Here are the last few comments on the blog. Please remember to read the comments and privacy policy for the blog before jumping into a discussion.
- Comment on Hail to the Bees by Rene Najera July 24, 2017 22:31We'll be in for a world of hurt if they end up disappearing. I don't think of any other insect that could pick up the slack. Can you?
- Comment on Hail to the Bees by wzrd1 July 24, 2017 11:07Yeah, all three bees. I saw few bees, back when I was in PA, now, in LA, fewer. Wasps, a plenty, bees, rarer than chicken teeth. *Something* is endangering honeybees, listen to political action groups, it's a specific insecticide, listen to science, it remains a head scratcher, but it's an ongoing and nearly global problem. I'll stick with science, less nonsense or making guesses that are most often wrong and harmful. But, colony collapse disorder is a very real problem that is worrying me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder
- Comment on Patriotism and Such by Chris July 7, 2017 03:16I recently finished a book that touches of many of the things you have written about: <i>Weapons of Math Destruction</i> by Cathy O'Neill. It is how certain demographic studies for policy issues actually cause more harm than actually intended. It includes the data collection by websites to push ads to target vulnerable people for dodgy services, the very bad math that caused the bank mortgage crisis in 2008 (the movie, "The Big Short" is also very good), and how certain populations are found and then targeted to influence elections (how valuable a voter are you?).
- Comment on Patriotism and Such by Chris July 4, 2017 22:23One of the best ways to be patriotic is to vote. Though it helps to actually show up at your elected officials' public meetings (which for some reason lately I usually have a conflict, urg). Once upon a long long time ago dear hubby and I were active with our local Republican group. We had meeting at our house, we went to a convention across the state. I got annoyed that they started meetings with a prayer, but I was told the political party was a private entity, not government. So I never bowed my head. Then Pat Robertson, a TV evangelical, decided to run for president, and those meetings got more annoying. I was pregnant when I got a call from someone asking me to help support the platform of condemning single parents (remember Dan Quayle?). With the help of raging pregger hormones I pointedly asked how they were going to outlaw death. It just so happens that my mother and the father of my husband both died when were around 10/11 years old. We had both lived with single parents, and did not see a reason for anyone to judge them. (An older woman and I both lamented that for folks who wanted "less government", they were very keen to control how people lived their lives) We both walked away from that nonsense over twenty five years ago, and refuse to register for any kind of political party. But we still vote, and I do try to go to local public meetings.
- Comment on The people who will confuse you by Chris July 3, 2017 23:16Well, that is about the only thing new parents remember due to the sleep deprivation. 😉
- Comment on The people who will confuse you by Rene Najera July 1, 2017 17:28Everyone keeps saying that bit about sleep. I've learned to sleep in segments from my days working overnights at the hospital while going to school during the day. It's no big deal. Seven to eight hours total and I'm good... It used to be four. 😦
- Comment on The people who will confuse you by Chris June 29, 2017 08:04Oh, deer sir, it is all about the color of your skin. Case in point: Colin McRoberts has Mexican heritage. His wife revealed this information in a podcast: http://www.prismpodcast.com/raff/ The more brown, the less valued. I say this as an extremely blond person who actually can actually claim to be una latina: I was born in Central America, my first language was Spanish (though I speak it as well as any three year old), and I lived in Central/South America tor almost half of my youth (5th/6th/8th/9th/10th grades in addition to the birth to three years bit... I graduated from high school after 11th grade in Texas, I am considered a high school drop out in two districts! due to archaic definitions). Um, yeah... I got undo attention from construction workers and others as a twelve year old blond kid in South America. So did my seven and nine year old sisters. That part was very weird. To get a flavor of what kind of hierarchy the Spanish put on parentage read <i>1493</i> by Charles Mann (though I would also suggest <i>1491</i> to be read before). Even Simon Bolivar was considered to be lower class because he was born in a Spanish colony (Caracas), instead of actually in Spain. I cannot link to a study, but just check out the photos of the leaders south of the US border. Don't they look a bit pale? Except for a very few. Not all of the names are Spanish based (one is Polish). So stop being so brown.
Actually embrace your brown, but still remember to use sunscreen. Sorry, as an Army brat I remember the lamentations of a classmate who got a sunburn even though she was brown. Her dad was African American and her mom was from Germany. She still got some serious burny pain.
Let me conclude with best wishes for your PhD, and soon to be born child. Get sleep now, because it is not going to happen again for a few months. - Comment on The laws that you are going to break by Rene Najera June 14, 2017 17:42Hahahaha.
- Comment on The laws that you are going to break by wzrd1 June 14, 2017 17:07Hmmm, ice away would likely work. 😉 Calcium chloride taking up water, generates heat - quite a bit of it in fact. 😛
- Comment on The laws that you are going to break by Rene Najera June 14, 2017 16:53Yeah. My wife works at a migrant worker clinic and they're taking certain measures to protect their patients. They're not labeling the trucks carrying patients from their camps to the clinic, and they're consulting with legal counsel on keeping ICE away from the clinic.
