Well, we’ve been spending a lot of time these past two weeks dealing with the abandonment of logic and science by adults. So, today would be a good day to discuss one of the craziest delusions of the bunch-paraskevidekatriaphobia and it’s related delusion- triskadekaphobia. What are these? Fear of Friday the 13th and the number 13, in general.
Monthly Archives: February 2015
CCVI
I grew up in the State of New York. Back then, we had two holidays in February- Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday. Our 16th and 1rst Presidents.
Just the facts, ma’am…
As I am sure you know, I am a life-long technologist. OK. Maybe only since I was six- but that’s pretty much life-long. And, I’ve been trained in the scientific method. Which means one must develop a hypothesis- and try to prove it wrong. If one can’t, it provides validity to the scenario one considered.
Amorality
I am getting pretty tired of folks abandoning logic. They listen to “facts” that are clearly malarkey – but because they desperately want to live in a make-believe world, they aver them to be true.
Still?
I have always been a fan of Will and Ariel Durant. I read what was then the 9 volume set before I graduated from junior high. (I finished the other two, newer, tomes comprising their entire History of Civilization when they were published in 1975.) These eminently readable books helped me learn history- more than I learned in school or from other books.
Move over Kathy Griffin. We need the D list.
Sit Down and Shut Up.
If you don’t want to read a political blog, today is the day to skip reading mine. Because I have had more than enough of the stupidity that obtains in Republican politics. It’s why I’m actually breaking into the queue- because if yesterday weren’t a holiday, I would have published this article then- right after these “facts” became news.
Tu Bshvat Higiya
Oregon leads the way- again. Or, is that still?
In the late 2000s- long before Obamacare- Oregon began considering how it could best manage the health care costs for its poorer citizens. This program eventually became known as the Oregon Health Care Experiment.
Continue reading Oregon leads the way- again. Or, is that still?
Pioneer. Renaissance Man.
The world changed dramatically a month after I was born. No, not because I was born- but because Dr. Carl Djerassi found a way (with his colleague Dr. George Rosenkranz and Luis E. Miramontes, a grad student) to produce norethindrone, a synthetic version of progestrin on 15 October 1951 (which also happens to be the first day of the Jewish festival of Sukot). (Interestingly, this synthetic compound was derived from my favorite vegetable- the yam or sweet potato.) And, progestrin is fundamental to what we now know as ‘the pill’ (contraceptives).