​Sometimes in the middle of the afternoon on a hot day, what one really needs is just a popsicle. That’s all Hyppo has on their menu. The day I visited their Saint Petersburg branch, there were 50 flavors listed on the board (yes, I counted; I’m weird), including flavors such as datil pepper cheesecake, maple pecan, honey grapefruit, cucumber jalapeno, avocado cream, and granny’s apple pie. Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans has nothing on these guys! Everything there is made from fresh fruit. My popsicle even had bits of apple skin in it. It was very good – much better than any pie my grandmother ever made. I thought of taking a picture of it to show you, but alas, I found it had already been eaten!

​This is a poem I wrote in 2008 about the motto of the granite state (New Hampshire). I imagine all my poetry set to music, though I am rarely able to create tunes of my own. This one I imagine to the tune of Born In The USA by Bruce Springsteen.

​Wake up early on saturday
Ben comes over says he wants to play
In a patch of woods near downtown
They were there running around
Grow up soon where does the time go
Seems no one here ever does or talks slow
Take a walk under the colored leaves
I'm at home and it feels great to be free

Oh, live free or die!
You know, live free or die!
The choice, is live free or die!
All the people cry live free or die!

Climb Mount Manadnock me and my girl
We reach the top and we're on top of the world
We see Dublin lake and miles of trees
A perfect place to watch the birds and the bees
We take a seat to count the clouds
Before too long we're alone in the crowd
She falls asleep snuggled close to me
We've got each other and I know that we're free

Mmm, live free or die!
You know, live free or die!
The choice, is live free or die!
All the people cry live free or die!

Somewhere out there is a man
Maybe at an international conference in Switzerland
While waiting, the people talk about their homes
Then they ask him where he comes from
Japan's got its sushi; France has its tower
Australia's got its wildlife; China's a rising power
But there ain't no better land under the sky
I hail from the land of live free or die
In New Hampshire, the summers are hot and the winter's so cold
But really, they're not as bad as you've been told
We love our motorcycles and we love our towns
And we love to eat ice cream all year round
The people are friendly, but not too much
We're all different, 'cause we're an independent bunch
In the two thousand election we were a red state too
Then four years later, we turned to blue
In New Hampshire, the trees change color in the fall
And you'll never ever hear anyone say y'all
People come from all around to buy our nic nacs
You know we hate to have a broad-based tax
We the people are as tough as granite
You know we wouldn't live anywhere else on the planet
We'll always fight for our soveriegnty
I love this land and I'm livin' free

Oh, live free or die!
You know, live free or die!
The choice, is live free or die!
All the people cry live free or die!

Mmm, live free or die!
You know, live free or die!
The choice, is live free or die!
I hail from the state of live free or die!

Oh, live free or die!
You know, live free or die!
One way, to live free or die!
All the people cry live free or die!

Mmm, live free or die!
I was born, to live free or die!
The choice, is live free or die!
You can't take me - live free or die!

Oh, live free or die!
You know, live free or die!
The choice, is live free or die!
All the people cry live free or die!

​Animals are everywhere. I see them even when I’m not on an official adventure. This one I saw outside the bank:

​This one I saw on the ceiling:

​This one I saw on the carpet:

​I also saw this fleck of lettuce on the carpet that flew away:

​My mother found a mole crab at the beach and put it in my hand:

​This animal was hiding in the upper-left of this photograph I took of some fungi while visiting New Hampshire in 2014. I didn’t see it until later.

​Here are a bunch of animals I saw in either Florida or South Carolina between 2013 and 2017:

These are only a few of the books I have read in my (way out) life:

The Story Of Psychology by Morton Hunt goes through the history of different approaches to studying the mind from Plato to phrenology to gestaltism.

Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder is an overview of the works of all the major philosophers including Socrates, Berkeley, and Kant. It is told in a fiction thriller format wherein Sophie’s teacher explains philosophy to her while mysterious things happen.

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis touches upon Lewis’s theories of the nature of the trinity and other interesting things.

The Evolution Of God by Robert Wright first goes through (his contested version of) the history of religious thoughts and how the human conception of God has changed over time. He then proposes the true existence of an impersonal force for moral development as an emergent phenomenon of globalism that he submits as a compromise between atheism and theism.

How To Lie With Statistics by Darrell Huff details how salesmen, politicians, and others can present truthful data in very misleading ways. For example, some use correlation to imply causation. I read this when I was very young and I can’t stop seeing examples of this almost daily.

How We Know What Isn’t So by Thomas Gilovich goes beyond misleading presentations of data and touches upon psychological biases common to most humans.

The Great Political Theories (volumes one and two) by Michael Curtis contains excerpts and summaries of every major political theory and manifesto, such as Plato’s Republic and Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Taking The Quantum Leap by Fred Alan Wolf is a simply-worded, illustrated introduction to quantum mechanics.

No They Can’t by John Stossel puts in an eloquent, easy-to-grasp, and fact-supported way the libertarian worldview.

The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand focuses on the lives and theories of (mostly) American philosophers during the nineteenth century and on how much of it was designed to reduce conflict in the wake of the civil war. It also tangentially touches on some interesting different approaches to doing science.

On Second Thought by Wray Herbert details several cognition “shortcuts” human brains make in making perceptions. What is interesting is that not only are those afraid of heights more careful around heights, but they actually perceive those heights as higher than others do.

Culture Matters edited by Lawrence E. Harrison and Samuel P. Huntington is a collection of essays on how cultural values affect economic development in different societies.

Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan is about how the types of media common in a society affect the “sense ratios” of the people and therefore their approach to life. For example some people care nothing about hearing swear words spoken verbally, but put them into print and they freak out. Other people are the opposite.

Create Your Own Economy by Tyler Cowen touches on many seemingly unrelated subjects, but what I got out of it is how we are all partly autistic and the internet is making us more so by changing our “sense ratios” – though he does not use this term.

On Being Certain by Robert Burton is very pessimistic of intuition, presenting cases where the brain can be tricked.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell is very optimistic of intuition, presenting cases where the subconscious makes split-second evaluations that later turn out to be right, even when we never know why.

The Physics Of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss is a great introduction to physics. It explains wormholes, warp drive, and why the “transporter” will probably always be impossible.

Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias details several ways that Jesus was completely unique as the founder of a religion.

Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe details several examples of “irreducible complexities” found in Earth life that could not possibly have evolved gradually without killing the organism and therefore must have been introduced fully-formed by an “intelligent designer.”

The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel details the corroborating and other evidence to support the accounts of the gospels.

Challenging The Verdict by Earl Doherty picks apart the arguments made in The Case For Christ and submits alternative theories and also claims Jesus never existed.

Not A Conspiracy Theory by Donald Gutstein is not worth much except as a list of who gives the money to promote libertarian or neoconservative causes. He gives progressives a free pass.

The Political Brain by Drew Westen misleadingly supports the case that liberals appeal to the intellect and conservatives the emotions while suggesting that liberals will do better politically if they refuse to have a dialogue and instead resort to accusing conservatives of having secret, nasty motives.

Wrongly Convicted by Saundra Westervelt and John Humphrys gives specific cases where justice went awry and suggests numerous measures that can be made for reform.

Soft Power by Joseph S. Nye Jr. explains the value for nations of cultivating a positive image in the world.

1421 by Gavin Menzies cites overwhelming evidence that the Chinese visited the coasts of North America and South America long before the Portuguese and Spanish. If lightning had not struck the Chinese capitol and started a fire two years later, we would all be speaking Chinese today.

When In The Course Of Human Events by Charles Adams makes the case that the Confederacy was (mostly) in the right and the Union was waaaaaay out of line. It also makes the case that the civil war was about much more than slavery and this has been ignored or even covered up ever since.

How The Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill chronicles the fall of Rome and how literacy and learning was kept alive only in monasteries, many of them founded by Irish missionaries across Europe.

Union, Nation, Or Empire by David C. Hendrickson is really good. The subtitle says it all: The American Debate Over Foreign Relations 1789-1941. Attitudes towards American relations with the world are compared and contrasted with attitudes towards relations between the states. The author makes the case that the USA should lead the world in joining together since we have had more practice in keeping multiple states in harmony and have learned from our mistakes.

Mapping Human History by Steve Olson shows how closely related the human species is and makes the case that “race” is very nearly nonexistent. It also covers prehistoric migrations.

Reinventing Knowledge by Ian F. McNeely and Lisa Wolverton details the different institutions and artifacts that information has been stored on and disseminated through to the next generation in different cultures and through history, such as how the first colleges and museums arose and evolved.

Space is big, but just how big is hard to put into words. This animation allows one to zoom out to large scales by scrolling to the right and zoom in to small scales by scrolling to the left. It ranges from the observable universe to the Plank length. It shows the relative sizes of nebulae, blue whales, and atomic nuclei. Clicking on the little pictures opens info-boxes revealing interesting facts. It’s a fun and educational way to kill twenty minutes while you meditate on the mind-boggling vastness of the cosmos.

Sometimes treasures are hidden where you don’t expect. I was on my way north on 301 to Hillsborough River State Park in Thonotosassa in May of 2016 when I noticed John B. Sargeant County Park on the left. Since I had been to Hillsborough River once before and had never been to Sargeant Park, I decided to check it out to see if it was worth visiting. At first, it appeared to be nothing more than a very popular canoe-launching site. Not having a canoe, I wasn’t interested at the time (you can rent canoes there, but I didn’t have anyone to go with, either). When I found out there was also a boardwalk that stretched out to the river, I decided to stick around.

It was along the boardwalk as it cut through the cypress that I made my first serendipity. In the shallow pools on one side were many brown fish. Some were up to six inches long. They had black spots on the sides and when their nearly transparent fins caught the light just right, they flashed blue. I watched them lazily swim back and forth for a while. A little further, the boardwalk came to the river. This was the second serendipity. The sun on the trees made a beautiful, calming sight while I was sat on the benches in the shade. Numerous tiny water bugs caught the sun and made it seem as if the river was made of sparkling water. There was a good breeze that day and I was surprised at how few flies I had encountered in the woods. It is also apparently a popular spot to go fishing.

Across the river were several birds: an egret, a great blue heron, and two anhingas in a tree. This would prove to be a portent of things to come when I found my third serendipity. The Old Fort King Trail runs all the way from John B. Sargeant Park to Hillsborough River Park. It is open to hikers, bicyclists, and horses. I only went a third of the way before turning back, but along the brook in the forest I saw a turtle, an alligator, and five different species of large birds (I swear one bird was actually purple!). Unfortunately, my camera then wasn’t worth much and all I got were pictures of what look like blurry amoebas.

​Even the most boring stretch of woods can have hidden treasures in it that go unnoticed. If the giant orange butterfly didn’t dive bomb me at just the right moment, I would never have seen the large burrow at the base of the tree next to me. If one grapefruit hadn’t fallen out of the tree on the side of the path, I never would have looked up to see all the other grapefruit still growing. I also saw tangerines! The lesson of the day is that treasures are everywhere if you know where to look, and any outing can turn into an adventure.

This is a poem I wrote in 2007. I imagine all of my poetry set to music but I am rarely able to create my own tunes. This one I imagine set to the tune of Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid. The ending I imagine sung to the tune of Give Peace A Chance by John Lennon over the fading chorus.

It's just another bad day
What more can you say
Your mother called you a name
And you hit her in the face
Then you went outside
But could find no place to hide
There's a whole corrupt world out there
And you don't even care
We've all become so full of hate
Is this just our fate
The callousness of the rich
Won't let them give an inch
And the covetousness of the poor
Means they will always want more
Our leaders bring us into war
But we don't know what for

Who can lead us now
Who can help us out
What we really need is love
And we don't have enough
Who can lead us now
Who can help us out
We need another Jesus
For this lost generation
We need someone like the Jesus from history
We need someone to love us
Not to correct the nation
We need someone to teach us how to love

Our world will never be short
Of heroes and their sort
They all propose their plans
And act on them when they can
But when they are overthrown
We forget they were ever born
Along comes another one
With nothing new under the sun
All the ideologies
Don't mean a thing to me
They say the system is good
But it doesn't work as it should
Our plans go astray
And our heroes go away
In the meantime we play
And quickly lose our way

Who can lead us now
Who can help us out
What we really need is love
And we don't have enough
Who can lead us now
Who can help us out
We need another Jesus
For this lost generation
We need someone like the Jesus from history
We need someone to love us
Not to correct the nation
We need someone to teach us how to love

He said that he'd be back
Now he's been gone so long
Until he returns
Who can right the wrong
But when he left us behind
Feeling so blue
He left himself
Inside of me and you

So don't ask who will take his role
We are his hands and feet
The love that the world needs
Is inside you and me

Who can lead us now
Who can help us out
What we really need is love
And we don't have enough
Who can lead us now
Who can help us out
We need another Jesus
For this lost generation
We need someone like the Jesus from history
We need someone to love us
Not to correct the nation
We need someone to teach us how to love

Who can lead us now
Who can help us out
What we really need is love
And we don't have enough
Who can lead us now
Who can help us out
We need another Jesus
For this lost generation
We need someone like the Jesus from history
We need someone to love us
Not to correct the nation
We need someone to teach us how to love

Who can lead us now
Who can help us out
What we really need is love
And we don't have enough
Who can lead us now
Who can help us out
We need another Jesus
For this lost generation
We need someone like the Jesus from history
We need someone to love us
Not to correct the nation
We need someone to teach us how to love

All the people say
Calvinism
Stoicism
Marxism
Hinduism
Aneurysm
Cataclysm
And all I'm saying is give Jesus a chance

All the people say
Give Peace a chance
My circumstance
Meditation Trance
Don't dirty dance
Pick on France
Auto accidents
And all I'm saying is give Jesus a chance

All the people say
Plato
Cicero
Marsiglio
Vico
Russeau
Montesquieu
And all I'm saying is give Jesus a chance

​Plants are everywhere! I see them even when I’m not on an official adventure. I sometimes like to imagine that I'm three inches tall climbing through the branches. Each is like a whole world. The following is a collection of photographs taken in Florida, New Hampshire, and Virginia between 2013-2017.

​There are two observations I have made in life:

One: People are different.
Two: People do not know that people are different.

Not everyone expresses joy the same way. Some are naturally shy, quiet, laid back, or low-energy. Much can be said with silence. Often, at school pep rallies or singing in church, it is assumed that those with less visible enthusiasm are depressed or simply uninterested. They are pressured to conform to those with more visible energy, but to force oneself to conform only comes across as fake and awkward, and worse, it will prevent any true enthusiasm from ever forming. Why rob them of their joy?

Not everyone grieves in the same way. Some throw themselves into work, others throw themselves into bed, and others make jokes. Sometimes a joke is exactly what one needs to keep from spiraling into despair. It’s not meant as disrespectful. Sometimes a party is exactly what one needs to forget that they lost the big game yesterday, shrugging it off and rising above the struggle so that they can win the next. Not only is it nobody’s business but theirs, but it isn’t even a bad thing. To make people feel guilty for wanting to feel good instead of bad will only make them feel worse. It doesn’t help. It will rob them of their grieving process. In the same way, trying to cheer up those who just need time to cry and think is to rob them of their healing process. When people are at their most vulnerable is when they hurt each other the most.

One man’s friendly is another man’s creepy, and one man’s respectful is another man’s cold. There is a fine line between creepy and romantic, and whether the line has been crossed depends entirely on how the other person takes it. Some enjoy being surprised by love letters in their lunchboxes, but others are just freaked out that somebody had access to their belongings. It is possible to lose someone by going too fast or too slow and most people miss the clues that would tell which one it was. Even those that do learn only do so once it is too late and the lessons are completely inapplicable to the next relationship. Many of these differences are cultural. How close people stand, how long they maintain eye contact, and how soon they ask for or give away contact information can even differ substantially between members of the same community. There is no common agreement on these things, but most people believe there is and are quick to judge others for it.

Sometimes what one person takes as bullying the bully only meant as playful teasing between friends and is unaware how they are perceived. Other times those bullied refuse to be victims and respond in kind, leaving the authorities unsure who started it. While sometimes we are too slow to stop bullying before it gets out of control, other times we are too quick to accuse someone of bullying, making them feel bullied.

​In all of these things there are different ways to be and different ways of doing things, but most people are only aware of their own ways. What weirdoes do you know? When were you accused of being a weirdo?

As it turns out, I’m not the only one who has written about living stuffed animals. J. S. Skye already has five books out featuring Flurry, a magically-animated teddy bear cub whose vanity (and bad luck) get him into all sorts of adorable trouble. Book descriptions of later episodes have him travelling back in time and fighting evil pandas. This is what caught my attention. The first episode is The Christmas Wish, and this is the one I read.

It is not elves, but living teddy bears that make toys at the North Pole for Christopher Kringle (who hates being called Santa). Every so often, he brings a new one to life. The bears live much as humans, getting married, living in heated houses, and eating (recreationally – they have no need of organic calories). They can even produce tears when sad. The first episode explains Flurry’s origins, his moving from the North Pole, and his meeting many friends.

The book is very sweet and the Flurry character is totally adorable. He gets so excited to go shopping that he runs out of the house without the list – but at least remembers to go back to hug his mother. He experiences many of the same sort of child-adult misunderstandings that my character Nathaniel does, and this gets him into trouble. Even the way his internal thoughts were described reminds me of my work. I liked it. Skye definitely captured the feeling of childhood and more than a little bit of the magic of Christmas.

I love cute stories about children, but cute stories about living stuffed animals from the north pole just might be better. As the series progresses, Flurry the teddy bear encounters Christmas magic, sword fights, and discovers his destiny. A great fantasy story.

In 2016 I went to Sunken Gardens in Saint Petersburg and had a blast. I walked down winding, interconnected stone paths between huge palms and trickling artificial brooks. I saw ferns, cycads, oaks, trumpet flowers, bamboo, bottle palms, orchids, bromeliads, and antler ferns. There were many kinds of flowers, berries, and all kinds of strange, unidentifiable things. There was even a rainbow eucalyptus tree. They do a good job of packing a lot of plants into a small area. Some of the trees and palms are quite big and it is a constant struggle between looking at the flowers at ground level and seeing some of the normally hidden sights high above.

The garden began when George Turner bought the land in 1903 and promptly drained the small lake there to make room for it. To this day, some parts of the garden are fifteen feet below street level. He filled it with flowers and exotic fruits. People loved it. In the 1920s he began charging people to stroll through. In 1999 the city of Saint Petersburg bought the place.

They even keep a few animals there. I saw different turtles (including one giant snapper covered in algae), koi, flamingos, parrots, macaws, and kookaburras. The parrots are kept in cages. I tried to teach them some Star Wars quotes, but had no luck.

​I could probably ramble on about each flower, leaf, bench, and trellis I saw for several more paragraphs, but it would be simpler if you just went yourself.

1825 4th Street North, Saint Petersburg, Florida
Sunkengardens.org

​This is a poem I wrote in 2005. It doesn't really mean anything. I imagine all of my poetry set to music but I rarely am able to come up with tunes of my own. This is one time I succeeded, but I don’t think it’s very good.

She's in trouble again
What a poor little girl
They're playing the blame game
And they pinned it on Beryl
Everything she does
Brings on the blame
Everything she doesn't
Brings more of the same
If it happens
Her fault it is
Poor little Beryl's in trouble
She always is

Hey, it's Beryl, poor troubled girl
Oh, you know it's true
She gets blamed for everything
That you and I do
She knows it's true
That sorry little Beryl

She's in trouble again
What a poor little girl
They're playing the blame game
And they pinned it on Beryl
Everything she does
Brings on the blame
Everything she doesn't
Brings more of the same
If it happens
Her fault it is
Poor little Beryl's in trouble
She always is

Everything must be somebody's fault
It can't be left to hang
At least that's what they always say
Blame must follow pain
Consequence escapes us
Leaving us free
We haven't a clue it all goes somewhere
We can't see
Some people in life
Always choose the shortest straw
While misunderstood,
They cross Murphy's law

Hey, it's Beryl, poor troubled girl
Oh, you know it's true
She gets blamed for everything
That you and I do
She knows it's true
That sorry little Beryl

We are the pirates
We've come to take yer gold
We'll take all yer jewels
But we won't take it all
because we never take a bath
We're rough
And tough
And rude
And crude
And lewd
And booed (booing in the background)
(sound mad)And stewed
And mooed
Mooooo!!! Who be the one that brought the cow on board?
We're pirates!
We're pirates!
We're pirates!
We're pirates!
We're pirates!
Arrrrrrrrr!!! Dance the plank!

Hey, it's Beryl, poor troubled girl
Oh, you know it's true
She gets blamed for everything
That you and I do
She knows it's true
That sorry little Beryl

Speed away into the sky
Leave your worries on the ground
Speed away to the furthest galaxy
Fly away at the speed of light
Don't let your worries drag you down
Just speed away and hold on tight
Bye bye bye bye
Bye bye bye farewell

After moving from New Hampshire to Florida, I missed the mountains. Florida is very flat and mountains are hard to come by, but it makes up for this with its clouds and sunsets. The clouds always seem so vast and detailed. Each is an entire world. The sunsets are spectacular and come in more colors than the autumn leaves up north. Over the years I have accumulated a few photographs walking around the neighborhood or out on errands. Only a few of these were taken in parks.
​
One afternoon at Walmart I saw this giant sneezing head in the sky:

​One morning at McDonald’s I saw that the thin cloud cover overhead was collapsing:

​In Florida I see more rainbows in one year than I saw in thirty years in New Hampshire:

​One day there was a green stripe across the sky just before sunset:

I've never seen anything like this in New Hampshire.

One thing I have observed in life is that common sense isn’t very common. Most people have no sense of proportion or how things generally work. They have no feel for statistics. They are unable to generalize principles they learn in one subject to apply to another subject. Call yourself an authority, and they will believe everything you say uncritically. This is extremely dangerous in a democracy, where the people at large are ultimately in control. When the majority can be so easily manipulated into voting for bad candidates that will enact bad policies, we are all in danger.

Of course, I’m not the first to point this out; there are others who are quick to tell us that everything we have been taught is wrong and that they can be trusted to tell the truth. As often as not, these teachers are as deluded as everyone else. Below I give three examples of common beliefs that do not pass my “common sense test.” I know you have no reason to believe me. I can’t even be absolutely sure I’m right myself, since common sense is often wrong. I only ask that you read this post through, think things over, and accept that my opinions are genuine.

The Great GMO Horror: There are people that have somehow picked up the idea that eating genetically modified organisms (GMOs) might make them sick, but if they had passed high school biology they would know better. Some people go so far as to claim that the modified genes in the GMO food will somehow get into our cells and give us drastic mutations. This is impossible. Food is broken down in the stomach and intestines. Starch is broken down into individual sugar molecules. Protein is broken down into individual amino acid molecules. DNA is broken down into individual nucleotides. Anything not broken down small enough to be absorbed by the intestine walls simply ends up in the toilet. It is these basic building blocks that our body’s DNA uses to make its own protein and DNA. With the genetic code of the food DNA broken down in the stomach into individual “letters,” the message is lost. There is no way to tell whether the DNA came from a GMO or a natural organism. Since natural DNA does not get into our cells, GMO DNA should not either.

Thinking that eating GMOs will make you sick is no different than thinking that your paper shredder might jam on a document with a few misspelled words.

Just as your paper shredder does not care what shape the ink stains are we call letters, your stomach does not care what genes your food had when it was swallowed. It is true that genes can alter a cell in which they are actually inserted – this is in fact why they are inserted, making a cow produce more milk or a cornstalk more resistant to locusts – but this should not affect the final food product in any way that might cause disease. A GMO animal is still made of protein, water, and fat like any other animal. A GMO plant is still made of protein, water, cellulose, and starch like any other plant. The DNA is made of the same four nitrogen bases. The only difference is in the sequence.

Of course, genetics is very complex and sometimes a gene can cause different effects in different parts of the body. It is theoretically possible that a gene to increase milk production might also change the proportions of sugars and peptides in the milk, but a farm that wants to stay in business has an incentive to please the customer and will not sell milk that is fundamentally different. Even if the milk is a little different it is highly unlikely that it will be so different that it could make anyone sick. Given that humans are capable of digesting milk from different breeds of cattle, milk from goats, milk from sheep, fruit juice, wine, rice, eggs, lime jello, lobsters, calamari, escargot, haggis, and many other organic substances including their own boogers, there is no reason to worry. This is only common sense.

If a cow with so many genes different that it is no longer a cow but a goat can still produce digestible milk, obviously a cow with only one gene different could. Because there is already a lot of natural genetic variation within species, and because humans are capable of digesting and absorbing so many different types of foods, there should be nothing so different about GMO foods that would make anyone sick.

Another concern is environmental. What if fast-growing wheat escaped the farm and crowded out all other plants? This is the only arena that I see some legitimate concern, but we need to keep it all in perspective. Nature changes all the time. The idea that everything is balanced is mostly a myth. One natural plant will dominate for one decade and then another the next decade. A few GMOs escaping will be unlikely to be any worse. We also have to remember the alternative. In order to keep prices down for the consumer, farms have to use fertilizer and pesticides. Unnatural pesticides made up of artificial compounds that have never existed before in nature can have nasty environmental side effects and fertilizers can runoff during rainstorms and build up downstream. By slightly altering the nature of the plants through genetic manipulation, plants now naturally need less of either.

Instead of fighting nature with artificial chemicals, we have harnessed nature to fight nature. GMOs are the natural alternative.

All of this would be obvious to anyone with a basic high school education and a little bit of common sense, yet millions of people freak out whenever they suspect their food might have been genetically altered. Worse still, they vote. Responsible voters educate themselves before making conclusions on issues such as global warming, fracking, or gay conversion therapy, but most voters are far from responsible and are easily fooled by propaganda.

Positive Ions: People keep telling me how modern technology creates positive ions that get into our bodies and make us sick, which is why they buy products that will produce negative ions to counter them. Or is it the other way around? Not even they can keep it straight. I ask them what type of ions they are talking about (Hydrogen? Oxygen? Zinc?) and they do not know.

Having watched children’s educational programming on PBS when I was in elementary school, I know enough about ions to suspect that the issue is complete nonsense. For one thing, positive and negative ions are always created together. You can’t have one without the other. Often, they are produced by rubbing two different materials together. Which material ends up with a positive charge and which ends up with a negative charge depends on the materials used. Once created, the ions cannot be easily separated. Electromagnetism is a very strong force and it only takes a very few charged particles separated by a small distance before they will rush back together in the form of an electric discharge. Since electrons weigh roughly 1/2000th as much as protons, and protons are often bound to equally heavy neutrons, it is the electrons that move rather than the ions themselves. This is called static electricity. You don’t need to buy those silly ion bracelets because you can create ions just by walking on a carpet!

Cell Phones: Cancer is known to be caused by a great many things. One of these is ionizing radiation. Alpha particles, beta particles, or electromagnetic energy of wavelengths shorter than that of visible light (i.e. ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays) can damage biological molecules, breaking them apart and altering their chemistry. Electromagnetic radiation of longer wavelengths such as radio and microwaves (what cell phones use) is not known to break molecules apart, nor is it known to cause cancer. What they can do in large amounts is produce heat, and people have suggested that cell phones heat nearby tissue thereby causing cancer.

This is silly. Do you know what else can heat tissue? Wearing a hat, drinking soup, sitting next to the fireplace, or sitting in a hot tub can heat tissue. Why don’t we all have cancer? Those suggesting that mere heat can cause cancer seem to have lost all sense of proportion and perspective. Thinking that cell phones can cause cancer this way defies common sense.

Conclusion: I’m far from perfect, but I find that I generally maintain a feeling for the overall system whenever I approach a new issue. This inoculates me from some of the more ridiculous conspiracy theories. When I saw a video of the trade towers collapsing that purported to show proof that they were brought down by explosives, my immediate thought was that the windows were blowing outwards because of compressed air. I understand that buildings are full of air and that when the upper floors fall, that air has to go somewhere. To me, everything went exactly as expected, no explosives necessary. Likewise, I understand that the act of planting the flag on the moon requires jerking it around and making it swing. This is not evidence of wind and therefore that the scene was actually staged on Earth. Rather, it is exactly what is to be expected. In fact, the presence of air would have the tendency to dampen any swings. That people are so quick to fall for these obvious tricks makes me think that they grew up in a world without air and only arrived on Earth yesterday. What happened to their life experience? Where is their common sense?

Beware of propaganda.

​If you doodle, you can connect with others with this affliction at DoodlersAnonymous.com, a website that periodically features member works on the blog, holds contests, and accepts submissions for coloring books that they sell. There is always something interesting to see. It’s a place for artists to find and get found.

This is a poem I wrote in 2005. I imagine all of my poetry set to music, though I am rarely able to come up with my own tunes. This is one of the few that I might have succeeded in at least creating a tune for the chorus, though it sounds strangely familiar.

​Hey pretty girl
I love the way you are
So nice and sweet
You're my little star
We go well together
Like A lion and his roar
You've had a taste of my love, girl
But you'll never make it to the core

So close and yet so far
You just remind me
Of how I want her
So close and yet so far
You just remind me
Of how I miss her
Close to me

Don't take this the wrong way
I really like you girl
I grow fonder every day
'Cause you're such a whirl
Though there's nothing wrong
Not everything is quite right
You know that I'd love too
But don't ask me to stay the night

So close and yet so far
You just remind me
Of how I want her
So close and yet so far
You just remind me
Of how I miss her
Close to me

We've become best friends
And playing these games with you has been so much fun
But it hurts me to tell you
You just aren't the one
Though we comfort each other
Through our many hurts
And you're so very tempting
But you just aren't her
You just aren't her

So close and yet so far
You just remind me
Of how I want her
So close and yet so far
You just remind me
Of how I miss her
Close to me

I'm so sorry girl
I still like you
But you just can't compete
I look into your eyes
And she's not there
You just remind me...

One thing I have observed in all my travels and reading is that a simple lie will travel farther and faster than a slightly more complex truth. Not only is a complex truth harder to remember correctly, it is harder to explain to others, harder to get others to want to understand, and harder still to get them to want to pass it on. This effect is what causes many people to believe incorrect things and make bad decisions. It is not that they want to lie (although that certainly occurs sometimes), or even know that what they are spreading is a lie, it is merely that simple ideas spread faster than complex ones, all other things being equal. Since the truth tends to be complex, or at least not maximally simple, it tends to be the lies that spread faster rather than the other way around.

Many of you have probably heard that cholesterol is bad for you, seeing as it can clog blood vessels, and should be cut out of the diet as much as possible. This is a simple lie. It is easy to advise another that cholesterol is bad, but much harder to explain all of the complex truth that is still being discovered by nutritionists today. The truth is that there are different types of cholesterol. Some are good and some are bad. The good ones are actually beneficial. At any rate, eating less of the bad cholesterol does no good, because the body just makes more to compensate. Finally, there is even dispute over what causes the cholesterol to stick to the arterial walls in the first place. Some have even suggested that it is preventing ruptures in diseased vessels, meaning that even bad cholesterol is really beneficial. We don’t really know.

Many of you have most likely heard from others that they should wear a hat outside when it is cold because fifty percent of one’s escaping body heat is lost through the head. This helpful information influenced me to wear a hat sometimes when I might not have otherwise. Then, one day an idea struck me. I realized that the mouth and nose, through which much heat escapes in warm breath and both of which have high surface areas of thin, capillary-rich skin, are parts of the head. It is no wonder that so much heat escapes through the head! Of course, this means that wearing a hat is hardly a solution.

When we rely on the advice of others, handed down to them by still others, information can be lost or distorted. Finding the original source of the information is ideal, but is often impossible. One has to wonder what else might not have been taken into account. Did they assume that other heat-losing parts such as feet, hands, and genitalia, would already be covered, and therefore not losing much heat? Did they assume that the person would be sitting still and not breathing much, or huffing and puffing after a jog? Maybe by jogging to keep warm, more heat is actually lost through breathing harder. Maybe it depends on air temperature, air pressure, oxygen content of the air, and the hemoglobin content of one’s blood. It could be that at not-as-cold temperatures it is better to walk, and only at extremely cold temperatures it is better to jog. Who knows? It is far too easy for someone in the chain of information transfer to have made a mistake, corrupting all the data from then on. One needs to be careful about what advice they follow.

Then again, maybe I don’t have it quite right either. It could be that I took some slow-spreading, complex lies as the truth. Maybe the truth is even more complex than that. The wisest man is the one who knows that he knows nothing.

What do you know?

Cyriak is an animator who specializes in abusing fractals to create freaky, disturbing abominations of biology, physics, and common sense often set to catchy techno beats. I absolutely love it. It is really a form of surreal/abstract art. There is enough of a pattern to his videos that they make a form of sense and feel satisfying. For example, the way Malfunction builds up to a climax, burning through various levels of reality, and ends on a cliffhanger resonates on an emotional level I can only partly explain. Every time I watch it I see something new. Every element is unexpected in a way that makes me laugh just like the punchline of a joke. I might not be making any sense, but they remind me of Flying Circus skits. While some people see only silliness, I feel like I grasp the underlying mathematics. Check out his YouTube channel.

After a tough day of exploring the mangroves of Weedon Island (actually a peninsula) for crabs and birds to photograph, I needed somewhere to eat. Noble Crust looked as good a place as any. Their tagline is: Seasonal Italian Southern Soul. I asked what this meant and was told that they make Italian-style meals sometimes using ingredients from the southern USA. It is seasonal because they use local, fresh ingredients that are in season, and therefore have to mix up the menu every few months. That sounded good enough to me.

​I love mushrooms, so I settled on ordering the mushroom pizza to share. It was amazing. Each slice actually got better as I ate it. The pizza was made with a thin crust cooked just short of burnt (the way I like my toast) and covered with mozzarella, parsley, and giant chunks of soft, juicy mushrooms. The only thing that could have made it better was red pepper flakes (which they provided).

Afterwards, I ordered something I don’t remember the name of because my eyes stopped on the word Nutella and wouldn’t move after that. What I got was sweet hazelnut madness. It had ice cream, cookies, hazelnuts, and was covered with Nutella.

8300 Fourth Street N, Saint Petersburg, Florida
Noble-crust.com