Any quick sprint to round up news is getting tougher all the time -- the media insists on keeping us all tangled up in kudzu, stuffed full of manure, and kept in the dark.  It's nearly enough to make one reach for the Roundup.  (Here, we'll get sidetracked right away,  to help give you an immediate flavor of the razor-sharp focus of the rest to come.)

So, um, why do the Scotts Miracle-Gro people have such a fixation on death?  One look at their website is a cross between promises of horrific, hair-blazing nuclear Armageddon and folksy, trail-blazing, shucks-M'am, old-West wanted posters.

The copy might as well read, "Why, if you squint, you can almost see the cooling-tower shape in them thar souvenir spittoons, Sheriff," and then have it all signed like a love note, "Sincerely Yours, The Scotts Miracle-Death Cumpnee."

Or maybe, "Roses are red, and them violets bereft;  please think of us when you think of death."  I guess the old-West motiff is still every bit as romantic as us continuing to read books or watch movies and teevee shows all built up around the subject of grisly murders and gruesome deaths.

That's entertainment! You know, entertainment just like Rush Limbaugh's an entertainer.  No difference there, really -- it's all the same goal:  keep it red and raw and flowing freely in the streets, boys.  Give 'em as much red meat as they'll take.

Nothingness is not a void:  It is something on its own, and something all its own, too.

Feel as though you've fallen down a philosophical rabbit hole?  You're in good company.

Perhaps this question will help shed some light on the matter:  Is Zero an odd or even number?  (Most people require a bit to work this one out.  Go ahead -- take your time and puzzle it out, herding your arguments both for and against...)

OK, ready?  Zero is an even number.

It takes people much longer to work out if Zero is odd or even than, say, 13 or 40.  Zero simply doesn't show up on either of our mental lists, as we sing-songed our way through them as kids: Two, four, six, eight... Or: One, three, five, seven...

But why, exactly, is Zero an even number?  There are a few proofs and various ways of looking at it.  Maybe you defaulted to a sort of positional logic, as I did.  Zero is flanked by odd numbers -- one and negative one -- so, it stood to reason that Zero should be an even number.  As it turns out, that's one of the tests.

Another is whether it can be divided evenly (pardon the pun) by two, and give a whole number -- one with no fractions.  Zero passes this test, too:  If you chop Zero in half, you get Zero, which is a whole number without any remainders in tow.

For such a visual world, we humans sure have problems distinguishing between and among vision, sight, and seeing.

Chip in some added challenges from interpretation, translation, or point of view, and coming to grips with the world around us becomes quite a balancing act.  There's more to understanding what's going on than just taking a snapshot of the view.

Unlike cameras, human try to make sense of what it all means, from the infamous Big Picture down to the smallest detail.  When the light hits the medium in a camera, the camera's work is done.  But, when light enters the human eye, the work has only just begun.

Some of our challenges in perception are primal and basic, and traceable down to our human hardware and wiring.

For example, we humans are scanners -- always rapidly gazing around us, looking for threats and rewards.  We can't help it, we do it automatically -- it's built into us at a deep level.  Then, there's the mechanism of selective perception, a referee and gatekeeper helping decide which scanned images need to get through to our higher minds for a more intensive look-see.

Anyone halfway intelligent and alert can pay attention to current events, put the pieces together for themselves, thereby triggering hundreds of emotional responses ranging from idle, bemused concerned to stark terror and utter fear.

It may be that anyone who is completely, fully intelligent never dwells in the vast middle, but operates only at either end of the spectrum -- either completely tuned out and disinterested, or wealthy as all-get out, and out buying their own reality, somewhere pleasant.

The available scenarios here seem pretty unsatisfactory -- well, to be honest, except for the one where you're a billionaire, out buying some white sugar-sanded islands in a warmed, turquoise-y Pacific area, dropping out for a while to simply enjoy life, for a change.  Umbrella drinks and all.

(Yes: The problem with delicious daydreams is doubling back, detouring down to the doldrums. Hmmm. OK -- Let's start again, shall we?)