I'm going through the last week's blog activity. I probably won't post as much of it as I would have, had I read it at the normal time. But for the great stuff I certainly will.#

Chip Gibbons is hilarious: "As for me, the more guys I date, the more meat I eat."#

Richard links to Charles Miller on blogging and how it inverse Edison's decree about invention.#

To me, blogging hits that sweet spot where it is 90% inspiration and 10% perspiration. Fired by an idea that is filling my brain, I sit at the keyboard and type. Posts rarely see a second draft beyond simple spelling and grammar corrections. Words flow from my brain to the keyboard, out to the world, and then I'm done with them bar the comments.

Chip Gibbons links to The Agitator on some interesting numbers.#

Cars kill 43,000 people every year, or 117 per day. The flu kills 36,000 per year. Guns kill 26,000. Food-borne illness kills 5,000.

Excepting 2001, wanna know how many Americans terrorism kills every day? Almost zero. Much closer to zero than to one. Even if we isolate 2001 and the 3,000 people killed on September 11, the deadliest year for terrorism in U.S. history, that boils down to less than 10 deaths per day, or one tenth the number killed the same year in car accidents. Yet we've created the largest bureaucracy in the history of government, we've suspended the rules of criminal procedure, and we've launched what could amount to a trillion-dollar war -- all in the name of fighting a threat that's not even amont the top 20 killers of Americans.

The Black Saint discusses "disposable television." I think this is a very keen observation.#

We're entering an era of disposable television. Does anyone recall who was on the last few incarnations of Survivor? Does anyone even remember what happened on Joe Millionaire? How many vapid Bachelors have hit it and quit it on primetime TV? Reality TV just provides watercooler discussion for a few weeks and then fades into pop culture obscurity after the finale. "You're fired!" replaces "voted off the island."

Matthew Thomas explains why he is going to university. Ishmael really changed me as well.#

There are all sorts of ways this argument can be disputed. You could argue that the advantages of civilization — longer lifespans, dental hygiene, recreational sex, the Internet — outweigh the disadvantages. You could argue that human ingenuity will ensure we never run out of resources. You could argue that ten thousand years can't be wrong. Or, like most people, you could just ignore the issue entirely.

I went through all these arguments, and they seemed plausible. But the subject kept nagging at my mind. Eventually I realized that I didn't know beyond reasonable doubt, and if I didn't prove Quinn wrong to my own satisfaction, I'd be uncomfortable for the rest of my life.

Jorit Wiersma writes about his trials with (ethical) diets.#

My ideal really is to be vegan, but it's just not feasible in my life, especially because I don't want to force Saskia to eat vegan (actually, we had rice, lentils and broccoli for dinner yesterday, so I guess that's vegan), and, to be fair, I feel that finding meat substitution products is too much of a hassle. My solution used to be mostly to eat milk and cheese products. I don't really consider those to be strictly fitting for a vegetarian diet because it's unavoidable to kill cows in the process of making milk products (at least in the current industry).

It is my opinion that the most important thing to do is to think about what your doing and do your best to do what you want. The most vile thing in the world to me is choosing ignorance over information.

I think that if I had a girlfriend, or wife, that was not at all vegan or vegetarian then I would probably buckle to avoid conflict with her. Luckily for me, no one has forced me to come to my senses (yet.)

Richard writes about drinking alcohol, or rather not doing it.#

I never gained from being drunk; it never made me feel more at ease with myself—although it has made me take more risks comedically, which I don't have a problem with—and I remember a time at a bar in which I was drunk, in a terrible mood, but alcohol never let me go as low as I needed to go to bounce back up. I get no satisfaction anymore from drinking, and I would get no satisfaction with sleeping with someone who was drunk. (No psychological satisfaction that is: I am agnostic on the physical element.) I don't plan on being as straight-edge as Jay, but I don't need alcohol to make me feel better or worse about myself.

+1

Correction writes about religion and blood and guts.#

It just isn't. There's no way around it. Our Judeo-Christian heritage, like all of human history, is soaked in blood and tragedy and pain. But here's the thing: any religion that isn't about blood and guts, suffering and hatred, betrayal and warfare, isn't real. Simple faith speaks to the soul, but religion in all its wonder speaks to the whole of life and like life it is dirty, bloody, and all fucked-up sometimes.

Alex Tabarrok explains why artificial hearts will not save lives.#

The mathematics is simple; there are approximately 2200 hearts donated for transplant every year (data here). That means we can save 2200 lives a year and no more. All the artificial heart can do, therefore, is change who gets saved. Some people who previously died will live long enough to receive a transplant but this means there will be one less heart available for someone else on the waiting list. The artificial heart will make the waiting list longer but it will not save lives.

Ryan Overbey reflects on seeing The Fog of War.#

My first thought upon exiting the theater: my life is utterly insignificant. And for that, I am profoundly grateful. Millions of lives do not depend on me. The things I say and do will have little or no impact on the broader course of human history. Robert McNamara may have had success and power, but you can see the burden of that on him at the age of 85. He is dealing, as best he can, with the consequences of his decisions, with his trafficking in the brutal trade of human lives, the saving of them and the taking of them as pawns on the diplomatic chessboard. It's a responsibility I would never assume, and I think we should be thankful that a man of such intelligence was willing to assume them.

Correction writes about fasting.#

I started fasting the day after Ash Wednesday, on February 26th of this year. I didn't really know why I was doing it at the time; it just seemed right. I'd been reading about fasting in preparation for a Lenten study that I was teaching at church, and I guess I just got a little caught up in the idea. Fasting as an act of piety, this notion seems so quaint and anachronistic. I imagined monks taking chaste sips of water from a large, cool cistern. The idea of fasting seems holy to me. I can't remember ever feeling holy before. It's not the kind of thing that modern people really chase after. So, why the hell not? I thought. How hard could it possibly be?

The answer is that it's pretty hard. The first hurdle was deciding what kind of fast to pursue. When Lent was first observed, back in the fourth century, those who fasted ate but one meal a day and nothing else, except for Sundays. That single meal could not contain meat or eggs or milk or cheese.

I used to fast, as in not eat anything whatsoever, once a week--Wednesdays--in order to always remind myself that there are people who go to bed hungry every day. This was very difficult and I couldn't keep at it after a few months. I'd like to start again though... I think the idea.

Aaron Swartz gives a "shorter" Richard Clarke.#

Executive summary: There's a serious chance 9/11 could have been stopped. Bush wanted to invade Iraq instead.

White House Terrorism Coordinator Richard Clarke was appointed by Reagan, and served under Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II — he has 30 years in government service. He was the President's top anti-terrorism advisor (although Bush II, believing terrorism wasn't important, stripped him of his Cabinet-level rank). He ran the 9/11 response from the Situation Room.