My handsomes

Quite a cute pair, wouldn't you agree?

Another gem of wisdom

While wetting up soils to use in rigorous testing procedures I found another quality gem from Panda Bear, MD. I'll give you only part of the full quote:

Now, in our Godless and tradition-rejecting society, I can understand the panic that many feel when they look into the void and see nothing. But if you’re going to reject religion, then reject it and grow some gonads. It makes no sense to eschew the irrelevant religious beliefs of your parents but then, without a pause, to eagerly latch on to some hodge-podge of Earth Worship and Eastern Mysticism except that these things don’t require the self-discipline of traditional religions and therefore give you a purpose for life on the cheap.

I've often wondered what the draw is to nature worship with new age hippies. So many people get sucked into the whole "mother earth" canard that they can't understand the phrase "dog eat dog world." Mother earth doesn't care if you starve. Nature has far more potent poisons than healing remedies. Just because something is natural doesn't make it safe, it just makes it more marketable to gullible people. There seems to be a mind set that by isolating and purifying compounds out of "natural" substances it is no longer "natural." As if synthesizing a chemical in a laboratory to have the exact chemical structure as the "naturally" occurring counterpart changes the chemical in any way. It does not. "Synthetic" or "natural" its all the same to your body. The point is that we need to make sure our world view does not become skewed. We need to view "nature" (i.e. the natural world (i.e. biological systems)) as something that we can learn from, but not as a benevolent being that will kindly teach it to us in risk free manner. I do not propose taking the environment for granted, it is far too valuable a resource for that. It must be cared for and well maintained. We must do this, however, for the wellbeing of ourselves and our children, not for some mystical earth life force. I agree with Dr. Bear in that if you are going to reject traditional religion on the basis of it seeming "hokey" you should probably apply the same lens across the board.

My new plan

From Panda Bear, MD:

To put it another way, medical school admissions is a big fat guy standing between you and the basket. You’re going to have to get by him. He’s fat but suprisingly agile. You can charge him and hope he backs down or you can try to sneak around him. Sometimes he’ll fall for a feint and you can get around clean but the odds are you will make contact and he will get some sweat on you. Getting past him is the challenge and it doesn’t matter how you do it. I’m not advocating kicking him in the nuts or anything like that but fortune favors the crafty and the bold. Later, as you eat the cheeses and hams of victory, you’re not going to look back and regret outwitting the fat guy.

I think I will have to change tactics a bit to avoid the sweat.