Embracing our aggressive selves...

I think society makes us paranoid about our aggressive natures.

Party time with a friend's AR.

Science: I'm sorry, but Darwin says NASA should probably go extinct

Are American science and technology all that the public believes they are?

I have this debate at work, with friends and online.  Are American science and technology competitive in the world marketplace?  Is science capable of all the things that the public seems to believe it is capable of?  Have we lost our competitive edge?

I'm going to explore this in a series of posts.

"I am become Death, Destroyer of Worlds" - Oppenheimer at the Trinity Test

Sundays with William Blake: There Is No Natural Religion, Meditations on Fantasy in Christian Life and Talking Honestly with God

I think that the hardest aspect of my Christian identity is bringing my feelings honestly to God.

Chaotic oscillators can be very much like haikus or koans.  In written form they are often very short.  They can be just a small system of three ordinary differential equations.  Chaotic oscillators are both predictable and not predictable.  A small difference in initial conditions can lead to profoundly different results.  And yet, as long as those initial conditions are within what is often a very wide range, the widely variable results all stay within certain bounds, as if tied by an unknown string...

The Giant Sex Orgy and Hooker Party by Obama's Secret Service

Obama's secret service had a giant, giant hooker party.  Enormous.  Here are some legitimate news sources covering it, including the Associated Press, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and CNN.

So, I'm interrupting your regular broadcast of "Midweek Dostoevsky" to talk about something much more fun... sex!

Dude, did you do what I think you did?...

Escaping the Black Vortex of the Internet

It's like "Escape from LA," just the only switch is on my computer...

From left to right: My best friend Tom, myself, and my husband Peter.  This photo was taken on Peter's mid-deployment leave from Afghanistan.  We've been best friends forever.  Peter's giving Tom a playful jack to the stomach (I hope it's his stomach...)

Happy Earth Day & Sundays with William Blake

Happy Earth Day!

Because of family parties, I actually had to garden yesterday rather than today.

The spiral of a sunflower follows a very specific pattern known as the Golden Ratio, which is the limit of the ratio of the Fibonacci numbers as you approach infinity.  Not everything that people claim follows the Golden Ratio actually does - nautilus shells, for example, do not.  But sunflowers really do.  To see how the sunflower's pattern relates to the Golden Ratio, check out this tool called "Turn, then Grow."

Les Shadoks

The caption reads "Better to pump even if nothing happens than to risk something worse happening by not pumping."

The Art of the Spoiler Alert

Not just about blogs, either...  Yes, yes I'm giving you the stink eye, Barnes and Noble Classics.

No spoilers here, I just thought this was a great spoiler warning.  I found it on a blog that I'm now following.

Midweek Dostoevsky: The Dream of the Ridiculous Man and Some Notes for "Occupy"

Some thoughts from a failed pacifist revolutionary.  And: not all sci fi is Star Trek, after all.

"I am a ridiculous man.  Now they call me a madman, which would be a promotion if it were not that I remain as ridiculous in their eyes as I did before... I have always been ridiculous, and I have known it, perhaps, since the hour I was born..."

Going postal over LOLcats

Not going to do a huge long rant.  Just wanted to say: I love real kitties, but LOLcats must die.

Kittens are cute.  LOLcats are a sign of the decline of Western civilization.  Cutesy, self-affirmative BS.  Here's a hint: find a real cat and pet it.  Don't irritate me by sending me emails about how this picture of a kitty played a major role in your path to self-actualization.

My Villainous Fantasies, Part 3, the Finale: The Coolest Villains of All Time

These aren't characters I have fantasized about being.  They're just really cool villains.

Laplace's demon or just a cryptic cat that likes to screw with people's heads?  Either way, the Cheshire Cat is very cool, but tragically did not make the cut!

Sundays with William Blake: The Clod and the Pebble

Lovely Blake poem which I feel is true at many levels - hence the fractal below.

Fractals are self-similar objects, which means that as you zoom in and out the pattern, while not identical, remains extremely similar.  Their eerie beauty has given them the nickname "the thumbprint of God."

My Villainous Fantasies, Part 2: Truly Evil

Who do I fantasize about being when I fantasize about being truly evil?

Answer: two serial killers and a demon of the psyche.  Plus, real vs. penny dreadful images of serial killers and what qualifies as "truly evil" to someone who included Don Corleone and Tyler Durdan on their "antihero" list...

Patrick Bateman, serial killer from American Psycho.  Did not make the cut, but close. 

My Villainous Fantasies, Addendum: Can you be a good Christian and fantasize about being a villain?

A little on psychology, archetype and how the best vengeance is to thrive...

Ganesha, son of Shiva the Destroyer and Lord of Shiva's followers, the ganas.  Not evil even remotely, but provides a good psychodynamic explanation of why it's good to sometimes fantasize about things you're not...

My Villainous Fantasies, Part 1: Antiheros

I asked Roger Owen which villains he has fantasized about being.  I felt his answer was insufficiently evil.

Dirty Harry, you are an awesome antihero.  So sorry you didn't make the cut!

Why a degree in mathematics can leave you feeling like a mute...

O.J. Simpson and how America is seriously mathicapped.

Sundays with William Blake: Christ, Guanyin and the Divine Image

Who are we worshiping?

Guanyin, Bodhisattva of compassion, China, 12th Century 

Why has religion been the source of so much violence and pain? Or: Why the gun-owning, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic Christian fanatics known as the Amish make for such lovely neighbors.

Roger Owen asked on his blog an unanswerable question: why has religion been the source of so much violence and pain?  I'm excited about this question because I've thought about it a lot.

These guys disagree with just about everything you do.  They're just really pleasant about it.

Ever get stuck in an argument?

I think I have a problem.

Easter Humor: Terminator (Tries to) Save Jesus

"Father forgive him, he's a robot from the future..."