September 2003
Saturday 27 September
- Crazy guinea pigs, demented lab rats - This is a dope story about how lab animals may make bad research subjects. Basically, their confined existences may drive them bonkers, as in the case of lab mice who do backflips once every second for up to half an...
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Tuesday 23 September
- Dean and Bush -- two sides of the same privileged coin - Weekly Standard editor David Brooks recently got a column at the NYTimes, and with William Safire now they got 2, count 'em, 2 conservatives in house. I've got to say that Brooks is way better than Safire. First of all,...
Posted in political currents
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| 173 Comments
- Woof, God. Woof. - Interesting bit from an interview with biologist John Maynard Smith in the 14 June 2003 New Scientist. He mentions religion in animals, and I have been thinking a lot recently that animals probably are religious. 'NS: Perhaps your best-known work...
Posted in psychology & consciousness
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Monday 22 September
- Clashing color - Disclaimer: I don't usually comb the fashion section of the NYTimes looking for quasi-celebrity wedding announcements. But today I found word that Jonathan Frankel, who apparently is some teevee personality, is marrying a '9/11 widow'. For a guy who makes...
Posted in color
, language
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- Puddin' - 'The proof is in the puddin' -- one of my favorite phrases of all-time. I'm going to immediately start getting into some of the ideas I want to steer toward in this new incarnation of thinkness, so as to show...
Posted in language
, monkey vs robot
, psychology & consciousness
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- New thinkness - You may have wondered why there has been no more thinkness lately. You wonder, Golly, what's been missing from my life recently? Am I right? [Nod attentively.] Or maybe you gave up on such an unproductive, inconsistent site entirely. [Shake...
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Thursday 4 September
- Republicans and fiscal responsibility - Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, told the Manchester Union Leader that the national Republican Party has little desire to try to shrink government, per its old, Reagan-era ideals. Its stated goal of fiscal responsibility involves only growing...
Posted in political currents
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- Deep regret - pot calling the fridge black - Okay, I've totally gotten out of posting to my 'chronic' columns of late. I think it's somewhat related to the fact that I don't feel like manually entering them all into my blog page. But perhaps at some point I'll...
Posted in language
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- US hegemon as UK empire - I just came across this interesting story by Niall Ferguson, a rising academic superstar, musing about the US as an imperial or hegemonic power. It starts with a comparison of the very similar quotes uttered by the British general occupying...
Posted in political currents
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Wednesday 3 September
- God bless that woman - Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that. -- Britney...
Posted in political currents
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| 151 Comments
- Tell it, dad - An Israeli guy who won a peace prize in Germany reminds me of my father. I'm wondering if I should pass along this story to him and try to get him to realize maybe Israel isn't only the land of...
Posted in political currents
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Tuesday 2 September
- Biggest Fibbest - or... The Fibbonacci Series Heh. This is hilarious. The Washington Monthly and Beliefnet have teamed up to take a poll of which of the past four US presidents [Reagan to BushII] was the worst liar. Interesting idea, in that it...
Posted in political currents
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- Old tricks - I'm back from Burningman. Miss me? As I was driving back, I was wondering if the world had changed much while I was incommunicado. Then I read Daniel Benjamin's straight-dope Slate story that shows that Rice and Rumsfeld recent concocted...
Posted in political currents
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