Toward simple confusion
Check out this quick story about a 105 year old man in China looking for a new wife.
Gong, a doctor, said: “First, the woman better have a history of doctor practice or learning literature, since I need assistance to write a medical book.
“Second, the woman should be younger than 50, and can take care of my life.”
At the end of the very brief article appears to be a implication suggesting that strong life goals keeps one going in old age…
A pretty interesting article on yahoo news about the decline of marriage in modern America.
More than 14 million of them were headed by single women, another five million by single men, while 36.7 million belonged to a category described as “nonfamily households,” a term that experts said referred primarily to gay or heterosexual couples cohabiting out of formal wedlock.
In addition, there were more than 30 million unmarried men and women living alone, who are not categorized as families, the Census Bureau reported.
By comparison, the number of traditional households with married couples at their core stood at slightly more than 55.2 million, or 49.8 percent of the total.
The article does touch on a few interesting points. First, longer lifespans is changing society. Second, women’s greater economic independence means that they dont have to stick around in a unhappy marriage. Third, since its more common for both parents to work, coupled with the decline in birth rates, children are more likely to become isolated. This is further exacerbated by the American dream (single family house hold, x kids, x cars, blah blah) which will further isolate kids from close contact with relatives.
The car(and the plane) is a amazing invention. It allows people to go anywhere they want any time they want. But how really wants to be regularly killing time just driving everywhere? I’ve heard statistics that in some cities people spend 2hrs or 3hrs a day sitting in traffic. 2hrs– no biggy? Think about it. 2hrs out of a 24 hr day. Thats about 10% of your day sitting in a car, driving.
Check out this article at the bbc talking about how the human species (in a couple thousand years) will homogenize and then eventually divide into two distinct lines: the haves and have nots. Now I dont think humans will have receding chins (b/c we will not have to chew as much) because people like to eat. Look at modern day america. Eat, eat, eat– and probably a couple things in between. If modern medicine can discover the secret of weight gain, eating could be a very common time killer(its does exercise a few muscles in the body).
I read a couple posts/articles referencing this guys work. One site stated this meshing doesnt make sense b/c genetics preserves diversity. In other words, the parents contains genes, and thus the children will get some possible combination of these genes. So it may be true, that the middle percentile may converge more, there should still be a great deal of diversity in the world. I read somewhere long ago (I think in the book The Mating Mind) that intra-racial differences and genetic diversity are far greater than inter-racial ones.
Anyways, the article did also have an interesting thought on the role of technology in our future.
Social skills, such as communicating and interacting with others, could be lost, along with emotions such as love, sympathy, trust and respect. People would become less able to care for others, or perform in teams.
Heres a short article on chemicals in modern products (Shampoos, lotions, drugs, environmental pollutants that, while semi-harmless to adults, disrupt the endocrine systems of children. While there has been talk about estrogenic compounds being present in many products (e.g., soy) and also as a nasty by-product in some manufacturing processes, this is the first time that I’ve seen references to natural oils disrupting endocrine systems.
While Dr. Tiwary is quick to admit that his unpublished findings must be interpreted with great caution, some of his sex hormone levels changed by almost 40 percent after he used the shampoos. In some cases, substances other than sex steroids may also disrupt normal sexual development. In Boston at the annual Endocrine Society meeting in June, Clifford Bloch of the University of Colorado School of Medicine presented several cases of young men who had developed marked breast enlargement from using shampoos containing lavender and tea tree oils, which are widely used essential oil additives that present no problem for adults. (Unlike Dr. Dedekian’s cases, these cases were not a result of passive transfer from parents. The boys themselves used the shampoos.)
I was listening to a talk on zencast.org and found an interesting lecture on the difference between renunciation and resignation.
re‧nun‧ci‧a‧tion–noun
an act or instance of relinquishing, abandoning, repudiating, or sacrificing something, as a right, title, person, or ambition: the king’s renunciation of the throne.
res‧ig‧na‧tion–noun
1. the act of resigning.
2. a formal statement, document, etc., stating that one gives up an office, position, etc.
3. an accepting, unresisting attitude, state, etc.; submission; acquiescence: to meet one’s fate with resignation.
Its a fine division that I have had only brief glimpses of. In some respects, it reminds me of being active versus passive. If you are active, you choose to abandon certain possesions. If you are passive, your possesions are lost, and you simply accept it. (I can see how this you still act in this case, but this mentality does not always address the root causes.)
And finally, did you know the origin of sac·ri·fice means to make sacred? The word to me has always meant loosing something valuable for the sake of something more valuable. But I never put it in a spiritual light. Kinda like there is a difference from saying life is precious and life is sacred.
Check out this article with a brief discussion on how mankind is straining the earth. The whole peak oil and farm land discussions aren’t new. I’m not sure if these are newer issues or not, but I’ve been reading more and more about fresh water and fishing. The article did point out the waste in trade:
Nef highlighted the energy wasted in trade. In 2004, for example, Britain exported 1,500 tons of potatoes to Germany and imported the same amount. We sent 10,200 tons of milk and cream to France and imported 9,900 tons.
so how much do we actually waste? The article says the US-lifestyle would require 5 planet earths. Too bad astronomers haven’t been able to find any more earths out there. Perhaps we need to renew our look at the moon or mars. (No fish on the moon…..)
Consumption is particularly profligate in the West, where individuals consume air-freighted food, buy hardwood furniture, enjoy foreign holidays and own cars. Global Footprint estimates the world would need five planet Earths to sustain a global materialistic society such as that in the US while almost three would be needed for the UK.
I was just upgrading my servers and noticed one was fetching diffs.
apt-get update
…
…
Get: 27 2006-09-10-1306.48.pdiff [293B]
…
This article shows this can be reverted by running:
apt-get update -o Acquire::Pdiffs=false
or adding the following line in /etc/apt/apt.conf.
Acquire::PDiffs “false”;
Check out these funny adds on google video:
1. Krung Thai Bank
2. Ford Thailand – King Kong
3. Bangkok Insurance – Robber
4. Bangkok Insurance – Tires
5. Bangkok Insurance – Twister
Check out this article with some basic tips on running. Most of the stuff is common sense. The advice that stuck out for me was the following:
If you’re like most people, when you run, you exhale as your right foot hits the ground. This puts downward pressure on your liver (which lives on your right side), which then tugs at the diaphragm and creates a side stitch, according to The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Men. The fix: Exhale as your left foot strikes the ground.