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Humor

"It is the right hemisphere that understands the emotional or the humorous aspect of a narrative; it is also better able to appreciate irony and sarcasm – all that is not explicit but radically alters meaning. . . . There is a large literature showing that the right hemisphere is crucial for appreciation of cartoons, jokes and humour of every kind." Iain McGilchrist, The Matter with Things

Ignorance, Tigers, and Brews You Can Use

I watched one of the scariest TV programs ever last night: Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader [http://fox.com/areyousmarter/]? The level of ignorance in our country is astounding (but see my speculation below). Last night featured a high school history teacher, a "rocket scientist," and

Monday Miscellany

The travel season starts soon. Instead of posting Public Service Announcements about when I'll be gone, I'm just going to pre-program my posts. The posts will be sundry passages from my reading and short essays that aren't tied to any current events or news

The Quick-Hitting Eudemon

This is nothing. Many Americans sleepwalk their entire lives away: American doctors are preparing to chill volunteers into a state of suspended animation that could keep them asleep for months. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article1845294.ece] __________ First I read about the reverse scam artists that

Tuesday Funny

Everyone needs a hero, and I've found mine: The scam baiters, a cadre of funny reverse scam artists who intellectually flail the Nigerian 419 scam artists. This is a must read [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200706/cyberscam]. Unfortunately, I don't know if you need a

Light Eudemon

Not much time for blogging and the Internet has a dearth of decent blogging material. I offer merely the following: Woman gets drunk and hurts herself. A doctor in the emergency room (with an obvious strong paternalistic streak, but within propriety, as far as I'm concerned) gave a

The Weekend Eudemon

Baseball and beer, again. Michael's (8) game finished about 25 minutes early, so we picked up a pizza and went home and drank beer on the porch. A friend joined us for about two hours. A pleasant evening. I drank a handful of Oberons. They went down very

The Weekend Eudemon

Michigan Week is here. All sorts of functions in my small town, the official celebration "Kick Off" city. My family is only attending the parade (I'll do more later this week). Last night, we had a baseball game for Jack (10) and out-of-town company arrived. We

The Thursday Eudemon

It's the Solemnity of the Ascension under the traditional calendar, the Pistons play the Bulls tonight, and I have non-stop meetings today from 8:30 this morning through 6:30 tonight (at which point I get to attend Michael's baseball game). So much, so much. I

The Weekend Eudemon

Baseball and beer. A Tigers game? Nope, it was son Jack's team getting shellacked in little league, then my wife and I christening our new outdoor furniture with a few Oberon [http://www.bellsbeer.com/branddetail.asp?BrandID=7] ales and music. I typically go to bed early,

The Weekend Eudemon

The best laid plans . . . Did I say I wasn't working yesterday? It didn't quite work out. I spent about two hours dealing with office stuff from my house in the morning. I also spent 30 minutes in the office Friday morning, then had to go back