Body of Theseus

Gretel just saw a picture of Henry David Thoreau in my upstairs room and asked if he's a Star Wars guy. What is that quote again, "The mass of wampas lead lives of quiet desparation"?

July 24, 2017

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10 Short Rules For a Better Life, From the Stoics

7. Cut toxic people out of your life

"From good people you'll learn good, but if you mingle with the bad you'll destroy such a soul as you had." -Musonius Rufus

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Can you tell which quote is from Trump and which is from Hitler?

"No collusion, no obstruction."

"All this was inspired by the principle—which is quite true within itself—that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying."

July 24, 2019

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Orwell, 1984- "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

Trump, 2018- "Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what is happening."

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Gretel couldn't have any idea how happy she made me tonight. She asked, "Can we watch Star Wars? From a galaxy far, far away? With Wampa and Taun Taun?" Of course we can!

July 24, 2016

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Torn Achilles in 2011, torn ACL in 2012, elbow arthroscopy to remove loose bits in 2013... could I possibly have a surgery every year for the next forty of so years? More importantly have you heard about the Ship of Theseus?

July 24, 2013

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Inventor of the rotary printing press, Richard March Hoe, was born on this day in 1847. He can't even invent a new name?

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On this day 1901, O. Henry was released from prison in Columbus, Ohio, after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank. From his 1908 story, The Octopus Marooned:

"It was beautiful and simple, as truly great swindles are."

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It's 100°F today and through most of the country. The Dust Bowl heat wave reached its peak on this day back in 1935 with temperatures to 109 °F in Chicago and 104 °F in Milwaukee.

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I often think about how wonderful of a time it must have been when we landed on the moon, but imagine something happened on the way back and they didn't make it safely back. Today is the day that Apollo 11 made it back, in 1969.

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On this day in 1974, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor. Trump learn something from that ordeal- relent under no circumstances, and attack the prosecutor.

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On this day in 1983- the "Pine Tar Incident".

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Apparently it's National Tequila Day. How about this for a marketing technique:

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Zelda Fitzgerald was born on this day in 1900. Her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald dubbed her "the first American flapper." She died at 47, he died at 44.

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Gallagher was born on this day in 1946, exactly at the height of the northeast's watermelon harvest.

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The iconic Elisabeth Moss was born on this day in 1982, as I was getting ready to start third grade.

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One of my fourth great-grandmothers, Magdalena Oberlin left us on this day in 1896, born on December 24, 1836. She has a good epitaph:

"Kind children beware as

you pass by, as you are now so once was I.

As I am now so you must be. 

Prepare for death to follow me."

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The French actress, Arletty, left us on this day in 1992, a month and a half after I graduated high school.

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Other notable birthdays- Amelia Earhart (1897), Michael Richards (1949), Gus Van Sant (1952), Barry Bonds (1964), Jennifer Lopez (1969)

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Other notable deathdays- Martin Van Buren (1862), Peter Sellers (1980)

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I'm only halfway through this excellent podcast, an honest attempt of a Trump detractor to understand the position of a Trump supporter. The usually carefully measured Sam Harris caught me by surprise with this- "If I caught some brain virus and started talking about myself the way Trump talks about himself I would throw myself out a fucking window." Adams seems to be saying not much more than that Trump is the greatest persuader and manipulator who has ever lived, which of course still leaves open the possibility that he's one of the worst human beings who ever lived... but I'm not through it yet, and my mind is open.

https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/triggered/#.WXZ4usibPuQ.facebook

July 24, 2017

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Bertrand Russell on Christ's morality, from Why I Am Not a Christian:

There is a very serious defect to my mind in Christ's moral character, and that is that He believed in Hell. I do not myself feel that any person that is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment. 

Christ certainly as depicted in the Gospels did believe in everlasting punishment, and one does find repeatedly a vindictive fury against those people who would not listen to His preaching ‐‐ an attitude which is not uncommon with preachers, but which does somewhat detract from His believed superlative excellence. This doctrine, that hell‐fire is a punishment for sin, is a doctrine of cruelty. It is a doctrine that put cruelty into the world, and gave the world generations of cruel torture; and the Christ of the Gospels, if you could take Him as his chroniclers represent Him, would certainly have to be considered partly responsible. 

In that respect clearly He was not so wise as some other people have been, and He was certainly not superlatively wise. I cannot myself feel that either in the matter of wisdom or in the matter of virtue Christ stands quite as high as some other people known to history. I think I should put Buddha and Socrates above Him in those respects.

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Lab-Grown Human Brain Organoids Go Animal-Free

https://neurosciencenews.com/brain-organoid-animal-free-23624/

Nothing to see here.

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Jackie Robinson deserves the credit for breaking baseball's color barrier. Branch Rickey deserves the credit for giving him the opportunity. Let's not forget Dodger's captain, Pee Wee Reese, who shut down the a clubhouse petition to keep Jackie from joining the club, and as Jackie took the field for the first time to jeers from the fans and opposing dugout, he walked over and put his arm around his shoulder and chatted with him. It doesn't matter what he said, it was a sign- "Jackie is OK with me." The was a very important moment.

Pee Wee Reese was born on this day in 1918.

Rachel Robinson, said: “I thought it was a very supportive gesture, and very instinctive on Pee Wee’s part. You shouldn’t forget that Pee Wee was the captain, and he led the way. Pee Wee was more than a friend. Pee Wee was a good man.”

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Geniuses walk among us.

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Raymond Chandler, The High Window- "From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away."

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John Lurie- "When I was young, because of the movies, I thought I would encounter the dangers of quicksand several times in my adult life. Had no idea it was an allegory for twitter."

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Milan Kundera, The Joke- "Yes, suddenly I saw it clearly: most people deceive themselves with a pair of faiths: they believe in eternal memory (of people, things, deeds, nations) and in redressibility (of deeds, mistakes, sins, wrongs). Both are false faiths. In reality the opposite is true: everything will be forgotten and nothing will be redressed. The task of obtaining redress (by vengeance or by forgiveness) will be taken over by forgetting. No one will redress the wrongs that have been done, but all wrongs will be forgotten."

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S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, opening- "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight, from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home..."

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Addendum

Myspace Blog

July 24, 2007

A Minor Internet Miracle

On Fresh Air the other day a food scientist was being interviewed and he talked about $800/lb. coffee beans that come out of some animals butt, and a certain Italian cheese infiltrated with millions of maggots that jump into your face and hair when you try to eat it. (It helps to put it in the fridge for a bit beforehand.)

Obviously I wanted to share the interview with you so I did the normal thing- I searched for ""fresh air" npr maggot cheese." The first entry wasn't it. The second wasn't either, but you might be interested in what it was- it was Michael J. Fox's wikipedia page.

To repeat: Look up ""fresh air" npr maggot cheese" and you get Michael J. Fox's wikipedia page as the second entry.

It turns out he was interviewed once for Fresh Air, he played a character named Marcel Maggot and he jokingly refers to his struggling actor days as his "macaroni days," as opposed to "salad days," because he used to eat so many macaroni and cheese dinners.