@"everyone": Happy New Year, of course, 1/1/26 and all. It's still Christmastide, so Merry Christmas to you all. Cold here -- 7ºF. -14C, but then it's...
Good point about QR codes. They off-load various forms of labor (sign-making; menu-handling; in-person or point-of-sale information-providing, and so ...
Hate and love are not opposites; their opposite is indifference. Indifference is a lack of emotional / mental arousal. "I don't care" quite literally;...
Somebody once said that Germans tend to focus on how we are all alike; the French tend to focus on differences. I guess I am more "German" than "Frenc...
Thanks for the correction. To error is human, claiming the error as your own is divine. Sort of divine, anyway. The gods usually don't admit to error....
I don't feel duped at all. I do feel like The New Yorker article makes possible a deeper understanding of the way Sacks experienced and reported on th...
I'm a agéd leftist; my experience has been that very ideologically committed leftists (Marxists) can be intolerant of other people's statements, when ...
says google search results... No "vocal chords" but they definitely vocalize by using: Swim Bladder: Many fish vibrate their swim bladder (an internal...
Where have you been? I changed my handle for you so I was hoping for bigger things. I feel neglected. Alas. We're having a traditional winter here: co...
Having children is in the basic animal design -- one doesn't need a manual. Raising children, on the other hand, is just very very complicated, maybe?...
sounds like halvah. There's a Montevideo in Minnesota. We pronounce it "monta VID ee oo". It's a sister city (supposedly) to the Uruguayan city. Why? ...
Yes. Men are men and women are women. Men have penises and testicles (that produce their genetically unique sperm). Men have XY chromosomes. Women hav...
Well, here on top there were beer joints that played that sort of music too; and I don't know of many bars, save a few here and there, where the Beer ...
Barrels of beer are safe and effective when used as directed. Here's a band at the Minnesota State Fair doing the deeply spiritual Beer Barrel Polka. ...
Medjool dates are my preferred variety -- most commonly from California. They are sold fresh for about $12 a pound. Other dates are available, especia...
Fear not. I will pretty much be with you till death do us part. Or, until something else happens, like bankruptcy and homelessness, having both hands ...
That's probably it -- the cans are made from recycled nuclear reactors and have a little plutonium in them. A favorite Christmas bivalve around here a...
@"javi2541997". Good news! Last night I had MATIZ MUSSELS from Galicia packed in olive oil, vinegar, and some spice (?). ¡Deliciosa! I was going to ad...
Whether they are appealed to or denounced, "traditions" are not static. The warm glow of Christmas tree lights, carols on the radio, and massive comme...
It's a "new" attitude for me. I used to accept many aspects of transgender / transsexual rhetoric, but over the last decade and a half, I've gradually...
I don't agree that there are variations. There are two sexes: male (xy) and female (xx). Period. Evolution invented these two sexes about a billion ye...
When I think about "rights", human or legal, I find it helpful to think in terms of "actual" rather than abstract. Tonight when I went to the neighbor...
I am cautiously in favor of closing down AI operations for two reasons: It's not just a crutch -- it's a motorized wheelchair. Othopedists want injure...
I guess I wasn't up on prone and supine. Thanks for the word facts. These definitions were more familiar to me: Prone can mean "having a tendency" tow...
@"Copernicus" On some days, yes. The universe has good days and bad days. Some days it is benign, other days it is bitter and resentful. It can be qui...
I'm not sure how much difference philosophy makes to psychiatry. Doctors treat diseases, and the (apparently) the most effective treatment psychiatris...
Even anonymous sex in the dark has meaning to the two (or more, I suppose) people sexually engaged. When one masturbates alone, it's for the benefit o...
1) A man is a male person because they had an xy chromosome, testicles, a penis, and a prostate gland at birth. His mature reproductive sex role is to...
A tower of Giraffes, but what about more than one philosopher in the same place? https://64.media.tumblr.com/c5fa37d179fbc4013cc1d9b643448704/tumblr_p...
My thinking has changed over the years. 50 years ago, I accepted the concepts of transsexualism as a valid explanation for a profound personal dissati...
Bicarbonate of soda is a leavening agent in some baked foods; it's also useful as a de-acidifier in some acidic foods to which one is adding milk; it ...
It's much more about class than race. Race and class are strongly correlated in the US. Class differences are critical, especially because a lot of Am...
People can and do form relationships with objects: a car, a house, a plant. It seems to be a natural habit of humans, say, early on with the little ch...
I like the term "simulated" as opposed to "artificial". The two terms are not very far apart, but (in my mind at least) "simulated" emphasizes 'the cr...
Nothing wrong with your approach if it works for you. The most complained about services in the United States are television cable companies which hav...
Some say the Catholic Church never changes. The Church at least doesn't change very fast, but it does change -- sometimes dragged, kicking and screami...
Your post doesn't speak to the phenomenon described as "enshittification". It's definitely not about nostalgia, hamsters, or Stockholm. It's about how...
Useful new word: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow Enshitification is a term coined by tech...
Yes, and I think the key to success is that the native people believe that extinguishing unhealthy (but common) behavior will pay off in the future. I...
It is quite difficult --maybe impossible-- for public health educators who represent the dominant white society to devise effective education programs...
The etymology of etymology is late Middle English: from Old French ethimologie, via Latin from Greek etumologia, from etumologos ‘student of etymology...
Comments