Later On

A blog written for those whose interests more or less match mine.

Blog post directory

Painting for Eternity

This video is included in an article in Craftsmanship Quarterly that begins: Back in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., after Ravenna was made the capital of the Roman Empire, a number of churches, mausoleums, and other grand buildings were constructed here and embellished with unusually luminescent mosaics. Composed of pebbles, stone fragments, shells, terracotta, pearls, […]

Making Lotsa Lutein Soup

Pictured above are most of the soup’s ingredients as well as a chopper I planned to use for the greens. (Chopper didn’t work as expected, so I chopped the greens by hand.) As I started, I decided to sprinkle the peeled, diced, and oiled butternut squash with Spanish smoked paprika in addition to the ground […]

Soybean, rye, and oat tempeh

Just started this at 11:00am. The grain part is mostly oats (groats), with some rye I had on hand. It was pretty moist, so I’m interested to see how Rhizopus oligosporus will fare. Rhizopus generally likes its dinner on the dry side, moistened with a little vinegar. I’ll now by Thanksgiving (Monday) how well it turned […]

Who Loves Woke Wall Street?

Matt Stoller writes in Big: This piece continues a theme I’m fascinated by, which is the internal conflict within the Republican Party over corporate power. In this case, it’s about a lawsuit by Wall Street and Big Tech to have the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is trying to stop banks from discriminating against customers, declared […]

Humans redouble effort to make the earth uninhabitable

In Nature Jeff Tollefson has an interesting albeit disheartening article, extremely informative, well written, and profusely illustrated with stunning photographs (one of which is shown above). The article is worth reading, though it did make my heart sink. Humanity is not doing well, and its failures are primarily due to its own actions and omissions.

Another stout-hearted soap: The Drunken Goat

Unfortunately, Mickey Lee Soapworks is no more, and his wonderful The Drunken Goat is no longer available. But stout-hearted men can still avail themselves of Mystic Water Oatmeal Stout shaving soap, much along the same lines as the Guinness stout used in this soap.  My Whipped Dog silvertip easily made a fine lather, and with […]

Pathos and Panic: Russians Are Mobilized for an Undeclared War

A person in Russia who understandably does not want their name used has written a very interesting article in Mother Jones. One point of interest: the trade-off in supportive and effective personal relationships is that no political discussions may occur. The article begins: Editor’s note: This essay is anonymous in order to protect the writer from […]

Where Are They Now? Trump Administration Edition.

I’ve observed that many who have an ample amount of money are willing to do almost anything for more. Megan K. Slack reports on some of them in the NY Tiimes (no paywall): America, you have probably heard, is on the edge of collapse. In the ideological death match described by President Biden as a “battle […]

She’s a Doctor. He Was a Limo Driver. They Pitched a $30 Million Arms Deal.

The world has become very strange. Justin Scheck reports in the NY Times (no paywall): EUREKA, Mo. — After falling out with his partner at a limousine company in the St. Louis suburbs, Martin Zlatev recently sought a lucrative new business opportunity: selling $30 million worth of rockets, grenade launchers and ammunition to the Ukrainian military. […]

What Russian trolls can tell us about the US

Anand Giridharadas writes in the Atlantic (no paywall): n june 2014, Aleksandra Krylova and Anna Bogacheva arrived in the United States on a clandestine mission. Krylova was a high-ranking official at the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, Russia, an ostensibly private company that was connected with Russian intelligence. Bogacheva, her road buddy, a researcher and […]

The Mass Killer in Thailand Fits a Recognizable Behavioral Profile

Mark Follman writes in Mother Jones: In the immediate aftermath of such horror, it’s challenging to think beyond the profound suffering of all the people victimized by a mass murder and to focus on the constructive. Yet, initial reporting on Thursday’s massacre of at least 38 people in northern Thailand, a majority of them children, has already revealed […]

The Biggest Project in Modern Mathematics

The video description: In a 1967 letter to the number theorist André Weil, a 30-year-old mathematician named Robert Langlands outlined striking conjectures that predicted a correspondence between two objects from completely different fields of math. The Langlands program was born. Today, it’s one of the most ambitious mathematical feats ever attempted. Its symmetries imply deep, […]

Aristotle was close

Aristotle began his Metaphysics with the statement “All men by nature desire to know.” Based on my own observations, I think a true statement is “All men by nature desire to explain.” The so-called “desire to know” is more properly the desire to confirm what is already believed, and if knowledge won’t do that, then too […]

The Supreme Court Is Blowing Up Law School, Too

Mark Joseph Stern has a report in Slate on the collapse of the Supreme Court’s institutional integrity and authority that brings a lot of sadness to those whose hopes for the United States have been dashed. He writes: Khiara Bridges remembers the exact moment she lost faith in the Supreme Court. At first, at the […]

Oatmeal Stout today

Mystic Water’s Oatmeal Stout is a very nice shaving soap with a good, stout fragrance. My brush from the Copper Hat made a particularly thick and creamy lather, and this Edwin Jagger head on a stainless bulldog handle easily whisked away the whiskers. This time I  knew better how to use Grooming Dept Rejuvenating Serum […]

One day whiskey, the next day beer: such is the Spyce of life

Meißner Tremonia’s Black Beer No. 1 has a very present but hard to define fragrance — perhaps it’s the beer combined with rosemary and lemongrass. Beer is indeed an ingredient: Stearic Acid, Cocos nucifera oil*, Beer, Potassium Hydroxide, Orbignya Oleifera oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Macadamia terifolia oil, Glycerin*, Rosmarinus officinalis leaf oil, Cymbopogon flesuosus oil, Red […]

Contrasting coffee and tea

In the Washington Post Anahad O’Connor, Aaron Steckelberg, and Garland Potts have an interesting article (no paywall) whose focus is the contrast between coffee and tea. (Comparing two things is pointing out the ways in which they are similar; contrasting them is pointing out how they differ. Thus the traditional school directive “Compare and contrast…”) One […]

“Your Money or Your Life”‘s Vicki Robin interviewed

Many years ago, I read Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, and over time it altered the trajectory of my financial life. (The current version is an update of the original.) The book is among those I find myself repeatedly recommending, and for good reason. (It’s listed in the Personal Development […]

Achilles ‘n Ascension

Yesterday’s soap included Scotch whisky, and today’s includes Kentucky bourbon whiskey (with appropriate spellings). Van Yulay soaps are a favorite, and I’m getting to the end of my tub of Achilles shaving soap, whose ingredients are: Stearic Acid, Coconut Fatty Acid, Palm Stearic, Castor, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Tobacco Tea, Aloe Vera, Coconut-Emu-Tallow-Meadow Foam-Borage-Argan- Oils, Kentucky […]

Seeing and somethingness

Nicholas Humphrey, emeritus professor of psychology at the London School of Economics and author of many books on the evolution of human intelligence and consciousness, the latest being Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness, writes in Aeon: The cover of New Scientist magazine 50 years ago showed a picture of a rhesus monkey, with the headline ‘A Blind Monkey That […]

Gift links not so good as I thought

I just learned that gift links expire after two weeks. I thought they were permanent. Now I find my posts are sprinkled with links that work only for subscribers. Rats.

To prevent gun injury, build better research

Republicans are opposed to research in general — “What good is science if it tells us things we don’t want to hear?” they ask (cf. climate change, economics of US history, etc.) — and that is why research into gun violence was not funded by Congress: Republicans blocked it. Chethan Sathya writes in Nature: From 2001 […]

Strong ‘n Scottish ‘n the wonderful iKon slant

My Omega Pro 48 is always a pleasure, and today it worked up a superb lather from Meißner Tremonia’s Strong ‘n Scottish shaving soap “with scotch whisky and sheep wool fat.”  iKon’s wonderful stainless slant (not the cast-aluminum X3) now comes with a B1 coating. (Mine is from pre-coated times.) It did a superb job, […]

Money is emotional — but personal finance advice rarely accounts for that

I just updated my post on budget planning and tracking with a link to Lindsay Bryan-Podvin useful article in Vox. The article begins: Financial literacy — the ability to understand how money works in your life — is considered the secret to taking control of your finances. Knowledge is power, as the saying goes, but information […]

Butternut-Kale Soup (aka Lotsa Lutein Soup)

After I posted about the brain’s strong preference for lutein as an antioxidant (picky brain!), I of course started thinking about tailoring some of my eating to the brain’s preferences. (I am aware, of course, that it is my brain making these choices.) I picked up a bunch of Lacinato kale and a butternut squash […]

H2O Sculptures

Check out all the images. (It’s a store, so you can buy physical copies.)

Boredom is telling you something (if you pay attention)

Richard Sima has a useful report (gift link, no paywall) in the Washington Post: In one famous experiment, people were asked to sit quietly for 15 minutes in a room with nothing but their own thoughts. They also had the option to hit a button and give themselves an electric shock. Getting physically shocked is unpleasant, but […]

“Falling Down”

Recently I was reading one of the many lists of great movies to watch, and I happened across Falling Down (1993), which I had seen back in the day. I can’t find the article now, but it said some interesting things. The movie stars Michael Douglas (and his father said it was his best role). Douglas […]

Why is the Book of Revelations like that?

Adam Gopnik reviewed Ellen Pagels’s book Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation in the New Yorker a decade ago. I just encountered that review and found it very interesting. I read long ago Pagels’s book on the Gnostic gospels, and that, too, was interesting, so I am predisposed to like what she has […]

The surprising psychological effect of tracking your expenses

Elizabeth Gilbert has a brief but interesting article at Big Think: Have you ever felt stressed out over finances? You’re not alone. Nearly two-thirds of Americans report that money is a major source of stress. Studies show that insurmountable debt may be even more stressful than divorce or the death of a close friend. Financial stress is liable to […]

An Apple Pay discovery: Cost to the merchant

I recently started using Apple Pay instead of my credit card. It was more convenient, and Apple explained that it was funded by the bank paying a small sliver of the transaction fee to Apple — no effect on me. But banks are not in the habit of giving away money, and I learned recently […]

“The Crowd,” by Gustav Le Bon

On the first of each month, Standard Ebooks releases a new set of free ebooks. This month’s selections include The Crowd, by Gustav Le Bon, and the books description reminded me of we see in the US nowadays: The world of the 18th and 19th centuries had been wracked by change and revolution. Gustave Le Bon, a […]

Indian Flavor and T2

A very pleasant shave. My Simpson Emperor 3 Best easily — well, with one small driblet of water — evoked a very fine lather from Meißner Tremonia’s Indian Flavour shaving soap, and the Rockwell T2 was in fine form today. Lots of comfortable blade feel, and a very smooth result. A splash of Pashana with […]

Elon Musk’s Texts Shatter the Myth of the Tech Genius

Power not only corrupts, it seems to cause cognitive disconnect if not decline. Charlie Warzel reports in the Atlantic (no paywall): Yesterday, the world got a look inside Elon Musk’s phone. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is currently in litigation with Twitter and trying to back out of his deal to buy the platform and take […]

A Custody Evaluator Who Disbelieves 90% of Abuse Allegations Recommended a Teen Stay Under Her Abusive Father’s Control

Some things make one despair. The subtitle to this ProPublica article by Hannah Dreyfus: In Colorado family courts, parents can request an expert evaluation of their case, which sometimes includes allegations of abuse. Mark Kilmer is routinely appointed to evaluate families despite his own history of domestic violence. Mark Kilmer is Val Kilmer’s brother. The report itself […]

Dr. Selby’s return, honored in today’s shave

As I blogged yesterday, Dr. Selby is returning to the US. This 3X concentrated shaving cream is made in Uruguay, and I like it a lot, and not just for the packaging, which is clever. The photo at the right shows how the lid, once removed, becomes a pedestal for the tub. Very cool, IMO. […]

Avoid rancid brain fat by eating brain-healthy foods

This is a fascinating video in showing how one can look into a person’s eyes to check the health of their brain — and, at the end of the video, the specific foods that help the brain stay healthy. From the video, comparing the lutein/zeaxanthin content of some foods: I’m going to make this: Kale […]

Republicans are determined to destroy the US

Heather Cox Richardson describes the outcome of the GOP retaking control of either the House or the Senate: an insane refusal to raise the debt ceiling (which does not create new debt but simply allows the US to pay for programs that Congress already passed). She writes: Today the Senate approved a short-term extension of […]

Thousands were released from prison during covid. The results are shocking.

Molly Gill, vice-president of policy for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, has an interesting column (gift link, no paywall) in the Washington Post: We are keeping many people in prison even though they are no danger to the public, a jaw-dropping new statistic shows. That serves as proof that it’s time to rethink our incarceration policies for […]

Asking one simple question can entirely change how you feel

Christian Waughi, professor of psychology at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, writes in Psyche: The pursuit of happiness is many people’s primary goal in life, and a subject that’s occupied countless philosophers and psychologists over the millennia. It is usually painted as an effortful and difficult aim to accomplish, especially in trying times. Indeed, it’s through […]

Broccoli in garlic sauce, incidentally vegan

This recipe looks interesting — and presented at a good clip. I particularly found the Marmite tip of interest: use it in a sauce to add umami (and B vitamins).  I certainly would not use white rice, which lacks the minerals found in the bran. I would use brown rice or — more likely — […]

Good walk

Now that I am walking longer and faster, the training effect has really taken hold. Today: 3.07 miles52 minutes 10 seconds3.54 mph110 steps/minute33″ stride (average)5765 steps My daily goal is 6000 steps, and 6000 steps in the walk alone would be nice, so I might after a while extend the length of the walk another […]

Great news! Dr. Selby’s 3X Concentrated Shaving Cream shall return!

Dr. Selby’s 3X Concentrated Shaving Cream is solid to the touch, like a soap, and it makes a wonderful lavender-scented lather — it’s one of my favorite lather sources — see this post. It has sadly been absent from the US for several years — it’s made in Uruguay (a very interesting country, FWIW). I […]

Billionaire-backed legal group sues to block student loan forgiveness

Judd Legum reports at Popular Information: In August, President Biden announced he would provide student debt relief to lower and middle-class borrowers. Under the plan, eligible individuals would get up to $20,000 in student debt canceled if they received Pell Grants and up to $10,000 otherwise. The program is open to individuals who make less than $125,000 annually […]

Just how racist is the MAGA movement? This survey measures it.

Jennifer Rubin has an interesting column (gift link, no paywall) in the Washington Post: It has long been understood that the MAGA movement is heavily dependent on White grievance and straight-up racism. (Hence Donald Trump’s refusal to disavow racist groups and his statement that there were “very fine people on both sides” in the violent clashes […]

Good news for many: Coffee Linked to Reduced Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality

Megan Brooks reports in Medscape: Drinking 2 to 3 daily cups of coffee, including ground, instant, or decaffeinated coffee, is associated with significant reductions in new cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality, compared with avoiding coffee, a new analysis of the prospective UK Biobank suggests. Ground and instant coffee, but interestingly, not decaffeinated coffee intake was also […]

Van Yulay and the iKon open comb

Van Yulay’s After Dark is a favorite. Van Yulay shaving soaps vary in their formula from soap to soap, and the catalogue entry for each soap explains the benefits of the various ingredients used in the soap. Here’s what this one is made of: Stearic Acid, Coconut Fatty Acid, Palm Stearic, Castor, Glycerin, Potassium& Sodium […]

Ultra-processed foods are extra tasty concoctions that we eat every day. They are also linked with chronic diseases and a higher risk of early death.

Anahad O’Connor reports (gift link, no paywall) in the Washington Post: Is your diet ultra-processed? In many households, ultra-processed foods are mainstays at the kitchen table. They include products that you may not even think of as junk food such as breakfast cereals, muffins, snack bars and sweetened yogurts. Soft drinks and energy drinks count, […]

Some hospitals rake in high profits while their patients are loaded with medical debt

The Canadian healthcare system is by no means perfect, but IMO it’s much better than the rapacious hypercapitalistic US system where the drive to grow profits penalizes patients. Noam Levey reports for NPR: PROSPER, Texas [ironic name, eh? – LG] — Almost everything about the opening of the 2019 Prosper High School Eagles’ football season […]

Tertius and Lo Storto

Tertius is the only Ariana & Evans soap I have, but it definitely makes me want to buy more of them. “Leather, Tobacco, & Oud, supported by a hint of Rose & Patchouli.” (And it’s on sale at the link, not an affiliate link.) The formulation is their new formulation: Kaizen 2e Ingredients: Stearic Acid, Beef […]

Servants of the Damned

Judd Legum has a very interesting interview at Popular Information. It begins: I recently finished reading “Servants of the Damned,” a new book by New York Times business investigations editor David Enrich. The book exposes how Jones Day, one of the world’s largest law firms, has used its immense power to enable corporate misconduct and, more […]

Tampa Bay is a possible catastrophe

In July of 2017, I blogged about an article by Darryl Fears in the Washington Post, which begins: TAMPA BAY, Fla. — Mark Luther’s dream home has a window that looks out to a world of water. He can slip out the back door and watch dolphins swim by his private dock. Shore birds squawk from […]

The whole megillah Grooming Dept shave

All today’s shave software is from Grooming Dept, and for the occasion, I brought out Moisturizing Pre-Shave from back room — seldom on-stage, he’s a vital part of the entire ensemble and plays his vital role in every shave. I continue to learn more how best to use this and now take the smallest smidge […]

Why COVID isn’t like the flu (yet) in one brutal graph

Via The Eldest, Erin Prater’s article in Fortune, which leads with the chart above and continues: Since COVID first hit the U.S., some have argued that the nascent disease is no more dangerous than the flu, which sweeps the U.S. every fall and winter. “This is a flu. This is like a flu,” former President Donald […]

Eat More Dairy, Less Red Meat to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes

I wish I had known this long ago. Miriam E. Tucker reports in Medscape: Among animal protein foods, low-fat dairy consumption may minimize the risk of developing type 2 diabetes while red meat raises that risk, a new analysis finds. “A plant-based dietary pattern with limited intake of meat, moderate intake of fish, eggs, and full-fat dairy, and […]

Ribollita My Way

After I had the Tuscan White Bean and Kale Soup blogged earlier, I decided I could make a better (more nutritious and — who knows? — tastier) version of my own. And then I came across a Wikipedia article on ribolitta. That sounded like just the ticket, though I would do it my way (hence […]

The Problem Isn’t “Polarization” — It’s Right-Wing Radicalization

Aurelien Mondon and Evan Smith write in Jacobin: Joe Biden’s recent attacks on Donald Trump and “MAGA Republicans” have caused outrage on the US right. What should surprise us is not the strength of the attack — against what are, after all, blatantly antidemocratic forces — but the departure it represents from the approach mainstream political […]

The Value of the Liberal Arts

A friend pointed out this excellent essay by Hina Azam in Life & Letters, the official magazine for UT Austin’s College of Liberal Arts. The essay begins: Those of us who teach in liberal arts colleges are passionate about the value of a liberal arts education. But for those outside of academia – even for those who […]

After the Rain and a blade change for the #102

The Omega Pro 48 (10048) is always a good way to start the week, and today Declaration Grooming’s After the Rain, in their Milksteak formulation, provided the grist for its mill. Well-loaded, the brush easily formed a fine lather on my face, the stubble ready after their workout with a tiny smidge of Grooming Dept […]

That shortage of home healthcare workers

Kevin Drum has an excellent post that has two graphs. The first shows that the shortage is real, the second offers a possible reason for the shortage. Here’s the second: His post is worth reading. In it, he notes: The only way this gets better is if we pay home health care workers considerably more […]

6 Things to Know About the Microbiome and Your Health

Brian Simpson writes at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health: Jotham Suez has a tough job. He studies the microbiome—the universe of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes that each of us is home to. In sheer numbers, there are many of them as there are human cells in the body. “We’re studying the […]

Mental Health Is Political

Dr. Danielle Carr, assistant professor at the Institute for Society and Genetics at U.C.L.A., writes in the NY Times: What if the cure for our current mental health crisis is not more mental health care? The mental health toll of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the subject of extensive commentary in the United States, much of […]

This ‘wine mom’ never questioned her drinking. Then she stopped for a month.

Cathy Alter has an interesting article in the Washington Post on how she interrupted her drinking. It was particularly interesting to me because I have realized that I have stopped drinking without having made a conscious decision to stop. I have always enjoyed alcohol in the form of wine and spirits and (good) cocktails, but […]

What I can control and what I cannot

This is very much related to Covey’s circle of concern (no personal control) and circle of influence (personal control and/or influence). See this post.

A Chinese Spy Wanted GE’s Secrets, But the US Got China’s Instead

Jordan Robertson and Drake Bennett report in Bloomberg Businessweek: In January 2014, Arthur Gau, an aerospace engineer who was nearing retirement age, received an unexpected email from a long-lost acquaintance in China. Years before, Gau had made a series of trips from his home in Phoenix to speak at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, […]

Exercise your diaphragm

NPR’s Allison Aubrey has an interesting report: It’s well known that weightlifting can strengthen our biceps and quads. Now, there’s accumulating evidence that strengthening the muscles we use to breathe is beneficial too. New research shows that a daily dose of muscle training for the diaphragm and other breathing muscles helps promote heart health and […]

The unspoken reason women leave the workforce

Terry Weber, CEO of Biote, has an interesting article in Fast Company (no paywall): It’s no secret women are leaving the workplace in record numbers. Millions of women are now gone from the workforce compared to pre-COVID-19, and while men are rapidly recouping lost jobs, women are returning to the workforce at a much slower rate. The most commonly […]

Could a Heineken ad from 2017 actually hold the key to reducing partisan animosity?

Rob Walker writes in Fast Company (no paywall): Partisan and ideological divides in the U.S. and elsewhere seem to deepen on a daily basis. What can be done about it? It turns out, a beer ad may actually have an answer. This suggestion isn’t as wild as it might sound. Very serious and wide-ranging recent research […]

The Antitrust Shooting War Has Started

Matt Stoller writes in BIG: In the big tech-financed DC-tip sheet Axios four days ago, Dan Primack asked and answered an important question. “Who’s afraid of Joe Biden’s antitrust enforcers?” he queried. “Fewer people than last month.” Primack was responding to the Department of Justice Antitrust Division losing an important merger challenge between UnitedHealth and Change Healthcare, as well as […]

The importance of duration in cardio/aerobic exercise

I have learned (and blogged) that the key to a fitness program is purely consistency. If I walk daily, I will gradually increase both speed (important, as noted in this post) and duration, just because I have more energy and feel like it.  I just remembered why duration is important. Ken Cooper MD talks in […]

Zodiac killer identified at last?

Aaron Gell’s article in Los Angeles Magazine is pretty convincing: The Hawaiian rainforest where Gloria Doerr has lived since 2017 is a sort of magnet, she says, for people who are running away from something. But even there, in the shadow of an active volcano, sometimes things catch up with you. For Doerr, 70, it happened […]

Coconut and peach to start Saturday

Grooming Dept Chypre Peach — “Citruses, Maillette Lavender, Rose, Peach, Osmanthus, Spices, Amber, Oakmoss, Leather, Labdanum, Vetiver, and Patchouli” — uses the Kairos (tallow) formula. The soap seemed soft this morning as I loaded this Plisson HMW 12 with its horn handle (a very nice brush, I will say). It was easy to produce a […]

Speeding Up Your Daily Walk Could Have Big Benefits

Rachel Fairbank has an interesting article (gift link, no paywall) in the NY Times on the benefits of walking briskly vs. slowly. Let me preface her article with an observation regarding today’s walk. Duration suggested in article: 30 minutes per dayToday’s walk: 46 min 48 sec Brisk walk as defined in article: 80-100 steps per […]

Israeli Forces Deliberately Killed Palestinian American Journalist, Report Shows

Israel too often disproportionately reacts to provocations — for example, by murdering a journalist who reports on the problems Palestinians face. Alice Speri reports in the Intercept: Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces in May while reporting from the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, was deliberately and repeatedly targeted, along […]

‘These Kids Are Dying’ — Inside the Overdose Crisis Sweeping Fort Bragg

Why is it that so many organizations — corporations, banks, schools, Boy Scouts, the Catholic church, the Evangelical churches, the Southern Baptists, the army, police departments, and so many more — decide that when bad things happen within the organization, those things must be hidden and kept secret. I suppose the basic reason is fear. […]

After decades in prison, Jack navigates the strange, beautiful outside world

More and more, I think the most important facet of character is kindness. If we could some teach people to be kind to each other, our lives would be so much better. The video below comes via Psyche, which notes: Jack Powers was incarcerated in 1990 following a conviction for bank robbery. In prison, he witnessed […]

Saul Kripke obituary

Jane O’Grady reports in the Guardian: In 1970, the philosopher Saul Kripke, who has died aged 81, gave three lectures at Princeton University that shook up Anglo-American philosophy. Speaking without notes, he interwove topics in the separate fields of modal logic (concerning necessity and possibility), philosophy of language and philosophy of mind, transformed each, and resuscitated […]

US installs record solar capacity as prices keep falling

John Timmer reports in Ars Technica: This week, the US Department of Energy’s Berkeley Lab released its annual analysis of solar energy in the US. It found that nearly half the generating capacity was installed in the US during 2021 and is poised to dominate future installs. That’s in part because costs have dropped by more than 75 […]

Made Simnett’s vegan buffalo sauce

And adjusted the recipe as follows: In a blender [or in an immersion blender’s beaker – LG] add: • 3/4 Cup of Frank’s RedHot [I used Original and XTRA Hot, 50-50 – LG] • 3-4 Tbsp of Cashew Butter [I would say 4-6 Tbsp – LG] • 1 tsp Garlic Powder [I used 2 cloves […]

Dietary cholesterol and cancer

I have long been averse to having cancer, though of course some people (e.g., cigarette smokers) don’t seem to mind. That’s why for decades green tea has been part of my diet, though I did switch to white tea when I learned that white tea is even better than green tea as a cancer preventive. […]

A Luxury shave

The Rooney Style 2 Finest is one of my favorite brushes: excellent resilience, long loft, somewhat fluffy, lots of volume available for lather — and such a good lather it was! Grooming Dept Luxury (not currently available) has a fragrance of “Oud + Leather.” In fact, Luxury “contains some real Agarwood!” (Agarwood is the source […]

Nordic walking makes a big difference after just 3 weeks

This post will be of particular interest to readers who have type 2 diabetes or know someone who has it. At right are what my Contour app shows after this morning’s fasting blood glucose reading. Just before I resumed daily Nordic walking on September 1, the averages were 6.2 right down the line: 7-day, 14-day, […]

Princeton University Is the World’s First Perpetual Motion Machine

Malcolm Gladwall asks a good question in Oh, MG: The holy grail of scientific inquiry in the Middle Ages was the perpetual motion machine. Was it possible to create a mechanical apparatus that could run—forever—without any external power source? One elaborate mechanism after another was created. Eccentric inventors devoted their lives to this question. To this […]

Portrait of the Artist as a Postman

Interesting and odd story by Jason Sheeler in Texas Monthly: In July 2011, more than five thousand miles east of Waco, an assistant designer at the Hermès silk factory, in Lyon, France, unfurled a ninety-by-ninety-centimeter square of the company’s famous silk twill. It was lushly illustrated with the plants and animals of Texas. “This is […]

My take on the Amazfit GTS 4 Mini

I finally decided to replace my Amazfit Band 5 because it was unreliable in measuring heart rate, which it used to compute the PAI score for a workout. So I ordered what I believe is the most recent model, the Amazfit 4. It comes as either GTS 4 or GTR 4 and I pored over […]

Store-bought vs. homemade, soup division

I just had some soup from a little neighborhood market. I went in to look, and wanted to buy something. (Looking was rewarded: they have Red Boat fish sauce, which can be hard to find locally.) The soup was pretty good, but I immediately thought of making my own version. I had checked the label […]

Solstice shaving soap because I don’t have an Equinox

Happy Equinox and welcome to nights longer than days up here on the northern half of the planet — but only for a few months. Things will turn around before the end of the year, and in the meantime — it’s an ill wind indeed that blows nobody good — those on the other side […]

New wind turbine concept

Jesus Diaz writes in Fast Company: The type of wind turbine you’re used to seeing in stock photos of wind farms is called a horizontal axis wind turbine (or, HAWT). But there is another form of wind power, called a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT), in which the blades rotate on an axis perpendicular to Earth’s […]

Dunning-Kruger writ large: Science opponents believe their knowledge ranks among the highest, but it is actually among the lowest

Eric Dolan writes in PsyPost: People with the greatest opposition to the scientific consensus tend to have the lowest levels of objective science knowledge but the highest levels of self-rated knowledge, according to new research published in Science Advances. The findings are in line with the Dunning-Kruger effect, a well-documented phenomenon in which people who are lacking […]

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Written by Leisureguy

25 May 2021 at 9:09 am