tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-177301662011-11-27T17:15:55.782-07:00Ideas, rants and raves, with emphasis on Science, Politics, Personal Growth and Finance - and even a little Religion when I feel argumentative!Lukenoreply@blogger.comBlogger141100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-9028503240616967742008-01-09T17:49:00.001-07:002008-01-09T17:49:30.977-07:00

Over at Wise Bread, Margaret Garcia-Couoh has a cute and to-the-point post. Titled Realistic Budgeting: The Marriage Saver, she suggests that couples get real about their "little" and/or secret expenses. I certainly have this in my relationship: I often discover empty Ann Taylor bags in the recycling, or a new watch on her dresser. If I ask, these items were always "on sale" or she had been "

Lukenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-39910400670199302492007-12-31T13:38:00.000-07:002007-12-31T13:43:09.481-07:00

I'm moving this blog over to WordPress (http://asperis.wordpress.com/). There were a couple features I liked and if I ever get fancy (in my dreams) I have a little more flexibility. Since I have no readers (not even my wife or mother-in-law read my blog!) I can modify things to my heart's content without causing confusion or inconvenience, other than to myself. Until things get organized, have a

Lukenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-67524333721575642962007-12-28T16:21:00.000-07:002007-12-28T17:07:43.071-07:00

Over at Molly's Brother on a Budget, a nice financial/personal growth blog, was a recent post titled How to Eliminate Negative Self-Talk. It included the sage points1. Stop it2. Label it3. Flip it4. Ignore it5. Exaggerate itAnd I added a sixth, "Thank it," with the following comment:------------------------------------------I’d like to add one that I’ve not seen elsewhere (i.e., I made it up)

Lukenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-86941556593207591352007-12-28T15:19:00.000-07:002007-12-28T15:40:09.463-07:00

I stopped my even-then brief blog two years ago. Here at the very end of 2007 I'd like to resume and, rather than starting over anew, I'm simply picking up where I left off; thus the huge gap. After re-reading my previous posts I decided they weren't too horrible after all and show a sample of how I think.I expect to add a lot more about Personal Finance, since I've just recently paid off my last

Lukenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-1135219760012681112005-12-21T19:49:00.000-07:002005-12-21T21:22:26.300-07:00

In their Dec 20 article, “Doonesbury” needs some resistance, Answers in Genesis once again deploys gobbledy goop pseudo-science to misinform their flock about real science.In the article, which critiques a Doonesbury cartoon about bacteria acquiring resistance through mutation, they write:…what about those experiments where some bacteria developed a resistance to substances over time due to

Lukenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-1134938619684823032005-12-18T13:43:00.000-07:002005-12-18T13:43:39.716-07:00

Once again, Answers in Genesis purposely confuses the issues surrounding evolutionary science, this time in their article Natural processes—can they explain the origin of life? by staff writer Pam S. SheppardThis “confusion” is one of many arguments used by creationists. Instead of addressing the science, they misrepresent it badly, then construct a phony argument against the misrepresentation.

Lukenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-1134746869322837332005-12-16T08:27:00.000-07:002005-12-16T08:39:18.213-07:00

This is the text of a comment I made over at The Panda’s Thumb, in response to a posting titled How would *you* strengthen science in the U.S.?, Summit Lists Ways—but Not Means—to Strengthen Science, by Tara Smith. The gist being there are a lot of great ideas but no committment to fund them. The phrase I quote is from that article, where Tara is referring to comments she sees on Panda’s Thumb

Lukenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-1134694461663984822005-12-15T17:54:00.000-07:002005-12-15T19:35:54.620-07:00

The recent article at Panda’s Thumb references a list of interesting articles in the November issue of Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology. Among them is a very nice overview of the current state of abiogenesis, or origin-of-life research, “Jump-Starting a Cellular World: Investigating the Origin of Life, from Soup to Networks” (it’s a .pdf so expect a long download over a slow connection).I

Lukenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-1134653635133146502005-12-15T06:33:00.000-07:002005-12-15T06:45:39.033-07:00

This is incredible! This story from BBC News reports that Virgin Galactic has selected the state of New Mexico to build their spaceport!I have some reservations about the overall practicality of human space flight (NASA, at least, should be emphasizing robotic missions at least until more of the space-bugs are ironed out and the technology for interplanetary space travel has advanced). But I have

Lukenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-1134602104867565342005-12-14T16:15:00.000-07:002005-12-14T18:28:48.456-07:00

I’m shocked, simply shocked. Those Diebold voting machines? You know, the ones that handed G.W. Bush the presidency last year? Well it turns out that – surprise, surprise – they can be hacked without leaving a trace to change the votes any way desired. And this is on the memory card that Diebold swore was not hackable. The test was done for Leon County (FL), and a post of the test is on the site

Lukenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-1134594201325903832005-12-14T14:03:00.000-07:002005-12-14T15:51:06.173-07:00

Blogs on the Left and the RightI started following political blogs around the time Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald was doing his magic, and discovered a number of great mostly left-leaning blogs to follow, some of which I will list here. I also tried out a couple of the right-wing blogs, but got too angry reading them – too full of outrageous lies and spin in the face of the most solid facts, the

Lukenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-1134582778124768042005-12-14T10:52:00.000-07:002005-12-14T10:52:58.140-07:00

The White House — especially Dick Cheney — is pushing pretty hard to allow the US to torture captives under certain circumstances (news is all over, but here’s a recent link via AMERICAblog). This has got to be a public relations nightmare both at home and at broad. Why are they pushing so hard when it clearly is costing them so much?I have a theory about this: I think they are trying to cover

Lukenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-1134521201874632372005-12-13T17:46:00.000-07:002005-12-13T18:00:53.153-07:00

Every once in a while, for yucks, I browse the Christian fundamentalist site Answers in Genesis. I have a morbid curiosity to see how generally smart people tie themselves into knots trying to crowbar a biblical interpretation into the Real World – trying to reconcile scientific facts with biblical contradictions and their political goals (the latter seems to dominate). Take, for one mild example

Lukenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17730166.post-1129057653002478842005-11-02T10:45:00.000-07:002005-12-13T10:26:40.783-07:00

I was at a dinner party the other night. While we have many friends with strong science backgrounds, this particular group consisted mainly of History and Literature types, with careers in PR, Marketing, teaching, tech work and the like. All smart, good liberals and good people, some religious some not.Toward the end of dinner, over our ice cream and port, our conversation turned to the various

Lukenoreply@blogger.com0