We’re Getting More Stoopider May 24, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Life Balance, Mindfulness, Nature, People.Tags: Ape, Intelligence, Intelligence quotient, Kim Kardashian
7 comments
The idea behind Planet of the Apes is not so far-fetched.
As it turns out, apes are getting smarter while we, their closest relatives, are getting dumber with each passing generation.
Why?
Downward spiraling evolution.
Geneticists cite a number of contributing factors:
* We no longer need to be resourceful to survive. We rely on others for food, clothing, shelter . . . even allowing “them” to do our thinking.
* “Survival of the fittest” no longer weeds out losers in the IQ department.
* Intelligent women have fewer children while women with less intelligence breed in greater numbers.
I’ll add another factor . . . Reality TV, Pumpkin Chuckin, Monster Truck Rallies, and other entertainments aimed at the “lowest common denominator.”
Instead of engaging in intellectually stimulating debate on the “big issues” of the day, we spend time in mind-numbing pursuits causing brain atrophy.
Will our brains go the way of our tails, shrinking from non-use?
Will computers eventually do all our thinking for us?
Will the images from Planet of the Apes become our reality?
Perhaps.
Use it . . . or lose it.
If we brought an average citizen from 1,000 B.C. to the present, they would be far brighter than the average Joe of today:
“I would wager that if an average citizen from Athens of 1000 BC were to suddenly appear among us, he or she would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive of our colleagues and companies, with a good memory, a broad range of ideas, and a clear-sighted view of important issues.”
Gerald Crabtree, a geneticist at Stanford University, whose findings were published in the journal Trends in Genetics.
And, just think, that citizen of Athens is none the wiser about Kim Kardashian and celebrities of like ilk who garner far too much recognition and attention for far too little reason. Sometimes ignorance IS bliss!
Aah . . . that’s better!
What do YOU think?
Related articles: Dumb and Dumber ~ Humans are Losing Their Smarts (US News & World Report) * Leading Geneticist: Human Intelligence is Slowly Declining (Natural Society)
What Have You Created Lately? May 17, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Art & Photography, Books & Movies, Food & Drink, People.Tags: Art, Books, Consumer, Creator, Desires, Movies, Seinfeld
48 comments
In life, we have two principal roles . . . consumers and creators.
Why do we create?
To fill our hearts, homes, and hours with more satisfying fare than watching endless reruns of Seinfeld or I Love Lucy while mindlessly stuffing our pie holes with Hostess Twinkies.
Parents create offspring to nurture. Cooks create meals to savor and share. Musicians create music. Artists create paintings, statues, collages, quilts, jewelry. Photographers create Kodak moments and memories. Architects create buildings, bridges, and alleyways. Attorneys create theories of the case, opening statements, closing arguments. Writers create plot-lines and poetry, heroines and villains. Friends create relationships, connections, and shared bonds. Philosophers create ideas and ideals.
Advertising and marketing moguls create desires for us to consume when we are not creating.
As consumers, we consume an endless array of consumables in every waking and sleeping hour . . . books, sleep, movies, classes, TV shows, meals, lectures, jewelry, alcohol, shoes, handbags, concerts, sporting events, video games, puzzles, magazine articles, and the occasional imported cigar.
Our appetites as consumers are insatiable.
Once we have consumed the object of each current desire, a new desire arises to take its place.
To kill time and fill the void between birth and death, we can consume.
Or we can create.
What have YOU created lately?
Aah . . . that’s better!
Moment of Truth April 30, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Fiction, People, Writing & Writers.Tags: Books, Edgar Award, Fiction, Legal Thriller, Lisa Scottoline
14 comments
If you’re in the mood for a legal thriller full of unexpected twists and turns, pick up Moment of Truth by Lisa Scottoline.
Don’t be surprised if you can’t put it back down.
Despite pot holes in the plot (and a few sheer impossibilities to steer around), this story gives readers an insider’s view at how police officers and district attorneys put cases together ~ piece by piece.
We also see how legal theories fall apart and collapse like a house of cards when constructed on an unstable foundation.
Nothing is certain until that final moment of truth . . . when the last piece of puzzle snaps into place.
I never noticed the puppeteer pulling strings.
From the book jacket:
Attorney Jack Newlin comes home one evening to find his wife, Honor, dead on the floor of their elegant dining room. Convinced that he knows who killed her ~ and determined to hide the truth ~ Jack decides to make it look as though he did it. Staging the crime scene so that the evidence incriminates him, he then calls the police. And to hammer the final nail in his own coffin, he hires the most inexperienced lawyer he can find, a reluctant rookie by the name of Mary DiNunzio, employed at the hot Philadelphia firm of Rosato & Associates.
Though inexperienced, Mary doubts Jack’s confession and begins to investigate the crime. She find that instead of having a guilty client who is falsely proclaiming his innocence, she as an innocent client who is falsely proclaiming his guilt.
With help from the most unexpected sources, she sets out to prove what really happened ~ because, as any lawyer knows, a case is never as simple as it seems.
From the author’s bio on Amazon:
Lisa Scottoline is the New York Times bestselling author of seventeen novels including her most recent, THINK TWICE, and also writes a weekly column, called Chick Wit, for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Lisa has won many honors and awards, notably the Edgar Award, given for excellence in crime fiction, and the Fun Fearless Female Award from Cosmopolitan Magazine. She also teaches a course she created, called Justice and Fiction at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and regularly does speaking engagements.
There are twenty-five million copies of her books in print, and she is published in over thirty other countries.Lisa graduated magna cum laude in three years from the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.A. degree in English, and her concentration was Contemporary American Fiction, taught by Philip Roth and others. She graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She remains a lifelong resident of the Philadelphia area, where she lives with her array of disobedient pets.
I would love to meet Lisa for lunch in Philly some day, perhaps at Dickens Inn (now Cavanaugh’s in Headhouse Square) . . . just after sitting in on her Justice and Fiction class at the law school.
Aah . . . that’s better!
The Impossible April 29, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Nature, People, Synchronicity & Mystery.Tags: Ewan McGregor, Movies, Naomi Watt, Spirit, Thailand, Tsunami
38 comments
The 2004 Tsunami that rolled ashore on December 26th came out of the blue.
Families on holiday frolicked on beaches and played in pools, never suspecting the tidal tension heading their way in waves as the result of a massive earthquake.
When the waves came, they changed the landscape of those lives forever.
In The Impossible, we share the terrifying ordeal through the eyes of a family of five.
Living is life changing. Happiness lost. And found.
Watching the movie reminded me to notice all the good in my life.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film a perfect four star rating, praising the performances of Watts and McGregor, as well as the direction of Bayona, proclaiming it ”one of the best films of the year.”
Have you seen it?
Mind Your Manners April 21, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Blogs & Blogging, Humor, Joke, People.Tags: Etiquette, Facebook, Humor, Joke, Manners, Weekend Theme
48 comments
If you’re on Facebook, please follow these 5 simple relationship etiquette rules to ensure that . . . cyber space remains a friendly place:
1. Don’t change your relationship status from “married, with children” to “single” without telling your spouse first.
2. Don’t tag other people with embarrassing photographs. It’s not fair, and it’s not funny.
Well, okay, it’s funny, but it’s not fair.
3. Don’t share Too Much Information when posting messages on Facebook, especially on other people’s walls.
When in doubt, leave the smut out.
4. Point: Friends don’t steal friends from friends. Counterpoint: Share, share, that’s fair.
5. Don’t create hate groups in retaliation for some perceived snub ~ it’s a recipe for disaster.
And, now, for your viewing pleasure . . . Facebook Manners and You (Official Honoree 2010 Webby Awards):
Aah . . . that’s better!
For more on Manners . . . Sidey’s Weekend Theme ~ Manners
Anticipation March 16, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Humor, People, Travel & Leisure, Word Play.Tags: Amsterdam, Anticipation, Fokkens, Prostitution, Sex industry
52 comments
Have you ever anticipated having a ménage à trois?
With twins?
How about with twin prostitutes?
In Amsterdam?
What about a ménage à trois with 70-year-old twin prostitutes in Amsterdam?
Sorry, Charlie!
While you engaged in fantastic anticipatory foreplay, you missed your chance.
The Fokkens (no, not the Fokkers . . . the Fokkens) are now retired after 50 years “in the saddle.”
(In the saddle. On the saddle. Under the saddle.)
Nothing lasts forever.
Not even a S~L~O~W R~I~D~E.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Related post: Sidey’s Weekend Theme ~ Anticipation
Skunk! March 13, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Life Lessons, Mindfulness, Nature, People.Tags: Life Lessons, Mindfulness, People, Root beer, Skunk
48 comments
Sometimes life swamps us.
Other times it skunks us.
What should you do when you get skunked?
Wash It Off.
Wash it off as f~a~s~t as you can.
Neutralize the odor with tomato juice or lemon juice or milk or root beer . . . and wash it off.
Get into the shower, soap up, and let the stink sink down the drain.
Lather.
Rinse.
Repeat.
Don’t stop in the midst of the wash off process to phone a friend. You don’t need to ask them WHY the skunk did what the skunk did.
Stinking us up by skunking us is what skunks do.
We all get that.
You get that.
There’s no need to analyze the skunk before washing off the skunk gunk.
Just wash it off.
Lather.
Rinse.
Repeat.
As many times as it takes.
Aah . . . that’s better!
“Wanna Hang Out?” March 11, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Fun & Games, People, Simplify Your Life.Tags: Art, Frisbee, Games, Humor, Music, People, Table tennis
66 comments
In high school, we hung out at our house.
Friends dropped by most afternoons and evenings with no set agenda other than the desire to “hang out.”
Some played Frisbee while others played the guitar.
Two might grab paddles for ping-pong while two more grabbed pool sticks. If you wanted to get in on the action, it was easy . . . ”I’ve got winner.”
With no set plans, we flowed from activity to activity: backgammon, chatting, reading, painting. Music played in the background and everyone felt free to make the next selection.
We didn’t worry about consensus. We just hung out together and chilled.
As adults, it’s different. We seldom hang out with friends and do our own thing. Instead, we entertain.
Entertaining is constraining. Rather than pursuing our own interests while congregating together, we act in concert.
In tandem.
Hanging out in tandem is like riding a bicycle built for two: both parties must be of one mind if they hope to make any headway.
In Noon At Tiffany’s, Clara lived in a boardinghouse with an adopted family. In the evenings, the group congregated in her rooms to read, write, put on plays, chat, sketch, or engage in intellectual discourse.
Members of the group didn’t feel compelled to entertain each other. They just “hung out,” pursuing individual interests while congregating together.
Reading about their impromptu gatherings made me nostalgic for high school when I could phone a friend and issue an invitation without having any plans in mind . . . other than the simple desire to get-together:
“Hey! Wanna hang out?”
Aah . . . that’s better!
Bewitching Benefits of the Blogosphere March 2, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Blogs & Blogging, Happiness, Life Balance, People.Tags: Blogs, Change, Happiness, Life Balance, Mindfulness
53 comments
The crystal clear blogosphere opens up oft-shuttered windows . . . expanding horizons beyond our current confines.
We witness others reaching, dreaming, and pondering possibilities.
We pull up chairs and cheer them on as they pull up stakes and move forward, becoming more fully who they always intended to be.
And we ask, “if them, why not me?”
We reclaim our freedom, sign the requisite permission slip, grab the reins, and tackle long overdue changes.
We plant the garden. We write the book. We paint the picture. We let go of stuff that is suffocating us, causing us to stagnate or stall in our tracks.
We explore, embrace, and discover . . . expanding our comfort zones.
Sometimes, it takes only a few nips and tucks to fashion a life that is a more perfect fit. Other times, we must shed layers of old before donning the new.
Either way, once our life is no longer pinching at the waste, we breathe a sign of relief.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Related posts: Getting Comfortable With Change (Janna T. Writes) * The RUC Has Landed (Dianne Gray) * A Troop of Monkeys . . . on iTunes * Sink or Swim (Water Witch’s Daughter) * Laser Light Show (52 Brand New) * A Great Title for a Murder Mystery (Global Mysteries) * Ordinary People (Colline’s Blog)
If You Want A Garden . . . Plant Seeds February 24, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Health & Wellness, Home & Garden, Nature, People.Tags: Garden, Magic, Mystery, Plant, Seed, Synchronicity
46 comments
Last fall, I received a packet of magic beans.
Stunning violet purple pods that turn emerald green after cooking.
I put the unopened packet on my desk and …
Nothing happened.
Until I planted them.
And watered them.
And applied fertilizer.
After I took the necessary action, the beans sprouted.
Magic!
Once planted in fertile soil, they started to transform from hard pellets to lush green Royal Burgundy Bush Beans.
We are just like those magic beans.
If we want brilliant blooms tomorrow . . . we must sow the seeds today.
Aah . . . that’s better!
