Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Intelligence II
That reminded me of this boy I heard about in the news.
"The boy wonder, who taught himself calculus, algebra, geometry and trigonometry in a week, is now tutoring fellow college classmates after hours. And now Jake has embarked on his most ambitious project yet - his own 'expanded version of Einstein's theory of relativity'."
Has an IQ of 170, higher than that of Einstein, and WAY higher than mine. Indisputably a genius. I’m not quite certain exactly what calculus even IS, much less anything substantial about it. I suppose I might learn all about it if I had sufficient motivation to do so. But if it doesn’t come easily and naturally, where might such motivation come from?
He was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome, said to be a mild form of autism. Apparently a bit of a savant regarding maths and physics, even though he apparently doesn’t seem to have any trouble getting along in general with other people...aside from the fact that his thinking is way above that of almost everyone else. I am very curious about his thoughts on things that are not not directly related to maths and physics...would he be a genius, in my opinion, if I heard his views on life after death, moral philosophy, etc.? Aside from fields in which advanced knowledge of mathematics is a must, how does one measure intelligence or genius? Were Freud and Jung in the genius category? Robert G. Ingersoll?
Reasons are abundant why I might be a bit of a ‘social outcast’ in most circumstances, everything from appearance to atheism. In most gatherings I would be in, such as family get-togethers, I get on just fine. I mainly keep quiet unless I see an opening to interject a bit of humor. There is certainly no discussion of politics or religion...I have never been in a “natural" social group in which doing that would not result in police and doctors. By “natural”, I mean a group I might normally be expected to be in, such as a family thing, rather than some freethought or atheist group meeting. The talk at such events is hunting, fishing, work, maybe sports like NASCAR or football (though you have to be careful with NASCAR because it appears to be a love it or hate it kind of thing). MY thoughts tend to be some of the things I mentioned in a previous blog...latest news from science and technology; growing a human ear on the back of a mouse; discussing what might be a marker beyond which we could say with certainty, “that ‘machine’ is intelligent”. Luckily for me I do find some people online with whom I can talk about such things...so far I have yet to meet such a person...in person.
Naturally Jacob (the genius boy mentioned above) is something of a celebrity now, but if I were to encounter such a person, I wonder if I could have a meaningful conversation with them about physics? I think I could as long as we talked about the conclusions drawn, the meanings, and didn’t get into calculations and equations...if we did that I’d be lost and have no idea what’s going on...you might as well be speaking Hebrew or Klingon to me.
Is there a similar distinction or translation needed between “spiritual” people and “hard-nosed scientific atheists” in order to have any understanding? Or is it closer to trying to get a person with an IQ of 50 to understand Jacob’s maths? Here’s a thing I wonder...do people who were born blind ever see any colors in their dreams?
Where do you “go” when you are put under anesthesia which renders you totally unconscious? What’s the difference between a person who genuinely wonders what the answer to that is, and a person who thinks it is a dumb question because the answer is so obvious? Why do so many people ignore the ‘U’ in UFO and instantly assign it an extraterrestrial identity? Why do so many people ignore the ‘near’ in Near Death Experience? Why do more than 80 percent of Americans ‘believe in the soul’ according to some sources? Is it a similar thing to my not being able to understand a blackboard full of equations with symbols I have never even seen before?
An irony...when I was publishing my little 'newsletter’, for lack of a better description, that I called SOAR, I had roughly 50 to 60 people who paid money to subscribe. Presumably virtually all of them read most of it. Like everyone else online, I now have access to instant and global publishing...and far fewer readers.
I might enjoy raising this kid...at least I could turn him off when I’ve had enough. Milo the virtual boy.
Why do so many people, even some scientists, see an “us vs them” future scenario between humans and AI’s or cyborgs? Why can they not see that we will BE the cyborgs?
There is a rare delusional disorder called Capgras. You can
Monday, March 28, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Bio-engineering
TRB
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Saved!
Found this on the Opinion page of the LaGrange Daily News:
"Dear Editor:
I was recently discussing world views with a friend, and he said he needed God as a foundation for morality. I made him an offer which would confirm or destroy his theory. I told him to awake tomorrow with a decision to be an atheist for just one day, and see if he had an urge to run out and start killing people. My friend may or may not try the experiment, but you can certainly try it.
If you do, will you find that you automatically start running red lights and speeding? Probably not. It appears that those folks with the little fishes on their cars already have a monopoly on that. You may find that without threats of eternal torture, you are the same good old you as before. You may even find that you really are a civilized human without any need for bribes to do what you know is right. Give it a try. I triple-dog dare you.
Mike Smith
Lakeshore Drive, LaGrange"
I have no idea who Mike Smith is but I gotta look that feller up, seeing as he’s in my town.
Got a brand new computer yesterday. It’s only a loaner though. Have to send my old one yet again for a new power supply (still under warranty). I’m making sure some wacked stuff gets downloaded on it for whoever rents it next (drumroll....) atheist stuff bwhahahaha. Gotta gets me a battery backup with guarantee they replace your whole computer if it gets fried. Maybe this one. Also downloaded IE9 on here...I like it so far...seems faster than previous editions.
Got a postcard in the mail today for an event next month at Faith Baptist Church here. Apparently an Easter thing. Only costs $5 in advance, but no kids under 5 allowed so it might be one of those ‘adult’ things, ya never know. Think I’ll check it out, I haven’t been to one of those since I played a wandering Jew in our church production about 20 years ago.
I hear they might release John Hinckley soon. Repubs apparently getting desperate to get rid of Obama. I’m sure Hillary is done, wouldn’t want to be Prez now if they handed it to her. She don’t even want to be Sec. of State after this term. Wonder if she knows something....about Hinckley? Dairy Queen here had a regular metal sign since forever. They posted a notice on it that folk should take pictures if they wanted. It got replaced by one of those fancy computer signs that change. I didn’t get a pic :(.
Saturday evenings are boring without Rachel. Here’s something...
"NAGPUR: A city with a population of more than 35 lakhs, but only 500 seemed to have woken up to the reality of Earth Hour. A little more than 500 people from Orange City shut their bulbs, fans, TVs, computers, etc to observe Earth Hour on Saturday at 8.30pm.”Source.
A lakh is 100,000. Good deal. I applaud. We don’t need to save energy, that’s total BS. We have more energy than we could use in a million years. Y’all don’t buy into the “earth hour” propaganda please.
TRB
Friday, March 25, 2011
Taters
From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli.
We fight our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea.
First to fight for right and freedom, and to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title of United States Marine.
Know what that is? Part of the Marine Corps Hymn, of course, which wikipedia says is "the oldest official song in the United States military". Specifically, that "Shores of Tripoli" line refers to stuff as far back as 1805. And now, TADA! back we are... on the shores of Tripoli. Source.
Stuff I watched lately...
Billy Bob Thornton is a Louisiana sheriff with a crazy, alcoholic dad who runs around with Indian feathers on his head shooting at stuff, ex-wife (Sela Ward), and a gay brother (Thomas Hayden Church) that he ran out of town (in order to get elected). Now he has to investigate the murder of a transgender "freak" with nice tits and a big pecker. Patricia Arquette is the "wife" of the "freak".
The best way to describe this is, think The Stand, British version, sans supernatural aspects. Really enjoyed watching two seasons of the series over two evenings without any commercials. Good show but if such programs are meant to be really accurate representations of "regular people", my biggest problem would be surviving the group, never mind the virus/kidnappers/aliens, etc.
Taters...
You take a dinner platter (for the 'triple' serving) and lay out a bed of cooked hash browns. Add sliced jalapenos, chopped onions, slices of tomatoe (or diced), sliced mushrooms, chunks of diced ham, cover that with melted cheese, dump on a couple ladles of white country gravy, then a couple ladles of hot chili, and you have what is known in Waffle House parlance as hashbrowns 'all the way' or scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, diced, peppered, capped, topped, country. That was supper.
Some folks like to "eat healthy". I say that's cool for them. For me, the primary purpose of eating is pleasure (fueling is secondary). If the primary goal cannot be fulfilled, the secondary goal becomes moot. Many folks in the life extension field stress that lowering calorie intake is the best way yet known to extend life. I say science is falling down on the friggin' job in this case. If that be true, then prepare me casket. I flatly refuse to ever "eat healthy" or cut calories, etc. I say it's the job of science to find ways around such things. Organs can be grown, and quickly. Of course the best thing would be to completely dispense with these ridiculous animal meat bodies altogether...but that will take a very long time, because of the dumb factor in humans.
You might be surprised at the number of folk who would say something like, "But what about all the pleasures of life; all the visual beauty, the tender touch, the soul-enriching music, the smell of bacon, the taste of vanilla, etc." *sigh* No dear, you do not need a body to experience all these things to the fullest...experience is something that takes place within the brain. All the sensory receptors are just that - receptors. In the case of eyes, we can make "eyes" or receptors far superior to any grown "naturally"; eyes that sense in all light wavelengths, X-ray, ultraviolet; telescopic, microscopic, etc. The same can basically be applied to all the other senses. "But I want to feel the joy of running on a beach". Again, the experience is within the brain. But if you want a body, why not have one that can fly at supersonic speeds, soar above the atmosphere without being harmed by lack of oxygen, can crawl along the 7-mile deep Mariana Trench in the Pacific ocean without worrying about the hydrostatic pressure. Ask yourself...is your imagination really as limited as your body is? Remind yourself...no tool humans have every used, ever existed without first being imagined.
Some folk say "you want the world handed to you on a platter" as though that were a bad thing. DUH! Of course I do, with melted cheese added please. Some folk call me lazy in what they think is a derisive kind of way; some folk think it virtuous to work hard. I'm all for anyone working hard who wants to...for me I'll gladly pass on that "virtue" in favor of enjoying my life. I think it a mark of high intelligence to do as little "work" as possible, while enjoying as much in life that is wonderful as possible. I wish all people thought like that. I think it is far beneath the dignity of any person to "work" at anything, unless they do it purely for their own pleasure. To me the notion of doing something for the purpose of "making money" or for "making a living" is extremely insulting.
You might note that in my previous blog, photobucket pulled one image, saying it violated terms of service. The pic is a woman's tits, in a bra, going round and round. So, photobucket's position re tits is: up and down - ok, side to side - ok, round and round - sorry that's too perverted, lol.
I'm seriously considering getting myself some traditional African or Arabic clothing...no, not a kilt I promise, more like a caftan or dishdasha. This pants with belt thing is getting old, especially the belt part. But without the belt the pants fall off and that's a horror no one wants. Solution....find a way wear both a beard and a mumu in public in the South without getting lynched...AHA! A dishdasha!
Did you ever think that "web log" hasn't turned out to be what it was probably meant to be? What's a log? Pilot's log, trucker's log, etc., usually means a detailed accounting of the day's activities. Some blogs may be like that but it now sounds more like tweets; "cutting my toenails now...oohh there's toejam!" Maybe not many folk thought regular people would write articles about current events, etc.
Ok, I'll go watch a documentary now.
TRB
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Earthquakes
ATTN Scientists:
It is a very good thing to communicate scientific principles and explanations to the laity. However, you must remember that most of them view the world differently than you do...so you have to speak their language. Here's an example...aside from the nuclear (and you should stress that the word is NOT nucular) power plant problems in Japan, suppose you want to explain something about the earthquake that created the whole problem, and the aftershocks...were the fault movements oscillatory or trepidatory? How to explain the difference? In "scientist mode" you might mention seismic waves, tectonic plates, or show something like this.
The laity enjoys visual aids, though I doubt this message would compute to most people. However, if you use THEIR language (think Larry the Cable Guy explains earthquakes) to explain these movements, they will pay more attention and understand....
Know your audience.
TRB
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Intelligence?
She mentioned how a friend had posted on FB comparing FB to an asylum and we users as patients. She told her FB is much better than asylum cuz if you poke someone or write on walls in asylum you get put in isolation. (I look around me and think, in my case, the analogy may be more apt.) She allowed as to how it might be a case of the lunatics running the asylum and I averred I had a disquieting notion maybe only the lunatics have the brains to run an asylum. Which brings us back around, just to the left of the quicksand, in mentioning that Hitler (or at least the regime) had some good ideas, though for absurd reasons. In case you might possibly be a newbie to this blogging thing, there ain't many ways to get verbally crucified quicker by some lefties than saying Hitler had a good idea, or liking yer Rebel flag or defending the right keep and bear arms. Not many ways to avoid that kind of crucification (smarter Christians don't like the term "crucifiction") from righties if you mention you are an atheist or think socialism should rule the day. So...just why is it you can explain 'X' and back it up with science, empirical facts, etc. and it almost never seems to change anyone's mind?
For example, I have often asked believers in God or gods what would convince them no such thing(s) exist and, surprisingly often, an honest answer to that pops up: "Nothing". On the other hand, you'd have to look a while (though it can be done) to find an atheist who would answer that there is "nothing" that could convince them that a God or gods exist. The usual answer is that credible evidence would do it. For the majority of god believers, "evidence" seems to have about as much value as a fresh can of smegma to the question. Others though, have an evidence bent and typically use bent evidence to support the claims.
My friend Jordan Se. (an appellative he assigns himself to mean 'self-educated') claims to be a former atheist who now describes himself as a 'fundamentalist libertarian Christian', leans heavily on 'evidence' and has read (and debated) extensively the works of many atheist and religious scholars. When pressed, he insists that the resurrection is the single most compelling piece of evidence he sees that God exists and is real. To people who take such arguments seriously, on either side, this basic position is sometimes known as LLL or "liar, lunatic or Lord", popularized in Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Although the 'LLL' is an amazingly weak argument, logically speaking, if given only those three possibilities, which do you pick? For most atheists the obvious answer will apply equally well to the biblical Jesus and David Koresh... either or both 'liar and lunatic'? For most Christians the obvious!? answer is Lord. A big question is just what is it in the brains that causes the difference between these 'choices'? How many understand that there are other possible choices besides these three? Maybe there was no Jesus, maybe there were many Jesuses, maybe alien beings used extremely advanced technology to resurrect Jesus, etc.
Define intelligence. If you check that link you see that ain't easy and if you simply look around you you see it's damn close to impossible. What does it mean to be intelligent? Can non-humans be intelligent? What about Watson, the computer that beat not one but two of the best players Jeopardy ever had? Could YOU beat either of those guys in Jeopardy? I'm assuming you're honest enough to say no...does, that mean Watson is more intelligent than you? But then, could Watson understand the nuances of the sentence "I shot an elephant wearing my pajamas", or what such a sentence even exists?
What's the difference between "the real world" and...anything else? The externally verifiable or objective world and the purely sensed internal or subjective world? The "everyday" world of human existence or the subatomic or quantum world? Why do most people think "spirits" can and do exist, while millions of others think they cannot? How far within the "common consensus" does a thing have to be, in order to be accepted as true? If you put all the people in the world who genuinely believe the earth is flat (or seriously question it) on one side of the scale and all other people on the other side, which weighs more? If you put all the people in the world who genuinely believe in anything "supernatural" on one side and all the people who say that's ridiculous on the other, which weighs more? Which is more likely to be right? Is 'number of believers' a factor in whether or not a thing is true? How can you determine what should or should not be considered as "evidence" for a thing?
Some people consider a statement to be profound, while others, say, "Huh?" Example: "Everyone dies alone." Profound or not? If we mean that all people who die are alone when they do, obviously that is not true. Tens of thousands died at virtually the same instant in Hiroshima. If we mean that no one else can have your experience of dying...so what? No one else can have your experience of getting a haircut...or eating supper. No one can experience what it's like for YOU to get a haircut or can eat YOUR supper. Is this profound?
Most ants lay down invisible hormone (scent) trails to lead other ants to the food source. Other ants "interpret" this trail and get to the food. How does this differ from saying, "A train 'interprets' the track it is on and gets to its destination"? Could either the ants or the trains suddenly decide, "Screw the trail (or track), I'll go where I please"? If society has laid down 'tracks' on which you must run, to what degree do you personally have the capacity to refuse to run on them? What might happen if a "rogue" ant (or train) went his own way? What might happen to you if you did? Is it more "intelligent" to follow the path or break away and try to make your own path?
Who is smarter, Mr. Spock or Mr. Data? Which is the superior being? Why? If you were going to be someone else, would you rather be one of them... or Q? When Captain Kirk said at Mr. Spock's funeral, "Of my friend, I can only say this...of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most...Human", was he being racist? Xenophobic? Disrespectful? Would Watson know the answer?
Ima have a sammich now.
TRB
P.S. Never mind Watson, are you smarter than the girl on "The Young Turks"?
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Golden Years
When I was in my teens and twenties especially, I thought that if I ever had any "golden years", they would be more miserable than my younger years. It turned out, they ain't. Fifty-three (I pass that milestone on the 23rd) may seem young to some to be in "golden years", but my life seems to have so far progressed at a little faster pace than average. In any case...
I had a terrific day. Melinda made a great cababbage and sausage lunch that included her squash casserole with melted cheese on top. Sat on the front porch afterward with a smoke and my boy, Tucker, at my feet. The yard is slowly returning to green except for an impossibly lush, thick and green square foot clump right in the middle. Must be a genuine Eden on a small scale. The old moss-covered oak in the yard next door is slowly struggling to bud again, like a very old man who manages to wake up and get out of bed in under an hour. Distant plane engines drone; my skin is warmed by the sun, yet cooled by early Spring breeze (never mind the calendar), while I keep one ear on the adventures of Little Joe and Hoss coming from the television machine inside.
Yakima...nothing, it just sounded like a good word to say at the moment and brought a mental vision of "yacky maw" (I'm southern), followed by an image of a short chunky, red-haired woman incessantly chattering...apparently one of my brain's interpretations of what a "yacky maw" would look like.
I am about as free as I'm going to get this side of the grave. I can do that...sit on the porch and mind wander. No pressures, no deadlines, no expectations from other people, nothing that I worry about. Sure, there could be more gold in these years...I might be able to travel the world, etc.... but then I suppose that might be tiring. I neither know nor care how much money I might owe, any more than I know or care about the precise amount of radiation I was exposed to today.
The Fonz and Pat Boone interrupt Hoss to tell me of the virtues of reverse mortgages (would Elvis have done those?). I suppose the under thirty demographic doesn't watch Hoss, Matt Dillon, et al so much. Hillary doesn't want to be Secretary of State for another term. I wonder if I'll die before 70...
If y'all have not yet had any "golden years" I really hope they show up soon for you. Turns out it was just as well I was never able to "save for retirement". I guess I'm retired...I'm medically totally disabled, have no desire or need to "work" any more, not that it helped me much when I did. I had a 401K for a while and got up to about $4K...spent it on a woman I was "in love" with, a lot of it on prepaid phone cards. Damn drugs. If I had managed to pay for a house, looks like (according to the Fonz) I would now need to do the whole thing in reverse. Meh. Less bother this way. Taking a "God's eye view" of the whole bit, ya might say.
May be back soon with a "substance" blog...if I can find any. Pssst..hey buddy. Ya wanna see Amanda Seyfried and Julianne Moore get nekkid and have sex...with each other? Watch Chloe.
TRB
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Lucky
TRB
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Just Thinking...
I don't think I ever had a lack of intelligence per se, though I did have a humongous sack of naivete (yeah, long before I ever heard of that word too). A huge part of my problem was that I had a tendency to trust, to take things at face value. It's too much to say I assumed other people were good and smart and nice, rather it simply never entered my mind that anyone could be otherwise. It was not really until I got into school and was forced by circumstance to spend time (a captive audience, as it were) with many other kids, that I slowly started to realize that some of them were very different from me. Where it would never ever occur to me to whack someone just to be doing it, there were those who seemed to think this kind of thing was the funniest event possible, and it produced more gales and tears of laughter if the whacked party cried or screamed.
I honestly have no memory at all of HOW it came to be, but later, in my teens, I was going to see therapists at mental health centers. I'm quite sure no one ever told me I had to do this...still, there I was on monthly, sometimes even weekly sessions, with someone who was genuinely educated; someone (I assumed) with a college degree; someone who clearly should know much more than I about...well, everything. Perhaps this was a part of my struggle to begin to understand myself, I'm not sure. Seemed logical enough that a person whose JOB it was to study and understand people (psychologists, psychiatrists), should be able to explain me to me. Though they were all different and some I liked some much more than others, to my amazement, none of these people seemed to understand people any more than I. A bit more of my naivete broken away, floating down the stream. And when I finally got to a therapist or three who advised me that I had problems, that I needed to change my thinking and my behaviors, that I simply was not "fitting in" as well as I should because there was something wrong with me...I began to look seriously askance at them. After I was married, one actually came up with a genuine diagnosis; a NAME for what was "wrong" with me: Borderline Personality Disorder.
During much of this time, from when I was around six till into my teens, we also went to meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses. Again, my naivete (bolstered by cultural and biblical teachings) caused me to simply accept without any thought of question that the people around me knew much more than I did about...well, everything. After all they were grown people, adults, people who had lived several times as long as I had been alive, so how could they possibly NOT know a lot? When the Speaker at a meeting talked about how misguided and in error the rest of "Christendom" was; that Jesus was not really God but only God's SON; that the idea that everyone could go to heaven was tragically wrong, that only 144,000 "chosen ones" would go to heaven, etc., I simply accepted these things at face value. I did wonder for a while how one managed to be one of the chosen, but I suppose my innate underlying lack of ambition got me nowhere on figuring that out.
Oddly, even after I went through several years with the thought in the back of my head that I would not live past seventeen (because Armageddon would happen in 1975), and even when I saw that was bullshit and that JW's didn't know what they were talking about, I didn't lose belief in God...only in JW's. I just figured that they had probably been wrong about the rest of "Christendom" too, like they were wrong about Armageddon...after all, by then I knew the rest of Christendom was very much bigger than the JW's, and therefore more likely to be smarter and right.
When I got along in my teens and began trying to find a job, because obviously this was how one got money, which one had to have in order to have much of anything else, I assumed it would be a simple and straightforward thing...I would apply (ask) for a job and if they had one they would hire me. Another considerable chunk of my naivete (and this one hurt some), broke off and floated away. I discovered, to my amazement that it was not at all a simple and straightforward affair. I was asked what remains, to me, one of the stupidest questions ever: "What experience do you have?" "Huh?!" That rattled me. See, look, I am 16 years old, I have never had any job of any kind before, I don't have one now, that's kinda why I'm here asking for one. But we can't hire you without experience. A bit dazed, I nonetheless staggered off assuming that this was just a particularly stupid person (how could they even be running a business anyway?)
I did eventually get hired somewhere (I don't remember where), but only after many more "How much experience you got!?" and I was finally on my way to having a good life. I had a job. That was the magic thing in America. A job. Why a guy with a JOB could go places, could make money, SAVE money, get things he needed and liked...at some point it started to dawn on me that the only way that would actually work would be if one got paid a great deal more money than I was getting. And how did one fix THAT problem? Why, education of course, one with a college degree (remember those therapists...no friggin' dirty fingernails for them) didn't have to worry about being able to afford the gas to get to work. They got BIG paydays. Crap. So, I gotta go back to school for the GED. Luckily, I went to "Adult Education" and got the GED in a couple of months, rather than the couple of years it would have taken for the diploma in school, and so I figger I'm now finally on the fast track, took a short cut through that school BS and now, on to college.
Dammit. THESE people expect you to PAY MONEY in order to go to college...even JUNIOR college. WTF!? If I had that kind of money why would I be needing to go to college to make that kind of money!? *sigh* Okay, play the game (I've started to think of it as a game by now) and I find a "work-study program" in which I can go to two or three hours of classes and then work in the library restacking books (quietly) for another hour or two. Fine. I liked the ideas of sociology and psychology, partly because I found the idea of minds fascinating and partly because I wanted a BIG PAYDAY without the aching back and grimy hands.
Somewhere in there I figure out that it's really irrelevant to these folk how smart you are, how much you know about anything; what matters is something called college credits, and these are acquired mostly by the time spent in classes (not what is or isn't learned) and the rate you get these credits are slower than a turtle in mollasses in February. I gotta get through at least two years of this JUNIOR business, then another four years at "real college", then still more years at medical or other specialty schools... when does it end? I start to think maybe these peeps are about as screwy about their thing as JW's were about theirs.
And so it was, that I ended up with a GED which was not as good as a real diploma which, in turn, wasn't really much good for anything other than getting into college, where one can spend still more years pursuing credits and certificates and degrees, and now, by the time I am fifty-three, it might well be that I could by now have gotten seven of these degrees and still be lucky to get a job flipping burgers in Micky D's. Instead, I can't get a job at Micky D's or anywhere else, due in part to the stress and worry instilled by the notion that one's purpose in life was to "provide for your family" if you managed to have one of those, and to pursue the "American Dream". Instead, I sit on my ass all day (most days) and play and research and learn and write on my computer and I have no worries whatever about paying bills, because money arrives in my account for that - nowhere near a DECENT amount of money, mind you, but enough to allow me to spend whatever time I have actually living my life (within the restrictions that being one of the American poor imposes), rather than forever trying to run faster on the wheel in order to stay in the same place.
And when I look back through all this and all those years and see how many times "pursue" is used I wanna bitch slap the Founding Fathers for including that "pursuit of happiness" thing in the Bill of Rights. Hey, Greyhound dogs in race tracks all over the world engage in "pursuit of the (totally fake) rabbit" all the time, and how many of those dogs do you suppose ever actually see a real rabbit, much less eat one? Phuck "pursuit".
The study of people still fascinates me, even though by now I have learned too much about them to make the study fun any more. Now it's more like a morbid fascination, like rubber-necking at an especially bloody and violent car wreck. Humans now look to me like a guy in an ocean of quicksand and people who sincerely mean well pass by and toss him an anvil on occasion, assuring him if he will only hold tight and believe he can use it to get out on dry land.
I honestly never really thought of myself as an especially smart person. I still don't. But I can't ignore what is around me either. When I first truly began to see people in general I was stunned and shaken to my core. That feeling has never really left. I suppose it's a bit like actually taking a good look at the man behind the curtain; seeing exactly how the illusion is done. You are smarter, you know more, you are enlightened...but somehow, the feeling of being let down is as an elephant slowly settling upon your chest. I so wanted it to be true. It was so cool. As I said in my last blog, I did "coin" that silly motto, "I'd rather hear the single worst truth in the universe than ten thousand beautiful lies". For part of me that is true. I do have a deep abiding respect for truth as much as I can determine and understand it. The part that ain't so good is...knowing that some of these truths cannot be changed, at least in any kind of "reasonable" time frame on human scale. Also, not without quite literally changing the very foundation of what it currently means to "be human".
I hope that some of you have enough interest to watch the videos I'm including here. One is all about propaganda...and no, it's one of the "conspiracy theory" types. I hesitate sometimes to put things like this in. One reason is because of Matthew 18:6: "But whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea." I hope you understand I mean this in the metaphorical sense. Sometimes it's better to be in the (relative) bliss of ignorance than to know disappointing things that you cannot change. So, beware.
George Carlin was one of the really bright people who understood this. This first video is George explaining the basic reason why politics is fucked up - and always will be. At least if you buy the notion that "we the people" elect our leaders. That reason is...the public is stupid. George...
People in general tend to have a grossly inflated opinion of themselves. In many psychological tests and polls as many as 19% of respondents said they were in the top 1% of their group. Chew on that one. There are several reasons why there never has been and never can be actual democracy here or, for that matter, even "representative democracy" which is a propaganda statement if ever there was one.
In the following video there is mention of a man named Edward Bernays. He and a man named Ivy Lee are often called the fathers of modern public relations. Even that term itself - public relations - is actually a euphemism for the more accurate "perception management". That is, it really doesn't matter what is actually happening or why. What matters is the public's perception of what's happening and why. They have even told you that flat out sometimes in advertising: "Image is everything". The very sad truth is that "the public"..."we the people", in aggregate, are as gullible and ignorant as any flock of sheep you can find. Of course "PR" didn't start with these guys, the idea has been around probably as long as humans have. But with the advent of mass communications, it became amazingly easy to manipulate the masses of people.
Sometimes I just shake my head at those people who yell, whether from the right or the left or some "lunatic fringe" somewhere, to the people, "WAKE UP". How loud and how often do you suppose you would have to scream "WAKE UP" to any given flock of sheep in order to get them to come to understand their place in the world, their relations to humans, what humans are, what humans use them for and why? How long would that take? Just about the same amount of time it would take to "wake up" the masses of people....for they are genuinely, in aggregate, just as clueless as the sheep. They no more have the capacity within them to "wake up" than do the sheep. It is their fundamental nature...within their genetic and neural makeup. If and when this is ever deliberately changed on a global scale...call it eugenics or whatever you like...things could change...until then nothing can significantly change. It is against the very laws of physics. To borrow a phrase from Keith Olbermann... good night, and good luck.
Also viewable at....
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/psywar/
Top Documentary Films
TRB
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Facts (and other meaningless stuff)
I still like things on television but the difference is that TV is an unopenable, bulletproof, soundproof window on the world, whereas the Internet is a window one can fling wide and yell at all those out there doing stuff...participation, if only vicariously. Ironic, since earlier I had a conversation with a friend about how what we do when we blog and exchange links and messages, is essentially mental masturbation, typically without even the payoff. It is. At least in large part. Still, some of us need that masturbation greatly. Apparently, the reason for the temporary disconnect here from the Internet (AT&T is our IP) had to do with the rough weather passing through the Southeast today.
Now we have the green light again...literally the green light on the modem under "INTERNET". So, here we go. Ah hell, wouldn't ya know it...performance anxiety. Geez. I'll go harvest my eggplants and be back. Y'all have a drink, talk among yerselves...
Oh yeah...we were doin' a circlej right? Damn Alzheimer's. Well, there's so much crap going on right now you could just about pull any volume of the encyclopedia off the shelf (if anyone still had those), open a page at random and be at current events. Let's talk about facts a minute, ok? Personally, I have a huge respect for and desire for truth. I might not like it worth a damn, but many years back I coined the motto, "I would rather hear the single worst truth in the universe than ten thousand beautiful lies". I think when folks deny facts that are facts, it makes them look retarded beyond redemption. I don't always necessarily think a fact is really relevant, but I don't say it ain't a fact. Here's an example: It is often put forward as fact that "seat belts save lives", meaning that the mandatory wearing of seat belts saves lives. I don't know for certain if this is fact or not, but I will concede at the outset that it may well be. I only argue, on this one, that I don't give a crap whether wearing seat belts saves lives or not; this fact, if it is indeed a fact, is irrelevant to me. The point I make in fighting it is that it takes from me my right to decide whether I will or will not wear one in my own vehicle, AND it harms no one else in any way if I do not.
Here's another example of what I'm talking about. Hardcase and many others rail about a proposal in "Obamacare", usually referred to as the individual mandate, forcing people to buy health insurance whether they like it or not. Although this has been written about for three years or so, here's one of the latest articles I found from the right wing on that: Democrats are forcing people to buy health insurance. There is NO mention of being jailed for failure to comply, as far as I know. There is a fine for refusing to comply. Nor is it even remotely true that poor people who cannot afford to buy insurance would either be fined or jailed, as some nutjobs would have you believe. Such persons would be covered by something akin to Medicare. Here's the gist of that. It is a fact that, sooner or later, every citizen, without exception, is going to need medical care of some kind. There is virtually zero chance of "opting out" of this, since it costs money (someone has to pay) even to die. Even if you kill yourself with a bullet to the head, expenses are incurred, including police, various medical personnel, etc. The idea is that every person, even if they require help from the government, should pay some share of the total expense, since there are no persons who can get out of having medical care, wanted or not, alive or dead, unless you somehow simply vanish.
This makes sense to me. I don't worry about the "being forced" part because I know I don't have money in the first place. It is true that in the US, emergency rooms are required by law to treat people who present there.
"The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) is a U.S. Act of Congress passed in 1986 as part of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). It requires hospitals and ambulance services to provide care to anyone needing emergency healthcare treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay. There are no reimbursement provisions..." Source.
But while you can get temporary emergency care, you cannot get ongoing care for any kind of chronic conditions, nor any sort of preventive care, nor any medications aside from what is actually dispensed in the ER. The ER might help you if you are having a heart attack, but it cannot help you if you have an enlarged heart, or clogged arteries, or any of the other things that may be leading to a heart attack unless your life is in direct imminent danger. It cannot help you with a myriad of conditions...this leaves you to buy your own insurance if you have sufficient money and IF the insurance companies will sell it to you at all (your condition may be "pre-existing"); or they may well sell you insurance and then claim your problem isn't covered when you need it. If you have no money to buy insurance in this scenario, you are simply screwed as far as non-emergency healthcare. These are the REAL death panels that actually exist in the current set-up. The "individual mandate" assures that ALL are covered one way or the other.
Under the Affordable Care Act policies set to be in place by 2014, about 129 million Americans can receive health coverage despite their previous conditions.
Let's compare this health insurance thing with mandatory car insurance. This article from 2009 argues that you can't really compare them. I disagree. Read that and then mine and see what you think. That article argues that not even all licensed drivers are required to have car insurance (unless you plan to drive) and that driving is a privilege. I say horse shit. I say in current American society driving is as much a fundamental human right as is food and medical care; that a great many people, especially in rural and suburban areas, and even some in cities, cannot maintain their livelihood and standard of living without being able to drive themselves to work, to stores, doctors, etc. Yet there is no provision in the mandatory car insurance program which helps poor people to have car insurance. You either pay yourself or you don't have it. THIS, not the health insurance is an outright attack upon the poor.
Ain't facts fun? Let's see some more. There are also "leftist" propaganda pieces too. Here's one I just lifted from Allah's blog called White Privilege. Here's the video and the link for it...hopefully you can see it.
http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhA5yGj42eclUn99k6
In case you couldn't see it, it's a bit from the ABC show What Would You Do? This one shows the different reactions of people to first, a white kid who seems to be stealing a bike (hacksaw, etc.) and later, a black kid of about the same age, dress, etc., trying to steal the same bike. The gist is that folks are much quicker to confront the black kid and call the cops than the white kid. Here's why I call call it leftist horse shit propaganda, of the 'oh what terribly racist people these are; can't we all just sing kumbaya and get along'.
First, all the folks reacted that same way, including the black ladies who came walking by. Second, it is statistically much more likely that the black kid might be trying to steal someone else's bike, and most folk know that, including black folk. How much more likely? How's this...
The US Census Bureau says that, in 2009, the group "Black or African American alone" comprised 38.1 million, or 12.4% of the total population, which they give as 307 million. Source.
Second, according to Table 43 of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), in 2009, 69.1 percent of all individuals arrested were white, 28.3 percent were black, and 2.6 percent were of other races. Source.
You can check my math and tell me if I'm wrong but if "Black or African American alone" comprises only 12.4% of the population but 28.3% of all arrests, by George, that looks to me like the black kid is about two and a half times more likely to be trying to steal the bike.
Damn, it's good be connected again. Y'all come back now, yaheah.
TRB
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Slavery...we need it.
I recently came across this; A Reasonable Argument for God's Existence. I'm really and truly sorry if anyone finds it offensive, but this is about as stupid an article as I have read. I don't think it could get much more insane than this (unless you go on to include violence and murder, like cutting off your daughter's head in an 'honor killing'). Of course, I don't blame the good Rabbi, any more than I would blame any schizophrenic or other mentally disabled person. He can't help it. It's simply the way his brain is. It would be as stupid to castigate him for this as it would to scream at Christopher Reeve to "Get over it and get up!" (Yeah I know Christopher died already.) But we simply must, as a species, develop treatments for this kind of mental disorder (along with treatments that would allow people like Christopher to get up and walk again). To speak of "respect" for this kind of thinking is almost as insane as that kind of thinking. Should we all "respect" a feller who thinks he is George Washington, the Father of our Country, come back to check on our progress...because..... 'maybe he is'?
The thing is this; not all people can run a marathon...not all people have the ability to climb Mt. Everest...not all people have the mental and psychological capacity to grasp that belief in the supernatural is idiocy. That doesn't mean that marathons can't be run, Everest can't be climbed or the real world can't be understood. The truth is that relatively few people are qualified to operate a brain. You can't operate one until you understand the basics of how it works. You sure as hell can't understand one until you understand that it produces you and you can't exist without it (or at least some kind of brain)... or that it does all kinds of things and only informs you of it later, if at all. So... if it is socially acceptable (and obviously it is) to say, "Sorry, I can't go skiing now, I have a broken leg", it should be equally socially acceptable to say,"Sorry, I can't deal with mental concepts of that order right now.") Thinking that "I am the captain of my own ship, the master of my destiny", makes about as much sense as thinking, "A MAN never puts up curtains to make the room prettier".
You know how many corrections it takes to make a thing readable when you've had a touch o' the rum? Windows pop up that I've never seen before. Ha!
Anyway, on with the slaves. This is not to say a society can't function without them, but that it always functions much better with them. You need someone to do the brute work, the nasty shit that most people don't want to do, but is necessary, like digging in the ground, taking care of human waste, etc. Every society humans have ever made, as far back as ancient Sumeria, has had slaves. Naturally, life never was so hot for the individuals who were the slaves (but it wasn't necessarily horrific either), but it was much cooler for everyone else. We've always had other animals as slaves (horses, oxen, etc.) and usually some amount of humans as slaves for the stuff that other animals didn't have enough brains to do.
But... for a couple of centuries or so, we have figured out how to have slaves that are neither human nor other animal (even though the slavery of those still persists too). We have machinery. Most people probably don't think of "machines" as slaves. but that is precisely what they are. We have cars, trains, airplanes, elevators, and thousands of other pieces of 'machinery' that do all kinds of work for us that few, if any, humans could do at all. But, for the most part, all these 'artificial' slaves have had a common limitation...they need a human to 'operate' them. That time is coming to a close.
We are rapidly becoming able to make slaves (machines) that DO have the brains to do work, that previously, only other humans could do. The entire purpose of having slaves is so that the masters (that would be us) can live much better without working so hard. There are humans, perhaps even most, who are so indoctrinated with dogmas of the past that they cannot see the beauty of 'machine' slaves. Those who actually take pride in 'working hard'. Without, apparently, even realizing it is another way of saying they take great pride in being a very good slave. This is not at all the same as taking pride in one's creative abilities...making art or writing poetry or creating architecture, etc. The difference is, in creating for its own sake, for the sake of expressing ones self, of giving to the society or culture, as opposed to doing things for the purposes of "making money" and enriching the already rich. I can think of nothing more institutionally immoral than the the idea that that there are 'rich people' and 'poor people'.
That the fundamentals of human life...food, water, housing, clothing, transportation, medical care, etc. should be subject to 'cost', in the monetary sense, is as insane to me as believing in supernatural things. It is only so because a small percentage of humans have successfully brainwashed the majority that this is necessary and right... that one must EARN one's 'living' "by the sweat of his brow" as it was expressed in ancient times (never mind that THEY do not do so, but 'earn' their living by the sweat of YOUR brow). How quaint, provincial, parochial...and downright primitive!
Our world is changing. We should learn to get away from the notions of 'we need jobs' and/or money. No. We do not. We need many things; energy, food, etc., and those things are abundant. Most people still think of energy as = fossil fuels. It does not. That big light you usually see in the sky every day...? That is a million times bigger than the entire earth and everything on it. It is absolutely and utterly impossible for there to be such a thing as an "energy crisis". Except that such things are manufactured and sold to you in the same way that ipads are. In 2002, the solar energy absorbed by the earth's atmosphere, oceans and land mass was approximately 3,850,000 exajoules... more energy in one hour than the human world used in a year. Source. Yeah, tell me again, how there is an 'energy crisis'.
The 'crisis' is in the the way most humans do a thing for the purpose of 'making money' and recreating the illusion of being 'in control' rather than for the benefit of humanity... an entirely artificial and man-made structure designed to exploit the labor of masses of humans for the benefit of a relative few... human slavery. For a few humans, 'making money' is very easy and the purpose is to enable them to play a vast game of 'monopoly' with the actual lives and social programs of real people. For the rest, it is an artificial barrier constructed between you and what should be the normal benefits and necessities of being a human, designed to further enhance the ability of the others to play their monopoly games... with you as simply a movable piece in the game.
The fact is that a great many, maybe most, of the 'jobs', that formerly existed, will never, ever come back. Many of the manufacturers have seen that one robotic unit can produce the same amount of salable goods as a dozen or a hundred humans, and it will never complain about working conditions, salary, sick days, etc. They have discovered the benefits of slavery...with slaves far more productive, compliant and efficient than any human or other animal. This will NOT stop... ever. It will increase exponentially. This is a very good thing. You need to understand that you do not need a job...or money. You need to be able to live your life (hopefully thousands of years of it, if you choose, [obviously at the peak of heath]). You need to depose or dispatch those who would make YOU a slave to their monopoly game. You need to embrace the real slavery of 'non-human' or 'non-organic' slaves for the purpose of allowing human life to be what it can be.... a wonderful existence in which your primary concern is to live your life to the fullest, to experience all that there is in life to experience, to learn, to grow, to develop, to explore the entire universe, rather than be confined to one tiny planet (how silly).
Are the (mis)adventures of Charlie Sheen and Moamar Gadaffi really sufficient for you? Would it not be grander to learn what other forms of life have acquired 'sentience' on other worlds? Ooohhh, there are plans for a 'million woman march' in Egypt...wonder if they will all be nekkid? HA! Now THERE's expression, lol...
UPDATE: Turns out only a few hundred showed up, none were nekkid, I don't recall even seeing anyone's hair...on their head even! *sigh* I think they gotta lot to learn about marching.
So...whaddaya think? More of the rum-soaked slatherings, or strictly sober "he said/she said" blogs? Is that a pickled skewed choice?
TRB
Friday, March 4, 2011
Class War
We see signs around us. Today, we went to Kroger for gas. With the 3-cent-per gallon discount (with our Kroger card), our price was $3.22. Went next door to the Chinese Buffet for lunch. Before we finished lunch the price at the Kroger pumps across the driveway had moved up by 11 cents per gallon. When fossil fuel prices begin to rise, the prices of EVERYTHING rises, because there is very little in the world that does not use petroleum products in some form to make it, package it and transport it.
Peak Oil is a phenomenon that has occurred or is occurring right now on a global scale. The phrase means essentially, that the maximum amount of oil that it is possible to get out of the ground per day has been reached or passed. You can find several links which say something about "peak oil debunked". Note the source of those writings, and phrases like "...blows Al Gore's climate change scam out the window showing the fallacy of the concept of 'global warming'".
This doesn't mean, of course, that tomorrow the world will come to a screeching halt for lack of fossil fuels. Nor will the world come to a screeching halt in ten years because of this. It does mean that gradually, gas and everything else associated with fossil fuels will become more and more scarce, more and more expensive. There are wars going on as you read this, prompted in part by a desire to control countries and regions which have the most oil and coal and natural gas. The wars will increase. The poor will continue getting much poorer much quicker. There will be massive loss of human lives due to 'simple' poverty (as though the approximately 20,000 deaths every day that come because of this is not 'massive'. It is not by comparison to what is coming. Global Food Prices Hit Record Highs
Aside from oil or 'black gold', there is also 'blue gold'...water. A little over ten years ago in Bolivia this class warfare did devolve into shooting and dying, when the Bechtel Corporation tried to privatize the water supply and charge people to get what was already theirs in the first place. It was a case of the haves trying to make sure the have nots, have less. It always is.
As you read, there is much wrangling going on in the northern states and parts of Canada about the fresh water of the Great Lakes...and who gets it. Do you know who Dick Armey is? Consider this quote:
"As former Congressional leader Dick Armey of Texas warned in 2000, thirsty and growing states will surely come after Great Lakes water, 'We're not going to be buying it. We're going to be stealing it.'" Source. This from a 'Congressional leader'. Heh.
There is continual pushing from the puppet governor of Wisconsin, his controllers, and some other mostly Republican governments (Ohio Senate Passes Anti-Union Bill). It remains to be seen how that will end but, Gov. Walker Orders Arrest of Missing Wisconsin Democrats and, "In related news, 11 rounds of 22-caliber live ammo were found outside the Wisconsin Capitol building today."
One other major problem is media's tendency to be misleading. These links I have here are from Slate.com. In the same issue, along with the Wisconsin story and the Ohio story, as though it were of equal import and validity to the public is Justin Beiber's Hair Sells for $40,668 on eBay. To many people, this story and dozens like it ARE of more importance and interest than the others. This is one of the things that happens when journalism is as based upon capitalism and politics as any other endeavor.
If you are over about 30 years old, the world you live in for the next 30 years will probably be hugely different from the one you used to know. There will be good things and bad. How good or bad for you will depend partly on your ability and willingness to learn and adapt.
Another of America's 'mini-shuttles' will launch tomorrow. Did you know about those? The details of the cargo to be carried into space are classified, but I suspect it has something to do with the latest class of weapons being prepared and deployed...namely, DEWs or Directed Energy Weapons. Many of these have been in development for at least 15 years, some longer. There are several kinds; lasers, masers, particle beams, microwave, ElectroMangnetic Pulse (EMP), etc. These are no longer science fiction or theoretical but are deployed and used on the ground (and in space) right now. One of the things an EMP weapon can do might be, in some ways, more devastating that a nuclear weapon, at least for a very high-tech society. This weaponry is such that it can instantly and permanently fry any and all devices which have a computer chip in them. How many devices can you thing of that you have, or that your town has, which would cease to function if such a weapon were used? Do you doubt that China and Russia and maybe a few other nations will also have such capacity?
The phasers are here and very real, and about a century ahead of schedule...but you can't have one - yet. Did you think the writers of the Terminator movies simply made up Skynet? No, it too is very real, the writers just exaggerated, or... extrapolated until about 20 years from now.
Of course not all is gloom and doom conspiracy theories... oh wait, those pics aren't theories. Anyway, it is obvious that technology can be hugely beneficial. Consider...a 2-inch cube that can do even more than a cell phone tower can do, and do if for much less energy. Check it out. The question is, as always, what kind of mindset will dominate the use of such technologies. Will those people who think such things should be used for the betterment of human life and the world we live in...or will only the greedy and those who lust for power use them to consolidate their power to the point where they are quite literally impregnable, and the rest of humanity - whatever remnants may be left - is reverted to serfs and slaves? By the way, slavery is absolutely essential for the existence of a civilized society...see next blog.
TRB
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Right Wing
If you learn and retain no other fact about socialism, learn and retain this: to the marxist/socialist/communist, government is the source of all good, virtue, and provision. The godlike State is all to this ideology. Everything de peepul have comes from government. "Without government," to dutifully twist the old Dow Chemical slogan, "life itself would be impossible."
This is why lefties condemn the private sector (the "bourgeoisie" in Marxist nomenclature, aka the middle class, aka Us, The People) as evil. Since the State is god in their worldview, anybody that pursues his own economic interests apart from it is by definition a heretic, an ingrate, and a thief stealing from the government cornucopia and corrupting the proletariat like a wicket pied piper. And since the private sector is villainous by definition, the notion of it ruthlessly exploting[sic] and plundering the "poor" it's lured away from "righteousness" is inevitable. Source.
A Conservative Personality Test
Let's take that "universal constants" thing... that is, the assertion that if even one of the many variables of physics were only slightly different, humans would not exist. One response to that is, "AHA! This proves the universe was deliberately designed by a creator who intentionally put us here."
Another response to that is, "Well, duh! That proves that humans as we know them are one possible result of all those constants being what they are."
Which is closer to your view?
More importantly...why?
TRB