MAXSTUDIO Xray
Just a shoe
Animal behavior
E.O. Wilson in Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
If the religious mythos did not exist in a culture, it would be quickly invented, and in fact it has been everywhere, thousands of times through history. Such inevitability is the mark of instinctual behavior in any species. That is, even when learned, it is guided toward certain states by emotion-driven rules of mental development. To call religion instinctive is not to suppose any particular part of its mythos is untrue, only that its sources run deeper than ordinary habit and are in fact hereditary, urged into birth through biases in mental development encoded in the genes.
Drugs vs. Shoes, or I really am a responsible adult
Today I spent $250 on a 4 month supply of birth control. That’s $750 a year. Before the pharmacy at my school closed because of budget cuts, it was $540 a year. Unfortunately, I can’t find a prescription discount card that covers my pills.
Despite the outrageous cost (you’d think the pills with less hormone in them would be cheaper. They aren’t.) it’s worth the money – without the pills I spent a week every month feeling like I’m in labor.
But I wish I could have spent that money on these instead:
Jarvis by Jessica Bennet
and these:
Kicky by Chinese Laundry
Why is this a debate?
A new study in the American Journal of Public Health calculated that 45,000 non-elderly US citizens die every year (based on data from the 80s and 90s) because they don’t have health insurance. That number is higher than the 18 – 22,000 cited in many other articles because the studies that estimated the 18 – 22,000 deaths were based on older data and health care has become more expensive (for everyone) and inaccessible to those without insurance in the past few decades.
Many opponents of reform don’t have a problem spending $3 trillion to attack Iraq over the 2,976 9/11 deaths (regardless of the fact that Iraq had nothing to do with those deaths). But they do have a problem spending a much, much smaller amount of money saving 45,000 young Americans every year.
Chronic conditions are especially deadly, even if they can be controlled with good medical care. If you lose your job because you’re sick, you lose health insurance and get sicker. Many, like Nikki White, die. Pre-existing conditions may mean you can’t get insurance even if you can keep your job, and the list of pre-existing conditions is very very long and includes things like being a victim of domestic violence.
Even if you do have insurance, going broke when you get sick or hurt is not unusual and not having insurance puts people in terrible situations. Our system is so broken that people choose jail over rehab to get needed medical treatments.
77% of people support a public option and 73% of doctors support a public option. Why then is a public option so unlikely to be a part of health care reform?
How religion went bad
E.O. Wilson in Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
The rising agricultural societies, egalitarian at first, became hierarchical. As chiefdoms and then states thrived on agricultural surpluses, hereditary rulers and priestly castes took power. The old ethical codes were transformed into coercive regulations, always to the advantage of the ruling classes. About this time the idea of law-giving gods originated. Their commands lent the ethical codes overpowering authority, once again – no surprise – to the favor of the rulers.
What I’ve Noticed
Sexual assault prevention tips guaranteed to work: men, don’t rape people; women, just stop having a vagina to tempt the rapists.
Postcards from a green future by Liam Young & Darryl Chen
For as wealthy as the US is, you’d think we’d have safe drinking water. But we really don’t. Pollution is one reason why the popularity of bottled water is such a bad thing – people think that because they’re drinking bottled water they’re safe. Then they stop worrying about the tap water until it’s too late.
fush suckerbutt by snickcluck on Flickr
Churches and sexual abuse seem to go hand in hand.
I've always wondered if we'd recognize alien intelligence
Nation building is for the people who live in that nation. Also, Afghanistan has a pretty awesome (and rather long) history.
What I think when I see women in games
Crossed wires
When I have migraines, my senses become hyper-acute – light, smells, sounds, tastes, sensation are all too much. Sometimes, though, I sense things that aren’t actually there. I often smell smoke or exhaust when there isn’t any. Coffee tastes peppery. And I can hear an indistinct conversation even when there aren’t any people nearby.
It’s enough to make me feel like I’m going crazy sometimes.