Eclectic Living
My optimism stems largely from a belief in progress. Progress is the inevitable outcome of accumulated knowledge and enlightenment. As we understand the world better, understand ourselves better, we come to understand how to improve the world and our place in it. The Progressive approach is guided by reason and virtue. In many regards (hunger,... Continue Reading →
Car rights supporters are up in arms about measures that have curbed their freedom. The most egregious of these car controls is speed limits on how fast one can drive. "By imposing these limits on how fast I can drive," Carl, a car rights activist said, "they have taken my freedom to go as fast... Continue Reading →
The Letter This is a letter that was sent to friends in our neighborhood in Longmont, Colorado (postmarked from Denver). D is brown, a 2nd generation Mexican/Spanish American (his father was born in Mexico, his mother's ancestry is Spanish, he was born in Texas). S is white, with ancestry in the United Kingdom. And their three... Continue Reading →
A Note from Poppa: Today we have brought in a very special guest to the Cottage. Watch his tremendous proposal to Make America Great Again. Or you can read the full transcript below. Not since Jonathan Swift has someone come up with such a magnificent proposal. https://youtu.be/6KKr4oYwAPs A Tremendous Proposal For building a big beautiful wall – a real... Continue Reading →
https://youtu.be/fmghBnJZTLw A few years ago I worked with some colleagues to write a paper about the potential for entomophagy to address undernutrition. We titled it, fittingly enough, "The potential for entomophagy to address undernutrition," and it was published in the Ecology of Food and Nutrition journal. Entomophagy is the fancy word for insect eating. My brother and I... Continue Reading →
Here at the Cottage, my family and I, like most of the world, were shocked/stunned/surprised (dumbfounded, flabbergasted, stupefied, blindsided, bewildered, nutpunched?) that Donald Trump was elected president earlier this month. As what was supposed to be celebratory wine turned to bitter anodyne, a tumultuous fracas erupted in my head. My id, assholish as always, battled... Continue Reading →
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'm in my fourth month of time-restricted intermittent fasting - primarily eating in a six-hour window between 2 and 8 p.m. Along the way, I've been getting my cholesterol tested (results forthcoming). In addition to intermittent fasting, I've instituted three different diet phases. After the initial whatever/whenever diet (not so good for my cholesterol or... 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 →
Poppa's Cottage 