The ingredients but not the recipe

[Believe it or not, this post has sat in draft form in the system since I started it in April 2013 – it never seemed to fit in among other posts that well. So it gets to appear now as a Darwin Day post while photography has hit the winter slump. There’s still a chance something else might appear, but no promises.]


A few weeks back [a ha ha ha!] read more

Unpopular

Every time there’s mention of the dire future facing us, whether it’s energy shortages or global warming or even potential pandemics, there’s one factor that always comes up, and that’s population density. World population hit seven billion in 2011, and is expected to hit eight billion in 2025 or so. Dwindling resources and the runaway effects of both population and energy read more

Whence it comes, prithee?

I’m skipping a lot of backstory here, because after a lot of typing I realized it doesn’t add anything useful. So, short version: at a recent science-versus-religion debate, some triumphant creationists were invited to pose questions to all those who believe in evolution. I have long ago blocked the site that posted them for a puerile editorial that demonstrated pretty read more

Everything’s shiny

Came across this, courtesy of artist Otis Frampton, and had to share. He has more, but this is clearly the best.


C Is For Canceled by OtisFrampton on deviantART

If you don’t get it, then you’re… how shall I say this politely? Your kind don’t belong around here.

Ah, who am I trying to kid? I came late to the whole thing myself, regrettably, since television networks are notoriously read more

Book review: How the Mind Works

If there is one book that I recommend to everybody, regardless, it’s Demon Haunted World, the most efficient, readable, and interesting book to promote critical thinking that I’ve ever come across. But underneath this pursuit lies a curious question: why there is an apparent deficit in critical thinking in the first place.

read more

Just because, part 15

In abject denial of the actual readership of this blog, I must apologize for being away as long as I have. What with the Grammys, and the Superbowl, and Groundhog’s Day, and then all the celebrity activity, well, you know how it goes. The up side of all this is, of course, that I have so much to post about now!

Yeah right. When you see me posting about anything of the sort, that’s the read more

Even for North Carolina


Like most of the country, we’ve been having some longer spells of cold weather, a bit lower temperatures than normal for this time of year, but Monday popped up clear, sunny, and shockingly warm, hitting about 20°c (68°f) – a new student who had been aiming for a day with good conditions to meet contacted me at the last minute, and I headed out. We met near read more

Photos without sight

The other day I began thinking about a subject that has been in the back of my mind for a long time: blindness. My eyes aren’t all that great, needing strong corrective lenses, and they’re gradually getting worse – one day, at some point in the future, the photography will halt, though this is likely to be far enough away that I’ll have retired from everything else as well.

But read more

Tim Minchin’s Storm

Tim Minchin is an Australian née British musician/composer/songwriter/comedian, particularly known for his outspoken skepticism. All the best humor can be found overseas here we think Saturday Night Live is humorous, apparently since not very many people learned in school what “humor” actually means. It’s not fair.

Anyway, one of his most popular works is the beat-poem, Storm, read more

Goes down smooth

I just happened to glance out the back door today to find a visitor to the yard, about as close to the door as she could get. After a couple of quick and low-quality shots through two panes of glass on the doors, I slipped out the front door to circle around and approach as unobtrusively as I could, which was sufficient.


She pretty clearly knew I was there, but I was in shadow and read more

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