Monday, September 16, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
RIP …
… Robert Farrar Capon — Closer to God than all the diagrams in the world. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A fine writer and a good man.
A fine writer and a good man.
Other Old Worship Structures ...
“We are fairly sure the Avenue outlines the walkway towards the stones.
“It was constructed in 2300 BC so is a later addition to the stone circle, but people would have processed along it to the monument. It leads directly into what we think is the entrance, and links the monument to the river Avon.
Indeed …
… Civilised society must not draw a veil over the niqab - Telegraph. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Religious freedom is not and cannot be absolute in a modern civilised society. The Aztecs believed themselves religiously required – genuinely and sincerely, as far as we know – to sacrifice immense numbers of humans to their god. No one would now justify or permit such a practice on the grounds that everyone must be allowed to practise his religion.
If you move somewhere, it is not the obligation of the people who already live there to accommodate themselves to you. It is your obligation to accommodate yourself to them. If you can't do that, don't move there.
Bizarre …
… Why 'Drink More Water'? — James Hamblin —The Atlantic.
The body sort of takes care of that for you. You know, when you feel thirsty.
The body sort of takes care of that for you. You know, when you feel thirsty.
A thought for today …
We are constantly being surprised that people did things well before we were born.
— Robert Benchley, born on this date in 1889
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Distinguishing philosophy from science …
… Edward Feser: Man is Wolff to man. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… it is no good for Wolff to complain that Nagel has failed to “trac[e], step by step, the neurological development of species that appear to be located somewhere along the continuum between consciousness and non-consciousness.” Nagel and other very prominent philosophers have developed arguments which purport to show that no amount of neurological evidence could by itself even in principle explain consciousness. These arguments are extremely well-known in academic philosophy; more to the present point, they are surely well known to Wolff. Wolff may disagree with the arguments, but insofar as he pretends that they don’t exist, it is he rather than Nagel who is guilty of “philosophical malpractice.”
More things in heaven and earth …
… Physics: Quantum quest : Nature News & Comment.
… Fuchs has rewritten standard quantum theory into a form that closely resembles a branch of classical probability theory known as Bayesian inference, which hasits roots in the eighteenth century. In the Bayesian view, probabilities aren't intrinsic quantities 'attached' to objects. Rather, they quantify an observer's personal degree of belief of what might happen to the object.
[Hardy] did not attempt to analyse such possibilities in any detail, however; his larger goal was to show how quantum physics might be reframed as a general theory of probability.
All actual existents are probable, but not all probable ones are actual. The world we inhabit is not merely probable. So the question is really what accounts for the world's transition from probable to actual. Consider a landscape painter, with his palette of colors, his knowledge of tone and shade, all the possibilities confronting him. He sorts those possibilities out and in so doing arrives at a set of probabilities. From this set he arrives at an arrangement that is actual.
Theists have no problem with all this, because they posit that God is actuating potencies all the time. You might say that's what He does. This makes sense because it corresponds to the only way we experience actuating potencies — by exercising choice. It seems to me that trying to explain the world by factoring out the element of choice in reality is a fool's errand, since whatever that might be would be entirely outside our normal range experience. Of course, you could say the same of God..
Just terrific …
… Bill to protect journalists clears Senate panel - latimes.com.
Well, if journalists are to be defined as reporters, then that would eliminate mere opinion writers, right?
Well, if journalists are to be defined as reporters, then that would eliminate mere opinion writers, right?
Classic criticism …
… Christopher Ricks’s Beckett’s Dying Words | Time's Flow Stemmed. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A thought for today …
Reason cannot establish values, and its belief that it can is the stupidiest and most pernicious illusion.
— Allen Bloom, born on this date in 1930
Friday, September 13, 2013
Words and the world …
… Writers' Favorite Words Reflect Their World View : The New Yorker. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A worrisome need …
… NSA: THE DECISION PROBLEM | Edge.org. (Hat tip, Lee Lowe.)
This is much bigger than the relative merits of national security vs. the fourth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, or any of the other debates by which the Snowden revelations have been framed. We are facing a fundamental decision (as Turing anticipated) between whether human intelligence or machine intelligence is given the upper hand. The NSA has defended wholesale data capture and analysis with the argument that the data (and metadata) are not being viewed by people, but by machines, and are therefore, legally, not being read. This alone should be cause for alarm.
A thought for today …
A writer of fiction lives in fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.
— Roald Dahl, born on this date in 1916
Voices or Images or Nothing, oh my ...
What do you experience when you read?
From the comments:
Some people say that they generally hear the words of the text in their heads, either in their own voice or in the voices of narrator or characters; others say they rarely do this. Some people say they generally form visual images of the scene or ideas depicted; others say they rarely do this. Some people say that when they are deeply enough absorbed in reading, they no longer see the page, instead playing the scene like a movie before their eyes; others say that even when fully absorbed they still always visually experience the words on the page.
This is only very slightly a propos, but just after reading this blog post I was struck by this from Auden's The Dyer's Hand:
"One can read Shakespeare to oneself without even mentally hearing the lines and be very moved; indeed, one may easily find a performance disappointing because almost anyone can with an understanding of English verse can speak it better than the average actor or actress. But to read Racine to oneself, even I fancy, if one is a Frenchman, is like reading the score of an opera when one can hardly play or sing."
A moment of grace...
...Gathering the Poems Together: A Conversation with Gregory Orr
One can understand the redemptive power of poetry and still not be redeemed. I struggled for years with a despair and melancholy that stemmed from feeling responsible for my brother’s death and from losing my mother at an early age. It’s one thing to say that producing expressive lyrics is going to help you cope and survive. It’s probably a step beyond that to say it can heal you. When I heard that phrase in my head, I would have to call that a moment of grace. I’m willing to go with the weirdness of that story. I don’t have to apologize for that, it just happened.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
A thought for today …
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
— H. L. Mencken, born on this date in 1880
Mary ...
Assumption is the Western and Catholic term, suggesting that she was taken to heaven prior to death; the Orthodox accept Dormition, namely that after her bodily death, her body was raised as the first sign of the general Resurrection. Whichever version we consider though, these ideas were very widespread in Christian art through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance era, and shaped the Eastern icon tradition.
At least in official doctrines, those ideas are still, today, firmly held by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches – think of perhaps two-thirds of the world’s Christians.
More Amazon Reviews ...
For Uranium Ore by Images SI Inc.Others here
"It is not cat food…. The cat's huge and well, doesn't really look much like a cat anymore."
Kellie
For Accoutrements Horse Head Mask by Accoutrements
"By wearing this mask, I was able to get anything and everything I needed. Plenty of hay, lots of time to run and, best of all, I no longer have to wear pants."
T. C. Zimmermann
"It is day 87 and the horses have accepted me as one of their own. I have grown to understand and respect their gentle ways."
ByronicHero
For How to Avoid Huge Ships by John W. Trimmer
"It was only after it arrived that I looked closely at the title and realized it said 'How to Avoid Huge SHIPS'. A simple error that means I am still treading on massive examples of canine excrement."
Graham
Capt. Trimmer's advice would have been immensely beneficial to humans, fish, seabirds, and other animals, but I am none of those things. I'm a big rock."
Jami
This one though is a story. A funny, funny story:
For Passion Natural Water-Based Lubricant - 55 Gallon container [!!!]
I knew getting back in the "dating game" would be a challenge after being out of it for over 5 years...
In case you wondered...
...When did creative writing eat itself?
Despite the preponderance of such articles, I have a seasonal chat with Frank about which creative writing program to apply to, since I see them more as opportunities for travel than what they might offer per se.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Causation …
… Seth's Blog — “The Cause of Ulcers is Bacteria” Makes as Much Sense as “The Cause of Car Accidents is Cars”. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, to be honest, I thought that was the latest science myself. So does the NDDIC: H. pylori and Peptic Ulcers.
Well, to be honest, I thought that was the latest science myself. So does the NDDIC: H. pylori and Peptic Ulcers.
A thought for today …
For man, as for flower and beast and bird, the supreme triumph is to be most vividly, most perfectly alive.
— D. H. Lawrence, born on this date in 1885
My Little Brother ... on 9-11-01
Those first two days down at Ground Zero were physically, emotionally and mentally draining. Despair was everywhere but there were uplifting moments such as the residents applauding us. Additionally, there was a truly inspiring event. On the pile in the remnants of the Twin Towers, I had encountered a childhood friend who lived up the block from me in our neighborhood on the outskirts of Philadelphia. His name is John Chovanes and I had not seen him since we both graduated high school in 1982. Upon seeing him, I was dumbfounded as to what he was doing there.
John is a doctor and when he heard about the attacks, he jumped into his car and raced up to New York. At check points along the way, he told the police officers that he was a doctor and he was coming to help. He worked his way down to Ground Zero and aided in the rescue of two police officers trapped in the rubble. What John did was truly heroic. I was there because I had to be, he was there because he volunteered - courage above and beyond.
Police work tends to attract those of a cynical nature; and if you are not cynical in nature, you soon will be. It is just the nature of the beast. However, even for the most cynical of us, when people like John come to the aid of their fellow man for no other reason than it is the right thing to do, one tends to become a little less cynical and for that, I thank him.
...
... Dr. [John] Chovanes told me that the patient still trapped in the debris was reported to be in severe pain and gave me a supply of morphine sulfate to administer if the victim proved stable enough. The other patient, Officer Will Jimeno, had been treated and successfully removed prior to my arrival.
...
When I returned to the top of the hole, Dr. Chovanes and I discussed McLoughlin's condition and the severity of his pain, and we agreed that we needed to give McLoughlin morphine for the pain. Dr. Chovanes drew the morphine out of the tubex with a straight needle and entered the hole to administer it.
When Dr. Chovanes resurfaced, we met and established our treatment plan. We had to be prepared for certain contingencies in the event that the rescuers could not get McLoughlin out, if he became unstable or if the scene became even more unstable and dangerous. For any of these possible events, we realized that we would have to be prepared to do rapid bilateral amputations of his lower extremities high on his thighs.
Dr. Chovanes began to develop a plan to do an emergency amputation while I needed to develop a plan to keep McLoughlin from bleeding to death with only the equipment and supplies that I had in my medical pack. Triangular cravats were the best materials I had for tourniquets, but Dr. Chovanes was certain the cravats wouldn't be effective in stopping bleeding from severed femoral arteries. We had to find a better method to control arterial bleeding. We searched through the other equipment and supplies that we had on hand and located the pliers of two Leatherman utility tools. We decided to use these as forceps on the arteries and secure them with electrical tape if amputations became necessary.
Dr. Chovanes' plan for the amputation was to use a cordless Sawzall reciprocating saw. He said he would lightly sedate McLoughlin with Valium and morphine. This was a risky medical option for sedation, because of the CNS and respiratory depressive effects of these drugs. If McLoughlin were to stop breathing, there would be no way to secure his airway because he was laying prone, and we wouldn't be able to administer Narcan during the complicated extrication in which many rescuers would be lifting him up the 45-degree angle steel beam.
Throughout the night and into the next morning, Dr. Chovanes and I rotated into the hole to monitor McLoughlin's condition and administer morphine. We had to re-establish IVs several times because the patent lines would occasionally be pulled out during the digging of dust and rubble that entrapped him.
...
Within the hour, McLoughlin was freed and extricated on a backboard.
The rescue team pulled McLoughlin onto a nylon stretcher and then into a Stokes basket, and carefully dragged him up and out of the hole. Hundreds of rescuers passed him, hand-to-hand, to a waiting ambulance.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
E-Universities?
Something better always comes along and destroys what came before. In this case the combination of the microchip and widely available bandwidth are destroying the current education model.
Is God Happy?
In a remarkable essay written toward the end of his life, Kolakowski wondered whether God could be happy. Because humans can experience the sacred and the profane, he dared to judge God in human terms. To be human is to participate in the pain and joy of others, to “feel compassion.” Only those ignorant of suffering, such as small children with “no experience of great pain or death among those close to them,” can therefore know true happiness, if only for a time. The same must apply to God: “If He is not indifferent, but subject to emotion like us, He must live in a constant state of sorrow when He witnesses human suffering.” Jesus Christ—for Christians, the son of God—“was not happy in any recognizable sense. He was embodied and suffered pain, he shared the suffering of his fellow men, and he died on the cross.”...
To the extent that we are fully human, our sense of fortune is always partial, compromised, unsatisfying—everything true happiness, however fleeting, is not supposed to be. Thus he wonders: If God is at all like us (we are created in His image), can He be happy? Kolakowski’s answer, again perhaps impiously, is yes—but only if the universe is one in which everybody is saved, and hell and purgatory do not exist, and there is bliss for all. We can imagine such a situation, but “it has never been seen. It has never been seen.”
A thought for today …
Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
— Cyril Connolly, born on this date in 1903
This is Probably Sacrilegious ...
The Pope on getting to Heaven. From The Onion:
People ask me all the time about the Christian path to heaven. How can we get there? What acts must we perform? Some think the answers are unknowable. Others believe the divine kingdom may not exist at all. But let me assure you, heaven is a very real place. I’ve been there plenty of times, and it always starts with me getting into a van with a bag of mescaline and just flooring it out west into the desert sunset.Although legitimate spiritual peyote use by Native Americans may be thousands of years old ...
A matter of belief...
...Why Spinoza Was Excommunicated
What Spinoza is particularly concerned with are the superstitious beliefs and behaviors that the notion of an anthropomorphic and providential God nourishes. If we think that God is like us, an agent who acts for the sake of ends and who, by issuing commands, makes known his expectations and punishes those who do not obey, we will be dominated by the passions of hope and fear: hope for eternal reward and fear of eternal punishment. This will, in turn, lead us toward submission to ecclesiastic authorities who claim to know what God wants. The resulting life is one of “bondage”—psychological, moral, religious, social, and political enslavement—as opposed to the liberating life of reason.
Monday, September 09, 2013
Hmm …
… Margaret Thatcher Reviewed by John Gray | New Republic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Perhaps, since mention is made that Thatcher regarded herself as a disciple of Hayek, it is worth mentioning that Hayek did not consider himself a conservative.
Perhaps, since mention is made that Thatcher regarded herself as a disciple of Hayek, it is worth mentioning that Hayek did not consider himself a conservative.
Ask any child …
… Classic Literature in Translation: How Many Times Can a Tale Be Told? - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A thought for today …
It takes application, a fine sense of value, and a powerful community-spirit for a people to have serious leisure, and this has not been the genius of the Americans.
— Paul Goodman, born on this date in 1911
"Pathological Generosity"
A man in Brazlil developed what doctors have called pathological generosity, after a stroke ...
[Talk about burying the lede:]
When asked by researchers if he wanted to return to work, he reportedly said he had worked enough and that it was time to 'enjoy life which is too short.'
Mr A told doctors he was aware of changes in his behavior and claimed he 'saw death from close up' and wanted to 'be in high spirits' from then onwards.
We didn't say Global WARMING, we said Global COOLING ...
The Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has remained blocked by pack-ice all year. More than 20 yachts that had planned to sail it have been left ice-bound and a cruise ship attempting the route was forced to turn back.and here
Some eminent scientists now believe the world is heading for a period of cooling that will not end until the middle of this century – a process that would expose computer forecasts of imminent catastrophic warming as dangerously misleading.
Sunday, September 08, 2013
Hmm …
… America: Where The Green Light Is Always On | The American Conservative. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Owning Words And Thngs
Trademarking phrases is nothing new: The most famous case is sports announcer Michael Buffer, who currently makes more money from his phrase "Let's get ready to rumble" than he does from actually announcing boxers and letting them know that there might be rumbling. He's reportedly made $400 million by licensing his phrase to movies, commercials, video games and such.
But here's where it gets dumb: Dave Hester from A&E's reality show Storage Wars not only has a trademark on the word "YUUUP!" but is actually involved in a bitter legal battle over it with rapper Trey Songz, who claims that he's been yupping people since at least 2009.
From Russia (without smileys)
By the time my grandchildren go to school smileys are bound to be a generally accepted form of punctuation, I mused, and kids will learn to use emoticons along with colons, hyphens, and apostrophes.
With these thoughts fresh in my mind, I logged into my mail account and saw there was a message from the translator Will Firth. He wrote that the web magazine Words without Borders had decided to publish my short story “Traders.” I was greatly surprised and searched for a smiley in his mail to tell if this was perhaps a practical joke. There was no smiley.
The reason for my surprise was that I’d always felt “Traders” to be a highly personal story. It’s a snapshot of a very specific phase in Russian history and I’d thought it would be incomprehensible to people outside Russia—in fact, incomprehensible to anyone who wasn’t in Russia and young at the time.
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