Hidden Causative Agents

  This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

The world is full of causes and effects. The wind blows and the trees sway. The wind blowing causes the tree to sway. The wind is the causative agent. Now biologically there is a strong adaptive reason for being able to recognize causative agents. If you're a monkey and a tree branch moves it is useful to be able to tell if the branch moved due to wind or if the branch moved due to a snake or other predator.

Hologram from Izzy

  This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

Izzy Asher recently gave me a gift of a bolo tie. He'd wanted to give me one with stars in it. That sounded cool, and when I saw it, it was indeed pretty cool. And then he explained how it was a one of a kind. He'd made it out of an old TV picture tube and a bag with holograms of stars on it. “Recycled”, he said. Wow.

Better Angels

  This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

I've just recently finished Steven Pinker's new book The Better Angels of Our Nature. This is a large book covering what many people may feel to be a mythological topic. The subtitle is “Why Violence Has Declined”. Yes, violence has indeed declined.