First Blog

On theory and belief.  Theories are containers of our beliefs, ideas, and sometimes desires.  They are our vessels of  understanding.  There are levels and criteria for acceptance of theories. When a theory is believable it gets believed.  When a theory fits with one's beliefs it gets believed. When a theory is believable and refutes another but undesired theory, it gets accepted.  Others: When a new theory conflicts with an older and accepted one, it will not be accepted. When two theories collide, there results a conflict between the proponents. When power intervenes, it suspends the search for truth.  When a theory recruits power, open investigation is suppressed. Included are theories of religions of various types, genetics, anthropology, disease, climate change, physics (M-Theory), astronomy, i.e. origins of almost anything. Many have fallen from favor including previous theories of matter, disease, astrology, polytheism, astronomy, alchemy, and more. On power. 

Are you watching "The Vikings"  television series on the History Channel?  It takes place in Scandinavia, probably what is now Sweden.  It features slaughter and ritual as a way of life.  Moreover, it is totally violent; it has intrigue; it show fidelity and infidelity;  it shows intelligence without and without learning; it demonstrates conflicts of belief; it supports a life of fate depending on gods. It is anything but post modern.  Yet, it is attractive, entertaining, fascinating, and even horrifying. Among the gods it features Thor, the master, and Loki, the belligerent trickster - but with not innocent tricks.  BTW, many religions feature these two conflicting forces in life, including the bushmen of southern Africa. It involves priests, and seers, all culminating with important political decisions made in the wake of their assessments. It titillates us all in our highly antiseptic world of political correctness, high secularism, social equality, fair share economic

  Actor Herbert Mundin, playing Munch in the 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood (starring Errol Flynn) is charged by Prince John's troops of slaying a royal deer in the royal Sherwood forest.  The punishment is death.  Though the events of this film are a portrayal of events dating to the 15th century, they became by the 19th century a "robbing from the rich for the poor" theme so often depicted in other film genres. The William Tell legend is another. The plot is simple.  A poor man desperate to survive tastes the forbidden fruits owned by the authority, and is condemned. I would love to hear this event debated on the current TV news shows.  On the one hand, Munch would be a champion in service to his family.  On the other hand, his legal rights are restricted by legal authority. so, the argument would proceed.  Legal scholars cite statutes chapter and verse, while others would root for the common man.  Fast forward to 2014. Parallels between the poor Munch an

Doubling down. Theory, ideology, faith, whatever it may be, we see now in current affairs the intransigence of public and scientific players the willingness to persevere with a policy or theory, of some position despite the evidence it  seems not to be working. The remedy is not to revise, readjust, or relegate the program or  position, but to double, even triple, down upon it.  It is true, they argue, we just haven't given enough time or resources to fulfill its benefits.  It doesn't matter the topic, ranging from health care, to green solutions, to capitalistic markets, adherents will not let go.  Their theory is correct, they contend, we just need to persevere along this path. Persistence is the by-word of all too many.  This country, founded greatly upon William James' concepts of  pragmatism, has reversed course to pure belief.   Now this leads us to an conundrum.  It is seemingly impossible to let go, reverse course, or reformulate.  Remarkably, this is a partic

National Standardized Tests. For those interested in the current state of K-12 education in the United States. The 2014 round of standardized exam administration got underway in several states this week. As predicted by FairTest and our Testing Resistance & Reform Spring (TRRS) allies, opt-out campaigns and other forms of protest exploded in many communities. See http://www.resistthetest.org The CCSS, Common Core of States Standard, is more-or-less a set of national standards aimed at improving K-12 education.  In mathematics, its goal is to increase thought provoking curricula with an emphasis on problem solving in all grades.  Of coruse, this sounds great.  It sounds as though at least someone has found the true path.  And 47 state agreed.  Currently, only Indiana has opted out. Of course, in the interest of accountability, there are the associated high stakes tests to measure compliance and achievement of the so-called "Core."  An unsurprising controversy has emerged.

From March 20, 1990. This morning on National Public Radio (NPR), I heard a piece centered on industrial phsychology and its attempt to identify the strengths and weaknesses of individual employees, and to match the employee to the job to enhance productivity. The admission has been made that certain people are good at one thing but not at another. This is in contradistinction to the 70's and 80's claim that "you can be what you want to be.'   Probably, this reaches even into the 50's and 60's for in my own memory the truism is what guided many of us into our chosen paths and certainly kept us to them - once begun.  This new attitude is a window in a larger screen.  For example, "We can tame and control nature to our own ends."  This, a familiar cry from decades past, has been abandoned.  For women in the 80's, "You can have it all," have realized that choices must be made.  Having it all is not possible. The new attitude (actually

A memory is an event or object stored in your brain.   Memories are neither perceptive nor conceptive as these are more-or-less contemporary events.   Objects of the memory are therefore objects of the past.    The principle two types of memory are the acts of remembering and of recollection.   Recollection can be regarded as imperfect memory that singles out similarities with perhaps a large group of memories each having some commonality to the presence of event at hand.     In this note, we expand the idea of memory beyond remembering and recalling.   These are the more subtle memories we need and which allow us to survive and thrive. Instincts.   First, consider a new approach to instinct .   It is differentiated from the hard-wired instincts (discussed below).   It is discussed here as a aspect of possible forgotten memory.   It forms a type of memory in the sense that when an event occurs, there can result an “instinctive” reaction without the benefit of either recall o

Kathleen Sebelius may be the new heroine of the right.  That's right! How's that? A cogent argument can be made that HHS Secretary Sebelius, foreseeing the possible economic disaster resulting from the ACA(Affordable Care Act), decided to sabotage the bill by appointing totally incompetent officials (e.g. Marilyn Tavenner) to oversee its implementation and by approving an equally incompetent software firm to write the massive code. One can claim her work and aims were achieved with the emergence of a non-functioning website, riddled with problems, often not working, and with no data security provisions in place.  These conditions persist, though the website now seems to work - but only after millions more were expended to correct the errant code. Additionally, there are thousands of pages of sometimes contradictory regulations required to implement the 2000 page bill.  It is certain an army of administrators, operatives, and lawyers will feed off these regulations for gener

We are residents in a silver bullet society.   We believe just about any problem has a simple pinpointed, highly targeted, definitely focused solution.    The problem complexity is irrelevant.   The overarching simplicity of the solution neutralizes complexity, creating a silver bullet solutions environment.   This is not to say the proposed solution is cheap or even simple, but it is single-minded and simple to comprehend.   It is easy to sell.   It is believable to the uninitiated, to the gullible, to the willing expert, and to the inexperienced.   It is simplistic and makes promises of a total resolution of the problem.    It comes to, “To solve problem X, just do Y.” The silver bullet paradigm compels believers to accept simplistic, often expensive, solutions.   It resolves problems, not by study and consensus, but rather by fiat, by denying alternatives, by denying study, and by rejecting alternative views.    Such solutions often address a symptom of the problem, and

A. If you try to squeeze too much blood from a turnip, you'll end up with a truly pissed off turnip. B. If what you crave most in life is politics, you will surely receive it. C. What is the most resilient substance on earth?  Kids.  It seems that no matter how terrible the parenting, many kids grow up just fine.  There is a counterpart for good parenting. D. I like the dawn - the dawn of a bright day.  I think because dawn is a state of becoming.  It is fleeting and changing and harbors good things to come.   From Marcus Aurelius (121-186 AD) we have "Each day provides its own gifts ." E. Ok, you have a piece of bread.  You want to make toast.  For my toaster, it takes about three minutes, golden brown and tasty.  The question is at what point does the bread become toast.  Certainly before the three minutes elapse, but certainly now right away.  But when?   F. We can count - better than ever - but are rapidly forgetting what to count and why, what is worth coun

I am so disappointed in LinkedIn.  It has apparently sent invitations to people not even in my email contacts, but apparently to contacts of contacts. I have tried everything to turn this off.  To me, it is inconceivable that this bodes good will to LinkedIn members. I have never invited anyone to "join" my network.  Yet I constantly receive invitations.  And now I am making the same - all my without consent - all without my knowledge.  To me, this is an errant business decision by LinkedIn.  What possible good would this be to irritate their members?  Henceforth, I will never accept invitations from anyone I do not personally know.  I am debating on whether to withdraw from LinkedIn altogether. On a sour note, this seems to be symptomatic of  the global institutional invasion of our personal information and lives. It is so pandemic many do not even respond any more.  Our phone calls, emails, Facebook, twitter information is all recorded and stashed in some cloud of mem

Why did the chicken cross the road???  This is an old one, with a few new entries.   When my dad played this one on me, he delighted to say, "To get to the other side."  Ha, ha.  But leave it to the professionals to interpret.  In the compilation below, there are too many authors to attribute - indeed I don't know most of them.  My humble contributions are the last two, though I feel certain they are not original to me.   The pleasure of this piece is in the humor of extravagant interpretations in philosophy, politics, physics, mathematics, and sociology. Aristotle: To actualize its potential. Plato: For the greater good. Sir Isaac Newton: Chickens at rest tend to stay at rest. Chickens in motion tend to cross the road Sigmund Freud: The fact that you thought that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity. Nietzsche: Because if you gaze too long across the Road, the Road gazes also across you. Martin Luther King: It had a dream