sundries

[rm]

Did you blog about the "Fan Reactions to Character Death" panel at Gally? If so, please link me to it; I'd like to do a roundup.

It's super good to be home. Claudette (who we may be renaming Cricket) is a lot more confident and Pretty seems happier although there is occasional hissing. Meanwhile, Patty is the awesome.

Opening to weirdest email I've written in a long time: "Dear Virgin America: I was on flight VX 406 out of LAX yesterday, and -- and I know this is bizarre -- there were ants on it."

Looks like Saturday mail delivery may be doomed again.

Chilean quake may have shortened earth's days.

A nation's condolence book: Letters to Jackie.

For those of you not paying attention to the sheer WTFery in New York State, we've gone from an ineffectual state government run by legislators who can't agree on anything and never ever get voted out (even the guy who slashed his girlfriend's face and then got censured and kicked out of office by the rest of the senate -- he's now suing AND running for reelection; I'm not even kidding) and a governor who came to power due to the former governor's sex scandal to a state government that can't get anything done because of all of the above and the fact that now it turns out that that governor interceded to try to stop the ex-gf of one of his aides from pressing her own domestic violence charges. FAIL.

Ford, meanwhile, has, thankfully, decided not to run for Senate in NY, because wow, we have enough problems.

A novel about healthscare in America.

Haven't gotten through it yet, and sure to be a matter of controversy: Depression's Upside.

The legacy of Jew Süss.

"On the Internet, the First Amendment is a local ordinance."

On the Internet, I would also argue that everyone is a potential reality TV show. Which is a little scary. You wouldn't believe the ideas I come up with and cull.

Me as Jack; redstapler as Reinette:

Comments

[gement.livejournal.com]

Additionally, even if a trait isn't evolution-neutral, evolution is SLOW. We've radically changed most of the basic cognitive features of our environment in less than 200 years. We're trying to do highly detailed jobs using hardware optimized for making monkeys go.

Some people feel better (my mother included) when they can repeat to themselves, "I'm sure it's for a reason, and that something better will come out of this." While I'm all for looking on the bright side, no. This is no more a useful feature than malfunctioning sinuses.

[I do respect that there are nonneurotypical conditions that may have distinctive benefits. I have yet to discover any of these benefits for depression.]

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed. Even if something had a purpose once, doesn't mean it does now - or that it's not backfiring and providing an active hinderance now our environment has changed so radically. Like the curling up action that hedgehogs evolved to protect themselves from predators (if you'll excuse the teleological wording ;) now makes them vulnerable to the far bigger killer on the roads.

I have been known to say I think Evolutionary Psychology is a misunderstood field - unfortunately, I think it's frequently misunderstood even by the people who work in the field.