Comment on Don't Listen to van Gogh
Posted on June 10, 2009

Thanks for your comment Bruce. My point was that many people who are experts in one field assume themselves to deserve recognition for their knowledge in others--call it hubris or arrogance--when in fact they lack such knowledge. That assumption is wrong and can be dangerous. I believe the kind of person you refer to is called a polymath. It's the attitude of the person who has expertise in one field but assumes he deserves automatic acceptance for his limited knowledge and utterances in other fields that bothers me. Even a polymath may be less knowledgeable than a grade nine dropout on subjects outside his areas of expertise--in fact, very often is. Mastering one subject does not give anyone the right to be recognized for his or her knowledge of all subjects.

Comment on What Makes Life Worthwhile?
Posted on April 6, 2009

Thanks Jo. I hope your life is becoming more manageable.

Comment on Why Intelligent People Tend To Be Unhappy
Posted on March 12, 2009

CBMM, if your assessment of yourself is accurate (self assessment rarely is, but you may well be an exception), you may have underlying physiological problems. For example, general anxiety disorder could affect your sleep and could cause depression. (Long term anxiety and depression are related in the brain--both depend on the amount of cortisol the brain causes to be produced, too much or too little.) The depression could be Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) due to not enough vitamin D (specifically D3) in your body. If your depression tends to be more in winter than in summer or if it's all the time but you expose yourself to little direct sunlight even in summer, SAD could well be the cause. I have personal experience with all of the above and their solutions, so I speak with confidence.

Comment on When You Want to Get Rid of an Enemy
Posted on January 19, 2009

Thanks. I don't care enough about people I dislike to hate them or to carry a grudge. It's too much work, more than they are worth. I have learned how to turn them off.

Comment on Fascinating Stuff You Didn't Know About Bacteria
Posted on January 10, 2009

Kenosis23, while the information about passing bad bacteria by touching hands is true, it's misleading. We touch far fewer things with our lips than we do with our hands, so the lips get less contaminated. The lips have the good bacteria in the mouth to protect them, though nothing is perfect. Very little passes through the skin (hands or otherwise). it's like having a washable rubber glove over our whole body. The problem with germs on the hands only comes into play when we put our hands into vulnerable places, especially the eyes (which have very little protection) but also in the mouth, nose or even the ears. It is more risky to kiss someone on the hands than it is on the lips. That is, unless the hands were washed well a minute before. Trust the European aristocracy of old to develop a habit that was risky. They did a lot of it.

Comment on Why Religions Fail While Heretics Succeed
Posted on October 27, 2008

joseph claude francois simard, while I appreciate the effort you made to compose your comments, they do not make any sense to me. It sounds as if you are trying to spout back the propaganda you have been told, but it came out jumbled.

Comment on Stuff About Vitamins
Posted on August 30, 2008

nafwa, I was just notified by Scribd of your reply, nearly a year after I left my comment. I understand and support your point of view about references. I do that a great deal myself. These articles are starting points for readers, not end points. Thanks.

Comment on How to Know if You Have a First Rate Mind
Posted on August 26, 2008

Thanks Bruce. To reply properly and effectively I would have to write one article in response to each of your paragraphs. Suffice to say: Well put!

Comment on How to Know if You Have a First Rate Mind
Posted on August 22, 2008

No, Alex, it was not intended to be "in progress." However, life is a work in progress and I find my ideas developing as I live through them. Part of this is an addition to my Scribd articles about intelligence, which have been extremely popular. If you are interested, go to my home page and enter "intelligence" into the search bar.

Comment on Get Out! I Can't Stand The Sight Of You
Posted on August 18, 2008

Thanks Bruce. I want to shake up everyone's concept of reality, which was generously provided by others with something to gain. When people realize what reality really is, then life alters dramatically from that moment on. (I'm still trying to adjust.)

Comment on It Takes a Lot of Stupid People to Make a War
Posted on August 18, 2008

Thanks TB. I tend to use "stupid" to refer to people who know something is wrong that impacts them negatively, but will still do nothing to correct the problem. "Lazy" doesn't fit these people, and it's a word I avboid anyway because its meaning is unclear.