Just Say No

Although society appears to envy or covet the skills of multi-taskers, recent studies have conclusively shown that the act of multi-tasking reduces productivity. Bryan Appleyard comments:

Chronic distraction, from which we all now suffer, kills you more slowly. Meyer
says there is evidence that people in chronically distracted jobs are, in early
middle age, appearing with the same symptoms of burn-out as air traffic
controllers. They might have stress-related diseases, even irreversible brain
damage. But the damage is not caused by overwork, it’s caused by multiple
distracted work. One American study found that interruptions take up 2.1 hours
of the average knowledge worker’s day. This, it was estimated, cost the US
economy $588 billion a year. Yet the rabidly multitasking distractee is seen as
some kind of social and economic ideal.

The next time a potential employer asks if you can multi-task -- just say no. If he/she understands what makes a good employee, they will see it as a plus.

Principled Christian Leadership

James Dobson, a so called "leading voice" in Christianity has shown his true colors. In January, Dobson said "speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances." (Italics mine)

This is from yesterday:
"I thought I would never hear myself saying this. While I am not endorsing Senator John McCain, the possibility is there that I might."

Yes, I may be jumping the gun since technically he hasn't broken his word, but it is clear he is hedging on his earlier statement. Unfortunately, this isn't too surprising since Jesus constantly chided religous leaders for being hypocritical. It's too bad Dobson is so eager to group himself into that category.

Another Obamacon

Larry Hunter channels my exact thoughts on the candidates so far.

I'm a lifelong Republican - a supply-side conservative. I worked in the
Reagan White House. I was the chief economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
for five years. In 1994, I helped write the Republican Contract with America. I
served on Bob Dole's presidential campaign team and was chief economist for Jack
Kemp's Empower America. This November, I'm voting for Barack Obama.
When I first made this decision, many colleagues were shocked. How could I support a candidate with a domestic policy platform that's antithetical to almost
everything I believe in?
The answer is simple: Unjustified war and
unconstitutional abridgment of individual rights vs. ill-conceived tax and
economic policies - this is the difference between venial and mortal sins.
Taxes, economic policy and health care reform matter, of course. But how we
extract ourselves from the bloody boondoggle in Iraq, how we avoid getting into
a war with Iran and how we preserve our individual rights while dealing with
real foreign threats - these are of greater importance.

Guns and Suicide

The sound you just heard was another anti-gun argument crumbling. Steven Chapman discusses the relationship between gun ownership and suicide.

As it turns out, the claims about guns and suicide don't stand up well to
scrutiny. A 2004 report by the National Academy of Sciences was doubtful, noting
that the alleged association is small and may be illusory.
Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck says there are at least 13 published studies finding no meaningful connection between the rate of firearms and the rate of suicides. The consensus of experts, he says, is that an increase in gun
ownership doesn't raise the number of people who kill themselves—only the number
who do it with a gun.

"Creationist's Worst Nightmare."

Of course, the title is taken from Rev. Ray Comfort who says that "A banana is an atheist's worst nightmare" because it is so perfectly designed for human use, that only God could have created it. Unfortunately for Ray, it is common knowledge that the modern banana is a product of selective breeding that bears little resemblance to its much less palatable wild and natural ancestor.

Anyways, scientists have recently discovered one of those pesky intermediate life forms that evolution produces.

The 365 million-year-old fossil skull, shoulders and part of the pelvis of
the water-dweller, Ventastega curonica, were found in Latvia, researchers report
in a study published in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature. Even though
Ventastega is likely an evolutionary dead-end, the finding sheds new details on
the evolutionary transition from fish to tetrapods. Tetrapods are animals with
four limbs and include such descendants as amphibians, birds and mammals.
While an earlier discovery found a slightly older animal that was more fish
than tetrapod, Ventastega is more tetrapod than fish. The fierce-looking
creature probably swam through shallow brackish waters, measured about three or
four feet long and ate other fish. It likely had stubby limbs with an unknown
number of digits, scientists said.