Since I've moved to the South, there's occasional guys selling confederate battle flags out of RVs by the side of the road. Georgia only took the Confederate Battle Flag off their state flag a few years ago, after all ( Read more... )

So now I'm studying engineering, which means I'm studying more advanced math, like linear algebra and differential equations. Which are hard, or at least Diff EQ is. But then, math is a game for the youngBut that's not the thing I'm noticing.  I'm noticing things where the different math I've learned mets and intersects, and works together.  And ( Read more... )

Humans are odd.

I've never gone hunting, and not in favor of humans wiping out species. I mean, obviously. My entire career I'm working toward involves trying to rejigger science and technology to work in partnership, or at least not against, nature.

And yet, when I was involved in a discussion about the Pleistocene megafauna extinctions today ( Read more... )

Why does the Science Channel have so many commercials full of dubious science like "detoxifying" footpads?

2 million Americans work on farms and ranches. 4 million people play World of Warcraft. (caution, Kung Fu Monkey swears.) He uses it as a springboard for an essay about the way rural America where hardly any people live is pretended as the "real America" as opposed to the majority of fake Americans living in cities and suburbs, I guess. Which I ( Read more... )

Lynne Cheney, Dick Cheney's wife, was on the Daily Show.

It was rather bizarre and kind of uncomfortable, and that was just for me watching at home.

I guess it was a good reminder that everybody's human, but that doesn't prevent them from being completely wrong on just about everything.

Still. It was weird. I'm not sure what to make of it.

Okay, so I ran across something today. I knew the Catholic Church doesn't allow women to be priests, but I guess I never really thought about why. I figured it was just another of those things. Leftovers from the Middle Ages. So I found out the official reason. Because Jesus only had guys as disciples. That's pretty weak ( Read more... )

Make your own Cthulhoid monstrosities with cornstarch and sound. (all are youtube videos) And seriously freaking creepy.

Cornstarch Lifeform (turn sound down/off before playing
Cornstarch Monster 1
Cornstarch Monster 2
Amazing Liquid

I was looking back through some of the photos from my trip. And after it being a couple months, selective memory and distance made some of the pictures seem a lot more interesting than they had been at the time. And others I could completely jump back and remember what was going on. I guess that's one of the paradoxes of modern vacations, the ( Read more... )

I've seen some weird things in the forest. Not creepy weird, just the kind of slightly off-kilter things that make me suspect I've wandered into somebody more interesting's imagination. There's a chain hanging from one of the trees, one of the kind they used to have on trains as the emergency stop. It's just hanging there, rusted over, waiting ( Read more... )