Why Swim in Cold Water
Author (black shorts with arms in the air) and friends, January 2, 2013 "You're crazy!" is still the most common response when I ask people if they want to join…
Deciphering “Fake News”
What is "fake news?" Outside of the context in which it has suddenly and recently become popular, the phrase "fake news" really shouldn't be such a contentious thing. It's all…
#PizzaGate: Conspiracies, Conspiracy Theories, and the Retention of Aristocratic Power
"We must, indeed, all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately." —Benjamin Franklin I read a novel about a year ago called Conspirata, a semi-historical account of the…
On Data and Science
The irrepressible Justicar recently exposed a fraudulent study published in the Journal of American Medical Associates linking Australia's 1996 gun-restriction legislation to decreases in mass shootings, in which "mass shootings"…
It’s All A Metaphor: Dreams, Memory, Language and Stories (Part I)
Why care about dreams? Dream interpretation has been a mystical art for thousands of years, and yet dreams, as they appear to us (when we remember them), look absurd. They…
Media, Loyalty, and Dylann Roof’s Truth
"In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it's impossible to…
Film Analysis: Apocalypse Now
I watched Apocalypse Now for the first time yesterday, and was impressed by the depth of its' exploration of morality, war, human-nature, and sanity. It may very well be among…
Sex and the Soul
I posted this picture from Bellevue College on facebook a while back as a sarcastic example of "tax-dollars well-spent." But there are many ways that tax-dollars are misused, particularly in…
Geeks Bearing Gifts: An Argument Against Transhumanism
A friend and I were watching a TED talk on the subject of aging. The speaker was Aubrey de Grey, a British biologist who proposed a simple but fascinating new…
On Wolves, Sheep, and Sheepdogs
Fool, prate not to me about covenants! There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each other through…