I’ve been listening to some of the podcasts of the US Library of Congress (gorgeous “Reading Room” shown above). They have a series on “Music and the Brain,” which has been pretty interesting. Since it HAS been interesting, I really hate to ding it, but they needled one of my many and varied sore points. […]
Unconditional Love
It’s been said several million times that children love their parents unconditionally. When my daughter is upset by something, and crying, she often wants me to pick her up and hold her for a while. This is true even when *I’m the one who pissed her off.* If I force her to get dressed before […]
Kindle for Kollege Kids
It’s almost $500, but I could totally see highly-endowed universities handing them out to freshmen. The new, textbook-sized, Kindle. If someone else was paying for them, and if students don’t decide that Kindles are lame, then this really should take off at school. It’s a lot better than carrying around 5 books and forgetting one […]
Downtime
First, I guess, people figured out that they don’t have to spend all day gathering plants to eat. They can bring the seeds home, then plant stuff nearby. That”ll save time. But then, they really didn’t need everyone to help gather the food anymore. It was all nearby. Still took a lot of work, but […]
People Are Stupid and I Love Them
Apparently, fear of swine flu is driving the price of pork products down down down. This is true even though the flu can’t be spread by eating pork. Since I love pork chops, pulled pork, ham, and all the rest, this news is just fine with me.
Earth and Planet Earth
So there’s this movie out called, Earth. And I keep hearing how amazing the footage is, and how we see things never seen before. Like, we see a polar bear family poking its head out of the den for the first time in spring. But every trailer that I’ve seen for the movie, including the […]
Flu, 2009-style
Not long ago, I posted about the 1918 flu pandemic. Whole cities enacted laws about wearing surgical masks. Schools and courts shut down. Large areas of daily life changed radically. Some interesting facts: 1. It seemed to strike the young and healthy (that is, not just really old and really young people). 2. It seemed […]
Photic Sneeze Reflex
About 25% of us (including me) sneeze when we see a bright light. Why?
Get Educated
If you have some spare time on your hands, how about taking a graduate-level course on Intellectual Property & Information Law from the University of Michigan? Or maybe Anthropology 101 from UC Berkeley? How about Physics III (Vibrations and Waves) from MIT? These courses, and hundreds more, are online and FREE. Free! You can get […]
Perez Hilton, Politics, and Whining
I don’t exactly follow the Miss USA contest, and I don’t care about its results. So that’s one thing I don’t care about. I also don’t care about Perez Hilton (I don’t even want to link to his little blog of celebrity snark). But… the mixture of the two things has gotten my attention, and […]