tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22493674707073616802024-03-13T22:26:07.521+01:00long minute short dayexplaining myselfZoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-27031800114297381622021-03-27T10:10:00.001+01:002021-03-27T10:10:17.155+01:00Event Horizon (a headache is like a spoon)<div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5rRe3KmEDwY/YF70abkUm4I/AAAAAAACC1Y/cc0iVvBZhv4eQyA5GAlXl0WS83N6hUAxgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1474/open_plan.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1060" data-original-width="1474" height="460" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5rRe3KmEDwY/YF70abkUm4I/AAAAAAACC1Y/cc0iVvBZhv4eQyA5GAlXl0WS83N6hUAxgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h460/open_plan.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: left;">A spacecraft on an asteroid,<br />across the galaxy,<br />on the monitor,<br />in my eyes.<br /><br />Brings to mind<br /> my place<br />among worlds<br />in the open plan.<br /><br />Spangled domes,<br />fireworks in headphones,<br />projected connectomes,<br /> lighting up eyes <br /><br />in ergonomic chairs;<br />Life support systems for<br />Creators, Explorers, Destroyers, Sustainers,<br />on retainer,<br /><br />making targets relevant.<br />Cosmic forces focused<br />on the North Star<br />of distraction</p><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>inspirations:</b></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threads/consciousness-and-the-interface-theory-of-perception.624/page-2#post-14382">consciousness & perception</a></li><li><a href="https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=osiris-rex-tags-asteroid-bennu">OSIRIS-REx TAGS Asteroid Bennu</a></li></ul></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VS9wrzYy2Pk/YF71qcp8_JI/AAAAAAACC1g/mKf9mS0RPeknzMsVu3ke4WguoaShQymTgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/bennu_osiris.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VS9wrzYy2Pk/YF71qcp8_JI/AAAAAAACC1g/mKf9mS0RPeknzMsVu3ke4WguoaShQymTgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/bennu_osiris.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: small;">If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://www.howigotmykink.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span><br />
<hr />
<br />Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0Prague, Czechia50.0755381 14.437800521.765304263821157 -20.7184495 78.385771936178855 49.5940505tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-40002421864650516842018-11-18T17:56:00.000+01:002018-11-18T17:56:57.841+01:00Calgarian Calendar<h2>
Re-stitching the space-time continuum</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MmsM-qTpIt0/W_GZXkXJYKI/AAAAAAABxwA/VBlZqysQYKIbP5vtoEYEgGlJyMN-vi7WgCLcBGAs/s1600/spaceTime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="661" data-original-width="1024" height="257" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MmsM-qTpIt0/W_GZXkXJYKI/AAAAAAABxwA/VBlZqysQYKIbP5vtoEYEgGlJyMN-vi7WgCLcBGAs/s400/spaceTime.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Can we all please adopt new names for the months and days that line up in alphabetical order? Who would not benefit?<br />
<br />
Here's my proposal:<br />
<h3>
Months </h3>
<ul>
<li>1uary </li>
<li>2bruary </li>
<li>3arch </li>
<li>4pril </li>
<li>5ay </li>
<li>6une </li>
<li>7uly </li>
<li>8gust </li>
<li>9tember </li>
<li>10ctober </li>
<li>11vember </li>
<li>12cember </li>
</ul>
<h3>
Days </h3>
<ul>
<li>1day </li>
<li>2sday </li>
<li>3nesday </li>
<li>4hursday </li>
<li>5riday </li>
<li>6turday </li>
<li>7nday </li>
</ul>
<br />
The Calgarian calendar. You know you want it.<br />
<br />
I'm now working on a standardised semantic sorting order for emoji. 💫<br />
<br />
<br />
<hr />
<br />
If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://www.howigotmykink.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded readerZoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-44826983918678778562018-11-18T17:30:00.000+01:002018-11-18T17:30:13.800+01:00What is the optimal number of children?<h2>
The paradox of the margaritas</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SiN6BCe0b8Q/W_GSenRZgPI/AAAAAAABxvw/_eiruCWmV90BwWdBiJ4CtFPPr8DlSEREQCLcBGAs/s1600/margaritas_for_two.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SiN6BCe0b8Q/W_GSenRZgPI/AAAAAAABxvw/_eiruCWmV90BwWdBiJ4CtFPPr8DlSEREQCLcBGAs/s320/margaritas_for_two.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Should I have another child? Are three children better than two? If we have three, is it just as easy to have four? ...or should we just stop at one?<br /><br />Children are like margaritas. <br /><br />Your first margarita of the day, like your first child, is a good thing. It improves your outlook and only slightly impairs your ability to operate normally.<br /><br />Regardless of what your plan had been before you started, after the first one, a second seems more attractive.<br /><br />Your second margarita begins to interfere with the way you usually do things. Accomodations are needed. You will probably need to adjust your schedule.<br /><br />As your plans are already disrupted, there is that much less reason not to have another one. Although the incremental pleasure diminishes with each subsequent margarita, they still deliver joy.<br /><br />Three is probably too many. But if you have already had three, there aren't many reasons left not to have more. You are no longer the same person you were before. You won't be returning to business as usual. And you are tempted by the exhilaration of having another one.<br /><br />After your fourth, things get blurry. What the hell, have as many as you can afford! Have them even if you can't afford them! Worry about it later. Things will probably work out.<br /><br />What is the optimal number of children? The answer of course is personal. But you can get close to the answer by asking yourself: How many margaritas are good?<br /><br /><hr />
<span style="font-size: small;">If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://www.howigotmykink.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span><br />
<hr />
<br />Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-22445598855829503902017-05-13T15:39:00.000+02:002017-05-14T09:42:01.300+02:00Two Capitalism hacks to help you sleep better<h2>
Social Capitalism</h2>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CIhtmyHX168/WRcJgc9XyBI/AAAAAAABjNo/1QaF8p_1_IUKGw2jZsCA00SIg7q74c7CACLcB/s1600/melania.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CIhtmyHX168/WRcJgc9XyBI/AAAAAAABjNo/1QaF8p_1_IUKGw2jZsCA00SIg7q74c7CACLcB/s640/melania.jpg" width="528" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">marrying money is a full time job (image: harpers bazaar)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
What gets you out of bed in the morning? For me, it's Capitalism. And lately, it's been keeping me up at night, too. <br />
<br />
There's much to like about Capitalism. For one thing it's exciting, because it's gamified. Like all great games, the challenges increase progressively as participants' skills increase, along with the rewards.<br />
<br />
Newbies can get started with Capitalism quickly, with little investment. Capitalism is well-documented with lots of free advice available in print and online. Citizens can participate as individuals or as part of a team. And the pursuit of Capitalism has pulled a large part of the world's population out of desperation and servitude.<br />
<br />
But Capitalism is losing its mojo. Like dead-eyed real estate scions at a Reno roulette table after 3am, we're not feeling the fun anymore. We're burning out from high-pressure jobs, America is in a funk, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/your-money/who-will-listen-to-a-billionaires-troubles.html?_r=1">billionaires are feeling sorry for themselves</a>. Something's wrong with Capitalism, but I believe we can fix it.<br />
<blockquote>
"Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate." ~ Bertrand Russell</blockquote>
Core to Capitalism's success has been its scoring system. Standings are tallied in money, letting us know in real time whether we are winning or losing. In Capitalism, money is the point, and that's the problem. <br />
<br />
Shouldn't the point of a social-economic system be (something like) happiness<sup id="fnref1"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2249367470707361680#fn1" rel="footnote">1</a></sup>, which money, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130326-why-money-cant-buy-you-happiness">we know</a>, does not buy? <br />
<br />
The focus on money is a critical design flaw, creating perverse incentives that have led to levels of inequality now threatening to undermine the entire system. The edifice is starting to creak. <br />
<blockquote>
“When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social importance, there will be great changes in the code of morals. We shall be able to rid ourselves of many of the pseudo-moral principles which have hag-ridden us for two hundred years, by which we have exalted some of the most distasteful of human qualities into the position of the highest virtues. We shall be able to afford to dare to assess the money-motive at its true value. The love of money as a possession — as distinguished from the love of money as a means to the enjoyments and realities of life — will be recognized for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of those semi-criminal, semi-pathological propensities which one hands over with a shudder to the specialists in mental disease.” ~ John Maynard Keynes</blockquote>
Happiness, not money, should be the measure of success. What brings happiness? Human relationships<sup id="fnref2"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2249367470707361680#fn2" rel="footnote">2</a></sup>. Whereas an emphasis on money is ultimately destructive of the social-economic system, an emphasis on human relationships would be self-reinforcing, because what is a social-economic system but a network of human relationships?<br />
<br />
I don't want to throw Capitalism out, just make a few tweaks. A couple of modest adjustments to the scoring system can shift the emphasis from money to human relationships, keeping all the freedom and frisson we love about Capitalism, but adding sustainability and happiness. I'd like to call the modified system <em>Social Capitalism</em>.<br />
<blockquote>
Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That's the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.</blockquote>
Here are the tweaks: <br />
<ol>
<li>abolish inheritance. </li>
<li>make charity non tax-deductible.</li>
</ol>
When the Flames face off mid-season against the Oilers, the starting score is 0-0. In hockey, as in most sports, points are not transferred between games. When the Flames beat the Oilers 9-1, the Flames do not carry the 8 point surplus into the next game. This system maintains a level playing field (in the sense of fairness, not flatness) in order to preserve competition and reward excellence. To allow teams to carry points across games would rig the game in favour of the incumbents, leading to greater and greater inequality, until the league broke.<br />
<br />
We should abolish inheritence on grounds of fairness and equality, because letting families accumulate wealth across generations is like letting sports teams accumulate points across games. <br />
In Social Capitalism, when a citizen dies, all wealth reverts to the state. For the reasons just discussed, most Capitalist societies already impose heavy taxes on inheritances and other gifts of wealth. Abolishing inheritance is an extension of these policies.<br />
<br />
Without the option of passing wealth across generations, citizens seeking a happier future for their children would do better to invest in, rather than insulate their children from, society. Legacies would take the form of publicly recognized contributions to society, not contributions to private bank accounts. <br />
<br />
The second tweak is to make charity donations non-tax-deductible, because the welfare of needy citizens is as much Government's concern as that of any specific charity, and Government is typically better organized, informed, and open to scrutiny. Government should be the best run charity, and everyone's concern and obligation. <br />
<br />
It's illuminating to think of Government as a charitable organisation with mandate to care for its citizens. In this light, tax-deductions for private charities are shown to be, in effect, opt-outs from government. So when Lord Beezlebotham makes a tax-deductible donation to a private charity, the deduction redirects a portion of money from the government to the private charity, say the WindyFlanks Retirement Home for Hunting Dogs. <br />
<br />
Compared to private charities, Government has advantages in scale and scope that let it provide services with greater effectiveness and efficiency. Governments are also typically better run and more accountable. Citizens should be allowed to donate their money to any cause they feel is deserving, but there should be no opt-out from obligations to Government, society's collective charity. <br />
<br />
Without the option of diverting money from government toward private causes via charitable tax deductions, citizens looking to make positive change would be more likely to engage in Government, and to engage with societal needs beyond their personal interests. Citizens would still be free to fund Arts Centers, Hospitals, etc, and name them after themselves, but their first obligation would be to Government, the collective charity that provided the conditions for their own success.<br />
<blockquote>
"Capitalism fails to realize that life is social. Communism fails to realize that life is personal. The good and just society is … a socially conscious democracy which reconciles the truths of individualism and collectivism." ~ Martin Luther King</blockquote>
The ideal of Social Capitalism is a society where excellence is rewarded, competition is fair, and an individual's standing is tallied in terms of contribution to society, not financial assets. These tweaks are meant to encourage people to measure their lives in terms of Social, rather than Financial capital. <br />
<br />
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<em>Happiness</em> as an end-goal has its own problems, but it works as shorthand for <em>profound satisfaction and peace of mind</em>. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2249367470707361680#fnref1" rev="footnote">↩</a><br />
</li>
<li id="fn2">
see, for example: <a href="http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/over-nearly-80-years-harvard-study-has-been-showing-how-to-live-a-healthy-and-happy-life/">here</a>, and <a href="http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/raising_happiness/post/happiness_is_being_socially_connected">here</a> and <a href="http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/science-of-happiness/communicating/key-studies-relationships/">here</a>. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2249367470707361680#fnref2" rev="footnote">↩</a><br />
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: small;">If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://www.howigotmykink.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span><br />
<hr />
<br />Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-9954212263053600162015-11-04T21:26:00.002+01:002015-11-05T13:55:30.189+01:00Rising above it all<h2>
Forgiveness</h2>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n_wsbHC7eHo/VjpoWOUGpsI/AAAAAAAAmf4/NuJCy-GrVPs/s1600/the-weak-can-never-forgive.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n_wsbHC7eHo/VjpoWOUGpsI/AAAAAAAAmf4/NuJCy-GrVPs/s400/the-weak-can-never-forgive.png" width="330" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">oh lord it's hard to be humble</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
For the offence you gave,<br />
<br />
for the disrespect you show,<br />
<br />
for your lack of shame or acknowledgement of guilt...<br />
<br />
I forgive you.<br />
<br />
I forgive you immediately, comprehensively, retrospectively, proactively, and aggressively. Before you have the chance.<br />
<br />
I forgive you because I will not carry the burden of resentment. I will not have my thoughts tainted by bitterness. I will not be distracted from the enjoyment of my days by unrewarding disputes.<br />
<br />
Let my unconditional forgiveness show: in the greater scheme of things, on the scale of what really matters, in terms of peace of mind and lasting happiness, I am in control, and you are insignificant.<br />
<br />
Not for your sake, do I forgive you, but for my own.<br />
<br />
I win!<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: small;">If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://www.howigotmykink.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span><br />
<hr />
<br />Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-19052999207565785132015-06-14T22:03:00.000+02:002015-06-25T13:00:37.178+02:00Private Joke<h2>
thoughts from the dentist chair</h2>
<div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DggpOb1eIJI/VYvfLph6ImI/AAAAAAAAhOM/vczRKX6c2-4/s1600/DentistChairView%2528c%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DggpOb1eIJI/VYvfLph6ImI/AAAAAAAAhOM/vczRKX6c2-4/s320/DentistChairView%2528c%2529.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">actual view from my dentist's chair</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
My heels shot up and fell back to the chair as if I had been electrocuted.</div>
<br />
Dentistry has made tremendous progress in terms of patient comfort, but the experience of lying in the dentist chair is still fraught.<br />
<br />
Lying in the dentist chair tends to concentrate one's thoughts on the present. Usually I lie in the dentist chair with my legs crossed at the ankles. I noticed, as my feet went up again, that I had uncrossed them.<br />
<br />
I filled my lungs and slowly exhaled, through my nose because my mouth had a vacuum tube in it. The pain had been only in the instant, gone as soon as my heels hit the chair again. What <em>is</em> pain?<br />
<br />
I thought of the 1978 movie Marathon Man, starting Dustin Hoffman.<br />
<blockquote>
A graduate history student is unwittingly caught in the middle of an international conspiracy involving stolen diamonds, an exiled Nazi war criminal, and a rogue government agent. (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074860/">IMDB</a>)</blockquote>
There's a scene in the movie where the Nazi torturer (Szell, played by Sir Laurence Olivier) uses dental instruments to torture the unwitting student (Babe, played by Dustin Hoffman), who has no idea why he is there.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2xBJERznOgA" width="560"></iframe><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>the most relevant bits are near the 1:45 and 3:13 minute marks</i></div>
<blockquote>
Christian Szell: Is it safe?... Is it safe?<br />
<br />
Babe: You're talking to me?<br />
<br />
Christian Szell: Is it safe?<br />
<br />
Babe: Is what safe?<br />
<br />
Christian Szell: Is it safe?<br />
<br />
Babe: I don't know what you mean. I can't tell you something's safe or not, unless I know specifically what you're talking about.<br />
<br />
Christian Szell: Is it safe?<br />
<br />
Babe: Tell me what the "it" refers to.<br />
<br />
Christian Szell: Is it safe? <br />
<br />
Babe: Yes, it's safe, it's very safe, it's so safe you wouldn't believe it.<br />
<br />
Christian Szell: Is it safe?<br />
<br />
Babe: No. It's not safe, it's... very dangerous, be careful.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0015572/quotes">IMDB</a></blockquote>
"mmmMMMmmm" I said.<br />
<br />
My dentist pulled the whirring tool from my mouth, "Are you OK?"<br />
<br />
"It's safe."<br />
<br />
"I don't understand."<br />
<br />
"I'll tell you after."<br />
<br />
"OK."<br />
<br />
I uncrossed my ankles, inhaled another deep slow breath through my nose, and smiled around the dental instruments sticking out of my mouth.<br />
<br />
She never asked me to explain. I think it's better.<br />
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: small;">If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://www.howigotmykink.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span><br />
<hr />
<br />Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-78901685873323003052013-11-11T07:34:00.003+01:002013-11-12T07:02:17.313+01:00tandoori taco sunset<h2>
lip-smacking</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DHvCfGlmpr0/UoB5N7kck5I/AAAAAAAAWWw/e8imaUWxkW8/s1600/2027-Lips-Colour-1024x731.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DHvCfGlmpr0/UoB5N7kck5I/AAAAAAAAWWw/e8imaUWxkW8/s320/2027-Lips-Colour-1024x731.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Crab,
Dill Pickle,
Fully Loaded Baked Potato,
Mediterranean Herbs,
Salt & Pepper,
Soulmate Cheeses & Onion,
Ranch,
Honey Mustard,
Sweet Onion,
Cheddar And Sour Cream,
Rotisserie Chicken,
Spicy Jalapeno,
Sour Cream And Onion,
Salt & Vinegar,
Cheese & Onion,
Smokey Bacon,
Prawn Cocktail,
Pickled Onion,
Beef & Onion,
Marmite,
Spanish Chicken Paella,
Japanese Teriyaki Chicken,
German Bratwurst Sausage,
Italian Spaghetti Bolognese,
French Garlic Baguette,
American Cheeseburger,
Brazilian Salsa,
Scottish Haggis,
Irish Stew,
English Roast Beef And Yorkshire Pudding,
Dutch Edam Cheese,
Australian BBQ Kangaroo,
South African Sweet Chutney,
Argentinian Flame Grilled Steak,
Welsh Rarebit,
Mango Red Chill,
Pizza(!),
Magic Masala,
Nori Seaweed,
Basil,
Squid,
Garlic Soft Shelled Crab (Hong Kong),
Soy Sauce,
Salmon Teriyaki,
Hot & Sour Fish Soup.</div>
<br />
I'd be surprised to find this list of potato chip (crisp) flavours had any connection to actual ingredients. In the fast-paced world of food technology today, creating a new flavour is easy, a matter of chemistry. I imagine it's like creating a new shade of lipstick: the hard part is coming up with a name.<br />
<br />
...maybe they also do some testing on pigs before they launch to the public.<br />
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: small;">If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://www.howigotmykink.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span><br />
<hr />
<br />Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-48336972596541260172013-10-16T20:14:00.000+02:002018-11-18T18:38:08.129+01:00wholly water<h2>
God | Squad</h2>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kajLv7LONnM/UlxTs7MeyCI/AAAAAAAAWHo/l2Eglg5b4OE/s1600/Theophany+in+Russia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kajLv7LONnM/UlxTs7MeyCI/AAAAAAAAWHo/l2Eglg5b4OE/s320/Theophany+in+Russia.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">personal best</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Abstinence is a big part of why I'm not Mormon. It's hard to relate to teetotalers. My people are Irish/Australian; I can't get my head around the idea of cultures that don't drink. When do they let their their id off the leash?<br />
<br />
I once stopped drinking for 2 years during a bout of hepatitis, so I can understand non-drinking for reasons of poor health. I also understand drinking for reasons of good health: for some of us, alcohol is part of a mental health regime that helps us thrive in the conditions of modern civilization, like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodised_salt" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iodized salt</a>.<br />
<br />
Mostly, I don't understand why anyone would refuse alcohol on religious grounds. The deeper issue is not alcohol, it's about trust. If someone can refuse to drink alcohol for no other reason than because the Almighty forbids it, how can I be sure they won't make other choices that seem random and arbitrary to me?<br />
<br />
That's the thing with religious people: they follow a different set of rules. They can eat this, they can't eat that. This day that can't work, that day they have to stay up all night. If you want to get to know a religious person to the level where they don't seem just, well, random and weird, then spending time and sharing activities with them is not enough. To get to know a religious person, you also have to get to know the(ir) Almighty, an entity who usually is not bound by Logic or Reason. Almighty has not introduced his/herself to me and has not answered my calls.<br />
<br />
Why would anyone give up their freedom to, say, drink alcohol, in favor of an apparently arbitrary set of rules delivered from on high?<br />
<br />
Consider the swimming pool. I love to swim. But I won't stay long in an open pool during public swim on a sunny Saturday afternoon. I might try a few underwater somersaults, or see if I can swim the width underwater on a single breath, but very soon I'll get bored and out. For me, it starts to get interesting with lane ropes. Lane ropes give swimming some sense.<br />
<br />
I used to train with a swim squad. We had a coach who set the workouts for us. A typical set might look something like this:<br />
3 x (4 x 75):<br />
#1: free;<br />
#2: 25 choice stroke, 50 free;<br />
#3: 50 choice stroke (same stroke), 25 free;<br />
#4: 75 stroke (same stroke).<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The sets often seemed arbitrary. Sometimes Coach Al would tell us to swim lengths without kicking, or only using one arm, or using a limited number of strokes or breaths. The sets were sometimes hard to remember and we would occasionally lose our place. No problem, Coach Al would bark out the next drill from the end of the pool.<br />
<br />
I never really understood the method behind these intricate swimming sets, but Coach Al seemed to know what he was doing. All I had to do was follow Coach Al's commands. Giving him control over my workout allowed me to focus on swimming right in the moment. All other concerns washed away. I retain a strong memory of the feeling of liberation I experienced during those punishing swim squad workouts.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Giving myself over to the commands of Al made swimming meaningful and rewarding; Maybe I <i>do</i> understand why someone would hand over their freedom to a higher power. Ideally, every once in a while, you and your higher power should get together after practice and share a drink or three.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<hr />
<span style="font-size: small;">If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://www.howigotmykink.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span><br />
<hr />
<br /></div>
</div>
Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-59982733667225171952013-09-25T07:29:00.000+02:002015-11-04T21:43:37.239+01:00owning jesus<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RAPyitM9xNs/UkJ0Uy1l7wI/AAAAAAAAV1o/6c5Bk5FVwXs/s1600/moses_smashing_tablets.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RAPyitM9xNs/UkJ0Uy1l7wI/AAAAAAAAV1o/6c5Bk5FVwXs/s320/moses_smashing_tablets.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Man of faith smashing scripture </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
If I was Khalid I would <i>not</i> belong to the Muslim faith. I would not subscribe to its beliefs, nor would I follow its practices. If I was Khalid, I would <i>own</i> Islam.<br />
<br />
You may think I am being pedantic, but in fact, I am being Orthodox. This post is about Faith and Religion, chapter and verse.<br />
<br />
As it happens, I don't own Islam, although I do have some ideas for how I'd fix it up if I did. It could use some pictures on the walls, for one. I own Catholicism. Yes, the Pope is mine. Sorry about him. He just won't listen. We've been thinking maybe medication would be a good thing for him.<br />
<br />
I never asked for Catholicism. I inherited it. I find it unsightly, myself, but my mother likes it. It's not like I can give it away. It's not much practical use, so I usually keep it in the attic, buried under a pile of other accumulated crap. Sometimes I drag it out when we have visitors who are interested in that sort of thing. It's not pretty, it gets in the way, it's poorly constructed, rotting, and often stinks, but it's mine, my problem.<br />
<br />
The actual point of this post is to point out the absurdity of the idea of anyone <i>belonging</i> to a faith. In my view, Faith requires free choice. Without free choice, Faith becomes compulsion, or unthinking adherence to culture -- without free choice. If faith is possible without free choice, then Ants can be believers.<br />
<br />
My complaint may seem specious. <i>Belonging</i> has 3 senses, roughly: classification, fit, and ownership, and it is reasonable to say that a Christian person belongs to the Christian faith in the same way that an ant belongs to the kingdom <i>Animalia</i>, the phylum <i>Arthroproda</i>, and the class <i>Insecta</i>, i.e., in the sense of classification.<br />
<br />
To my ears, however, when people say they belong to a faith, it sounds like they mean<i> </i>the faith owns them. It sounds inappropriately passive. <i>Subscribing</i> to a faith is equally passive. (More often, believers are <i>prescribing</i> the faith, which, at least, is active.) To be a <i>follower</i> of a faith is also passive. All these terms seem dispirited, especially for a faith. Faiths should spirited, not passive.<br />
<br />
So is my problem pedantry? YES! My problem is other peoples' pedantry, the pedantry of <i>people of the word</i>. Because language, like mathematics, is a system of symbolic manipulation, processed by the parts of our soul (or brain, if you prefer), that handles logic and analytical thinking, which, if you think it through, are anti-thetical to faith. Salt on the slug of faith. If your faith needs a logical proof, then it isn't faith. If you have a logical proof, then you don't need faith.<br />
<br />
Faith and Reason don't mix. Language is a system of symbolic manipulation, inextricable from Reason. So <i>people of the word</i>, i.e, subscribers/prescribers of scripture-based religions, must swallow this indigestible nugget before they can open their mouths to preach. This may explain the constipated empathy for non-believers. Scripture is no place for Faith.<br />
<br />
The proper medium of Faith is Art. Art is handled by the systems of the brain that deal with intuition, emotions, fellow humans, and beauty. Compare: which religion you would like to own?<br />
<br />
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Scripture</th>
<th>Art</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Rational </td>
<td>Intuitive </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Manipulative </td>
<td>Open</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Consistency</td>
<td>Beauty</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Eternal</td>
<td>Humane</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
What about Poetry? I grant, poetry is Art, capable of expressing the ineffable. But is religious scripture poetry? Millions of the faithful claim it is. But if scripture is poetry, then is it fiction? No. The categories of <i>fiction</i> and<i> non-fiction</i> don't apply to poetry. Poetry, like music, has its own criteria of Truth, based on Intuition, Authenticity, and Beauty.<br />
<br />
So, if scripture-based faith <i>was</i> music, what kind of music would it be? Probably something like this ancient music:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eim-n4n0tX0/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eim-n4n0tX0?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Music of Ancient Greece - First Chorus, Orestes Tragedy of Eurypides - by Christodoulos Halaris - Ancient Greek Music</span></div>
<br />
<br />
It may have it's musical qualities, but it doesn't come anywhere near this more recent work in terms of Intuition, Authenticity, or Beauty:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zCUXf81W10Y/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zCUXf81W10Y?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://youtu.be/lQToShbAg5U" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mama Soul -- Harold Alexander</span></a></div>
<div>
<u style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow'; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-center;"><br /></u></div>
My point is, if scripture is to be read as non-fiction, then believers are literally followers, and that's no way to belong to a faith. If scripture is meant to be poetry, then, it's a crunky, stiff, and unappealing kind of poetry, a poor alternative to other, better, more uplifting and soul-nourishing art on the market.<br />
<br />
The best indication of the Truth of scripture-based religions, like Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, is the Art they have inspired, not the scripture they are based upon.<br />
<br />
People of the word (followers of scripture-based faiths) may argue that scripture <i>is</i> poetry, and believers <i>do</i> make the free choice to believe in its truth. But poetry, like music, does not give prescriptive truth. Art does not give Rules.<br />
<br />
I'm preaching to the converted. If you are still reading this far, you already agree with me. Otherwise, you would have stopped reading this infidel nonsense earlier, recognizing it for the Sophistry it is. The fact is, dear reader, I don't even believe in the existence of you. I can't think who would be interested to read this far. Oh yes. Sorry. Hi Mum! Yes, I believe in you. I hope you are looking after Jesus.<br />
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: small;">If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://www.howigotmykink.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span>Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-6820928771189898662013-06-11T07:33:00.002+02:002013-06-11T08:54:15.485+02:00an uncomfortable opinion<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Fsg-Dr4TwSg/Uba1tXrrdDI/AAAAAAAASXk/ZzOYuKvfzVQ/s1600/the_experts_agree_gun_control_works.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="231" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Fsg-Dr4TwSg/Uba1tXrrdDI/AAAAAAAASXk/ZzOYuKvfzVQ/s400/the_experts_agree_gun_control_works.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bonzerwolf.com/">BONZER WOLF™</a>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I am a moderate man, a man of the left. I am a family man, father to 4 children, born in 4 corners of the world. I am a believer in larger social causes, sceptical of western capitalistic ideologies of individualism. I support socialized medicine, and advocate bicycle paths. I am a Canadian, living in the Netherlands. So I am surprised to discover that everyone needs guns.<br />
<br />
Justin Bieber needs a gun. Carly Rae Jepsen needs a gun. Pamela Anderson needs a gun. Shania Twain needs a gun. Celine Dione needs a gun. Leonard Cohen needs a gun. Keanu Reeves needs a gun. Nelly Furtado needs a gun. Jim Carrey needs a gun. Avril Lavigne needs a gun. Margaret Atwood needs a gun.<br />
<br />
Not just Canadians. We all need guns. Right-thinking community-minded freedom-loving atheists like myself especially need guns. We should resist any attempt at gun control, gun registration, ammunition monitoring, and anything else that sniffs of restrictions on our natural rights to defend ourselves. We need guns to protect ourselves from conservative religious nut jobs. The <a href="http://home.nra.org/">NRA</a> doesn’t explain this well.<br />
<br />
This is a new opinion for me, two days old as I write. It came upon me suddenly, as I listened to reports of PRISM, the US governments collation and monitoring of our personal network data. Working in the software industry, I am aware of how much detailed personal information can be extracted from such a database. Living in Europe I am often reminded of how badly governments have behaved. Yesterday, in fact, we had to detour around a cordoned-off area of the beach where an unexploded grenade had been found. It is easy for me to imagine a bad government – in Turkey, say, or Italy – using social network data to snuff out sparks of dissent: actual, potential, or perceived.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"According to the documents revealed by Ed Snowden, the US National Security Agency (NSA) has access on a massive scale to individual chat logs, stored data, voice traffic, file transfers and social networking data of individuals. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The US government confirmed it did request millions of phone records from US company Verizon, which included call duration, location and the phone numbers of both parties on individual call. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
According to the documents, Prism also enabled "backdoor" access to the servers of nine major technology companies including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
These servers would process and store a vast amount of information, including private posts on social media, web chats and internet searches."<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22839609">BBC News</a></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
In 2001, the Bush Administration amended the American <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act">Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act</a> to permit warrantless wiretapping. Lawmakers who knew of the program were <a href="https://www.privacyinternational.org/blog/looking-at-prism-nsas-mass-surveillance-program">gagged from publicly discussing the top secret program</a>.<br />
<br />
These laws give the US government the ability to identify virtually anyone on the basis of their expressed personal beliefs and opinions. The scope of surveillance extends to other western capitalist democracies. (Of course, citizens of overtly authoritarian regimes already expect surveillance.) Whether exploited or not, these laws provide unprecedented capability for oppression.<br />
<br />
The Obama administration recently reauthorized these powers after "<a href="https://twitpic.com/cvozy8">extensive debate</a>," a fact all the more worrying because I am disposed to like Mr Obama. I imagine he made the inevitable political choice: If he chose to end the surveillance program he would be held responsible for the next terrorist act against the United States. Reauthorization, however, merely maintains the status quo. I like Obama, but I'm scared of many of the other conservative US politicians. I'm scared of what might happen if the more extreme conservative US politicians were to gain control of the levers of power. In time, inevitably, they will.<br />
<br />
I don't like the tradeoffs of my new position against gun control: the increased risk of gun violence on the streets, in homes, and at schools. However, history shows the alternative possibility of ruthless repressive authoritarian regimes is a reality.<br />
<br />
I am uncomfortable with my new position against gun control, but it came to me quickly, and so may change just as swiftly. Please dissuade me.<br />
<br />
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: small;">If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://www.howigotmykink.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span><br />
<hr />
<br />
<br />Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-35152390287350251592013-06-06T07:24:00.002+02:002013-06-11T09:31:48.208+02:00managing conflict in the workplace<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TsB1lSlNmb4/UbAcR3xotdI/AAAAAAAASPk/0gCQzxTrnLo/s1600/office_murder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TsB1lSlNmb4/UbAcR3xotdI/AAAAAAAASPk/0gCQzxTrnLo/s320/office_murder.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">plan your meeting in advance </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">On a certain </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">occasion when Father Nicanor brought a checker set to the chestnut tree and </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">invited him to a game, José Arcadio Buendía would not accept, because according </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">to him he could never understand the sense of a contest in which the two </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">adversaries have agreed upon the rules.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">-Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude</span><br />
<br />
It seems to me the exercise of war is a demonstration of commitment to a cause, the point being to establish that your commitment to a position is greater than the commitment of your opponent. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz">Clausewitz</a> said "War is the continuation of politics by other means". War operates on a mass-psychological level, involving the marshaling of commitment of entire populations.<br />
<br />
King George III described the cost of war in terms of "<a href="http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/amrev/shots/address.html">blood and treasure</a>," but the currency of war is ultimately blood. Even treasure is valuable only as long as you (or your people) are alive to enjoy it.<br />
<br />
It seems to me the purpose of war is to demonstrate the commitment of a population to a position, and this commitment is reckoned in blood, your own blood. Measured in terms of commitment, willingness to die for a cause trumps willingness to kill.<br />
<br />
What if José Arcadio Buendía had agreed to the checker game, and Father Nicanor had won the game, only using a checkers computer app? Would José Arcadio Buendía have considered himself defeated? I suspect José Arcadio Buendía would then have given Father Nicanor a bloody nose. ...and walked away the victor, in my view.<br />
<br />
Robotic technologies, such as drones, enable (economically advantaged) warring nations to draw blood without putting their own soldiers in harms way. In my view, this is cheating, like Father Nicanor's checkers computer. The nation using the robotic weapons draws the blood of its enemy, but demonstrates no commitment of its own. In fact, the behavior may be read by its enemy as a demonstration of lack of commitment, just as a shiny red sports car betrays the sexual insecurity of the middle-aged man.<br />
<br />
Advanced weapons may make it possible for a warring population to kill every one of their committed enemies with minimal risk to your own population. Reckoned in blood, the technologically advantaged side will have won. There will be no committed enemy blood left.<br />
<br />
The terror and the horror of their enemy's advanced weapons may drain the commitment of a warring population to the cause. But having entered the conflict, the warriors have already established themselves as resolute and resigned to the cause. Isn't it more likely the use of advanced weapons will strengthen their resolve to test their enemy's commitment?<br />
<br />
War seeks the level at which a society is existentially committed to a position. War is a negotiation, diplomacy by other means. It's a market mechanism to determine value, value measured in identity & existence, value reckoned in blood.<br />
<br />
<div>
In war, the use of advanced weaponry such as drones is cheating, just as Father Nicanor's chess computer is cheating, just as Lance Armstrong's steroids was cheating. In war as in more structured competitions, victory achieved through cheating is illusory and usually fleeting.<br />
<br />
I hope this puts your ridiculous workplace conflict into perspective.</div>
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: small;">If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://www.howigotmykink.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span><br />
<hr />
<br />Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-51293819861354807362013-06-03T07:20:00.002+02:002013-06-08T14:31:31.919+02:00i earned some humility today<h2>
Sorry</h2>
<div dir="ltr">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4mHyZA94e-w/UawlATm2WYI/AAAAAAAASL0/tABHcJ-CKrA/s1600/walter-white-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4mHyZA94e-w/UawlATm2WYI/AAAAAAAASL0/tABHcJ-CKrA/s400/walter-white-large.jpg" width="400" /></a>I'm sorry for not understanding.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
I'm sorry for not listening.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
I'm sorry for not seeing you already understood I was wrong.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Sorry for insisting.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Sorry for my pride. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
Sorry for my arrogance.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Sorry for not appreciating you.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Sorry for my insulting tone.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Sorry for false modesty.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Sorry for my ignorance.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Sorry for my preconceptions.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Sorry for my prejudice.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Sorry for my insensitivity.</div>
Sorry for doing all of this again.<br />
<br />
<div>
I apologize in case you blame yourself.<br />
The blame is mine.<br />
<br />
I apologize to make myself feel better.<br />
I do not expect forgiveness.<br />
I will fail to change.</div>
<div>
I apologize to you.<br />
I apologize to myself.<br />
<br />
I am truly sorry.</div>
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: small;">If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://www.howigotmykink.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span><br />
<hr />
<br />Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-80441142927357934962013-03-16T10:04:00.003+01:002013-04-06T10:42:01.011+02:00message for your deaf ears<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rz0WeNLqyCY/UUQb3R9la8I/AAAAAAAAPzk/GRjhTUw_QGc/s1600/arecibo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rz0WeNLqyCY/UUQb3R9la8I/AAAAAAAAPzk/GRjhTUw_QGc/s320/arecibo.png" width="113" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message" target="_blank">the Arecibo message</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h2>
blah blah blah</h2>
There is of course the satisfaction of composing florid prose. And cryptic terseness. Vanity? Not in the long run. Assertiveness: that's why I write these little essays.<br />
<br />
These blog posts are a chance for me to express my point of view in whole, without interruption, and in detail; something I otherwise rarely have the opportunity to do. This is because no one gives a shit about my personal opinions and views.<br />
<br />
I get well enough professional respect to keep my chin in the air, and am sufficiently feared at home to maintain my testosterone levels; so I'm comfortable with the general lack of interest in what's going in my personal head. But sometimes <i>I'm</i> curious about what's going on in there. And often I'm not really sure until I see it written down.<br />
<br />
Why broadcast my views? Because publishing imposes discipline. It encourages me to consider a hypothetical reader while I am writing a post, and provides a satisfying sense of closure when I click the button when I'm done.<br />
<h2>
lorem ipsum vanitas</h2>
I'd like to correct any misconceptions about self-importance. I have statistically certain knowledge of exactly how many people find these posts compelling and relevant. Nobody. It's a one-way communication into the abyss. Like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message" target="_blank">broadcasting radio messages into space</a>. The situation is stable. I check the statistics daily. In this way, I keep my self-importance in check.<br />
<br />
No, dear reader, I do not consider you a "nobody," or an "alien," or in any way like an "abyss". In fact, I am most likely related or married to you, in which case, I love you. Otherwise, I probably know you to some degree personally, in which case, chances are we are friendly. Thank you for reading this. You are kind, and I would be pleased if you left a comment and more pleased if you actually discussed any of the thoughts in these posts with me. If you have come to this blog by accident, then I humbly hope you will find something amusing enough to warrant your time. If you already dislike me and have come to this blog in search of justification, then i) I'm flattered, and ii) you lose, dickhead. Ha!<br />
<h2>
wankity wankity wank</h2>
I enjoy the craft of composition, the pleasure of creation, of forming an argument, of working with ideas. I like the practical reward of having coherent thoughts at hand when the (rare) occasion arises.<br />
<br />
However, I have noticed two potential downsides. Since I started to blog, my personal email account has been neglected. Friends can wait days for a reply. I prefer to believe this is a symptom of a general creeping fatigue of the demands of constant connectedness, as well as because time blogging leaves less time for other leisure activities; but there is also an element of cowardly vice. Measured by word count, I seem to prefer unanswerable pronouncements over personal correspondance. But the way I like to think about it is, I'm sparing my friends and family the ordeal of appearing interested. I've seen it. It's not pretty. I'm performing an act of mercy.<br />
<br />
The other potential drawback is being seduced by words. By this I mean falling into the world of semantics and logic. Language is limiting. It's wrong to understand the world as something that makes sense. While I use language to reveal my thoughts, I should not deceive myself that all thoughts can be expressed in language. I should not devalue the inarticulate. Because I will become an asshole.<br />
<h2>
happy ending</h2>
So why bother? Why to write down thoughts no one cares about for a blog no one reads? Why anything? Because it gives me joy. It makes at least as much sense as anything else I do.<br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr">
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://howigotmykink.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span><br />
<hr />
</div>
Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-23947611243753149872013-03-15T07:27:00.004+01:002013-03-15T10:58:11.294+01:00anachrony in the EU<div dir="ltr">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-razZcoMdC8g/UUK_S_b0XnI/AAAAAAAAPzU/JJo972M35eA/s1600/father+knows+best.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-razZcoMdC8g/UUK_S_b0XnI/AAAAAAAAPzU/JJo972M35eA/s320/father+knows+best.jpg" width="259" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">father knows best</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
time capsules</h3>
An <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anachronism">anachronism</a> is a thing that is out of place in time.<br />
<br />
In Montreal, Pierre's car is referred to as <i>le char à Pierre;</i> in Paris, it's <i>la voiture de Pierre</i>. The similarity of the Quebecois <i>char</i> to the English <i>car</i> is accidental, it's not an anglicism. In fact, it's an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exaptation">exaptation</a> of the 17th century French word for horse-drawn carriage (a kind of <i>char</i>iot). French as spoken in Quebec contains many such traces of the language spoke in the 17th Century, when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadia">French colonies</a> were established on the east coast of what is now Canada. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
When the colonists left home, they took their language with them, and in the new world, the language evolved in its own direction. In smaller, isolated populations, evolution proceeds at a slower pace; hence the survival of 17th century words in Montreal now extinct in Paris. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Do you remember that kid in middle school who spoke a different language at home? Did you ever have the fortune to eat at their house? Was the food weird and exotic? Did you finally surrender to the gesticulations of the mother and accept second and third helpings? Did you fail to notice the Father and your friend were not doing the same? Were you surprised and dismayed when the next, main dish came to the table? Did they give you some wine? Did your friend seem to operate under different rules than most of the other kids, rules from the "old country," covering things like curfews, and drinking, and dating?<br />
<h3>
thousands of miles away and 30 years behind</h3>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">
When immigrants come to a new country, they bring with them a snapshot of their home culture, including moral values. In the relative isolation of their new home, the moral values tend to evolve more slowly than they do back home. Children of immigrants lead a time shifted life. Remember that immigrant girl who wasn't allowed to date? Her cousin in the old country was already on the pill. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
In the age of the internet, these effects are less strong, but I contend they remain strongly relevant. Day to day physical proximity and direct face to face interaction within a community is much more influential to our beliefs and behavior than online news, Skype, or any other mediated communication. I am witness to it.<br />
<h3>
expats are immigrants</h3>
My children have attended schools in 4 countries over the last 6 years. We now live in the Netherlands. My work is nearly exclusively in English, so I don't speak Dutch very well. My children often have to explain the school bulletins to me. Does my family then live in a time bubble?</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br />
In several ways, our family is an anachronism. In the Netherlands, <a href="http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2012/03/some_60_of_dutch_women_now_wor.php">60% of women work</a>, and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/world/europe/30iht-dutch30.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">part-time (flexi) work seems to be becoming the norm</a>. The <a href="http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=ilc_lvph01&lang=en">average family size is 2.2</a>. In our immigrant household however, I am the sole breadwinner. Monday to Friday, I leave the home at 7:30 and return tired at 7:00, when I am served an excellent home cooked dinner. I do almost no housework. My partner, to whom I am married, the first marriage for both of us, is a full time mother of 4 children. It could be a situation from a 1950s TV show. Only the wife in this comedy is much less complacent (more pissed off) about her part.<br />
<br />
My children complain about the strict limits on television and computer use we enforce. They claim we are the only parents in the school with such arbitrary rules. 1. I don't believe them. 2. I'm not able to socialize enough in the community to sense how far from the norm we really are.<br />
<br />
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://howigotmykink.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span><br />
<hr />
</div>
<br />Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-58042947022204698712013-03-13T07:39:00.001+01:002013-03-15T10:58:25.499+01:00the unbearable lightness of dementia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5094AD7XRZs/UUAev_LUo9I/AAAAAAAAPyY/9CX2YySqnaY/s1600/sex-doll+storage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5094AD7XRZs/UUAev_LUo9I/AAAAAAAAPyY/9CX2YySqnaY/s320/sex-doll+storage.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>Nothingness haunts being.</i></b> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://books.google.nl/books?id=Ezeee3ude5QC&lpg=PA47&dq=Being%20and%20Nothingness%20Part%201%2C%20Chapter%201&pg=PA16#v=onepage&q&f=false">Jean Paul Sartre</a>)</span></div>
</blockquote>
Sartre claims we yearn for a solidity that always evades us, that however much we are established as, say, a Respected Judge, Competitive Businessman, Resolute Defender, Caring Father, Creative Artist, or even Innovative Pornographer, there is a part of us that knows it is all a pretense We long for the comfort of knowing that we simply are whatever we are, to be one indisputable thing, in the way, say, that a rock is unchangingly a rock. We long for the solidity of objects. We desire to inhabit our being confidently and effortlessly (the French say "to feel good in one's skin), but our ease is ever eroded by the knowledge that we built our identity ourselves, on a foundation of nothingness. This is existential angst. Our lives are spent fleeing from this reality.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Do you know what I'm talking about? Do you ever feel exhausted by the effort of simply maintaining your own identity in the society of others? Does the foundational flimsiness of your identity prick your confidence from time to time?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Maybe this is what it is like to experience dementia. As our memory and cognitive agility declines, we lose our ability to maintain a solid façade of identity. Like cold winter wind through a broken attic window, Nothingness creeps in, . Life, once solid-seeming, begins to lose its substance. Anxiety, which we had to this point always managed to suppress and conceal from ourselves, now begins to overwhelm. It's the same anxiousness, fear, and nausea hiding in all of us, only unleashed.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Maybe this is why people with dementia sometimes retreat into the well established patterns of their youth. Perhaps, searching for solidity, they lean on whatever ways of thinking are still most intact. Neural pathways established earlier and reinforced over a lifetime are the strongest.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Maybe this is why <a href="http://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/showthread.php?54895-Doll-Therapy">doll therapy</a> is sometimes effective for people with Alzheimer's disease, because it taps into primal drives to care and protect children. Perhaps these basic drives are solid-feeling and therefore comforting.</div>
<div>
</div>
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://howigotmykink.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span>
<br />
<hr />
Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-75050638799599624522013-03-12T07:36:00.004+01:002013-03-16T10:24:02.725+01:00taxonomy of humanity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eeNevOYYIAE/UT7M927kPmI/AAAAAAAAPxM/FuAM0cWyZwg/s1600/2kindsCat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eeNevOYYIAE/UT7M927kPmI/AAAAAAAAPxM/FuAM0cWyZwg/s400/2kindsCat.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<h2>
Imagination and Fact</h2>
There are fiction people and non-fiction people. Non-fiction people prefer their information to be actionable, with clear relevance and direct application. Fiction people prefer their information to be inspirational, evoking new images and experiences. Although I have lately bought more of the second than the first, I am solidly a fiction man. I have had lengthy spells of nearly exclusive non-fiction consumption, in the form of news magazines (e.g., The Economist), history (e.g., <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Color-Natural-History-Victoria-Finlay/dp/0812971426/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363066402&sr=1-3&keywords=colour">Colour</a>), biography (e.g., <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Callgirl-Carla-van-Raay/dp/0732282365">God's Call Girl</a>) , and analysis (e.g., <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tell-Tale-Brain-Neuroscientists-Quest-Makes/dp/0393340627/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363066537&sr=1-1&keywords=tell-tale+brain">The Tell-Tale Brain</a>); but I have found that fiction (e.g., <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Times-Arrow-Martin-Amis/dp/0679735720/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363066642&sr=1-1&keywords=times+arrow">Time's Arrow</a>), gives me much more insight into the world around me. Non-fiction gives you a bicycle pump, fiction gives you a map.<br />
<h2>
Objects and Experiences</h2>
There are Art people and Travel people. Art people spend their money on beautiful and inspiring objects. Travel people spend their money on experiences. Art people attend to their day-to-day environment, striving to make each moment unique and meaningful. Travel people seek new perspectives on life, viewing each situation from the standpoint of another. Art people live in the moment, which they seek to transcend; Travel people live in their memories, and in their anticipation of their next adventure. I admire the Art people, but history suggests I am a Travel person.<br />
<h2>
Leavers and Stayers</h2>
There are stay-to-the-end-of-the-party people and don't-to-be-the-last-to-leave-the-party people. I'm a stayer. I do try to be sensitive to the desires of our host, but I don't like to stop when I am enjoying myself. If things are getting crazy, well, to my thinking, the whole point of a party is a change from the normal. Crazy is not the time to leave. It's like leaving the opera before the fat lady sings. I make an exception in cases of impending violence or destruction. No, Karaoke is not covered by these exceptions.<br />
<h2>
Hard and Candy Asses</h2>
There are end-of-the-world people and not-end-of-the-world people. In my experience, most people are not-end-of-the-world people, meaning they do not want to be around when the comet extinguishes all life, or global warming fries the last mammal. Me, I reckon human life <i>will</i> eventually come to an end, and I think humans are the only ones who care much <i>when</i> it comes to an end, and <i>after</i> human life comes to an end none of human history will be of any significance at all, so wouldn't it be a privilege to know how it ended? You may not like how it ended, but you would have the satisfaction of knowing with certainty. I'm not a nihilist. I believe life is meaningful; but only to the living. I have no desire to pro-actively end the world during my existence, just as I have no desire to end a party simply because I must go home. I'm a finisher. I prefer to see the end. Not-end-of-the-world people have their heads in the sand.<br />
<br />
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://howigotmykink.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span>
<br />
<hr />
Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-84210521559373837182013-03-12T07:26:00.002+01:002013-10-09T12:23:37.741+02:00logical politics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Rst7ym3IbR8/UUQ3i1RaKFI/AAAAAAAAPz0/Lf3OD-wvaFQ/s1600/the-prophet-daniel-1511.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="319" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Rst7ym3IbR8/UUQ3i1RaKFI/AAAAAAAAPz0/Lf3OD-wvaFQ/s320/the-prophet-daniel-1511.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Prophet Daniel (Michelangelo)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h2>
Conclusion</h2>
After listening carefully to the comments, and considering the situation and the personalities, and the motivating forces and preceding events, I have decided everyone is wrong. Where it is not plain wrong, your understanding of the facts is superficial, and your criticism more political than logical. I have therefore decided not to change my perspective, conduct, or approach. I have decided to push back.<br />
<div>
<br />
<div>
I would have expected to relish this situation. Greatness needs fortune in order to rise, like the acorn needs fertile soil. The opportunity to stand firm in the light of truth against the storm of unenlightened opinion is a gift. Righteous indignation is a rare and invigorating joy. </div>
<div>
<h2>
Considerations</h2>
Then there is hubris. Certainty blinds. Moving tongue, deaf ears. Established experts are often the last ones to notice the changes that make their knowledge obsolete. Perhaps you are all genuinely trying to bring my attention to something new, so new that we have not yet found words for it, and because it cannot be defined, I deny its existence, when I should instead join your efforts to describe it.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What if I am right? You will not thank me. You will remember only the bitterness of being wrong, and you will think of that bitterness when you think of me. Our differences center on certain shared interests, but we also have our own held personal interests which take priority over these other interests, and, no doubt, all of our personal goals include not feeling wrong, or bitter, or an asshole. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So in the end, looking at the bigger picture, why don't I just go with the flow? As important as we all hold our shared goals to be, let's face it: we aren't talking about rescuing starving refugees from advancing troops on the wrong side of the desert border. We aren't disputing whether the convulsing open heart surgery patient will be saved or killed by tightening of the clamp. Egos are at stake. So why not keep my gunpowder dry and live to fight another day?</div>
<div>
<h2>
Practical Realities</h2>
</div>
<div>
What fight? What day? <a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/mark/8-36-compare.html">What's the profit if I sacrifice my integrity</a>? The stand I take now determines the nature of the challenges I will face in the future. If I give up ground, I condemn myself to fight similar battles in the light of a precedent that weakens my position and gives strength to my opponents. "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Hull">The man who trims himself to suit everyone soon whittles himself away</a>".<br />
<h2>
Unconclusion</h2>
</div>
<div>
Of course, we all succeed or fail together. It is small satisfaction to the man on the sinking ship to have seen the iceberg. The situation calls for influence and persuasion. We must be led gently into the light so that we are able to see the truth for yourself. Because we are too easily distracted by the arguments, and lose sight of the what is really important. Logic often leads away from the truth.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://howigotmykink.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span>
<br />
<hr />
Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-554123880750254842013-03-05T07:30:00.002+01:002021-03-27T10:16:19.019+01:00bud lite<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yjlclWc7CI0/UTWQwYOr-sI/AAAAAAAAPpY/w0knpr7AslQ/s1600/laughing.buddha.statue.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yjlclWc7CI0/UTWQwYOr-sI/AAAAAAAAPpY/w0knpr7AslQ/s16000/laughing.buddha.statue.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">beer me!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<br />
A student asked the Buddha, "Teacher, many holy men profess to show the way to enlightenment. How am I to distinguish those who offer wisdom from the charlatans?"<br />
<br />
The Buddha answered, “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” Which is why I am an atheist.<br />
<br />
Buddhists have described their practice as the Science of Life, and this agrees with my own preferred way of looking at things. I admire Buddhism, but they lose me with the mystical stuff. Call my way of looking at things, <i>Bud Lite</i>.<br />
<br />
The approach to life that most agrees with my own reason and common sense is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicureanism">Epicureanism</a>. Here is a sample of the teachings of Epicurus:<br />
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Truth can only be known by the evidence of the senses. </blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Pleasure is the chief good of life. </blockquote>
</li>
<li><blockquote class="tr_bq">
A tranquil state of mind is the chief pleasure. </blockquote>
</li>
<li><blockquote class="tr_bq">
Learning is valuable only in that it rids us of fear and teaches us to pursue pleasure intelligently. </blockquote>
</li>
<li><blockquote class="tr_bq">
Virtue is valuable only so far as it leads us to happiness. </blockquote>
</li>
<li><blockquote class="tr_bq">
It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly (agreeing "neither to harm nor be harmed"), and it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life. </blockquote>
</li>
<li><blockquote class="tr_bq">
Fashion, culture and civilization create unnecessary needs. Their pursuit is more likely to disturb than reward. Simple pleasures are more lasting and satisfying. </blockquote>
</li>
<li><blockquote class="tr_bq">
Who you share a meal with is more important than what you eat. </blockquote>
</li>
</ul>
<br />
The History of Philosopy without any Gaps podcast has 3 commendable podcasts on the <a href="http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/epicurus-principles">Principles</a>, <a href="http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/epicurus-ethics">Ethics</a>, and <a href="http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/epicurus-gods-death">Theory</a> of Epicurean Philosophy.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span>
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://howigotmykink.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span>
<br />
<hr />
Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-25143584662382814612013-03-04T06:39:00.000+01:002014-03-20T12:16:12.423+01:00foregone conclusion<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="1">1</a> </sup>Did you click? Which link? Your choices disclose your fate.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="2">2</a> </sup>You saw that coming.</span><br />
<hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MTclysu-vg8/UTQ1yBSvPmI/AAAAAAAAPnM/ChkfyLSONps/s1600/nothing_mattress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MTclysu-vg8/UTQ1yBSvPmI/AAAAAAAAPnM/ChkfyLSONps/s320/nothing_mattress.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<h2>
Religion and Science converge on an unacceptable answer</h2>
Fatalism seems to have past its use-by date. The idea that the future is predetermined is something you expect from ignorant zealots, not civilized thinkers. However, if you take science seriously then eventually you come to the conclusion that the universe is controlled by inescapable forces. Science and Religion seem to converge on Determinism.<br />
<dl>
<dt>
determinism [dɪˈtɜːmɪˌnɪzəm] n</dt>
<br />
<dd>1. (Philosophy) the philosophical doctrine that all events including human actions and choices are fully determined by preceding events and states of affairs, and so that freedom of choice is illusory. Also called necessitarianism. Compare <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/free+will">free will</a> [1b]</dd><dd>2. (Philosophy) the scientific doctrine that all occurrences in nature take place in accordance with natural laws</dd><dd>3. (Physics / General Physics) the principle in classical mechanics that the values of dynamic variables of a system and of the forces acting on the system at a given time, completely determine the values of the variables at any later time</dd><dd>determinist n & adj</dd><dd>deterministic adj</dd></dl>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/misc/HarperCollinsProducts.aspx?English">Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged</a> © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003</span><br />
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The debate over Determinism v. Free Will has been ongoing since antiquity. But findings in the fast-moving fields of neuroscience and behavioral psychology tend to support the deterministic theory. Emotions, desires, decisions, even our aesthetic senses can all be traced back to physical structures and events in the brain. There has been notable dissent from scientific and philosophic luminaries such as <a href="http://www2.gsu.edu/~phltso/freedom.html">Epicurus</a>, drawing on principles such as <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4182625?uid=3738736&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21101746513301">atomic swerve</a>, and <a href="http://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/philosophers/popper/natural_selection_and_the_emergence_of_mind.html">Karl Popper</a>, drawing on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle">Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle</a>; but on the whole, science is on track to definitively demonstrating <a href="http://www.csulb.edu/~cwallis/100/articles/arguments_for_determinism.html">the reality of Determinism</a>. It seems inevitable. We should resign ourselves to the fact that physical, psychological, and spiritual reality manifests itself according to inexorable principles of cause and effect.<br />
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So what is a right-thinking upstanding member of the congregation supposed to do about it? Calvinist members of the Christian Dutch Reform Church believed in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvinism">unconditional predestination to salvation</a>, meaning that that they were already destined to land in either heaven or hell and nothing they did could change it. This was an unpleasant fact that Calvinists had to come to terms with, and I like how they did it. Their response was to take the view of highly engaged spectator to life. Although they couldn't change their final destination, they could watch their own actions carefully for evidence of where it would be. This stance seems like a sensible response to the situation, and not entirely depressing. It's like watching a long football match (what you might call <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_United_F.C.">Mancunian</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satipatthana">Mindfulness</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2249367470707361680#1"><sup>1</sup></a>).<br />
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A silly question</h3>
Although the Calvinists offer a practical response to the problem of determinism, they don't really resolve the issue. Determinism is a hard answer to accept. It doesn't feel correct. If determinism is the answer to the question of Free Will, then perhaps we should ask what the question means in the first place?<br />
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Douglas Adams can pick up where Calvin left off. In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-Douglas-Adams/dp/0345391802">The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy</a>, the earth is revealed to be a supercomputer designed to calculate the meaning of the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.<br />
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Let's say reality does operate according to unswerving principles of cause and effect. Say we can understand these rules completely, in the form of something like an algorithm. Say we know the starting values of every variable in the algorithm. Can we predict the future?<br />
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In principle, yes, we could predict the future. But practically, we'd need to actually perform the calculations. A chalkboard won't do; we'd find we had fallen behind the future we were trying to predict even before the first squeak of chalk on slate. To run the calculations, we'd need an amazing complicated calculation machine, the ultimate reality engine.<br />
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To successfully predict the future, the reality engine would need to run faster than Reality itself. But I don't think this is possible. It's my (Douglas Adamsian) view that the most efficient way to calculate the future is Reality. It's impossible to calculate the future faster than it occurs in reality.<br />
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Which leads to a pair of questions I've been puzzling :<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Does it make any sense to say something is pre-determined if no entity (man or machine or hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional being) knows or can know the outcome?</blockquote>
I think the answer is no; because if nobody knows the outcome, it's not pre-determined. So,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If something is not pre-determined, can it be deterministic? </blockquote>
Again, I think the answer is no. Any other solutions I have found are unacceptably convoluted.<br />
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Religion and Science are both wrong and I am right</h3>
In summary, here is my contribution to the metaphysical debate over Free Will:<br />
<ul>
<li>Physical, psychological, and spiritual reality does manifest itself according to inexorable principles of cause and effect. </li>
<li>It's impossible to calculate the future faster than it occurs in Reality. </li>
<li>Therefore no entity (man, machine, or hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional being) can predict the future; </li>
<li>Therefore, determinism is not a possibility.</li>
</ul>
And what about Free Will? That, of course, is up to you.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2249367470707361680#2"><sup>2</sup></a><br />
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If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://howigotmykink.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span>
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Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-83712509196355378172013-02-02T08:39:00.001+01:002013-03-09T15:00:11.217+01:00domestic science<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0CeN5XwolE/UQzCfGarj9I/AAAAAAAAN7s/Wi5Af2Io6I0/s1600/toilet-paper-roll-l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0CeN5XwolE/UQzCfGarj9I/AAAAAAAAN7s/Wi5Af2Io6I0/s320/toilet-paper-roll-l.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I have been accused of sloth, disorderliness, unhygienic behavior, and general filthiness; and general moral depravity and social unfitness by implication. I call to my defense: Science!<br />
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The facts are not in dispute. In the bedroom, I have failed to make the bed; I have stepped over underwear rather than stooped to pick them up. In the kitchen, I have ignored dirty dishes in the sink the counter; I have dropped banana peels onto already overflowing rubbish bins. In the bathroom, I have have left the toilet seat raised and drops of urine on the rim; I have failed to react to empty toilet paper rolls. These neglectful behaviors result in others doing the work that is rightly my responsibility. All of this: not in dispute.<br />
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I am, however, innocent. Science will show that I am blameless just as the blindman who, as a result of poor design or inadequate legislation, walks in the wrong side of a revolving door, causing inconvenience to travelers rushing to catch their train. Imagine the distress of that blindman as he suffers the outrage of travelers concerned only with their own journeys. I am that blind man.<br />
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I have explained that I simply do not see the unmade bed / discarded underwear / dirty dishes / overflowing bin / urine drops / toilet seat state. But my pleas are refused, and I am accused of pride, arrogance, sloth, incontinence, and worse. I call as evidence: the <a href="http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/gorilla_experiment.html">Monkey Business Illusion</a>:<br />
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<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://2.gvt0.com/vi/IGQmdoK_ZfY/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IGQmdoK_ZfY&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IGQmdoK_ZfY&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
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It's common to overlook what you are not looking for. This is the way Attention works. Objects and events not related to our immediate concerns fade into the background. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_party_effect">cocktail party effect</a>, where we selectively tune into a particular conversation among many in a crowded noisy room, is another example of this phenomenon; as is the illusion below. I think it's related to the <a href="http://longminute.blogspot.nl/2013/01/welcome-to-connectome.html">connectome</a>.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-83X2OKUbs7E/UQy-Ft3p4UI/AAAAAAAAN7c/Ff1iJYKCm88/s1600/Dalmatian+illusion.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-83X2OKUbs7E/UQy-Ft3p4UI/AAAAAAAAN7c/Ff1iJYKCm88/s320/Dalmatian+illusion.png" width="317" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">easy to overlook what you aren't looking for</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Q.E.D. Vindicated. Science has shown I cannot be accused of pride, arrogance, disrespect, or sloth (at least on the basis of the present charges). I do not ignore mess and filth; I don't see it.<br />
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I am occupied with bigger things: Global Warming, Unrest in the Middle East, the European Financial Crisis. My accusers occupy themselves with smaller things: clothing, schooling, food.<br />
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Research toward my defense against the related charge of incontinence is ongoing.<br />
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If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://howigotmykink.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span>
<hr />Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-4918428806747743742013-01-30T08:32:00.002+01:002013-04-06T10:35:13.204+02:00barrel of monkeys theory<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Id1rD5TT_nc/UQjFKL8vcDI/AAAAAAAAN5g/lSpV7vyIJko/s1600/Monkey+in+Front+of+Angkor+Wat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Id1rD5TT_nc/UQjFKL8vcDI/AAAAAAAAN5g/lSpV7vyIJko/s320/Monkey+in+Front+of+Angkor+Wat.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">monkey in front of Angkor Wat (<a href="http://www.endlessloopphotography.com/2010/10/siem-reap-cambodia-second-visit.html">Endless Loop</a>)</td></tr>
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Angkor Wat. What the hell? How did anyone manage to mobilise such a massive portion of the resources of a civilization toward creating these monuments? Magnificence is sufficient to justify the existence of these works, but is not enough to explain them. To maintain the colossal construction, planning, coordination and effort over several decades, there must have been a practical reality sustaining the dedication, faith and pride.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WhoD4-nw-Ps/UQdlRSYZq6I/AAAAAAAANxY/ZTQ_L_7ptjw/s1600/Barrel_of_Monkeys_(Yellow_Barrel)_toy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="279" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WhoD4-nw-Ps/UQdlRSYZq6I/AAAAAAAANxY/ZTQ_L_7ptjw/s320/Barrel_of_Monkeys_(Yellow_Barrel)_toy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_of_Monkeys_(game)">Barrel of Monkeys</a></td></tr>
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I have a theory. It's called the Barrel of Monkeys Theory of Happiness. The objective of a game of Barrel of Monkeys is to create the longest chain of monkeys. Pick up one monkey by an arm, hook the other arm through a second monkey's arm, continue making a chain... Your turn is over when a monkey is dropped. To succeed at Barrel of Monkeys, you must maintain a certain amount of tension in the chain. Without tension, the monkeys fall apart.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3c6WXR5JqaE/UQi6IAU3PbI/AAAAAAAAN5Q/fakWO33P8bY/s1600/monkey+chain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3c6WXR5JqaE/UQi6IAU3PbI/AAAAAAAAN5Q/fakWO33P8bY/s320/monkey+chain.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">without tension, the monkeys fall apart</td></tr>
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<i>Tension</i> as I will use it here to talk about life, means essentially the same thing as <i>purpose</i>, only with emphasis on the unsatisfied, ongoing, incomplete aspect of purpose; tension as unfulfilled need, drive. Religions give this kind of tension, as do competitive sports, street gangs, and addictive drugs.<br />
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Without tension we get unhappy and restless. Tension gives coherence to events and circumstances in the same way it holds the monkey chain together. Without tension, life degenerates into "<a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/">blooming buzzing confusion</a>". This is the Barrel of Monkeys Theory of Happiness:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Without tension, life falls apart.</blockquote>
The theory scales. It applies to nations as much as individuals. A sovereign ruler concerned with keeping her dominion united and subjects content should ensure there is sufficient unifying tension among the people. A command from a god to create a magnificent temple can do this. Or a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race">space race</a>. Usually, though, it's a call to war. <br />
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If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://howigotmykink.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span>
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Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-37789302278651153922013-01-12T14:42:00.002+01:002013-03-09T15:00:56.002+01:00bad trade<div dir="ltr">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vbthDKHgJYc/UTYseZ2H0-I/AAAAAAAAPpw/BKpss-V5Kr0/s1600/panda_express.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vbthDKHgJYc/UTYseZ2H0-I/AAAAAAAAPpw/BKpss-V5Kr0/s320/panda_express.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">don't do it</td></tr>
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Pornography is bad for you, son. There's nothing at all wrong with sex (although it can get complicated), but pornography is bad. Masturbation is fine. Fantasy is fine. Pornography is bad. Don't do it. Let's just leave it at that, OK? If I catch you looking at pornography I'll... tell your mother ...I'll blog about it.<br />
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Substances and behaviors can be innate, habit forming, addictive, or habituating. The drives to sleep, eat, and sex, are innate; part of the human condition, and in my opinion, to be celebrated. Repeated behaviours like buckling you seatbelt, brushing your teeth, or cracking your knuckles can become habits; good or bad. Certain substances, like nicotine in cigarettes or morphine in heroin are addictive; they create a physical craving for more which often cannot be controlled. Addictive substances are usually also habituating; your body gradually requires more of the substance to reach the same level of satisfaction. This is why many drugs are so harmful: they generate uncontrollable cravings for ever more quantities, eventually taking over your life.<br />
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Pornography is not a drug. But it is habituating. It's a combination of an innate drive for sexual arousal and a habituating stimulus. Habituation of sexual arousal works differently than habituation of drugs. With drugs, we want more; with arousal, we want <i>different</i>. Compare it to habituation of another innate drive: hunger. We must eat, and we will eat, but we enjoy to eat tasty new things. Tasty new things are a sensual treat. But a constant diet of the same treat, no matter how tasty, leads not to enjoyment, but boredom and worse: dissatisfaction and sadness because you have lost one of life's great pleasures. This loss of pleasure happens because of the lack of newness, of interesting unexpectedness in your diet.<br />
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Now, imagine an app that let you experience the tastes of eating without actually consuming any food. Imagine it really was pleasurable to taste ice cream or chocolate, or chilis or poisonous blowfish or chargrilled panda steak with this app. Would you use it? The danger would be that you would become so habituated to exotic simulated tastes that you lost your ability to enjoy real foods. As your pleasure in real dinners disappeared, you would also lose a great part of your enjoyment of dinner parties with real people. You would have lost your ability to enjoy some of life's great pleasures. You traded them for an fake. Bad trade.<br />
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And it's the same deal with pornography. When you look at pornography the effects of habituation dulls your senses, reducing your ability to enjoy real sexual experience.<br />
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As you look at pornography over time, you will need to look at different types of pornography in order to reach the same levels of arousal. To maintain your interest, you will find yourself always searching for something new. And eventually, this leads to pornography in which women are treated as unfeeling objects, or slaves, or humiliated victims, or animals, or any variety of unrealistic or immoral scenes. And you will become habituated to these scenes, and you will lose some of your ability to enjoy real sex, and generally, you will die inside.<br />
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Bad trade, my son.</div>
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If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://howigotmykink.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span>
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Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-43240925090100839372013-01-10T07:17:00.004+01:002014-01-29T07:25:02.110+01:00mirror neuron reflections<h2>
This post has moved to <a href="http://www.howigotmykink.com/2014/01/mirrorneuronreflections.html">my other blog</a>.
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sorry for any inconvenience<br /><hr />
Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-29304940638585482522013-01-05T18:56:00.000+01:002013-03-15T08:58:38.706+01:00this is not a post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Exceptions are the rule. They are the barber who shaves everyone in the village who does not shave himself; the spy who declares he never speaks the truth; the science of probability.<br />
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Much great art seems to be about exceptions, in the sense that great art often embodies a paradox. I'm thinking of Magritte's "Ceci n'est pas une pipe". The painting clearly depicts a pipe, but it's greatness lies in the fact that the truth that it is in fact a painting and not a pipe is put in our face. The painting of the pipe would not by itself be impressive art. The combination of the painting and the caption make it great.<br />
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A beautifully rendered landscape is great to the extent that it captures a truth while not being the truth. We can appreciate the true beauty of a landscape without having the experience of art, but the painting gives us more, because ..."ce n'est pa une landscape".<br />
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Psychologists have found we have two modes of thinking: a fast intuitive mode, and a slower, more methodical rational mode. We tend to prefer the first. Neuroscientists have found two distinctive neural systems: an inarticulate, holistic system that attends to relationships among individual entities, and an articulate, precision system used for manipulation. The first system deals with love, the second system science. It boils down to two opposing ways of being in the world, a fundamental conflict which has been variously termed:<br />
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<table> <tbody>
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<th>Exception</th>
<td>v</td>
<th>Rule</th>
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<td>Absolute</td>
<td>v</td>
<td>Relative</td>
</tr>
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<td>Specific</td>
<td>v</td>
<td>General</td>
</tr>
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<td>Emotion</td>
<td>v</td>
<td>Rationality</td>
</tr>
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<td>Faith</td>
<td>v</td>
<td>Logic</td>
</tr>
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<td>Religion</td>
<td>v</td>
<td>Science</td>
</tr>
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<td>Silent</td>
<td>v</td>
<td>Articulate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Action</td>
<td>v</td>
<td>Talk</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
Me<br />
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You<br />
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In <a href="http://howigotmykink.blogspot.nl/2012/04/head-in-cloud-how-big-data-misses-point.html">another post</a>, I've talked about this dichotomy in terms of High Context and Low Context knowledge.<br />
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It's possible to look at much art in these terms, as evoking the basic contradiction in the ineffably, indescribably unique nature of every living moment, and the need for us to generalize experience into crude categories to even think about it. Man v. Nature is the struggle of an individual against the laws of the universe. Romeo and Juliet is the the attraction of opposites. Movies are about one man's struggle against the odds.<br />
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Once I start looking, I find the conflict of the Exception and the Rule everywhere. An evening's TV shows me Dan Draper firing his friend and colleague, the admirable Laine, on ethical principle, rather than making an exception and forgiving him out of love. Terry Pratchett's Hogwatch concludes with the observation that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and the like are necessary to train children to believe in little lies, so they will believe in Truth, Justice, Morality and the like when they are older. Because science and logic just don't get you there on their on own. Faith and Reason are contradictory, parallel, and omnipresent.<br />
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In life and in art, exceptions are the rule.
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If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://howigotmykink.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span>
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Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249367470707361680.post-17066333123182876712013-01-04T07:16:00.001+01:002013-03-09T15:02:55.764+01:00game of throwns<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I read that our brains work by projection. We experience anticipated sensations. This enables us to react faster than our neurons can transmit electrochemical signals to our extremities, a requirement when we need to do things such as catch a ball. We intuitively calculate the trajectory and experience the feeling of the ball hitting our palm before the actual nerve impulses from our hand arrive at the brain. Unless the ball doesn't hit our palm as anticipated, in which case the contradictory nerve impulses from our hand cancel the experienced anticipated impulses. But in the normal course of events, when we catch the ball as usual, then the experienced sensation is very slightly ahead of the nerve impulses generated by the actual event, and a product of what might be called projection, however faithful to the actual nerve impulses.<br />
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This is part of the explanation of the phenomenon of phantom limbs, where people continue to experience amputated limbs as if they were still there. In the absence of contradictory nerve impulses (from the missing limb) there is no cancellation of the projected experience. Thus, some people feel their lost arm waving at a friend they see on the street, experience itches that cannot be scratched, or cramps that cannot be eased.<br />
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Projected experience is not just the plight of those with amputated limbs. We live slightly ahead of ourselves, shaping reality before it immerses us. We wake up happy and the world is good to us. We wake up grumpy and the world is inhospitable. Even though we know the world would be better if we changed our attitude …we find we can't. We 'find' ourselves in a mood. Mood locates, or orients, ourselves in the world, and our position determines what of the world is disclosed. In revealing our throwness, moods reveal a trajectory -- a direction and velocity, an angle and impetus, a bias and conviction.<br />
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We are all projectiles.
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If you prefer less introspective fare, <a href="http://howigotmykink.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> is for the more practical and professionally-minded reader</span>
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Zoltarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01143165802737420135noreply@blogger.com0