Author: Eric Helland
Is it real?
Geneva Switzerland – Dec 2015
US tourists filmed an unusual atmospheric event near the CERN Large Hadron Collider project site in December 2015.
This film could have been made with special effects filters …
Visual evidence can often be evidence of a different character than what may be remembered, perceived, or presented as an electronic file …
Questions are all we really have … answers usually result in new questions after consideration.
New Years Day 2016
How Bad Is Heavy Drinking on the Brain?
The Effects of Chronic Heavy Drinking on Brain Function Are Under-diagnosed.
Alcohol-related cognitive decline may include impaired memory, decision-making and regulation of emotions and anxiety.
By Melinda Beck for The Wall Street Journal Dec. 21, 2015 1:33 p.m. ET
someday
What if there was a day when no human being was killed by another human being?
What do you desire?
Alan Watts – What Do You Desire?
the truth of comedy
Mr. Deity and the Magic, Part Deux
solstice
photograph by Mark M. Baldwin
solstice eve
detail from a hand painted block print by artist Sarah Angst
Take 5
Take Five – The Dave Brubeck Quartet (1959)
Social Virtues
Forgiveness
Forgiveness is the process of letting go of grudges and bitterness.
When someone hurts you, you can hold on to anger, resentment and thoughts of revenge — or embrace forgiveness and move forward.
Tolerance
Tolerance is the practice of having a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins, etc., differ from one’s own; freedom from bigotry.
Sympathy
Sympathy is the feeling that you care about and are sorry about someone else’s trouble, grief, misfortune, etc.
— Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition
Empathy
Empathy is the experience of understanding another person’s condition from their perspective. You place yourself in their shoes and feel what they are feeling.
Empathy is known to increase pro-social (helping) behaviors. While American culture might be socializing people into becoming more individualistic rather than empathetic, research has uncovered the existence of “mirror neurons,” which react to emotions expressed by others and then reproduce them.