Yesterday, I enjoyed a stimulating tea that has been enjoyed all over the northern hemisphere for thousands of years. We prepared (see pictures below) and consumed early in the morning together with some nutmeg, after which we went shopping, exercised, played two rounds of basketball with a friend and some strangers in the afternoon, and suchlike little endeavors alternating every few hours with returning home, because yes, ephedra is a strong aphrodisiac. And we only drank a beer and ate some fruit all day, because ephedra is indeed a very good appetite suppressant, extremely useful if you want to lose weight.

Sitting for hours at your desk is bad for you, even fatal in the long run. Paul Knoepfler has recently again made me aware of this – read his Thinking on your feet: practical suggestions for creating and using a standing workstation. There is no point in writing yet another article, because you will have forgotten everything about it after five minutes. So, this here will be different.

You ever wondered why it is that we share only 50% of our genes with a sibling but 98% with chimpanzees?

Humans are a freak of nature. We are in between a so called ‘tournament species’ and a ‘pair-bonding species’. In other words: naturally very aggressive primates constantly stressed in the pressure grip of macro evolution. These and many other important issues are touched on in Robert Sapolsky's lecture on Behavioral Biology, Biology 150.

Almost only devote religious people like Obama are allowed to climb to power in the West. Germany’s chancellor Merkel had to play down that she was a physicist in order to ensure the voters trust her to be aligned with the obsessions of her “Christian Democratic Union”.

In China, scientists decide at the highest level for many years. Science bloggers dream about secular people in the most important political positions, of science having effective influence "up there". While they yearn, secular scientists occupy the most important political positions in the most important country in the world.

One problem with the acceptance of dark energy and dark matter is that they are presented as if they are brothers, as if presenting merely the start of a new line of cheap ad hoc fudge factors: Dark energy, dark matter, dark force, what next? However, dark energy is not a fudge factor and not new.

The proof against local realism is humankind’s the most relevant finding in the realm of science and philosophy; there is no excuse to be ignorant about it while pretending to be interested and knowledgeable about cool science and its implications for philosophy. It was a difficult topic once, but from now on, there is no excuse anymore: Any good high school student, certainly any university undergraduate is able to follow the arguments as long as there is no religious/obsessive hurdle to overcome internally.