Month: July 2007

In yesterday’s post I described an argument that reminded people of something called Pascal’s Wager. In a nutshell, Pascal was a dude who argued you should consider Christianity because if it’s true, the downside of not believing is eternal Hell. But if you become a Christian and there’s no God,…

Lately, with the popularity of President Bush in the low twenties, and the Supreme court tilting toward the right, and no one trusting voting results, I wonder what it would take to spark a revolution, or a coup. The thing with history is that nothing seems likely until after it…

Can we ever be sure about anything in life? Is a feeling of 99% certainty enough to say you “know” something? Or do you need to feel 99.9999999999% certain before you’re willing to commit? If you say you need to be 100% certain, you don’t understand how human brains work….

I hate waiting for my computer to do something, or a web page to open. Why can’t someone invent a replacement for the little hourglass, or the browser progress bar, that is more interesting to look at? For example, I think it would be hilarious to see a little graphic…

People always ask me where my ideas come from. It feels as if my ideas originate in my mind, in a something-from-nothing way. But sometimes I think my brain is some sort of zeitgeist vacuum, sucking in scraps of ideas already floating around the universe until there’s enough of one…

When I was a kid, it was common knowledge that you would get cramps and drown if you went swimming within an hour of eating. It never occurred to me that if eating and swimming was a deadly combination, the bottom of every pool would be covered with corpses. I…

It’s hard to talk about immigration without sounding like a racist. So let me just say this and get it out of the way: I think Mexicans are superior to me. By “me,” I am referring to people who are part English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Dutch, German, and Native American….

In my mid twenties, when I was a banker, a top executive in the company offered me a job as his personal gopher. I declined because I already had a good job managing a small group of people. Being a gopher seemed like a step backwards. There wasn’t even a…

President Bush recently had some polyps removed from his colon. Sometimes polyps can turn cancerous, but I doubt his are. After all, President Bush hasn’t had much luck finding weapons of ass destruction. I’m posting this now before someone else thinks of it. I might already be too late. And…

I was in a happy place where the Internet don’t shine. Posts commence Monday.

Last night I met a script supervisor. She works with directors to make sure a movie has the right continuity, and one scene fits the next. It’s a fascinating job, hobnobbing with top directors, writers, and celebrities. No two assignments are the same. How do you get that kind of…

Every time I see a new reality show advertised on TV, I think “Why didn’t I think of that?” They’re brilliant in their own way. Their job is to make a lot of people watch television advertising, and they do it well. I spend way too much time fantasizing about…

I was watching a top political consultant on TV the other day. His head sported two tufts of over-achieving dryer lint above each ear, loosely connected by a few desperate strands across his bald-pated tundra. It looked like the top part of a bad Halloween mask. His job is to…