Put it this way: We were mainly in the plains. What does that tell you about the weather we had? Everyone kept saying how unusual it was that it rained every day and was cold. So… lucky us, we had unusual weather. But it was nice to see the aunt and uncle, and the tapas […]
Archive | Humanity
Pain
Some time in the last year or two, I read about a study showing that men tend to report less pain when there’s a woman in the room. Not that they feel less pain, but that they keep a stiff upper lip for the female nurses. When it’s just guys, they admit that it really […]
Poor
According to the article I’m about to link to: “… the poor are disproportionately likely to drop out of school, to have children while in their teens, to abuse drugs, to commit crimes, to not save when extra money comes their way, to not work.” In other words, they seem to be likely to behave […]
Current Favorite Quote
“Your identity is not equivalent to your biography.” John O’Donohue There’s a lot to appreciate in that line. [Quote found on Scrivenings. That’s the blog, not the writing tool I love so much.]
Jewish Nazis
Whoa, got your attention, didn’t I? I recently picked up a copy of my cousin’s European History doctoral dissertation. Two Three hundred pages later, I’m almost finished. I don’t recommend it as a nightstand book, but there’s a lot of really interesting stuff in there. Here’s the latest thing. There were several groups of Jews, […]
How Will You Die
I was just listening to a lecture (from the University Channel podcasts, linked on the right side of weeklyrob) about trends in dying, which is a funny phrase. It’s by the author of “The Living End: The Future of Death, Aging, and Immortality.” [Amazon US seems to think the title is slightly different, and spells […]
The Gangsta Code
The L.A. Times runs a Homicide Report blog that allows comments and asks for information. One incident was a 37 year old man, gunned down in the middle of the night. The comments show family members and friends mourn the loss. But then other people started to comment, in record numbers, and we learn more […]
On Quitting
Everyone talks about giving up as such a bad thing. And if you give up early, or before putting in a huge effort, then it’s even worse. I think that’s because everyone compares quitting with NOT quitting. But it’s often more realistic to compare quitting now with quitting later. And in that context, quitting before […]
Anonymity
I’m reading Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I’m reading it on my SONY (not Amazon) eBook reader. As you probably already know, she’s kind of an amazing woman, and her life has been an amazing life. And as you probably already know, she made a film defending women’s rights in Islam (Submission) with a guy who was […]
Do you love your name?
A seemingly ridiculous study seems to show that people whose names start with a C or D are more likely to make poor grades than people whose names start with A or B. Also, baseball players whose name starts with K (the sign for strike-out) are more likely to strike out than those with other […]