Holy hell, how ’bout Hawaii?

Several months ago, Tina’s friend Kim packed up her three kids and moved to Hawaii. Her husband has a local Chicago business, and he traveled back and forth.

Living in Hawaii was always meant to be a short-term move to see what it would be like to live in a tropical paradise.

Of course, Kim made the obligatory, “You should come out and stay with me. You’ll have a place to stay for free.”

Every friend says that. But now Kim is moving back to the mainland, and she called to say, “Time’s a tickin’.”

So Tina and I are pulling the trigger on a set of plane tickets. We already missed a chance to stay with another friend in Switzerland for free. So we can’t pass this one up.

We only have this month to go, so we’re going to scoot out there June 24th and stay for a few days.

I’m not usually this “spontaneous.” I guess that’s what a woman does to you.

But in all reality, when are we going to get a chance to stay in Hawaii for free? This is one of those “once in a lifetime” moments that we feel obliged to jump on.

The photography opportunities will be tremendous, and I’ll likely have to work a lot of the time we’re there. That’s the power of the mobile office. I don’t have to be in Chicago to do all of my work.

What’s wrong with your face?

That’s weird.

It appears green.

Green with envy!

Honk.

Human Evolution and Why It Matters: A Conversation with Leakey and Johanson

A must watch:

About the video:

Celebrating decades of groundbreaking exploration in East Africa, renowned paleoanthropologists Donald Johanson and Richard Leakey shared the stage at the American Museum of Natural History on May 5 to discuss the overwhelming evidence for evolution in the hominid fossil record and why understanding our evolutionary history is so important. The discussion, before a sold-out crowd in the Museum’s LeFrak Theater, was moderated by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent for CNN. The event was also live-streamed on amnh.org to a digital audience of several hundred viewers around the country.

Known for such landmark discoveries as “Lucy” (Johanson) and “Turkana Boy” (Leakey), the work of these two scientists has produced much of the fossil evidence that forms our understanding of human evolution.

Looking back over careers spanning 40-plus years, Dr. Johanson and Dr. Leakey shared the stories behind their monumental finds and offered a look at what’s ahead in human evolutionary research.

This historic event was made possible through a joint partnership of the American Museum of Natural History, the Arizona State University Institute of Human Origins, and the Turkana Basin Institute, headquartered in the U.S. at Stony Brook University.

This video is a recording of the live stream, which ran at http://www.amnh.org/live

Produced and directed by James Sims. Shot by Jill Bauerle and Manuel Benitez for AMNH.org.

The Kingdom of Heaven Hospitaller sings the hits

click to enlarge

 

The graphic says:

 I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of god. I have seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What god desires is in the mind and in the heart; and what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man – or not.

Seen at Reddit

Scientific American: Religious Experiences Shrink Part of the Brain

One time in elementary school, a group of kids were poking fun at a pipsqueak of a kid with a childish version of Napoleon complex. At one point, the kid thumbed his nose at us, and we all made a bunch of chattery laughter.

He said, “Did you see my brains?” He was implying that we could see his brains through his nostrils.

There was a collective, “No.” Followed by a bunch of chitchat.

“If you did,” he interrupted. “Did you notice how small it was?”

Everyone guffawed. If you’re going to exacerbate a situation like that, there are a few ways to do it. At the top of the list is telling others you have a small brain. He tried to explain that he was told small brains equal big intellect. I would like to point out that someone probably told him something like that, but it shows how absorbent kids brains are and that you should be very delicate about what you stick in those brains.

This is all to say, that you should read this article from Scientific American that claims:

A study links life-changing religious experiences, like being born again, with atrophy in the hippocampus

Via Cyn-C

Photo above:

Chief Raoni, of the Kayapo tribe native to the Brazilian state of Pará, weeps upon learning that Brazil’s newly elected president Dilma Vana Rousseff has authorized the construction of the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam despite hundreds of thousands of petition signatures, letters, and e-mails begging the government to reconsider.

War on drugs ‘not working’

The Global Commission on Drug Policy has said the war on drugs has “failed”, recommending that leaders decriminalise drug possession.

Via 

Atheist lottery player’s prayer answered

As one commenter at YouTube pointed out:

I couldnt believe in a God that gave me a million dollars for praying, yet denied the prayers of starving child.

Via

It’s a belated Wednesdog!

Tina sent me this photo tonight while I was out playing pool, saying, “I miss you papa.”

How cute is that. It’s like I have a little girl. A dogger, if you will. And she loves me.

Ahh…