Courtesy, once again, of Why Evolution Is True, comes another article in the New York Times, this one about a bible-belt pastor that left religion behind. Despite the fact that the author, like many journalists, has only a superficial understanding
Author: Al Denelsbeck
I’m tasty
I just had to upload this one, partially to break up two posts that are far too similar. But this is me doing my “Snow White” thing while setting up some shots the other day. A butterfly (I can’t be bothered to determine the species) alighted on my left bicep and stayed there for no small amount of time, tapping its way down my arm with its proboscis. While I suspect
Too smart to be intelligent
You know, I try to let philosophy prove its worth to me. I constantly recognize that, if so many people believe it’s useful, that maybe I’m the one that’s missing something. I don’t dismiss the contemporary philosophers without hearing what they have to say. Yet every time, this proves to be almost totally wasted effort. This latest example has demonstrated
Odd memories, part seven
So, today’s xkcd comments on hypochondria:
This stirred some memories of an age, long ago, when I would meet with several friends for a curious pastime. Bear with me a moment as I explain.
It all started with a humorous story taken from the early days of Usenet, about a poker game played by personifications of
Animal ethics
This one’s been kicking around in my head for a while now, so I finally sat down to order some of the thoughts – put my ducklings in a row, so to speak. For the sake of easier writing, I will be using the term “animal” to simply mean “not human,” even though I am well aware that humans are animals too.
Animal rights, and the ethical treatment of animals, is obviously
One plant
On the same day that I snagged the eentsy frog seen here, I collected a significant number of other pics (of course.) There might even be another forthcoming post out of the one-hour casual trip, but right now, I’m going to concentrate on just one plant. Not one plant species, but one solitary
I’m back, he says with hesitation
Okay, after a frustrating few hours, I think functionality has returned to the blog. The DNS switch was instant and painless, the mail server a bit confusing (a host that imparted conflicting info,) but the blog was a royal pain in the ass. Near as I can tell, one of my installed plugins, which worked fine on my old host, had radical disagreements with the new, and if you’ve had any experience
All right, am I redeemed slightly?
I recall apologizing for posting so many little creepies, and promised to try and find something cute, but that never did come to pass, did it? I simply wasn’t ever running across anything cute – I think I’ve glimpsed a rabbit in the past few months, and when the bluebirds hatched, they bailed the nest and the yard in a matter of hours. Anyway, a trip to the park today may have
Fixed it!
The car was having a lot of issues, so I took it down to Craig’s Garage and gave them my list of problems: leaking oil seal, transmission getting stuck in second gear, bad alignment on the left front wheel, the heater not working, gas gauge intermittent, electric window on passenger side stuck down, a bad rattle at higher speeds, and ratty wiper blades. Many hours later, the
Curiosity
As I sit here watching, more or less live, all the guys at JPL as the Mars Science Laboratory (otherwise known as “Curiosity”) prepares to land on Mars, I’m wandering off in speculation about humans as a species and our own curiosity, the trait that makes us do things exactly like this.
[The vehicle is being drawn by Mars gravity and is on its way up to 5.9 kilometers per second,