Frank Brown Cloud

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  • On prayer, diversity among deities, and ADHD.

    Throughout the ages, humans have worshiped a wide variety of gods — tricksters, schemers, bullies, lovers — and could celebrate those same traits in themselves.

    November 17, 2017

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Religion, Video games
    ADD, ADHD, Arturo Perez-Reverte, Atrahasis, attention deficit, Babylon, Bible, Christianity, computer games, deity, Enuma Elish, First Coming, flood, Gilgamesh, God, gods, Hebrews, history of religion, imaginary video games, intelligence, Jerusalem, Kings, Loki, Marduk, Maui, mythology, myths, Nebuchadnezzer, neurodiversity, Norse, Norse mythology, Octodad, Old Testament, ontological argument, origin of the cosmos, origin stories, pantheon, prayer, psalms, Rampage, real-time strategy, religion, Rick Riordan, Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, Starcraft, Stephen Greenblat, The Club Dumas, The Lightning Thief, Tower of Babel, trickster gods, vengeance, Warcraft, worship, Yahweh, YHWH, Zedekiah, Zion
    On prayer, diversity among deities, and ADHD.
  • On Sci-Hub, the Napster of science.

    Can people really be “informed consumers” of modern healthcare when they can’t read the research their taxes pay for?

    November 10, 2017

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Economics, Medicine
    academic journals, Alexandra Elbakyan, autism, bad medical advice, biomedical research, concussion, folate, ghostwriting, health, healthcare, medicine, Napster, p-value, pop medicine, repair manual, replication crisis, research journals, Sci-Hub, science, scientific papers, scihub, statistical testing, superfoods, TBI, theft, traumatic brain injury
    On Sci-Hub, the Napster of science.
  • On apocalypse-preppers, technology, and oppression.

    The plow helped wreck women’s lives … with modern technologies only *slowly* fixing world. Let’s hope we never slide back to plows.

    November 3, 2017

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Evolutionary biology, Violence against women
    A Brief History of Humankind, agriculture, apocalypse, CUMA Survival School, farming, feminism, Gabriel Tallent, Harari, history, history of technology, How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch, hunter-gatherers, inequality, Lewis Dartnell, My Absolute Darling, Nicky Woolf, plough, preppers, Preppers and Survivalists Expo, primates, Sapiens, sexual dimorphism, status of women in agricultural societies, survivalist dating, survivalists, The Knowledge, the plow, the plow and feminism, vegan, war, Yuval Noah Harari
    On apocalypse-preppers, technology, and oppression.
  • On Gabriel Tallent’s “My Absolute Darling.”

    Worlds collide in Gabriel Tallent’s beautiful, brutal ‘My Absolute Darling.’

    October 27, 2017

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Book reviews
    cognitive disconnect, Dave vs. Dave, Evil Dave versus Regular Dave, Gabriel Tallent, My Absolute Darling, perceptual bubble
    On Gabriel Tallent’s “My Absolute Darling.”
  • On psychotropic drugs and optimism.

    An optimist can’t help but see the world as it could be.

    October 20, 2017

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Medicine, Psychology
    Alexander Shulgin, Degas, drugs, ecstacy, hallucinogens, Jack Gilbert, MDMA, mescalin, optimism, optimist, organic synthesis, PIHKAL, Poetry Is a Kind of Lying, psilocybin, psychoactive, TIKHAL
    On psychotropic drugs and optimism.
  • On correspondence.

    With vague mail policies, guards can sever people from the world … often those who need help most.

    October 13, 2017

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, mass incarceration, Politics
    activism, beginning of life, biotech catalogs, books to prisoners, central dogma, church outreach, correspondence, DNA, DOC, drug blotters, drugs, enforcement, Evil Dave versus Regular Dave, filing cabinets, greeting cards, Indiana, Indiana Department of Corrections, Indiana DOC, Indiana Prisoners’ Writing Workshop, K2, LSD, mail, Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project, MWPP, plasmids, poetry, post cards, prison, prison guards, prison mail policy, prison poetry, RNA world, RNA world hypothesis, spice, suboxone, synthetic marijuana, undergrad research assistants, USPS, vague policies, War on Drugs
    On correspondence.
  • On smell.

    Humans actually smell pretty well … and scents affect our emotional wellbeing. Shouldn’t we want places of healing to smell good?

    October 6, 2017

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Evolutionary biology, mass incarceration
    Broca, children’s books, dogs, Dogs and Puppies, drunk tank, Freud, Funfax, human senses, incarceration, jail, John McGann, kids’ books, mental health, olfaction, Paul Broca, poor human olfaction is a 19th century myth, prison, scent, scent tracking, Sigmund Freud, smell
    On smell.
  • On animals that speak, including humans.

    Tom Wolfe & Noam Chomsky both claim that no other animals are capable of anything like human speech … while scientists are finally learning to listen.

    September 29, 2017

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Book reviews, Ecology, Evolutionary biology
    animal cognition, animal communication, animal language, animal speech, chimpanzee drumming, crow, Dan Everett, evolution, human evolution, language acquisition, linguistics, merge, Noam Chomsky, parrot, Piraha, prarie dog, Robert Berwick, science, speech, theory of mind, tool use, Why Only Us
    On animals that speak, including humans.
  • On clarity, Matthew Zapruder’s “Why Poetry,” and reading Bruce Weigl.

    We should strive for clarity, out of love for those willing to listen.

    September 22, 2017

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Book reviews, The writing process
    abuse, Billy Collins, blaming victims, Blast Furnace, Bloomington, Bruce Weigl, childhood, clarity, drug abuse, drug use, honesty, honesty in writing, Introduction to Poetry, jail, mass incarceration, Matthew Zapruder, memory, metaphor, Monroe County Jail, New Leaf New Life, poems, poetry, prison, psychiatry, psychology, PTSD, rape, recovery dorm, rehab, rehabilitation, repressed memories, say it clearly and you make it beautiful, sexual abuse, Spotlight, symbolism, The Impossible, Tom McCarthy, trauma, Why Poetry, writing
    On clarity, Matthew Zapruder’s “Why Poetry,” and reading Bruce Weigl.
  • On Daniel Handler’s “All the Dirty Parts”

    Heartbreak hurts. Reading will help. And mayhaps Daniel Handler’s “All the Dirty Parts” is a book kids will actually want to read.

    September 15, 2017

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Book reviews, Parenting, Schooling
    All the Dirty Parts, cyanide, Daniel Handler, dating, English class, erotica, Ethan Frome, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Heartbreak, high school, In Search of Lost Time, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, Love in the Time of Cholera, Marcel Proust, organic synthesis, pornography, relationships, sex, sex ed, The Magus, unrequited love, Within a Budding Grove
    On Daniel Handler’s “All the Dirty Parts”
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Frank Brown Cloud

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