My Own Thoughts

Discovery News has some information about medical practices of 2000 years ago. It turns out that ships carried vegetable pills with them. Advanced DNA analysis of 2,000-year-old tablets has revealed that vegetable pills may have been part of an ancient travel medical kit, according to a new study. The kit was recovered from a shipwreck [...]

BBC News: Last Sin-Eater Celebrated with Church Service Sin-eaters were generally poor people paid to eat bread and drink beer or wine over a corpse, in the belief they would take on the sins of the deceased. Frowned upon by the church, the custom mainly died out in the 19th Century. It was prevalent in [...]

Six scientists tell us about the most accurate science fiction in their fields might help with the conference I’m thinking of going to in June.

I have been struggling with depression. Usually that’s been a night thing, but the last few weeks it’s been a morning thing. Mom’s birthday is tomorrow. I don’t want to grade. Is that depression or laziness?

In 130 BC, a ship fashioned from the wood of walnut trees and bulging with medicines and Syrian glassware sank off the coast of Tuscany, Italy. Archaeologists found its precious load 20 years ago and now, for the first time, archaeobotanists have been able to examine and analyse pills that were prepared by the physicians [...]

Tried a Mojito today. I like rum, lime, and mint. Not all together, apparently.

My new job is going to be getting me a new Mac laptop. I am very excited!

(Reprinted from 2006.) Laura Gilly, age 32, blonde, technical support at Cantor, was killed in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. That’s the most common information available about her on the net. But that is not the sum of Laura Gilly. It isn’t even a very big part. Steven Kretytak of Newsday wrote: [...]

To remember. Picture from Fema.gov. For those who lost loved ones, I am praying for you once again. God, please bless our nation.

But during the generally lighthearted conversation (we had just spent three hours talking about Iran and the Middle East), I asked him if he believed the Cuban model was still something worth exporting. “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,” he said. This struck me as the mother of all Emily Litella moments. [...]

I go watch this every year to make sure that I never, never forget.

My mother died. I found out that the will gave X dollars. There are four of us kids. I figured that meant I got 1/4X. Nope. Turns out I get 1/8X. My kids each get 1/16X. That way no family is getting more than the other. But people are. And that hurt my feelings immensely. [...]

I used to own a very scratchy video of elephants playing soccer. They had folks riding on them, as I remember it. This article, though, is about buffalo whose soccer playing was started by them and ended up saving their lives. Very cool.

Two hundred years ago, Ascension Island was a barren volcanic edifice. Today, its peaks are covered by lush tropical “cloud forest”. What happened in the interim is the amazing story of how the architect of evolution, Kew Gardens and the Royal Navy conspired to build a fully functioning, but totally artificial ecosystem. Read more at [...]