The practice of shifting clocks twice a year is an annoyance to everyone. Its roots go back to the Enlightenment, when such luminaries as Ben Franklin suggested the practice in part to keep urbanites, who lived by the clock, in better summertime sync with the rural majority who lived by…
I might owe some people an apology.
I recently posted about a song from “Scrubs the Musical,” a television episode that aired a few weeks ago. The title of this tune is presumably “Everything comes Down to Poo.” It is a clever and funny tune, but it is also dangerous.
For me (hopefully not for you) that song morphed into an “earworm,” another name for a song that can get stuck in one’s head. This crazy tune from Scrubs has been following me around relentlessly for the past two weeks. It has sometimes been distractingly annoying during the day. It even kept me awake one night last week.
What to do? I just happen to be reading a cogsci/music book: This is Your Brain on Music, by Daniel Levitin. Here’s what I learned from Levitin: There is relatively little scientific work done on the topic of earworms. What is clear is that
musicians are more likely to have ear worm attacks than non-musicians, and . . . people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are more likely to report being troubled by ear worms—in some cases medications for OCD can minimize the effects.
Hmmm . . . This makes me wonder whether Walgreens carries any over-the-counter medications for OCD . . .
Levitin suggests that the neural circuits representing a song somehow get stuck in “playback” mode, but usually only a small fragment of a song (15 to 30 seconds) is involved. Ear worms are most likely “simple songs and commercial jingles.”…
Ever since I started doubting the existence of God, I have frequently encountered confusion between the numerous labels used to describe non-theistic belief systems. This is most commonly seen between the words “atheist” and “agnostic,” both of which signify the absence of definitive belief in a deity. At first glance, the distinction may seem obvious: an atheist disbelieves the existence of God or gods, while an agnostic believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God and thus refuses to commit to either belief system. However, in reality these two terms tend to overlap to the extent that two people holding exactly the same (non)belief may label it differently, one identifying as an agnostic and the other, an atheist. Further, one’s label of choice is heavily influenced by the public perception of these terms, the word “atheist” being the more pejorative of the two in the eyes of the public. This probably convinces many non-theists to describe themselves as “agnostic,” as this label seems more palatable and less presumptuous than “atheist.” If one carefully examines the definitions of these terms, however, one should become more hesitant at rejecting one label for another.
I will begin my exposition by quoting from Bertrand Russell’s 1947 pamphlet, Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?
…[. . .] As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a
Check out the Simple Living Network, a non-profit website (absolutely no commercials) that provides lots of information on how to pare down your material excesses. The site is run entirely by volunteers, who sincerely try to practice what they preach. Here's the basic approach, as indicated on the home page:…
Dick Cheney and other conservatives constantly warn us of the “China threat.” Check out these headlines and articles:
This belligerent U.S. attitude that insists that China will inevitably ripen into our next big enemy concerns me for two reasons.
First, why can’t the U.S. work toward an upcoming era of cooperation with China, rather than assuming that we must eventually go to war because China is an emerging superpower? This preference for aggression rather than cooperation is a xenophobic tactic that Neocons have previously used to make “enemies” out of many other countries with whom we should be working to develop strong relationships. What is China’s sin, by the way? China is doing the same things the United States does. For instance, China competing economically with vigor. China is accruing wealth. China is testing sophisticated weapons. China is expanding its influence into parts of the world where petroleum can be found in the ground. Yet the U.S. is paranoid about China. If our frustration is that the Chinese practically own us (along with Japan), that is our own fault that we can’t control our own profligate government spending. I’m not advocating being naive. Perhaps China will someday threaten American interests. I’m suggesting that we should save harsh rhetoric if that happens.
Second, I have a personal stake in …