#michael specter

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Recommendations from people with degrees in Pseudobiology from Google University.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

[justbeingnamaste]

When people say they prefer organic food, what they often seem to mean is they don't want their food tainted with pesticides and their meat shot full of hormones or antibiotics. Many object to the way a few companies - Monsanto is the most famous of them - control so many of the seeds we grow.

[way-i-tend-to-be]

Are you SURE you’re allowed to do that? || Ian & Michael & Broden

It was 5:30pm and as promise Ian was on Michael’s doorstop ringing the bell. He made sure to not be even a minute late, he know how Michael respected punctuality. He was of course not in his usual attire of a smartly dressed suit. He was in fact in a light cotton T-shirt, leather jacket and a nice fitting pair of versace blue jeans. His hair with soft and un-styled as he’d just had a shower before coming over. 

He smiled politely as Michael opened the door. “Hi!” Ian said with a smile, letting himself in as Michael stepped back, obviously half in conversation with someone in the other room. A little boy soon appeared. “In what world is Iron man better than Superman?!” Broden asked, his hands spread wide open, his voice laced with exasperation. “Daddy it’s like you don’t even pay attention to Avengers any more?!” he muttered. “You must be Broden?” Ian said with a smile.

[way-i-tend-to-be]

Who am I? ||Broden & Michael

It seemed like just another regular Friday. Broden didn’t wake up feeling any different than he usually did. He had spent the day playing with his favorite super heros action figures, having fun by himself. Broden spent a lot of time by himself. He didn’t have many friends and the few he did have, didn’t seem to understand him. Not many people did for that matter. Not even his dad. He looked up from the Avengers movie he was watching and again, tucked a stray strand of hair behind his ear. He sighed in annoyance. It was always getting in his way. No matter which way he seemed to tuck it or pull it back it forever fell in his face. He hated it. Whenever possible he tucked it under a baseball cap but his dad had taken to putting them out of his reach recently. Maybe he didn’t like him wearing them? He frowned. If he didn’t have his hair maybe people would see Broden...and not...Cristina any more? He smiled at the idea and nodded. Yes this is what he needed to do. Grabbing the toy craft scissors from his arts and crafts table and made his way to the bathroom. He stood on the little step and leaned over the sink looking into the large vanity mirror. This was it. He took a deep breath, held the scissors on one hand, hair in the other and began to cut. He felt better already, smiling to himself as he cut stand by strand off letting it fall to the floor. He was soon done, enjoying his new look in the mirror when he heard his father calling him down for dinner. He froze, suddenly scared of how his dad might react. He peeked around the bathroom door waiting. 

[newyorker]

If it took the AIDS epidemic to help alter American attitudes toward gay men and lesbians, and a measles outbreak earlier this year at Disneyland to make legislators see the power of vaccines, maybe it’s not too much to hope that one day soon even the most hidebound among us will begin to acknowledge how climate change will affect us all.

Michael Specter, “An Epidemic of Reason?”

[mayakovsky-jung]

“Concepts of memory tend to reflect the technology of the times. Plato and Aristotle saw memories as thoughts inscribed on wax tablets that could be erased easily and used again. These days, we tend to think of memory as a camera or a video recorder, filming, storing, and recycling the vast troves of data we accumulate throughout our lives. In practice, though, every memory we retain depends upon a chain of chemical interactions that connect millions of neurons to one another. Those neurons never touch; instead, they communicate through tiny gaps, or synapses, that surround each of them. Every neuron has branching filaments, called dendrites, that receive chemical signals from other nerve cells and send the information across the synapse to the body of the next cell. The typical human brain has trillions of these connections. When we learn something, chemicals in the brain strengthen the synapses that connect neurons. Long-term memories, built from new proteins, change those synaptic networks constantly; inevitably, some grow weaker and others, as they absorb new information, grow more powerful.” ― Michael Specter