Last summer I did an Ancestry DNA test. I did not expect a lot of surprises, in that, the place of my ancestry is relatively a monoculture DNA wise. Unlike the UK where all sorts of DNA is mixed in and I am not just referring to the recent (last 100 years) of immigrants. Having … Continue reading Ancestry
On Wednesday 14th I was listening to a cartoonist, Bruce MacKinnon, talking on CBC Radio about his cartoon of President Trump and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pointing smoking guns at each with a dead Canadian lying between them. This is the obvious reference to the shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 over Tehran; with … Continue reading Connectivity
Sometimes I can't help thinking people write nonsense about complexity. They ascribe all sorts of supposedly emergent properties to these complex objects; whether these objects be animate or inanimate. Now we take these objects and think of them somehow independent of their environment. In the vernacular, this sort of thinking is useful. It allows for … Continue reading Complexity
The Big Picture Greg on his blog has added a defence for free will and it is based Sean Carroll's book The Big Picture. Now it's almost three years since I read the book, I thought it a really interesting book. Not that I took everything as gospel, and I did not agree with Carroll's … Continue reading Freedom to Choose
In his book Things That Bother Me: Death, Freedom, the Self Etc. Galen Strawson gives some of his fellow naturalists a hard time. The book is a collection of essays and two of them deal with consciousness is some shape or form. The interesting thing is in the second of the two essays Strawson argues … Continue reading Real Naturalism
I have seen someone claim that by definition our senses are an illusion … or at least our perceptions are illusory. This initially might seem an over-the-top claim. But first let's take a look at three common or garden 'illusions'. This is one of favourite illusions. It is motion induced blindness. Get the image to … Continue reading Illusions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZHp4JLWjNw When I heard of Hillary Clinton's comment on deplorables ... basket of deplorables. Right? They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic – Islamophobic – you name it. I thought it a foolish remark. These supposed deplorables have been hit hard by the crash of 2008 and are likely getting their heads above water only now. It … Continue reading Responsibility
I must admit I am a little sensitive to this: nationalism. Also, to the sister of this metaphor: patriotism. I have been playing with this idea for a while. And it came to a head at a Rotary Conference in Spokane this June, where someone was playing to an audience and being somewhat a touch … Continue reading Nationalism
As a point of disclosure, I think Donald Trump is a terrible President. I cannot help but dislike the man. I don't care about his hair, his orange complexion, the size of his hands, his inability to string together coherent sentences or his alleged infidelities. Ultimately these are irrelevant to the job, though speaking coherently … Continue reading Trump: Doing Well?
I started reading How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan. I have not got very far into the book, but it is about using entheogens (psychoactive drugs) in some way to activate one's spiritual mind. I quickly skimmed through the book and it did not have a single chemical structure in it. And being … Continue reading Chemical Spirituality
rom's corner 