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 3 2353

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Sic transit gloria bloggi 2007-05-22 05:09:00 (With apologies to whoever came up with the Latin phrase "sic transit gloria mundi" ("thus passes the glory of the world").)Now that the time has come, I can barely make myself type it: This will be my final post.There, I said it!!I was slaving away on the computer a few weeks ago when my train of thought was interrupted by a voice in my head that said "You need to focus on expansion, not reduction." It came so out of the blue that it'd have been easy to attribute it to an outside source, but since there wasn't so much as a wisp of smoke rising from any of my bushes I accepted it as a message from my subconscious mind, one so major that it'd come bursting into my consciousness in this unprecedented way. Although I wasn't working on anything blog related when it happened, I knew instantly that it was a reference to how I'd steadily given up everything I used to do with my free time in order to be able to write decent posts, and that... that... I needed to stop blogging and go ...

What is reality, really? 2007-05-18 05:56:00 You know what reality is, right? Or do you? We define reality, in the strictest sense, as what we and the instruments we've designed can perceive; the problem with that is that neither our senses nor our instruments are designed to perceive reality as a whole... all we can get are bits and pieces.We think our 5 senses are wonderful, but looked at objectively there's not much to them: We can perceive light and sound, but only within certain ranges. We can distinguish some sorts of chemicals via smell and taste, but far from all. Our sense of touch tells us about what we're in contact with (down to a certain level) and temperature. And that's IT; our bodies have no ability to detect any of the other aspects of reality, whether it's commonplace stuff like microwaves, esoteric stuff like the parallel universes predicted by string theory, or anything in the spiritual realm. Even within the zone of what we CAN detect, we're no great shakes; countless lower animals have far sh ...

Awesome URL's 2007-05-14 03:54:00 In today's "Foxtrot" comic striphttp://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot/2007/05/13/the "average" kids get promised rewards for straight A's, but the smart kid doesn't get offered anything because he ALREADY gets straight A's; kudos to cartoonist Bill Amend for making the long overdue point that, while it's fine to reward kids for better-than-usual performance, kids that perform well all the time should get something for it every so often too... even, dare I say it, MORE often than the kids who perform less well.Those of you that're constantly changing your layouts will love this one:http://colorpicker.info/The topmost picker (there are some other useful ones on the page as well) allows you to select any color and get multiple colors that go perfectly with it, whether you want similar colors or wildly contrasting ones; there are controls (nearly every part of the display is clickable) that allow you to alter aspects of the colors to get you to the desired shades(s)... you can even ch ...

Husband humor 2007-05-10 04:46:00 First, a quick announcement: If you look at the "subscription area" in my sidebar you'll see that I've added a new option, "+ Bookmark"; if you click it, you'll get a window that'll allow you to add my blog to your bookmarking services, not just Del.icio.us and Digg but a bunch of others too, 33 total as of when I write this. The site that provides this service, Addthis.com, also offers a similar service for feed readers, but it doesn't have nearly as many options as offered by Addtoany.com (my yellow "subscription button"), so I didn't take advantage of it; it's worth keeping an eye on, though, as it'll make for a nicer-looking display to have both buttons be from the same site, and they may catch up eventually. Husbands generally do things that wives don't like; that's a given. MY husband really pushes the envelope, though: A prime example is his insistence that if he lays down on the floor with his eyes shut he won't fall asleep, that instead he'll somehow become ... Humor

Do you think for yourself? 2007-05-06 03:56:00 Ok, now ask yourself that question again and really think about the answer. Still sure you're a rugged individualist?Do you have the same political beliefs as your parents? Or the exact opposite ones? Or ones that match the views you encountered in college? Or the same ones as your romantic partner or social group? If you answered "yes" to any of those, and you didn't do an in-depth objective analysis the conclusions of which coincidentally fell into one of those categories, you're not thinking for yourself.Do you have the same religious beliefs as your parents? If you said "yes," unless the reason for it is that your deity appeared to you and confirmed that you'd picked the one true religion, you're not thinking for yourself.If asked your opinion on an issue, does your reply parallel what you read or heard from the media, or, worse, on a blog? Unless you did independent fact-checking and, again, in-depth analysis, that just happened to dovetail with those NON-objective sou ...

Is testosterone one of the causes of evil? 2007-05-02 03:17:00 No, this isn't a man-bashing post; it's about people with higher-than-average levels of testosterone for their gender. With that said; we take it so for granted that the overwhelming majority of crimes, especially violent ones, are committed by MEN that we don't wonder WHY... all *I* ever thought about it was that testosterone often leads to aggression, and aggression can be the root of criminal behavior, but that's clearly not a sufficient explanation. If testosterone is part of what creates, not just aggression, but EVIL, that'd explain alot; here's the 1st hint that this could be so (asterisks mine):"Most people don't appreciate an angry look, but a new University of Michigan psychology study found that ***some people find angry expressions so rewarding that they will readily learn ways to encourage them.***'It's kind of striking that an angry facial expression is consciously valued as a very negative signal by almost everyone, yet at a non-conscious level can be lik ...

How much are your bookmarks worth? 2007-04-28 02:09:00 Think about it: If you've been online for any length of time, you probably have THOUSANDS of bookmarks, many of them for sites that'd be time-consuming to locate via a search engine, especially if they aren't high-ranked... and that's assuming that you remember every site you've bookmarked, and that each one has either a distinctive name or unusual keywords to give you any sort of chance of pinpointing it amongst what're probably a million similar sites. This means that if you lost all your bookmarks, by which I mean ALL versions, forms, copies, backups and files of bookmarks from every computer you use, some of those sites would only be recoverable with a great deal of time and effort, possibly more than you'd ever be able to make, some you'd never find again, and probably MOST you'd have no specific memory of and thus have no way to look for; what would that mean to you? Take a minute and look at your bookmarks, and ask yourself how many of them you'd reasonably be abl ...

Omni's semi-recipes 2007-04-24 02:32:00 I can't just call them "recipes" because they're only partial ideas about how food can be put together to taste good; I don't cook, but as a supertaster (see my post of 3-5-04) trying to find ways to eat in a culinary landscape designed for tasters and non-tasters I've given alot of thought to food and how it can be combined in palatable, convenient ways, and this is what I've come up with:1) The glory of Monterey jack, especially pepper jack (which is just a LITTLE hot, so don't be afraid to try it):a) Mozzarella goes bad quickly, and isn't actually that good; instead, use jack cheese, which looks the same, has the same consistency, but lasts longer and tastes MUCH better, on Italian dishes (including pizza).b) Instead of using only cheddar cheese with Mexican dishes (how did we Americans get used to doing that-it's not like this British cheese is authentic on Mexican food), omelettes, mashed potatoes, etc, mix it with jack; the latter is far lower in fat and calories, d ...

Financial institutions f*ck up 2007-04-20 02:37:00 We put a great deal of trust in our financial institutions; we have to, because with the exception of a few holdouts who still keep their $ in their mattresses we've all handed over our entire accumulated funds to them. The gov't is aware of this, which is why so many laws apply to such companies... except for PayPal (which acts as a bank but isn't regulated like one), but that's a whole 'nother essay. The companies themselves are aware of the importance of dotting every "i" and crossing every "t," and so go to great lengths to perform each function in a proper manner... usually. Their failures, therefore, are particularly dismaying. I've got 2 such issues currently in progress:I belong to a military credit union, a holdover from when I was a military dependent; this is mostly a good thing, as it provides even more benefits than a regular credit union, 1 of which is that I've had a free credit card from them for about 20 years. A couple of months ago, they sent me a let ...

Fun with freebies 2007-04-16 03:06:00 If you're still struggling to get your taxes done, this one's for you; if you didn't earn over $52K last year, you can get "free federal online tax preparation" and access to free electronic tax return filing via the IRS website:http://www.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsphttp://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.htmlSeveral years ago, I went through a period of signing up for tons of freebies and samples online; even then there were forums dedicated to getting free stuff, so all I had to do was click links and fill in my info on the requisite websites. Most of what I got was those little packets of lotion and shampoo, but I got some bigger stuff too: I especially remember a large bag of hard candy from Sweet'N Low (for my husband, who loves saccharine), and, the all-time champion sample, several styrofoam bowls filled with cereal that I'd "designed" with my choice of ingredients from a lengthy menu of options (also for my husband)... and the latter was so good, altho ...

The Beware List, Part 8 2007-04-12 03:40:00 The Beware List represents my lifetime experience of how people behave if they're evil, sociopathic, manipulators or major depressives, especially when they're about to screw you; folks like these follow very consistent patterns, so if you pay attention, and don't discount the warnings out of misguided loyalty, you can stop them cold. This post contains the latest installment of the list; to read entries 1-70, see my posts of 5-31-06, 7-6-06, 8-31-06, 10-6-06, 11-19-06, 1-10-07 and 2-27-07. Beware of anyone who:71) Has no problems with someone being attacked, but cries “foul” if the victim fights back, especially if they outfight the attacker.This is a sure sign of someone who doesn’t hesitate to attack and feels entitled to get away with it; only chronic evildoers think that evil behavior is ok, and only the scariest sociopathic ones object to victims fighting in their own defense.72) Expresses intolerance and an ugly attitude towards any group of people for whom they d ...

The most delicious chips EVER... and the sweetest otters 2007-04-08 02:35:00 I had a really good coupon for the new Pringles Select chips, which are gourmet-style snacks in a bag rather than the can-o-chips Pringles is associated with; 3 of the 4 available flavors (Parmesan Garlic, Sun Dried Tomato and Cinnamon Sweet Potato) didn't have a chance of tasting good to me, but, as a lover of Chinese food, including moderately hot stuff (and how hot could a mainstream chip be, after all?), I figured that the Szechuan Barbecue flavor had a good chance of being enjoyable. I got them, tried them, and...YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!They're so good that I, with my will of steel where food consumption is concerned, could barely stop eating them. So good that my husband, after just ONE chip, warned me that I needed to hide the bag, half-joked that he'd be buying more bags that I'd never see, and asked if we could have a MEAL built around them (which we will-we'll have hamburger patties to provide protein and then polish off a bag of these chips with t ...

Live each day as if it were your last... yeah, right 2007-04-04 03:11:00 Sounds like a wonderful bit of advice, with the subtext that it'll allow you to make the most out of life... but will it?If you knew that tomorrow would be your final day: Would you go to work and/or school? Would you exercise or take any other health-enhancing measures such as stress reduction or consuming nutritional supplements? Would you make, or go to, any doctor or dentist appointments? What kinds of food would you eat, and in what quantities? Would you bother showering, brushing or flossing? Would you do any housecleaning or yard maintenance? If you had sex, would you use contraception or worry about safer sex? If there was someone hot you've wanted to sleep with who was willing, but you'd held back because at least one of you wasn't single, would you go for it? Would you waste time picking up your dry cleaning or running other errands? Would you shave, trim your toenails, or do anything else that'd essentially be primping your corpse? Would you be polite to peo ...

Odd critter behavior 2007-03-31 02:32:00 We have several skunks that visit our patio to eat astonishing amounts of kibble every night. A couple of months ago, I put out the bones left over from our ribs dinner so that they could, in theory, gnaw the scraps off of them; although they'd sadly shown no shred of interest in the rats and mice that swarm our yard, in the wild they DO hunt various little vermins and so might be expected to enjoy some meat. When the 1st skunk started eagerly tearing meat off a rib, we beamed happily; things turned unexpectedly exciting when the usually mannerly little mammal shook the bone, pounced on it, and began dragging it vigorously around... some of those bones got hauled 20 feet, completely out of the yard!! It turned out that ALL the skunks did that with the bones, which was interesting because it's not like they often pull down a COW in the wild and so would have an instinctive way of handling its parts. It's hilarious to see the normally placid animals baring their fangs and being ...

What makes us search for meaning? 2007-03-27 04:08:00 Quick note: After 3 years of having the Babel Fish translator on my site, I've switched to a new one; it's that big purple thing in the sidebar. I chose it because it has 10 languages instead of 8, allows you to select format and color, and has a more compact design; if you want it, and you really SHOULD have a translator to assist foreign visitors, you can get it here:http://www.appliedlanguage.com/trans/free_quick.aspxScott Adams made an intriguing point on his blog:"When you serve a purpose larger than yourself, you experience the sensation of having meaning. There are plenty of larger purposes from which to choose: You can save the whales, feed the poor, shelter the homeless, march for peace, serve your notion of God, whatever. The details don't matter.If your reaction to my explanation of larger purposes was 'none of that sounds interesting to me,' then you haven't finished fixing yourself. When you do, you will automatically look outward. It's how humans are wired. We ...