Treading barefoot over the smooth stone floors of an open-air Jain temple deep in the scrublands of Rajasthan, listening to the chants of the faithful wafting through the cooling breeze, I came to a realization: American suburbs are really very pleasant ( Read more... )

Listen for the "muskrat giggles."

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This is Todd's fault, by the way.

I find that often, when I express an opinion, someone will argue with me by essentially saying that other people disagree with me.  This tends to happen most during policy discussions.  "I think we should do X."  "Well good luck - A, B, and C all disagree with you ( Read more... )

OMG OMG OMG ( Read more... )

Sleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleepsleep.

Isn't sleep a funny word?  It sounds like a campy alien noise, like "gonk" or "bwoop."  Sleep.  Sleep sleep.

Guess what I haven't had enough of lately.

Last night Todd and I went to a talk at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).  HHMI is a privately funded lab where scientists can work free of the responsibilities of teaching, in collaboration with other scientists who are studying all kinds of different things.  Primarily their goal is to find out how the brain works.  It's pretty neat ( Read more... )

Sociologists:


( Read more... )

So I've been thinking lately that I might want to look into getting a degree in economics.  It would have several advantages, including solidly middle-class pay, being related to how the world works, etc.  So today, I googled careers in economics and came up with this page, which explains what economists do all day.

And illustrates it.


( Read more... )

I touched on my ideas about human morality a little while ago in my post entitled "Religion," but I read a buffle-brained article in the New York Times today that made me want to elaborate.  The gist of the article is that secular reasoning is by nature devoid of the moral axioms that are necessary for policy debate, so it must steal them from ( Read more... )

I've been thinking about this subject a lot since I recently stumbled upon several Youtube videos about unschooling.

Now, it's not as if I wasn't already familiar with the idea.  The philosophy of unschooling is the reason Mom started homeschooling me and my siblings to begin with.  The idea is that children learn things best when they are ready to ( Read more... )