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Category Archives: Umwelt Utahpia
Art and Artifice
“Art is either plagiarism or revolution.”
─ Paul Gaugin
“Imitation is the sincerest [form] of flattery.”
─ Charles Caleb Colton
My wife Ptarmi & I are building a new house this year on a lakeside lot we bought more than ten years ago. It will be our final home, where we finish raising our kids and someday retire.
The new house will have a few … Read more
Posted in Umwelt Utahpia
Tagged art, artwork, Bremen, DIY_project, imitiation, installations, Moooi, omission, plagiarism, town_musicians
2 Comments
Random Cultural Perspectives: Telephone Poles to Survivalism
In May 2013, I was in Tokyo for a business trip and had the chance to visit two of my Japanese cousins one weekend. Chie and Miyo are sisters. Since early childhood, we’ve been very close; I’m like a brother to them. We spent the afternoon catching up, showing pictures of where we’ve been since the last time we saw each other and talking about … Read more
Posted in Umwelt Utahpia
Tagged aesthetics, Beijing, catastrophe, cousins, disaster, earthquake, power line, prepper, random, recovery, survivalist, telephone pole, Tokyo, tsunami
1 Comment
YES–College Is STILL Worth It!
With today’s high unemployment rates and increasing student loan debt levels, many Americans question whether a college education is worth the cost. An article written by William J. Bennett and David Wilezol at FoxNews.com in May 2013 answers the question “Is College Worth It?” with an unenthusiastic “It depends”. The authors give several reasons for their ambivalent response:
- Student debt is growing, as well as
Posted in Umwelt Utahpia
Tagged bachelor's, college, debt, diploma, fuel cost, graduate, income, student loans, unemployment, university
2 Comments
Ignored = Excluded
15 April 2013: Boston Marathon bombing kills 3
17 April 2013: Texas fertilizer plant explosion kills 14
20 April 2013: earthquake in China’s Sichuan province kills 179
21 April 2013: “Mommy, what’s wrong with the world?!” That was the first thing my nine year old son Evan blurted after hearing about the devastating earthquake in China that occurred the day before. … Read more
Posted in Umwelt Utahpia
Tagged atheists, bombings, Boston Marathon, community, earthquake, exclusivity, grieving, healing, humanists, inclusivity, non-religious, secularists, service, Sichuan
3 Comments
Utahpia Travelblog: Machu Picchu
“If you love your child, send him out into the world.”
─ Japanese Proverb
I inherited my love for travel from my father, who had joined the Navy when he was eighteen to see the world (and to avoid going to college). While I was in college, I made a vow to myself that, at a minimum, I would someday visit the following world heritage … Read more
Posted in Umwelt Utahpia
Tagged aesthetics, Aguas Calientes, beauty, cultures, Cuzco, fountain, incas, Intipunku, Lima, Machu Picchu, Peru, travel
6 Comments
Thinking Critically for Life
Article by Ken Kilgore
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
─ Derek Bok
I majored in Biology in college, but it wasn’t till I read Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1996) years later that I consciously developed a consistent and rigorous critical thinking process that applies to life in general. In his book, Sagan devotes a … Read more
Posted in Umwelt Utahpia
Tagged Carl Sagan, critical thinking, Kangen, leukemia, neighbors, scam, tools, water
2 Comments
“Not For the Body or Belly”
“And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly.”
─ Doctrine & Covenants 89:9
My wife Ptarmi comes from a close-knit family, the Stones. Unlike the Kilgores, the Stones family is large in number and deeply religious, with membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) going back several generations. The Stones visit each other often and get together … Read more
Posted in Umwelt Utahpia
Tagged coffee, dietary restrictions, Doctrines and Covenants, LDS, liqueur, nutrition, rational, religious, words of wisdom
3 Comments
Teaching the Good in Godless
“Not possessing a religious basis for morality, atheists are fundamentally incapable of having a coherent system of morality.”
–Conservapedia, Atheism & Morality
“The biggest damage religion does is indoctrinating and brainwashing children.”
–Richard Dawkins, in a The Times of India interview with Vineet Gill, 25 Jan 2012
As a precociously atheist child, I was often asked by friends why I didn’t just rob banks if … Read more
Posted in Umwelt Utahpia
Tagged canon, children, development, education, ethics, instruction, morality, parenting, philosophy, secular humanist, taught
24 Comments
Blessed Are the Happy
“Like dreams, statistics are a form of wish fulfillment.”
─ Jean Baudrillard
Molding statistics to fit one’s preconceived conclusions is such a common practice that it’s a cliché even to point out when it occurs. But sometimes, I just can’t resist….
The following headline appeared on the 5 October 2012 on-line edition of Deseret News, Utah’s 2nd largest daily newspaper by circulation:
“Religious … Read more
Posted in Umwelt Utahpia
Tagged abortion, America, Deseret News, happiness, polls, rationality, religiousness, research, statistics, surveys
2 Comments
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