I can't pass this up. Almost a pun.

Here's a story about a statue of angels bearing the cure for religion. >>

The Amygdala, Foreign Relations and All That Jazz.

Armstrong, Lovercraft and Jazz; the Amygdala knows the connections.>>

Right Brain Out Of Control

This is what happens when the left brain loses it's grip. People start living in the spirit and stop paying their bills.

All empires perish without the arts and sciences.

The love of study is almost the only eternal passion in us; all other passions leave us, as this pitiable machine that gives them to us approaches its ruin. More>>

That is not a "fighter pilot" thing.

Good pilots do not rely on superstition. They explicitly reject it and rely on the proven effectiveness of concrete knowledge, study, meticulous training and practiced critical thinking to constantly evaluate themselves and circumstances and inform their judgment and actions.

Not this crap:

John McCain on February 4th:

John McCain, known for his superstitious tendencies on the campaign trail, joked Monday with reporters he's not ready to discuss what he'll do if he wins his party's nomination.

"I am superstitious, as I said earlier, and for me to start talking about what would happen after I win the nomination, when I have not won it yet, is in direct violation of my superstitious tenets," the Arizona senator said to laughter at a campaign event in Hamilton, New Jersey.

John McCain during his victory speech:

Thank you Wisconsin for bringing us to the point where even a superstitious Naval aviator can claim with confidence and humility that I will be our party's nominee for president of the United States. Thank you, Wisconsin.

Here's a bit on the extent of his rituals and lucky charms, from just before he lost the South Carolina primaries in 2000.

"I'm wearing my lucky shoes from today till Sunday," McCain says from his bus on Wednesday. At the moment, his pockets contain the compass, feather (from a tribal leader) and penny (flattened, in his wallet). When McCain once misplaced his feather, there was momentary panic in the campaign, until his wife found it in one of his suits. When the compass went missing once, McCain assigned his political director to hunt it down. Weaver found it, and it remains safe, knock wood.

Primary day requires additional rituals. By the time you read this, Steve Dart, McCain's lucky friend, should have arrived in South Carolina from California. He has been present with McCain for every Election Day since McCain first won a seat in Congress. McCain must sleep on a certain side of the bed, particularly before an election (and he never puts a hat on a bed--bad luck). Rain is good for Election Day, as are motion pictures. McCain requires himself to view a movie before the vote is counted. He fell asleep in his hotel room in New Hampshire before he watched a movie on primary day, but his staff didn't panic. "We have superstition fire walls," says Todd Harris, a spokesman.

McCain is afraid of the number 13.

We meet at campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., in a conference room on the M floor - M for McCain. (M is one above 12. The whole floor was renamed and relabeled by the campaign, right down to the buttons on the elevators. McCain is superstitious, his spokeswoman explained; it's a fighter-pilot thing. But isn't M the 13th letter in the ... ? Never mind.)

He was here just a minute ago!

George Carlin is gone. He led us in the battle against credulity and bullshit with his irreverence. It is a sad day but we would be far worse off if he had not passed our way.

This Crap Is Everywhere.

Here is what happens when people do not aggressively punish credulity. I've seen this kind of crap come from people who said "Jesus" told them or that they were led by the "spirit" to say, or that the crystals told them or that because the are a this or that, they see whatever. Sincerity should not be a defense because all this bullshit has been know to be false for centuries. Every bit of it is a total load of useless crap! Supernatural fantasy willful ignorance believing has become a horrible cancer on the mind of humanity. It must be criticized and shunned where ever it is encountered and however it is dressed because it has demolished the world's use for critical thinking and our capacity for relating to each other in meaningful and beautiful ways. More preachers, transcendentalists, psychics and gurus of every elk need to be prosecuted for fraud, and held to account on criminal charges for the damage they are causing.

"Drillin'" For Fools Oil

The GOP is desperate for a campaign issue to talk about. They have found one that all their talkers can parrot in just two words, "Drill Now." As usual, they know their followers and most of the American people are too stupid to see the hoax. Too bad most of the democrats are also to stupid to understand that drilling for $300-a-barrel is not going to help gas prices or reduce energy problems for this country. Here are the problems.

The offshore and onshore oil that we know about and are likely to know about that is in this nation's territories will be hugely expensive to produce even if there were no restrictions at all placed on it's production. Oil from places like Nigeria and the middle East cost only pennies per barrel to produce. Most of those fields have wells that flow more than 10,000 barrels per day while the costs of drilling the wells is dirt cheap compared to the ones we will have to drill to produce offshore or even most of our remaining onshore reserves.

Next, Who is going to do the drilling and producing and have control of our new wells? There are no domestic oil companies in this country large enough to do the job. All major oil companies are now based outside the United States and the majority stockholders of those companies are the OPEC nations. So the GOP is going to turn over our oil production to OPEC.

The GOP has become very dangerous to the security and sovereignty of this nation. One big example is that they have turned over vital military functions to foreign nations. When you control the food supply of a country's military, you own that military. The Bush Pentagon has turned over our military supply chain to KBR with no secondary or backup supply channels. KBR is a foreign owned and operated corporation whose very major stockholders are the Muslim OPEC nations we are beholden to for oil. KBR controls, supplies and serves every bite of food for our troops and government agency personnel in Iraq.

I have a better description for their campaign slogan. "Drill Now, Think Later"

Making Happy By Sleeping Right

Want more fun out of life, better health, nicer clothes, less fat, higher game levels, cooler stuff to do with your friends or more interesting friends, lower risk - better security or just more happy? People who sleep better live better. Without going to all the science journals just watch this and this then, just make a habit of going to bed at a decent hour. Yes, beside how much we sleep, what time we hit the sack makes a lot of difference. Sweet dreams.

More Father's Day Thoughts

In my line, we fathers tend to be a little older when we finally get around to making babies. That tends to make the generations a little more removed from their parents and grand parents. That may be a good thing. While it lessens the personal bonds to some extent, it gives the next generation a spot in time where more knowledge and better tools are available to them for whatever they are to do. I wish I was this articulate; PZ Myers does father's day:

"...to launch a new generation into the world with a little momentum and a little potential … potential to stand autonomously and be something new; not to serve the past but to become the future."

While we're at it, turn up your speakers and take a look at Jack Szostak's work on the way first fathers are made from the stuff of stars. Beethoven's 9th, 4th movement.

A Great Father's Day!

Tom, Wendy, Susan and Ben gave me a great father's day today. Some neat cards and other goodies and a great lunch. It was too short but we had a great time and they made me feel grade A. The best part was being together but all too soon, we had to get going. Wendy on her crutches home to nurse a sore knee and Ben off to Paris again. I'm sure glad they grade on the curve. :)

That Wasn't Too Bad

The check engine light on my old truck stopped working. It would not show during the self-test when the ignition switch was turned on. So, I got another lamp and proceeded to try and figure out how to change it. The lamp holder is a quick release 1/4 turn socket on the front side of the instrument cluster. It cannot even be seen from under the dash; not even using a mirror and flashlight and lots of nasty words while standing on my head. Naturally that made me want to grab the dash and give it a mighty yank. I did and that dislodged the trim and one thing led to another. Pretty soon after finding a 7mm socket, I had the whole thing out and in the kitchen where I could change the lamp and Fantastic off some dirt. Got it all back together and it works. Test is normal and it's off with the engine running. Wasn't this interesting?

700 Club vs All of Humanity

I turned on the tube this morning and it was on the channel that has 700 Club on it. What a rotten bunch of people. About 15 seconds of that shit was way more than I could stand. No human being should be allowed to see that shit unless they have watched every minute of Cosmos and memorized the Constitution of The United States and have demonstrated a useful mastery of the principals and concepts therein. Sagan reminds us of what we have to lose to willful ignorance and superstition.

Inconspicuous Consumption

The less money their peers make, the more individuals spend on bling; visible hot stuff and big screen televisions. Societies with emerging economies like China or other groups who've been historically poor tend to buy ostentatious cars, build things like they do in Dubai and put 21 inch wheels on junk cars. But it is a developmental stage and as wealth increases, more is spent on much more private luxuries and things of more substance like education. David Brooks observed that in mature affluence:

it’s virtuous to spend $25,000 on your bathroom, but it’s vulgar to spend $15,000 on a sound system and a wide-screen TV. It’s decadent to spend $10,000 on an outdoor Jacuzzi, but if you’re not spending twice that on an oversized slate shower stall, it’s a sign that you probably haven’t learned to appreciate the simple rhythms of life.

But what about those of poor and modest means who don't care for bling?
There's more here. >>

The Dollar Is Dead

If the U.S. good faith, credit and dollar was worth today on the world market what it was in 1970, $4.00 gas would be selling for $0.30 a gallon. Yeah, that's twenty-nine nine for those who can't do the arithmetic. The problem is not the price of oil but the destruction of the dollar which has had 40% of it value squandered in the last eight years. It is a hell of a problem but the people in the most trouble for it will spend more of their time trying to get the constitution amended to punish the three or four percent of the population of this country who are gay and wish to get married to a same gender partner than thinking about educating the workforce and making this country the most efficient in the world so we can pay our debt and produce goods and services worth the money and that the world will buy.

SUV Rollover Danger

Folks who drive SUVs and trucks are getting pounded by gas prices but the big problem for those who already own large vehicles is the huge loss in value and most are finding themselves way upside down. You think the housing crash was bad, there is a huge amount of debt financed in SUVs. Now almost everyone who financed their SUV in the last 5 years and have not paid it off, owe way more than it will ever be worth. Do I smell another credit industry meltdown and government rescue? I hope not. Let Limbaugh and Hannity bail them out. Meanwhile, I don't have far to go and no payments to make but, if anyone wants to swap a Honda Civic for my '96 Cheby pickup, I'm interested.

Damn, Something else for me to quit.

Artificial sweeteners can't fool the brain and the screw up your diet.

A mssage from Vista.

I was just asking.

By 10:30 AM

Just loafing around this morning after I slid out of bed about 6:45 I had the following ideas while cruising the net and hanging out on the porch some:

My brains seems to have something like a "snap-to grid" where everything that flies through it gets stuck to some background lines and come out looking like the desktop on my computer where I fling shortcuts to web sites and files I want to look at later or something but don't want to go to the trouble of bookmarking in a more organized way. I guess the grid in my brain gland is just the tangled web woven by the random spiders of my life.

Then I read the article I mentioned in the last post.

Then I got to wondering about dark energy and if maybe the stuff outside the universe was exerting some kind of force attracting the space-time-matter we are living in to accelerate toward it. I maybe the dark force is actually just that nowhere sucks. Maybe the dark force should be called suxeon. Anyway I wrote Neil DeGrasse Tyson about that so maybe I'll get an answer or a better question. I can't ask much of a question about stuff like that because I can't do arithmetic at that level.

Then I got to wondering about this personal warehouse idea that came in the mail on a postcard and thought it might make a core concept for a good franchise business that would work at airports and close to the coast lines of lakes, rivers, oceans and country club estates or even religious cult compounds. :)

Then I got back to thinking about the problems I encountered trying to install Ubuntu linux on the slave drive of my second computer. Grub sucks. Windows will only boot one time and then the computer locks into a startup loop that never get to the GRUB bootloader screen. It made want some Intel like outfit to make a universal core that acts like a virtual machine server that doesn't require another operating system so that a user could install and run multiple operating systems all at the same time and maybe even allow multiple users all different keyboard, mouse, display, speaker wireless setups.

Then I went out for breakfast and to the post office. Now I'm going to see what the smell is coming from my kitchen. If anyone needs ideas, a small retainer and some royalties will get most of mine.

Can creativity put $$$ In your pocket and happy on your face?

I don't know but there are interesting conversations going on at Scientific American about creativity and creating more of if.

Epstein: When children are very young, they all express creativity, but by the end of the first grade, very few do so. This is because of socialization. They learn in school to stay on task and to stop daydreaming and asking silly questions. As a result, the expression of new ideas is largely shut down. We end up leaving creative expression to the misfits—the people who can’t be socialized. It’s a tragedy.

The Hybrid and Electric Car Hoax

Gas prices are not high, the problem is that the dollar is worth about half what it was 10-15 years ago and the American citizen doesn't care as long as the government does not call it inflation or talk about it too much. This is the old "we are the center of the universe and a 'murican dollar is a dollar by gawd" syndrome. Instead of fixing the problem, we are being sold another load of crap in the form of hybrid/electric cars. Pound per pound they are horribly worse than regular gas cars. If a miracle happened and over night cars ran on no fuel at all, the dollar would still be nearly worthless, in fact all other things being equal, the surplus of dollars would make them worth even less. But back to the hybrid hype and how we'll lose tuns of money and cover the earth with burnt our battery packs.

If you like power blackouts, you are going to love electric and hybrid cars. The notion that a hybrid gets more miles per gallon is not all of the story. The most important part of the story is the cost per mile and it is being ignored and actively hidden by car makers and some green activists. The total cost of ALL the fuel burned per mile is what you will actually be paying. The miles per gallon figure on the new car windows only use "gasoline" in the mpg figure, not included is the fuel burned to charge the batteries or even the 15% by volume ethanol the get to exclude from the calculations. To a population that only cares about the car payment and has no clue what upside down means, this will be an easy scam.

The largest factors in the miles per gallon equation for electric cars is the cost of the battery and control systems and the cost and availability of the electricity. Both are very high. The battery packs cost tens of thousand of dollars in some cases and their reliability is spotty at best. The electricity it takes to charge them up is costly and will get very much higher and less available as demand increases. The power grids we have now are operating at dangerous levels in most of the country. Overloads and blackouts are already common. When people start plugging in their hybrids, we'll be setting around in the dark breathing coal smoke from the power plants running full blast sucking money out of our bank accounts trying to make up for the losses of burning something to make electricity a great deal of which is lost going through hundreds of miles of wire and dozens of transformers before heating up the wires in your house that are not big enough to carry the loads required to charge the batteries in our hybrids. So far, that delivery system is no where near as efficient per unit of power as the good old liquid fuel delivery system we have now. And gas cars don't loose their charge when they are setting still. All electrics do. Smaller, lighter, slower gas cars are a far better answer to conserving fuel than are electrics.

When everyone has their garage full of electric cars and the demand for gas goes way down, maybe I'll be filling up my trusty old truck for a nickel a gallon and making a killing hauling burnt out batteries to the land fill.

One Plus Eight Easy Pieces

Oh, dear 9 things at once! This is about science from Brian Greene and these eight little movies from Darren Brown about woo. They are all delicious.