Random Thoughts 29

Meme of the day.  People like to argue their unscientific points on the internet using anecdotes. I like how this points out anecdotes aren’t evidence:

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Question for all you parents out there.  When your kids start talking about an imaginary friend, how do you tell if it’s only a harmless fantasy, or a  demon trying to entice your child to kill you in your sleep?

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Is there anything quite so beautiful as opening a Danish butter cookie tin and finding actual cookies inside it?

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There is something so unique about being American and having to deal with the American viewpoint of the world, although that's not always positive.  I was in a meeting at work where an analyst specializing in technological disruptors was talking about the importance of focusing on climate change.  He is British.  He said, "If we don't focus on it, we'll all be dead."  It feels strange, and yet refreshing, to hear someone tell the truth.  In the US, at worse we hear climate change is a "hoax".  At best people tiptoe around the subject because it's supposed to be a debatable topic.  If you talk to experts outside the US, you hear it's settled science and we need to be concerned about it. Here in the US, our leaders and pundits seem to bury their heads in the sand - or inside certain bodily orifices.

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An observation of Life in the 2020s:  A common topic of conversation is now swapping COVID war stories. 

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At 3AM I came up with a great idea for a Star Trek episode: Snakes on a Starship.

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If it's pronounced "phu" why do they spell it "pho".  Do Vietnamese chefs like to mess with our heads?  Do they hope we will all pronounce it incorrectly so they can laugh at us?

I suppose it could be worse.  The French want us to know "eaux" is pronounced "oh" (with a few slippery little dipthongs).  Don't even get me started on the Irish.  They name their kids things like Aoife and Padraig and Siobhan and Aisling and Eithne and Soarise and Niamh.  Then when you find out how those names are pronounced, you wonder if the Irish come up with those spellings to mess with your head.

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Most people know the aspect of fall and winter I hate the most is the short days.  As a chronic insomniac who frequently wakes up in the middle of the night, dark mornings disorient me.  Some morning I neglect to set my alarm, or do it incorrectly.  I wake up in the dark and think, "It's still night.  I have plenty of time to go back to sleep." Then I look at the clock and see it's not only morning, but it's a half hour past when my alarm was supposed to go off.  In the spring and summer, if I wake up and it's dark outside, I can assume I woke up in the middle of the night as I so often do. If I see any daylight, then I know I need to get out of bed and if I see full daylight, then I know I overslept.  

On the other hand, I'm going to Iceland in July.  How much will it mess with my sense of time when it's daylight most of the time?