BC

Serif fonts are probably easier to read than sans serif fonts. That's what I've heard. Context solves the problem of "Ill"--is he 3 or is he sick? I'm...

Live simply. Use Helvetica.

I expect complaining, dissatisfaction, annoyance, resentment, etc. TPF/PlushForum is a familiar, comfortable, old shoe (whatever its deficiencies) and...

Is that the second half of the logical chain? At some point in middle age I decided (free will or caused?) that in order to have an explainable univer...

Leaving out "ultimate" we generally assign moral responsibility to individuals. Sometimes that is entirely appropriate, because healthy, intelligent i...

It seems like one could make this statement about anything and everything, and religious literalists do say "God is in charge of everything. We have n...

OK. There are things the government can, should, and ought to do, but I see the current administration creating stresses in a calculated way, one desi...

Good OP. I use "left" and "right" as sometimes somewhat useful terms, less to describe than to 'place' very general political 'positions', persons, or...

It occurs to me that prayer tends to be 'directive', in two ways. "Directive" in the sense that we want something specific to happen--to us or somebod...

You and and Heraclitus can't step in that river once, if it is flooding. in the first video, the syllabication was clearer to me; I could detect more ...

Heraclitus wasn't familiar with English or Spanish -- neither language existed when he was pontificating about stepping into the Guadalquivir River or...

Heraclitus said "You know, Javi, you can't step in the same creek or crick twice." What's the difference? Most people in the US say it's a creek that ...

Isn't that what they call "the ring of steel"? What with Amazon "Ring" video door bells all over the place, and cameras trained on public places, ring...

9/11 still totally amazes me. It was a novel attack without precedent and was incredibly fast and effective. It started after breakfast and was over b...

Worse things did happen in Spain. And in lots of other countries. The truth is that the current disruption of 'normal' politics in the United States h...

I am usually suspicious of people claiming "my truth" or even "the truth". "Truth" or truth does exist, for sure, but it's not private. BTW, you are c...

The Last Roundup was hell on earth. All those undocumented holstein and guernsey cows hiding out in garages, apartments, store rooms, and basements we...

The olive grease we got was straight from the bottle. Nothing (that anybody knew about) was added.

Looks like corn oil margarine to me. Minnesota produces a lot of corn, soybeans, and milk so it's all good for the farming economy. Some rye bread is ...

Locally sourced olive oil on whole wheat is healthier than butter. Very good olive on good bread may or may not be tastier than butter--certainly not ...

A lot (most?) of Freud has ended up in landfill, but his 3-cornered hat of id, ego, and superego still works when contemplating our species' behavior ...

Or they keep expanding them near the the city so that everybody has to put up with the damned noise and pollution. I think it was F. Scott Fitzgerald,...

Rome was in business a long time; when do you think this change took place, and why? Same for the US. Europeans have been here for 500 years, give or ...

Well, a Mars colony was an asinine pipe dream from the get go. Be surprised! $100 billion in charitable donations is nice, BUT that's over 25 years; t...

Slate thinks the Post was put through the paper shredder to appease Trump. Could be. Corporations and their government servants are not the friends of...

Wait a minute: How do we know the oligarchs' interest is having ICE suppress / deport the cheap labor which immigrants and refugees provide? I would n...

How does that work?

Thanks -- I'm seen Albion's Seed on Amazon and have thought of getting it. Thanks also for the Kevin Phillips tip.

I have an order in for the brain implant that will allow me to have an Internet feed into my brain, plus an AI account, Library of Congress feed, and ...

@"Athena" A bit more on Yankees. AI Overview Yankee cultural influence, originating from New England and spreading through the Great Lakes region, pro...

Yes, there are books that discuss the influence of puritanism and how the south got the way it is. It's been at least 10-15 years since I read them, a...

The Puritans began arriving in what would become Massachusetts around 1620. Significant westward migration from New England didn't get underway until ...

True. The Puritans were pretty rigid for the first 100 years or so (starting in the early 17th century). Over time, though, they mellowed out becoming...

I can't remember who it was that said this, or in what book, but back in the '80s when I was reading a lot of theology, the author mentioned the state...

Partial disclosure: I have never prayed all that often, and have not meditated in years. Maybe so, maybe not. Meditation toward God might be indisting...

Thank you for the post. White Christian Nationalism (WCN) may or may not be the harbinger of a future fascist United States, but if such a thing shoul...

It isn't that the cosmos, and all it contains, isn't "beautiful". The problem (for us, not the cosmos) is that defining beauty and applying the term i...

Both are difficult, but eminently worthwhile and do-able. Maybe we could say B) that CIVILIZATION (such as it is) not be a continuous source of suffer...

In an episode of Seinfeld, George Constanza was very reluctantly engaged to marry. George bought the cheapest envelopes for the invitations. His fianc...

Gee, I didn't get an invitation to your cancelled wedding! It's not too late; since it's cancelled, there's plenty of time to send out invites to the ...

Exactly!

One of the things that emerged from our evolutionary progress is hubris. We can certainly imagine long term futures. Science fiction writers do a hand...

One of the great things about the Shoutbox is that it doesn't have to relate.

Yeah, Clark; wake up. I heard one of the kids in the preschool across the street say that, just the other day.

Damned if I know. The major extinction events were the result of external catastrophic events. We could certainly have one of those -- a big rock hitt...

I think it was Richard Feynman (bongo-playing nuclear physicist) who said, "nothing is mere". We are evolved animals, and many animals who appear to r...

As products of the earth system, we are what we are, for better and for worse. As you say, "The current state of the world is dangerous, generating in...

@"Hanover" - You were on our prayer list for a miracle thaw, but after seeing this picture of Atlanta on Sunday, we felt obligated to take you off and...

Well, traditional marriage and divorce are as popular as ever, these days. I am not a fan of gay marriage; one point of gay liberation was to build re...

In my ancient youth, I dated Plato for a while; it was disappointing -- great man, and all. Plato was a very fussy guy; the roast lamb wasn't rare eno...