good idea about a people by studying how they drink and socialize.
A GUIDE TO BRITISH PUB PROTOCOL
The paradoxes of British culture are mirrored in pub manners.
WHAT EVERY GREAT PUB SHOULD HAVE
The crucial ingredients of the perfect pub.
A must-visit for the tourist in Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.
2013-05-31—THEME: AROUND THE WORLD IN PHOTOS
“One difference between a tourist and a traveller is that the tourist’s home is back home, and the traveller home is where he’s at.” (Hippokrites) Here are some photographic glimpses into other folks’ homes, which we can have without having to leave the comforts of our own homes.
HOMES
http://pinterest.com/mfreidel13/earth-everyday-houses-around-the-world/
FOOD
TOYS
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/children-world-show-favorite-toys-article-1.1310055
2013-06-07—THEME: NEVER TRUST AN ORCHID
The name of this flower comes from the Greek word for testicle. In Greek mythology a drunk named Orchis tried to rape a priestess of Dionysus at a Bacchanalian festival and was promptly torn apart by the revellers. His father's prayers for him to be restored resulted in a typical bit of Greek god mischief: he was restored in the form of the orchid flower. Moral of the story? Orchids often aren't what they seem to be.
DISGUISE: AN ANIMAL
http://www.thefeaturedcreature.com/2013/01/6-amazing-orchids-that-look-just-like-animals.html
DISGUISE: A WASP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h8I3cqpgnA
DISGUISE: A MUSHROOM
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/ng-on-assignment/orchid-mimicry-ngoa/
2013-07-14—THEME: SCIENCE FACTION
Science fiction is the favourite literary genre of a lot of teenagers, because that is the age when most of us are still fascinated by ideas—big ideas about the universe, about the future, about possibilities. One of the most popular sci-fi magazines of the forties and fifties was Astounding Science Fiction. In 1960 it changed its name to Analog Science Fact and Fiction. This name change now seems especially emblematic. Many of those who once voraciously consumed science fiction in their youth, now turn to science fact to satisfy their hunger for ideas. And one of most fertile fields of science for truly astounding ideas is theoretical physics, where ideas almost too implausible for fiction are becoming plausible facts.
INFINITE UNIVERSES
If you think the Big Bang Theory is strange because something coming from nothing is hard to wrap your head around, try on this alternative explanation for size.
http://www.livescience.com/25338-multiple-universes-5-theories.html
A THEORY OF EVERYTHING
The acronym TOE stands for Theory Of Everything. Now wouldn’t that be nice.
TIME CRYSTALS
A cornerstone of physics is the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which is why all those guys submitting Perpetual Motion Machine diagrams to the patent office should spend more time with their families. But physicists have a rep for chipping away at cornerstones.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/04/time-crystals/
2013-06-21—THEME: MAPPING WHERE WE’VE NEVER BEEN
“There be dragons” was sometimes used to mark unexplored regions on maps before we had managed to create a reasonable surface map of our planet. But much lies below the surface, in the future, and beyond our world. Thanks to scientific advances we are now mapping even these inaccessible places.
MAPPING BELOW THE COLD SURFACE
What lies beneath that huge white sheet? A hidden continent!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/06/07/tech-antarctica-ice-nasa.html
MAPPING THE FUTURE OF A HOT EARTH
What lies in our future if we don’t get our act together about global warming?
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-impacts-interactive/
MAPPING THE COSMOS
What lies beyond our insignificant little corner of the universe?
2013-06-28—THEME: DIGITAL WHISTLES
The Internet has given whistleblowers a very powerful amplifier for their whistles. So where once totalitarian regimes focused on shutting down conventional media, such as newspapers, radio and TV, now their primary target is the Internet. And when they can't shut that down, they can hunt down the whistleblowers.
RANKING OF INTERNET CENSORSHIP
You can get a good idea of how totalitarian a country is by where they rank on Internet access. Information is dangerous, and it is only too easy to get it on the Internet. So any government afraid of their citizens having information is very suspect. Not surprising is Iran and Cuba being at the bottom of the list and Estonia and the U.S. at the top.
BUT WHEN YOU CAN'T CONTROL THE INTERNET
Then you go after the whistleblower. So while the U.S. may rank high on Internet access, they go after the whistleblowers with a vengeance only equalled by obviously totalitarian regimes. From Daniel Ellsberg (in the old days of print) through Assange and Manning—and now Snowden—whistleblowers are taking big risks.
http://www.nationofchange.org/death-truth-1368108804
WHISTLE-BLOWER REFUGES
Ironically most of the safe places to hide are actually themselves totalitarian, and their willingness to harbour a whistle blower is only based on that person blowing the whistle on their enemy, not on them. It seems only Iceland really cares about freedom of expression (including in their own country). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/12/iceland-haven-freedom-speech-wikileaks
There is an old wisecrack people make to a mother who announces she is pregnant again: “Don’t you know what’s causing it?” Actually it isn’t known when hominids did first figure out the connection. It is known that we didn’t really know much more than the direct cause until fairly recently. The only evidence to base any conclusions on was anecdotal and notoriously unreliable. That’s changing.
11 WORKS OF SEXOLOGY THAT RATTLED OUR CAGES
There are others, but this is a good list.
http://io9.com/5985191/10-works-of-sexology-that-will-blow-your-mind-with-science
10 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ORGASM
This certainly includes one thing that few know about the sex lives of pigs.
http://www.ted.com/talks/mary_roach_10_things_you_didn_t_know_about_orgasm.html
10 BELIEFS ABOUT SEX SUPPORTED OR DEBUNKED
This might not seem a good source for information about sex, but…
http://glo.msn.com/relationships/frisky-fact-or-fiction-6444.gallery
2013-07-12—THEME: POLITICAL PSEUDOSCIENCE
Strong political views do not make good viewfinders when it comes to examining evidence. Many right wing views on science are obviously wildly distorted, with creationism and global climate change denial being obvious examples. But the left also can be shown to need new glasses—or at least to need to take their blinders off. Here are three examples of where science has given us powerful and useful tools, yet many ‘right thinking’ and ‘left leaning’ people have a knee-jerk aversion to objectively examining the evidence.
THAT DIABOLICAL NUCLEAR ENERGY
Don’t even suggest that it may not be a useful source of relatively clean energy. Sure, there are better sources, but there are worse ones—the current ones.
THAT DIABOLICAL GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD
Who would want to eat “Frankenfood”? A lot of people. It beats not having anything to eat at all, a problem in a lot of third world countries.
THAT DIABOLICAL VACINNATION
No qualifications here. The opposition to vaccination is frightening. It’s ‘unnatural’ to inject a foreign agent into our bodies. It’s bad enough that fluoridated municipal water and iodized salt sneak ‘chemicals’ into our bodies. Infectious disease, tooth decay, and goitre are definitely more ‘natural’. Right?
http://www.skepdic.com/antivaccination.html
2013-07-19—THEME: ABOUT THOSE THAT BUG US
Those of us who love to visit the great outdoors do not love a lot of the little fellas that live there. Here is in the inside dope on our neighbours at the summer camp. There are a few particularly important facts to know. Only the female mosquito and blackfly bite us, which may not surprise a lot of men. Secondly, they have all the spatial and temporal bases covered. Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water; blackflies breed in running water. So they have the territory covered. And they also have the whole day covered: they work in shifts. Blackflies only bite during the day, but mosquitos work especially hard during the dusk to dawn shift.
BLACKFLIES
Allegedly blackflies are ecologically useful, although tell that to a moose taking dangerous ‘refuge” from them in the middle of the TransCanada highway! Or to a camper foolish enough to venture into the Northern Ontario bush in early spring.
http://www.sciencenorth.ca/coolscience/science-post.aspx?id=2791
MOSQUITOES
Noah could have saved us a lot of grief by just swatting two of those little pests. Now that would have been a justifiable ‘pre-emptive strike’. Scientists now are wondering if a belated attack is possible. Those unfortunate 10% would surely approve. (Personal disclosure: my wife is in the unlucky 10%, while mosquitos rarely bother me, probably because my blood is toxic with nicotine and alcohol.)
http://www.cbc.ca/airplay/features/2013/07/04/mosquitoes/
SPIDERS
They are actually our friends, and too often among the ranks of the falsely accused. Unlike us, they actually like bugs—for dinner.
http://www.livescience.com/37974-he-surprising-cause-of-most-spider-bites.html?cmpid=514645
2013-07-26—THEME: ART IS USELESS, RIGHT?
It is reasonable to believe in “art for art’s sake”, for art needs no justification, any more than pure science does. Art and science are the ways we apprehend the world. No more need be said. But those fools who would cut funding and support to everything that is not obviously utilitarian really should look a little more closely at what they label as “useless”. All applied science results from pure science. And art too has very ‘practical’ benefits: for one thing, it is therapeutic.
MUSIC
“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” – Maya Angelou
http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_gupta_between_music_and_medicine.html
POETRY
“Patients need poetry and so do doctors.”
VISUAL ART
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Pablo Picasso
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5jspsOwK2w
2013-08-02—THEME: DEMONIZATION OF DRUGS
Sex, drugs, and rock & roll all have an undeserved bad rep. Some people give up sex, and some people hate rock & roll, and they’re apparently doing okay. But very few people would want to give up drugs, and if they did, most would suffer even more than if they gave up sex. In fact, a good number of people who gave up drugs would die. But the drugs that treat what is wrong and make us feel better are acceptable. It is just some of the drugs that make what is right even better that are demonized. Why is the “war on drugs” only on those drugs that make us feel better or perform better: i.e., recreational drugs or performance enhancing drugs? All drugs have side effects and are hazardous (and some very much so), but that includes medical drugs. So, why this so called “war” on only certain drugs? Or why wage war at all?
THAT REEFER MADNESS
What is insane is throwing people in prison for enjoying a reefer. What is more likely to ruin a life, a toke or a prison sentence?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikLIRqv0wZY
THE MADNESS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS
“Declare victory in the war on drugs—then run like hell.” If you can’t win, pretend you have.
THE MADNESS OF NOT WANTING TO PERFORM BETTER
Should we ban coffee before trying to concentrate or ban Viagra before trying to—well, you know? And what about those new drugs that seem to improve normal memory or cognitive functioning? How is wanting to have greater endurance different?
http://www.nature.com/news/performance-enhancement-superhuman-athletes-1.11029
2013-08-09—THEME: A LITERARY TRAIN OF THOUGHT
There is something special about trains, something inherently literary. For Canadians, Pierre Burton's book, The Last Spike, about how building the TransCanada rail connected all the diverse regions of our vast country is justifiably a classic. For most Europeans, the same is true of the intricate rail web that so efficiently connects even more diverse places, and which many travellers consider the only really civilized way to travel the Continent. And Paul Theroux’s wonderful book, The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia, well describes how the train connects even more distant and diverse locations. So it is not surprising that the idea of utilizing train travel as a literary metaphor is so common—and poets love trains.
WHY POETS TAKE TRAINS
For a lot of damn good reasons. (And it contains links to some damn good poems.)
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/sep/26/poetry.trains.oriordan
RAILWAY POEMS
A collection of fine poems by fine poets.
http://reslater.blogspot.ca/2012/01/collection-of-railway-poems.html
RIDING THE RAILS
A link in my blog to one of the great poems about train travel.
http://www.kenstange.com/kenstangeweb/writing-on-the-wall/riding-the-rails.html
2013-08-16—THEME: THE GOOD OLD DAYS
One of the many pleasures of the Internet is how it can lure you down new and interesting paths. A bit of curiosity about a link in some sidebar can send you back through time to, for example, the Middle Ages. How many of us have any idea what life was like back then? Now we can so easily get a glimpse into the past. And not surprisingly they had the same needs as we do now: food, drink, and entertainment.
FOOD
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/middle-ages-daily-meals.htm
DRINK
ENTERTAINMENT
http://www.ancientfortresses.org/medieval-entertainment.htm
2013-08-23—THEME: WHEN TO WRESTLE WITH PIGS
George Bernard Shaw once commented on the futility of arguing with true believers of any sort: “I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.” Still, argument can sometimes be useful, although that is relatively unusual. And, of course, there are many different kinds of argument. A mathematical proof is an argument, but so is a spat about who is contributing their fair share to a relationship. In most arguments, it is naive to expect either combatant to change his or her opinion, and so arguing is pointless. (Unless one gets pleasure in exercising one’s wit or finds it enlightening to get a glimpse into another person’s mind.) However, there is value in public arguments such as debates, presentations to a jury, or conclusions presented to a knowledgeable audience (as in the case of scientific or scholarly publication). Here, the observers can change their initial opinions, which often matter.
THREE KINDS OF ARGUMENTS
An argument for arguing.
http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_h_cohen_for_argument_s_sake.html
ARGUING WITH TRUE BELIEVERS
A useful and humourous analogy to only too typical arguments.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2012/nov/29/pseudoscience-science-argument
ARGUMENTATIVE TRAPS
An insightful description into typical argumentative pitfalls, other than simple logical errors.
http://www.lingweenie.org/arguing.html
2013-08-30—THEME: LETTING ART OUT OF THE GHETTO
Visual art too often is only to be found sequestered in some ghetto: some public or private art gallery. No wonder it doesn’t seem an integral part of our daily existence. We have to seek it out, and few bother, for its pleasures have so infrequently been experienced as to lure us. Wider appreciation is only made possible by accessibility. Here are some examples of attempts to take art out of the ghetto and onto the main streets of our cities.
BILLBOARDS AS MEDIA
Billboards, with their crass advertisements, are a blight on the urban landscape. But for a few weeks some of them in England were transformed into public galleries. "If we can't get the average guy in the street to go into a gallery, maybe we can get the art from the gallery into the street," said Richard Reed, the man behind the project, who estimated that 90% of the population was likely to see at least some of the works.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23612934
GRAFFITI
Graffiti has a bad rep, understandably, because much of it is no more than adolescent, egotistical defacing of property. But some of it is really art, very public art, and art that you don’t have to pay to view. One of the wittiest artists to create graffiti and sculptural art in public places is the infamous Banksy. Somehow he has kept his real identify secret and repeatedly broken the laws against graffiti without ever being caught in the creative act.
http://www.boredpanda.com/80-beautiful-street-crimes-done-by-banksy/
PUBLIC URBAN ART
To their credit, many cities are encouraging and supporting the installation of art in their parks and other areas where the public will encounter it as they go about their daily lives.
http://www.independenttraveler.com/slideshow/the-best-cities-to-see-cool-public-art
2013-09-06—THEME: SMART RADIO ON DEMAND
Some say conventional radio is becoming obsolete. TV dealt the first serious blow. And now the digital revolution seems to be delivering the coup de grâce. But maybe not. Radio is adapting to the Internet age. The Canadian public radio station (CBC) and the American public radio station (NPR) both record most of their broadcasts and make them available as podcasts for downloading. It may not literally be considered ‘listening to radio’ if you are listening instead on your computer or smart phone—and not even in ‘real time’. Nevertheless these are the original radio broadcasts. And magazines too are moving toward podcast publication. Podcasts may very well be the future for serious radio (and far less susceptible to being dumped because of their relatively smaller audience and allegedly elitist nature). Here are three really great regular podcasts, and you don’t have to be tuned in at a certain time to hear them. Just download them and listen at your convenience. (To get past episodes and maintain a personal archive, iTunes offers free subscriptions to them all.)
IDEAS
Canada’s CBC is currently under attack by the ruling Conservative Party. It’s very disheartening, for CBC’s programming is of the highest quality. One of their many fine shows is this one, the name of which says it all.
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/podcasts/
THIS AMERICAN LIFE
NPR is the National Public Radio station for The States, and doesn’t even receive the federal funding or nation-wide broadcasting that CBC does. This show has over a million followers and is the winner of numerous prestigious awards. It is as eclectic as it is intelligent and entertaining.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org
NEW YORKER FICTION
The New Yorker has been a premier publisher of short fiction since its inception in 1925. Now they offer a podcast series where each week one of their published writers selects a favourite story from the magazine and reads it and discusses it with the host.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/podcast
2013-09-13—THEME: DEFINE INTELLIGENCE
When people try to define intelligence they often seem to make a number of questionable assumptions. One that certainly hasn’t stood the test of time is that it is a characteristic only humans possess. Still, descriptions of someone who seems to lack this characteristic often reference non-human things. They include “bird brain” for people who do dumb things (like the guy who recently used a bat to try to rob a gun shop), “a vegetable” for some unfortunate person who shows no evidence of higher cortical activity, and “thick as brick” or “blockhead” for someone who can’t seem to understand simple instructions (such as the fellow who insisted to the cop that he really was only going one way on that one-way street). But is it possible other animals, even plants or inanimate objects have something that could be considered intelligence?
ANIMALS
Close observation of animals has shown how stupid we are to maintain an anthropocentric view of intelligence. And it’s not just some other mammals that seem to have some serious smarts.
http://jonlieffmd.com/blog/animal-intelligence-update-2013
PLANTS
Plants don’t have neurons, so they don’t have brains. But they seem to do some things that seem quite smart, if we base our definition of intelligence on behaviour rather than physiology.
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/10/veggie_intelligence
INANIMATE OBJECTS
Unlike “military intelligence”, “artificial intelligence” is no longer considered an oxymoron. The Guardian has a regular feature on recent developments in creating smart machines.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/artificialintelligenceai
2013-09-20—THEME: DOGS AND WRITERS
Like any group of people, writers are stereotyped. Stereotypes often do contain a grain (albeit of greatly varying size) of truth. One idea about writers is that they are introverted, and certainly most are. Extreme extroverts couldn’t tolerate spending that much time alone with their pen or keyboard—and private thoughts. However, introverts also have a strong need for companionship. This companion need not be human—and preferably is not loquacious. Being a totally approving and faithful and affectionate companion is ideal. Very few humans fit the bill. But dogs do.
PICS OF WRITERS AND THEIR DOGS
Here a nice collection of pictures of writers with their beloved canine companions.
http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/205235
QUOTATIONS ABOUT DOGS
A great slide show of a great dog accompanied by various writers’ remarks on dogs. (Personal disclosure: my wife made this for me using pictures of my devoted companion, Nickel, when he was a pup. Nick enriched my life for more than eleven years, but sadly now is no longer by my side as I write.)
http://www.kenstange.com/vids/GoingToTheDogs.mov
THE TRAGEDY OF DOGS
They are wonderful companions, but they leave our lives way too quickly. Here are two poems by John Updike about this loss, a loss only too familiar to dog owners.
http://www.litgothic.com/PDFOther/updike_dogs_death.pdf
2013-09-27—THEME: VERY UNCONVENTIONAL PAINTING
“Painting is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see.” –Philip Guston
BODY PAINTING
Not what you expect, and an interesting insight into the nature of creative inspiration. This artist "covers everything in a scene—people, chairs, food, you name it—in a mask of paint that mimics what's below it."
http://www.ted.com/talks/alexa_meade.html
OTHER CANVASES
"There are many types of canvases that artists choose to use. This cluster explores 25 different and unusual canvases that creative minds have used, from studded body canvases to agriculture artistry."
http://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/unconventional-canvases
WORD PAINTING
Writers have been using varying fonts and typography to ‘paint’ on the page for quite some time. And some visual artists integrate text in the works (personal disclosure: yours truly), but this artist takes this idea to a new level.
http://waynewhiteart.com/index.php?/project/word-paintings/
2013-10-04—THEME: OUR PLASTIC BRAINS
Neuroscientists are offering support for George Burns’ contention that “You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old.” It seems you actually can teach old dogs new tricks. Neuroplasticity is the term used to describe our brains’ flexibility: its ability to wire and rewire its neural circuits. Once it was thought that this was only a characteristic of the youthful brain, just as it was believed we were born with a certain number of functioning neurons that gradually died off as we aged. Now it is known that our brains retain their plasticity for our whole lives, and we can even create new neurons—a process called neurogenesis.
THE SURPRISING PLASTICITY OF DAMAGED BRAINS
A totally engaging interview with the author of The Brain That Changes Itself, which describes some of the latest developments in neuroscience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3TQopnNXBU
ENHANCING THE PLASTICITY OF THE BRAIN
A TEDx talk that clearly explicates the principles behind brain plasticity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chr3rQ6Vpcw
DISABLING THE BRAIN'S "BRAKE PEDAL" IN NEURAL PLASTICITY
A scientifically literate explanation of why plasticity seems to decrease with age.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=understanding-the-brains
2013-10-11—THEME: LIVE FREE OR DIE
That is the slogan on the New Hampshire license plates. Its meaning is rather ambiguous, but it certainly sounds threatening. In fact, what constitutes ‘freedom’ is in itself ambiguous. It seems there are many different ideas about what it means to be free. The United Nations “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” seems to be the most widely accepted way of defining freedom, but its interpretation is far from universally agreed upon. As just one example, Article 26 includes the statement that “Elementary education shall be compulsory.” ‘Compulsory’ isn’t a word normally associated with freedom. Of course this is intended for the good of children and to protect their rights, but even this statement raises the spectre of totalitarianism. Many people feel that the biggest threat to individual freedom comes from those who are convinced they know what is good for everyone else. In this example, it’s worth remembering that compulsory education can mean compulsory indoctrination.
THE NANNY STATE OR IS IT BIG BROTHER?
A site devoted to the multitudinous (and usually downright silly) laws intended to protect us from ourselves and restrict our freedom for some putative good.
THE DUBIOUS MOTIVES OF THE PROTECTORS
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” (C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology)
http://kenstange.com/works/Beware%20Of%20Sheltering%20Wings.pdf
FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND FREEDOM FROM RELIGION
The freedom to believe in any superstition is as fundamental as the freedom to express one’s beliefs and obviously should be protected. But what also needs protection are people’s right to not have other’s beliefs imposed on them. Here is the American Civil Liberties Union’s view on this issue.
https://www.aclu.org/religion-belief/aclu-and-freedom-religion-and-belief
2013-10-18—THEME: COMBINATORIAL ART
Certainly the most popular subjects for visual art are landscapes, nature, and portraits. In literature, among the most popular subjects are death and the characters. Here are some collections of visual art based on the idea of combining these obsessions.
MORA
Antonio Mora’s surreal images merge landscapes with portraits. (There is a link to the artist’s website at the bottom of the page.)
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/antonio-mora-dream-portraits
BRANDT
Nick Brandt’s frightening photos are of petrified birds that dived into deadly waters. http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/artscience/2013/10/this-alkaline-african-lake-turns-animals-into-stone/
GIGER
H.R. Giger’s terrifying creations are of alien creatures in an alien landscape. His most famous creation is the alien in the film of the same name.
2013-10-25—THEME: COUNTING TO INFINITY
Math has a bad rep, and it’s unjustified. It may be true that it takes a little effort to appreciate its wonders, but that is true of all the arts and sciences as well. The more you know about anything, the deeper your appreciation.
ONE, TWO, MANY
Some cultures are illiterate. So, too, some cultures are virtually innumerate, and numbers more than two are too many.
http://numberwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/is-one-two-many-a-myth/
TEN
Here is a list of ten great mathematicians with brief descriptions of their contributions. Mathematicians may disagree as to whether or not they are the ten greatest, but they all certainly qualify to being called great.
http://listverse.com/2010/12/07/top-10-greatest-mathematicians/
INFINITY
This BBC documentary about four brilliant mathematicians implies they dived so deep into the mysterious waters of mathematics that they drowned. Cantor is the first one profiled, and it seems plausible that his exploration of the nature of infinity drove him mad. Of course, their mathematical genius may really have had little to do with their mental breakdowns. Nevertheless, this documentary is a fascinating set of portraits of these four great minds, as well as a glimpse into some great and disturbing mathematical ideas. (Personal disclosure: my daughter and her husband are both theoretical mathematicians and both are quite sane.) http://videos.escapeartist.com/watch_video.php?v=1G8GXDR3NKKY
2013-11-01—THEME: PERVERTING THE YOUNG
It is amusing, albeit disturbing, to review some of the crazy ideas about evil influences on the young that once were widely accepted—and are still believed by some. Of course we all know that the current idea that video games inspire children to acts of violence is not like these old-fashioned ideas. Right?
KILLER COMIC BOOKS
It should’ve been obvious that Batman and Robin were bad role models and could turn an innocent boy into a depraved homosexual.
http://io9.com/5985199/how-one-mans-lies-almost-destroyed-the-comics-industry
REEFER MADNESS
It seems that with a couple of tokes you get more than the munchies. You develop an insatiable appetite for forbidden fruit.
http://archive.org/details/reefer_madness1938
DEADLY MASTURBATION
Cold showers are recommended, because making the scene with a magazine could ruin a boy’s health.
http://www.cracked.com/article_19520_5-insane-ways-fear-masturbation-shaped-modern-world.html
2013-11-08—THEME: PHYSICISTS’ MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
These three entertaining, animated videos are exceptionally clear explanations of the fundamental and mind-altering facts that physicists have discovered about our wondrous universe. An hour and a half watching all of them is a crash course in the weird world of contemporary physics.
THE TWO LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS
Unlikely as it may be, if we were to survive to the end of time, we would have a cold, quiet death. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is one law that can’t be broken.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOrWy_yNBvY
THE TWO RELATIVITY THEORIES
Einstein’s Special and General Theories of Relativity are explained here as all just being that proverbial ‘matter of perspective’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev9zrt__lec
THE TOO WEIRD WORLD OF QUANTUM PHYSICS
If Relativity Theory took your brain apart, don’t expect quantum mechanics to be able put it back together. (Schrödinger’s cat suggests that viewer discretion is advised.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVpXrbZ4bnU
2013-11-15—THEME: THAT AIN’T FUNNY
One way of finding out how something works is by studying what breaks it; e.g., Minkowski discovered the cause of diabetes by removing the pancreas from dogs. So it seems reasonable to study what makes something funny by looking at why something isn’t considered funny—even if it is intended to be. The usual suspects are you having no sense of humour, not understanding it, or being offended by it. These explain why something will be funny to one person and not to another.
YOU HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOUR
If you don’t laugh watching this TED talk, you have no sense of humour. But even the sourpusses will have to admit it is an incredibly insightful analysis of the nature of humour, unlike most studies of humour.
http://www.ted.com/talks/bob_mankoff_anatomy_of_a_new_yorker_cartoon.html
IT WENT OVER YOUR HEAD
If you don’t ‘get’ some of these jokes, you won’t even smile at them. But you’ll probably especially enjoy the ones you do get that you know some other people won’t.
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/50-people-on-the-most-intellectual-joke-i-know/
YOU WERE OFFENDED
If you can’t ‘take’ a joke, it may not be just because it is aimed at you. Some people are offended by ‘vulgar’ language, political incorrectness, or anything that challenges their biases. Here are some incredibly tasteless jokes. Reader discretion advised.
http://www.slightlywarped.com/jokes/jokes/incredibly_offensive_jokes.htm
2013-11-22—THEME: MAKING ART WITH SCIENCE
Science is related to art in two different ways. Doing science is actually an art, a fact unappreciated by the many people who naively assume it is a purely mechanical endeavour. Science, however, is also a tool for the making of art—something that is somewhat more widely appreciated. Here are some striking examples of visual art created with the tools provided by science.
STICKS AND STONES—AND NEURONS
“The Art & Science Journal is a website and biannual publication about artworks that deal with themes of science, nature and technology.” (Scroll down to samples of works.)
http://www.artandsciencejournal.com
WIND AND WORMS—AND OVARIES
“The Art of Science exhibition explores the interplay between science and art.”
http://www.princeton.edu/artofscience/gallery2013/
SOUNDS AND MAGNETS—AND WHISKEY
This TED talk is about “eye-catching art from everyday science.”
http://www.ted.com/talks/fabian_oefner_psychedelic_science.html
2013-11-29—THEME: HEARING VOICES
It seems the reason chimps can’t talk may have more to do with the structure of their mouths and the location of their vocal chords than with their brains. There is plenty of evidence that they can communicate words, perhaps even simple sentences, using sign language or ‘icon typing’. But for us, our voices have always been our primary mode of communication, and our voices convey more than the written word. They overlay and enrich the words with emotion. Tone matters. Tone communicates. “Your so smart!” can easily mean the opposite, depending on the tone of voice. Those silly email emoticons are a lame attempt to compensate for the inadequacy of the words alone to convey tone; for example, to make it clear whether or not one is being sarcastic. Skilled writers know the tricks that effectively convey tone, but even they are often misinterpreted. Voice matters to us. Even aside from tone, pitch and accent bias our response to a voice.
TALK TO ME, SIRI!
We used to type to communicate with our computing devices, but now voice recognition algorithms have so improved that we can actually just talk to them—and they understand us. Then, amazingly, they talk back just like real human beings. The sweet voice of Siri, Apple’s virtual personal assistant on newer iPhones, has revealed her identity. It seems she’s been talking to us for a long time in many different places.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/04/tech/mobile/bennett-siri-iphone-voice/index.html
THE PERFECT VOICE
“Researchers say they have worked out a mathematical formula to find the perfect human voice.” Of course the voices we will still prefer are those of our loved ones.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7426923.stm
IMPERFECT VOICES
Our initial emotional response to others is often affected by superficial characteristics such as facial symmetry, body size, or even the pitch of their voice. Guys with squeaky voices are out of luck.
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/04/why-women-like-deep-voices-and-men-prefer-high-ones/
2013-12-06—THEME: THE END: FIRE OR ICE OR US?
Ideas abound regarding how the world will end. Robert Frost’s poem “Fire and Ice” begins with the lines, “Some say the world will end in fire, / Some say in ice.”
The ultimate fire is nuclear. And we could only too easily light it.
If through some miracle humanity is still around till the end of time, we will surely perish in the great heat death.
There are too many of us. “In the entire history of biology, every species that outgrows its resource base suffers a population crash — a crash sometimes fatal to the entire species.”
2013-12-13—THEME: REASONS TO READ
You would think reading needs no justification. Its value should be self-evident, but clearly it isn’t for many people. A large survey in 2012 revealed that one-quarter of Americans over the age of 16 hadn’t read even a single book of any kind during the previous year, even though the reported functional literacy rate is 99%. (They did watch an average of 1,500 hours of television.) Of course, I’m sure no one reading this posting needs to be inspired to read. That would be as silly as a recent billboard explaining how to get help in learning to read.
READING AS ESSENTIAL TO DEMOCRACY
Ray Bradbury about the importance of books to civilization.
READING WILL DETERMINE OUR FUTURE
Neil Gaiman on why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming.
An idiosyncratic and entertaining list of “Extreme Reading”.
2013-12-20—THEME: CRIMINAL BUSINESS MODELS
Many people think that big business is criminal, for as Bertolt Brecht remarked, “It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk.” But organized crime may be the ultimate big business. And often we are their customers. Here are three TED talks that analyse the effective economics of established criminal enterprises. Draw your own conclusions about how similar they are to successful, ‘legitimate’ businesses.
The economic acumen of drug cartels is amazing.
It’s always a case of supply and demand—and effective distribution.
What’s new? What kind of coke doesn’t matter: the retail sales person gets screwed.
2013-12-27—THEME: FOOD EXTREMISTS
We are fascinated with the experiences of those who are willing to go to extremes. That is why so many people enjoy (although usually only vicariously) extreme sports. I’m not sure if eating could be considered a sport, but there certainly are extremists when it comes to eating choices.
Want to try my maggot and blood soup? Now that’s extreme eating!
Some like to pretend they are primitive hunter/gatherers and eat like they imagine those folks did. One has to assume the goal of this diet isn’t the life expectancy of their role models.
One might lose weight by taking a dog as a pet, because then you’ll have to exercise taking all those walks your new best friend will demand. However, it seems choosing a tapeworm as your pet and your dietary supplement isn’t such a good idea.