73 comments on “OPEN DISCUSSION JANUARY 2023”

• Jan 1, 2023 at 6:02 am

  Moderator says:

  HAPPY NEW YEAR! And welcome to the January 2023 Open Discussion thread.

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• Jan 1, 2023 at 6:15 am

  Moderator says:

  Selection of recent comments from the December 2022 open discussion thread, copied here to aid the flow. You can still respond to any comments on the December thread that we haven’t copied across, of course, but in all cases, please continue the discussions here rather than there. Thanks!

   

  #185 Aroundtown says:

  Pierre @ Post # 180

  I watched your embedded link from the Ted talk featuring David Boas, interesting concept and appreciated. I wanted to interject a thought and add it to the mix as to what might steer a populace away from religious adherence. I pulled this text from wikipedia and it addresses the following: During the great depression there was a marked decline in religiosity and the instigator to my mind is it was a perfect instruction on how ineffective religion is when your in dire straights, the prayers certainly went unanswered and the pain remained in full force. I am speculating that this phenomenon will occur again in the coming years and possibly an acceleration effect will ensue to usher in a faster decline of religiosity. It seems that the condition could be in play and religion might decline faster than a generational component that aids the decline.
   

  “Robert T. Handy identifies a religious depression in the United States starting around 1925 that only grew worse during the economic depression which began in 1929. The identification of Protestantism with American culture undermined religious messages. The fundamentalist churches over-expanded and were financially troubled. The mainstream churches were well enough financed in the late 1920s, but lost their self-confidence in terms of whether their social gospel was needed in an age of prosperity, especially since the great reform of prohibition was a failure. In terms of their network of international missions, the mainstream churches realized that the missions were a success in terms of opening modern schools and hospitals but a failure in terms of conversions. The leading theorist Daniel Fleming proclaimed that the continents for Christian outreach and Christian .conquest were no longer Africa and Asia, but rather, materialism, racial injustice, war and poverty. The number of missionaries from mainstream denominations began a steep decline. By contrast, the evangelical and fundamentalist churches—never wedded to the social gospel—escalated their efforts worldwide with a focus on conversion.[149][150] At home the mainstream churches were forced to expand their charitable roles in 1929–31, but collapsed financially with the overwhelming magnitude of the economic disaster for ordinary Americans. Suddenly in 1932–33, the mainline churches lost one of their historic functions in distributing alms to the poor, and the national government took over that role without any religious dimension. Handy argues that the deep self-doubt the religious revivals customary in times of economic depression was absent in the 1930s. He concludes that Great Depression marked the end of the dominance of Protestantism in American life.”

   
  It was valuable to consider your view as relates to being able to comprehend circumstances as perceived by the individual, whether they have the acumen to accurately assess their surrounds and make correct assumptions. Eyes not to see, and ears not to hears, in essence. I have certainly run across that hurdle in my encounters with certain individuals, a stubborn reluctance to accept any input that does not align with their understanding of the world. The old adage comes to mind for me…You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. It seems as though early indoctrination of the mind has the ability to thwart new information being considered, they simply refuse to “see it” as you suggest. Not all fall victim to the phenomenon though, it seems to me, and I’ve seen it occur, that a rewiring is possible when circumstances align to facilitate a change of mind and course. I’m not sufficiently aware of all the possible factors but some of this seems to be the case. Just thought I would throw it our there to touch on your observations. Enjoyed your post.

   

   

   

  #187

  Marco says:

  Strato #179
   
  That’s a great overview, Strato. It always makes me happy when you write about your social science studies, or your daughter’s humanities ones: when it comes to the political/economic/social topics we spend so much time talking about here, those disciplines have far greater explanatory power than classical science. 
   
  There’s just one thing I’d quibble with, and that’s your use of the word “give” in this sentence: 

  A tale of missionaries, ‘the white man’s burden’, exploitation, apartheid, although the British did give India democracy.

  You even refer to the exploitation in the same sentence, so I am just quibbling, but I’ll press ahead anyway, since other people reading this may not have studied empire and colonialism in the detail you have. It’s important to remember that the British didn’t “give” India anything. We imposed systems with the sole purpose of making it easier to exploit and extract India’s wealth. That industrial revolution you described so vividly was built on and financed by the exploitation and extraction of India’s vast wealth. At the beginning of the 18thcentury, India’s share of the world economy was 23%, as large as the whole of Europe put together; by the time the Brits left India, that share had dropped to just over 3%. Now obviously the world economy had changed dramatically over that time, so that drop isn’t just down to us Brits. Nevertheless, it is well documented that we Brits deliberately set out to destroy India’s thriving manufacturing sector, for the simple reason that it competed with our own and was able to undercut us on price to boot. Don’t know if you’ve ever read Shashi Tharoor’s Inglorious Empire, Strato, but I think you (and others!) would get a huge amount out of it if not: 

  Britain’s Industrial Revolution was built on the destruction of India’s thriving manufacturing industries. Textiles were an emblematic case in point: the British systematically set about destroying India’s textile manufacturing and exports, substituting Indian textiles by British ones manufactured in England. Ironically, the British used Indian raw material and exported the finished products back to India and the rest of the world, the industrial equivalent of adding insult to injury.
   
  […]
   
  Indian textiles were remarkably cheap – so much so that Britain’s cloth manufacturers, unable to compete, wanted them eliminated. The soldiers of the East India Company obliged, systematically smashing the looms of some Bengali weavers and, according to at least one contemporary account (as well as widespread, if unverifiable, belief), breaking their thumbs so they could not ply their craft.

  It’s a pattern we can still see clearly today, isn’t it? None of the multinational corporations that are the main beneficiaries of globalisation give a damn about local economies, local societies, local workers. Just look how often a scandal breaks about forced labour, inhumane working conditions, even child labour. And the devastation of the local environment too, of course. It’s just whatever it takes in order to extract the maximum possible profit. The directors of the East India Company would have felt right at home in today’s business world.

   

  #192

  Marco says:

  Aroundtown #189

  I’m going to post a link to Thom Hartmann’s commentary on “Greed”. It’s a short read that provides his view on the condition. His take is the threat to America and Democracy, and I accept his premise, but Greed certainly knows no limits or boundaries/boarders, it permeates the world as one of the most prominent traits of mankind in my opinion. 

  I think you’re exactly right, Aroundtown. It all comes down to greed, doesn’t it? Greed for wealth, greed for possessions, greed for power, greed for status. Not being satisfied with simply having enough. 

   
  Coincidentally, I have just come across (again) this paragraph from Robert Tressell’s The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists:

  … [The capitalists] Rushton, Didlum and Co.–might be classed as criminal lunatics who injured others as well as themselves. In a properly constituted system of society such men as these would be regarded as a danger to the community, and would be placed under such restraint as would effectually prevent them from harming themselves or others. These wretches had abandoned every thought and thing that tends to the elevation of humanity. They had given up everything that makes life good and beautiful, in order to carry on a mad struggle to acquire money which they would never be sufficiently cultured to properly enjoy. Deaf and blind to every other consideration, to this end they had degraded their intellects by concentrating them upon the minutest details of expense and profit, and for their reward they raked in their harvest of muck and lucre along with the hatred and curses of those they injured in the process. They knew that the money they accumulated was foul with the sweat of their brother men, and wet with the tears of little children, but they were deaf and blind and callous to the consequences of their greed. Devoid of every ennobling thought or aspiration, they grovelled on the filthy ground, tearing up the flowers to get at the worms.

  Robert Tressell, The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists (1914)

   

  I’ve mentioned it here before, though it’s nearly 2 years ago now:

  It’s another would-be novel that’s really a sustained political manifesto, and boy, could it do with a good editor, but despite its faults it’s an incredibly eloquent, powerful exposé of the systematic exploitation of the workers. It was written in 1914, so it describes a different world, but much of it still holds today. I read it a couple of years ago and was deeply impressed by its ideas and its passion, if not by its style.

   

  #193

  Aroundtown says:

  I’m going to elaborate on the same theme that runs through many of my observations on the condition of our places in societies and the dynamics that result. There is a duality that might not be readily apparent so this is my attempt to address some of them. In my post # 181, in the Dec discussion thread, last paragraph, I tried to relay my views on singular interaction vs collective interaction as defined or directed by nationalistic association. It can be noted that we are innocent of the initial indoctrination and association of any particular society we are born into, we are assigned that distinction simply from being a child of our parents who live in any particular society, and the odds are based solely on geographical location. 
   
   
  I made the assumption that individuals can get along pretty well devoid of nationalism, sport’s affiliation, or other triggers and what I’m trying to describe now is looking at this condition as a two sided coin, one side shows us as being largely cooperative and unaffected when interacting with one another, and the other side is steeped in nationalism which can and often does result in friction and conflict, the opposing dynamics are what I want to address. I’m going to provide some disturbing examples and some might say they are an unnecessary provocation but I believe you will see why I’m including them, they are indicative of the situation I’m trying to elaborate on. Okay, I’ll get started.
   
   
  Most people understand that when your born into a society you are heavily influenced by the norms and culture of that society and along with that we are conditioned to know which expectations are in place so we might be judged on how we behave. We run everything through our internal prism, we learn the ropes, and we find out where we fit in. We’re generally expected to adhere to the basic rules and in exchange we gain the protection and privileges of the group but we also become chained to that model in most cases. We end up living within those boundaries for the duration of our lives, either in compliance, or in the extreme incarcerated, depending on how we navigate the road that was laid out for us and we prosper or struggle depending on many circumstances that we can’t control. I have always allowed myself critical inspection of societies, including my own, and ultimately I assign judgment when I view the disparities in the storyline that the powers that be would have you adopt. From my perspective you can be taken down many potential roads in your respective country but the most severe I can think of is when your country asks you to take up arms and kill for a cause they deem necessary, matters little that it may not be your cause or concern, they simply demand allegiance by your membership of that society and most will comply. The participants will also assuage their conscience by knowing they are serving and receiving the backing of the government that sent them, thus relieving them of culpability. Soldiers have always been given that latitude and cover.
   
   
  As concerns myself, I remember being a very young kid watching Western movies that my father adored and it struck me even then that something was seriously screwed up with their portrayal of American Indians. The actors representing the White man called them savages and put forward the idea that they needed to be rubbed out (killed), and these movies essentially were offering up genocide as instruction and entertainment. The Indians were portrayed as filthy people whose only desire was to sneak up on you in the dead of night and kill you, or worse, steal your women folk with the proffered suggestion of the horrors they would endure, rape being the jest of it all. I believe all of these scenarios largely followed the mainstream views of the populace due to the indoctrination they received early on and the movies end up as tools of bias to reaffirm and inflate your hate as you watched the cowboys or cavalry killing those evil Indians. Sounds unbelievable but this is no exaggeration whatsoever, there were tons of these Westerns with that dynamic. 
   
   
  How pathetic it is that later I heard terms like valuable Indian artifacts, or significant cultural treasures being bandied about as they talked about American Indians possessions. The hypocrisy is stunning. I won’t elaborate further on the American Indians but for me they were victims of a heinous criminal act that sought to steal everything from them, including their land, and permanently vilify them as the enemy. I want to emphasize that as an “American” you are expected to castigate and accept the views of your government and the culture of a white populace at large, if you should slip and show compassion to the Indians or any other group that is being vilified you risk being labeled a sympathizer and suspect for not aligning with the views of the larger society. Again, this isn’t fantasy rhetoric, Americans are expected to have that resolve and disposition, similar to the British being required to have a stiff upper lip In resolve to their perceived adversity. It should be noted in the extreme that this stirring of the pot by the government has a completely different objective and their rhetoric is used to obscure their true aims, they don’t want you to peek at the man behind the curtains, so to speak, so the false narratives are continually reinforced.
   
   
  It gets rockier from here though. I’m suggesting that this one sided aspect of demanded adherence from the citizenry has been in play from the very beginning of our so called civilized cultures, pitting one group against another and all of it flying under the banner of nationalism. A common tool is to cast the opposing group as being inferior and unworthy of any inherent rights…The Germans against the Jews, Americans against the Indians, Blacks, Germans, Irish, Chinese, Mexicans (it’s one hell of a long list of hate for us), British against the Indians and others around the globe (British empire for emphasis), Romans against everyone it seems, Russians against Ukrainians, and Jews against Palestinians. Most people would also recognize the tales of our Cavemen brethren as being lumbering ignorant clods worthy of scorn, once again, the ever present tools of vilifying those who are different than us. Anyway, this is a minuscule selection above because the list could take up volumes. This manipulation of the citizens of their respective countries, and most every other country on this planet, is pretty much the norm, it’s what we largely agree to do, and have been doing for centuries.
   
   
  There are many dualities running in constant on this one sided nationalistic coin that runs parallel but in complete discordance to the supposed national narrative, the disposition of wealth building being the most powerful, it has skewed every countries economic fabric since the dawn of man in my estimation and remains the constant that drains a society of equality, we are trapped in this vicious cycle of the haves and the have nots, but we also have to contend with or adhere to the construct of our societies at large but we know the rules don’t apply equally to the populace. All the while, we operate in our bubbles of existence and we’re obliged to ignore the corruption and imbalances that are forced upon us. Eventually we don’t seem capable of distinguishing between our individual barometers as opposed to the storylines we’ve been force-feed since birth. What I describe below is an example of the disparity in perception and the unconscious acceptance we employ when strife is attacking the disadvantaged in our societies, it shouldn’t be that hard to understand the massive levels of injustice that are perpetrated and covered up all in the service of the nationalistic storyline but this phenomenon is so off the radar that most don’t see it. Blacks in America were hanged and are now shot to death and their plight continues, all of it being perpetrated from that unsaid rule of old that they are still unworthy to have the rights of the White man. The hatred still simmers in the South and most likely it always will, if they profess otherwise they are mostly liars. But there are other examples I want to throw into the mix and I’ll state them in the next paragraph.
   
   
  The judiciary in America gives cover to the brutality against Blacks and that is part and parcel of an uneven application of rights within our nations. This plays out in other countries and I’ll offer Bloody Sunday as an example, soldier F was clearly defined as a perpetrator of the murder of innocents on that day during the Troubles, but the British government gave these soldiers wide latitude and minuscule or nonexistent punishment from the judiciary. Palestinians are shot dead and those crimes aren’t even in contention to be put before a court. These are the jarring examples that I mentioned above at the very beginning of this post. When these types of situations are brought up they are instantly viewed through our indoctrination filters and the opinions rest in nationalist associations that we hardly recognize as steering our opinions and actions. It should be obvious that major hurdles exist due to nationalist favor and the playing field will never be even until an all inclusive model comes into effect. The scary part is these models aren’t going anywhere, they’ve been in control for eons, and they will remain the major impediment to any cohesive and collective engagement between groups or nations. The idea that we can cooperate as regard needed actions to address climate change is a perfect example of a huge problem that falls prey to nationalistic sovereignty and the perception of the people in those nations, we do not cede ground or proposition to the “others” who do not belong to our troop, tribe, clan, group etc. That is the Elephant in the room to my way of thinking. We have always operated with bias and purposeful discrimination, as erected by nationalistic principles and pride and to the majority view goes the game. We have lived in our societies for so long we think we have inherent rights but as George Carlin so eloquently stated, they are only temporary privileges. When need be, your so called rights can go out the window without warning. That is the true lay of the land which is in full effect.
   
   
  Just my two cents, no need to take offense. Just saying.

   

   

  #196

  Cairsley says:

  Centauri  #195
  Aye, the former pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger, has lived. Because he was no longer pope when he died, the Vatican has no precedent for the appropriate funerary ceremonial. Back in 1415, cardinal Angelo Corraro was pope Gregory XII, until he resigned from the papacy, after which he lived a quiet life in Ancona on the Adriatic coast and, when he died in 1417, was buried in Ancona according to the rite appropriate for a bishop. I see no reason why cardinal-archbishop Ratzinger should not be treated likewise. Ratzinger clung to many of the trappings of the papal office after his resignation. That he continued to reside within the Vatican was probably due to the legal jeopardy he may well have been in on account of his disastrous handling of the cases of sexual abuse of minors by clerics, but his continuing to wear the white papal attire was entirely inappropriate, for he had ceased to be pope. Pope Francis, I suppose, did not want to humiliate him, but no-one would have thought anything of it if Ratzinger had simply had the decency to give up looking like a pope after he had renounced the papacy. Anyway, now that he has lived, let him be buried without television coverage, like any other bishop. His remains are most likely to be interred in the Vatican, in the vault first occupied by the remains of pope John-Paul II, which were subsequently moved up to St Peter’s Basilica on the latter’s (cough) canonization; but we need not begrudge him that.

   

  #197

  HardNosedSkeptic says:

  Centauri #195:

  I hear that one of the previous popes, Benedict, has died.

  I wonder what was going through his mind during his final moments? He seems to have done some things that even an atheist wouldn’t want on his conscience when he goes to his grave.

• Jan 2, 2023 at 4:16 am

  Aroundtown says:

  I watched London’s New Year’s Day Parade on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) here in the States, it looks like they had a lot of fun. It struck me that after all we’ve been through, the UK’s Brexit mess vs the general insanity here in the United States, it seems like there is more life in the faces of the people in Britain. The wear and tear here in America has taken its toll, and the exhaustion from the daily dysfunction has beaten us down, I’m thinking. 

  Just glad someone is keeping their heads above water through the turmoil and trouble. It’s pretty obvious your mental health has endured the onslaught of problem after problem. Hoping 2023 sees some progress on the hot mess we’ve created for ourselves here in the U.S. but I won’t hold my breath. Would be nice if the year to come sees a few positive wins instead of the cascade of misery that has been the norm. The new congress doesn’t give me much hope that anything will change though, bad to worse is our likely trajectory.

  The Republicans campaign of division is paying the dividends they had hoped for so more of the same is our future most likely, hard to see it any other way. Bummer for sure

• Jan 2, 2023 at 9:56 am

  Strato says:

  Aroundtown #3

  Substantiating and reinforcing Chris C Hedges’s profound and grave address of November 7, 2018, entitled American Anomie comes this Guardian article today on findings concerning the state of American peoples’ spirits and alienation today, which seems likely doomed to only deteriorate with each passing year, identified as a ‘social recession.’ Remedies are offered. It won’t just work itself out. We can’t go back now.

  Several causes are posited and I’m certain they all conspire like gremlins to militate against the potential for personal and mutual wellbeing.

  And then there comes the estimable and beautifully ever positive Robert Reich writing in the same Guardian, ‘It’s hard to believe, but things are getting better. They will continue if we keep up the fight.’  Compelling, heartening, and hence, possible. Imperative.

  It’s never easy. But one can’t capitulate to defeatism, or EDD, ‘Effort Deficit Disorder.’ Or the palpable and oppressive anomie.

  And so one plugs away and keeps solidarity with others of the same progressive humanist, and speciesist, stripe, willing to admit it’s getting better, when warranted.

  This could prove to be a great year for positive change.

• Jan 2, 2023 at 10:17 am

  Strato says:

  I might have put it, ‘this could be a pivotal year for positive change.’

• Jan 2, 2023 at 7:04 pm

  Aroundtown says:

  I’m providing the later portion of George Washington’s final address before leaving office. It is chilling that over 200 years later the very concerns he elaborates on and puts forward are in full operation today. His assertion elsewhere in the address warned of adherence to party over the nation and that has come to pass as well. The engines of greed and division have won the day for quite some time now and we’re left to navigate that field. This also touches on my earlier post as concerns wealth building at the expense of the whole. The fabric of the nation is torn from these onslaughts and many refuse to see it. It is a difficult burden to “see” the actual discourse and condition of your surroundings, maybe that is why so many refuse to observe the conditions of their making. Unfortunately, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s most likely a train.

  Sorry, I couldn’t figure out how to reduce the quoted segment this time. It seems that my efforts are hit and miss on occasion. Below is the segment from his address.
   
  “All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.

  However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
   

• Jan 3, 2023 at 12:33 am

  Aroundtown says:

   

  I want to take the time to elaborate on some of my views, as this is the beginning of a new year it seems a good time to do it. It is probably very apparent by now that I view situations with a pretty narrow scope, I tend to see things for what they are, not what they could be. Maybe that is a limitation on my part but I tend to avoid “what can be” for a very specific reason, most often the best laid plans and aspirations that are put forward fail due to inaction, the excuses are many as to why that is but it doesn’t change anything. I see things a little bit differently as to why this happens and I’ll explain a bit below.
   
  They say it takes a community to build a village, and for the most part that is true, but not for me. In my earlier days I mustered the strength to build 3 houses by myself, from the ground up. On the last home I completed, where I only lagged about 7 weeks behind a contractor who used multiple subcontractors to finish his house, he dropped by to tell me the following…He stated that he had heard of a single person building a house but he had never seen it done with his own eyes. I don’t mention this to pat myself on the back, I do so to make a point. These days the disconnect to understanding why we can’t get anything done is obvious to me but seems to evade the majority for a reason, to many wait for someone to do things for them. We don’t have the pathways to harness the strength of the whole because the model of our modern society has grown so bloated that no one knows what’s happening across town, much less across the country. This condition lays the groundwork for a disconnect that only expands and further obscures the way things get done, and ultimately who we are. The idea that people are suffering mental duress in our societies is no surprise to my way of thinking, if your not challenged and feeling connected to your community, or environment, you will naturally suffer, eventually. 
   
  Part of this also explains something that I touch on now and again. I’ve mentioned that I had a conversation here on the site a long time ago with, Sara. The discussion was centered around action on something and she stated she wished we could do more and at that point I offered up the following, in too flippant of manner in retrospect. An old expression came to mind which I brought to her attention…I said, wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first. Very aggressive and crude on my part, I admit, in trying to get my opinion across as regards wishing. I still have a problem with wishing because it works to absolve a person from taking an active role to get something done, and breeds inaction in actual fact. We had a bit longer exchange on our views and she got around to asking me why I couldn’t accept the concepts of wishing and hoping but they stayed pretty much in the same camp for me. Well, later as I was walking the dog in my neighborhood I ran across a Pitbull dog that was running loose and I found myself hoping that I wouldn’t get bitten and it dawned on me how hypocritical my views were on hoping. Well, I ran my internal tape to reexamine my beliefs and I found that hoping was pretty innocuous and benign in actual fact so I give it a free pass now. I relayed this to her after the fact and that was the end of it really but that exchange has stayed with me. So to close, hoping harmless, wishing still a no starter for me.
   
   
  I end up ranting about our social failings and the odd thing is, this area of interest really isn’t a passion for me, I’ve only examined our failings from a layman’s point of view so often that it probably seems that way. I do this for the following reasons which will make some kind of sense, maybe. They say every journey starts with a first step, and I appreciate that sentiment but I have a proviso, does little good if you take the initiative and start that journey with a first step, but you end up starting in the wrong direction. That is what can be so alarming for me, seeing us expend energy on destinations to nowhere. My mother had a constant refrain that I thought was borrowed from Winston Churchill but I’m unsure of the actual origin of the saying, but I will state what it was, she would say, “if your not planning, your planning on failing”. This holds a large truth for me, if we go about willy-nilly in choosing our tasks and direction the resultant chances of failure are amplified and predictive of the outcomes we can expect. We need to be on the same page, following the same plan, trying to get some things accomplished, but you should already be aware of my opinion on how well that’s going. We are not “United” by any sense of the word, so our path and success is pretty much already determined. I “Hope” we can find a way to change that dynamic, our futures depend on it. Just saying.

   

• Jan 3, 2023 at 1:12 am

  Aroundtown says:

  I want to throw this out there quickly. I would imagine some would say to themselves, this guy keeps going over the same old subjects and situations, and that is pretty true, but this dawned on me yesterday, why not keep doing so from a mental health prospective. Seems like keeping those neurons healthy and synapses firing is conducive to stimulating and exercising the old brain matter, so why not. Seems like reexamination and inspection of our stored info might be helpful?

  I’ll post a link on this for anyone who might be interested in these processes. It’s very brief.
   
  https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/430562-when-all-your-synapses-aren-t-firing-study-opens-door-to-new-brain-disease-treatments
   

• Jan 5, 2023 at 8:49 am

  Strato says:

  I have been in the Zone, making a steel string acoustic guitar bridge saddle from an oversize bone blank. It is so easy to blow it, through all the processes. It’s labour-intensive and exacting. I have to have it perfect. Otherwise I cannot focus on just playing the wretched thing. I’ve done scores of these jobs. I also do refretting, neck resets, restoration. I built two gorgeous guitars from kits from Stewmac, Athens, Ohio, the go-to place for luthiery supplies and info. I have drawers fill of their tools.

  I’ve given up mowing the ‘lawn.’ And giving myself a haircut. It’s starting to look, ‘interesting.’

  I now have the saddle shaped and installed snugly in the bridge slot on my Stewmac Martin mahogany dreadnought replica, favourite guitar by far. So loud. I’m installing a K&K Pure Mini and getting rid of the L. R. Baggs undersaddle piezo pickup. Tomorrow I will do the action and intonation to a nicety, by filing and checking. It will induce OCD if you haven’t already got it, lol. Then I must learn all these great tunes to gig with my son.

  So I finally sat down and checked out the Guardian. I knew my lovely daughter would give me the usual book voucher for xmas, so I asked could she instead donate to them for me, which she happily did. I think she might subscribe online when she finishes uni, where she now gets free access.

  Robert Reich. His articles are succinct. An eximious analyst, left progressive humanist. I like his work a lot. I have learned heaps. I have two of his books.

  I trust anyone would be able to read a Guardian article without encountering a paywall. Reich is relating how and why the Republican party is imploding. It is like the ouroboros, the ancient symbol of the serpent eating its own tail. Such folly. Of course the only recourse is to abandon it.

  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/03/republicans-house-speaker-party-loses

• Jan 9, 2023 at 12:57 pm

  Marco says:

  Happy New Year, everyone (well, we can hope!)

  Strato – how did your son like his Christmas present?

  Aroundtown –
  Towards the end of the December thread you posted some interesting thoughts about what it would take to get humans working together more cooperatively for the common good, rather than as rivals or even enemies, and laying the blame for our reluctance to do so at the door of nationalism.

  I know it’s been a couple of weeks, probably, since I lasted posted, but I’ve been mulling your posts over on and off quite a lot in the meantime, and I have to say, I think the underlying cause of the negative behaviours you describe is in-group/out-group thinking in general rather than nationalism in particular. Nationalism is of course one, very potent, form of in-group/out-group thinking, but it takes lots of other forms too: class, sex, sexual orientation, race, wealth, status, religion, sports affiliations, politics, family, employer vs employee – we all have a pretty clear idea of where we stand in each of these categorisations, and therefore who is “one of us” and is therefore (more) deserving of our concern and support, and who is not.

  The thing is, I firmly believe this inclination to in/out-groups is hard-wired and that we’ll never be able to overcome it altogether. Our empathy and concern for others evolved while we were living in small, tight-knit social groups, and was very much based on looking out for others within our own social group because that benefitted our group as a whole and, by extension, ourselves. Every subsequent refinement of our instinct for empathy has been layered on top of that bedrock. Commitment to the in-group and suspicion of the out-group is one of the most fundamental human characteristics, in my view.

  And you’re right: it definitely makes it harder to pursue the common good rather than just the in-group good, and may well prove to be our downfall. I just don’t think we’ll ever overcome it altogether. There’s certainly been a lot of progress, even in my lifetime, with multiple attempts to break down divisions and spread the net of our compassion and empathy beyond our own particular in-groups. But just look at the enormous backlash that always unleashes, how controversial such attempts invariably are, how persistent the opposition long after you’d think the other side (there you go: another in/out-group) would have abandoned the fight and accepted the new normal. What is all the “anti-woke” hysteria we are surrounded by these days but an attempt to turn the clock back and re-build barriers that, to some extent, had begun to be dismantled – the fear of spreading the net of our compassion “too far” and thereby diminishing our own status and privilege, our own sense of belonging to the “better” in-group? Even the multiple assaults on democracy we’re witnessing around the world right now are a form of trying to rebuild previously dismantled barriers, put power back into the hands of a particular few (a particular in-group) rather than sharing it more widely.

  It takes all sorts of forms, but the basic impulse is the same, and you are absolutely right that it really is a huge – I’d go so far as to say ultimately insurmountable – obstacle to progress. 

  You also mused very interestingly on the obstructing role of multiple languages in all this, but I’ll come back to that one another time, tomorrow if I get chance. 

• Jan 9, 2023 at 8:12 pm

  Aroundtown says:

  Marco @ post # 10

  Appreciate your views and opinions. Good to see some discussion, even if it’s just one on one. In my previous posts I’ve tried to touch on things that divide us, and end up thwarting any cohesive action on the bigger issues (climate change being the huge concern). I agree with your assessment and opinions on in-group/out-group thinking and this runs parallel with what I’m trying to describe in opposing groups, I used sports, even within an isolated group/nation, to reference potential divisions. The division and resultant dysfunction is very apparent to me but others use different mechanisms to see past the condition (I’ll post a supportive link on this occurrence), the link briefly describes Status Quo Bias & Cognitive Dissonance, but I would add Confirmation Bias into the mix as well. The jest is we look to our groups needs and we will go to extraordinary lengths to support the group think of that group, even when an avalanche of information proves the assumptions as being false/wrong. To me, it’s a reverse of the Vampire lore of a Vampire not being able to see their image in a mirror, the affected in the groups I’m talking about, widely I admit, can see their image and actions quite well but they refuse to see it.

  The bigger fish for example could be the conservative movement in America where the dysfunction has bordered on a dystopian landscape of constant harm and unrest but the purveyors and adherents hold to it even to their own harm, the same can be said for the UK’s Brexit, they suggested what a wonderful thing it would be to isolate and break the established bonds with Europe to travel a nationalistic/idealistic system in the extreme, but most, if they are honest with themselves, can see the chaos that has been self-inflicted from this action. I was brief in my other posts (many might scoff at that suggestion) because my posts tend to be overly long, even when I’m trying to relay very minimal information or opinion on the subject, but that can certainly paint an insufficient overview of a condition I’m trying to cover, and it’s lamentable for me. 

  To my way of thinking, we are in this cycle of dysfunction that sees very minimal positive forward movement, but that seems to be an ingrained trait that we are constantly having to deal with, one step forward and three steps back for the most part. At least we have moved away from (mostly but not all together) public execution and medieval torture methods, but time will tell if we back slide on that as well. Bottom line, we can certainly be our own worst enemies, but as I’ve said in a previous post, time is not on our side this time, and time is of the essence presently. An obvious example that will seem jarring is this, many think they can continue with their day to day activities while utilizing the methods of distraction I’ve talked about above but that can change pretty quickly and I’ll offer Pakistan as a huge example, they received twice the amount of rain they expected and huge swaths of land was inundated with water, farming is now impossible in these areas and the brutality of their lives is now unavoidable and undeniable. These situations are only the beginning and what use to be hundred year events that are now quickly becoming yearly events, in many cases. In the geologic time of our Anthropocene we haven’t even seen a bat of an eyelash and look at what we have done. We still refuse to see it though and the old premise of shooting the messenger is still in place (I’ve certainly tasted that effect). Bummer for sure. Just saying.
   
  https://medium.com/change-management/why-do-most-people-pretend-like-everything-is-fine-even-if-its-not-af2b97007008
   

• Jan 10, 2023 at 9:48 am

  Strato says:

  Marco #10,

  Hi mate. Yes, cheers, he loved his Christmas present. Now his favourite guitar he was going to sell. And it has a tailpiece to take all that added, unrelenting string tension, so the robust sound will never fail as happens to an acoustic steel-string guitar, eventually, although one can fix that by drastic measures.

  Aroundtown and Marco,

  Yes, our problems political, nationalistic, material and on a multitude of fronts are increasing apace and I concur with Marco. They are insurmountable because of human nature not halfway self-domesticated (Richard Wrangham), thus far.

  And we are out of time.

  And after I read your insightful posts, I struggled with having anything to offer or to add.

  I then looked into the Guardian, and Bernie Sanders has a new piece there.

  Bernie has a photo of Eugene Debs on his office wall. I think especially Republican politicians in Congress wouldn’t know who the hell Debs even was or what he fought for, and they wouldn’t call in on Bernie for a chat. Maybe it’s the shekhinah glory, lol.

  But he will call on them, as chair of the US Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee (HELP) now.

  He is a bit of a reality check.

  Bernie is cutting to the chase in averring what actually unites Americans, the demand for affordable, even universal health care, affordable, vital prescription medications, outrage at being ripped off by insatiably selfish billionaires and corporate greed, corporations demanding staff loyalty, the appeal to that in-group mindset Marco observed we are so oriented to, by nature.

  But not in Bernie Sanders. He is voted in by Vermonters and must advocate for them, but it’s understood that his allegiance is to justice and fairness, for all, and not just for his fellow Americans, humankind.

  Bernie is America’s longest serving Independent. He is blameless. Nothing can be pinned on him.

  His pieces are very well crafted and succinct, but are completely authentic to Bernie the person, not some persona. He just isn’t into group-think, exemplifying that one can be above it. And he champions unionisation, as did Eugene Debs before him. But also independent thinking, quite obviously.

  I trust this article is free to all. It’s worth a read. Bernie is an inspirer.

  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/09/congress-healthcare-minimum-wage-education-us-families
   

• Jan 10, 2023 at 10:39 am

  Strato says:

  And a critique on Bernie Sander’s record of compromises.

  I think the man is a political pragmatist, has to be.

  Conservative, or not overtly progressive Americans are pretty much primed to brand such as he, an avowed democratic socialist, (although not your outspoken atheist) a hare-brained heretic.

  Certainly too risky for consideration for president, most regrettably.

  They have been well schooled. Indoctrination from infancy works.
   

• Jan 10, 2023 at 10:00 pm

  Aroundtown says:

  Strato @ post 12, 13, and others
   
  Good to hear your Christmas gift was a hit, the description of that guitar was awesome. I got to see Brian Setzer perform at the House of Blues on Sunset Strip on New Year’s eve many years back and he rocked one of those big bodied jazz guitars, he showed what is possible out of one of those beauties, it was a fun night.
   
  To your observations on Bernie Sanders I would offer this. I have nothing against him personally but this is my problem, and that goes for many other politicians as well. He can be quite verbose and expressive as he describes the maladies we suffer here in the United States, and he has done so for a great many years, but unfortunately he has little to show for it. Politicians, for good or ill, proclaim their desires to help the American people but their ability to move the meter is severely lacking. The old expression “The proof is in the pudding” is what I’m trying to convey. I’ve had many instances in my life where I pinned my hopes on the rhetoric on offer from politicians, where I hoped we would get some relief, but that relief never materializes. So that’s it really, we elect these individuals hoping for the relief they suggest they can afford, but that relief never comes. 

  The day I see tangible action that serves “we the people” and not the one percenters (as is the general order of the day, here in America) it is then that you will see me affording them the accolades they deserve, but I’ve yet to see that occur, and I won’t be holding my breath for that day to arrive. I hope you don’t view my input as argumentative, that is certainly not my intent. I’m just trying to describe what it’s like for an average citizen here in America and what we actually receive from our representatives, and what we will continue to receive. Sometimes “we the people” force change but that is a rare occurrence in this present age, unfortunately. 

  So please, take my input with a grain of salt. It’s just my two cents on our politics and politicians. It’s worth remembering this…good intentions doesn’t buy very much at the store. Just my impressions from a disgruntled dejected Democrat.

• Jan 11, 2023 at 5:26 am

  Aroundtown says:

  Just a quick note. I intend to give it a rest in my posts. Much to do needs attention. 

• Jan 11, 2023 at 7:36 am

  Marco says:

  Just catching up, or trying to. Several things I want to respond to, though I don’t know if I’ll manage them all today.

  Anyway, I’ll begin by replying to Strato #12, 13 and Aroundtown #14 about Bernie Sanders.

  I like Bernie Sanders a lot, or rather, I very much like his politics. I agree with you, Aroundtown, that he could put them across more pithily – his delivery isn’t compelling. I really don’t think we can blame him, though, for his politics never having been adopted: he simply hasn’t ever been in a position to implement them. And it’s certainly not for want of trying on his part. But his is very much a minority position in US politics, so actually – and this is where his perceived verbosity comes in – probably the most he can achieve in practice at this point is to keep explaining to people the failings – the inevitable, built-in failings – of the current system, and why a different kind of politics would work far better for ordinary people. The politics he advocates goes so against the grain, runs so counter to everything “American”, that people are going to have to have it explained to them again and again and again and again before the message begins to get through. That’s just the way persuasion works.

  What are your thoughts on Elizabeth Warren and AOC, Aroundtown? (And Strato too, of course!) I like Elizabeth Warren very much, and find her a highly effective communicator. I can’t find it now, but a few years back she gave an excellent speech pointing out that even the most proudly self-made entrepreneur achieved their success in a context where the state/government/people provided the education for their staff, the roads for their vehicles, the fire engines for their buildings, etc. etc. You might think it shouldn’t need spelling out, but it does, and she did it. She’s not as radical as Bernie, perhaps, but perhaps about as radical as mainstream American politics will allow (that’s my perception, at least – Aroundtown, as a disgruntled Democrat, you might see it differently). 

  I also very much like AOC. A real breath of fresh air, real energy, real passion, real commitment, real compassion, real eloquence. But then, she’s playing my song. How does she go down in the US? Are Americans – even the ones who would undoubtedly benefit from her kind of politics – ready for her?

• Jan 11, 2023 at 8:12 am

  Marco says:

  HardNosedSkeptic December #197 and Centauri December #195

  I hear that one of the previous popes, Benedict, has died.

  I wonder what was going through his mind during his final moments? He seems to have done some things that even an atheist wouldn’t want on his conscience when he goes to his grave.

   
  This is another post that’s been rumbling round my head for several days now.

  I assume Centauri was referring to the way Benedict (Joseph Ratzinger) covered up the church child abuse. It’s certainly something I’d hope any normal person would have had an unbearably bad conscience about, but I have to seriously wonder whether he would have done.

  Who knows, and I’m speculating, of course – but my hunch is that he would have believed to the end that he had been doing right by God. That protecting the RC church was his highest and most sacred duty. And that, even if he had the slightest doubt about that, he would in any case have had total belief in the power of confession and the last rites and that his sins would have been forgiven. Also that he would genuinely have seen himself as God’s representative on Earth during his stint as pope, and would therefore have been looking forward to a rapturous reception in Heaven. And as God’s appointed representative, he would have been convinced that he was acting in accordance with God’s will at all times.

  These are the beliefs he spent his whole life steeped in. We look at them and find them both nonsensical and abhorrent, but I have no doubt he himself believed them in their entirety. 

  If there was anything that troubled him at all on his deathbed, I suspect it would have been his abdication as pope. That’s not supposed to happen! But even that could be processed under the heading of “the will of God”, God being a notorious mover in mysterious ways. 

  Generally speaking, I don’t think most people do act against their own consciences. (Though some people have little or no conscience in the first place.) And even when we do, we are very good at making excuses for ourselves and finding ways to exonerate ourselves. And the entirety of RC tradition and teaching would have made that easy for Ratzinger. My hunch is that he remained convinced of his inherent virtue to the last.

• Jan 11, 2023 at 9:02 am

  Strato says:

  Aroundtown #14,

  Cheers. Indeed, discourse isn’t to be construed as combative. Thanks for putting in the effort to write your response. And it’s hard to be positive in the face of it all. I can understand what it’s like for you. Exasperating. And troubling.

  And yet, developments in America affect Australia too. But that’s not the reason I have been watching America since Trump first emerged vying for the Republican nomination. And I read books mostly by American authors, on America, its history and current state of affairs. I’m just inquisitive. America fascinates me. From about age four I went with my older brother to the local suburb flicks, a classic, sizeable old wooden theatre to watch black and white American westerns and such. Three Stooges, cartoons. Some cultural imperialism going down.

  I think Bernie would have been tried in the crucible aplenty through the years, tempted to despair and hard-bitten cynicism in the face of neoliberalism, anarcho-capitalism, the indoctrination of the masses, and politicians all too unimaginative and scared to embrace his political, social and economic philosophy and agenda because they believe it would terminate their political careers. And what else are they good for after that? No, they don’t intend to be martyrs. They’re gutless, most of them. Bernie must shake his head a bit.

  He has his own comrades, I’m sure. One has to have, I feel.

  Lobbyists for big business own Washington lawmakers. Compliant career politicians then go on to become lobbyists for the corporations they favoured, worked for, bond-servants all.

  And so the numbers cannot get up in politics for the system and the anti-progressive mindset in America and that status quo to become seriously challenged, for the people to be able to collectively ‘grok’ the Green New Deal message and vision. It’s like they need a license to think, and help with that.

  FDR was a political dynamo. But he had help from many talented individuals in the Administration and the White House, like Harry Hopkins, supporting and effecting FDR’s agenda. And there was Eleanor, a giant in modern history.

  As we know, the neoliberal order rose up in overt reaction to the New Deal, its policies of taxing the rich, pro-unionisation enabling upward mobility for working people. The neoliberal order has since stifled all that, and much more besides, and to come, if they can prosecute their grand designs. The neoliberal order and its pushers have America going backwards in short order. The rightwing media thrives on contention, provocation, iconoclasm, against democracy itself, addicting its hapless admass consumers to that hourly feed of poison. Tucker Carlson is an actor.
  He games them. He’s laughing. As is Murdoch, his owner.

  I think even FDR would be hamstrung in today’s brutal reality, and so I think It’s not really Bernie’s failing that he can’t deliver much substantively, but the never-say-die positivity and articulating the malaise and its causes and the democratic socialist vision and remedy we are used to from the man. I think he bites his tongue a fair bit. Probably wisely so.

  But on America, Gary Gerstle’s The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order, June 2022, is a precious possession. A great many of my heroes and heroines are American. I like their guitars and that. And imagine American music sans the Black input. Impoverished.

  On Marco’s observations in response to Aroundtown’s rightful lamentation regarding nationalism, on the in-group/out-group mindset, as he says we are hard-wired for, and as the root of so much evil, I concur.

  The competition for resources and territory, for mating advantages, the selfish gene, is exemplified in the Old Testament, where the Israelites’ god Yahweh, foisted upon them by the ruling class and their literate propagandists, is given to mandate they commit serial genocides in Canaan. Bloody fighting men.

  And it’s all propaganda, clearly, the message in those writings, ever pored over, memorised, committed to to the death, implicit in all the endless pedantic observances, being, “United we stand, divided we fall.” It’s us against them, because vice versa; it’s understood. And as it remains to this day.

  When Jewish boy lives and mates with Palestinian girl, then the fathers will have to reconcile their enmity, or disown them. Rather conflicting. Genes themselves don’t seem to be so racist.

  Star Trek was a gene pool of selected cooperators. That’s what would be the desideratum in the conceit of colonising the galaxy. Not Elon Musk’s dystopian enslavement dream. Or billionaire survivalists with their staffed bunkers and the security goons, who would just take over anyway, summarily execute the boss, because might was always right in that self-seeking libertarian mentality. So maladaptive.

• Jan 11, 2023 at 8:16 pm

  Aroundtown says:

  Marco, @ post # 16
   
  Thought a quick elaboration would be useful. If you go to the July discussion thread and look at my post # 39, that will provide more depth on my perceptions of Democrats and our system of government at large. I’ve been engaged with voting and activism for many a year and it’s easy to get beaten down over the long haul. I have written stinging letters to politicians that would likely shock many people if they read them, but all of my efforts have achieved little I’m sure.
   
  As regards A.O.C. and Elizabeth Warren I will offer up a short opinion on both.
  First A.O.C., she has taken to the microphone to speak to the American populace at large and I haven’t had much of a problem with her until two occasions came up where I found her lacking, I’ll explain. We (the Democrats) had an opportunity to get some legislation across the finish line but she, and the squad, faltered and gave us a loss. They were adamant initially to thwart the prospect of splitting the bills that held a lot of promise to help a multitude but they folded to pressure from Pelosi, and others, to allow that to occur. I’ll provide a link that touches on the legislation below but it doesn’t fully convey my concern adequately. Bottom line, they didn’t have the fortitude to hold the line and force others to capitulate. Sinema and Manchin have been complete scumbags in the Senate but they would have been under enormous pressure had the squad held the line and forced legislation that would have gone to the Senate eventually. My second beef is this, A.O.C. has no problem speaking to the nation with her concerns but comes a doubter she runs for cover, I mentioned that I have been very active in confronting politicians and I tried to express my concerns to her and the effort was monumental, I got the bullshit excuse that she only responds to her constituents (those who voted for her in that jurisdiction) and I also hit that roadblock with another squad member also. If they only serve their constituency, why in the hell are they speaking into the microphone to American people at large, that pisses me off. But I think a quick review of the post I mentioned from July will address my disappointments more fully.
   
  Now for Elizabeth Warren. I wrote her a stinging letter but I received zero response from her and I can assume the same constituency problem applies to her as well. She came out crying about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates and the prospect that the economy could be pushed into recession, but that is not a true assessment. It’s total horseshit and I thought she was smarter than that. The false economy which we have been saddled with operates as it does because the banks and corporations could borrow at essentially zero percent and that kills any ability for savers to see any returns on their capital. It also allows banks to continue to push us to the cliff edge just as Wall Street did prior to the 2007-2008 collapse where they pushed mortgage lending to the moon until the whole crooked bubble burst, people are to damned dumb to realize what this hustle does to the nation, and to them personally by extension. Recently, we are on the same path to ruin where home values have been overpriced in the extreme and all this does is it allows the banks and Wall Street to move the goal posts, all while trying to convince a populace that they haven’t been damaged in actual fact. The homes are so over priced that a chokehold has been placed on a massive amount of people who need a home but greed has won the day just as it did prior to the other crash, I say the other crash because this new one is just around the corner, but greed is a powerful blindfold that blinds those who think these value escalations are a good thing. Back to Elizabeth, how dare she try to affect the only levers we have to rein in this greed in the main, recession are a natural entity that allows a downward unwinding of the over exuberant speculation that has gotten us into this jam, where was Elizabeth and her concerns while this pattern of imminent failure was escalating? I’ll answer the question, nowhere to be found and now she wants to further prop up this criminal enterprise we are dealing with. I told her all of this in no uncertain terms and crickets is what I got in return. I could go on and on but I will spare you all. I simply refuse to see the world the way they want me to see it, I see it for what it actually is, and I will continue to do so. 
   
  Okay, I’ll step down from my soapbox once again, but the results are going to be the same, nothing is going to change, and believe me, people are banking on that to be the case.
   
  https://news.yahoo.com/sudden-aoc-squad-biden-allies-174705445.html
   
   
   

• Jan 11, 2023 at 8:56 pm

  Aroundtown says:

  Strato,
   
  Your assessment of Franklin Delano Roosevelt is appreciated. My mother expressed her loyalty and love for a man who fought against the powers that be to bring about real change that helped a multitude out of their misery. She and my father fully tasted the pain and struggle of the depression and had it not been for Mr. Roosevelt that struggle would have been much longer. It should be noted that the Republicans still revile him to this day and still seek to undermine the programs he put in place to help a true majority of the nation. Yes, his wife was a pistol too. Too bad we don’t have more like them.

  Very unfortunately, Americans have been dumbed down and they continue to elect these Republicans that don’t give a shit about them. As Forrest Gump relayed, “stupid is as stupid does”. I’ve tried to express this earlier in my postings of what we can expect from them and apparently my crystal ball is working just fine, they want to kill social security (they dream about its demise) and the early efforts of this new congress to help the wealthy is already in operation, the Republicans motto should be…hooray for the few at the expense of the many. Rest assured they are working very hard to make that happen. George Carlin gave us a very succinct explanation for this condition, “it’s a big club, and we aren’t in it, you and I are not in the big club”. The Republicans worship at the alter of greed, and they always will. Just saying.

• Jan 12, 2023 at 4:50 am

  Aroundtown says:

  I stumbled across a documentary while watching PBS today and it had an effect I wasn’t anticipating, I’ll try to explain. I hope this will be of interest to others. I’ve watched many documentary films on science and further reading but I realized today that I have become somewhat complacent in the knowledge I have accrued. What was interesting is the confirmation aspect that occurred as I watched this Nova segment (I’ll provide a link), as the explanations were unfolding I found that I had already encapsulated all of the information and I felt as though I was in lockstep with the discoveries they were elaborating on. That isn’t what was particularly interesting though, I’ve watched other programs or reverified material by inspection/examination in science materials but the aspect of having become complacent was rattling. I realized I had let the embers of knowledge I’ve amassed burn low and the quick infusion of the material brought back the intensity that had enveloped me just a short time ago. With this realization it became apparent that I need to find a way to reinvigorate my mind with a steady infusion of this material for the most obvious of reasons, it’s fascinating beyond measure, and it takes you on a journey of discovery that one could only have dreamed about in the recent past.
   

  I’ve mentioned recently that Albert Einstein had been unable to envision a galaxy beyond our Milky Way galaxy, and further his postulation that our galaxy was static, but also his early position of the universe as concerns the Big Bang, an event which he had actually postulated against at one juncture. His brilliant deductions are what I’m trying to elaborate on. He stood head and shoulders above his peers for the most part but he also had the benefit of the inquisitive mind of his predecessors to lean on, just as Galileo had taken Copernicus’ theory and reconfirmed the actual condition of our Earth. Of course Einstein didn’t suffer the scorn and threat of an ignorant religious order that offered the prospect of death for correctly illuminating the human mind, but that is a different story, but an important one. The point I’m trying to convey is he was rightfully viewed as brilliant but just a few discoveries later he can be viewed as being lacking in vision that was tantalizingly close at hand. Science and open earnest effort hands new discoveries to others who do not forget to forge ahead beyond their earlier benefactors. That distinction is what carries us forward to new heights. Anyway, I will post an additional link that touches on Einsteins deductions for those who might enjoy a minimal refresher and I’ll carry on with the observation I’m trying to make beyond that segment. 
   
   

  “Einstein was the first to apply his ideas of space and time plasticity to the universe as a whole. In 1919, he devised a model for the entire universe: a static, spherical, perfectly symmetric cosmos, with matter homogeneously distributed everywhere, reflecting a mix of Platonic perfection and of Ockham’s Razor. That first model, even if wrong, became the inspiration for all the work on modern cosmology that followed it, including the now widely-accepted Big Bang model, whereby the universe emerged from an event 13.8 billion years ago and has been expanding and cooling ever since. Black holes, gravitational waves, all of this follows from Einstein’s general theory. Oh yes, and so does the accuracy of your GPS, which needs elements from both the special and the general theories.”

   
   
  I think what dawned on me today is this, we can become disenfranchised by our own actions and complacent to the spectacle and wonder that has been so conveniently placed at our feet. We have information presently that many could not have comprehended or imagined just a hundred years ago. If one could travel back in time with the information we have attained to date they would view you with absolute wonder and fear, an aspect that is never far away in our still primitive minds irrespective of the massive leaps we’ve taken forward. I wonder what an intelligent individual 100 or two hundred years from now might think of our mental acuity in this present age. I’m thinking they would think of us as being backward and un-enlightened just as we view our distant intellectuals. I’m not suggesting we scorn those who fought to educate the mind and their discoveries of the mysteries of that age, it is just the advances we now enjoy make them look somewhat primitive and that is likely how we will be viewed as well. I always think of an electrical cord when I hear someone who thinks we are bright beyond measure, pull the electric plug from the wall and we see our limitations pretty damned fast to my way of thinking.
   
   
  The Nova series (I hope others might enjoy it also) was a refreshing take on the discovery and inspection of our existence and it still rocks me to my core, the presenter offers the prospect of envisioning the individual atoms in our makeup and offering the realization of how spectacular it would be to know where the individual atoms of our bodies originated from, the elements forged in the fiery furnace of stars that died long ago and spread their gifts to the cosmos, the idea that we are indeed star stuff is incredible, but more specifically true. Can you imagine trying to convey that proposition to someone in the 1800’s, they would label you insane most likely. The program also offers other insights of that nature concerning our past. It was very enjoyable. I do wish others could experience the jubilation and thrill that I discovered when I let go of religion and the mental chains that I removed when I rejected those barriers and started down the road seeking our true condition. Today I rediscovered that joy and how lucky we are if we open ourselves to reason and the pursuit of knowledge that we have at our disposal. Just imagine what tomorrow might bring, if we can avoid tearing it all down for the mundane pursuits that so many deem important. We are all very rich with the knowledge at out disposal if we seek it and the supposed wealth that many value is pointless and poisonous in most cases. I could not care less what the latest news is on what some celebrity is wearing or what house they own or the car they drive, those are of no interest, but knowledge can make the poorest man wealthy indeed, that is how I see it. I hope this tangible commodity of enlightenment and illumination might become the truly valued coin of the realm and leave the other mundane unimportant desires in second place. Our futures depend on it.
   
  The Universe According to Einstein

  Beyond the Elements

  pbs.org

  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Galileo-Galilei/Galileos-Copernicanism

  Sent from my iPad

• Jan 13, 2023 at 11:40 pm

  Aroundtown says:

   

  Here is something I stumbled across while looking for relevant information on the life expectancy of the human race and it is significant, I’ll post a link. It is an older study and that only exemplifies our ability to ignore the impact we have on planet earth but we keep pretending that we have time. The jest of the article makes it clear, to my mind anyway, that the stable earth we’ve enjoyed will never be enjoyed on that scale again by our progeny, not by anyone. I’ll also post a link on the 6th extinction event that is currently unfolding, you notice it’s also old from 2017, so hopefully you will conclude that we have become very adept at ignoring all of the warnings. For all of our brilliance we have missed the mark miserably in such a short amount of time. We’ve known full well that we are having a major impact on ecosystems worldwide and we continue to exacerbate the causes and continue on as if we can. 
   
   
  The study I’m linking to theorizes that the earth requires 10 million years to fully recover from extinction events and the small excerpt below spells out that it need not be a massive extinction event at all. That is why I’m saying our best days are behind us and the days to come will never match those bygone days of stability. Stephen Hawking postulated that we only have around 1000 years to leave this planet so we might prolong the human race on some other world, but from my vantage point, and knowing the rarity of discovering a planet as conducive to life as it is here on earth, it will be the biggest gamble we’ve ever taken. Humanity has played with fire and now we will pay the price irrespective of how inconvenient that fact is. The severity of our near future is in our hands, will we act?
   

   “People have argued that we only have to worry about human-caused extinctions if we do something that causes the loss of 80 or 90 percent of species on the planet,” said UC Berkeley environmental scientist James W. Kirchner.

  “Our analysis shows that even if the human impact is much smaller than that – 20 or 30 or even 50 percent of species – it’s still going to take 10 million years for the Earth to recover. That is well past the expected life span of the human species, or even of the genus Homo.”

   
  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/03/000329080536.htm
   
   

  Earth’s sixth mass extinction event under way, scientists warn
  theguardian.com

  Sent from my iPad

• Jan 14, 2023 at 9:24 am

  philrimmer says:

  Hiya, Aroundtown.
  I’ve responded in the Climate thread. It might take a little while to appear…

• Jan 15, 2023 at 4:49 am

  Aroundtown says:

   
  Something interesting. Scientists think they have an answer for why we are more susceptible to catching a cold or virus in the Winter months. I’ll post a link to the article for your perusal. It’s a long standing question that may have been answered?
   
  Should the hypothesis be accurate I envision a nostril heater not too far behind?
   

  Why Upper Respiratory Infections Are More Common in Colder Temperatures
  hms.harvard.edu

• Jan 15, 2023 at 12:55 pm

  Michael 100 says:

  Jan 13, 2023 at 11:40 pm
  22
  Aroundtown says:
   
  I’ll also post a link on the 6th extinction event that is currently unfolding.  

   
  Aroundtown: You reminded me of a book by Elizabeth Colbert which I mentioned here in 2021: 

  Apr 30, 2021 at 3:26 pm
  342
  The Sixth Extinction, An Unnatural History, By Elizabeth Kolbert 

  By coincidence, Kolbert is a guest of Lawrence Krauss’ current podcast
   

  https://lawrencekrauss.substack.com/

   

• Jan 15, 2023 at 4:51 pm

  Pierre says:

  Aroundtown @ post #185
  Thank you for your kind words and insights.  I had not thought of the effects of the Great Depression impacting churches financially to the point where they collapsed…their god was not there for them,  not that he would have been in any case!  Really enjoyed reading the Handy excerpt on the subject. 

• Jan 16, 2023 at 12:22 am

  Aroundtown says:

  Pierre, @ post #26

  Thank you.

• Jan 16, 2023 at 12:48 am

  Aroundtown says:

  Michael 100, @ post # 25
   
  Thank you for bringing this to my attention. It’s a threefold treat for me. I was unaware of the Critical Mass website (I’ve got it bookmarked now), Elizabeth Kolbert, or the fact that Lawrence Krause has a new book on the way. I’m going to pre-purchase “The Edge of Knowledge” tonight and I look forward to the read, it’s right up my alley of interest, very exciting. I’m going to listen to the podcast interview between Lawrence and Elizabeth in the coming days, after I set aside the 139 minute window of time. I’m sure it will be very informative. I’ve had a long time appreciation for Lawrence Krause, for his thinking and his activism. He’s a steady ship, a fountain of knowledge.
   

• Jan 16, 2023 at 9:54 am

  Strato says:

  I have a Law, ‘Strato’s Law,’ or I subscribe to the already existing named Law that, “if something can happen, it will happen, eventually.”

  At the beginning of England’s expansionist colonial quest, the Royal and merchant navy required fine timber for shipwrights to be as industrious as they could be.

  Business was booming. The slave trade was a lucrative one, despite the unspeakable losses at sea, and southern American cotton fed England’s ‘dark, satanic mills.’ The cottage industry was terminated. The bourgeoisie and the proletariat were created by the industrial revolution and human nature.

  That early requirement for ship  timber and wood for charcoal caused decimation for England’s oak trees.

  In the early iron age, ore was smelted with charcoal from wood. Cutters would plunder the forests for wood to build large ricks of billets which would then be well covered with peat and set to smoulder, oxygen starved. The resultant pile of charcoal was used to smelt ore for wrought iron and tools, etc.

  The conversion over to coal and coke, also the product of oxygen starved combustion enabled steel production and drove underground mining, and production of steel bridges and ships, boiler plate, pistons and cylinders, rails, locos, armaments, factories, once steam power was harnessed.

  The ‘protestant work ethic’ drove many industrialists themselves, and to drive their wage-slaves. They kept the timepiece. For a worker to slacken was theft. The living conditions of the wage slaves were utterly squalid in many places. Engels studied the situation intensively.

  Electricity generation, and wiring for domestic and industrial consumption, then the internal combustion engine all stood ‘waiting’ for inventors  And then jet propulsion, rocketry, nuclear reactors and bombs, fertiliser from natural gas, industrial mono-cropping agriculture, population explosion.

  Industrialisation and science led inevitably to the Anthropocene. All that carbon was there to be tapped and exploited, along with the deposits of elements, generated in a supernova, and which we are made of, it was inevitable we would utilise it, and yes to our certain demise and probably 80% to 90% of species, the Sixth Mass Extinction Event.

  Against all times in human history, these are the most amazing. If one lives in a privileged developed country and has aspirations and the drive, one might do some pretty amazing stuff, such as build a house with a brilliant recording studio, surf, check out the world, gain a deep and wide education, just witness the technological explosion, James Webb, medical developments, new compounds.

  We know the population will possibly get to 11 billion soon enough, but the crunch must also surely come soon enough. Billions will perish, probably humankind. I can’t see how it can be averted.

  All this has happened because it could. It could be seen as ‘it is what it is,’ and not really an unqualified, lamentable evil, what humans have perpetrated, through consumption, acquisitiveness, turning mineral deposits into toxic landfill, irrecoverable resources. 

  There was no creator god to guide us. All one have is the still, small voice, the ancestral sensibility to live right, strong in some much more than others, it would seem. I don’t think we really have free-will, to change ourselves. I am a bit of a genetic determinist.

  A fatalist?

   
   
   
   

• Jan 16, 2023 at 1:20 pm

  Michael 100 says:

   

  Jan 16, 2023 at 12:48 am
  28
  Aroundtown says

  I’ve had a long time appreciation for Lawrence Krause, for his thinking and his activism. He’s a steady ship, a fountain of knowledge.

  This morning, Dr. Krauss posted a great list of articles.

  What I’m Reading, Science: New Year’s edition

• Jan 17, 2023 at 2:46 am

  Aroundtown says:

   
  I have an idea that’s been rolling around in my head and I thought why not throw it out there for a sounding board of sorts. I will start with an analogy to largely make my point then I’ll spell out the premise of my idea. I don’t believe anyone would argue that a computer running on updated software outperforms a computer running on old programming. The operating system just runs better when tuned up. So that’s the idea basically but the tune up I’m proposing is basic educational proficiency.
   
   
  So this is the jest of it, the vast majority of populations, especially in developed nations, have a mandatory education system that brings the populace up to a standardized level of competency for obvious reasons, they don’t want a nation of dimwits. So that is the crux of it for me as pertains to a very large amount of people, especially older persons, that are fundamentally operating on older data placement implanted in a bygone age. The tune up is long overdue and most remain stuck operating on outdated material and instruction. The old adage comes to mind… use it or lose it, and it seems that is very relevant to mental process.

   
   
  We might wonder, I am anyway, why we are slipping in the modern arena when it comes to mental acuity. Wouldn’t it be prudent to require a refresher course of specific specialized instruction for a societies population, irrespective of age? I was thinking of something like a 5 year window between studies that could be accomplished at libraries or community centers in the evenings that brings newer content into the ole gray matter. Seems the benefits of continual proficiency in academics would serve everyone in most every way. I’m aware that many might balk at this proposal but it still seems like something that would fill a deep need/void. Would this concept be practical? Would it catapult us forward to better overall proficiency? I think I know the answer but I’m not sure it would be practical. Just musing out loud I suppose on the concept.

• Jan 17, 2023 at 3:28 am

  Aroundtown says:

  I would add this quickly to my post at # 31 above. I know the concept I brought forward is the most basic of outline on the possibilities of periodic continuous education but a few other things also came to mind. I am aware that the precept is untestable unless a sufficient diverse group was tested periodically throughout a very lengthy process so it lives only in speculation. What I believe could be another benefit, although equally untestable, is the medical benefits of mental stimulation over a period of time that is otherwise missing. Might the incidence of Dementia and Alzheimer’s have been reduced if the brain had received this proposed educational reinforcement? Would the reinforcement of cognition improve health overall due to better choices of the individual? These seem plausible also, and I’m thinking there could be unexpected benefits that might come from the process. Again, just musing, but I wanted to throw them out as well.

• Jan 17, 2023 at 3:53 am

  Aroundtown says:

  This is largely directed to Phil but please join in if interested. Phil, you had brought up Abiogenesis, and I was still contemplating my previous assertion on the earliest generation of life on the planet. I had neglected to mention, well I did roughly, the idea that the early Earth was a vastly different landscape that we can scarcely imagine, hostile would be very apropos to my envisioning, but that environment no longer exists hence no way to accurately assess that environment in the here and now. The idea that life could have been facilitated in pools of the surface as aided by periodic precipitation and dry spells has been considered also but I ran across this tonight from Wikipedia and there is some information I was unaware of. I thought you might find it useful too. The question of the initial spark of life intrigues me but the actual process might have been rather mundane and drawn out, maybe fast as my initial speculation suggested, but the overall question is still important. Maybe it will be answered someday, but not in my lifetime. 

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earliest_known_life_forms
   
   
   

• Jan 17, 2023 at 4:00 pm

  Michael 100 says:

  This was just posted byLawrence Krauss on his site.  Rather than posting the entire statement, I’ll just post the link.
  A Statement from Scientists on the Use and Threats of Use of Nuclear Weapons
  This statement was signed by myself and over 1,000 other scientists and delivered to key governments and decision makers.
  https://lawrencekrauss.substack.com/p/a-statement-from-scientists-on-the

• Jan 18, 2023 at 12:41 am

  Aroundtown says:

   
  Scary that a recent entity to confirm my views on nationalistic isolation should come from World Economic Forum chairman Klaus Schwab, founder of the Davos World Economic Forum that meets annually in Davos Switzerland. This is a bit of what he had to state at the 2023 meeting.
   

  “One the greatest challenges facing humanity is the “deep societal fragmentation” tearing countries and peoples apart, said World Economic Forum chairman Klaus Schwab on Tuesday.
  “At the beginning of this year we are confronted with unprecedented and multiple challenges,” Schwab warned in his opening address to the hundreds of business and government leaders assembled at the elite conclave he founded in Davos, Switzerland.”

   

  “The 84-year-old argued the global economy was undergoing a “deep transformation” due to the lasting scars of the Covid-19 pandemic and cautioned the world could be turning into “a messy patchwork of powers.”

   
  I would suggest that his concerns, and from those assembled, have a much different imperative than mine though as concerns the detrimental effects of separation/isolation. They’re simply worried that their seat at the world banquet table might be reduced thus thwarting an ability to siphon off more cash into their coffers.
   
  My concerns is a fragmented society or Nation doesn’t have the strength that is afforded by a cooperative of States/Nations. Much different goals and aspirations between us, but that is no surprise.
   
  I’ll include some links. You will see the Davos founder seated at a table with Julie Sweet (R), in the first link, I will include a separate link for her. The saying from the Wizard of Oz was, “pay no attend to that man behind the curtain”, well I thought you might like to see the woman behind the curtain. Her Husband was chairman of the Ted Cruz presidential election campaign in 2016, that should speak volumes as to the power couple‘s ideals. The New York Times and Fortune have named her one of the most powerful women in corporate America. Corporate Greed doesn’t have a gender problem apparently and this is a perfect example. That is my opinion anyway.
   
   

  Davos founder says world suffering from ‘deep societal fragmentation’ ｜ DPA
  nordot.app

   
   
   

  Julie Sweet
  en.wikipedia.org

• Jan 19, 2023 at 8:20 am

  philrimmer says:

  So, Around #33 Abiogenesis and early earth.
  I used to write a lot about this, but summing it up there appears to be two lots of chemistry contributing to the production of the necessary “soup”  from which life emerged. At first these appear to be the result of environments quite separated from each other with the result of quite a lot of dispute between the two camps. The “cold white smokers” (the thermal vents pushing out hottish water out past olivine rock) on the sea floor undoubtedly produced one set of components. The other equally convincing set looks about right to emanate from drying out pools of water bathed in UV.

  To us these locations look entirely distinct and therefore problematic if both are needed together, but we need to understand the geology, chemistry and physics of very early Earth. First it was featureless at some point having no real crust at its surface, still, in large scale terms hot enough to have little tensile or compressive strength to form a pushing or pulling coat of sufficient thickness.  Over this mostly smooth, elastic skin, just starting to get crispy is the planet’s supply of condensed water making a wrap of an all encompassing but very shallow sea.

  We need to understand the huge gravitational forces applied to this water covered hot toffee world. Some estimates place the moon at only a tenth the distance, producing huge tidal forces. These will start to amplify weak spots in the forming skin, producing locations where the runnier toffee magma convections will start to break through, in turn producing, around the edge of emergent volcanoes, vents that will become first location hydrothermal vents. We must also understand that the water tidal range could be up to a hundred times what it is today, tides like tsunami. 

  Volcanoes raised up above the shallow sea will produce the hydrothermal chemical set around its skirts and its upper slopes will hold the rock pools splash-filled by the tides and weather. The global sea at this time is very low salinity. Also to note is that UV levels may have been anything up to three orders of magnitude above current levels. These rock pools filled with first location chemistry are now ideal for second location chemistry to happen…

  This whole area of bio, geo synthesis is wide open at the moment being quite interdisciplinary and only now getting the first real data together. The next decade should see such hypotheses extended or debunked.

  Next Dissipation as a theory of just about everything.

• Jan 19, 2023 at 1:58 pm

  philrimmer says:

  Around, Abiogenesis…
  From-
  https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-thermodynamics-theory-of-the-origin-of-life-20140122/

  “The chemistry of the primordial soup, random mutations, geography, catastrophic events and countless other factors have contributed to the fine details of Earth’s diverse flora and fauna. But according to England’s theory, the underlying principle driving the whole process is dissipation-driven adaptation of matter… This principle would apply to inanimate matter as well.”

  Jeremy England’s account of this is nicely specific but difficult for some to apprehend. I developed my own account, more susceptible to grasping by example.

  I tend to talk about “organised complexity” as the product of a thermodynamic system far from equilibrium (like our current spacetime universe) when subject to a Principle of Least Action. In this coining of “organised complexity” is implicit the idea of formal adaption contingent on changing circumstance, i.e. the organisation of matter may well change if its ecology changes.

  Further implicit is that the entropy of the organised matter will be lower after the process of organisation. This latter seems freaky and is the reason some religious apologists argue for  such a universe, entropy must always increase, after all, it is argued, we have unidirectional time because of it. Paley’s watch must have a creator. But they miss that only the net entropy must increase. Topical entropy in an appropriate heat flux is allowed to decrease.

  Here I usually illustrate how this spontaneous organisation of matter can happen in a heat flux. A shallow pan of water sits on a hob, the heat flux through the water, in at the bottom out at the top, is adjusted until a stable pattern of toroidal convection cells is formed in a honeycomb arrangement. This pattern forms because it is the most efficient arrangement to transfer heat from bottom to top, more efficient than any other organised patterns and more efficient than chaotic turbulence. The temperature difference between input and output surface is at its lowest. No other arrangement gets a look in, can never get started because the temperature difference is too low to support any other form.

  This is why its called “dissipative”. The heat is dissipated (transferred from hotter to colder) in the most efficient way possible. (My and Richard Feynman’s beloved Principle of Least Action is all about efficiency.)

  Since first arguing that no creator is needed for the patterned pan of water, I have noticed a large number of illustrations of the principle, most recently in rotating 2D cells of floating pollen (?) and more importantly the hierarchy of RNA entities arranged in size and stability. The structure now is one of mutuality, small stable RNA entities enable larger less stable ones to survive for longer and with some enhanced further stability for themselves.

  Life, Professor England argues, will simply, inevitably, emerge because it is more efficient in its use of energy than non-life.

  In future I suggest that maybe the Climate thread could become the Science and Climate Science thread? The open thread looks too important serving topical issues and politics. Science changes far less rapidly in its fundament.

• Jan 19, 2023 at 2:28 pm

  Aroundtown says:

  Phil @ post # 36
   
  Thank you, Phil. Such a good description in your post, I could actually envision it like a movie reel. Sounds entirely possible. Brilliant.

• Jan 20, 2023 at 8:33 am

  Strato says:

  Phil Rimmer #36, #37,

  And what Aroundtown said. Beautiful.

  I have always thought life, its fecundity and ‘complexification’ through variation and selection, presents an interesting detour in the unrelenting march of entropy, to understate it somewhat.

  So entropy admits of being slowed down by chemistry, given the right initial conditions, ultimately giving rise to ecology which creates enhanced conditions conducive to itself, its flourishing?

  Is this the implication?

• Jan 20, 2023 at 9:37 am

  philrimmer says:

  Strato #39

  Yes, I think this hypothesis of England’s is beautiful. I even think we can try applying it to just about every level of constructed reality. I see it as a process that will give rise to fractal, self-similar forms. I believe evolution may have found its underlying motor as well as its formative, pre-life motor, so too brain function and cultures etc..

  Whilst the founding physics is about heat energy (photons, phonons and kinetic) proxies exist in energy’s other forms, chemical, biochemical. 
  It may be just one of many possibilities and proving it THE one is probably impossible. But it is an excellent generator of questions to ask about almost any system of loosely coupled entities.

  Whilst the entropy in the specific energy flux actually goes down, because of the organising tendency, the total, net entropy inside and outside the specific flux (everywhere) in fact goes up because of it. In a sense creating weather systems or life or other patterns is helping speed us (in their little way) to the heat death of the universe.

• Jan 20, 2023 at 3:19 pm

  Aroundtown says:

  Phil, once again, you have stunned me. I very much appreciate your bringing Professor Jeremy England’s hypothesis to my attention. I’ve said it before, and I will again, that you are always at the front of the class with your having the latest information ready for inspection. This hypothesis explains more than the abiogenesis question, it also gives a solid forum to look at expansion, contraction, decomposition, and the like in examination of form and function. My mind is stimulated with these possibilities and it’s wonderful. I would also note that it is devoid of emotion, that characteristic that so often clouds our perception. I thought of the Higgs Boson and I’ll provide a clip, the physics postulated it’s existence and hard work and examination proved it, the particle itself had no care whether we knew if it’s existence but the discovery certainly provided a thrill for us, Jeremies hypothesis does the same for me. I will enjoy and further speculate on this in the coming days. Awesome to get these advances that catapult us forward.
   
   
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-dNqCbRc_Y
   

• Jan 20, 2023 at 5:06 pm

  Aroundtown says:

  Strato & Phil
   
  Was good to see your post above, between you and Phil my interest was amplified significantly. Made for an interesting start for the day.
   
  Wanted to touch on Phil’s suggestion for the Climate Change thread too, seems to be a good idea to expand the thread to include science inspection that is not specifically related to Climate Change. I’ve sometimes struggled to make the call on where I should post, this would simplify matters
   
  I had a doctors appointment so my post was very brief in responding to Phil today. I wanted to respond but it was very short, my mind was alighted with this new information and I hammered out a bit of my impressions relative to the possibilities overall. It was a Wow moment for sure. Our early ancestors and modern family alike have been driven by emotional response and that had huge implications for the easy adoption of superstition and religious belief unfortunately. I love it when science shows us the way forward.

  I’m trying to post this from my iPhone while waiting to be called into the doctors office so we will see how it goes. I’ve never tried it before. Just an FYI

• Jan 22, 2023 at 2:11 am

  Strato says:

  If you place a squeezing capo over the first fret of a 12-string acoustic guitar to keep the steel strings together, as you then slacken them off to then pull out their anchoring bridge pins and release them, they will quickly become hopelessly entangled.

  The more you try to disentangle them, the more they collectively invest that energy to become more tightly entangled, until they can’t get any more so, because these good strings have the property of tensility. It is potential energy.

  There’s maths in the entropic phenomenon the physicist might perform.

  I just feed each string’s ball-end (a little brass hollow barrel with a groove around its centre that the string is turned upon, then to be wrapped around itself) through a safety pin to stop that fiendish problem from happening to me again.

  They have a mind of their own.

  An acoustic guitar is really all about physics.

  What makes a really rich and loud sounding guitar, that still has structural integrity? This is the pursuit of luthiers.

• Jan 22, 2023 at 11:15 am

  philrimmer says:

  Stringed instruments were perhaps the very first scientific instruments, apart from sticks and rocks in the ground. It certainly got the Greeks all excited discovering fundamental mathematics in the harmonics of a vibrating string.
  Moving bridges around they discovered the harmonious nature of fixed simple ratios of length and with a damping finger those higher harmonics existed in the same string at the same time in the lowest sound.

  For fun, cast your eye over this, Strato…
  http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2007/ph210/pelc2/

  It looks intimidating but if you happen to “speak” mathematics its remarkably simple, and with just two physical parameters it can explain the quality of sound depending where along the length of the string you pluck it. Pluck it in the middle and it ceases to have that brighter, harmonic rich, guitar sound and becomes more like a harp.

• Jan 23, 2023 at 8:16 am

  Strato says:

  philrimmer #44,

  Thanks. Yes, there’s a bit to the business of a musical instrument sounding in tune all over its range.

  Before the invention of tempered tuning, the harpsichord player had to keep the hands close together, musically confined, otherwise the keyboard and music would sound out of tune.

  With the introduction of tempered tuning, Bach was inspired to compose The Well-Tempered Clavier, with a fugue and an etude in every key, major and minor, exploiting the new musical possibilities of playing with the left and right hands separated and freed. Fugues feature counterpoint.

  Beethoven went to town with the new pianoforte with its iron frame holding the strings with their enormous added tension. The piano could be tuned higher now, sounding brighter and louder, stentorian.

  I have, I guess, perfect relative pitch, and the requisite obsessiveness when it comes to guitar intonation.

  The frets slots on a fingerboard are conventionally cut parallel, to the fractional ratios the genius Pythagoras worked out.

  He also had a bit of a cult going. in Croton, southern Italy. Metempsychosis. Mmm…

  The differentials of string thickness and tension requires them to be ‘compensated.’ The thicker strings have more mass and tension, and need to be lengthened because as you fret it up the fingerboard it gets progressively more sharp, vibrates faster than would the true pitch that note should be, and you can hear it, against other strings You have to rein in the disorder.

  When it’s sharp I squint, and when it’s flat my mouth goes down. That’s how I know.

  The phenomenon is because those strings have resistance, against being set to vibrate; its ‘excursion’ is resisted.

  And so you lengthen it by filing on the bone bridge saddle with a jeweller’s file, on its front edge, on an acoustic guitar, particularly a steel string. And thin strings need to be shortened on the saddle which should be positioned precisely, like down to the thousandth of an inch range.

  Electric guitars have individual saddles, adjustable with a screwdriver. It’s easy to go too low on a bone saddle. Start again by shaping a new one from a bone blank!

  You end up with a configuration. I have to get the intonation as perfect as it’s possible to get on a guitar, or even a fretless bass, or slide guitar.

  On a short-scale guitar with lighter strings, like my old 1939 Gibson Kalamazoo, I also make a compensated nut, where the strings sit in their slots at the headstock. Short scale and lighter strings demand more radical compensation.

  There is much literature for nerds on the imperfections of guitar intonation with those fiendish fixed parallel frets. But offset frets haven’t taken on.

• Jan 23, 2023 at 8:42 am

  Strato says:

  I guess my facial analog is a metaphysical thing?

• Jan 23, 2023 at 8:43 am

  Alan Appleby says:

   

  Strato says:
  If you place a squeezing capo over the first fret of a 12-string acoustic guitar to keep the steel strings together, as you then slacken them off to then pull out their anchoring bridge pins and release them, they will quickly become hopelessly entangled.

   

  I solve this problem on my Martin D12, simply by removing and replacing the strings one at a time.
  Once they have all been replaced, I finish tightening and tuning them a few times as they settle during the rest of the day.

   

• Jan 23, 2023 at 8:54 am

  Alan Appleby says:

  philrimmer says: #37
  Here I usually illustrate how this spontaneous organisation of matter can happen in a heat flux.

   
  Various patterns can be interesting.
  I looked at this and compared effects in zero gravity!
   

  https://www.quora.com/What-inanimate-objects-can-grow/answer/Alan-Appleby-4
  Some of the best known, are crystals and chemical gardens.

   
  . . . . . 

• Jan 23, 2023 at 8:59 am

  Strato says:

  Phil Rimmer #37,

  The article by Natalie Wolchover and Emily Singer you linked to from Quanta magazine on Jeremy England’s far-reaching thesis certainly provides something big to think about, and to watch for developments.

• Jan 23, 2023 at 9:09 am

  Strato says:

  Alan Appleby #47,

  Yes, that’s what’s also less stressful to the guitar top, behind the bridge. Martin recommends it.

  However, when getting an unforgiving LR Baggs undersaddle element pickup to contact perfectly, with even string volume balance, you inevitably have to take the saddle back out several times, to file the bottom.

  They recommend it be done by a ‘professional.’

  KK Pure Mini, three small, lightweight sensors which you glue to the bridge plate with superglue gel, is the go, I think.

  So much easier. Sounds pretty good in a Martin D28.

• Jan 23, 2023 at 9:36 am

  Strato says:

  Alan Appleby #48,

  Interesting. Now why won’t Quora open for me?

• Jan 23, 2023 at 9:50 am

  Alan Appleby says:

  Strato says:
  Now why won’t Quora open for me?

  Sorry!  I don’t know, but here are two links from it.
  https://www.thoughtco.com/make-your-own-magic-rocks-607653
  . . . . . .
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_garden#%2Fmedia%2FFile%3AChemical_garden.jpg
  . . . . .
   

• Jan 23, 2023 at 10:00 am

  Alan Appleby says:

  Strato says:
  you inevitably have to take the saddle back out several times, to file the bottom. 

   
  My antique 6 string Epiphone, makes life much simpler by having 2  screws which adjust the height of the bridge.
  This makes changing the weight of the strings sooo much easier than having to use a file!
  Mind you I have had to replace the nut at the head end twice, as the plastic holding the strings cracked with age! That did involve filing! 

• Jan 23, 2023 at 10:40 am

  Strato says:

  Alan Appleby #53,

  Heh.

  From my experience, for anyone harbouring a notion, I can highly recommend steering well clear of guitars.

  But it’s clearly a better jones to have than guns.

  The guy with the AK can kill you and take your guitar, but with your guitar you can write a song that can awaken him and millions besides.

  Think, Neil Young, Steven Stills et al. Dan Hicks.

  Or Randy Newman, the piano player/songwriter/humanist with his beautiful spare New Orleansean musicality.

  ‘Sail Away.’
  ‘I Think It’s Going to Rain Today’…

• Jan 23, 2023 at 11:36 am

  Strato says:

  My son just gave me an Indonesian ‘Mahalo’ soprano uke that is almost painfully loud. It pings. Light and strong. Red.

  I’ve been in uke zone singing old timey songs from the twenties and by Jimmie Rodgers, the Yodelling Breakman.

  Robert Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders, ‘Singin’ in the Bathtub.’

  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E01lGq7aWGY

  If I keep the action right by scraping the top of the saddle with a utility blade, it should stay good and playable for ever.

• Jan 23, 2023 at 11:58 am

  Strato says:

  This is most encouraging. All I can really do is share it.

  I have Keynesian economist Joseph Stiglitz’s book, Globalisation and its Discontents: Updated. Great book. He is into universal prosperity, opportunity, economic justice.

  Tax the rich at 70%, again, as did FDR, and even higher. But world over.
   
  Lets see if it generates groundswell. The American masses have to critique this obligatory individualism indoctrination. It’s a hangup.

  Republicans, red in tooth and claw, will fight this desideratum from the likes of Stiglitz and Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, AOC.

  So lets see. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

  It’s out there now.

  Reason and justice will prevail.

  It’s a fine article.

• Jan 23, 2023 at 3:01 pm

  philrimmer says:

  Stiglitz is on the money (sic) taxing both income and wealth, Strato. Fancy doing a review of it in the Book thread when you’re done?

  An earlier book thread covered some of Keynes developing ideas in a discussion of Frank Ramsay’s biography by Cheryl Misak. Translated Wirrgenstein went a good way to change is mind almost 180 degrees and constructively sparred with his tutor Keynes, refining the philosophical roots of his economic theories.

  Because wealth increases disproportionately the ability to become wealthy, and because the origins of wealth lay in the theft of what was commonly held, the enclosures , the conquering colonisers. we need to restore some fairness to this lottery of birth. I call myself a capitalist (of a Robert Reich disposition) and I’m never going to say (out loud) property is theft BUT I will advocate for “obliged stewardship” to replace ownership beyond the personal, and sooner rather than later.

  The big and growing issue to face is that of Rent. The traditional left stance on this is that rent is wrong, simply making money out of an asset looks to be a motor for driving inequity. BUT the whole of the circular economy our salvation in other words depends on owned stuff being replaced by sold services. In this way technology can solve three categories of problems through financial pressure applied rather than just the one of low initial cost per function. What we need is technology also solving the energy efficiency issue, the longevity issue (so less manufacturing) and the reliability issue (so less costly servicing). Only if one entity sponsoring product evolution has all these burdening issues to offer the most cost effective service, wil technology actually shine in all that it can achieve.

  Rent will save the planet but landlords must become fully public servants, publicly obliged. I see banks and financial institutions becoming a class of obliged asset holders, divorcing the “property” from the service provider, state or private, themselves obliged to maintain the assets to mandated standards.

  We need to re-invent our financial institutions to put expertise in there to handle these necessarily longer term physical assets…

• Jan 24, 2023 at 2:24 am

  Strato says:

  And I was reading this today. About Agenda21, an urgently needful memorandum and the conspiracy the paranoid and control-obsessed right  turned it into, effectively making it ‘fall dead-born from the press’, as David Hume would have put it.
  It’s from the tireless Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC).
  Although it is from April, 2014, factual history is indispensable, empowering, knowledge.
   
   

• Jan 24, 2023 at 2:28 am

  Strato says:

  And I was reading this today. About Agenda21, an urgently needful global mere ‘non-binding statement of intent’ and the conspiracy the paranoid and control-obsessed right turned it into, effectively making it ‘fall dead-born from the press’, as David Hume would have put it.

  They bear a heavy onus. Ted Cruz, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeWeese, Glen Beck, the odious John Birch Society et al.

  It’s from the tireless Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC).

  Although it is from April, 2014, factual history is indispensable, empowering, knowledge. We so easily forget.

  Sustainability was the word for the 20th Century, and remains the word for this one too.
   
  Oh I see I doubled up.

  Patience, young Strato, patience.

• Jan 24, 2023 at 4:29 am

  Moderator says:

  Mod message

  Just a reminder to try to keep substantial discussion about the climate crisis on the Climate Crisis thread, please. And – unless they’re specifically about the climate crisis – discussions about books in the Book Club. This keeps pretty much everything to do with climate crisis and/or books together in a single, logical place and makes it far easier to track specific posts down later than if they’re dotted about various Open Discussion threads. We know it’s inevitable that there’ll be a certain amount of overlap, and that’s not a problem, but we would just ask everyone to consider before posting on an Open thread whether it wouldn’t be more appropriate or more logical to post on one of the other two instead.

  Strato – we’ve moved your post about Limits and Beyond to the Climate Crisis thread. When you come to do your review of it in due course, that should probably go in the Book Club, but feel free to point to it from the Climate Crisis thread as well.

  Thanks

  The mods

• Jan 24, 2023 at 4:50 am

  philrimmer says:

  Really helpful reminder of a major root of extreme right wing propaganda, Strato.
  This seems poignant to me in the now isolated UK.

  It will “make our nation a vassal” of the UN, result in “the destruction of our lives,”

  No longer a “vassal” of the EU, we have cast off and become a sinking vessel, holed at the economic bridge. Our tech savvy market, the EU, that took 60% of our tech product, now behind economic and administrative barriers that defeat the creative SME sector. I wrote at the time how dangerous this was for the sustainability and circular economy projects. 

  The Second Amendment is still an interpreted document and no Republican (or Democrat with erectile dysfunction) believes tactical thermonuclear devices should be sold to the general public. These folk are dirgiste too. Opening up a new market that is clearly not time limited and secures the ability of business to work into the indefinite future is what most big businesses really want. Stable markets, sustainable markets form the most attractive investment. The problem is getting there. Those of a parasitic mindset will always see an opportunity to game the transition. The transition left to market forces alone will never happen until in the teeth of disaster.

  I believe if large trading blocks create new ground rules for all, in progressive fashion, using standards, incentives and taxation, we can have better businesses, sustainable and free of (say) Russian or other state blackmail. Banks for the most part are itching for it.

  These folk in the article are bad business men, parasites mostly in how they see business working (wealth taking rather than making).

  (Music stuff I put in the arts thread.)

  Good stuff moving, mods. Will you move mine too as you see fit? Ta! Finding the stuff in a month or two will be so much easier.

• Jan 24, 2023 at 5:22 am

  Moderator says:

  Phil

  Good stuff moving, mods. Will you move mine too as you see fit? Ta! Finding the stuff in a month or two will be so much easier.

  It’s actually quite fiddly to do, and in any case, it becomes impracticable if a post has already generated responses by the time we spot the error.

  It was a bit more straightforward this time because, for whatever reason, the system had put Strato’s post aside for moderation in any case.

  We can obviously step in if necessary, but it would be very helpful if people could try to remember for themselves. Thanks!

   

• Jan 25, 2023 at 10:28 am

  Strato says:

  Thanks Mods,
  I promise to be tidier and save you the chore.

• Jan 26, 2023 at 7:25 am

  Strato says:

  I was looking up the rare late transition metal indium.

  ‘Indium is used in many high-tech devices such as touch screens, smart phones, solar panels and smart windows, in the form of indium tin oxide. This compound is optically transparent and electrically conductive — the two crucial features required for touch screens to work.’

  It is present in zinc and other ores in traces. Depending on world demand for zinc, its availability is far from assured whilst increasing demand is.

  And so  Dr Behnam Akhavan at Sydney University has found an alternative conductive and transparent medium for coating glass for touchscreens and similar modern requirements, using plasma to achieve this.

  Although I am deeply immersed in contemplating a grim picture for production and consumption, environment and climate reading Limits and Beyond, 2022, this short article is certainly pretty interesting, nevertheless.

  High tech research and production never ceases to amaze.

  It is only wonderful when it is used for good, or at least not for destruction.

  https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2021/07/20/touchscreen-alternative-allays-fear-of-world-indium-shortage.html

• Jan 26, 2023 at 8:03 am

  Strato says:

  It’s 10 to midnight here.

  The hoons up the hill nearby just let off about 60 what sounded like the old threepenny bungers we had until about 1960 when crackers were banned in Victoria after kids got their fingers blown off and bushfires were started from bonfires on Guy Fawkes night.

  The British Empire was our legacy, unless you were indigenous, or Italian or Greek or Lebanese or among other immigrant communities.

  Then we became a deeper multicultural society and Guy Fawkes had no relevance anymore.

  But I agonise for the Brits. Mum was a Sussex girl too. But that’s not why, really.

  I trust sense will prevail after not too much more self harm, and they will fully collaborate with the effort to save the planet and everything, which has to get up.

  I don’t know what, if any political statement the proletarian hoons up the hill might be making but I’m skeptical of it.🤨

  Perhaps it’s me and I just need to go and hang out with them.

  They are looking for it.

• Jan 26, 2023 at 8:21 am

  Strato says:

  Now I can smell gunpowder coming through the window.
  Or is it cordite?
  It’s a northerly. It will be around 35deg on Saturday.
  February is the hottest month.
  It could be ghastly.

  Oh, now I just realised why the crackers, tonight.
  White nationalism.
  It’s Australia Day, Jan 26.
  Sydney Cove, 1788.
  The First Fleet.

  Invasion Day for our Indigenous people.
  The day the first aborigine was shot.
  They were decimated Australia wide.
  It was programmatic.

  They could have kept hunting and gathering forever.
  Now look at us.

  I read Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond.
  He explains beautifully how come some got to colonise and others were prey to it.

• Jan 28, 2023 at 8:35 am

  Strato says:

  Hi.
  It’s gone all quiet around here, but I can hear those brain gears turning over from where I live.
  And so I anticipate an outburst of activity sometime soon.
  Heh.

  The Centre for Inquiry (cfi) Free Thought in Action newsletter arrived in the mail yesterday, which was a real surprise.

  I am scoring tickets to see RD with my son in Melbourne Friday night Feb 17.

  A happening.

• Jan 28, 2023 at 9:23 am

  Marco says:

  Hey Strato
  Apologies to you and to others – I’m acutely aware I’ve been AWOL for a while. Let’s just say I’ve been Ambushed By Life these last few weeks, including a friend who attempted to commit suicide, followed by a whole can of worms that opened up in the aftermath of that … I’ve had less stressful Januaries, it must be said.
  But I’ve done all I can on that front now so I wanted to pop in in any case to post a Recommendation-with-a-capital-R on the Arts/TV etc thread. Will go and do that now …

• Jan 29, 2023 at 6:17 am

  Strato says:

  More power to you Marco.

• Jan 29, 2023 at 6:26 am

  Strato says:

  The people of the Czech Republic have shown wisdom and reason in electing Pyotr Pavel for president, over power addict and rightwing populist billionaire Andrej Babiš, who has now lost three times, a political hat trick for him.

  That’s very significant and positive. We sure do need it.

  Hopefully Pavel will prove to be progressive, which the young people want.

• Jan 29, 2023 at 9:15 am

  Marco says:

  Cheers Strato (#69)

  Great news about the presidential election in the Czech Republic (#70). Those former countries of the Soviet bloc have all struggled to find a clear path through to liberal democracy, haven’t they: they seem to be forever teetering on the brink, torn between yearning for the affluence and freedoms of the West and the old certainties of strong-arm authoritarianism, and never quite sure which way to jump. In the cases of Poland and Hungary, they’re not even teetering. Largely driven by Catholicism-induced social conservatism in Poland and nationalist-induced social conservatism in Hungary. The Hungarian situation is actually quite ironic, given that, pre-1990, it was considered by some distance the most liberal of the countries in the Soviet bloc (Yugoslavia was more liberal still, of course, but not under the Soviet wing to anything like the same extent). 

  But this is a resounding result, and it’s come at a key moment too, given the war in Ukraine. Let’s hope it’s the start of better things.

• Jan 31, 2023 at 10:34 am

  Strato says:

  Marco #71,

  And I think Poland is getting a bit of a reminder as to where they want to be, or to belong with. I trust so.

  And they have been through a bit in modern history.

  But yes, the state religion, catholicism certainly is an impediment.

  They lost most of their Jewish people, and their Roma.

  I read Five Chimneys when I was 13. Olga Lengyel. About life in two concentration camps, the gas chambers and furnaces.

  The father of the friend who lent it to me had been an active Nazi, like SS. My friend told me. I didn’t doubt that at all.
  I don’t know if he was ever brought to justice.

  I heard my friend from 6th grade became a hippie dropout. He had aspirations to be a surgeon. Very intelligent, but screwed up by his authoritarian father, one of five or six kids, and a submissive mother.

• Feb 1, 2023 at 4:49 am

  Moderator says:

  MODERATOR MESSAGE

  THIS THREAD IS NOW CLOSED – PLEASE DO NOT ADD ANY FURTHER COMMENTS HERE.

  PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTINUE THE DISCUSSIONS, OR START NEW ONES, ON THE FEBRUARY 2023 THREAD, WHICH CAN BE FOUND HERE

  THANK YOU

  THE MODS