Be a Friend To Yourself

Casablanca, premiered in New York City on this day in 1942.

Ilsa: That was the day the Germans marched into Paris.

Rick: Not an easy day to forget.

Ilsa: No.

Rick: I remember every detail. The Germans wore gray, you wore blue.

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Ugarte: “You despise me, don’t you?”

Rick Blaine: “If I gave you any thought, I probably would.”

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Ilsa: “But what about us?”

Rick: “We’ll always have Paris. We didn’t have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.”

I: “When I said I would never leave you.”

R: “And you never will. But I’ve got a job to do, too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of. Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that.”

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Racquetball mantra- hit it where they are not.

Deceptively simple.

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There's a poetic irony to the fact that the left seems destined to destroy itself through its purity tests, while the right has already destroyed itself with its impurity test.

November 26, 2019

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Last Week Tonight- "John Oliver discusses the growing number of authoritarian leaders around the world, their common characteristics, and whether or not one of them is currently our president."

Worth watching! Remember three key things authoritarians do- project strength at the expense of all else, demonize enemies in order to make complicated problems seem simple, destroy institutions to consolidate power...

https://fb.watch/h1UK6FXpNC/

November 26, 2018

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If I was the type of person who didn't believe climate change was that big of a deal I would be consumed with my own cognitive dissonance, asking myself why I believe politicians over experts, asking myself why some people say follow the money but ignore oil money, asking myself how long the polar ice cap has been there and how much is depleted over the last 20 years, asking myself how I was so certain and whether I should err on the side of caution, asking myself what hypothetical catastrophic climate change would look like in the early stages if it WAS happening, etc, etc, etc. 

Perhaps most of all I'd ask myself if my defeatist attitude might possibly be keeping us from a potentially inexpensive change that could save us from environmental and economic disaster, such as the idea for graphite molecules in the atmosphere that could imperceptibly dim the sun, yet possibly reverse climate change's effects.

November 26, 2018

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Sagan- "Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception."

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The president told several people around him that he doubts the authenticity of the Hollywood Access tape. You know, the one he apologized for. Uhhh... seems more likely that it was his apology that was inauthentic.

November 26, 2017

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These recounts are not going to change the election, unless some sort of widespread hacking occurred which seems very unlikely. But what a fun thought experiment, imagining the magnitude that Trump would go berserk! A recount could theoretically prove he lost, he'd have no claim to the throne, and no legal recourse to claim it. My God, it would be SO funny. Except for all the deaths.

Another actual experiment is underway though... the Constitution strictly forbids foreign governments from any sort of personal payments to presidents, and he has refused to set up his businesses in a blind trust. (The Bank of China, for instance, is going to be paying for office space in Trump Tower- perhaps our top economic and military rival.) Ethics advisers for both Obama AND BUSH have said the electoral college should not elect a guy who will be in violation of the Constitution on day 1. Hmmm...

November 26, 2016

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From the comments on a post about the death of Castro:

A good example of Castro's complicated legacy: Under him, Cuba had near universal literacy rates, but Cubans couldn't freely read what they wanted to.

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Trump- "Fidel Castro is dead!"

One thing can be said...he certainly puts the id in president.

November 26, 2016

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It's a three boop morning.

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What to think of Castro? Along with 82 others they launched a revolution and overthrew a capitalist dictator at a time that foreign corporations owned 95% of the land, and they gave it back to the people. He pissed off his own mother by giving back their family's land. 99.8% literacy, universal health care and education. 

But in 2008, Human Rights Watch had this to say, "For almost five decades, Cuban citizens have been systematically deprived of their fundamental rights to free expression, privacy, association, assembly, movement, and due process of law."

Curtailed personal freedom for the sake of anti-colonialism, and to ensure he remained in power. Complicated guy to say the least.

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I guess the CIA's plot to kill Castro finally worked. They just had to wait it out.

November 26, 2016

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The number of cats in our house just increased 133%.

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This Hitchens/Blair debate on religion is giving me goosebumps!

November 26, 2010

From The Guardian the next day:

"The Catholic Church holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions on it to die from starvation in extremist agony… than that one soul… should commit one single venial sin, should tell one wilful untruth, or should steal one poor farthing without excuse," Hitchens quoted, throwing Blair's own beliefs directly back in his face. "It is a distillation of precisely what is twisted and immoral of the faith mentality," Hitchens explained as Blair sat a few feet away.

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Alfred Butts, the inventor (or discoverer?) of Scrabble, saved a scorecard of a game in which his wife played QUIXOTIC across two triple word scores for 284 points. From his New York Times obit:

He admitted that she "beat me at my own game," literally.

November 26, 2010

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"""A man is what he thinks about all day long." -Emerson" -Ebert" -Kreider

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A movie tip for everyone- The Hurt Locker. (I don't give too many blanket recommendations.) It's riding at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and will definitely be remembered as one of the all-time great war films. Like Full Metal Jacket, it isn't an anti-war film, but a film simply about the experience of being in war. Best war movie I've seen since The Thin Red Line.

November 26, 2009

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From Wikipedia, on this day in 1476.

"Vlad the Impaler defeats Basarab Laiota with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Báthory and becomes the ruler of Wallachia for the third time."

Seems like just yesterday, doesn't it?

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One hundred years ago today, in 1922, Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon became the first people to enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in 3245 years. Here's a picture of the seal as they found it.

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The Brink's-Mat robbery tool place in London on this day in 1983- 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million are stolen from the Brink's-Mat vault at Heathrow Airport.

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Dark day in 2000- George W. Bush was certified the winner of Florida's electoral votes by Katherine Harris, meaning he won the election. Ruth Badger Ginsburg was one of the greatest legal minds of her generation, but also kind of an idiot. Overlooking the obvious (she should have retired!), She also said the Bush v Gore decision was apolitical. Bullshit!

I think we'd love in a completely different society if Gore won, as was plainly the intent of the Florida voters. Like we don't know the intent of a hanging chad.

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The lawman and journalist, Bat Masterson, was born in 1853.

"There are many in this old world of ours who hold that things break about even for all of us. I have observed, for example, that we all get the same amount of ice. The rich get it in the summertime and the poor get it in the winter."

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Charles M. Schulz would have been 100 years old today, born in 1922.

"Stop worrying about the world ending today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."

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Julien Temple, director of The Great Rock and Roll Swindle, was born on this day in 1952. That used to be in my top 10, but I bet it's currently unwatchable.

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Scottish-Australian politician, and guy who should have called a plumber, John Cockburn, left us on this day in 1929.

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60 Second Adventures in Thought

https://youtu.be/5zVaFjSxAZs

November 26, 2011

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Castro's New York Times obit said he, "bedeviled 11 US presidents," haha. That's a quarter of them!

November 26, 2016

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Taste of Cinema- All 17 Coen Brothers Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

True Grit is not misplaced at 13 out of 17, and it's an excellent film. That's how good these guys are!

17. Ladykillers

16. Burn After Reading

15. Intolerable Cruelty

14. Hail Caesar

13. True Grit

12. A Serious Man

11. The Man Who Wasn't There

10. Inside Llewen Davis

9. Blood Simple

8. Hudsucker Proxy

7. Miller's Crossing

6. Barton Fink

5. Fargo

4. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

3. Raising Arizona

2. No Country For Old Men

1. The Big Lebowski

http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2017/all-17-coen-brothers-movies-ranked-from-worst-to-best/

November 26, 2018

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Indiewire- Werner Herzog Called ‘Mandalorian’ Crew Cowards for Nearly Replacing Baby Yoda Puppet With CGI

“You are cowards,” the director said. “Leave it.”

More from Herzog- “I have seen it on the set. And it’s heartbreaking! It’s heartbreakingly beautiful. It looked absolutely convincing. It made you cry when you saw it. It’s a phenomenal technological achievement but, beyond the technological achievement, it’s heartbreaking.”

https://www.indiewire.com/2019/11/werner-herzog-baby-yoda-cowards-puppet-cgi-1202192502/

November 26, 2019

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PNAS- The pandemic exposes human nature: 10 evolutionary insights

I'd say!!!

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Insight 7: We Have Not Evolved to Seek the Truth

Humans evolved in small groups under threat of starvation, predation, and exploitation by outsiders—and generally lived brief lives, favoring short-term strategies for consuming resources that could support successful reproduction (59). We have not evolved to think clearly about long-term threats like pandemics—which are statistically abstract and global. And yet, for at least a century, we’ve understood that the threat of a deadly pandemic is real and ever present (60). How should we have responded to this knowledge?

We should have prepared for the next pandemic in advance. But, to do this, we would have had to feel the need to prepare—and been willing to incur actual costs in the face of what could have seemed, in the absence of dead and dying people, like nothing more than morbid speculation.

Unfortunately, most of us are terrible at weighing risks presented as abstract probabilities (61). We also heavily discount the well-being of our future selves (62), along with that of distant strangers (63) and future generations (64), and in ways that are both psychologically strange and, in a modern environment, ethically indefensible. We’re highly susceptible to conspiracy thinking (65), and display an impressive capacity to deceive ourselves, before doing the hard work of deceiving others (66). These predispositions likely endowed our ancestors with advantages (67, 68), but they also suggest that our species is not wired for seeking a precise understanding of the world as it actually is.

Thus, our conversation about most things tends to be a tissue of false certainties and unhedged bets. We look for evidence to support our current beliefs, while ignoring the rest (69). When we encounter friends or family in thrall to some fresh piece of misinformation, we often lack the courage to correct them. Meanwhile, behind a screen of anonymity, we eagerly confront the views of complete strangers online. Paradoxically, the former circumstance presents an opportunity to actually change opinion, while the latter is more likely to further entrench people in their misinformed views (70).

https://www.pnas.org/content/117/45/27767

November 26, 2020

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Snopes- Did Trump Accuse Sen. Ted Cruz of Fraud in 2016?

Did you hear about the stolen election??? Trump accused Cruz of fraud in the 2016 Iowa caucus. It's his thing.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-accuse-cruz-fraud/

November 26, 2020

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Paul Bloom, on boredom- "There's a line from the chairman of Netflix where he says that they don't compete with other streaming companies, they compete with sleep. And I can imagine the heads of Facebook and Twitter saying that they don't compete with these other companies, they compete with life. Normally boredom would spark you to go and do something. Now boredom makes you pick up your phone."

https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/266-limits-pleasure

November 26, 2021

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Milton Jones- “I used to think that sticks and stones could break my bones but words could never hurt me… Until I fell into a printing press.”

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Huxley, Point Counterpoint- "I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself."

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Oscar Wilde- "The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out."

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Voltaire- "Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it."

We'll ain't that the truth!

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Sagan- "Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge."

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Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five- Billy had a framed prayer on his office wall which expressed his method for keeping going, even though he was unenthusiastic about living. A lot of patients who saw the prayer on Billy’s wall told him that it helped them to keep going, too. It went like this: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.” Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future.

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From the Jeff Bridges book, The Dude and the Zen Master- be a friend to yourself. I beat myself up a bit at times, dwell on things there's no use dwelling on. The book made me realize it. Everytime an intrusive thoughts pops into my head I now instinctively squash it with, "Be a friend to yourself."