Quaap

Doctors are just in it for the money

Pffff! Doctors. Am I right? All in it for the money. Making up diseases and "disorders" so they and their pharma-buddies can sell you the "treatments". Half the time the they sell you something that makes you sick so they can sell you something else to make you feel better. Not a single doctor ever considers nutrition and fitness as a cause for worry. Oh, they may publicly "recommend" eating fruits and vegetables and getting daily exercise, but they don't really mean it.

Pages I check out semi-regularly

These are just some pages I check out semi-often. Thought I'd add them here to spread the joy.

Why we're homeschooling.

Though it's still very early in the game (our daughter will be merely kindergarten age), I feel it's important to document our rationale early, both for our benefit and the potential benefit of others, and so we don't have to answer the same questions multiple times. Also, since this is "different", many people will want some sort of justification, and while I don't feel one is absolutely required, we're not completely blind to social norms… so: this article.

Cut the psychoanalysis, Freud

One of the more annoying things about parenting is that if anything about a family's situation is "different" in any way, suddenly that is the "cause" of everything about the children. And by "different", I mean "different than the observer's situation".

It's craziness, but it's our kind of craziness.

I have a secret to tell: [Deep breath]… I'm transgendered…

Marriage is like a garden

In many ways, having a successful marriage is much like having a successful garden.

Crunchy mom (with a penis)

Over the years I've slowly become acquainted with the term "crunchy" mom, AKA "granola" mom (AKA "hippie"). You probably know a few, even if you aren't aware of the name "crunchy".

Ritalin / Ritalout

Recently I had discussion about Ritalin. This is not just about that discussion, but about the topic in general. I am not a doctor (but neither are most of the people making the objections), just some bloke with a computer science degree who tries to take a skeptical and science-based approach to everything. Oh, and I read a lot of sciencey stuff. And health stuff. Definitely a lot of sciencey health stuff. So take this for what it's worth.

Rules to live by

When I entered college, I was a Rush-Limbaugh-listening, homophobic, conservative, Republican Catholic. When I left, I, er, wasn't. This was an engineering/science-based college with limited "Humanities" requirements, so very few of my professors every really tried to inject any "liberal bias" into things. It was just that over my college years, I saw that many other people thought, believed, and acted very differently than I did, but they weren't the horrible creatures I imagined them to be. They were just people who thought different things than me. This was very eye-opening and caused me to constantly re-evaluate what I thought, but more importantly, why I thought it.

Polar bear in a snowstorm

I've seen these a lot, had to do one…

Two theories of morality

While there are certainly more than two, these are the two theories of morality which concern me most. If I lived in India, "Theory 1" might be about reincarnation or seeking Nirvana, but living in this part of the United States at this time, it has to be the whole God/Jesus/Heaven/Hell thing.

Lazy unemployed occupiers

I have a steady job with great benefits and a good paycheck because I am not lazy like those unemployed people…

Border crossing dumbassery

Seen on Facebook:
Interesting…If you cross the North Korean border illegally, you get 12 yrs. hard labor. If you cross the Afghanistan border illegally, you get shot. If you cross the U.S. border illegally you get, a job, a driver's license, food stamps, a place to live, health care, housing, childcare benefits, education, & a tax free business for 7 yrs. No wonder we are a country in debt. Re-post if you agree

This seems wrong in a few ways…

Dear Google

Please stop helpfully ignoring my search terms. If I take the time to type 5 words into the box, the pages listed should contain all 5 of those words. Not 4, not 3: 5. Why are you deciding that I didn't really mean those things I typed? Or, at least tell me when you do it. You've changed, Google. You've changed.

Reminder about American Atheists

Just a reminder to everyone: Although the organization called American Atheists has the word "atheists" in its name, it is not an all-inclusive group. In fact, American Atheists only has a few thousand members, and, depending on how the survey questions are worded, there are anywhere from several million to several tens of millions of atheists in the United States. So, when the group named "American Atheists" does something ridiculous, keep in mind that literally 99% of atheists (myself included) in the USA are not in that group, and are not necessarily represented by its actions and views. That is all.

Chopracubra

Chopracubra (noun, also spelled chopracabra): a semi-mythical beast which haunts the science world with its meaningless sayings and misuse of science terms. It is said to be most active in the late afternoons where it can be found on daytime TV talk shows pretending to know stuff it could not possibly know. It is said to have a distinctive call, which consists of vocalizations like "quantum", "spiritual", and "awareness".

Literally, "chopracubra" (chopra-cubra) means "woo blower". Scientists debate whether the Chopracubra actually exists, or is simply a manifestation of desires in the quantum-entangled chi of universal Karma Dharma woodely doo.

Half whole wheat focaccia

Very light and soft focaccia bread. I synthesized this from a few different recipes I found on-line.

A Quick Guide to Evaluating Other Religions

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The Slippery Slope of Gay Marriage

Somehow this makes sense …

Simplifying technology

What things should look like, part 1.

Coconut milk ice cream

It tastes great, you can serve it to your lactose intolerant and/or vegan friends, it's easier to make than ice cream because it requires fewer ingredients, and the ingredients will last a long time before you decide to make it. This last one is my primary motivator. I like to make stuff. Food is one of those things, but the mood may strike at any time and I don't want to leave the house to go to the store when it does. Heavy cream or raw eggs will last a week or three in the fridge, but a can of coconut milk will last years, so it is easy to keep on hand.

Oversimplifications of medical conditions

I recently watched an older episode of South Park which dealt with Alcoholics Anonymous. Knowing what I know about AA, I fully support the mocking of this organization and its "treatment" methods, and South Park did many things right in said mocking:

Unscientific American Issue 1

The Musical Stylings of August Samson

I pulled this off of a CD that was pulled from an old home cassette recording of my grandfather August Samson playing various old-timey country/bluegrass-y tunes on the fiddle. It's really nothing more than a few practice/jam sessions, and the quality is pretty poor, but it's still fun.

The Real Dictionary

A few terms which are misused in common language.

Censored Cartoons

I remember when I discovered that the cartoons I had watched as a child where censored for content on modern networks. I thought "What's wrong with people? I watched those as a kid and suffered no ill effects." The censored parts are not really that bad. Here's some of the more egregious examples of cartoon censorship:

Giggly man commands

In the Unix/Linux/gnu world, there's a command called "man". You use it to get the help page (manual) of other commands. For example, if you wanted to know all the options for the directory listing command "ls", you'd type "man ls".

OnlineNewspaper Gazette

The OnlineNewspaper Gazette was a satirical newspaper in the same vein as The Onion or The Daily Show. It had a short run from May 2001 to Oct 2002, which is actually pretty long in internet-years. It featured articles created by me and several of my talented friends and family. The original webhost was Thamus.org, then Craptaculus.com, and now finally Quaap.com.

Rating system expansion

Ratings on the content of movies, TV programs and video games are generally a useful thing: they give parents a little bit of information about whether the content is appropriate for their children. Notification about the violence content of a movie is useful to parents. Knowing ahead of time that a movie contains graphic depictions of sex with donkeys, likewise.

Evaluating religions

Pseudo-code for evaluating religions

The Wikipedia experiment

Though I use it all the time, I often make fun of Wikipedia and its supporters for several obvious reasons, including terrible writing and a "patchwork" feel to the articles that arises from too many editors. But the main problem is that, as a source of reliable information, it, well, blows. When confronted with these negative opinions, the defenders of Wikipedia always tell me that incorrect information, lies, and vandalism are "corrected within minutes" and that it's just as accurate as other encyclopedias.

Evaluating movies by M Night Shyamalan

Pseudo-code for evaluating movies by M Night Shyamalan

Factcheck.org and the Clinton Surplus

I am a huge supporter of Factcheck.org. They provide a great service which roughly corresponds to the efforts of Snopes.com, but instead of random urban legends, they look into the words and writings of the political world.

Hey, Big Spender!

While I've seen much hoo-ha recently about Obama's "record breaking" budget and deficit, and much bemoaning about it from those of the Republican persuasion, I don't recall any of them complaining about the previous 8 years when the budget increased massively and the debt doubled.

GoDaddy, you stupid whore

GoDaddy and the American Healthcare System share at least one quality: People think it's great, until they need to actually use it.

Prescription Drug Name Generator

Find out important information about America's (soon to be) most popular drugs.

Computer aging program

Using the latest and greatest formula and algorithms, I've spent some time and put together this computer image-aging program. It's surprisingly accurate, and should age nearly anything (not just people). Just use the form to select the image to age, set the subject's current age and the number of years to age, and click go.

Skeptic's toolbox

Just a few sources to check out before believing or repeating (especially repeating) an "amazing" claim

Arguments that don't make it

I recently had a conversation with a friend about religious beliefs. This friend brought up some of the reasons why he believed his religion was true. I didn't think they were good enough reasons to justify belief in a god, and since I had asked for reasons before, I thought I'd list some of the more common arguments and why I don't buy them. Note that this friend did not make all of these arguments, and I did not make all these responses.

Why I am an Infidel

I often use the label "atheist" to describe myself, and even though some tend to add meanings at will, most people have a general idea what that means.

Things that aren't funny: Part I

Jokes about how white people are just so darn white.

Rebuilding New Orleans

When I heard of the plans to rebuild the destroyed parts of New Orleans, I was overcome with the warm fuzzies. Here were people determined to rebuild their lives and houses no matter what the current and future costs to you and me. God bless them.

Evolution in Kansas II

(Continued from Evolution in Kansas.)

Evolution in Kansas

Dear Scientific Illiterates,

This is not the first time this has been said, and it won't be the last, but the more times this is repeated the better:

Supersize yourself

I finally watched Supersize Me. It taught me so many things, I can see why people love it so much.

Fat people vs Skinny people

I decided to come up with a list of "dumb arguments". It is not that they are unimportant or are unwinnable, but arguments that people on both sides make unwarranted assumptions or come to some extreme conclusion.

What words mean: "atheist"

"I am an atheist."

Is that a toe on your head?

For someone who tries to live as myth-free as possible, it can be fairly rough going sometimes. As an exercise, pretend someone told you he believed that all humans have a toe growing out of the tops of their heads. If you don't immediately vacate the area, I can see the line of conversation going something like this:

Old stuff

• ~ 2000-2002 OnlineNewspaper Gazette
• ~ 2003 Organic food store
• ~ 2003Gravy Diet
• ~ 2000 Intelligent Design
• ~ 2002Apologist Guide
• ~ 2000The Antidrug