Foreign vs. domestic products Jun 30, 2023
There's a pervading belief that things made in places like China are low quality and cheap.  This may have been true at some point and is probably still true in certain circumstances, but it can't possibly be completely true anymore.  "Yeah but this little plastic thing I bought at the dollar store broke immediately because it's from China."  Yeah?  And your $1000 iPhone was made down the street from that plastic thing.  A product's national origin doesn't determine its quality. 

Which also begs the question, what is a product's national origin?  Is it where it's manufactured?  Where it's assembled?  Where its corporate headquarters are?  I used to own a Japanese car.  But this specific car was assembled at a giant manufacturing plant in Kentucky.  It was sold at an American car dealership.  Its profits went to the American subsidiary of the Japanese company.  Maybe some of the parts were made overseas.  But then how do you decide how American it is -- by the number of parts made in America, or the size of the parts made in America, or the importance of the parts?  It's a crapshoot.  Everything is from everywhere, which is why "Made in America" or "Made in China" mean relatively little. #business
Excessive heat warning Jun 29, 2023
There's an excessive heat warning where I live (it's summer), and all the recommendations are things that I don't think really need to be stated.  "Drink fluids, stay out of the sun, wear lightweight clothes."  Like, yeah those are all good ideas.  But do we really need Official Advice&tm; about how to not get too hot?  Related:  Unnecessary advice. #health
Social media commentary Jun 29, 2023
From On the Media's interview with former Buzzfeed person Ben Smith, concerning the current state of social media:
I think the late social media world gives you this illusion of a debate and of seeing all perspectives, but really what it's doing is it's a machine for elevating the dumbest version of the argument you hate and showing it to you constantly and convincing you that people who you disagree with are just utter morons all the time.
This is fine. #technology
Memory eraser drugs Jun 27, 2023
Here's something I recently learned about and find both fascinating and terrifying:
Midazolam is a benzodiazepine with antianxiety and sedative effects. Because of rapid onset and short duration of action, it is commonly used in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures to create anterograde amnesia, which prevents undesirable memory of the procedure that is painful for the patient.
There's a whole class of drugs that have this effect.  I always thought anesthesia drugs just sort of put you to sleep.  I didn't realize they actively prevent your brain from forming new memories. #science
Why keep blogging Jun 27, 2023
Every few weeks or months, I think I've reached the end of "the things I want to write on the internet."  And then I come up with something else.  This part of me just doesn't seem to want to die. 

And I think I keep coming back to it -- and have kept at it for so long -- because it benefits me.  It helps me clear up mental clutter.  I like to think of it like this:  My brain is like a messy office; papers strewn about, post-it notes stuck on the walls, doodles on the whiteboard.  Blogging is like taking all that random, disordered stuff and putting it in nice neat stacks and filing it away.  Is it all gold?  No.  Does organizing actually accomplish anything?  Maybe, maybe not.  But going through the process feels like cleaning my brain.  I'm able to consolidate some disparate ideas, put together a coherent thing (sometimes), and free up space for more random brain activity.  I'm gonna keep doing it. #psychology
3176 Jun 27, 2023
There should be a button in your car that lowers all the windows about an inch, so you can press it as you park your car in the hot sun and want to let a little air in but don't want anyone to be able to fit their arm in to unlock your door.
Evidence vs. reality Jun 24, 2023
I'm a pretty big believer in the idea that evidence should mostly guide our actions and opinions.  For example, I'm in the camp that pretty much all vitamin and mineral supplements are essentially worthless for most reasonably healthy people.  If you eat an even modestly healthy diet, a vitamin supplement won't boost your immune system or cleanse your liver or whatever ridiculous thing it says on the bottle.  It's all complete quackery, based on incomplete or mis-information, often appealing to the "eastern" or "ancient" ways of thinking which is attractive to modern westerners.  [Side note:  When an eastern medicine works, it's no longer called eastern medicine, it's just called medicine.]

However, when I'm sick or stressed or not sleeping well and there's a supplement that claims to fix that, I'll swallow my pride and give it a shot.  I think part of the appeal is that it feels like you're addressing the issue by doing something.  And doing something seems better than doing nothing.  Plus there usually aren't many downsides to supplements because you just pee them out anyway.  So the worst result you could get is that they work.  So far I'm batting 0 for 1000, but hey why not try some new weird pill? #science
Better Jun 22, 2023
I think the English word "better" is lacking.  It can mean two entirely different things, based on context.  When you're injured/sick, you can "get better," which means either (a) you're partially healed or (b) you're fully healed.  Those aren't the same thing, but the same word is used in both instances.  If you're bad at school/sports but you "got better," it can mean either (a) you're somewhat less bad than you were, or (b) you're now the best.  It seems like whenever the word "better" is used to describe progress, it requires either an adverb to qualify it (somewhat better, almost better, completely better), or a comparative descriptor to quantify it (better than before, better than you). #language
Snakes Jun 16, 2023
Snakes are weird.  I can never tell if my internal fear and disgust for them is genetic, as in "danger tube bad because hurty death," or if it's a more modern cultural thing.  But damn these animals are weird.  Like if you watch one move along the ground, it doesn't make sense.  I get it -- it wiggles and propels itself through some sort of black magic.  But I mean these things ain't got no legs.  It's just not right.  They're dry and scaly, but also wet.  And somehow they evolved the ability to store a poisonous substance inside their bodies without dying.  And the teeth.  And the rattle?  Like who's in charge of this whole business? #nature
Observing nature Jun 16, 2023
One of my smaller joys in life is the simple act of observing nature.  I don't know if it's a hunter-gatherer lizard-brain sort of thing where I feel unconsciously compelled to watch animals in case I want to eat them or they want to eat me.  But I'm not thinking about that while I'm doing it.  I simply like to watch animals doing what they do in a natural setting.  Not for any specific purpose or end goal.  Simply to watch these little computers executing their algorithms -- fighting, fleeing, foraging, mating.  It's just sort of interesting and entertaining to watch them go about their lives, eating some grass here, chasing away a coworker there.  Watching how they move in specific ways, to avoid predators, or to look cool for their friends. #nature