Free Will or Physics?
Check out this clip and pause for a moment to ponder. Feel free to comment.
Want more videos that amuse while you muse? Check out Clips to Ponder.
Conglomerate of Blog Conglomerates
At the end of last year I was on a mission to find online venues that enable me to connect with other bloggers possessing similar writing and reading interests. Initially, I imagined a singular location online, a panacea for all my blog networking woes. I eventually accepted the fact that there is no such place for me, particularly because my blog and blogging interests do not fall into an easily definable niche.
I write about a variety of topics that illustrate one of my main beliefs, conditional cognition. I do my best to stick to that, 
but I don’t always clearly point out the conditional cognition at hand. Sometimes the reader needs to put a little thought into it. How fun would life be if you never had to think? Maybe that’s the teacher in me talking. Nevertheless, I hope to have regular readers that appreciate engaging in discussions and mulling things over a bit. No need to drain the brain, but at least get some sparks going. Check out the best of conditional cognition to see what I mean. If you’d rather view a video to contemplate conditional cognition, then enjoy the clips to ponder (preview some in the margin on the right).
Although I couldn’t find the “holy grail” of listings or communities, I did come across a blog directory of links that group posts by topic or theme: Read more…
Smoke Vulture Brains?
Need to win a wager? Just smoke some vulture brains.
That’s what South African gamblers have been doing to have visions of the future, whether they need to win the lotto, ace an exam or make decisions on how to develop a business.
Now, with the World Cup in South Africa, this practice of consuming vulture brains seems to be garnering world wide attention as demand for vulture brain increases with all the bets being placed on the World Cup matches.
According to South African traditional medicine, muti, one can receive premonitions from smoking dried vulture brains. The ground bits of the birds’ brains are mixed with tobacco and then smoked to help the user predict future outcomes of life’s events. Apparently this stems from the fact that vultures fly high in the sky and have excellent vision, which helps them see clearly across great distances. Supposedly, this optical attribute extends to seeing into the future as humans ingest the smoke of the vulture gray matter. Read more…
Reentering the Blogosphere
Well, I made a bet with myself that I could stay out of the blog world for six moths and I did; yet, I don’t have that feeling of victory. Although I’m super happy and excited to be back, I feel a bit sad about the good times I could have had in the blogosphere over the past few months. I also feel like I may have disappointed or annoyed those that may be regular readers of conditional cognition. For that I am truly sorry. 
Although I achieved my goal of being free from blogs and blogging for half a year, looking back, I think I hastily took this hiatus.
Why? Why did I take this leave of absence? Read more…
Give Meaning To Life
A colleague of mine shared a powerful quote a few days ago and I’d thought it would be important to share it with you:
Having a goal gives life purpose.
Reflecting on your journey gives meaning to life.
Wow!
These words carry a powerful truth within them and I cannot stop thinking about the importance of keeping this message in the forefront of my mind.
Do you have any thoughts on this that you would like to share?
Turn Signal Tactics
Why do so many drivers these days act as if they possess no common courtesy for others on the roadways? Does having control of a ton or more of motorized metal compel people to be pricks? Being behind the wheel turns off the kindness switch in so many people that I’d say we’re in the midst of an epidemic. It’s not something that afflicts everyone; yet, it occurs so frequently that I believe that we’re moving from pandemic phase five to the worldwide catastrophic phase six of aggressive automobile acrimony.
I guess you could just call it road rage, but that would be too easy.
Well, over the past few years of my life, I’ve lived and driven in Washington, DC, southern California and now Abu Dhabi in the UAE. Driving in each of these three locations appears to be a hazard to one’s health and it’s due to the increasing number of selfish, power-tripping vehicular stupers (which is short for remarkably stupid persons). I’m particularly miffed by one inane driving behavior prevalent in all three of these areas: cutting off people who signal to turn into one’s lane. In these locales, tumultuous turn signal tactics are a daily occurrence and I have fallen victim to this punk-ass behavior far too many times. Read more…
#1 Page and Top 3 Posts In 2009
As 2009 transitioned to 2010, I reflected on how the conditional cognition blog grew over the past year and decided to look over the handy WordPress.com stats to gather information to process. Since I review the stats fairly frequently to better understand how people get to this blog and peruse its pages, I wasn’t blown away by any surprises; yet, I do still think it’s worth sharing the info with my readers, particularly my new readership. 
Read more…
