by Phil Houseal | Dec 22, 2021 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
Dec 22, 2021–A group of us fuddie-duddies (people born in one of the previous centuries) were discussing the appeal and purpose of tattoos and piercings. Why, we asked rhetorically, do humanoids feel the need to ink their limbs and force metal objects through septa,...
by Phil Houseal | Dec 15, 2021 | All Articles, Philosophy
Dec 15, 2021–I recently watched a sci-fi episode that examined the role imagination plays in creating desired outcomes. Specifically, the program described an alien race that observed human behavior by making their imaginations become real. It started with bringing to...
by Phil Houseal | Dec 8, 2021 | All Articles, Philosophy
Dec 8, 2021–I’m convinced the shortest distant from poverty to plenty is via manipulation of 2-dimensional space. I’ll start with a simple example–pizza. What goes into a pizza? A fistful of dough. A cup of tomato sauce. A sprinkling of grated cheese. Plus assorted...
by Phil Houseal | Nov 29, 2021 | All Articles, Events, History, Music
Dec 1, 2021–I’ve mentioned before my obsession with 1940s radio entertainment. Every night I fall to sleep listening to Edgar Bergen, Burns & Allen, Jack Benny, and The Big Show (Tallulah Bankhead was waaaaaay ahead of her time). Every program featured a musical...
by Phil Houseal | Nov 24, 2021 | All Articles, Philosophy
Nov 24, 2021–When “official” weather predictions are less accurate than some random rodent’s, why do we keep paying attention to them? It seems to me that the accuracy of weather forecasting has plummeted like a barometer in Portland over the past few years. For those...
by Phil Houseal | Nov 17, 2021 | All Articles, Philosophy
Nov 17, 2021–I’ve stumbled on a phenomenon I call the Fallacy of Averages. Humans like to measure everything by talking about “averages.” The term has become part of our language: -Grade Point Average -Average Daily Requirement -Field Goal Average There’s even a Law...
