I once had tableware where the teaspoon and the tablespoon were almost the same size (in the same set!). I was annoyed, but it worked. Now I have tableware where the two spoon types are vastly different, with a huge gap in between. I like both of these sizes, but something seems to be missing. … Continue reading The Coffee Spoon
Democrats build, Extremist Republicans prefer rot It has become axiomatic that Democrats build infrastructure (this has been true of northern Democrats since the time of Lincoln, and those northern democrats voted for Abe). This continues with the largest infrastructure bill ever, which is changing the face of our country for the better. Much of that … Continue reading Republicans break, Democrats fix
President Biden’s Democratic administration and Democratic governors got hundreds of millions of shots in arms, and distributed effective therapeutics, to fight Covid-19. The MAGA Republican president and MAGA governors did everything they could to ensure that more citizens died or were terribly sickened by Covid-19. This ultimately killed a higher percentage of those exposed in … Continue reading Pandemic Covid has killed over 13,000 Minnesotans, over a million Americans, and over 6 million people worldwide
Democratic President Joe Biden and the Democratic Congress passed the biggest climate change fixing legislation ever passed in this country, or in any country, in history. The same week, we discovered that the former MAGA Republican president and his cronies apparently stole highly classified documents, including some related to nuclear weapons, lied to the FBI … Continue reading Climate Chaos is an existential disaster caused by Republicans
As far as I can tell. Want me to go over them one at a time? OK, fine. Let’s start with The Mort. Republican Minnesota House representative Erik “The Mort” Mortensen (Shakopee area, southeast of the Twin Cities)* wants all civil and legal rights granted to a fertilized human egg. Mortensen only barely won his … Continue reading All Minnesota Republicans Have Extremist Anti-Women Positions
Curious George is called a “little monkey” in all of the Curious George literature, TV shows, and movies. But Curious George has no tail, and generally, that means you are an ape. But, there is one monkey with no tail, or at least one that is vestigial and not visible: The Barbary Macaque (Macaca sylvanus). … Continue reading Is Curious George an Ape or a Monkey?
The phrase “Correlation does not imply causation” has developed in to a Falsehood, as I discuss here. This is in part because people often use the phrase to argue that a particular correlation has no meaning, which is a false argument. It is, of course, true that a correlation does not in and of itself … Continue reading Correlation and Causation: Single Mothers and Violent Crime
One day I returned home and realized I had forgotten the shampoo. It was a devastating revelation. You are probably thinking, “First World problem,” right? Well, it wasn’t because at the time I was living in the actual co-called “Third World.*” Home, for me at the time, was one of the most remote non-polar research … Continue reading The Third Worlding
“John Nolte argued that the partisan gap in vaccination rates was part of a liberal plot. Liberals like Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Anthony Fauci and Howard Stern have tried so hard to persuade people to get vaccinated, because they know that Republican voters will do the opposite of whatever they say, Nolte wrote.” This would be … Continue reading Covid Contaminants Harm Self
Framing is a concept important in understanding how language works. It originated in anthropology, developed in sociology, re-employed in anthropology and linguistics, and is now a major part of communication science. It is the new thing. Framing is a verb that has come to mean correctly, or effectively, communicating a message in a way that … Continue reading Framing Is Greater Than Fishing
Everyone eligible and who wants to, that is. Have a look at this line. I call it “line going up.” Feel free to download it and use it for your own purposes. I ask you to consider the following questions. Assume the vertical scale on the y-axis is 10: 1) What is the average value … Continue reading Everyone in the US will be vaccinated by early August.
The importance of microplastic particles in the ecosystem, both as they might effect ecological systems and human health, is the subject of great deal of new research, and is one of more rapidly developing areas of of knowledge related to environmental concern. Once thought of as mainly a problem in the oceans (related to the … Continue reading The Complex Problem of Microplastic Particle Pollution
… or are we? Recently announced research suggests that there is life on Venus. This research identified phosphine (PH3) in the atmosphere of Venus. According to the researchers, the only way to get phosphine is from life. I might disagree, and here is why: We think of phosphine as only associated with life because we … Continue reading We are not surprised to find life on Venus …
A tale of two vaccines Two vaccines are racing to the finish line. We can’t say which one will arrive first, because they each have a different finish line. The good vaccine, the one likely to be safe (though not necessarily without some side effects) and effective (though you may need two doses, which is … Continue reading Covid-19 Update: Vaccines, Airborne, Seasonality, Irony
Seriously under-thought. One way Covid-19 spread is you shove your hand in your mouth, then you use your hand to gob onto a door knob, then the next person to come along licks the door knob. So don’t do that! If you think I’m being silly, watch some pre-schoolers for a while. But even adults, … Continue reading Our social distancing guidelines are underthought