Snake Oil

Back in the day, merchants used to set up their carts and peddle the cure all that cures all ailments. This practice has not stopped. Add scientific language to it and the following sounds both healthy and delectable:


Buy Copernicum. Known to aid with everything, particularly popsiculitis. From the makers of BS Inc.

Predeterminism?

"Using defensive pessimism to harness anxiety and perform at your peak"

There is a book for everyone and everything.

Whether one has a positive or a negative outlook on life; does it make a difference?

Nice Guys Finish Last?

 

There are those of us (and I suspect that we are not in the minority), who cannot abide pain and suffering nor would we ever volitionally be the the cause of it. Those of us, who offer help beyond kind words when we watch someone who appears helpless and requires support.

Darwin's theory in the popularized approach is perpetually misinterpreted. Survival of the fittest by his meaning and revolutionary definition is not as is commonly and mistakenly believed survival of the strongest fastest and most vicious.  It is the survival of those who pass on their genes to the greatest number of progeny. Unlike insects, reptiles or amphibians, we do not pass on our genes to thousands of offspring.

Survival of the fittest in the human context ought to apply to communities as a whole. We have however, twisted our humanity into producing cruel and greedy psychopaths, who revel in the pain and suffering of those around them, even those who they are genetically related to. They do not destroy with sharp tools, but with greed and indifference, exploiting those of us who cannot and will not change their nature; those of us to whom integrity, compassion and empathy offers more value than the causation of poverty, pain and suffering.

When A Tree Falls In The Forest...

I have been thinking about a career change and doing more science writing. The question I have for my fellowers; would there be any interest in a science blog and if so would anyone be willing to subscribe to it?

We all spend countless hours writing for free and because it is fun, but it would be wonderful to be paid for our efforts.

What do you think?

About A Brother

In a life imitates art scenario, but without the cliche of good guys always win, one discovers that a brother has been feeding me nothing but lies and appears to be struggling for his position in organized crime.

Now what?

Notes From The Outback

Rednecks are really nice people. With fewer teeth.

Rural stores are stocked with unhealthy carbs. Somehow counter-intuitive.

One diner, one road and one street sign = small town.
One diner, one road and one traffic light = technologically advanced small town

Discovered new dragonfly species. Has painted wings. Sketched it. Very excited.

Amazing Libella Pulchella

 

 

 

 

Nope. Not new species. 12 spotted skimmer dragonfly. Very common.

Mosquitoes are the size of helicopters. Everything bites. Even the shiny iridescent beetle I found. All Fauna is carnivorous, rude and undomesticated. Itchy. Best way to sketch is to pin them. What?! They started it.

Soybeans. Corn. Something edible. Manure. Manure for miles. How do people live on farms with this smell all day?

"Yaoall farm the cidah?"
"What?"
"Yaoall foam da ciiiidah?"
"Uum, yes? That is an interesting accent, where are you from?"
"Local, born and raised."

"Do you have the paper?"
"I don't read much."

Home: 20 brands of sunscreen. Organic fruit. Massaging shower. Soap. Non-abrasive TP. Air conditioner. Restaurants. The things we take for granted or hopelessly urbanized.

Retire in cozy wood cabin in the woods with vegetable garden no longer on bucket list.

Science: 400 ppm And I Blame Star Trek

By Justin Bilicki

"Could you kindly rephrase that in equivocal, inaccurate, vague, self-serving and roundabout terms that we can all understand?"

Certainly.

Science, Technology, Creation and Innovation are our future. I learned that watching Star Trek. Science will let us live longer and eventually better. Science will help us cope with inevitable climate chaos ("change" is for wimps).

If those in power and of influence fund it. Power. I have spent too much time with those that suffer from the illusion of power. I knew that when I joined a global cause a few years ago that we were fighting a losing battle. Groups of us have formed across fields and continents, desperate to share our knowledge with each other.

Fellow geeks who share with child-like abandon. Look what I found! Cool, it's a rock. I found a tadpole. Hey, look at this everyone, the sun is doing something neat right now. Whooooaaa.

Oligopolies do not share with the other children.

We presented. Talked. TED talked. Presentations. Travel. Meetings. Talking. With people who do not understand a single concept and believe that accelerating graphs of over 300 ppm mean that the economy is doing well. During one particularly bored meeting and chronic interruptions by mobile technology, I walked out in the middle of my own presentation. Futile.

I went on hikes, cleared my head and decided that this was not worth my time. It felt right. There was no point explaining to anyone that the earth will be fine, new species will replace us. Nature reclaims.

I watched movies with HQ and the kittehs. Tried to read or paint. Tuned out the floods and the suffering that will follow. Tried to play video games. Thought about video games.

Then 400 ppm came. Still there. Faster than anyone calculated.

Thought about Homo Sapiens and Star Trek and Inception.

We have been treading water, time to learn how to swim again.