Posted in Extended, Site Admin
July 2, 2009 at 8:07 pm
I apologize for the strange slowness here lately (the site itself, not my usual snail-paced posting.) I’ve been planning an overhaul for a year, but I’m barely finding time to breathe, so let’s none of us hold our breath. Hopefully things won’t get any slower before I get around to fixing them.
Posted in Evolution, Extended, Philosophy, Science, Technology, ethics
June 26, 2009 at 10:34 am
I wish this study had been done 2 years earlier so I could’ve used it in my dissertation (shut up, Joshua):
Tools are ‘temporary body parts’
The brain represents tools as extensions to the body, according to researchers writing in Current Biology.
The research seems to confirm a century-old hypothesis that the brain models tools as parts of the body.
“There is a great debate in neuroscience about the representation of the body and representation of space,” said Lucilla Cardinali of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) in France.
“There are a lot of papers about the effects of tool use, but they all focus on space – none investigated the effect on our own body,” she told BBC News.
H/T to a recently-graduated student. Link to BBC article.
Posted in Academic Life, Extended, Philosophy
June 22, 2009 at 11:19 am
Who teaches from Rosenthal’s “The Nature of Mind” and who uses Chalmers’ “Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings” instead? Why do they have to be so similar without either one being complete? Textbook decisions are a royal pain.
Posted in Academic Life, Extended
June 17, 2009 at 11:35 am
Don’t get really sick during a global pandemic while you’re in Hong Kong. I basically hid in my hotel room for 4 days so that they wouldn’t quarantine me and the entire conference AND hotel. I had to skip 2 of my own talks at the second conference because I could barely get out of bed. I have no idea what I had, but it kicked my ass.
I’m home now, but I wouldn’t expect much blogging to occur, since I’m still at the bottom of a mountain of work. Slowly uploading photos from Beijing and Hong Kong to Flickr. I’m reachable in all the usual places.
Posted in Academic Life, Extended, literature
May 25, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Trying to decide what book(s) to bring on my travels next week. Long flights and I don’t watch movies while flying, so I’ll be relying on books, knitting, and some D&D podcasts by the Penny Arcade blokes.
I’m thinking of bringing a few John Scalzi books because they’re not giant texts like most of my books, but I have a lot of hidden gems in my collection and not all of them are read yet. (I have a habit of buying several books at once, and getting sidetracked before I read the whole stack). I’m open to suggestions, but I’m not going to buy any new books. Feel free to look at what’s already here, and suggest your favorites in the comments. I appreciate all suggestions, especially if they come with specific recommendations. (If you recommend any of my giant 70lb texts, I won’t like you anymore!) If I’ve already read your suggestion, then we can rave about how awesome it is in the comments instead.
Posted in Academic Life, Artificial Intelligence, Extended, Philosophy, Technology
May 21, 2009 at 2:41 pm
In just over a week, I leave for Beijing, where I’ll be for 8 days, and then off to Hong Kong, where I’ll be for another 8. I don’t expect to get back to either of these locations anytime soon, so I scheduled an extra couple of days in each location (extra over and above the conferences I’ll be attending while there.) I don’t speak the language(s), and aside from a brief obsession with the history of the Chinese culture, I know nothing about the culture as it is now. If you have any insights to offer (particularly as I’ll be in Beijing on the 20th anniversary of the June 4th Massacre at Tiananmen Square), please share. As a vegetarian, I’ve already been told I’ll be living on a box of granola bars that I’m bringing with me. (My colleague who teaches Chinese sat down with me for a few hours this week and laughed at me since I won’t be able to eat.)
Oh, and if you’re in the area (!) I’ll be giving the following talks:
“Neural Plasticity and the Cultural Cyborg: Two Sides of One Coin” at the New Directions in the Humanities conference.
“Robotics-In-The-World: Embodied AI and the Work of Merleau-Ponty” at the Social Approaches to Consciousness Workshop.
and a poster presentation of “Robot Dreams: Requirements for Synthetic Phenomenology and Intersubjectivity” at Towards a Science of Consciousness (I’m glad to finally be attending this conference, as I declined to give posters in previous years).
(Indeed, I also find myself on the program for the Machine Consciousness workshop giving a talk version of the aforementioned poster, but I’m currently struggling with how accomodating to be considering the organizers of this workshop have not ever contacted me about being on their program, and I never submitted an abstract to them. I happened to find myself on the program while browsing around on the main conference site. So, even ignoring the ideological differences I have with the organizers, there’s a chance I’ll be giving that talk. It’d be nice if someone bothered contacting me, though. Hint, hint, if you’re reading this.)
Anyway, drop me a comment if you’ll be there!
Posted in Academic Life, Extended
May 18, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I’ve started and deleted this post a few times. I’d still like to remodel this site a bit, and personal ponderings feel odd in this setting (ironic, given it’s a blog.) So the short version:
As you all know, I’ve been in my first year at a new College, in a strange new position (I’m in 3 departments and 0 departments. I am an enigma.) Graduation was yesterday, and in spite of several addresses that seemed a bit more depressing for the students than I would’ve expected, it was one of the nicest ceremonies I’ve ever attended. I’ve been both faculty and student at a lot of institutes of higher education over the last 16 years, but this one was distinct in a number of ways. First, it’s possible that my own position here brings me a perspective I’ve never quite had before at other graduations, and if that’s true then it says more about me than the ceremony. I likely won’t know this for years. However, I’ve never seen such a personalized ceremony (it’s a small school). The event itself is set up to give the students their moment of joy when their names are called, but the students personalize the event further. Their characters SHONE through their altered caps and gowns. It was lighthearted and entertaining (including one fellow with a kite attached to his hat, and one with a live goldfish swimming around in a mason jar attached to his.) Perhaps this was notable because I actually knew a lot of the students quite well, which in itself is a pretty amazing thing in this day and age. I really appreciate being at a school where, after only a year, I knew many of the students really well – I know what they want to do with their lives, how they spend their weekends, what they’re afraid of, etc. And I must say, the best part of the ceremony here is that at the end, the faculty process out and line up on 2 sides of the aisle so the graduates can walk through us. I had heard this described, but didn’t realize what it really meant until I was standing there. It’s like a receiving line at a wedding – the students don’t just process through and leave. They stop to get a hug, a handshake, or a pat on the back from the professors that have impacted them (or who they have impacted). It was wonderful and lovely, and being able to give a final goodbye hug to students I’ve worked closely with over the last year gives such wonderful closure for everyone that I was incredibly happy to have had the opportunity for it. I’m used to students drifting away at the end of the year, and I’ve often wished I could’ve said a goodbye, or a thank you, and this place facilitates that really well.
Really, it’s just one more thing this place does well and right. Congratulations again to all the people who are moving on and starting the next part of their lives. I’ve got plenty more work to do, but this actually did feel like the end of something. Well done, all.
Posted in Academic Life, Democracy, Digital Culture, Extended, Technology
May 5, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Interesting Call for Papers came through my inbox a few days ago:
Technology, Democracy, and Citizenship
Democracy and democratic citizenship shape and are shaped by technology. Taking the broad approach, this conference invites papers and session proposals bringing insight to the important albeit complicated and intricate relationships among technology, democracy, and citizenship.
Besides scholars in Science and Technology Studies and the Humanities and Social Sciences, we hope to attract practitioners and researchers in engineering, science, public policy, architecture, government, and international development to engage in a series of wide-ranging conversations focused on three broad intersections of technology and democracy:
IDEALS—For example, how can technology be managed so that it promotes democratic ideals? How can technology undermine democratic ideals? Exactly what do we mean by “democracy” and “democratic citizenship”?
PROCESSES—This category includes socio-technical systems directly involved in democratic processes, such as voting machines and blogs, as well as broader questions of education, public discourse, deliberation, and decision-making.
DECISIONS—Perhaps the broadest category of all, this includes the full range of specific areas in which democracies must establish policy and make decisions—energy, the environment, national defense, transportation, homeland security, health care, regulation of business and entrepreneurship, genetic engineering, funding of research, and more.
More information here.
Posted in Academic Life, Critical Thinking?, Democracy, Extended
April 18, 2009 at 11:14 pm
This NY Times story on the current crop of college students and the prevailing sense of entitlement makes me think the phrase “A for Effort” should be forever stricken from the collective consciousness.
A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B’s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading.
[...]
In line with Dean Hogge’s observation are Professor Greenberger’s test results. Nearly two-thirds of the students surveyed said that if they explained to a professor that they were trying hard, that should be taken into account in their grade.
Jason Greenwood, a senior kinesiology major at the University of Maryland echoed that view.
“I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade,” Mr. Greenwood said. “What else is there really than the effort that you put in?”
I’ve encountered a decent amount of this, but I have to admit that I see decidedly less of it at liberal arts colleges than I do at large universities. My anecdotal analysis would be that at a liberal arts college, the students know they’re there to explore ideas first and foremost, and it seems that the process of college itself is recognized as the goal rather than the obstacle to getting the grade. This isn’t to say it doesn’t happen at liberal arts colleges, or that I don’t see the thoughtful, process-centric students at universities, but it’s been my experience more often than not that the university students seem to believe the default grade is an A unless they mess up, rather than the default being a C unless they excel.
Link to article in the NY Times.
Posted in Academic Life, Extended, Philosophy, Science
April 15, 2009 at 4:16 pm
I’m teaching 2 new courses in the Fall (and 1 new one in the Spring) and I’m currently examining textbooks for them.
Since my readers (if there are any of you left after my lingering slack) are likely familiar with these topics and texts, I welcome suggestions and feedback in regards to the texts I’m considering. (Most of my classes are non-standard, so I often make custom course-packets, but I’m contemplating using more standard texts this time for a change.)
Philosophy of Mind- Currently considering Rosenthal’s anthology “The Nature of Mind,” and trying to decide on a supplemental text. There aren’t really any other contemporary analytic courses taught here, so I’m trying to navigate between good primary sources and the availability of simple descriptive texts on the theories to make them more accessible to the students.
Topics in Cognitive Science: Our Cyborg Brains – Definitely planning on using Andy Clark’s Natural Born Cyborgs, but currently examining Hutchins’ Cognition in the Wild, and waiting for 2 other texts to arrive (neither of which I can currently even recall, but both of which looked really promising.) This class is really an examination of neural plasticity and embodiment, as well as the Extended Mind argument from Clark and Chalmers. Totally open to further suggestions for texts.
Lastly, I’m teaching a straightforward Memory and Cognition course in the Spring, but I haven’t taught a standard version of such a class before (currently teaching Experiments in Cognition and Consciousness, but the text is a custom course packet filled with my own reading choices.) This is one of those standard undergraduate psychology courses with too many possible Cognition texts to choose from. I’m really liking Reed’s Cognition and Eysenck’s Fundamentals of Cognition, but the texts for this course have changed so much in recent years that I don’t know what the new standard will be. If you’ve had experience with any of the standard mem and cog texts in the last 5 years, your input is very welcome.
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The man in question: DC Comics editor Matt Idleson. The pronouncement he issued was just eight words long, but such is its paradigm-shattering power that it will surely stand one day in the annals of comic book history, alongside “With great power comes great responsibility,” “Truth, Justice and the American Way,” and “Shazam!”
Thus spake Idleson: “I never want to see Supergirl’s panties again.” Link to post at npr.org
Posted in Blurb, Comics, Feminism on/at 07/01/2009 at 3:39 pm
“As the annual International Whaling Commission meeting stumbles to a close, unable to negotiate a compromise between whaling opponents and people who’ve killed more than 40,000 whales since 1985, scientists say these aquatic mammals are more than mere animals. They might even deserve to be considered people. Not human people, but as occupying a similar range on the spectrum as the great apes, for whom the idea of personhood has moved from preposterous to possible. Chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos possess self-awareness, feelings and high-level cognitive powers. According to a steadily gathering body of research, so do whales and dolphins. In fact, their capacities could be even more ancient than our own, dating to an evolutionary explosion in brain size that took place millions of years before the last common ancestor of the great apes existed”…. Link to article at Wired Science
Posted in Blurb, Evolution, Philosophy, Science, ethics on/at 06/25/2009 at 12:46 pm
Every time I criticize these guys, I have to brace myself for another flood of hate mail. The Kurzweil Kult members are going to read this Newsweek article, see my name on the first page, and send me little disquisitions on how I’ll be sorry when the nanobots dismantle me and upload my brain into the cosmic computer. PZ on Kurzweil again. And again. It only makes me love PZ more.
Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Blurb, Critical Thinking?, Digital Culture, Technology on/at 05/28/2009 at 5:32 pm
A kitty in Chongqing, China, is getting some extra-special attention these days: The furry feline has developed wings! Though born looking completely normal, once the cat hit the age of 1, he began growing wing-shaped appendages on either side of his spine, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reports. Article at MSNBC.com.
Posted in Blurb, Evolution, Science on/at 05/28/2009 at 7:57 am
“Superlativity, in a word, is not science. It is a discourse, opportunistically taking up a highly selective set of scientific results and ideas and diverting them to the service of a host of wish-fulfillment fantasies that are very old and very familiar, dreams of invulnerability, certainty, immortality, and abundance that rail against the finitude of the human condition.” More at Amor Mundi.
Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Blurb, Critical Thinking?, Digital Culture, Technology on/at 04/19/2009 at 8:34 am
An Amazonian ant has dispensed with sex and developed into an all-female species, researchers have found. The ants reproduce via cloning – the queen ants copy themselves to produce genetically identical daughters… And when they dissected the female insects, they found them to be physically incapable of mating, as an essential part of their reproductive system known as the “mussel organ” had degenerated. Link to article at BBC News. H/T to Supermegamonkey.
Posted in Blurb, Evolution, Science on/at 04/15/2009 at 6:34 pm
The announcement in church bulletins and on Web sites has been greeted with enthusiasm by some and wariness by others. But mainly, it has gone over the heads of a vast generation of Roman Catholics who have no idea what it means: “Bishop Announces Plenary Indulgences.” [...] “Why are we bringing it back?” asked Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Brooklyn, who has embraced the move. “Because there is sin in the world.” [...] “Anything old coming back, I’m in favor of it,” she said. “More fervor is a good thing.” Link to article in the NY Times.
Posted in Atheism, Blurb, Critical Thinking?, ethics on/at 04/14/2009 at 10:47 am
“CHICAGO, ILLINOIS–Paleoanthropologists working in Africa have discovered stone blades more than a half-million years old. That pushes the date of the earliest known blades back a remarkable 150,000 years and raises a question: What human ancestor made them?” Link to article at Science Now.
Posted in Blurb, Evolution, Science on/at 04/05/2009 at 9:28 am
Now, ignoring the stunning hypocrisy of someone preaching the word of God and calling us all idiots, there is an obvious, gaping flaw in this commenter’s logic, well-known to skeptics for years: if you ask where the Big Bang came from, why can’t you ask the same thing of God? I like when Phil stops pandering and explains why so many of his ignorant commenters are idiots. (For non-regular readers: they’re perpetually telling him to stop talking about politics or skepticism and get back to the science. Funny, right?) Link to post.
Posted in Atheism, Blurb, Critical Thinking? on/at 03/26/2009 at 1:32 pm
The Obama administration plans to reverse a regulation from late in the Bush administration allowing health-care workers to refuse to provide services based on moral objections, an official said Friday. The Provider Refusal Rule was proposed by the Bush White House in August and enacted on January 20, the day President Barack Obama took office. Link to article at CNN.com
Posted in Blurb, Democracy, Feminism, ethics on/at 02/27/2009 at 6:43 pm
The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
It’s like science fiction come to life. Plus, I can’t stop listening to the researcher say “siphonophore.”
Posted in Blurb, Evolution, Science on/at 02/26/2009 at 10:56 am
For the first four days of our year-long celebration of all things Lincoln, general admission is just one penny per person. Bring the whole family and enjoy the Everybody’s Lincoln photo booth. Link to blurb at Chicago History Museum website.
Posted in Blurb, Democracy on/at 02/13/2009 at 11:48 am
“I actually am optimistic about technological progress, and I think some of the things he talks about (nanotechnology, AI, etc.) will come to pass. But I do not believe in the Singularity at all.” PZ Myers at Pharyngula rocks my fucking world in every possible way. AND he likes Amanda Palmer. He must be running for Atheist Sainthood.
Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Blurb, Critical Thinking?, Digital Culture, Technology on/at 02/09/2009 at 4:58 pm
As President Obama prepares to unveil his version of President Bush’s faith-based program and introduce a new advisory council for it, there is little indication that he will deliver on his promises to remedy its inherent constitutional problems in a timely way. Press release from Secular Coalition for America
Posted in Atheism, Blurb, Critical Thinking?, Democracy, ethics on/at 02/07/2009 at 7:52 pm
“Our rhetoric, in fact, has always lagged behind our reality. When President Obama declared, “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers,” he sent a signal that it’s time, once again, to enlarge the circle of inclusiveness, consistent with the great American tradition of equality and toleration.” Commentary at CNN.com
Posted in Atheism, Blurb, Democracy on/at 02/05/2009 at 11:21 am
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Posted in Books, Media
May 18, 2009 at 3:49 pm
And while we were standing on this spot, the spot where Mao stood when he proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the music we were having played at us by the public address system was first “Viva Espana” and then the “Theme from Hawaii Five-O.” It was hard to avoid the feeling that somebody, somewhere, was missing the point I couldn’ve even be sure that it wasn’t me… Douglas Adams at Powells.com
Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Books, Media, Philosophy, literature
April 9, 2009 at 3:05 pm
“Man did not feel inches or meters, pounds or gallons. He felt heat, He felt cold; He felt heaviness and lightness. He knew hatred and love, pride and despair. You cannot measure these things. You cannot know them. You can only know the things that He did not need to know: dimensions, weights temperatures, gravities. There is no formula for a feeling. There is no conversion factor for an emotion.”
“There must be,” said Frost. “If a thing exists, it is knowable.”
“You are speaking again of measurement. I am talking about a quality of experience. A machine is a Man turned inside-out, because it can describe all the details of a process which a Man cannot, but it cannot experience that process itself as a Man can.”
-Roger Zelazny at Amazon.com
Posted in Books, Evolution, Media, Science
February 16, 2009 at 12:21 pm
“Bumblebees detect the polarization of sunlight, invisible to uninstrumented humans; pit vipers sense infrared radiation and detect temperature differences of 0.01degree Centigrade at a distance of half a meter; many insects can see ultraviolet light; some African freshwater fish generate a static electric field around themselves and sense intruders by slight perturbations induced in the field; dogs, sharks, and cicadas detect sounds wholly inaudible to humans; ordinary scorpions have microseismometers on their legs so they can detect in pitch darkness the footsteps of a small insect a meter away…” Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan at Amazon.com
Posted in Books, Comics, Media
February 9, 2009 at 3:34 pm
“What’s it like in space?”
“It sings.”
“The vibrations from the spin of the drive arms, sir, and the motion of the heat through the casements to space, which is very cold. The whole ship sings quietly, like a gently struck tuning fork.”
Warren Ellis at Amazon.com
Posted in Books, Comics, Media
January 8, 2009 at 2:57 pm
“You’re not here. You’re not even the real Kathy. The Doctor explained it to me, once he’d examined the computer.” – Corner of the Eye, by Steven Moffat. (Early version of the story that became the Doctor Who episode “Blink.”)
Posted in Books, Media
December 21, 2008 at 7:17 am
“Time,” said Kerry Westerfield, “is curved. Eventually, it gets back to the same place where it started. That’s duplication.” He put his feet up on a conveniently outjutting rock of the chimney and stretched luxuriously. From the kitchen Martha made clinking noises with bottles and glasses.
“Yesterday at this time I had a Martini,” Kerry said. “The time curve indicates that I should have another one now. Are you listening, angel?”
“I’m pouring,” said the angel distantly.
“You get my point, then. Here’s another. Time describes a spiral instead of a circle. If you call the first cycle ‘a’, the second one’s ‘a plus 1′–see? Which means a double Martini tonight.” … Henry Kuttner at Amazon.com
Posted in Books, Comics, Media
December 21, 2008 at 7:09 am
“But most importantly, the biggest pile of amps and speakers they could afford in one corner. And a DJ who played records that came out last week rather than last decade in the other. Indie as inclusive exhibitionism. Triumphalism rather than introversion. Charms rather than wards. Realising that selling out was actually the one thing left to do with ‘independent guitar music.’ So let’s piss away everything our predecessors strove for. Sell out. Just make sure the price is high enough to buy a pair of fancy new shoes.” Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie at Amazon.com
Posted in Books, Comics, Media, Science
November 18, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Once again the day is saved by SCIENCE! Once again our CITY is saved by science! Nikola Tesla makes a HERO of science! Science makes a HERO of Nikola Tesla! Sleep soundly, New York City! Science has made you safe again! Ask yourselves — Why hasn’t your GOVERNMENT done the same? Matt Fraction at Powells.com
Posted in Books, Media
November 18, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I sigh, depressed, and grind my teeth. I toy with shouting some tidbit more-some terrifying, unthinkable threat, some blackly fuliginous irddling hex-but my heart’s not in it. “Missed me!” I say with a coy little jerk and a leer, to keep my spirits up. Then, with a sigh, a kind of moan, I start very carefully down the cliffs that lead to the fens and moors and Hrothgar’s hall… John Gardner at Powells.com
Posted in Books, Feminism, Media
October 21, 2008 at 2:10 pm
“In the crowd over there, that one gaping at her gods. One rotten girl in the city of the future (That’s what i said.) Watch. She’s jammed among bodies, craning and peering with her soul yearning out of her eyeballs. Love! Ooooh, love them! Her gods are coming out of a store called Body East. Three youngbloods, larking along loverly. Dressed like simple street-people but… smashing. See their great eyes swivel above their nose-filters, their hands lift shyly, their inhumanly tender lips melt? The crowd moans. Love! This whole boiling megacity, this whole fun future world loves its gods.” James Tiptree, Jr. at Amazon.com
Posted in Books, Digital Culture, Media, Technology
September 8, 2008 at 4:29 am
Mr. Slippery had often speculated just how the simple notion of using high-resolution EEGs as input/output devices had caused the development of the “magic world” representation of data space. The Limey and Erythrina argued that sprites, reincarnation, spells, and castles were the natural tools here, more natural than the atomistic twentieth-century notions of data structures, programs, files, and communicaations protocols…. Vernor Vinge at Powells.com.
Posted in Academic Life, Books, Critical Thinking?, Media, Philosophy
September 4, 2008 at 9:41 am
“The irritation of doubt causes a struggle to attain a state of belief. I shall term this struggle inquiry, though it must be admitted that this is sometimes not a very apt designation. The irritation of doubt is the only immediate motive for the struggle to attain belief.” Charles Sanders Peirce (from Popular Science Monthly, November 1877).
Posted in Books, Comics, Media
July 21, 2008 at 1:26 am
“Ahhh, beer. The dark elixir of life itself. Nothing is so sweet, so majestic, so–”
“–so useless. You know, anyone with half a brain would’ve actually built their metallic clockwork companion with at least some kind of alcohol consumption ability if he’s meant to be a glorified drinking buddy.”
“Meh, Mr. Pendulum. MEH. I need to adjust your joviality cog when we get home.”
Ben Templesmith… at Powells.com
Posted in Books, Comics, Media
July 21, 2008 at 1:00 am
“Right, and what did you do last night?”
“I saved the world from intergalactic forces of evil.”
“Again?”
“Yeah, but this time I did it on hard.”
Jamie McKelvie… at Powells.com
Posted in Books, Comics, Media
June 17, 2008 at 9:51 pm
“Self Improve: Bigfoot got get more perfect. Refine Bigfootocity. Pull together. Think outside box. Lose ten pound. Learn speak the French. Ballroom dance. Demonstrate superior knowledge of fine wine at dinner party in charming non-pretentious manner. Be Oscar Wilde of woods. It so hard. Brain size of apricot. So, so hard think good. Maybe if eat Kelsey Grammer of Frasier fame, will absorb him soul and all attribute like McDonald’s combo meal.” Graham Roumieu at Powells.com
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