I rode with my Tuesday route on a nice country loop that goes around Uvas and Chesbro reservoirs, plus out and back on Casa Loma road to the start of Rancho Canada Del Oro Open Space. The section heading north up to Casa Loma was tough because it was several miles against a stiff headwind. … Continue reading Round The Reservoirs →

This post from Rocio Espinoza contains a lot of good inspiration and resources. Rocio is a content writer at Porch.com. She is a mother of two and is passionate about wellness, fitness, sustainability, a pet lover, and a true believer in the power of positive affirmations. Her hobbies are reading, writing, and cooking. You can … Continue reading Guest Post: The Power of Positive Affirmations at Home →

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-a-flawed-experiment-proved-that-free-will-doesnt-exist/ Whether or not we have free will is a surprisingly controversial topic. It seems obvious that we do from our subjective experience, but it's possible to show that there are many times when we think we are behaving from free will but are actually just following conditioned responses. I grant that point, but I … Continue reading We Have Free Will (But It Takes Willpower) →

We had a summer-like hot snap for a couple of days, but yesterday it got really windy to usher spring-like weather back in. I took my recumbent for a ride, and it was nice to have assist going north against the wind. No assist on the way back, the wind was all I needed. Flags … Continue reading Windy Ride →

Sadly, our green hills are starting to turn brown already because of the low amount of rain this year. Usually, they last into late May or sometimes even June. Right now they're still green on east-facing slopes but turning on the west-facing ones. I still had a nice ride of about 2 hours, it wasn't … Continue reading The Hills Are Turning… →

The purpose of religion is not to build beautiful churches or temples, but to cultivate positive human qualities such as tolerance, generosity, and love - The Dalai Lama https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/dalai-lama-86th-birthday/ A human being is a part of the whole, called by us 'Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and … Continue reading Amateur Philosopher’s Corner- On Helpful Beliefs →

Yesterday I did a pleasant cruise on the country roads to the Southeast of Morgan Hill, through our neighboring community of San Martin, and on to Gilroy. for a very relaxing couple of hours. Columbet Road, one of a few lightly-trafficked rural roads thru San Martin. Heading out Dryden road towards the East foothills in … Continue reading Southeast Cruise →

Introduction The prevailing view among scientists is that consciousness is an emergent property or epiphenomenon of matter, specifically our brains. This is sometimes colloquially stated as "minds are what brains do". But a significant minority of scientists, including neuroscientists, believe that there is evidence that consciousness cannot be explained by matter but itself must play … Continue reading Amateur Philosopher’s Corner- Science and Consciousness: Materialism, and Alternatives →

Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve is a more recent preserve of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. It has some endangered species, so access to it is currently restricted to either docent-led hikes or special events where a limited amount of self-guided visitors are allowed. I took advantage of one of those special events … Continue reading Wildflowers and Wildlife at Coyote Ridge →

This is really cool. Researchers around the world are collaborating on using large scale computation to understand the brain at various levels. This requires a multidisciplinary approach. This article focuses on the European effort, the Human Brain project.