Logic, Illogic, and Natural Highs

I've always loved National Geographic. I have a ream of memories of the Apollo and Mercury missions. TV was amazing and sometimes live, but National Geographic had color pics in their articles and, before the internet brought everything imaginable to your fingertips in an instant, let you own a piece of the glory.

I learned a lot of natural science and geography through that magazine. I coulda done without the spider articles though. Their spider pics went to the edge of the pages, no margins. It just creeped me out to turn a page, and try as I might, touch a picture of a spider.

When I was born, my Grandmother bought me a lifetime subscription. I was one of the last people to get one and plan to, one day, be the last man on the earth with a lifetime subscription to National Geographic. Some time ago I was proudly looking forward to that day, but as I get older I figure it'll be like being the tallest guy in the room. It's gonna fall on someone, may as well be me.

The biology of love is amazing. Love at first sight exists and is a documentable chemical change in the brain. You are on a natural high that lasts 1-3 months and that is just the beginning. The hormonal and neurological interactions are fascinating. Imagine my excitement when the latest issue of Nat'l Geog has LOVE as it's featured article.

Imagine my dissapointment when the article is full of fluff, lots of personal routine of the author, and little science and what science there is, is mostly old information to me. But wait, it gets worse, the author goes on to malign long term (i.e. marriage for life) relationships and show that they are not for everyone because "not everyone likes peas" and "you don't want glue stuck on your skin".

I wonder how what percentage of the readers of that article read it, agreed with the small unrelated portions, and accepted the author's opinion because they agreed with the silly points.

I give Vox's page a lot of the credit for a drastic increase in my ability to identify logical fallacies. I used to read stuff and sort out the facts and science and push the other stuff off to the side and ignore it. I now take the 'other stuff' and dissect and burn it if necessary, really I file it as blatent garbage in my mind.

I plan to add rhetoric and logic to my son's homeschool curricula. Maybe that'll be a good use for the lifetime subscription of NG I have. I'll say "Lets read this and spot the fallacies."