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Stephaniemiller

Stephanie's books and other things

I like books. I like art. I have opinions.....you've been warned.

Currently reading

A Clash of Kings
George R.R. Martin
The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto
Tavis Smiley, Cornel West
The Wind Through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower, #4.5)
Stephen King, Jae Lee
Master Strokes: Watercolor: A Step-By-Step Guide to Using the Techniques of the Masters
Hazel Harrison
The Mad Art of Caricature!: A Serious Guide to Drawing Funny Faces
Tom Richmond (Illustrator)
The Science of Fear: Why We Fear the Things We Should not- and Put Ourselves in Great Danger - This book was rather dry. With the title being fear I kind of expected it to be more dramatic. Not so much.


In this book Mr. Gardner reveals to us that the stuff we are scared of, most of the time is really not what we should worry about. He points out how the news media will pick up a story and run with it because it is sensational. Fear sells. Then we will get all paranoid about it. I could have told you that.


Pesticides for example, are not all that bad, because what we ingest is not enough to harm us. They have been demonized, but without them we would all be dying from malaria. What doesn’t kill you just makes you stronger, but I think if you can at all possible to avoid pesticides, why not?


Cancer is another thing on our minds. He points out that we are living longer than we ever have, and with increased age the odds of getting cancer increases as well. Instead, we worry chemicals are causing the increased cancer. The problem is that everything is a chemical; just some are man made and most are not. Chlorine is a chemical and some people talk about removing it from the drinking water…..bad chemical…..bad! What that would do is cause widespread death from diseases such as diphtheria.

Diphtheria kills children. Which brings me to a point that was not brought up in the book, vaccination. People in this country have kind of lost their noodles over vaccinating their children. The reason for this was someone somewhere linked autism with vaccination. This has never been proven. But a whole bunch of parents have refused to vaccinate their children for fear of autism. “Hello un-vaccinated child.” Said diphtheria.

Diphtheria + child = dead

Vaccination + Child = Alive child with maybe, but not likely, autism.

Terrorism. Another thing we all fear (well, except me). The odds of getting killed in a terrorist attack in very very very small, yet we spend a shit ton of money on counter terrorism. This money would be better spent on universal health care. By not wasting the cash on anti terrorism, and covering everybody medically, the country would save so much money.