It has been suggested (via Neatorama) that the most environmentally-friendly thing to do with your body after you die is to liquefy it by means of an alkali salt bath, which is called resomation.  Casket burials use embalming fluids that leach into the ground, and cremations utilize fossil fuels for combustion.  Or as one commenter added:  "I remember reading [about] a method where the corpse is put in a tub full of crabs, who eat it."  Response:  "Then do all your friends & family gather a week later for a crab boil?" #nature

Uranusquake:  An earthquake on the planet Uranus.  Actually, that's not true.  It's still called an earthquake. #nature

Wendy went to the doctor for a tick bite, and the doctor gave her some pills.  I went to a different doctor for the same exact thing two days later, and I was told to get a blood test.  When I asked my doctor why there were two different diagnoses for the same ailment, he said, "Practicing medicine is an art."  Now I ain't no medical doctor, but I can't think of something that should be approached more scientifically than the human body and the treatment of its various diseases.  I kind of get the fact that different doctors might disagree on treatment options, but as I said many moons ago, I look forward to the day when doctors are replaced by the following code: 

if (patient.sickness = "tick bite") {
   prescribe_pills();
}

Update:  Health insurer WellPoint will be using IBM's Watson to suggest treatment options.  Boom. #health

This is Paria Canyon in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in Arizona:



This picture was found online somewhere.  Someday I'll go here. #nature

I bought a cell phone from a physical store recently, and I fully expected to be upsold to.  Sure enough, I was offered more minutes, a case, insurance, etc.  That makes sense.  Salespeople work off commission, so the more they sell, the more they make.  And I simply walked in off the street.  I didn't pre-order or pre-pay or anything like that.  To them, I was a holder of money, looking to part with said money. 

I also rented a car recently, and like I do every time, I forgot how much they'd try to upsell me.  A bigger car, prepaid gas, GPS, satellite radio, etc.  But unlike the cell phone experience, I didn't just walk in off the street.  I had a reservation, and I chose exactly what I wanted with the exact options I wanted.  I was provided a price quote, and I provided a credit card number in return.  Not to mention the fact that I was traveling for business, and my employer sets the price I can spend on a vehicle, so no amount of upselling could possibly make me change my mind. #business

I signed up for a new bank account online.  This bank also has a physical presence, but I doubted I would need to take advantage of it since I haven't been inside a physical bank in a good five years.  However, I got a paper check in the mail, so I went to the physical location to deposit it.  After having a problem at the ATM and then *gulp* speaking to a human, I was told I wouldn't be able to deposit money at the physical location because I have an online-only account.  I sat there for a minute, thinking how stupid it was that one division of the bank didn't work with another division of the same bank, and I considered yelling at the poor bank teller to take my damn money, since (a) I already have an account and (b) banks typically like money.  But alas, one cannot reason with a person who follows orders from a computer screen.

I heard a story recently where a government employee patented something he was working on and set a price for licensing it.  Since he was working for the government while he came up with the patentable idea, the government would receive any proceeds from licensing.  Sure enough, somebody licensed it and asked the inventor where to send the money.  The inventor asked around and couldn't find any way for the government to accept the money, so he told the licensee to give the money to a local charity.  This is one of the many things that's wrong with our government:  It doesn't know how to accept money. 

Update:  I recently tried to give money to a charity.  I knew how much I wanted to give, and I knew what person I wanted the money to go to (a sponsor child).  I searched and searched through their website, and despite being a technologically-minded person, I couldn't figure it out.  Charities essentially exist to accept money from people.  Sure, charities also typically exist to help people.  But they help people by accepting money from other people.  Not being able to accept money, when accepting money is one of your core functions, is pathetic. #money

From Foreign Policy (via Marginal Revolution):

In fact, the last decade has seen fewer war deaths than any decade in the past 100 years, based on data compiled by researchers Bethany Lacina and Nils Petter Gleditsch of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.

If the world feels like a more violent place than it actually is, that's because there's more information about wars -- not more wars themselves. Once-remote battles and war crimes now regularly make it onto our TV and computer screens, and in more or less real time.

Ignorance is bliss. #entertainment

Every time we go to a nationality-centric restaurant, Wendy likes to point out how every culture has their own version of fried dough.  Italians have zeppolis, Mexicans have churros, Americans have funnel cake and many others.  I would posit that a culture is not sufficiently established until it develops its own fried dough treat. #food

The difference between a fruit and a vegetable is similar to the difference between a nut and a seed.  Wikipedia has a bunch more info on its page about vegetables, which points out that the word "vegetable" has no technical definition; it's based on culture and tradition.  This is why I've always believed corn is a vegetable, when in fact it's a grain, which is technically a type of fruit. #food

As we drove into a state park recently, there was a sign posted that said something along the lines of how wild animals were tagged for tracking purposes.  It was likely related to animal-people interactions, which in turn are often related to people feeding animals even though there are plenty of signs forbidding it.  Wendy proposed that they should instead tag the people who illegally feed wild animals, and refuse then entrance to the park.  I'd say that's pretty reasonable. #nature