Eclectic Living
What kind of world would we live in if politics were largely guided by science rather than greed or special interests? Under new prime minister Justin Trudeau, Canada is revamping its environmental policy to "ensure that decisions on major projects are based on science, facts, and evidence." Funny that this is, in the words of Science... Continue Reading →
I spent the morning channeling Donald Trump. I feel for the guy - he just doesn't get much media play. So I figured, via the huge readership of this blog, maybe we can garner some much-needed attention for The Donald. Donald Trump has been variously described as a narcissist, a fascist, and a psychopath. Of... Continue Reading →
There's a popular equation about internet trolling called the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory (GIFT): I like the sentiment of this theory, but I think it's missing a wee little detail. You see, before Al Gore invented the internet* there were these things called bathroom stalls, and that's where trolls used to find release (sometimes literally)... Continue Reading →
It's well known that humans have had a huge impact on the world's biodiversity, with some suggesting that we have precipitated the sixth major extinction event in the Earth's history. This may also be the worst sin perpetrated in Earth's history. And it will only be accelerated and perpetuated via climate change. Shitty job, us. A lesser known... Continue Reading →
The last time I wrote a post, I was getting ready to embark on an 11-day trip to Scotland to film a movie with my brother and a friend. As it turns out, shooting a feature-length film in 11 days in a foreign land is challenging. But it was also an incredible experience, which I'll document... Continue Reading →
2014 was the year of self-tracking for me. I created a mood tracking spreadsheet (download it for free), to which I also added my data from MyFitnessPal. Now the results are in, and what they reveal will shock you (not so much). The primary purpose of building my mood tracking contraption was to see which variables in my life... Continue Reading →
Do you wax nostalgic about the days when we were a primordial ooze floating in the ancient ocean? Me, too. But how did that ooze come together to start forming beings that could reproduce themselves? No one's quite sure how those first complex molecules, like RNA, formed. Was it magic? Abracadabra, let there be life! Well,... Continue Reading →
How much does language shape culture? Does English lead to more efficiency because of how precise it can be (with, by some estimates, more than twice as many words as the next verbose language)? Or does English delay learning because of its Byzantine and vermicular rules?* Is Spanish the opposite because of its relatively straightforward structure?... Continue Reading →
I'm not much of an aural learner, so in college I generally didn't garner much from lectures. In physics, I made it to class about three times (five, if you count the exams), preferring to learn from the textbook. The professor was incredibly dry, but he was a smart guy. At one point, after one of the... Continue Reading →
"I think we have reason to believe that the mind is equipped with a battery of emotions, drives, and faculties for reasoning and communicating, and that they have a common logic across cultures, are difficult to erase or redesign from scratch, were shaped by natural selection acting over the course of human evolution, and owe... Continue Reading →
Poppa's Cottage 