Becoming a flexitarian

The first step in becoming a flexitarian is to find out what a flexitarian is.  The word was the 2003 word of the year, as voted on by the American Dialect Society.  It means a vegetarian who eats meat when it is convenient. I mentioned the word to Lynn and she immediately said she is a reverse flexitarian, since she eats meat but is a vegetarian when it is convenient.  

I learned this from the first lecture in the Great Course "The Secret Life of Words" by Prof. Anne Curzan of the University of Michigan.  She also introduced me to the comforting word "Recombobulation".  You know that feeling is disorganization and upset you sometimes have just after passing thru airport security.  Your wallet, keys and cellphone are in a tray that you are trying to carry off to the side without spilling it or dropping your backpack or your computer.  You also have to carry your shoes to a place you can put them on without being in the path of traffic.  If you are a guy, your belt is in the same tray so you need to pay attention to holding your pants up.  Step to the recombobulation area and get dis-discombobulated.  You will feel lots better.

Prof. Curzan says that the word of the year is decided on at a convention held in January.  The word of the year for 2012 is "occupy" as in "Occupy Wall Street".  

One of the things that attracted me to her course is the very wide range of words that she discusses, including words of sports, cuss words, and words used in love.  If you look up the American Dialect Society you can see the words of the year for the past decade and more.  

At the convention of 1999, there was political jostling to decide on the word of the millenium, just ending that year.  The winner of several ballots was "she".  The wikipedia says:

In 1789, William H. Marshall records the existence of a dialectal English epicene pronoun, singular "ou": "'Ou will' expresses either he will, she will, or it will." Marshall traces "ou" to Middle English epicene "a", used by the 14th century English writer John of Trevisa, and both the OED and Wright's English Dialect Dictionary confirm the use of "a" for he, she, it, they, and even I. This "a" is a reduced form of the Anglo-Saxon he = "he" and heo = "she". By the 12th and 13th centuries, these had often weakened to a point where, according to the OED, they were "almost or wholly indistinguishable in pronunciation." The modern feminine pronoun she, which first appears in the mid twelfth century, seems to have been drafted at least partly to reduce the increasing ambiguity of the pronoun system…

Now isn't that just what you were interested in finding out on this last day of the year?
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Do what you love or, at least, like?

I don't think it is possible to live a life doing only what you love.  Doing what you love invariably leads to what you don't and what you don't leads, one way or another, to what you do.

We watched another episode of "Rosemary and Thyme" last night.  One of the pair of gardener/detectives is a scholar, not married and has no children.  The other has had an unpleasant divorce but has a fully-grown son. He is a policeman and she used to be, too.  Last night, they not only found the obligatory body in the garden they are contracted to improve but also found a baby, abandoned but alive.  The long-time childless woman oohed and aahed while weighing whether she should have married that guy back then.  The divorced mother was far less emotionally involved.  The scholar soon found that the odd hours newborns keep and the difficulty of meeting their needs and even communicating successfully with them all amounted to quite an ordeal.  Suddenly, motherhood didn't seem like such a good deal.  

I have never been a mother but I have been closely associated with them since before I was born.  I get the impression that mothers often become mothers without fully intending to.  I realize that some mothers had to work carefully and deliberately to become parents.  I am confident that no parent of either sex ever went through all of life without at sometime or other wondering if parenting was worth the trouble.  ('Course, most of us think it was clearly worth the trouble our own parents went to for us.)

I am interested in what amount of gain in energy, efficiency, dedication and creativity, not to mention wealth, that comes to those for find a way to do what they like doing (or find a way to like doing what they do).  The book "Do What You Love and The Money Will Follow" by Marsha Sinetar is more or less about this subject.  The first negative review of the book seems a good one to me.  C.S. Lewis remarks somewhere that there is an enormous difference between the 5 yr. old boy fascinated by an airplane flying over and a grown, competent pilot who has mastered and practices aviation.

Where this topic comes up in my life is teaching.  I like teaching but it was apparent to me that many college students didn't like the life of a student.  I feel that a very good portion of the students on any campus, especially a public one, are there because they have been told it will lead to a good life. Statistics basically bear that idea out, I guess, in terms of lifelong income.  But since some friends of mine actually taught short courses to teachers on the opportunities for high school grads other than going to college, I am aware of many such.  Attending 12 years of compulsory schooling is hard enough and many people who thrive on activity and motion and genuine challenge just cannot face more desks, more books and more homework. Especially so at their biological and sexual peak, when family chores and working for pay can be very enjoyable.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Williams, Heaversedge and Halliwell

I wrote yesterday about invisible but controlling forces in the universe, electromagnetic radiation and gravity being two of the fundamental four.  It is clear that our senses are important to us but that there are phenomena that exist but can't be detected by the unaided human.  So, when I tell myself that I concentrate on the material world, I mean to include some non-material aspects of it, such as these forces.  Even though it is a slippery slope from rocks and trees to gremlins and fairies, I also recognize that my thoughts as well as my written and typed words along with my speech matter, too.  So do those of others, alive now or formerly.  

Because in the early 80's, I recognized the potential of meditation as a tool for mental, social and physical health and for joy and appreciation of life, I pay attention to information that comes along, both scientific results and explanatory sources.  When I hear of some new book or video on one or more forms of meditation, I try to give it at least a cursory glance, in case it seems to be a valuable addition to efforts to help everyone to know and practice the fundamentals.  

Meditation is as valuable as exercise to having a good life.  In some ways, it can be considered more valuable since exercise can be limited by body conditions or other limitations while mediation may still be possible.  A good friend said the other day that he meditates for about 30 seconds, several times a day.  Totally fine!  I have a copy of the out-of-print book by Charles Stroebel, MD that promotes doing just that, for as little as 6 seconds.  You know, waiting for the traffic light to change or while on hold.  

What to do during the meditation time?  Relax!  Sometimes, it takes a little time to scan the face and whole body and sense tension being carried there.  Even though the relaxation is valuable for the body and the spirit, it is the use of the attention that really matters.  Continuing the practice slowly improves one's awareness of what one is doing with attention.  What is being attended to?  Where is my attention?  

Greater awareness of one's attention increases one's ability to see one's thoughts and feelings as they parade by.  That greater awareness, referred to as "mindfulness" assists in seeing oneself and others compassionately and with understanding.  It increases tolerance, sympathy and understanding of the foibles and shortcomings in self and others while decreasing their power and damage. It helps with the limitations of pain, sickness and aging, as well as being dealt a poor hand by life in some area.

Mark Williams is a British professor of clinical psychology at Oxford University.  He is the lead author of "The Mindful Way through Depression", which I found very helpful in understanding the mind's typical way of leading into depression and staying there.  He has written the excellent introduction to "The Mindfulness Manifesto" by Heaversedge and Halliwell, an inexpensive book by two practicing professionals describing meditation practices and their application.  They are aware that businesses, colleges, K-12 grades, military and law enforcement organizations and medical practitioners are joining churches and religious groups in using meditative practices, which are quick to use, virtually without cost, have no side effects and are proving extremely valuable.

Until writing this post, I had not looked at videos and YouTube sources on the web about meditation but I just found that there are over 100 million that Google can find. Here is a short, coached session of meditation by the world-famous Mayo Clinic.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Amazing waves

One of the parts of iTunes is iTunes University.  It consists of courses that are free and can be accessed on an iPad or iPhone.  Maybe on a Mac computer, too.  I don't know. I had seen the category using iTunes with an iPod but never gotten much into it.  Today, I thought I would explore what I can find in iTunes University and decided on Four Fundamental Forces of the Universe.  I had seen the list before:

• electromagnetism
• gravity
• weak nuclear interaction
• strong nuclear interaction

Don't ask me much about what the names mean since I don't know.  All of the terms are explained to some extent on the web but not so that they mean much to me. That is one reason I will consider a little exposure to the materials in the course, which is created by the Open University of England and is supposed to take about a week.

Of course, we have all heard of and had experience with both electricity/magnetism and gravity.  That doesn't mean I understand what gravity is or why it exists.  I have heard that the much discussed Higgs particle is related to the quantum theories of all matter and to the question of what I have heard of as "the acquisition of mass".

I never gave much thought to electro/magnetism until I heard Deepak Chopra explaining how to think of the world as consisting of real things that we cannot see.  He used the example of a radio.  He said there are radio waves around my head right now but my head is not built to detect them.  Bring a radio in and turn it on and it will detect them for me and convert them into sounds I can hear.  As a child, we had no television but the radio played a big part.  The fact that a wire lead from the set to a plug in the wall distracted me from the miracle of waves since I figured being plugged in did something.  Listening to Chopra, I remembered little transistor radios with batteries that clearly accomplish a miracle.  

The video associated with Four Fundamental Forces of the Universe that I watched today included a bit of history of the development of radio, which depended on understanding that electro-magnetic waves did indeed exist and could be used to transmit signals.  Much thinking and some inventing were required, along with steady doses of persistence and hope, but eventually, Marconi demonstrated that he could indeed communicate from America to England using this amazing form of energy.

I learned that one of the first uses for radio communication was to talk to ships at sea.  Captains were not entirely pleased with the new development since it allowed ship owners to give orders to them while they were at sea, a place where they had been unreachable before.  Similarly, sailors sometimes rejoiced at being able to communicate with wives while at sea but sometimes felt they had lost some sanctuary from marital discussions.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Durn it!

Yesterday, I wrote about the confirmation bias.  I had heard of the tendency to see confirming evidence while having a lower probability of either seeing or remembering disconfirming evidence before.  The lecturer discussed at one point the example of Lord Kelvin, the premier scientist of his day, the man who discovered the existence and value of absolute zero.  A specialist in thermodynamics, he seemed to feel that at the pinnacle of scientific achievement, he had become a specialist in everything.  He dismissed whole fields of scientific endeavor out of hand, feeling that he had the insight that enabled him to do so.

Not being aware of or being able to remember a stream of data is no shame.  As a male, I like to think I am the king, if not of the whole kingdom, at least a portion of it.  If not of a portion, at least of my stamp collection or my tool bench.  Sometimes feeling as though in truth I am not a king can be very uncomfortable. Just as the man caught by a lion had his consciousness snap off so that his body and mind would not have to face the terrible truth of what was happening to him, my mind can snap off or even fail to register all the evidence.

I believe that sitting still and quiet for 10 minutes a day is good for me and that if I "can't find the time", I am kidding myself into either the wrong over-full slate of activities or the avoidance of something which is really quite simple,. short and painless while being super-valuable.  In a similar way, I believe that if I can't make a short blog post each day, I am kidding myself into too many duties and activities or avoiding enough reflection and observation of make some statement.

Sometimes, I am so pleased to have the post written or so happy with it or something, that I don't watch what I am doing and send the post instead of waiting until the next morning to send it.  Then, as yesterday, I send my marvelous creation out instead of letting it age a few hours.  It irritates me when I am careless, since it is another piece of evidence that I am unable to ignore that I am not so durned terrific at everything I do, the way a king ought to be.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Toilet seat debate

Prof. Novella tries to make clear that our brains don't work in as clear and complete a way as we like to think.  One of the mental traps that catch us is the "confirmation bias".  We have a couple, Mary and John.  Mary is quite annoyed when she finds the toilet seat up, especially if she doesn't realize its position until after sitting down.  John is pretty much a sharpshooter but realizes he needs to raise the seat before firing.  He knows that he does and she knows he doesn't.  

Prof. N. makes clear that when the confirmation bias is operating, John notes with pride, satisfaction and some feeling of unfairly being persecuted each time he does indeed raise the seat and lowers it afterwards.  Mary notes with a feeling that she is a good observer who remembers accurately when she is treated unfairly each time she finds the seat up.  The professor's point is that instances that confirm the position of each are noted while instances that do not confirm the ideas of each are handled quite differently.  Each notes with pride times that confirm their own position while sometimes literally not seeing instances that disconfirm their picture.  

Of course, either or both could take the nerdy approach and make a chart to keep a record of toilet seat positions.  They might install security cameras that could supply data as to what happened when.  However, without outside and impartial aid, our couple might go on for years, each staunchly maintaining their view, all the while feeling that they have actual experiences to back them up.  Each is correct and both are wrong.

Seeing and noting and remembering information that confirms our ideas, suspicions and theories while not even noticing disconfirmation and forgetting counter-instances that we do notice can relate to more serious debates than what our partner does in the bathroom.  It's entirely possible that any idea we hold would look different to us if we had better and more complete data.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

A moving book

In the first few years after I began teaching teachers, I read John Holt's "What Do I Do Monday?"  From that, I learned about Ken Macrorie's "Uptaught", the story of how an English professor came to see the stilted, limited, mechanical, dutiful and boring world of college papers for what they typically are.  I sometimes feel it is the single best book I have ever read.

Since I can't remember all the books I have read, I realize that there is no single best book but if there were, or a book closest to being the best, I would nominate Uptaught.  It is not easy to get a copy of the book, published in 1970 by Hayden Book Co.  There are still paperback copies around in the second hand market but even they are iffy.  More than half seemed to be priced for collectors or a joke for figures over $100.  

Macrorie died in 2009 and is well-known in some circles as the author of several other books on writing and teaching writing, often published by Heinemann.  

Uptaught tells his observations and transformation into a better way of teaching composition courses.  The freshman writing course is sometimes considered fundamental to all of college and higher education, since it is supposed to be about how to write papers, a fundamental part of college in most courses.

The book is really about honest, intelligent, conscious, well-crafted expression.  That subject is no joke and is not limited to college classrooms.  Lovers in the dark, politicians in the legislature, parishioners in the coffee hall after church, friends at a party are all people that enjoy each other and grow from contact with each other if and when there is that honest, direct and well-crafted expression.  Direct statements of accurate expressions of what one has seen and how one feels are amazingly powerful and satisfying but far too much of school is automatic shuffling through the mines of required number of words, masked, stripped of seasoning and strength.

I am re-reading the worn secondhand copy I have before giving it to a friend and again it lifts me and slams me and saddens me.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Seeking championship in overwhelmed Olympics

Here on Christmas Eve, there are waves.  Waves of greetings, lights, cookies, meringues, gifts, sounds, smells, bills,worries and rushes.  We have timers going off and doorbells ringing.  Could we borrow some cream of tartar?  Where is that gift I hid?  Have I got them all or, like last year's Easter eggs, will some remain hidden for years to come?

A friend wrote that she shied away from Kindle from fear of being overwhelmed by books.  The young novelist Helen Smith confessed months ago to buying way more books, so inexpensive and so quickly downloaded, than she had time to read.  Maybe later.

Maybe later.  Maybe tomorrow afternoon, after carting out the wrappings we made only to be destroyed (affirming our awareness of the transitory nature of everything), maybe then we will take some time to read.  Ha!  Read?  But then, we will fall ever further behind on our listening to TED talks.  TED talks are really good!  Gotta listen.  Gotta!  Ha!  Then, I will fall behind on my Great Courses.  Have several that have sat patiently on the shelf for several years waiting to be heard.  Have several in video disk form that are even older and even more expensive but since they take longer and narrow what can be done concurrently, such as drive a car, they are even older.  

And Twitter?  Don't get me started.  I have developed the habit of reading through one set of Tweets without downloading any of the dozen that come in while I am reading.  Of course, sharing is a big time-consumer.  A good Tweet, like a good passage in all those good books, can be shared.  Passages can be shared with a couple of keys to my followers on Twitter (probably ¾ of whom I have never met in any other way) but good Tweets from others need to be emailed to myself and then relayed to the dozens of poor, isolated people who never get any canned meat spam and are hungry for my selections of admittedly really smart and with-it people on both sides of the Atlantic and both sides of the US and its top, bottom and middle, too.

Don't forget Netflix, Amazon, Vudu and the steadily increasing alternatives to these sources, all interested in your streaming movies.  I just read that Redbox will be offering movies streams soon.  There is little difference between streaming a movie and watching it on DVD except that the streamed one arrives at your screen with very little time and effort.

While I feel my overwhelmedness is fairly strong in all these areas, I have not neglected the Google/Bing (and 30,000+ other search programs) to explore all areas of possible growth or present frustration or limitation on the trillions of web pages.  I use Google hourly and am rather faithfully overwhelmed by its results.  

David Weinberger is right: it is all too big to know!  See?  I am pretty well overwhelmed and I am aware of it.  I am striving for a deeper level of overwhelmedness all the time.  What more do you want?

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Good wishes with an inspiring display

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

A friend sent this for her Christmas greeting and I think it will be enjoyable for everyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=GBaHPND2QJg&feature=youtu.be

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Gentleman

I am trying to remember to be gentle.

About a month ago, I bought a small refrigerator for our basement that wouldn't fit in my car.  It would nearly fit and seemed as though it would if I pushed and shoved and banged on the carton a little.  It was frustratingly close to fitting but I didn't think rearranging the geometry and maybe the functioning of the just-purchased machine was a good idea.  So, I asked my wife to drive over with the van.  She was not far away and cheerfully agreed to do so.

I waited on the parking lot with the large carton sitting beside me.  A middle-aged woman, stopped and asked if I needed help.  I explained that I was waiting for my wife to come as I didn't think I could force the carton into the car without damage.  She smiled and said,"It's hard for men."

I was surprised by the remark but it was not at all the first time that it has seemed to me that force and stronger force comes naturally, even pleasantly, to male minds as a tool.  Since this lady clearly thought similarly and said so in a natural, everyday voice, it seemed to be a thought that she felt comfortable with.  

I watched a nature video on tv showing several male whales vying to see which of them would mate with a waiting female.  There was lots of whale-sized pushes and shoves, body checks, blocking one another's path, crashing into each other.  After the winner and the female were together, all four or five males did a sort of reconciliation dance with each other, a soothing of hard-feelings type of thing, according to the narrator.  I was struck by the similarity of the reconciliation to the combat.  Both seemed aggressive and forceful.

If you watch two happy football players facing each other, jumping into the air and smacking their chests together, you will see almost exactly the same body moves as the whales made.  Wrestlers, hockey players, lacrosse players can enjoy the experience of giving another a good solid hit and sometimes, receiving one.  

My physical therapist gives me an exercise and my basic tendency is to make the movement too rigorously.  I do that without trying, just naturally.  She calls it "going ballistic" and she advises me to move more gently and slowly.  I think her phrase is overblown and am confident that trying harder or trying as hard as I can would be far more "ballistic" than what I do.  But that is not the point.  Whether it is stirring batter or accelerating the car or carry something heavy up the stairs, I am interested in consciously being a little bit gentle.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Gems from the day

I have seen some interesting things on Twitter today and though I could mention them.  The URL below the bold title can be copied and pasted in your browser for more info.  If I make them live links, the Google software will stop my message as spam.

Why Japan Likes Kentucky Fried Chicken for Christmas
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-dance-connection/201205/fight-fair

99% of the Japanese are not Christian but they get excited about Christmas as a holiday, decorate and celebrate with Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Result of smart ad campaign in the 70"s.

How to Fight Fair
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-dance-connection/201205/fight-fair

Psychology Today has an absolute forest of blogs, written by experienced psychologists and counselors.  Harriet Lerner is one of the more famous ones. This post by her on marital fighting is basic but well-written and funny.  

Calls from my secretary (that's me, myself all alone) - I want to be able to tell my Google Voice connection to phone me at a given time on a given day to remind me

Prof. Steven Novella - Your Deceptive Mind course
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=9344

It can get a little tiresome listening to a very long list of tricks we and others play or try to play on our thinking.  Still, he says some helpful things.  One of the most helpful for me was the clear presentation of how conspiracy thinking sometimes works:  I think there has been a local conspiracy against me.  You point out some evidence that ought to support my idea that is missing.  Aha!  Someone I had not suspected before must also be part of the conspiracy!  I wouldn't have thought it before but now that I think of it, is is obvious.

New apocalypse needed  Today is Dec. 21, the shortest day of the year.  From now on, the day gets longer and the night shrinks.  Today is the day that some think the ancient Mayans had predicted the world would end.  Since it didn't (mostly, unless there is a conspiracy to make it look like it didn't), we need a new apocalypse.  "@VictorianLondon", a Twitter name, suggests a future date in 2016 on which we expect the world to be eaten by a giant duck.  Works for me.

Treatment by computer - There is the talk on TED that I mentioned where a person suspected of suffering from incipient Parkinson's disease can be checked by a special computer with a phone call in which the computer analyzes the action of the caller's vocal chords.  Today on Twitter, a New Zealand report on computer counseling for depressed teens says it seems to work reasonably well.

Hashtags in Twitter - I have yet to finish my elementary book on using Twitter.  I get a lot of fun from reading remarks and references from people and sources (New York Times, Scientific American, etc.) that I admire.  I have learned that names or handles are marked by the @ sign but themes are marked by hashtags, #.  I haven't really started paying attention to them and their use but I may.  I can usually count on an hour of computing with Twitter now and doubt I can comfortably do much more.



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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Deliberate or unconscious?

It seems that some things are best done carefully and deliberately while others are best performed with the conscious mind turned off or onto other things.  Timothy Gallwey in "The Inner Game of Tennis" uses the example of two friends crossing a street mid-block while talking to each other.  Each eyes the traffic coming this way and that and calculates when to slip through the moving vehicles without impeding them, nor causing sudden braking or being hit.  I watched a video of Gallwey hitting a tennis ball over a net with a student who had trouble timing the ball's flight and striking it just as it rose from the court.  He asked the student to shout "Bounce" when the ball struck the ground and "Hit" as her racket hit the ball back.  

He feels that the conscious, deliberate mind can get in the way.  Gallwey often uses the strategy of giving the conscious, thinking mind something to do, such as count at a given time.  A friend mentioned the other day about his poor performance in piano lessons until his teacher asked him to try to let his fingers do their job with less oversight and more natural response.

The book "Thinking: Fast and Slow" by the Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman emphasizes that our rapid response system is very quick and relies on unconscious processes while our deliberate, contemplative minds may see things quite differently after having enough time to think things over.  

We can pretty well control what we put our attention on and we can select for attention something related to our task, such as a fleeing rabbit, or an intentionally selected side issue such as when the tennis ball strikes the court.  Training our attention by keeping it fixed on some neutral point or object for a short time regularly increases our awareness of what we have allowed to be the focus of our attention at all hours day and night.  These short times can vary from 6 seconds ("QR: The Quieting Reflex" by Charles Stroebel, MD) to 24 minutes or longer ("Genuine Happiness" by B. Alan Wallace).  

We can pretty well see in many situations whether we need to concentrate on a task or should instead put our attention off on some side track for a while.  Sometimes, calling on our unconscious by writing or talking to another (including speaking to a tape recorder for ourselves to listen to later – "What You Practice Is What You Have" by Cheri Huber) helps us find hidden or unwelcome feelings and convictions that we need to work on or with. Sometimes, it helps to get as much into the feelings and personality of another person we want to understand as we can (as in method acting).

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Grousing for power?

On Monday, I read a post in the New York Times blog "The New Old Age".  It is titled "In the Middle: Why Elderly Couples Fight".  It opened my eyes and I am still thinking about it.  

My father's parents were dead before I was born but my mother's parents were important parts of my growing up.  My grandfather was about 50 years older than me and my grandmother a few years younger.  They seemed old to me all my life.  They would frequently get into a verbal scrap, my grandfather growling and my grandmother shooting sharp remarks back at him.

In our late 30's, Lynn and I took our teenaged daughters on an extended car trip from Wisconsin to California, the Southwest and back.  We camped much of the way and my wife and I fought daily.  We were not elderly couples. But we are now, and although we are both interested in avoiding bickering, yelling and other sorts of negativity, we still get into fights, or lighter skirmishes, fight-ettes.

I have usually thought of men grousing because of physical pain, expenses, and political and religious objections and disagreements.  I know that anger is often a secondary response to fear.  I think what was attention-getting in the post was the idea of fighting for power, battling to express power.  The notion has given me some new hope for understanding a grumpy mood that seems unwarranted, unjustified but definite.  Maybe I am feeling too weak, too subject to rules or forces I don't like or am tired of.  

Most of my life, I have taken a lawyerly approach to arguments.  On the surface, I try to marshal evidence that supports "my side" and might convince a judge or jury that I have a justified complaint.  But I am pretty sure that I can find someone's way of moving or coughing or not coughing irritating when some sort of fear or ambition is actually driving me.  I intend to watch myself and look for information on these topic, which seems valuable.  I have thought I was not interested in power but I have seen that the master woodcarver or the ardent fly-fishing enthusiast is often building a little kingdom where he seems to have power, status, expertise, mastery.  If I feel that my kingdom is a sham or I have lost my place in it, I may react negatively.  

I am not convinced that any such feeling has to be internally recognized as such to have motivating force on me.  I know there are large parts of me that don't show themselves clearly but still matter or get translated in alternative forms before showing up explicitly.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

TED talks link

I didn't put a link to the TED talks into today's post.  I meant to but I know you don't really need it, here in the age of Google and Bing.

Still, have a link:
http://www.ted.com/

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Good stuff

When you are in the mood for some stimulating information, with no commercials, take another look at the TED talks.  I could insert a link to each of the talks we found surprising, uplifting, informative but if I do that,I will have enough links that I will probably get stopped as spam.  So, I will insert one link to the TED talks over all and just mention the names of the individual talks that I recommend.  I have no idea how many there are in total but the number is high.

Maz Jobrani is an Iranian-American comedian.  He has at least two talks:
"A Saudi ,an Indian and an Iranian Walk into a Bar"
"Did You Hear the One About the Iranian-American?"
I laughed at the first one but had more laughs with the second one.  As Jobrani emphasizes, Americans don't see Middle Easterners laughing but the first one listed shows them doing so.  It is fun to see healthy, happy laughs from women dressed in Middle Eastern clothing, something I don't think I have ever seen before.

Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing and Anthony Atala: Printing a human kidney
You may be pretty sure you are not interested in 3D printing but I urge you to get a little familiar with the concept, which holds all sorts of potential, probably both good and not-so-good.  This is basically printing, that is, manufacturing, objects, small ones at first.

I rarely hear the word "architect" or "architectural" in conversations or what I read.  Not so smart of me since several of my family are involved in the business of construction.  Here, in Wisconsin, of course, we make heavy use of our houses while winter settles around us.  There are several interesting-sounding talks on TED about architecture, including some I intend to get back to.  When coupled with 3D printing, medicine, chemistry and genetics, the whole idea of architecture, including that of nano-science of the very small, takes on a new importance.  Well, new to me, anyhow. So,
Michael Hansmeyer: Building unimaginable shapes  
Think it wouldn't be possible to build something you can't imagine?  Take a look at his talk.

Next, a telephone call to diagnose the level of Parkinson's disease you are suffering from, a talk by Max Little: A test for Parkinson's with a phone call.

Finally, take the time to watch Ernesto Sirolli explain that if you want to help someone, shut up and listen!  I can assure you that you will be moved by him.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

phone scams

A friend emailed me this.  I did check it out on Snopes.com, a well-known site for collections of scams, rumors and urban legend.  What I received was dated Nov. 28, 2012 but quite a bit of the wording, word for word, is on the Snopes sites and there it is dated 2003, quite a while ago.  There was no information that this scam was especially active at this time, nor that it was not.  The basic rule of not giving out information over the phone holds.

This message is a warning not to give 3 security digits out over the phone.  According the information on the Snopes.com site, such numbers were first put on Mastercard in the late 1990's and on Visa cards in the first years of the 2000's, which more or less fits with the 2003 date.

Normally, I guess problems are taken up with the issuing bank, not Mastercard or Visa.

I happen to be listening to a course on critical thinking, the scientific method and deception, of all kinds: self deception, group deception and scientific fraud and error.  Just because a scheme seems as though it would work does not mean that it is happening next door to me.  The Snopes link has some interesting information on the criteria they use in deciding whether to post about something or not. 

Bill

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Hi Folks:

 http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/creditcard.asp
Just a heads up for everyone regarding the latest in credit card fraud.  Many of the major banks in the USA have received this communication about the newest scam. This is happening in the Midwest right now and moving. This one is pretty slick since they provide YOU with all the information, except the one piece they want. Note, the callers do not ask for your card number; they already have it. This information is worth reading. By understanding how the VISA & MasterCard telephone Credit Card Scam works, you'll be better prepared to protect yourself.

One of our employees was called on Wednesday from 'VISA', and I was called on Thursday from 'MasterCard'.
The scam works like this: Person calling says - 'This is (name), and I'm calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My Badge number is 12460, Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase
pattern, and I'm calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card which was issued by (name of bank). Did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for $497.99 from a marketing company basedin Arizona ?' When you say 'No', the caller continues with, 'Then we will be issuing a credit to your account.

This is a company we have been watching and the charges range from $297 to $497, just under the $500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to (gives you your address), is that correct?' You say 'yes'. The caller continues - 'I will be starting a Fraud Investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 1- 800 number listed on the back of your card (1-800-VISA) and ask for Security. You will need to refer to this Control Number. The caller then gives you a 6 digit number. 'Do you need me to read it again?'

Here's the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works - The caller then says, 'I need to verify you are in possession of your card' He'll ask you to 'turn your card over and look for some numbers'. There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the last 3 are the Security Numbers that verify you are the possessor of the card. These are the numbers you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove you have the card. The caller will ask you to read the last 3 numbers to him. After you tell the caller the 3 numbers, he'll say, 'That is correct, I just needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions?' After you say no, the caller then thanks you and states, 'Don't hesitate to call back if you do', and hangs up. You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the card number.

But after we were called on Wednesday, we called back. Within 20 minutes to ask a question. Are we glad we did! [That is, called the number on the card for theft and scams and other problems.]
The REAL VISA Security Department told us it was a scam and in the last 15 minutes a new purchase of $497.99 was charged to our card. We made a real fraud report and closed the VISA account. VISA is reissuing us a new number. What the Scammer wants is the 3-digit PIN number on the back of the card. Don't give it to them. Instead, tell them you'll call VISA or Master Card directly for verification of their conversation. The real VISA told us that they will never ask for anything on the card as they already know the information since they issued the card! If you give the Scammer your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you're receiving a credit; by the time you get your statement you'll see charges for purchases you didn't make, and by then it's almost too late and/or more difficult to actually file a fraud report.

What makes this more remarkable is that on Thursday, I got a call from a 'Jason Richardson of MasterCard' with a word-for-word repeat of the VISA Scam. This time I didn't let him finish. I hung up! We filed a police report, as instructed by VISA. The police said they are taking several of these reports daily! They also urged us to tell everybody we know that this scam is happening. I dealt with a similar situation this morning, with the caller telling
me that $3,097 had been charged to my account for plane tickets to Spain, and so on through the above routine.. It appears that this Is a very active scam, and evidently quite successful.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Nothing, part 3

Back on July 13, I posted on "Nothing".  The post included various aspects of the use of the word "nothing" and the concepts associated with it.  In a discussion with several professors recently, one asked why the default position on existence was nothing.  Why do we assume that there used to be nothing and now there are many things and so how come the change?  He suggested assuming there is always something and the burden of proof be on any claim that somewhere sometime, there wasn't anything.  I think this is a helpful idea.  The link above mentions several ways of looking at the word and concepts of 'nothing'.  It mentions poetry, low-level jokes, and the book "Nothing: A Very Short Introduction", available for Kindle download for a low price.

That post does not mention that "nothing" in Google search gives 1.8 Billion results, far more than you and I together could look at in our remaining years.  But that is the result I just got.

A popular philosophical question for quite a while, including now, has been "Why is there something rather than nothing?"  This question is usually taken to be an invitation to explain why things, why anything at all exists.  However, as discussed in the linked post, it may be that the concept of truly nothing at all in any sense is a fable, a mistake.  Since no one has seen or found or proved even the possibility of such a situation, now or earlier or in the future, here or elsewhere, it may be that the concept belongs in the same place as we put mermaids and unicorns, ideas we cooked up that are without any grounding or reality.

Maybe our naive concept of "nothing" is a pipedream or a trick of language.  Basic symbolic logic makes use of our idea of negation, putting 'no' or 'not' or the appropriate cousin of those words, such as 'never' into a sentence.  Even current English usage puts limits on that move, holding that inserting a negative into a sentence already containing a negative changes the meaning to some positive: "I don't want no more mashed potatoes" can be taken to mean I want more.  That switch from positive to negative and toggling back to positive is not upheld by all users of English.  "I never want no more mashed potatoes " can mean the speaker is firmly against more spuds.  In some cases, the more negatives piled in, the firmer the stance toward "No!"
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety