Wapsi Square by Paul Taylor - Tuesday, June 26, 2007
"Just because someone is older than you and can pull a rabbit out of a hat, doesn't make them a god or a demon."
Monday, June 25, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
This would certainly explain a lot.
Having children alters the brain - life - 12 June 2007 - New Scientist
Certainly, in my own case, the noise of children is not iterating to me the way it was a few years ago.
Certainly, in my own case, the noise of children is not iterating to me the way it was a few years ago.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Duh'
BBC NEWS | Health | 'Exercise after eating' diet tip
Gee. Exercise promotes weight loss. Who would have thunk it?
Gee. Exercise promotes weight loss. Who would have thunk it?
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Hacking your brain
Wired 14.02: Buddha on the Brain
Yeah, I know this is old, but it talks about a favorite topic of mine, hacking your mind. I find it interesting how much fear seems to surround the idea of changing how your mind works. This fear gets expressed a number of ways, including everything from "scientific skepticism" to "God did not intend for you to do that". They get stuck on the source, not because the source is really an issue, it is the technology that is the issue. And the fear of a loss of identity. To pick a trivial example, if I could change my brain to not like chocolate anymore, would I still be me?
I find two main groups that undertake meditation. Those that, for whatever reason, think it neat, or required, or whatever; and those that would do anything to stop being the way that they are. The former group have no real intentions of changing, whatever lip service they pay to the idea, although they will be changed by their practice. The second group are often in more dire straights. "I'd rather die than continue this way..."
I was kind of in both camps. I meditated for many years, although not very consistently. But by my late twenties, I'd pretty much hit bottom emotionally. That made it relatively easy to let go of the idea of a static "I". Without going into details, I changed. Meditation, introspection, whatever tools I found that worked, I used to change.
The great fear for the religious is that they have bet on the wrong horse. The great fear for the scientists is that so much of their identity is invested in their minds, any change is to be feared.
Yeah, I know this is old, but it talks about a favorite topic of mine, hacking your mind. I find it interesting how much fear seems to surround the idea of changing how your mind works. This fear gets expressed a number of ways, including everything from "scientific skepticism" to "God did not intend for you to do that". They get stuck on the source, not because the source is really an issue, it is the technology that is the issue. And the fear of a loss of identity. To pick a trivial example, if I could change my brain to not like chocolate anymore, would I still be me?
I find two main groups that undertake meditation. Those that, for whatever reason, think it neat, or required, or whatever; and those that would do anything to stop being the way that they are. The former group have no real intentions of changing, whatever lip service they pay to the idea, although they will be changed by their practice. The second group are often in more dire straights. "I'd rather die than continue this way..."
I was kind of in both camps. I meditated for many years, although not very consistently. But by my late twenties, I'd pretty much hit bottom emotionally. That made it relatively easy to let go of the idea of a static "I". Without going into details, I changed. Meditation, introspection, whatever tools I found that worked, I used to change.
The great fear for the religious is that they have bet on the wrong horse. The great fear for the scientists is that so much of their identity is invested in their minds, any change is to be feared.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
LadyThrills.com - Top 10 Foods That Burn Fat
LadyThrills.com - Top 10 Foods That Burn Fat
# Dairy Products
# Garlic
# Essential Fatty Acids
# Bananas
# Soybeans
# Apples and Berries
# Citrus Fruits
# Ginger
# Cinnamon
# Cayenne Pepper
# Dairy Products
# Garlic
# Essential Fatty Acids
# Bananas
# Soybeans
# Apples and Berries
# Citrus Fruits
# Ginger
# Cinnamon
# Cayenne Pepper
Saturday, May 19, 2007
The power of realism
Dear Oprah, please stop promoting The Secret. - By John Gravois - Slate Magazine
What ever happened to the very simple idea of "hope for the best and plan for the worst"?
What ever happened to the very simple idea of "hope for the best and plan for the worst"?
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Do we need religion?
Yesterday I listened to a podcast that included an interview of Richard Dawkins. When asked whether religion fulfills a need, he replied that he and most of his friends lived happy, fulfilled lives without any belief in the spiritual. I've got to say, that's pretty smug. To quote Terry Pratchett, "It's hard to believe when you've read a lot of books." As a professor at Oxford, I seriously doubt he's worrying about where his next meal is coming from. He's highly educated, highly intelligent, and is pretty well set up. Not much need for faith in a circumstance like that.
If we play with the idea that there is some sort of "beard or apron in the sky", Jesus' comment about it being harder for a rope to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven rings very true. The caution that the yoga of knowledge is the hardest one with which to reach enlightenment as well. It's a lot easier to find faith when you really feel the need for it, when you are poor, hungry, frightened, oppressed, bewildered...
Even in officially atheist regimes, where religion is stamped out, the religion of the political ideology pops up to take the place of religion. We have a religion shaped hole in our psyches, that gets bigger and more obvious the more uncomfortable our situation. "There are no atheists in a foxhole."
We want explanations. We want existence to make sense, and to have meaning. We want to have faith in a better future for us and our loved ones, even if that future is after we die.
An Oxford professor, and the many other atheists who feel strongly about the need to get rid of religion, have the intellectual capacity, the inclination, and the leisure to come to such a conclusion.
Of all people, Richard Dawkins should understand the role religion plays in the survival of individuals and of the species. Without hope in difficult times, people just give up and die. Those with faith are more likely to survive, because their irrational belief in something better motivates them to continue where the hopeless surrender.
And we've come to the point that we no longer need to adapt to survive. We adapt our environment to ourselves. If you can find an environment in which to put homo sapiens, where belief in religion puts one at a survival disadvantage, and wait a few hundred generations, perhaps we'll get a new subspecies without that religion shaped hole in its psyche.
Mind you, this doesn't even touch upon the possibility of the manipulating the capabilities of body and mind through an engineered choice of belief.
If we play with the idea that there is some sort of "beard or apron in the sky", Jesus' comment about it being harder for a rope to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven rings very true. The caution that the yoga of knowledge is the hardest one with which to reach enlightenment as well. It's a lot easier to find faith when you really feel the need for it, when you are poor, hungry, frightened, oppressed, bewildered...
Even in officially atheist regimes, where religion is stamped out, the religion of the political ideology pops up to take the place of religion. We have a religion shaped hole in our psyches, that gets bigger and more obvious the more uncomfortable our situation. "There are no atheists in a foxhole."
We want explanations. We want existence to make sense, and to have meaning. We want to have faith in a better future for us and our loved ones, even if that future is after we die.
An Oxford professor, and the many other atheists who feel strongly about the need to get rid of religion, have the intellectual capacity, the inclination, and the leisure to come to such a conclusion.
Of all people, Richard Dawkins should understand the role religion plays in the survival of individuals and of the species. Without hope in difficult times, people just give up and die. Those with faith are more likely to survive, because their irrational belief in something better motivates them to continue where the hopeless surrender.
And we've come to the point that we no longer need to adapt to survive. We adapt our environment to ourselves. If you can find an environment in which to put homo sapiens, where belief in religion puts one at a survival disadvantage, and wait a few hundred generations, perhaps we'll get a new subspecies without that religion shaped hole in its psyche.
Mind you, this doesn't even touch upon the possibility of the manipulating the capabilities of body and mind through an engineered choice of belief.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Airplane Teaser
Airplane Teaser on Boing Boing has both the original poster and commenters showing their ignorance of physics. You can read the teaser there. The short of it is, no air moving past wings means no lift, period. Conversely, the wheels could bloody well be locked, and if you put that plane in a wind tunnel, it would lift, even if it ended up flying backwards. ;)
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Our parents
The parent-child relationship is a complicated thing. Parents are gods to their children. As such, every little thing our parents do that might trouble us are enormously magnified. Intellectually, as adults, we accept our parents as being human, but it's hard to grant them that status emotionally. Once we do, though, the relationship gets much easier.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Another mutilation of English
performant is a performer. It is not an adjective. It is not a valid substition for high-performance.
Monday, July 31, 2006
A culinary mistake to learn from.
I made a blueberry pie, today, and I got a bit impatient with the difficulty of working the pastry dough. I added to much additional water. Now I need a pair of scissors to cut through the crust.
On the plus side, I also made Alton Brown's Pocket Pies, with my standard mushroom, onion, ground beef, and sausage pasty filling, and they came out quite nice. I'll be eating those the rest of the week, I think.
I made a blueberry pie, today, and I got a bit impatient with the difficulty of working the pastry dough. I added to much additional water. Now I need a pair of scissors to cut through the crust.
On the plus side, I also made Alton Brown's Pocket Pies, with my standard mushroom, onion, ground beef, and sausage pasty filling, and they came out quite nice. I'll be eating those the rest of the week, I think.
Boing Boing: Noise can make you smarter
I don't know about smarter. However, when I was in grad school, I found the background noise of people make for some good white noise, and I got a lot of work on my dissertation done in the student cafe. That being said, it only worked for a while. First I had to move to the smoking session to avoid my friends, and then smokers became friendly with me, so I had to find another place to work.
I don't know about smarter. However, when I was in grad school, I found the background noise of people make for some good white noise, and I got a lot of work on my dissertation done in the student cafe. That being said, it only worked for a while. First I had to move to the smoking session to avoid my friends, and then smokers became friendly with me, so I had to find another place to work.
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