May 2011 archive

Listen to “Packard Pokes At”

For the past several weeks, I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of a podcast called “Packard Pokes At.” It’s a weekly podcast that covers news, politics, and religion. Each show is about an hour in length. We record the show on Friday evenings at 9:00pm central time. The show is broadcast live on …

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Christian Supremacy Rears Its Ugly Head

Angry teacher photo: CONFORM

Damon Fowler, a senior at Bastrop High School in Bastrop, Louisiana, is graduating this evening. Many people in his community are wishing that he weren’t graduating, or that he kept his mouth shut, or that he went to school elsewhere, or that he simply didn’t exist. You see; Damon is an atheist. As Damon explained …

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What Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stronger

Micrograph of Hodgkin lymphoma

You’ve probably heard that quote before. That’s a common English translation of a line from the “Maxims and Arrows” section of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer. The original, in German, is this: Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker. Götzen-Dämmerung, oder, Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophiert …

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Phidippus audax in my living room again

Phidippus audax 0006

During the past several days, I’ve noticed a new (to me) bold jumping spider (Phidippus audax) in my living room. This one appears to be an adult, judging from its size and the fact that its markings are all white rather than a reddish-brown color. It’s a pretty big spider. This species gets to be …

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Woomeisters like Bill Kirkland Say the Darndest Things

While I was receiving chemotherapy treatment on Wednesday, 2011-05-04, a tweet from a friend of mine caught my interest. [Yes, I play on Twitter while the chemotherapy drugs drip into my veins.] Looking back in my timeline, I found that the tweet from @zeno001 followed this brief exchange: Wow! It appeared that Mr. Kirkland was …

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