Generating worlds, exploring them, losing the thread.
One writer, however much tongue in cheek, has actually expressed admiration for addicts:
I admire addicts. In a world where everybody is waiting for some blind, random disaster, or some sudden disease, the addict has the comfort of knowing what will most likely wait for him down the road. He’s taken some control over his ultimate fate, and his addiction keeps the cause of death from being a total surprise. ~ Chuck Palahniuk
Overall, though, even Palahniuk would probably concede … Read more
Jack Shackaway not only accuses me of plagiarism, never mind he’s a squatter on this site, he has asked whether I’d post the following item for him.
Thirteen years ago, South Park writers saw clearly into the future
Check out the 20 August 1997 episode where Cartman crosses Emerson’s name off a copy of Walden, substitutes his own, submits it to a “Save Our Fragile Planet” essay contest, and wins. The reactions of everyone from Cartman himself to … Read more
Here’s one more way modern digital technology is making our lives worse.
In times past, I’d never leave the house without a little notebook in my pocket. The plastic jacket provided handy pockets for business cards. More importantly, meanwhile, the front of the diary served as a day planner, where I’d enter appointments and other reminders from front to back as far ahead as the future boded. The back of the book was where notes for posterity went—where in idle … Read more
This morning I had an interesting experience, one that I will now relate, sparing you any need to conduct your own field research.
… Read more
In short, don’t put namman muay (“Boxing Liniment”) in your eye.
I awoke with a sore shoulder and, in jockish high spirits, I splashed some of this fiery oil onto the offending muscles with such enthusiasm that quite a lot of it went instead into my eye. Both hands being already contaminated, I couldn’t rinse the eyeball
Excessive cogitation causes canary brains to explode, providing much entertainment for small children.
And so it goes. First it was African gray parrots demonstrating they were smarter than elephants.
(See video.)
Then it was crows and their ilk displaying foresight and tool-making skills. (Click on photo.)
Now we’ve got bait-fishing herons.
… Read moreFrom The Scientist
Bait use in birds
After reviewing the literature, researchers concluded bait fishing by certain species of herons is a real and distinct behavior. Bait
How’s the new year going for you guys? I had a piece of exercise equipment, in a somewhat inauspicious vein, try to crush my skull about 7am on the morning of January the first. Ever since, I’ve been reflecting on the fact that, just when you least expect it, irony can leap out and mash you. I hope, despite appearances, that incident wasn’t a harbinger of things to come in 2011.
Given the fact I was almost bitten to death … Read more
In my last post, I discussed the mindful appreciation of a novel tequila experience, one that might even be good for you. Who knows? Our test subjects felt better after taking it, at least, and they were all still alive the next morning.
My earlier “Magic potion revealed!” had for months been a leading magnet for visitors to this site; “T. Mockingbird” promises to be an even bigger draw, which leads one to wonder whether the therapeutic … Read more
The secret potion I revealed several months ago has proven a great success, in terms of interested visitors from around the world. And the world should rejoice, for yet another formula has recently come to me in a vision. Preliminary testing is complete. 
Tequila Mockingbird (serves 4-6)
Tequila 500ml
Dried & roasted hot chili peppers 4-5 or to taste
Chaser/antidote
Lime juice 500ml
Sugar 4 tblsps or to taste
Salt 2 tspns to mix in
Coarse salt enough to rime … Read more
The other morning I went to one of Bangkok’s leading hospitals to take advantage of nearly half-price super-deluxe five-star medical services that were still twice as expensive as any check-up your average Thai citizen has ever heard of.
But this extravaganza was supervised by my favorite doctor, someone who has overseen my gradual decay over the years, the very person who wrongly accused me of being pre-diabetic about a year ago (see “Sons of the Undead: Lives of the … Read more
This week I’ve been reading On Dialogue, by the late, great physicist-philosopher-neuropsychologist David Bohm. In this book, he presents, among other things, a useful notion he describes as the “proprioception of thought.” I now see that, once again, I’ve reinvented the wheel, though my scuba-wisdom version is pretty primitive compared to Bohm’s.
Never mind that Bill the Mathematician had already asked me how my stop-breathe-think fix differed from counting to ten, an idea that has been around awhile. So here … Read more