I Told You So

Does anyone else remember wondering whether soaps that kill 99.99% of germs on your hands are doing more harm than good? No? Didn’t think so. Most people are gullible when it comes to fraudulent advertising. But if you went to high school, you know that a balance of so-called germs are what protect us from…

My 48th birthday

Today was very special. So many things came together, so many loved ones involved either before or during the day. When my sister was here months ago, she left behind a large gift-wrapped box, which I would open on my birthday. Jeremy has been working on a charf* for me, which he completed just two…

Signs of the times

When people ask me why I moved to New Zealand, I have all sorts of canned answers. Today, I have a very concrete and unique one: because the scale of things here allows thinkers to wrap their heads around complexity at the level of society. American society, especially when you get into urban planning, regulatory…

Macho model

Gareth Thomas, a famous rugby player for Wales, came out of the closet after years of lying to himself, his team mates, and family (including his wife).  He has decided to become the model for young people that he never had.  This is his moving video short talking about how things “get better.”  He’s a…

Proud papa

Checked in to my Flickr account today. Someone had taken advantage of my Creative Commons permission for reuse and remixing of any image in my collections.  When I clicked on the link, I was pleased to learn that Darwin is now an unpaid spokesperson for commercial floor cleaners in Boise, ID.

New home of the Clog

Korokē manene is the new home for The Clog. Google-owned Blogger decided to stop supporting the 0.5% of its customers (who cares about a few hundred thousand blogs?) who use FTP to host their Blogger blogs on their own server/domains. A peculiar and disappointing turn of events, but it’s been a free service since I…

Sick as a dog

It wasn’t until today that I set out to see how the term “sick as a dog” originated. Woody has been sick for a couple of days — vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy — and it’s really brought out the daddy instincts in me. We’ve all had dogs or known people with dogs, and many of those…