It isn’t obvious how to setup a new Robomow RC306 (or RC302 or RC304) when you can’t place the charging station according to the instructions. The directions assume you can place the charging station along the path of the perimeter wire. If you have to place the base station elsewhere, such as in your garage, it isn’t at all obvious how to set things up. The user manual focuses exclusively on how to set things up so the mower will automatically leave and return to the charging station.

I originally chose “Life Itself” because I started this blog shortly after seeing the movie about Roger Ebert’s life. That movie is a must see for anyone who still watches movies (excluding crap like “Transformers”) in a theatre. And, frankly, I was at something of a loss for a pithy title. But after some reflection I’ve decided to change the name to something that better reflects what I find important:

An interview by Salon of Dr./Rabbi Jonathan Sacks contained the usual religious apologist drivel. Such as this quote: Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts them together to see what they mean. I’m a former Christian (of the Presbyterian variety) and reasonably well educated about religion in general since I became an atheist via a rational exploration of religion. In fact, my deconversion was triggered by reading Bertrand Russell in my early twenties.

This is a fake quote contributed by commenter Lex Lata on Why Evolution Is True but it exemplifies one reason why so many of us oppose the teaching of “controversy” to pre-college age students. “I’m not suggesting that children be exposed solely to the shuddersome knowledge of vast, entropic dimensions behind and beyond known spacetime, from which will skitter and ooze and swoop vile, deathless, gibbering, vulgar ungods that might notice humanity only long enough to devour our skins and spinal columns as they defile the very atoms of our world.

I sat down the other day to pay my bills. My AT&T landline bill was for $30.96. That seemed strange as it had been running between $24 and $25. So I looked at my billing history and screamed some obscenities at what I found. Thirteen months ago I took a close look at my bill and was appalled to realize that for several years I had been paying for services (e.

Laura Ingraham, a prominent right-wing blowhard, on her radio program said I’m just getting very confused about the nature of this enemy. Is it those scary little worms that Drudge always has on the Drudge Report? The scary little Ebola worms? Is that the real threat to national security? This is a person who graduated from Dartmouth college. Proof positive that a college degree is not prima facie evidence the holder is intelligent.

According to Bryan Fischer, fundagelical imbecile (also head of the American Family Association), the selling and consumption of bacon is the sign of a xian nation. You learn something new every day. But I’m still perplexed how these cretins justify ignoring those portions of the Bible they find inconvenient (in this case Leviticus 11) while simultaneously believing we should all be forced to adhere to other verses (e.g., Leviticus 18). You’ve also got to wonder if he thinks China is a xian nation given that they consume more pork per capita than the USA and just purchased the American company Smithfield

A lot of Americans (of which I am one) seem to think we should go to war with ISIS (or ISIL, IS, whatever) because they beheaded a couple of Americans. If beheading people is sufficient justification for going to war why aren’t we at war with Saudi Arabia? After all, they have lopped off the heads of more people than any other country. In fact, they are beheading people at record levels.

Hemant Mehta wrote about a school district that will now be supporting the distribution of Satanic literature to high school students because of their ill-advised decision to allow Christian literature. Why are school boards populated by morons? Why do school boards believe that religious proselytizing is part of their mission to educate students about reality? How can they justify excluding opposing religious viewpoints? Here is the email I sent this particular school board today:

Today was my first class as a volunteer for the Science Is Elementary initiative. I, along with several other volunteers, introduced a class of kindergarten students to the world of science. It was a blast. We introduced the children to the concepts of simple geometric shapes (e.g., spheres), making predictions (e.g., how many times will a ball bounce) and recording the results of an experiment (e.g., making a simple bar graph).