Every Topic in the Universe(s?) Science, the unknown, and the human race... and how it might all be connected. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 13103 5 2405

Articles from Every Topic in the Universe(s?)

Odds and ends 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Believe it or not, I have ANOTHER karma-related post forming in my mind; while this is FAB after last year's spiritual dry spell, out of respect for those readers who aren't into that sort of thing I'll toss out some other stuff to give 'em a break:I did a new tech thing for the 1st time in ages: When viewing sites via BlogMad (click the image with the goofy eyes in the sidebar if you want to join), if I get distracted and just click on a link rather than opening it in a new window, there's no way to get back to the page I came from (the back arrow will take me to the blog BEFORE that one); this is a bummer, since after I go look at whatever they recommended I usually want to post a comment about it. On one such occasion, I started wondering how, on some sites, when you click a link it opens in a new page, and wouldn't that be a good thing to have for MY links so that BlogMad users could click on them to their heart's content and still be on my blog... so I did some code ch ...

*** It's my 3 year blog anniversary!! :-) *** 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Happy New Year!! I hope that this will be the best year ever for you and your loved ones. I found a hilarious e-card for the occasion:http://www.hallmark.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ecard|10001|10051|143940|-102001;11441;-102178||P1R7SO|ecardsI think the 3rd "resolution" is the funniest... and the most like something that'd happen to ME. I'm feeling encouraged about the coming year, because TWO of the raccoons that we haven't seen for months showed up tonight, which my husband and I choose to see as a good omen... if nothing else, it got us started off on the right paw, er, foot.It's hard to believe that it's been THREE YEARS since I started this blog, knowing absolutely nothing about the blogosphere, never having had a personal site of any kind before, and with only a sprinkling of html commands to get me started on battling with the template. I wish I'd thought to take a screen cap of how the blog looked then, with an empty sidebar, that 1st couple of tiny posts, and of ...

Christmas past, Christmas presents 1970-01-01 00:59:59 If you're expecting warm and fuzzy reminiscences about happy family times, you must be new here; this isn't a Hallmark special, it's another dark fragment of my past:When you were a kid, did your parents know what you wanted for Christmas? If you were raised by human beings instead of by pod people like *I* was, you answered "yes"; maybe your parents couldn't always afford to get you what you wanted, or didn't think some of those things were appropriate for you ("You'll poke your eye out"), but they KNEW, and more importantly, CARED. MY parents had total recall of every imagined wrongdoing of mine for my entire life, and of every penny and minute of effort they ever "wasted" (their word, not mine) on me, so how is it possible that they never knew what I wanted for Christmas, even though I went on and on about each desired item like any other kid? Actually, it's theoretically possible that my father might have known, but since gift-buying wasn't his department (he's a trad ...

Purse-onal eBay story 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I know, bad pun-sorry. It occurred to me that I hadn't chronicled my adventures on eBay for a while, so I'll fill you in on what SHOULD have been a short and simple search; my attempt to find a purse. Why had I been reduced to looking on eBay for something that every department store has hundreds of? My mother is to blame for that; thanks to her training, my purse contains every item I could possibly need when away from the house... including folding scissors (for dangling threads), a mini tape measure (so I can determine the sizes of furnishings that might fit in my mostly-unfurnished home), and a little calculator (to figure out tips at restaurants). Because of the sheer volume of stuff I carry, I can't use a small purse, but, because I'm not using my purse as a gym bag, lunch box, briefcase or receptacle for kids' stuff (other than the occasional thing for my husband, lol), a tote-type purse doesn't suit my needs either; this wouldn't be a problem if they made purses ...

The Beware List, Part 6 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The Beware List began when I had a major epiphany a few years back; that the evil, the manipulators, and the socially clueless depressives all follow the same patterns, give the same hints about their true natures and intentions, and even use the same lines, and that this makes it possible to figure out what they are, and what they're up to, BEFORE it's too late... BEFORE they screw you. Below is the latest installment from the list; to read entries 1-50, see my posts of 5-31-06, 7-6-06, 8-31-06, 10-6-06 and 11-19-06. Beware of anyone who:51) Defends some ugly thing that they or someone you?re fighting with has said by invoking ?free speech,? especially if their subtext is that YOU are somehow the bad guy if you ?try to impede free speech? aka demand an end to the ugliness.The invocation of "free speech" is a BIG red flag; good people rarely use it to defend what they've said (as they have VALID reasons they can use instead), and NEVER use it to excuse bad behavior... only r ...

test 1970-01-01 00:59:59 testing ...

What makes a person "good"? 1969-12-31 17:59:59 Three days ago, I posted the following:"how can we truly have 'good' if we don't have 'evil' against which it battles? And if there's no actual good and evil... then what?"Since then, I've mulled it over alot, and part of what I've come up with is that it's HARD to give a definition of a "good" person that stands up to merciless argument.Let's start out with the idea, held by pretty much everyone, that an animal can't be morally good or bad/evil because it's not making choices as to its actions with an awareness of right and wrong; it seems reasonable to me to get from this concept that whatever animals DO can't be morally good or bad, and thus that anything that could be seen as a natural animal behavior couldn't be counted for or against the most advanced animal, US, from a moral standpoint. I know, we supposedly civilized people have decided that many natural behaviors are immoral and bad, but I'll save that for a post on what's wrong/bad; figuring out what's "go ...

Medical surprises from Discover 1969-12-31 17:59:59 You've probably read many times that there's no such thing as an aphrodisiac, that people who think that consuming a given thing boosts their libidos are just experiencing the placebo effect or wishful thinking, that all the things that people have believed for centuries were having an effect were just the result of thousands of people fooling themselves... and now, from the June 2005 issue of Discover, page 11, comes the following:"Oysters do boost the libido, say U.S. and Italian chemists. They find the shellfish are rich in rare amino acids that, especially when eaten raw, trigger an increase in sex hormones."Just watch, it's only a matter of time before other supposed aphrodisiacs are also found to contain something that boosts libido; this is yet another case of the arrogance of scientists who figure that if they haven't found proof that something works yet, it in fact doesn't work, no matter how many people say otherwise from personal experience.The BIG surprise in this is ...

Some comments on control freaks 1969-12-31 17:59:59 "Control freak" is one of those terms for which the meaning is starting to get distorted; its actual meaning is"One who has an obsessive need to exert control over people and situations"http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=control%20freakbut too many people use it to refer to when someone tries to control their OWN life... especially when the name-caller themselves is trying to control that person and failing. Let me be perfectly clear; someone trying to have control of their OWN life is being an ADULT, not a control freak... and if anyone tries to insist otherwise, it's probably because they're a manipulator who's trying to gain control of you, so run, run, RUN.Another misuse of the term "control freak" is with the intention for it to be a more extreme version of "anal" (aka "anal retentive," NOT the other meaning, this isn't a porn blog); the sort of person who uses it this way will always be the less powerful member of the relationship they have with the alleged freak, ...

A grim case of life imitating art 1969-12-31 17:59:59 In the movie "50 First Dates"http://www.blockbuster.com/catalog/DisplayMoreMovieProductDetails.action?channel=Movies&subChannel=sub&movieID=1083372&displayBoxArt=true#Casta young woman was in an auto accident that caused brain damage such that her memory "resets" itself every night while she sleeps, so she wakes up the next morning remembering nothing of what's happened since the crash. In 2 scenes at the medical facility for people with brain injuries, we're treated to a patient called "10 Second Tom," so called because that's how long his memory lasts... and it's portrayed as a joke, because who ever heard of such a thing?Tonight, on TLC, I saw "The Man with the Seven Second Memory"http://tlc.discovery.com/tvlistings/episode.jsp?episode=0&cpi=55264&gid=0&channel=TLC"Once a renowned conductor and musician, Clive Wearing was struck down by a virus that caused massive damage to his brain. Against the odds, doctors managed to save his life but he was left with a memory that spans j ...

Placebos and the truth about time 1969-12-31 17:59:59 I'm finally starting to catch up with my backlog of Discover magazines; I was REALLY behind... my husband keeps asking me if I've gotten to the articles about fire and the wheel yet. In the April issue I've found a couple of fascinating things; the 1st one is about just how powerfully the mind affects the body:"Placebo vs Placebo""Medical researcher Ted Kaptchuk pitted two types of fake medicine--sugar pills and pretend acupuncture--against each other to see which one worked better. He recruited 266 volunteers suffering from chronic arm pain, which they rated at least a 3 on a 10-point scale.133 subjects received acupuncture with trick needles whose tips retract so they don't penetrate the skin. The other 133 subjects were prescribed blue cornstarch pills that resembled amitriptyline, an antidepressant often prescribed for repetitive strain injury.25 percent of the acupuncture group experienced side effects from the nonexistent needle pricks, including 19 people who felt pain a ...

Empowering realizations 1969-12-31 17:59:59 It's unbelievably difficult for me to post this essay. I've spent my entire adult life trying to improve the way people view depressives and the like, making it clear that their illnesses are PHYSICAL, that their suffering is REAL, and that they deserve the same sympathy and support as those with ailments of any other sort; over and over I've hammered home the points that they didn't ask for it, don't want it, would do anything to be rid of it, and are NOT "just trying to get attention" by talking about it any more than a cancer patient is "just trying to get attention" when THEY talk about what they're going through.Human nature is diverse, though, and it's silly to think that EVERY member of as gigantic a group as the mental health community would act the same way, or be perfectly virtuous and noble, or have the same deep needs. I've been doing peer counseling online for people with depression and other so-called "mental illnesses" for years, but I've just now grasped tha ...