Octopodial Chrome

Walter Cronkite has spoken out about the absurdity and injustice of the War on Drugs. The man has been gravely mistaken about many things, but on this particular issue he’s spot-on. Will anyone listen?

A North Carolinian nursing assistant was slain by flesh-eating strep bacteria in the span of three days. What’s peculiar is that someone she knew also contracted the same strain—and that the physicians are not certain whether one of the two passed it to the other. Ummm…it’s a rare infection, and two people, familiar with one another, contracted it. You think that just maybe one got it from the other?

Even more worrisome are the emergency measures they took trying to save her life: amputating her arm at the clavicle and removing all the muscle and tissue around her left breast, torso and thigh. Lord save me from such physick!

Twenty years ago the ultrasound machine started being widely used in East Asia—and twenty years ago the people thereof started to murder their girls in the womb. Now, the male-to-female ratio is grossly out of whack—what will the result be of having too many young men competing for too few young women? History suggests that the status of women may rise, but that it could also be a time of wars, banditry and other adolescent behaviour. It’s going to be an interesting century.

Daniel Dennet (an atheist) and Richard Swinburne (a Christian of one sort or another) debate how we should study religion. A very interesting exchange, making some interesting points about scientific enquiry and the nature of thought.

Jason Headley asked himself that question, and decided to see what happened if he stopped washing his hair. The answer: not much. It turns out that shampoo doesn’t really do much for one.

My frequent readers (do I actually have any frequent readers?) may have noticed that this blog has been especially quiet of late, even more strikingly so when one considers that the month just past was my most prolific to date. Well, ever since January I have been busy at work—they’re actually getting their money’s worth out of me! And thus rather than spend my time browsing the web and blogging about neat stuff, I find that my time is spent working rather hard.

But now it’s the weekend, I’ve no films from Netflix, and I’ve time to catch up. So buckle your seatbelts, folks—we’re in for quite a ride!

Today my bike’s odometer rolled over to 1,000 miles! That’s 63,360,000 inches, every one of which was powered by my two legs. That’s also 1,000 miles not on my car—at my rate of 34½¢/mile, that’s a savings of $345. Still not break-even, but getting there. And of course I’m healthier too.

One thousand miles! One thousand miles! (I’m doing my victory dance, which is a sight no-one should be subjected to) One thousand miles!