Scree

noun : an accumulation of loose stones or rocky debris lying on a slope or at the base of a hill or cliff.

Religious freedom turning into passive-aggression →

Published February 6, 2015  ·  All posts on Feb 6  ·  

To make this work, conservative Christians need to divert attention from the people they are mistreating by portraying themselves as the victims. And that requires cultivating a hyper-sensitivity to any form of involvement in activities they disapprove of. So rather than sympathize with the lesbian couple who gets the bakery door slammed in their faces, the public should instead sympathize with the poor wedding-cake baker whose moral purity is besmirched when the labor of his hands is used in a celebration of immorality and perversion.

~ Doug Muder from, “Religious Freedom” means Christian Passive-Aggressive Domination

slip:4uwere1.

ɕ

Carbohydrates are way more important →

Published February 3, 2015  ·  All posts on Feb 3  ·  

This entry is part 2 of 25 in the series M. Eades' Blog

It’s much more important for your long term health to work on keeping your blood sugar down than it is to work to keep your cholesterol down. It’s especially important when you realize that most people try to keep their cholesterol levels at bay be consuming a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, which is a diet containing, in many cases, a cup and a half to two cups of sugar equivalents per day.

~ Micheal Eades from, «http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/diabetes/the-sugar-hypothesis/»

ɕ

Trapped atmospheric waves →

Published February 2, 2015  ·  All posts on Feb 2

Weather extremes in the summer—such as the record heat wave in the United States that hit corn farmers and worsened wildfires in 2012—have reached an exceptional number in the last ten years. Man-made global warming can explain a gradual increase in periods of severe heat, but the observed change in the magnitude and duration of some events is not so easily explained.

~ Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research from, Trapped atmospheric waves triggered more weather extremes

slip:4upyne7.

ɕ

Michael R. Eades blog →

Published February 1, 2015  ·  All posts on Feb 1  ·  

This entry is part 1 of 25 in the series M. Eades' Blog

What, who?

I recently (2015) discovered Dr. Eades blog. (I had not heard of his books.) His blog contains a wealth of medical science explained in layman’s terms. The first few articles I read convinced me to start at the beginning of his “blog archive” and try to read HIS ENTIRE BLOG. I quickly learned: He has a lot of personal and current events posts which I’m not interested in, and there’s way way too much get through in short order.

(more…)

What’s really wrong with Congress? →

Published February 1, 2015  ·  All posts on Feb 1

Everybody seems to agree that Congress doesn’t work.

If you’re liberal, you’re appalled that even something like universal background checks for gun purchases (90% public approval!) can’t pass. If you’re conservative, you’re horrified that nothing can be done about the mounting national debt or the projections for exponential growth in entitlement spending.

And even if you care not at all about parties or ideologies, it’s just embarrassing to watch our leaders create one artificial crisis after another. We’re the richest country on the planet, and yet we’re constantly threatening to shut down our government, default on our bonds, mint a trillion-dollar coin, or do some other weird thing that would shame the generalissimo of a banana republic.

Is this any way to run a super power?

~ Doug Muder from, What’s Really Wrong With Congress?

slip:4uwewa1.

ɕ

Deconstructing the CAP theorem →

Published January 31, 2015  ·  All posts on Jan 31

In computing, the so-called CAP theorem (1999-2002) has become both an icon and a bone of contention in the world of databases — a supposed truth about distributed systems. A lot has been written about it since it was formulated, especially around the recent debates on `SQL/noSQL’, but its many hearsay formulations are beset with a number of problems.

~ Mark Burgess from, Deconstructing the `CAP theorem’ for CM and DevOps

slip:4umabo3.

If you work with databases, reading this might be wise.

ɕ

A person should be strong →

Published January 28, 2015  ·  All posts on Jan 28  ·  ,

This entry is part 11 of 72 in the series My Journey

It suggests that a person should aim to be strong, but not just in a physical sense. They should aim to be resilient, free thinking, confident and yet remain humble. They should learn to be self-sufficient and useful to their loved ones and they should be aiming to always progress in some way.

~ Chris Rowat, from «http://www.parkourgenerations.com/node/9399»

Written to have 5 parts, plus the introduction, he’s only completed two parts so far. But if parkour/art d’déplacement/free running you love, read this you must.

ɕ

What if there is no spending problem? →

Published January 27, 2015  ·  All posts on Jan 27

Summing up: Liberals and conservatives agree that we have a long-term problem, but they argue about what kind of problem: a government spending problem or a healthcare cost problem.

Recently I ran into a potentially game-changing question: What if there is no problem? In other words, instead of being trapped in the dismal liberal/conservative argument about which apocalypse we’re headed towards, what if we’re actually not headed towards an apocalypse at all?

~ Doug Muder, from What if there’s no spending problem?

slip:4uwewa2.

ɕ

Abandon all hope →

Published January 26, 2015  ·  All posts on Jan 26  ·  

Less well known is Prometheus’ second gift. In Aeschylus’ “Prometheus Bound,” the chained Titan is pitilessly interrogated by the chorus. They ask him whether he gave human beings anything else. Yes, he says, “I stopped mortals from foreseeing doom.” How did you do that, they ask? His response is revealing: “I sowed in them blind hopes.”

~ Simon Critchley, from Abandon (Nearly) All Hope

slip:4unyaa1.

ɕ

The distress of the privileged →

Published January 25, 2015  ·  All posts on Jan 25  ·  

If you are one of the newly-visible others, this all sounds whiny compared to the problems you face every day. It’s tempting to blast through such privileged resistance with anger and insult.

Tempting, but also, I think, a mistake. The privileged are still privileged enough to foment a counter-revolution, if their frustrated sense of entitlement hardens.

So I think it’s worthwhile to spend a minute or two looking at the world from George Parker’s point of view: He’s a good 1950s TV father. He never set out to be the bad guy. He never meant to stifle his wife’s humanity or enforce a dull conformity on his kids. Nobody ever asked him whether the world should be black-and-white; it just was.

~ Doug Muder, from The Distress of the Privileged

slip:4uwete2.

ɕ