Patience and the spectrum

The TV series “Patience” on WPS, our state public tv service, is about a young woman who works in the Records department of the York, England Police.  It takes a while for her to show her talents, which lie in the areas of reasoning and searching enormous shelves of records.  She is “on the spectrum”, which is also communicated these days by stating she is an “atypical neurotype”.  

Such persons are often uncomfortable simply speaking and even more so, explaining or defending an idea against opposition and doubters.  I looked up the question of whether there are more individuals then there used to be and the answer was yes but it noted that more people are aware of the condition of ‘being on the spectrum’ then there used to be. Patience is played by the actress Ella Mavis Purvis, who is herself on the spectrum.  I have seen a man I love and admire, who displays spectrum characteristics stand beside a table at which several other people are seated without taking a chair or seeming to notice uncomfortable looks from those sitting.

Artificial hydration

The doctor said to drink more water.  Since then, we both have drunk more water but we find that doing that makes us have to visit the bathroom every time we stand up.  When I was told to drink more water, I had allowed myself to just fall from a walking position into a full-bodied collapse while thinking that I need not bother keeping upright.  It was a false but dreamy feeling that I could just stop trying and fall, as one might do onto a mattress. It may seem like a small demand but I suspect my body is actually ready to stop living but I am taking measures to continue anyhow.

Fall tomorrow late in the day

8:05 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time / 7:05 p.m. Central Daylight Time.

Universal Time (UTC): 00:05 UTC on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.

Meaning: The Sun crosses directly over the Earth's equator heading south.

Season Shift: Marks the official astronomical start of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and spring in the Southern Hemisphere. [1, 2, 3]

In the words of the internet item: “the length of day and night are nearly equal”.  According to my results, sunset here will be 6:56 PM.

Correlate, not cause

One of the factors human minds sometimes are misled by is correlates that are not causes.  Let’s say that we find that pickpockets are more often ambidextrous than the general population.  So: does favoring the use of both hands equally lead one into pickpocketry? 

That idea might be the focus of research for a while.  I am not trying to start a rumor about ambidextrians.  The internet says that genuine ambidextry occurs in about 1% of people.

One sentence

These days, I can open a book, read one sentence and wrestle with it, ponder it, oppose it, support it for quite a while.  The other day, something that Garrison Keillor wrote included these words:

“We live in interesting times, which sometimes are so absurdly interesting repeatedly day after day that a person gets tired of all fascination and takes a keener interest in the ordinary, such as I did last week …”

It may be the times but I think being older and having digital and electronic communication all have some effect, too

My first ride in a self-driving car

Friends picked us up for dinner last night.  They gave us our first ride in a Tesla self-driving car.  It was a little weird to see the steering wheel turn and twist with no hands on it.  The car had to take us through a busy intersection with a tricky traffic signal and then immediately turn left across a lane of traffic coming the other way.  It was smooth and impressive.  I am grateful for the experience.

"Incognito" by Eagleman

About ten years ago, I read “Incognito” by David Eagleman.  No other book has stayed in my mind as much since then.  There are many books with that title but this is non-fiction. It’s about our minds and our unconscious intelligences.  It made me see how my brain does many things “on its own” without me even noticing.  Breathing, using stairs, moving me out of the way of trucks, forming useful things to say - I use many skills without trying.

Big guy in the sky v. complex me

When I learned a little about Eastern thought, I didn’t see the properties of God explained or worshipful practice involving kneeling and supplication.  I am confident there is some of that, but I was impressed with the exploration of my use of my own mind and other aspects of my body and me.  I have written before about seeing in the campus schedule of classes, a class about relaxation.  I thought what do students do?  Relax for the whole period?  I have since learned that achieving genuine relaxation can be  difficult, given some circumstances and conditions.  Socrates is famous for his principle “Know thyself”, which is a big aspect of Eastern practice.

New types of mechanical devices

If you watch “The Closer” or “Major Crimes”, you see a team of LA police officers investigating.  One of the members of the group is “Buzz”.   He is not the usual officer but more of an equipment technician.  He takes various types of pictures and can modify, enlarge, slow down or speed up their showing. He is in steady demand, both at a crime scene and later back at the station.  In several fields of work, new and valuable equipment can assist in the analysis of events in ways that unaided police cannot.  In many fields, new types of technology accomplish things faster, more completely, more minutely with fewer errors than unaided humans can.

Look it up with Google

I probably look up some little thing in search.google.com four or five times a day.  I know this is the age of emerging artificial intelligence but so far, I find the power of the “search engine” much more applicable to my thinking.  What is Anthropic?  Do upper or lower teeth cause more trouble?  What is Mozart’s Queen of the Night so enraged at her daughter?  See ?  This is the type of deep, important question that comes to my mind and can be answered by Google Search.