The really nice thing about this book, aside from showing how the brain works to produce beliefs, is that it has a certain quality of readability which is hard to find.
Best of all, the author is very quick to admit that regarding a number of belief systems, he could be wrong.
That sort of honesty isn’t exactly easy to come by.
I just did a reread of 1984. I’d read it way back in high school.
Finishing it, I found it weirdly funny how I’d forgotten Big Brother wins in the end.
I just did a reread of 1984. I’d read it way back in high school.
Finishing it, I found it weirdly funny how I’d forgotten Big Brother wins in the end.
Welcome back, DM. I was beginning to worry about you.
Occam
I’m fine. I just got really freaking busy for a while. I had to find a new place to live, move, my laptop got assaulted by a particularly nasty piece of malware, my work schedule got all rearranged and f-ed up, and more. Oh what a joy the last month and a half have been.
Welcome back, DM. I was beginning to worry about you.
Occam
I’m fine. I just got really freaking busy for a while. I had to find a new place to live, move, my laptop got assaulted by a particularly nasty piece of malware, my work schedule got all rearranged and f-ed up, and more. Oh what a joy the last month and a half have been.
Well I hope you slide into a smooth summer. ditto on the welcome back
Welcome back, DM. I was beginning to worry about you.
Occam
I’m fine. I just got really freaking busy for a while. I had to find a new place to live, move, my laptop got assaulted by a particularly nasty piece of malware, my work schedule got all rearranged and f-ed up, and more. Oh what a joy the last month and a half have been.
Well I hope you slide into a smooth summer. ditto on the welcome back
It seems as if this has been a miserable last few weeks for many of us. For me it’s been a quite painful ear infection that just isn’t clearing up. Let’s hope we get through all this and have, as CC said, a smooth summer.
Get well everybody! I am finishing up Jacoby’s Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. I did not know the history and the key players (because they weren’t taught in school). I did not know the link between abolitionists and freethinkers. I learned so much from this fine book. I watched Jon Stewart recently interview one of my heroes (Bill Moyers) and Moyers said that his best interview ever was with Jacoby on her Freethinkers book.
Thanks guys. I don’t know why, but spring and early summer are always rough for me. It seems like every crappy, stressful thing that’s hit me over the last few years has occurred somewhere between March and June. Which doubly sucks because those are my favorite months for the weather. Curse you, Universe!!!
I think you can be more specific than blaming the Universe. Maybe it’s due to vitamin D deficiency from not getting enough exposure to sun during the winter. Doug has said it here many times that they recommend taking vitamin D supplements. Perhaps you should give it a try (?).
I think you can be more specific than blaming the Universe. Maybe it’s due to vitamin D deficiency from not getting enough exposure to sun during the winter. Doug has said it here many times that they recommend taking vitamin D supplements. Perhaps you should give it a try (?).
I don’t get much sunlight in the other seasons either. I’m a nerd, and as any scientist worth his salt knows, we are a pale and sickly people prone to spontaneous combustion upon contact with sunlight.
Thanks guys. I don’t know why, but spring and early summer are always rough for me. It seems like every crappy, stressful thing that’s hit me over the last few years has occurred somewhere between March and June. Which doubly sucks because those are my favorite months for the weather. Curse you, Universe!!!
D.M. maybe you have reverse S.A.D. I think I got some of that,I always feel worse in summer than the rest of the year.
I think you can be more specific than blaming the Universe. Maybe it’s due to vitamin D deficiency from not getting enough exposure to sun during the winter. Doug has said it here many times that they recommend taking vitamin D supplements. Perhaps you should give it a try (?).
I don’t get much sunlight in the other seasons either. I’m a nerd, and as any scientist worth his salt knows, we are a pale and sickly people prone to spontaneous combustion upon contact with sunlight.
D.M. maybe you have reverse S.A.D. I think I got some of that,I always feel worse in summer than the rest of the year.
*shrugs* Who knows? Maybe right now I just remember more of the crap that’s happened to me in those months. A few months or years from now I may recall that more crap happens to me in autumn or winter.
mid atlantic - 07 June 2011 02:41 PM
Why do the nerds always have to suffer
Our traditional diet of Hot Pockets and Mt Dew probably has something to do with it.
