Leibniz-Newtoning the Tinkerbell Cognitive Bias

Patricia Highsmith, New Year's Eve, 1947- “My New Year’s Eve Toast: to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle — may they never give me peace."

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Not only did Zuzu really like West Side Story, she pointed out that one of Spielberg's shots was an homage to the French New Wave, haha.

December 31, 2021

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May your New Year be filled with children riding bats.

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And Monkey Brand Soap.

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Those still clinging to the absurd notion that Trump won the election are victims of the Tinkerbell Cognitive Bias. They believe that if they wish hard enough they can make something come true. 

Incidentally this is the same way that Trump tried to control the Coronavirus, wishing it away. 

Sure, they can go ahead and wish, but reality will still be reality after they are done.

December 31, 2020

Later on:

Oh man, the Tinkerbell Cognitive Bias... I thought I made it up but it exists!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinkerbell_effect

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I watched Jim Jarmusch's documentary on The Stooges last night, Gimme Danger. Perhaps my favorite moment was when Iggy said that when they wanted to change their name from the Psychedelic Stooges to simply The Stooges, they actually called Moe Howard they asked if it was okay. He said something like, "As long as you're not calling yourselves The Three Stooges what the fuck do I care."

December 31, 2018

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I have a Simpsons poster in my room with 500 or so characters on it. Tonight Gretel said she wanted to listen to The Simpsons. She pointed to one of the characters... Johnny Ramone, from the episode about Mr. Burns's birthday. Somehow she only associates The Ramones with their characters on The Simpsons. We listened to them and I was pleased with the results. (Video has been edited for length and fart noises.)

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02HBdFcccF522YPG6VYfMRrS6SMB8kCYPkQ9XJnc79UjiRG5XWJK51uCC142KS9juZl&id=741063511&mibextid=NnVzG8

December 31, 2018

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Resolution for 2017- read this book, put the principles into practice.

December 31, 2016

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Three Stooges marathon on IFC. I'm having a hard time explaining the shenanigans a three-year-old. Gretel keeps laughing and asking, "Why did they DO that?" All I can tell her is that their brains don't work good.

December 31, 2016

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The 10 Commandments of Logic

Commandments??? More like self-evident truths.

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There goes Bizarro Donald again... says "happy" when he means "sad," says "love" when he means "hatred." Makes one question if he even knows the meaning of those words.

December 31, 2016

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"As long as you have love in your heart, you'll never be alone." -Charles Manson

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Did you ever see the end of It's a Wonderful Life? So sad! That jerk Mr. Potter got to keep that $8000.

December 31, 2014

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Why does everybody care so much about acquaintances on New Years? Let's forget the acquaintances, focus instead on friends and family. #newlangsyne

December 31, 2013

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On New Year's Eve I watch network TV and see what pop culture I've missed in the preceding year.

December 31, 2012

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Don't worry people. Thirteen is an unlucky number but 2013 has absolutely no stigma attached to it. Sleep well.

December 31, 2012

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I'll bet the sun wonders why fireworks go off all over our planet every time we get to this arbitrary point in our orbit.

December 31, 2011

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On this day in 1759, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.

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Here's a strange one from this day in 1853, from Wikipedia: 

"A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London, England."

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On this day in 1879, Thomas Edison demonstrated incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

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The first New Year's Eve celebration was held in Times Square on this day in 1907.

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The first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigned from office on this day in 1999, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as his successor.

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The World Health Organization issued its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine on this day in 2020. 

I remember when Trump kept saying, "It's just around the corner, it's just around the corner." And it was like, "BULLSHIT!"

Aesop- “A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.”

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Odetta joined us on this day in 1930. Waterbow, wow!

https://youtu.be/vXQokJSqNWA

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Donald Trump Jr. was born on this day in 1977. What a sad sack of shit! But hey, he had everything stacked against him out of the chute.

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Other notable birthdays- Anthony Hopkins (1937), John Denver (1943), Joe Dallasandro (1948)

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Spanish philosopher, author, and poet, Miguel de Unamuno, left us on this day in 1936.

"Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible."

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Roberto Clemente left us one this day in 1972, his plane crashed while en route to deliver supplies to Nicaraguan earthquake victims. 

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Philosopher and media theorist, Marshall McLuhan, left us on this day in 1980.

"I don't necessarily agree with everything that I say."

I love his cameo in Annie Hall. If only life were that easy.

https://youtu.be/9wWUc8BZgWE

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Other notable deathdays- Raoul Walsh (1980), Ricky Nelson (1985), Brandon Teena (1993), Woody Strode (1994), Betty White (2021), Pope Benedict XVI (2022)

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I'm really enjoying this- a debate on the subject "Is There an Afterlife?" between Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, and two rabbis, David Wolpe and Bradley Artson Shavit.

https://youtu.be/UjKJ92b9Y04

December 31, 2011

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For those in need of a resolution...

Oh Death- Ralph Stanley

https://youtu.be/If1yxmaJ14M

December 31, 2012

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Those are some good resolutions. Except for the fourth one.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/new-years-resolutions

December 31, 2012

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Last paragraph from a Roger Ebert Blog post from 2011, even before Trump announced his run for president in 2012:

"Yet the most visible plutocrat in America is Donald Trump, a man who has made a fetish of his power. What kind of sick mind conceives of a television show built on suspense about which "contestant" he will "fire" next? What sort of masochism builds his viewership? Sadly, I suspect it is based on viewers who identify with Trump, and envy his power over his victims. Don't viewers understand they are the ones being fired in today's America?"

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All of our DNA, laid-end end, would stretch twice the diameter of the solar system.

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Somehow setting a new world speed record in 1948???

This pic has actually given me nightmares 

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Socrates, from Georgias: "If you are a person of the same sort as myself, I should be glad to continue questioning you: if not, I can let it drop. Of what sort am I? One of those who would be glad to be refuted if I say anything untrue, and glad to refute anyone else who might speak untruly; but just as glad, mind you, to be refuted as to refute, since I regard the former as the greater benefit."

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Aesop- "The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny."

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Unamuno again- "Life is doubt, and faith without doubt is nothing but death."

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Spinoza- "I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion."

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H.L. Mencken- "God is a comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh."

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Mark Normand- We should be using "abominable" on more than just snowmen.

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Kipling- "He wrapped himself in quotations - as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors."

I can relate!

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Charles Bukowski, Ham On Rye- “I was an agnostic. Agnostics didn’t have much to argue about.” 

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Sontag- "I'm only interested in people engaged in a project of self-transformation."

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Steinbeck, Travels with Charley- "I was born lost and take no pleasure in being found."

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Vonnegut- "Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum."

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Henry Miller- "To be joyous is to be a madman in a world of sad ghosts."

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David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day- "Every day we're told that we live in the greatest country on earth. And it's always stated as an undeniable fact: Leos are born between July 23 and August 22, fitted queen-size sheets measure sixty by eighty inches, and America is the greatest country on earth. Having grown up with this in our ears, it's startling to realize that other countries have nationalistic slogans of their own, none of which are 'We're number two!"

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Sarah Vowell, The Wordy Shipmates- "The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief. And by dangerous I don't mean thought-provoking. I mean: might get people killed."

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Hitchens- "To 'choose' dogma and faith over doubt and experience is to throw out the ripening vintage and to reach greedily for the Kool-Aid."

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A pious old woman named Tweak 

Had taught her vagina to speak. 

It was frequently liable 

To quote from the bible, 

But when fucking - not even a squeak!

Addendum 

Myspace Blog 

December 31, 2006

Looking Backward into the Future

1 in 4 predict the 2nd coming of jesus in 2007. Honest to God.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061231/ap_on_re_us/2007_predictions_ap_poll

The National Park Service won't tell people how old the Grand Canyon is, afraid they they might offend Creationists. Does their decision offend you?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/12/29/park-service-cant-give-o_n_37406.html

Elsewhere in the news: A nation made up predominantly of Christians is heralding an execution. You know, like Jesus would have. The CNN quick poll is asking if I'd want a mother 67 years older than than me. 7% say yes. Many are glorifying Ford's decision to liberate the presidency from accountability. His desk was just too full. At least these snowstorms are proof that global warming is a fraud. What's that? Oh, scientists predict erratic weather patterns, not just warmer weather. And so on and so on.

New Years Eve means reality TV... Twilight Zone marathon. I'm sick anyway, and I'd hate to go out and get worse... perhaps catch whatever society has caught.