“Where we have strong emotions, we’re liable to fool ourselves.” – Carl Sagan “All forms of self-defeating behavior are unseen and unconscious, which is why their existence is denied.” – Vernon Howard It’s such a human thing to do, isn’t it? Repeatedly doing something that’s harmful to ourselves simply because it feels good. Or choosing … More Will logic and reason ever empower us to stop eating meat?
A recurring theme of this blog is that humans are peculiar creatures. One of our peculiarities is that each person has personal preferences for just about everything and anything. Name anything and you’re likely to find that people will have large and subtle variations in how they prefer it. Food, cars, clothes, weather, games, and … More The societal implications of indulging preferences.
Have you noticed humans are always competing against each other? Have you ever paused to think why that’s true – and if it needs to be true? Competition is the foundation of what has allows us to succeed and by us, I mean our species. Without a competitive spirit, a species is ill-equipped to survive … More Competition as a hindrance to our existence.
Florida algae – out of sight, out of mind? Out of sight, but probably not fully out of mind. The google trend chart below shows the relative number of searches for the word “algae” in the United States. It’s clear the peak searching was last summer at the height of the algae disaster. That’s quite … More Climate change is relentless. Just ask the Aussies about their algae blooms.
What circumstances cause one person’s enthusiastic approach to an issue to be ineffective and to resonate with only a polarized minority, while another person’s enthusiasm launches a movement that results in a major cultural shift? Maybe it’s as simple as enthusiasm that is not tempered by reality is self-limiting. Anyone can be enthusiastic about virtually … More Enthusiasm’s impact on affecting change is bifurcated.
To maintain the frenetic, myopic devotion of his logic-adverse base, Trump continues to invoke his sophomoric, sophistical slogan of “Build the Wall.” To be sure (and factual), no one with any knowledge of the border issue and is an objective thinker believes building a concrete barrier will have any positive impact on our border security. … More “The Wall” is an aspirin
Should it matter to Hoosiers that we have only one medical school in the state? Yes, definitely, for at least two distinct reasons. First, more medical schools would result in an increase in the number of physicians in the state which would in turn provide additional workforce capacity and opportunities to address medically underserved regions … More A prescription to improve the health of Hoosiers: A second medical school in Indiana.
9/18/2018 Dear Senator Young, As a distinguished graduate of the US Naval Academy, a former Naval intelligence officer with a top secret clearance, and a former leader of the VMU-2 intelligence department, I want to know what you think about Trump’s broad and indiscriminate declassification of information related to the Russia probe. If you can, … More An open letter to Senator Todd Young regarding declassifying documents related to the Russia investigation
It’s been nearly a month since an August 9th airstrike by the Saudi coalition destroyed a school bus in Northern Yemen. Over 40 children were killed in the attack by a bomb made in America. Initially, the Saudi’s claimed the bombing in the Saada province had targeted missile launchers, but they have since acknowledged the strike … More The Military-Industrial Complex at age 57: A bomb made in Pennsylvania obliterates a school bus in Yemen.
August 31, 2018: “The results show that insects will cause significantly increased grain loss across many regions of a warmer world.”[1] July 26, 2018: “Trump administration to freeze Obama-era fuel standards for cars, light trucks”[2] These two, recent headlines caught my attention and reinforced to me that humans are failing to put the climate change … More EPA deregulation accelerates the demise of our species. Or, killing humanity is just dumb.
Confronting Mediocrity 