The Introverted Detective

 If you are anything like me you know next to nothing about what noises your car should and shouldn't be making, or what warning lights mean. While a picture is worth a thousand words, this post should clarify what the car warning lights actually mean.  First of all, let's put them in priority order. The most important lights are at the top of the list.  Oil pressure  - It looks like a genie's lamp dripping. Something is wrong with the car's oil pressure system. You are running low on oil or it isn't pumping correctly. This is not something to ignore.  Engine Temperature - The image to picture is a thermometer with waves below it. Your engine overheated. You may need coolant. This is urgent and should be addressed immediately.  Antilock Brake System - In case anyone thought a light with the letters ABS was Airbag Safety System (I did, so no shame at all if you have), it is not. If it comes on for a few seconds and disappears all is well. If it stays on you ...

Pregnant and single? Today's society may not be as harsh on you as it was before. If you thought single parenting was hard, let's look at how things could be worse. A "fallen woman" was, put in simplest terms, one that had sex outside of marriage and didn't fit into domestic society. It is an archaic term that we no longer use - and for good reason. Whether it was rape, consensual sex, prostitution, or being sold for sex, it didn't matter if they were pregnant outside of marriage. What you have to understand is that women were seen as falling away from God if they were being referred to as fallen women. "Fallen men" is a term that has never existed because only women were held to sexual purity. Women, especially in Victorian era, were held to a maidenly status until marriage, then were held to a standard of being a home-body. The status of women is important here. Way back before women were allowed into the workforce like they are today you could not...

 We all know how Jurassic Park ends. Death, blood, dinosaurs loose in the world where they shouldn't be.....etc. But is it possible to do it? Can you actually, with genetics, bring back an extinct species?  Jurassic Park and Jurassic World books and movies claim that mosquitos that drank the blood of animals got stuck on tree sap and that is where they get their DNA. They also claim they filled in DNA gaps with frog and other animals' DNA. Now that we know the claims, let's see if cinema and literature told the scientific truth. DNA in blood Starting at the beginning, let's see what science says about DNA and blood. For starters, Amber doesn't preserve soft tissue, and therefore they have no blood to harvest for DNA. Aside from that fact, there are bugs with blood in them that were found, just never in amber. Surprisingly, it's not all that ridiculous that blood residue would be found from the time of dinosaurs in a mosquito. Neanderthal and Mammoth DNA are t...

 Vivid dreams are interesting experiences. Shall we dive into the mystery? Lucid dreams are defined as when you know you are dreaming. You are in between rest and awake. Sometimes you can do what you want with the plot of the dream, even change it to something else. In the case of nightmares, it may help, but experts say to flow with the dream. Nightmares are not just for children, by the way, so don't feel shamed if you have intense nightmares or night terrors.  Whether the dream you vivid-dreamed was fun (and you wanted to go back), or you never want to see it ever again (and a thousand years would be too early to dream it up again) is a bit of a dice roll. We dream 2 hours a night, 4-6 times a night. Most people don't remember their dreams. If you remember them often, like me, and return to settings periodically, I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments.  There are two stages of sleep, REM (rapid eye movement) and nonREM. REM dreams are more vivid usuall...

Billy the Kid. William Henry Bonney. Brushy Bill. John Miller? Did Billy die in 1881, or not? Let's dive into that. One of the only confirmed pictures of Billy the Kid A short introduction to Billy the Kid is in order. He was born in the slums of New York City. His father died when he was a child, his mother remarried, and he was a straight shooter until he stole laundry at age 14 while working at a hotel. From there he went to jail (and instead of just letting it blow over and get released) only to escape out a chimney. He went to work as a civilian teamster in Arizona and encountered a man who bullied him. He shot him in self-defense during a fistfight. Once again, instead of letting the law acquit him on self-defense, he ran away. From there he eventually ended up in Lincoln County working for John Tunstall, who got killed by a rival rancher. This set him up for being on the wrong side of the Lincoln County War. All this led to Pat Garrett supposedly killing him at Fort Sumner. ...

 Politics can't be avoided these days. Shall we discuss it civilly?  With all this Republican versus Democrat yelling going on, let's first talk about the origin of the political parties that we see every election. Politics is defined as activities associated with governing, especially conflict among individuals or parties having and hoping to achieve power. The Republican and Democrat parties were born in 1820 when settlers had to decide whether their state would be free or slave. Apparently, they have been at each others' throats for a longer time than some of us thought possible, so let's learn how to get along this election. Civil Conversation In some cases, it may be a respectful conversation habit to avoid politics at all times. This depends on the person you are talking to. If you can bring up politics without a chair being thrown across the room you can benefit from this post. To start with, choose your moment to speak on this carefully. Invite the person into t...

Gifted kids. Gifted programs. Problem-causers that frustrate teachers when they get bored. What does gifted mean? That's today's deep dive.  For starters, being gifted does not mean you are a genius by any means. It simply means you are more mature and advanced in one topic or more than your peers are. You are probably also keenly aware of a lot more in your world than your peers. Your peers are not stupid. If you are gifted in any way you are not a superior human; you are simply built and wired differently from those around you. Do not become narcissistic and begin to believe you are superior.  Now that the warning is out there, let's keep going. Being gifted can show up in IQ, but not always, so don't depend on IQ points to show if your child, you, or your peer is gifted. It also has to be noticed over time by several others. One devoted mother/father saying their son/daughter is a young prodigy is not enough to say they are gifted. It takes careful observations and m...