A little late for today – sorry! I was off to an early start this morning and just got home. (You’re better off enjoying the weekend away from the computer, anyway.)
A little late for today – sorry! I was off to an early start this morning and just got home. (You’re better off enjoying the weekend away from the computer, anyway.)
Some Food for Thought for Victoria Day, 2008
Oh hi folks, it’s Vitruvius here. For your potential perusal, as regards the evolution of our human condition and our evolving understanding of our structure and our experience, and in honour of this holiday weekend’s marking of the legacy of H.M. Queen Victoria, I have collected together a set of 22 presentations and talks by various researchers, philosophers, &c you may be interested in. Or not. But if perhaps potentially so, you can find them and the related meta-essay I have constructed thereupon here (which you may wish to bookmark for your leisure, as they do tend to go on a bit):
sagaciousiconoclast.blogspot.com/2008/05/food-for-thought.html
Thanks Vit…looks like some leisure reading coming up.
No prob on late tips Kate. I just got in after it finally warmed up enough here in Edmonchuck to plant some flowers and cedars,without having to worry about covering them at night! Mind you,the chlamydis was threatening to strangle me from the rafters if I didn’t get it out..heh.
Aha! I wasn’t clear, sorry. Almost no reading is required, Justthinkin, other than my bloviating meta-essay, the 22 talks and presentations are all videos, resulting in the rather more relaxing (that is to say, if one likes the videos) exercise than actively plowing through a textual presentation of many of the ideas therein.
That’s in part why I saved tinyurl.com/5wlf4r up for now (the other part being that it wasn’t ready yet), ’cause a long weekend is always a generally good time to sit back and listen to very reasonable people talking about quite interesting things (no, not me, the videos), and for realizing that simple wonder is a human trait too often not celebrated by adults, whether it’s an insight into string theory, a beautiful sunset, or a pretty girl (can I still say that).
So that’s the shtick for tinyurl.com/5wlf4r and this Saturday night from the studios of SDA LNR; or as Tom Snyder used to say, fire up a colourtini and [insert your preference here].
Separating brothers in arms causes stress — a sympathetic rendering by an anthropologist who was with the PPCLI in Afghanistan. A further tome to follow apparently: http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?src=n051723A.xml
Any truth to the rumour Garth of Turner got turfed from the holy confines of the Liberal caucus for presenting lewd cartoons pertaining to Bernier and his ex? Must have been pretty outrageous, either that or they were looking for a chance to give him the boot.
Liz
please post Tally-ban Jack’s phone number so’s I can forward it to Barf Turnip, as I’d have to see that poor deer sit by hisself in that fools paradice called PARLEMENT!!
Vitruvius, interesting collection, I look forward to viewing them, except I would not have included Wolfram or Kissinger.
They are both grossly overrated as men of significance, and you have unfortunately lumped them with individuals who have much more substance.
Check out blackrod.blogspot.com …he has a story on media allowing ‘misinformation’ from honourable members of Parliament to be printed without checking the facts(nothing new, I know). It involves Iggy, Neville and Pat Martin, and Stephen Fletcher.
Check out blackrod.blogspot.com …he has a story on media spin allowing ‘misinformation’ from honourable members of Parliament to be printed without checking the facts(nothing new, I know). It involves Iggy, Neville and Pat Martin, and Stephen Fletcher.
and the CBC
SRY about the double post.Strange error the first try.
Kate…I am so glad you have a life apart from this blog!!
Nice list, vitruvius, except..hem, hem, I’m a reader not a listener. I certainly don’t, as so many esteemed listeners do at various conferences, nod off and doze during the vital parts of the speech – but, I do prefer to go through at my own pace. And reread, and so on. Also, I have a habit of starting from the end, and reading back. Much more succinct.
At any rate, just from the abstracts, that’s an interesting comment about ‘intelligence not being principally about logic and reason..but more about memory and the predictive accuracy of our pattern matching skills’. Hmm. But, the development of the pattern is a result of reason, whether that pattern is a molecule made up of several atoms all nicely linked together, or the grammar of a sentence..or a syllogism.
I think something ought to be said about the necessity for symmetry and asymmetry, two rather important relations in the world.
By the way, the emergence of the individual as a prime mover in the world is a fascinating historical tale all by itself. After all, the main history of humankind is the dominance of the group and the repression or inhibition of the individual.
The individual only emerged when the population of Europe had reached beyond the carrying capacity of its technology and needed ‘inventions’. Only individuals can invent because inventions require dissent and risk and doing things against the group.
The USA is the only nation in human history that is based on, is founded on, the privileging of the individual. And that – explains a lot about its capacity for scientific innovation.
Another interesting development at the same time is that of the nuclear family. Before, the family was ‘extended’, made up of uncles, aunts, grandparents, and etc, etc. But then, this changed, and the nuclear family because the new economic unit: one set of parents; one generation of children. This made for a highly mobile and flexible economic unit – one that could move to the town, and from town to town. One that could take up a new work task..and so on. Again, the US was based around the nuclear family.
As for Africa – you’ve got first the problem with the biome, or environment. Lack of water, lack of suitable soils, lack of animals and plants that can be domesticated. Therefore, the populations remained in a ‘no-growth’ mode. It wasn’t until the Europeans came with their advanced agricultural strategies, and domesticated animals and plants – that change could come about. But, it’s only 150 years or so, and you don’t get rid of tribalism that fast. And the land remains difficult to deal with…
Theres an online poll at the Globe and Mail that asks if one thinks the polar bear will become extinct in your lifetime. Incredibly 57%(close to 6000 people) think yes. Never mind the ridiculous question, but how can those people go through life that stupid. I’d like to follow one of them around for a day or two just to watch. Go to Joels site at PTBC for more.
Understood, TJ, if I were picking off of an abstract list I might not have included them either. Yet it remains the case that after watching and listening to the particular presentations I have referenced, I thought they were interestingly contributive. And I must note, in both cases you mention, I did include at least some sort of disclaimers at least hinting at the matters controversial.
ET ~ understood about my completely inadequate meta-essay on the matter, yet I think if you do actually slog through the videos you will find a number of interesting items into matters semiotic, at least in the sense that I understand you to appreciate them, with some, I think, delightful hooks into matters informatic. And as to the reading v. watching vector, to each one’s own of course, as Temple Grandin so ably points out, yet as I enjoy and appreciate both, well, you know, there’s a place and time for Snyder’s colourtini too. Sometimes, I find, it’s a good thing to just put one’s feet up and listen to some other smart person being an actual performing H. Sapiens Sapiens; one can’t do it all by oneself 😉
Still, I must say, one of the things I find about attempting to select items that I think may be generally interesting to an audience, as I wander through the interwebolib (and life in general), is namely that it’s a bit like a gong show. I pick items that appear to have interesting topic titles, and then start to watch and listen to them, and if I make it to the end without gonging them, I conclude: hey, that’s cool.
So it’s principally a matter of serendipity, really. Wandering the interwebolib is a bit like prospecting: one slogs through miles of mud to find the occasional gem, and then, and then (sic) edits them to attempt to suit one’s audience. Sort of like real life. Of course, as we used to say back in the UseNet days, YMMV (your mileage may vary).
Boots, readers of teh Globe are largely Liberals. I think that answers your question
Vitruvius, nice. I’m not working this weekend, so a little scuba, a little reading and your offerings will go nice.
Now, my offering was brought to my attention by Nationalnewswatch, and I wish they hadn’t. I am not a follower of STAR GOSSIP, but THIS IS TRULY WEIRD.
Amy Winehouse is a great singer, someone should stop her throwing it all away.
Agreed, RW, Winehouse is, or at least was, not without talent. Alas, she appears to have succumbed to some sort of lack of internal strength or lack of valuable acquaintances or both, which appears to have left her bereft of reality, and which is rather sad, really. Though, I ‘spose, this probably isn’t the place to get into the tragic waste of the whole Bukowski shtick disfunctionality. Obviously, based on my previous comments, I think it has to do with one’s de facto brain structure, but now I’m repeating myself, so best if I stop.
Other than to mention (of course 😉 that if you want to see something else perhaps interestingly weird, don’t forget to check out this episode of the Merv Griffin show starring Nina Hagen and Don Rickles ~ yes, that’s correct, Nina Hagen and Don Rickles, both of whom we’ve visited before on SDA LNR ~ tinyurl.com/26tb25 (Don is, in my opinion of course, hilarious in this item, but then, I have an appreciation of Mr. Rickle’s work, so what do I know):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8owv5YjHfJA
I’ll do that, Vitty.
I’ve spent an evening viewing Amy. The youtube Isle of White, 2007, concert reminds me terribly of a Billie Halliday video I have seen from, I think, a ’55 Newport festival. (I first saw that video when I was, oh, 9 I think, and I was in love, baby, felt the power of love).
It’s as if their own personal destruction is the source of their art. Many of the videos asked whether she was high on drugs or boozed up when performing. Where do these people think she gets that soul from? That bluesy toneality.
But the Amy video with the micelettes reminded me hstrongly of my own, short, drug career. Finding wonderm,ent in the banal and ignoring one’s personal situation. Whoever the guy is should be taken out and shot for encouraging a talent’s destruction.
http://tinyurl.com/5fa9s5
If you read this article by Michael Coren, and see what hypocrites the Liberals are, wouldn’t it be interesting to find out what Liberal MP was seeing a gay man on the side. Since MSM wouldn’t publish the story out of respect for this particular MP’s privacy, and now both the Libs and the media don’ give a damn about the private life of Maxine Bernier, because of course he is Conservative, I think it would be fitting for the blogosphere to take up the cause and let the world know.
In this video there are four people in this room. There is Amy, Doherty, the French girl to her left and a French man, not seen. Who are they?
Mike, the world does know and has know of the rumors for years. A recent by-election in Ont filled his seat with another liberal wannabe leader.
*
CBC predicting… “End of life as we know it”… again…
“I’m not so sure the usually unfailingly amazing
predictors at the Ceeb have got this one right.”
*
Linux heading mainstream?
** Linux just got a major boost today with Asus confirming that it will extend the inclusion of the Splashtop pre-boot multimedia shell from just a few of its most expensive models to more products and eventually throughout its entire product range.
The technology, which debuted last October branded as Express Gate by Asus, is an instant-on Linux distro embedded on the motherboard in flash memory that allows users to run a browser, or other core applications on their PCs within seconds of hitting the power-on button.
With Asus set to ship over a million mobos a month sporting the feature, this could be a turning point for Linux in reaching mass-market desktop PCs – whether people actually use it though is another thing.**
http://tinyurl.com/5fyud8
======================== TechSpot.com
Good! = TG
Mao Stlong say, boycott Ervis.
…-
“Athletes should think twice about participating in Beijing: Stoyko”
http://tinyurl.com/5cjqaw (g-m)
““I was raised on chicken fat.” Will Elder, a founding spirit of Mad magazine from 1952 is dead at the age of 86…” (A&L)
http://lambiek.net/artists/e/elder.htm
“ET can’t call home because he doesn’t exist
David Warren, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Sunday, May 18, 2008
Ihad better tread carefully today, for I am going to write disparagingly about an entire class of sentient beings — and we should all know what has happened to Ezra Levant, Mark Steyn, Kathy Shaidle, Kate McMillan, Jonathan Kay, Fr. Alphonse de Valk, Mark and Connie Fournier, Marc Lemire, and a bewildering, quickly growing list of other Canadian writers hauled before the so-called “human rights” commissions, and shaken down with frivolous but financially ruinous sue-and-stall court litigation, on the suspicion that they may have entertained “hateful,” politically incorrect thoughts.
The group I intend to slur today are the Extraterrestrials.”
“While I acknowledge the belief that highly intelligent, super-evolved beings must inhabit other planets — if not in this galaxy, then surely in some others — is dear to the post-Christian “liberal” mind, my own views are old-fashioned, skeptical, and Catholic.
These are dangerous views, as I discovered this week, when I lapsed into e-mail exchanges first with a fairly sane, sensible, Darwinian atheist in Texas, and then with several more strident correspondents from the Darwinian camp. I had no idea, until I provoked them, just how powerfully the desire to believe in “little green men” can animate the thinking of minds bereft of sound religion.”
http://tinyurl.com/5vgc44
“Hundreds Turn Back on Schlafly at Ceremony
ST. LOUIS — Some felt the silent protest with white armbands and the dramatic turning of backs was disrespectful. But those who took part said it was a fitting way to show their disapproval that Washington University was honoring a woman whose views and life’s work they strongly disagree with.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017617/posts
Phyllis Schafly: anti-feminist heroine.
Pornography’s Victims (Paperback)
by Phyllis Schlafly (Author)
“Pornography’s Victims consists of the testimonies of witnesses before the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography. They are excerpted by Phyllis Schafly who is, in the words of author George Gilder, “among the tiny number of leaders who have made a decisive and permanent difference [in this era]…She changed the political landscape of her country. In fact, by the measure of the odds she faced and overcame, Schafly’s achievement excels all the others.” — from book’s back cover” (amazon)
“She’s never met the man she’s marrying: it’s love, the Saudi way
Michael Slackman offers a rare insight into the closed world of Saudi Arabia and its bizarre and highly risky mating rituals”
“Nader al-Mutairi stiffened his shoulders, clenched his fists and said: “Let’s do our mission.””
“The sun was already low as Nader entered the clinic.”
http://tinyurl.com/5uslwk (times)
…-
“George Jonas on Soviet Seduction: Romance, Stalin style”
“The rolling proxies were taxicabs.”
“They had only one drawback, namely the driver. Two’s company, three’s a crowd”
http://tinyurl.com/32tb3b (NP)
Socialist Mao Stlong arms socialist Mugabe.
The natural end result of socialism: state-sponsored terrorism, aka Death.
…-
“Arms from China’s ‘ship of shame’ reach Mugabe
Cargo arrives as Mugabe’s militias intensify crackdown on political opponents”
“Six retired South African generals, headed by General Gilbert Lebeko Romano, returned from a fact-finding mission last week to Zimbabwe, saying they had uncovered “shocking” levels of state-sponsored terrorism.
“What we have heard and seen is shocking,” said the six generals in a statement. “We have heard horrific stories of extreme brutality and seen the victims. We have seen people with scars, cuts, gashes, bruises, lacerations and broken limbs, and bodies of those killed. It’s a horrifying picture.””
http://tinyurl.com/5bx29d (herald)
MikeP
Google Lawrence Metherel
“Conservative Party fundraiser: “I agree with you”
By Ezra Levant on May 18, 2008
I received an e-mail from a conservative activist whose name would be known to many readers of this blog. The activist asked me to share this story, but not to disclose other identifying details. I thought it was interesting:
I got a phone call from a Conservative fundraiser today, asking me if I still supported the party. I said yes. The fundraiser said there may be an election as early as June 16 and asked would I consider giving again to help them win a majority government?
I said that I would be giving all the money that I would normally give to the Conservatives to the bloggers and others that are being crushed by human rights commissions. I said I was disappointed with the Tory government’s not standing up against the way human rights commissions are crushing our fundamental freedoms. I mentioned the Justice Department brief that showed government support for the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
I said I would not be giving any more money to the party until it took a stand. I said I knew Stephen Harper and his party had their hearts in the right place but they had to act.
Well, to my shock, the fundraiser said, “I agree with you.”
The fundraiser also said, “You are not the only one.”
Other Conservative donors are telling the Tories they won’t give them any money until they act on this.”
http://ezralevant.com/2008/05/conservative-party-fundraiser.html
One of Chuck’s progenitors was Ludwig II of Bavaria, aka The Mad Monarch. Some revisionist historians question whether Ludwig was really mad.
What is to be said re Chuck? Is Chuck another Ludwig II?
…-
“Prince Charles: Eighteen months to stop climate change disaster
The Prince of Wales has warned that the world faces a series of natural disasters within 18 months unless urgent action is taken to save the rainforests.”
“In an interview on Radio 4’s Today programme, the Prince disclosed that he had raised his concerns with the White House, Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, and President Sarkozy, of France. He said he had pressed Barclays, Shell, Goldman Sachs and McDonald’s to join his campaign.”
http://tinyurl.com/58z58s (telegraph)
Famed environmentalist (do as I say, no as I do) David Suzuki has strongly backed Liberal leader (just waiting for someone to put him out of his leadership misery) Stephane Dion’s emerging carbon tax plan and slammed the NDP and Conservatives.
http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/abc/home/contentposting.aspx?isfa=1&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20080518%2fcarbontax_liberals_080518
After hearing the NDP’s criticism of Dion’s plan, Suzuki said: “I’m really shocked with the NDP with this. I thought that they had a very progressive environmental outlook.”
“To oppose (the carbon tax plan), its just nonsense. It’s certainly the way we got to go,” he said Sunday on CTV’s Question Period.
While Dion has not fully revealed his plan, this week he said that he is proposing a revenue-neutral carbon tax, where the carbon tax is pared with a reduction in other taxes.
…
Suzuki criticized Baird’s leadership, saying that the minister was working against and not with environmentalists.
Suzuki also said Ottawa politicians in general are too focused on the next election and not thinking of the future.
“Thank goodness for the United States or we’d be dead last (in the environment),” he said. “Let’s get on with hard targets and thinking more about what we are leaving our children and grandchildren.”
Suzuki mentioned that Swedes pay about carbon tax of $150 a tonne, while British Columbians are “yelling and screaming over a $10 tax.”
B.C introduced a carbon tax in February.
Good article in the NP regarding the oil sands development and the “green” money sources trying to thwart it.
“The tale is indicative of a new chapter for Canada’s vast unconventional oil deposits, one in which the rules are increasingly set by the global environmental movement, whose ambiguous loyalties, anti-development motivations and provocative tactics make it tough to please–or even figure out.
In the past year, a network of nongovernment organizations, on the ground and afar, has taken up the antioilsands cause, aiming at least to slow down development, at most to shut down altogether what has become the backbone of Canada’s economy.”
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=522316
G
Thanks Al W. for the tip. Now that I have checked out that name I do remember reading about that particular affair. Liberals never cease to amaze me with their hypocrisy.
Ivy League Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her
http://unclemeat.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/believe-my-bullshit-or-ill-sue/
Too bad we didn’t have competent journalists in this country to question the Suzuki’s and their misrepresentations. Showing both sides of an issue, any issue, is apparently beyond our media. Their shame. Our country’s loss.