Author: Dan'l

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Comics and Me

In August 2008, I started to inventory, organize, and grade my comics, most of which I’ve had for over thirty years. When I was 6 or 7 years old, my grandfather sent me the first of several big boxes of comics. Here’s the story, as I understand it. These were...

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Quantum Computing

It is January 2023. I have finished reading Q is for Quantum, along with an online course Introduction to Quantum Computing for Everyone, part 1. I will not try to summarize what I learned. Together, these two resources provide an accessible introduction to a field that is, according to them,...

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Why Not Just Eat the Plants?

Within the small whole food, plant-based community, fractured as it is, it is often observed that it is hard to make a profit selling the “secret” to healing many chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. As “plant-based” takes a small but growing share of the marketplace...

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Hunger Is a Sin

Uncle Al, may he rest in peace, was the oldest brother. Uncle Les, may he rest in peace, was the middle brother. My father, Richard, may he rest in peace, was the youngest. I vividly remember Uncle Al explaining to my teenage self that he considered allowing hunger to persist...

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Is Obesity a Disease?

It is January 1, 2023, and 60 Minutes runs a story called “Obesity”. I can’t recall any other time when a 60 Minutes story was so self-contradictory and counter to my personal experience. It opens with Leslie Stahl saying “Almost half of American adults have obesity, a condition that was...

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Happy New Year 2023

Whatever the urge is that makes people gather in large crowds at midnight in winter, to watch a lighted ball drop communally or to get a good spot to watch a parade pass the next morning—that urge does not apply to me. Kathryn and I stay home with the animals,...

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The Fourth Dog

When Kathryn and I met in 2012, she had just one dog, Margo. Margo was shy of me at first, but gradually trust built, and she would come when I called and walk with me, with or without a leash. We played Margoball, a game in which Kathryn and I...

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Bad Beats and Coolers

We are going to die. Short of suicide, we have no direct control over the reason or the means. We try to improve our odds, by managing the risks we take. Still, life cannot be completely safe. Accidents and illnesses can claim us, despite all our precautions. Yet, if we...

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You Don’t Need to Sleep

When I was perhaps four or five years old and my mother announced it was bedtime, I often used to say that I could not sleep, because I was not tired. I didn’t want to miss out on whatever went on among the grownups while I was asleep. Mom, knowing...