Colors as Shorthand (Ch. 1, Illusions)
Colors may not exist, but that does not mean they are not useful nevertheless. They are highly useful, and colors as shorthand help us process information more quickly.
Books
Whatever I Happen to Have Read
Colors as Illusions (Ch. 1, Illusions)
We are buffeted by illusions, ideas and images served up by our bodies to help us, but sometimes they only confuse us. Colors are a great example of a simple illusion, that can help us to understand some of the more complicated ones.
Happiness: Introduction (Part II)
We are often unhappy because we live with erroneous assumptions. But because we have lived with them for so long, they are familiar and even comfortable.
Questioning those assumptions will be crucial to changing them, and finding happiness.
Happiness: Introduction (part 1)
I question whether most of the television and bookstore gurus can really help us. People who constantly sport an enormous grin, and tell us that they have the secrets on how to be incredibly happy, unbelievably rich, or impossibly successful, aren’t very convincing.
If we can recognize that we are all just groping around blindly, maybe then we can all learn how to stumble around more logically, and stub our toes a little less often.
Snake Blind
Scientists, doctors, and all of us, are snake blind: it was true for Galen, Vesalius, and William Harvey, and it is true for today’s doctors & scientists.
Rules of Life (Short Version)
1. The game does not start later; it started when you were born. Despite what others may tell you, you have not missed much of what life has to offer.
2. You have a playing piece, called a ‘body’…
The Gus Levy Syndrome
We are at a particularly contentious point in American politics. In all of it, there is a lot of finger-pointing. We blame the party bosses, the media, big money, lobbyists, extremists, and our own elected officials. Oh, and partisan politics: the worst bastards that every walked the Earth are our beloved fellow American sitting across … [Read more…]
Church & State
Lent is a time for us to reconsider our lives, and our faults. One of the Deadly Sins is Pride. I would offer that one of the worst prides is the pride of knowledge, because it generates closed-mindedness and limits our thinking. This, in turn, leads us to create pain for our families, our friends, … [Read more…]
More Equal Pigs
Some animals are more equal than others.” Napoleon the Pig, Animal Farm by George Orwell When I was in graduate school, I was surprised to find that one of my classmates made his lab students memorize dates associated with Charles Darwin, including his birthday, the publication of The Origin of Species, and the years that … [Read more…]
Rockabye, Baby
The word cradle comes from the same Germanic root as the word cart. Which makes sense; the movement of either a cradle or a cart will put a child to sleep. Or the movement of a car, another related word. All parents have seen our children refuse to take a nap, and then watch them … [Read more…]