A recent post over at Scientific American brings up an interesting question, especially to those who pursue critical thinking: what does rational actually mean? We use this word all of the time, perhaps without realizing how subjective it is
Author: Al Denelsbeck
Tech support
For everyone who came here (or to the main site) in the past two days and got blocked out, I apologize, on behalf of my hosting provider GoDaddy who will never do so. It remains unclear what exactly happened, but suffice to say they were woefully unprepared for it, which is pretty inexcusable from a major hosting service.
Worst of all was their Tech Support, which was slow to respond and completely
Drama
We’ll start with the artsy-fartsy one.
This came from a patch of wild daisies down near the river, many of which served as eyries for crab spiders (I think I’m mixing metaphors without goggles again) that were making a serious dent on the hymenoptera population in the area – every one I found either had a meal in chelicerae, or soon obtained one. They tended to
To the rescue! Or, not…
I think most people know that there are certain kinds of fires that you don’t throw water on to extinguish, primarily grease, oil, gasoline, and electrical. In such cases, water is simply going to make matters much worse, either by splashing and floating the burning substances to disperse in a wider range, or by producing greater damage to equipment and creating the potential for electrocution.
Checking in
It’s been a little longer between posts than intended, but this only means that truly major, insightful, earth-shaking stuff is coming soon (yeah, yeah, I know save the sarcasm.) I’ve had a couple of projects going, and have been commenting in other locations, such as Sean Carroll’s Preposterous Universe blog, or maybe it’s S=k. log W,
Not him again
The past few days have been overcast and either rainy or misty, so photo opportunities were a little limited, but the azaleas are in full bloom so they’re providing much better settings for the mantis images now. I remain unsure how old the mantises were when I found them – I’m guessing at least a few days, since their eyes had changed from the dark ones I’ve
National Day of Self-Congratulation
Today is a very special day in the US: The National Day of Prayer. That means today is the day that people are encouraged to feel good about doing nothing at all, like those bumper stickers that proclaim one’s child is special regardless of accomplishment. That’s good, I suppose, if you’re
Fallacy fallacies
Many a young, impetuous acolyte, on first learning the lore of the Thinking Fallacies, seeks to infuse their knowledge throughout both their lives and those around them, but lo! such a path is fraught with danger, because the Fallacies are not easily tamed. Within inexperienced hands, they can be poor weapons, even dangerous to the wielder.
Ahem. ‘Scuse me. Anyway, this post began
Just a drop, please?
One of those things I had to share. Out early the other morning after an overnight rain, I was examining the azalea bush for interesting stuff, mostly looking for a way to use the rising sun and the raindrops creatively. One of the little mantises was too deep among the leaves to catch the sun, but as I watched, it engaged in a behavior I’ve never seen: it
On composition, part 17: Point of focus
This probably should have been one of the earliest composition posts that I tackled, except that I think I always assumed it to be rather obvious. As I’ve examined numerous photos, including some of my own, I realize that its importance may need to be emphasized more, so let’s highlight point of focus.
This doesn’t simply mean choosing what the camera locks its autofocus onto. What