Ingredient Names

[Happy birthday to _lackey_!]

Having recently bought a fresh bottle of the Neutrogena shampoo I usually use, I was amused to see that the main active ingredient was "2% Neutar". All right, think I -- nice to have a unique ingredient, but it's a bad choice of name: it gives the impression that the stuff is made of coal tar or something. So I look at the fine print, and see that it it actually made of (scanning down the list) -- coal tar.

Ick.

Okay: props to them for truth in advertising. But I think I was happier not knowing. (Yes, yes -- intellectually, I know that it's used for all sorts of filtering purposes. But the image of shampooing with tar now must be expunged from my brain.)

Of course, then there's the facial cream that msmemory has on the sink, which advertises itself as "Non-Comedogenic". Now, I know what that actually means (having looked it up -- it means "doesn't cause acne"), but my brain insists on parsing that as "won't make people laugh at you"...

Ingredient Names

[Happy birthday to _lackey_!]

Having recently bought a fresh bottle of the Neutrogena shampoo I usually use, I was amused to see that the main active ingredient was "2% Neutar". All right, think I -- nice to have a unique ingredient, but it's a bad choice of name: it gives the impression that the stuff is made of coal tar or something. So I look at the fine print, and see that it it actually made of (scanning down the list) -- coal tar.

Ick.

Okay: props to them for truth in advertising. But I think I was happier not knowing. (Yes, yes -- intellectually, I know that it's used for all sorts of filtering purposes. But the image of shampooing with tar now must be expunged from my brain.)

Of course, then there's the facial cream that msmemory has on the sink, which advertises itself as "Non-Comedogenic". Now, I know what that actually means (having looked it up -- it means "doesn't cause acne"), but my brain insists on parsing that as "won't make people laugh at you"...

Directional Bias

I noted this morning how curious the human reaction to a mirror is. Some 35 years after learning to brush my hair in the mirror, the left-right error still sometimes throws me off when trying to manipulate things away from my body, and I have to consciously compensate for it. Which is odd, given that there is no such up-down confusion -- that's entirely intuitive. The mirror is doing the same thing in both respects, but we visually parse it *very* differently: up-down is easy and natural; left-right isn't. (I think -- I assume I'm not terribly unusual in this.)

There must be some neurological basis for this lateral bias in human vision -- having to do with the evolution of stereoscopic vision, maybe? -- but I don't know what's going on there...

Directional Bias

I noted this morning how curious the human reaction to a mirror is. Some 35 years after learning to brush my hair in the mirror, the left-right error still sometimes throws me off when trying to manipulate things away from my body, and I have to consciously compensate for it. Which is odd, given that there is no such up-down confusion -- that's entirely intuitive. The mirror is doing the same thing in both respects, but we visually parse it *very* differently: up-down is easy and natural; left-right isn't. (I think -- I assume I'm not terribly unusual in this.)

There must be some neurological basis for this lateral bias in human vision -- having to do with the evolution of stereoscopic vision, maybe? -- but I don't know what's going on there...

argamon Masonic Study Club forming

Since I know some other esoterically-minded Masons read my LJ, and some may be local: there's a new community on LJ, called argamon, which is focused on the creation of a new Masonic Study Club in eastern MA. Basically, the notion is to start off with a club to talk about esoterica, with the explicit goal of eventually graduating to a formal traditional-observance Lodge when it has the necessary critical mass. It's the sort of thing that might just get me actually interested in Masonry again. If you also think the idea is interesting, I recommend joining the community and getting involved...

argamon Masonic Study Club forming

Since I know some other esoterically-minded Masons read my LJ, and some may be local: there's a new community on LJ, called argamon, which is focused on the creation of a new Masonic Study Club in eastern MA. Basically, the notion is to start off with a club to talk about esoterica, with the explicit goal of eventually graduating to a formal traditional-observance Lodge when it has the necessary critical mass. It's the sort of thing that might just get me actually interested in Masonry again. If you also think the idea is interesting, I recommend joining the community and getting involved...

Testing the Democrats

Okay, yes -- the theme song of the day is more or less, "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead". While I'm not quite sure that Gonzales was actively evil, he certainly exemplified certain political trends that I despise, and I'll shed no tears over his departure.

That said, the really interesting question is, "What next?". I'll be really interested to see who the White House nominates, and how the Democrats react. In particular, the issue I most care about is not any of the traditional party-line ones, but instead what I see as the exemplar issue of the modern neo-Conservative movement: Executive Privilege. It's the reason I specifically didn't want Harriet Myers, and Gonzales lived right down to my expectations about her.

The current Administration has had a fascist streak that I find downright disturbing, and some politicians are just loving it. (There's a posting brewing on why I think the Conservative South kinda likes Giuliani, and what this says about the new meaning of "Conservative", but that's for another day.) I want this trend squashed hard, and this is going to be a linchpin moment. The Administration is presumably going to want another toady who will back up the President's right to act like a king. I damned well expect a responsible Congress to reject any such candidate, but I have no real confidence that the current one will do so. How this plays out will determine a lot of my attitude towards the next election season, in that it says whether the current Democrats have the discipline and sense to insist on a decent compromise candidate...

Testing the Democrats

Okay, yes -- the theme song of the day is more or less, "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead". While I'm not quite sure that Gonzales was actively evil, he certainly exemplified certain political trends that I despise, and I'll shed no tears over his departure.

That said, the really interesting question is, "What next?". I'll be really interested to see who the White House nominates, and how the Democrats react. In particular, the issue I most care about is not any of the traditional party-line ones, but instead what I see as the exemplar issue of the modern neo-Conservative movement: Executive Privilege. It's the reason I specifically didn't want Harriet Myers, and Gonzales lived right down to my expectations about her.

The current Administration has had a fascist streak that I find downright disturbing, and some politicians are just loving it. (There's a posting brewing on why I think the Conservative South kinda likes Giuliani, and what this says about the new meaning of "Conservative", but that's for another day.) I want this trend squashed hard, and this is going to be a linchpin moment. The Administration is presumably going to want another toady who will back up the President's right to act like a king. I damned well expect a responsible Congress to reject any such candidate, but I have no real confidence that the current one will do so. How this plays out will determine a lot of my attitude towards the next election season, in that it says whether the current Democrats have the discipline and sense to insist on a decent compromise candidate...