.
“By the time I recognized this moment; this moment will be gone.” Maybe not but that does not seem to bring clarity.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/clarity -
clar•i•ty /ˈklærɪti/ [klar-i-tee]
–noun
1. clearness or lucidity as to perception or understanding; freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity.
2. the state or quality of being clear or transparent to the eye; pellucidity: the clarity of pure water…
—Synonyms
1. intelligibility, exactness, simplicity.
I beg to differ. Intelligibility and exactness are functions of clarity. They do not imply or can be replaced by simplicity since simplicity can be even as unclear as something complex or convoluted. Granted something of simplicity may have intelligibility and be exact but it still can remain incomprehensible (like this argument). I strive for clarity though often fall short of the mark.
Poetry, prose and songwriting have the unique characteristic of having remarkable clarity while often far from transparent. It is up to the poet, author or songwriter to make the intention and meaning of a piece discernable; it remains the responsibility of the one processing the information to define that in the unique way it applies to them. When they have achieved that then they have reached a clarity that may remain clear only to them.
Many original thinkers intentionally obfuscate to obtain clarity. This appears counterintuitive but this tactic works quite well. Obfuscation normally leads to initial confusion but inevitably the consequence is clarity. Baffling, befuddling and bewildering an audience or our peers is a sure way to insure that they get the point if they are not lost in the process. If camouflaging the intent or the message is successful then when the intent is finally revealed it is most clearly understood and remembered. Mentors and teachers utilize this technique frequently to drive home a point.
Simple things simply do not seem as important as more complicated things. It is as simple as that.
What is my point? Usually it is something very simple but it often takes the Devil’s Advocate to reveal that.
Is that clear‽
© 09.30.2010 stevendphilbrick SR+ DakotaDawg
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Behavioral Cusp
This is an interesting theory I just bumped into wandering through the affiliated links of a Google Search. Since I am on this road I may as well see where it leads.
“A behavioral cusp is any behavior change that brings an organism's behavior into contact with new contingencies that have far-reaching consequences… A behavioral cusp is a special type of behavior change because it provides the learner with opportunities to access (1) new reinforcers, (2) new contingencies (3) new environments, (4) new related behaviors (generativeness …), (5) competition with archaic or problem behaviors, and it (6) impacts the people around the learner, and (7) these people agree to the behavior change and support its development after the intervention is removed. The concept has far reaching implication for every individual, and for the field of developmental psychology, because it provides a behavioral alternative to the concept of maturation and change due to the simple passage of time, such as developmental milestones. The cusp is a behavior change that presents special features when compared to other behavior changes.” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_Cusp
This Wiki description sounds like a bit or at least several bytes of gobbledygook except the part explaining the behavioral cusp is somehow in and of itself a specific behavior change (a behavior out of the ordinary?) that introduces new contingencies that have subsequent far-reaching consequences on future behavior. I am less interested in what these cusps are than I am in the fact that they are Ah-Ha or DOH moments; some conscious, others unconscious. The entire balance of the definition seems rather obvious and even redundant in that we are dealing with a cusp (synonyms: acme, apogee, climax, crest, crown, culmination, cusp , greatest, height, max, maximum, meridian, most*, ne plus ultra, peak, pinnacle, point, roof, spire, sublimity, summit, tip, tops, up there, vertex or zenith - ( http://thesaurus.com/browse/cusp ) and not a nadir. I do not choose to deal with the specificity of the developmental psychology side of this phenomenon.
Bringing this back to earth: behavioral cusps occurred when I disobeyed my father and was caught rather than when I disobeyed him and did not get caught which was always quite an apogee in its own right. Getting away with something was exhilarating beyond belief and lead to repetition; hopefully, not to the extent that I was caught but enough to feel a smug satisfaction that it could be done. For long stretches of my adolescent life it simply was not possible to pull one over on the old man. He gave me the first real life description of been there, done that; or his sister Gladys did because it was her that set things straight.
I am guessing that neither Herm nor Gladys were the perfect children and frequently tried to get away with things. From what Gladys said they were not always successful. Since the apple does not fall far from the tree the Behavioral Cusp that I experienced was that eventually luck runs out.
In many ways this was life changing for me because I found the only successful Behavioral Cusp was to move out of the house. The thought was not entirely mine and dad changing the locks insured that the new reinforcers, enforcers, contingencies or environment would not be ones he provided. I was left to find my own way.
I am still looking.
© stevendphilbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/29/2010
“A behavioral cusp is any behavior change that brings an organism's behavior into contact with new contingencies that have far-reaching consequences… A behavioral cusp is a special type of behavior change because it provides the learner with opportunities to access (1) new reinforcers, (2) new contingencies (3) new environments, (4) new related behaviors (generativeness …), (5) competition with archaic or problem behaviors, and it (6) impacts the people around the learner, and (7) these people agree to the behavior change and support its development after the intervention is removed. The concept has far reaching implication for every individual, and for the field of developmental psychology, because it provides a behavioral alternative to the concept of maturation and change due to the simple passage of time, such as developmental milestones. The cusp is a behavior change that presents special features when compared to other behavior changes.” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_Cusp
This Wiki description sounds like a bit or at least several bytes of gobbledygook except the part explaining the behavioral cusp is somehow in and of itself a specific behavior change (a behavior out of the ordinary?) that introduces new contingencies that have subsequent far-reaching consequences on future behavior. I am less interested in what these cusps are than I am in the fact that they are Ah-Ha or DOH moments; some conscious, others unconscious. The entire balance of the definition seems rather obvious and even redundant in that we are dealing with a cusp (synonyms: acme, apogee, climax, crest, crown, culmination, cusp , greatest, height, max, maximum, meridian, most*, ne plus ultra, peak, pinnacle, point, roof, spire, sublimity, summit, tip, tops, up there, vertex or zenith - ( http://thesaurus.com/browse/cusp ) and not a nadir. I do not choose to deal with the specificity of the developmental psychology side of this phenomenon.
Bringing this back to earth: behavioral cusps occurred when I disobeyed my father and was caught rather than when I disobeyed him and did not get caught which was always quite an apogee in its own right. Getting away with something was exhilarating beyond belief and lead to repetition; hopefully, not to the extent that I was caught but enough to feel a smug satisfaction that it could be done. For long stretches of my adolescent life it simply was not possible to pull one over on the old man. He gave me the first real life description of been there, done that; or his sister Gladys did because it was her that set things straight.
I am guessing that neither Herm nor Gladys were the perfect children and frequently tried to get away with things. From what Gladys said they were not always successful. Since the apple does not fall far from the tree the Behavioral Cusp that I experienced was that eventually luck runs out.
In many ways this was life changing for me because I found the only successful Behavioral Cusp was to move out of the house. The thought was not entirely mine and dad changing the locks insured that the new reinforcers, enforcers, contingencies or environment would not be ones he provided. I was left to find my own way.
I am still looking.
© stevendphilbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/29/2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Chaos Theory and the Butterfly Effect?
.
How did we get here? The power to be unpredictable; “there is a strange and unexpected relationship between order and chaos…” a direct quote from a BBC series “The Secret Life of Chaos” begs the question is it mathematically plausible? Patterns that remain hidden from most of us are obvious to a select few is the premise of today’s blog.
I now have to add a new book to review and internalize: Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. Turing spent a great deal of time immersed in the enigma of Bletchley Park during WWII. Other scientists that followed had discoveries that complemented theories of Turing a genius who saw patterns when others saw none.
Morphogenesis – from the same to different; a self organization: how and why? It happens in life as it forms from a single cell and it is happening constantly all around us. A definition of morphogenesis gives us clues: n. Formation of the structure of an organism or part; differentiation and growth of tissues and organs during development. Is there really a simple mathematical basis for this living process? Is there some morphogenic rule that dominates and governs the formation of all organisms and systems? From the few, many.
Further investigation is required:
Alan Turing seems in many ways like Nikola Tesla; neither man completely understood all of what they proposed or investigated but each seemed to have an innate understanding that escapes detection or in fact is not understood. Great thinkers have the talent for discovery that goes beyond simple insight. They see the patterns or deeper relationships that govern things. These relationships are the why and the what of the way things are. To these savants what appears complicated is quite simple; they are hypersensitive to the complex interconnectivity of things.
Turing and Tesla experienced tragedy and disasters that ended their contributions to science. If circumstances had been different for both it is possible that our understanding might be closer to what we still seek. Structures, shapes and systems out of a morphogenic self organization of the seemingly unrelated are the basis of a predictability of science and creation we search for but still not have fully discovered. Although man has stumbled and been slowed down by setbacks like these and an over reliance on other specific theories as universal it will not stop the progress toward answers and resolutions.
With mathematics we expect and demand predictability. From 3 of 6 “The Secret Life of Chaos”: “a system that is completely described by mathematical equations is more than capable of being unpredictable without any outside interference whatsoever.” Although this might be thought to throw a monkey wrench into the works, if the theory is correct, it helps explain rogue waves and other anomalies that have no apparent rhyme or reason. It is possibly due to the fact that what we think was completely described by mathematical formulas had a few things missing from the calculations. Possibly “The Butterfly Effect” is a concrete fact that affects systems to give such ‘random’ unexpected results.
“The butterfly effect is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory; namely that small differences in the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. Although this may appear to be an esoteric and unusual behavior, it is exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position. The butterfly effect is a common trope in fiction when presenting scenarios involving time travel and with "what if" cases where one storyline diverges at the moment of a seemingly minor event resulting in two significantly different outcomes.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect)
There is a hitch in the giddy up of the progression of this BBC presentation and to go further along it is necessary to switch over to the “3 of 7” progression (instead of the “3 of 6”) of the links at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyTs0yYKXZI&NR=1 (ad infinitum).
Order and chaos are so deeply intertwined that it is almost beyond our comprehension; to the point that chaos is the true natural relationship of things instead of ordered patterns. We need to stop trying to concentrate on the few patterns that we see reflected in our interpretation and measurement of things as the “be all end all”. Life is one huge feedback loop, a picture within a picture within a picture as small changes are radically amplified to demonstrate the ‘Butterfly Effect’ so the seeming chaos that emerges is not really chaos at all. It is the natural order of things. Because of morphology and self organization the chaos that emerges transmutes into the patterns we eventually observe. The patterns and the chaos are really the same thing differentiated only by where they lay on the continuum of the spectrum where they are. It is our understanding of the process of how this happens and why that it limited. Is it possible to give up the idea that opposites attract because they are different and instead adopt the possibility that opposites attract because they are on in the same?
We still try to oversimplify things into a two dimensional world or continuum when our existence and the world are multidimensional and far more complicated than only two, three or even four or more. Life is not a compilation of straight lines, circles or regular known shapes. There is a mathematical principle that underpins this (as much as we can identify it) - the simplicity of things: the Principle of Self Similarity. We have moved beyond the ancient Greeks and no longer believe the entire universe is composed of earth, air, fire or water. It took Aristotle, a philosopher to add a fifth element Aether. It took science to dispel these theories dating to the Babylonians only about 38 centuries to narrow it down to only one; we now believe that all things are composed of energy.
I am certain this is only a part of the puzzle as Newtonian Physics is only a small part of the whole. Like Newtonian Physics which was adequate as a part of the solution but not the complete one, what we know is only fractal. As a child I spent hours wondering if we (humans and our systems) were but electrons in some larger system, a small parasite on a larger animal. Infinity and our known world are all elements in a “Mandlebrot set”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set - “When computed and graphed on the complex plane the Mandelbrot set is seen to have an elaborate boundary which, being a fractal, does not simplify at any given magnification.”
From the simple to the complicated without any conscious thought; morphogenic self organization of the seemingly unrelated pieces parts smaller than atoms to conscious thought - this is quite an achievement. It is an evolution just because that it is what happens regardless, at least in our universe as we know it.
It amazes me how much a Mendlebrot Set fractal graphic representation looks like anything from a DNA molecule to a black hole.
© 09.27.2010 stevendphilbrick SR+ DakotaDawg
How did we get here? The power to be unpredictable; “there is a strange and unexpected relationship between order and chaos…” a direct quote from a BBC series “The Secret Life of Chaos” begs the question is it mathematically plausible? Patterns that remain hidden from most of us are obvious to a select few is the premise of today’s blog.
I now have to add a new book to review and internalize: Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. Turing spent a great deal of time immersed in the enigma of Bletchley Park during WWII. Other scientists that followed had discoveries that complemented theories of Turing a genius who saw patterns when others saw none.
Morphogenesis – from the same to different; a self organization: how and why? It happens in life as it forms from a single cell and it is happening constantly all around us. A definition of morphogenesis gives us clues: n. Formation of the structure of an organism or part; differentiation and growth of tissues and organs during development. Is there really a simple mathematical basis for this living process? Is there some morphogenic rule that dominates and governs the formation of all organisms and systems? From the few, many.
Further investigation is required:
The Secret Life of Chaos (Part 2/6) –
Alan Turing seems in many ways like Nikola Tesla; neither man completely understood all of what they proposed or investigated but each seemed to have an innate understanding that escapes detection or in fact is not understood. Great thinkers have the talent for discovery that goes beyond simple insight. They see the patterns or deeper relationships that govern things. These relationships are the why and the what of the way things are. To these savants what appears complicated is quite simple; they are hypersensitive to the complex interconnectivity of things.
Turing and Tesla experienced tragedy and disasters that ended their contributions to science. If circumstances had been different for both it is possible that our understanding might be closer to what we still seek. Structures, shapes and systems out of a morphogenic self organization of the seemingly unrelated are the basis of a predictability of science and creation we search for but still not have fully discovered. Although man has stumbled and been slowed down by setbacks like these and an over reliance on other specific theories as universal it will not stop the progress toward answers and resolutions.
With mathematics we expect and demand predictability. From 3 of 6 “The Secret Life of Chaos”: “a system that is completely described by mathematical equations is more than capable of being unpredictable without any outside interference whatsoever.” Although this might be thought to throw a monkey wrench into the works, if the theory is correct, it helps explain rogue waves and other anomalies that have no apparent rhyme or reason. It is possibly due to the fact that what we think was completely described by mathematical formulas had a few things missing from the calculations. Possibly “The Butterfly Effect” is a concrete fact that affects systems to give such ‘random’ unexpected results.
“The butterfly effect is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory; namely that small differences in the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. Although this may appear to be an esoteric and unusual behavior, it is exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position. The butterfly effect is a common trope in fiction when presenting scenarios involving time travel and with "what if" cases where one storyline diverges at the moment of a seemingly minor event resulting in two significantly different outcomes.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect)
There is a hitch in the giddy up of the progression of this BBC presentation and to go further along it is necessary to switch over to the “3 of 7” progression (instead of the “3 of 6”) of the links at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyTs0yYKXZI&NR=1 (ad infinitum).
Order and chaos are so deeply intertwined that it is almost beyond our comprehension; to the point that chaos is the true natural relationship of things instead of ordered patterns. We need to stop trying to concentrate on the few patterns that we see reflected in our interpretation and measurement of things as the “be all end all”. Life is one huge feedback loop, a picture within a picture within a picture as small changes are radically amplified to demonstrate the ‘Butterfly Effect’ so the seeming chaos that emerges is not really chaos at all. It is the natural order of things. Because of morphology and self organization the chaos that emerges transmutes into the patterns we eventually observe. The patterns and the chaos are really the same thing differentiated only by where they lay on the continuum of the spectrum where they are. It is our understanding of the process of how this happens and why that it limited. Is it possible to give up the idea that opposites attract because they are different and instead adopt the possibility that opposites attract because they are on in the same?
We still try to oversimplify things into a two dimensional world or continuum when our existence and the world are multidimensional and far more complicated than only two, three or even four or more. Life is not a compilation of straight lines, circles or regular known shapes. There is a mathematical principle that underpins this (as much as we can identify it) - the simplicity of things: the Principle of Self Similarity. We have moved beyond the ancient Greeks and no longer believe the entire universe is composed of earth, air, fire or water. It took Aristotle, a philosopher to add a fifth element Aether. It took science to dispel these theories dating to the Babylonians only about 38 centuries to narrow it down to only one; we now believe that all things are composed of energy.
I am certain this is only a part of the puzzle as Newtonian Physics is only a small part of the whole. Like Newtonian Physics which was adequate as a part of the solution but not the complete one, what we know is only fractal. As a child I spent hours wondering if we (humans and our systems) were but electrons in some larger system, a small parasite on a larger animal. Infinity and our known world are all elements in a “Mandlebrot set”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set - “When computed and graphed on the complex plane the Mandelbrot set is seen to have an elaborate boundary which, being a fractal, does not simplify at any given magnification.”
From the simple to the complicated without any conscious thought; morphogenic self organization of the seemingly unrelated pieces parts smaller than atoms to conscious thought - this is quite an achievement. It is an evolution just because that it is what happens regardless, at least in our universe as we know it.
It amazes me how much a Mendlebrot Set fractal graphic representation looks like anything from a DNA molecule to a black hole.
Mandlebrot Set Zoom
© 09.27.2010 stevendphilbrick SR+ DakotaDawg
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Oligarchy, Subservience or Revolt?
.
There should be more options. Sometime rulers and ruled have not a clue of the inequity of this type of system that continues to emerge. Oligarchy is cliquish and fosters abuse of power.
Eccentricity is not welcomed in an oligarchy and although it is necessary for any system to flourish, it is treated like a parasite bacteria set to devastate the organism. Pushing those out that do not toe the line weakens the fabric of an entire organization as it continues to strengthen the cliques in power.
“To adhere to rules or doctrines conscientiously; conform” (American Heritage) is one definition of toe the line. It is the conformity that is demanded by oligarchy. It is not the conscientious part of it that is required or even wanted. It is far easier to force conformity on the unconscious. When one walks in a fog it is hard to know if one’s head is in the clouds.
Diversity is the key to strength. When any system loses its diversity it begins to ebb. As the gene pool gets homogenized small dilemmas are magnified to a point they become overwhelming. An insurmountable crisis will eventually arise and the medicine to cure the patient may become so poisonous that its use is inadvisable.
Multidimensionalism may be the cure rather than subservience or even revolt since it is not the usual that fascinates or leads to the exceptional.
I recommend watching a full compliment of Dali interviews starting with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHTWDNii87k - Arena - Salvador Dali (1 of 7)… It will take some time. I suspect The History of Chaos Theory is hidden in there somewhere.
© 09.25.2010 stevendphilbrick SR+ DakotaDawg
There should be more options. Sometime rulers and ruled have not a clue of the inequity of this type of system that continues to emerge. Oligarchy is cliquish and fosters abuse of power.
Eccentricity is not welcomed in an oligarchy and although it is necessary for any system to flourish, it is treated like a parasite bacteria set to devastate the organism. Pushing those out that do not toe the line weakens the fabric of an entire organization as it continues to strengthen the cliques in power.
“To adhere to rules or doctrines conscientiously; conform” (American Heritage) is one definition of toe the line. It is the conformity that is demanded by oligarchy. It is not the conscientious part of it that is required or even wanted. It is far easier to force conformity on the unconscious. When one walks in a fog it is hard to know if one’s head is in the clouds.
Diversity is the key to strength. When any system loses its diversity it begins to ebb. As the gene pool gets homogenized small dilemmas are magnified to a point they become overwhelming. An insurmountable crisis will eventually arise and the medicine to cure the patient may become so poisonous that its use is inadvisable.
Multidimensionalism may be the cure rather than subservience or even revolt since it is not the usual that fascinates or leads to the exceptional.
I recommend watching a full compliment of Dali interviews starting with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHTWDNii87k - Arena - Salvador Dali (1 of 7)… It will take some time. I suspect The History of Chaos Theory is hidden in there somewhere.
© 09.25.2010 stevendphilbrick SR+ DakotaDawg
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Who knew?
.
There are so many things I know so little about that I am constantly in awe of my own inadequate education. For today the case in point is ‘dried toad”.
Google only found 9,370 different web pages with that exact text on it (“dried toad”). When suspend is added the number decreases to only 451, many of which are replications or even parodies of each another.
When you take the word saint out of the equation there are only 94 results left. Apparently, dried toad was extremely popular with saints. If witches are removed from the search results 72 results and then removing any URL with the word devil leaves only 65 things I likely did not know about dried toad. If more than one toad is involved and the s is added to the search parameters then there are only 34 things left to peruse, so this could be a short post.
Oh so wrong, Obi Wan. I am driving around the block to park across the street.
It does not seem at all unusual that first on the list is a Google Book: A history of magic and experimental science By Lynn Thorndike. I went right to the first search parameter on a find on this page search for suspend. It was not what I was looking for because it was something else suspended besides dried toads.
The second result was: Legal Weed
Legal Bud
Legal Ways To Get High - Bufo Alvarius ... which also did not address dried toads suspended. I decided to enter neck into the search to see if I could find what I was looking for. That most certainly would be information on hanging dried toads from cords, ribbons or chains but to what end. I thought I had knowledge of people hanging dried toads around their necks to prevent or cure the Bubonic Plague. I am not expecting the Black Plague to come to a neighborhood near me soon but since I could find no reference to hanging dried toads around the neck in Wikipedia this could possibly be an opportunity to add something critical to the understanding of the medieval curse, cures and prevention. I could yell SCORE when my information was added to the impressive data base of knowledge that is Wiki.
I decided to add Wiki to the search line to see if there were any instances of dangling amphibians there that were not associated with saints, witches or devils. Off we go.
I am excited to report that all references in Wiki are related to the Chinese medicine. When this small group of Asians are excluded there is but one result left – http://nursemyra.wordpress.com/page/24/?pages-list – somebody else’s blog for “gimcrack hospital (PG) - Where the Nurses are Pretty and the Doctors are Pissed” which appears to be owned by an individual more warped than even I am.
From first impressions there is a lot of nudity and spanking for a PG site. The blog seems to be run by “nursemyra” who has some quirky thoughts, likes and dislikes. This might be further around the block then I had intended to go but it is where I have arrived even though I am more than a little disappointed that the incidence of appearance of "dried toads", suspend, Wiki and minus the words saint, witch, devil, Chinese do not appear on the limited number of WordPress pages the blog is permitted to display at one time. Toad definitely does not appear unless it is couched somewhere deep on another page amid the illustrations that are quite graphically enlightening.
At first I mistakenly thought nursemyra had tired of the entire blogging experience since the post Google pointed to was from November 18, 2009. I went straight to the heart of the matter and I am pleased to announce that nursemyra posted as recently as today, which is: ‘t shirt friday’. Although nursemyra has posted on her blog since February 2007 she seems to have a slight intermittent aversion to capital letters. I know in my heart that I do not want to search all of her blog posts for the occurrence of ‘dried toad’. That would be more like a drive around the country than the block. Since nursemyra does not have a FaceBook link on her page I will have to leave it up to others to like her in that way and not the ones she seems most curious about. However, nursemyra has several comments on today’s post so she does have something my blog is seriously lacking.
The thing that is difficult for me and obviously others is the fact that I almost frequently forget the original objective in many of my journeys. I decided to start all over and searched for “hanging dried toads” because I thought there would be few instances of dried toads being given the death sentence; after all, they were already dead. Google - No results found for "hanging dried toads". Dried toads around the neck without the quotes yielded a big score: About 396,000 results (0.31 seconds). The first hit was precisely what I had been searching for: Plague, arsenic, and a dried toad : The Lancet by EB Gilman – 2009 - "In the absence of any verifiable cause of the disease, much less any cure, the rival camps of Galenic and Paracelcian (“Empiric” or “Chemical”) physicians were moved to rancorous debates in print, divided as they were between the traditional view that the physician's task was to heal by correcting an imbalance in the bodies humors, and the radical new philosophy that advocated more aggressive interventions, such as the ingestion of metallic salts. Unsurprisingly, money bought the best (available) medical care. A good living was to be had if a rich patient could be persuaded to dose himself with a rare and potent remedy—“potable gold” was one—that could be had for a price. Elite “licensed” physicians of either school cast aspersions on the motives of their nearest down-market competitors, the barber-surgeons and apothecaries. They also warned against the quacks who hawked their nostrums in the open air, and they had nothing but scorn for the flood of cheap broadsheets offering recipes for sure-fire elixirs concocted from common household ingredients.
The lists of potions to be found in these publications are as bizarre as they are lengthy. They include the smoke of fragrant woods, vinegar-based air fresheners, floral pomanders, various pills and purges, unguents, poultices, concoctions of roots, seeds, leaves, spices, and much else, usually steeped in water or wine, and with a dash of sugar and lemon juice. Alternatively, one could hang a large dried toad around one's neck, since it was thought that as a poisonous creature, even in death, the toad would draw the noxious vapours out of the patient's breast and into its desiccated body."
The potable gold I was looking for was right under my nose. Now the huge question remains do I park the car? I was relatively certain people hung dried toads around their necks either as a cure for Bubonic Plague. I might have to find additional sources to buoy my contention if anyone might even care. After that I can post my findings in Wikipedia and make a contribution to the education and knowledge base of man.
And the point is?
Who knew if one put the right question before Google he could find the answer he was looking for? Or, when you put the wrong question out there it is not surprising to end up with more questions than answers with the net result of much wasted time. Even so, look at what I learned today . . . nursemyra has many more posts than I do and I am less interested in her subject matter than my lack of focus. Although, the letter from Harpo Marx to TS Elliot showed great promise and Harpo thinks a lot like I do; it must be time for my dose of potable gold.
© 09.23.2010 stevendphilbrick SR+ DakotaDawg
There are so many things I know so little about that I am constantly in awe of my own inadequate education. For today the case in point is ‘dried toad”.
Google only found 9,370 different web pages with that exact text on it (“dried toad”). When suspend is added the number decreases to only 451, many of which are replications or even parodies of each another.
When you take the word saint out of the equation there are only 94 results left. Apparently, dried toad was extremely popular with saints. If witches are removed from the search results 72 results and then removing any URL with the word devil leaves only 65 things I likely did not know about dried toad. If more than one toad is involved and the s is added to the search parameters then there are only 34 things left to peruse, so this could be a short post.
Oh so wrong, Obi Wan. I am driving around the block to park across the street.
It does not seem at all unusual that first on the list is a Google Book: A history of magic and experimental science By Lynn Thorndike. I went right to the first search parameter on a find on this page search for suspend. It was not what I was looking for because it was something else suspended besides dried toads.
The second result was: Legal Weed
Legal Bud
Legal Ways To Get High - Bufo Alvarius ... which also did not address dried toads suspended. I decided to enter neck into the search to see if I could find what I was looking for. That most certainly would be information on hanging dried toads from cords, ribbons or chains but to what end. I thought I had knowledge of people hanging dried toads around their necks to prevent or cure the Bubonic Plague. I am not expecting the Black Plague to come to a neighborhood near me soon but since I could find no reference to hanging dried toads around the neck in Wikipedia this could possibly be an opportunity to add something critical to the understanding of the medieval curse, cures and prevention. I could yell SCORE when my information was added to the impressive data base of knowledge that is Wiki.
I decided to add Wiki to the search line to see if there were any instances of dangling amphibians there that were not associated with saints, witches or devils. Off we go.
I am excited to report that all references in Wiki are related to the Chinese medicine. When this small group of Asians are excluded there is but one result left – http://nursemyra.wordpress.com/page/24/?pages-list – somebody else’s blog for “gimcrack hospital (PG) - Where the Nurses are Pretty and the Doctors are Pissed” which appears to be owned by an individual more warped than even I am.
From first impressions there is a lot of nudity and spanking for a PG site. The blog seems to be run by “nursemyra” who has some quirky thoughts, likes and dislikes. This might be further around the block then I had intended to go but it is where I have arrived even though I am more than a little disappointed that the incidence of appearance of "dried toads", suspend, Wiki and minus the words saint, witch, devil, Chinese do not appear on the limited number of WordPress pages the blog is permitted to display at one time. Toad definitely does not appear unless it is couched somewhere deep on another page amid the illustrations that are quite graphically enlightening.
At first I mistakenly thought nursemyra had tired of the entire blogging experience since the post Google pointed to was from November 18, 2009. I went straight to the heart of the matter and I am pleased to announce that nursemyra posted as recently as today, which is: ‘t shirt friday’. Although nursemyra has posted on her blog since February 2007 she seems to have a slight intermittent aversion to capital letters. I know in my heart that I do not want to search all of her blog posts for the occurrence of ‘dried toad’. That would be more like a drive around the country than the block. Since nursemyra does not have a FaceBook link on her page I will have to leave it up to others to like her in that way and not the ones she seems most curious about. However, nursemyra has several comments on today’s post so she does have something my blog is seriously lacking.
The thing that is difficult for me and obviously others is the fact that I almost frequently forget the original objective in many of my journeys. I decided to start all over and searched for “hanging dried toads” because I thought there would be few instances of dried toads being given the death sentence; after all, they were already dead. Google - No results found for "hanging dried toads". Dried toads around the neck without the quotes yielded a big score: About 396,000 results (0.31 seconds). The first hit was precisely what I had been searching for: Plague, arsenic, and a dried toad : The Lancet by EB Gilman – 2009 - "In the absence of any verifiable cause of the disease, much less any cure, the rival camps of Galenic and Paracelcian (“Empiric” or “Chemical”) physicians were moved to rancorous debates in print, divided as they were between the traditional view that the physician's task was to heal by correcting an imbalance in the bodies humors, and the radical new philosophy that advocated more aggressive interventions, such as the ingestion of metallic salts. Unsurprisingly, money bought the best (available) medical care. A good living was to be had if a rich patient could be persuaded to dose himself with a rare and potent remedy—“potable gold” was one—that could be had for a price. Elite “licensed” physicians of either school cast aspersions on the motives of their nearest down-market competitors, the barber-surgeons and apothecaries. They also warned against the quacks who hawked their nostrums in the open air, and they had nothing but scorn for the flood of cheap broadsheets offering recipes for sure-fire elixirs concocted from common household ingredients.
The lists of potions to be found in these publications are as bizarre as they are lengthy. They include the smoke of fragrant woods, vinegar-based air fresheners, floral pomanders, various pills and purges, unguents, poultices, concoctions of roots, seeds, leaves, spices, and much else, usually steeped in water or wine, and with a dash of sugar and lemon juice. Alternatively, one could hang a large dried toad around one's neck, since it was thought that as a poisonous creature, even in death, the toad would draw the noxious vapours out of the patient's breast and into its desiccated body."
The potable gold I was looking for was right under my nose. Now the huge question remains do I park the car? I was relatively certain people hung dried toads around their necks either as a cure for Bubonic Plague. I might have to find additional sources to buoy my contention if anyone might even care. After that I can post my findings in Wikipedia and make a contribution to the education and knowledge base of man.
And the point is?
Who knew if one put the right question before Google he could find the answer he was looking for? Or, when you put the wrong question out there it is not surprising to end up with more questions than answers with the net result of much wasted time. Even so, look at what I learned today . . . nursemyra has many more posts than I do and I am less interested in her subject matter than my lack of focus. Although, the letter from Harpo Marx to TS Elliot showed great promise and Harpo thinks a lot like I do; it must be time for my dose of potable gold.
© 09.23.2010 stevendphilbrick SR+ DakotaDawg
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Toad Swallowing.
This apparently should only be attempted by professionals so:
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!
In an attempt to make this clearer to myself I will continue to investigate this fine expression because it obviously has more than one meaning and likely came from different places. Popular usage implies that people several meanings that seem to fall on different ends of the continuum.
Elegantly Urban sums it up as: “To swallow a toad basically means that if there's something you need to do that you're not so keen on doing, get it over and done with at the start of the day so that it's not hanging over you.”
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2010/05/21/how-britain-can-stop-eating-toads/ describes it as: “Toad swallowing is a delicate art; one must not only get the horrible thing down without gagging, but one must also smile and look imperturbably calm while doing so, as if swallowing a live toad were no more challenging or unpleasant than a light canapé. “
Not that I could put a lot of stock in something called the uncyclopedia - but for what it is worth:
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Cane_Toad#Swallowing –
“ SWALLOWING
A cane toad swallower doing what he loves best.
Another sport that is popular in Queensland and includes cane toads is cane toad swallowing. This game includes any given number of people, whose aim is to swallow as many live cane toads as they possibly can. The person who swallows the most cane toads wins the game. Unfortunately, people can suffer symptoms after competing in cane toad swallowing, which may include vomiting or urinating poison or croaking sounds in the intestines.
According to the Guinness World Records, the person who swallowed the most cane toads is Mr Kane Towedman, who swallowed 248 toads. Soon after finishing, he spewed them all out onto the spectators.
There was also a game based on this one called stingray swallowing, which was banned from being played after the death of Steve Irwin.”
The Art of Toad Swallowing was not much help since the author was dealing with dieting and a diet of toads might be more than the dieter bargained for:
http://bufodieter.wordpress.com/
sarcastic pratchett fan describes toad swallowing… “Toads are poisonous enough to kill you if you eat them - giving rise to the medieval entertainment 'toad swallowing'.” I went down this road since I thought it sounded plausible as the origin of the term but found naught related to medieval entertainment involving ‘toad swallowing’.
Larry G said...
"toad swallowing" is simply a graphic phrase intended to convey the idea that in order for pragmatic solutions to be accepted - both sides must be willing to stop drawing lines in the sand and swallow something they really don't agree with.”
Found this at http://www.mansioningles.com/recursos146.htm -
“TOAD EATER. A poor female relation, and humble companion, or reduced gentlewoman, in a great family, the standing butt, on whom all kinds of practical jokes are played off, and all ill humours vented. This appellation is derived from a mountebank’s servant, on whom all experiments used to be made in public by the doctor, his master; among which was the eating of toads, formerly supposed poisonous. Swallowing toads is here figuratively meant for swallowing or putting up with insults, as disagreeable to a person of feeling as toads to the stomach.”
Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue T 257
“TOAD EATER. A poor female relation, and humble companion, or reduced gentlewoman, in a great family, the standing butt, on whom all kinds of practical jokes are played off, and all ill humours vented. This appellation is derived from a mountebank's servant, on whom all experiments used to be made in public by the doctor, his master; among which was the eating of toads, formerly supposed poisonous.
Swallowing toads is here figuratively meant for swallowing or putting up with insults, as disagreeable to a person of feeling as toads to the stomach.”
Somebody is quoting somebody without giving credit. Obviously this phrase can mean more than swallowing your pride although that was the inferred meaning when I first came across it.
I think I am going to go visit my imaginary friends and swallow a few toads. After all, there are things that are more disagreeable.
© 09.23.2010 steven d philbrick SR+ DakotaDawg
Waiting for the Interwebs and Finding Something Nice to Say.
.
While waiting on the interwebs I was thinking about finding something nice to say when I decided what could be easier? Invoking my addiction I Googled "something nice to say" and came up with only about 8,660,000 results in 0.61 seconds. Since I did not want to spend my entire life reading all of the suggestions for the exact quote or a different approach, I decided to focus on only the second suggestion: http://complimentday.com/index.htm.
From the home page I navigated to the link for Not sure what to say? http://complimentday.com/ComplimentsPage.htm - Give these a try
“Not sure what to say? Here are a few compliments to chose from. Try adding a specific example to custom design it for the compliment receiver. Notice that all these compliments start with the same word. It's a gentle reminder that compliment giving is about others.”
“You...
...have a great way with words.
...are a terrific leader.
...make working on a project a joy.
...are very creative.
...are a good provider.
...are fun to be with.
...have a great reputation.
...are cleaver.
...make a house feel like a home.
...have a good eye for decorating.
...are a good driver.
...can do anything you set your mind to.
...are capable of accomplishing whatever you believe.
...are a good listener.
...are very cheerful.
...warm my heart.
...sing like an angel.
...are very handsome/beautiful.
...are important to me.
...have a terrific outlook on life.
...are very intelligent.
...are kind.
...are a good role model.
...are very alert.
...are funny.
...always motivate me.
...are unique.
...are very strong.
...are a picture of good health.
...are courageous.
...are very loving.
...bring out the best in me.
...make me want to be a better person.
...make me smile.
...are a wonderful cook.
...make hot dogs taste like a gourmet meal.
...are a wonderful caregiver.
...make me feel special.
...make me feel I can do anything.
...are fun to be with.
...are the wind beneath my wings.
...are the light of my life.”
Granted some of the canned ones sounded more like spam and would make people gag but what could the harm be? I am sure I know if my limited readership does not.
It really is in how and when flattering remarks are given that is paramount. I don’t think it would be appropriate to tell a French Chef that he/she makes hot dogs taste like a gourmet meal. Not only would the sincerity of the compliment be questioned but hopefully the appellation would not fit any occasion that might apply to a French Chef. Therein lies the crux of the problem: compliments often sound or are disingenuous.
Finding nice things to say can be very difficult for people not just because sometimes it seems impossible to find the right thing to say but also because frequently the compliment is not warranted or the right thing to say would be better left unsaid. Circumstances like these require a special tact I just don’t possess and, despite my mother being a huge proponent of the “If you can’t find something nice to say…” school of thinking I could never just sit mute when something begged to be pointed out or addressed. These instances can normally be covered by use of an extended allegorical metaphor… kind of a baffle them with bullshit offensive strategy that is couched enough not to appear as offensive as it is and is euphemistic in nature.
It takes real talent to disguise something as a compliment when really it is not. Often what was said is far beyond the comprehension of the person it is said about. For those who fall at the lower end of the bell shaped curve this is all about you. Sometimes an ah-ha moment can clear away the fog. This is usually what is desired by the person issuing the criticism.
It is not necessary to make some long extended allegorical metaphor to disguise a criticism. If the next time someone has an extended belch at the table or some cat or dawg rolphs up something huge and nasty on the rug it might be duty to clarify that “Nice One!” may not be praise for prowess.
© 09.22.2010 stevendphilbrick SR+ DakotaDawg
While waiting on the interwebs I was thinking about finding something nice to say when I decided what could be easier? Invoking my addiction I Googled "something nice to say" and came up with only about 8,660,000 results in 0.61 seconds. Since I did not want to spend my entire life reading all of the suggestions for the exact quote or a different approach, I decided to focus on only the second suggestion: http://complimentday.com/index.htm.
From the home page I navigated to the link for Not sure what to say? http://complimentday.com/ComplimentsPage.htm - Give these a try
“Not sure what to say? Here are a few compliments to chose from. Try adding a specific example to custom design it for the compliment receiver. Notice that all these compliments start with the same word. It's a gentle reminder that compliment giving is about others.”
“You...
...have a great way with words.
...are a terrific leader.
...make working on a project a joy.
...are very creative.
...are a good provider.
...are fun to be with.
...have a great reputation.
...are cleaver.
...make a house feel like a home.
...have a good eye for decorating.
...are a good driver.
...can do anything you set your mind to.
...are capable of accomplishing whatever you believe.
...are a good listener.
...are very cheerful.
...warm my heart.
...sing like an angel.
...are very handsome/beautiful.
...are important to me.
...have a terrific outlook on life.
...are very intelligent.
...are kind.
...are a good role model.
...are very alert.
...are funny.
...always motivate me.
...are unique.
...are very strong.
...are a picture of good health.
...are courageous.
...are very loving.
...bring out the best in me.
...make me want to be a better person.
...make me smile.
...are a wonderful cook.
...make hot dogs taste like a gourmet meal.
...are a wonderful caregiver.
...make me feel special.
...make me feel I can do anything.
...are fun to be with.
...are the wind beneath my wings.
...are the light of my life.”
Granted some of the canned ones sounded more like spam and would make people gag but what could the harm be? I am sure I know if my limited readership does not.
It really is in how and when flattering remarks are given that is paramount. I don’t think it would be appropriate to tell a French Chef that he/she makes hot dogs taste like a gourmet meal. Not only would the sincerity of the compliment be questioned but hopefully the appellation would not fit any occasion that might apply to a French Chef. Therein lies the crux of the problem: compliments often sound or are disingenuous.
Finding nice things to say can be very difficult for people not just because sometimes it seems impossible to find the right thing to say but also because frequently the compliment is not warranted or the right thing to say would be better left unsaid. Circumstances like these require a special tact I just don’t possess and, despite my mother being a huge proponent of the “If you can’t find something nice to say…” school of thinking I could never just sit mute when something begged to be pointed out or addressed. These instances can normally be covered by use of an extended allegorical metaphor… kind of a baffle them with bullshit offensive strategy that is couched enough not to appear as offensive as it is and is euphemistic in nature.
It takes real talent to disguise something as a compliment when really it is not. Often what was said is far beyond the comprehension of the person it is said about. For those who fall at the lower end of the bell shaped curve this is all about you. Sometimes an ah-ha moment can clear away the fog. This is usually what is desired by the person issuing the criticism.
It is not necessary to make some long extended allegorical metaphor to disguise a criticism. If the next time someone has an extended belch at the table or some cat or dawg rolphs up something huge and nasty on the rug it might be duty to clarify that “Nice One!” may not be praise for prowess.
© 09.22.2010 stevendphilbrick SR+ DakotaDawg
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Indian Summer – the Beginning of Creativity.
.
Imagine a 51:28 video… do we have the time (in more than one way)… in case no, then it is about a six day global challenge to promote creative thinking by adding value to a pack of Post It Notes. Can creativity and innovation be taught through entrepreneurship? You have to stimulate the imagination. More details in the video but that pretty much covers the idea behind it.
Imagine
We all need a little more imagine. Imagine John Lennon live at Madison Square Garden.
Sometimes the best ideas come in Indian Summer.
© stevendphilbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/21/2010
Imagine a 51:28 video… do we have the time (in more than one way)… in case no, then it is about a six day global challenge to promote creative thinking by adding value to a pack of Post It Notes. Can creativity and innovation be taught through entrepreneurship? You have to stimulate the imagination. More details in the video but that pretty much covers the idea behind it.
Imagine
We all need a little more imagine. Imagine John Lennon live at Madison Square Garden.
Sometimes the best ideas come in Indian Summer.
© stevendphilbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/21/2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Dissonance is not all we hear...
Sometime it is even worse with the earphones on. Most especially when there is one particular grey cat that chews on all types of electrical cords. I am patiently for him to turn into a cartoon cat. His taste for copper and rubber can not be sated and far too many cords are patched with electrical tape.
Evanescence - To disappear or vanish into a mist.
In the vein and in view of metaphor I came across more than just a word or a definition. I was thinking about October and I have been attempting to keep the neural netwok from running is such small circles in an effort to embrace the greater good.
But when thinking of one thing many others become apparent and more important. This must happen to keep us from drowning in dissonance.
A dissonant mind is difficult to have and to live with but it is that dissonat mind that brings the music to the party. Can you hear the screaming?
Lot's of shaking still to be done now is certainly not the time to vanish into the vapor. Are you listening or is all you hear the dissonance?
Too much Björk?
© stevendphilbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/20/2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
The Medium is the message.
.
Today I spent a little time with a medium I did not know as well as I should. I would say that my knowledge quotient is at best rare medium rare on something I ought to know well. And, this is all about a rare medium.
Things are habitually not as they seem. Today was a not so exceptional case of that, other than I acknowledged and saw beyond what was said. I heard one thing. Deep in my mind I knew that those so needed for their advice also had needs. I did what little I could for someone that means so much to so many.
I know not nearly as well as I should this medium that is so rare. I also know so little of all the other things. But, I do know that nature is curative. Given time nature will mend many of those problems that I cannot begin to fathom and even some that I feel most intimate with.
I will be planting a maple in the right place and hopefully at the precisely correct time. We shall watch that tree grow into something that might seem out of place. It is exactly where it was supposed to be even though the seed was floating blindly in a river far from home.
Let’s get on with it. DakotaDawg wants to help too but right now she is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Terrible Triplets or one of her other mortal canine enemies. I think I will take her for another walk because I failed lately to take note of what was in bloom or much else beyond the small little world of one with concentrated tunnel vision. Maybe we can meet a new dog friend for her.
For me today, as always, I must not fail to remember that the Medium is the message. What’s lost will be found again.
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/19/2010
Just for today since the message was preempted… if you know what day it is (if not there is always Google)… ARRRR!
Today I spent a little time with a medium I did not know as well as I should. I would say that my knowledge quotient is at best rare medium rare on something I ought to know well. And, this is all about a rare medium.
Things are habitually not as they seem. Today was a not so exceptional case of that, other than I acknowledged and saw beyond what was said. I heard one thing. Deep in my mind I knew that those so needed for their advice also had needs. I did what little I could for someone that means so much to so many.
I know not nearly as well as I should this medium that is so rare. I also know so little of all the other things. But, I do know that nature is curative. Given time nature will mend many of those problems that I cannot begin to fathom and even some that I feel most intimate with.
I will be planting a maple in the right place and hopefully at the precisely correct time. We shall watch that tree grow into something that might seem out of place. It is exactly where it was supposed to be even though the seed was floating blindly in a river far from home.
Let’s get on with it. DakotaDawg wants to help too but right now she is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Terrible Triplets or one of her other mortal canine enemies. I think I will take her for another walk because I failed lately to take note of what was in bloom or much else beyond the small little world of one with concentrated tunnel vision. Maybe we can meet a new dog friend for her.
For me today, as always, I must not fail to remember that the Medium is the message. What’s lost will be found again.
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/19/2010
Just for today since the message was preempted… if you know what day it is (if not there is always Google)… ARRRR!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
What is a Metaphor?
Have you ever noticed that the Klingons are all speaking unix?
"Grep ls awk chmod."
"Mknod ksh tar imap."
"Wall fsck yacc!"
"The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor.
This alone cannot be imparted by another;
it is the mark of genius,
for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblance."
Aristotle
DakotaDawg can sing too especially when she is happy.
What is a Metaphor?
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/18/2010
"Grep ls awk chmod."
"Mknod ksh tar imap."
"Wall fsck yacc!"
"The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor.
This alone cannot be imparted by another;
it is the mark of genius,
for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblance."
Aristotle
Co-Writer Bruce Hornsby's take on it:
Co-Writer Don Henley's take on it:
Jackson Browne - Bonnie Raitt - Bruce Hornsby - David Lindley and Shawn Colvin's take on it:
'Must See' originally published Music Video:
Don Henley "The End of the Innocence"
©1989 Geffen Records Music Video
DakotaDawg can sing too especially when she is happy.
What is a Metaphor?
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/18/2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
The Path Less Travelled.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
...Robert Frost
This is more what I thought I had in mind yesterday when I first went looking to find the path less travelled. I didn’t realize I was in such esteemed company when I went down my journey of discovery that led not at all where I wanted to go. Many others have investigated and commented on the Road Not Taken, even MacGyver.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Road Not Taken may refer to:
• "The Road Not Taken", a poem by Robert Frost
• The Road Not Taken, an album by country music group Shenandoah
• "The Road Not Taken", an episode of Stargate SG-1
• "The Road Not Taken", an episode of MacGyver, season 2
• "The Road Not Taken", an episode of Fringe, season 1
• "The Road Not Taken", a short story by Harry Turtledove
• "The Road Not Taken", a song by Bruce Hornsby
Was it really regret or dismay that Frost wrote about in his poem as he wondered what would have been the result of choosing the first path originally? Or, since he appears well satisfied with his selection when presented with a similar predicament later in life, was the fact that he would never have the same opportunity again what led him to pick the road less travelled even though it was a different one then the one he initially encountered?
How different might it have been if originally he followed the one that “bent in the undergrowth”? In both instances he is selecting one out of two. I rather am looking to find the intersection of three or possibly more options.
I continue thinking about looking for or finding a path, a route with several junctions at each intersection. For me this is a conscious decision to search for a different track entirely instead of which way or what to select when I encounter a couple of choices. I am far less concerned about what to do when presented with a need to make a decision between Door 1 or Door 2 than finding what alternatives I might consider that will present the most choices to find new ways.
As I look for the path to make a decision, it is the journey toward the juncture instead of the intersection itself and which way to go that affects me more… if that makes any sense.
I never have suffered from lack of options. Through life they have come at me like the stars when going to warp speed. Unlike the Millennium Falcon entering hyperspace I have not had the chance to leave my past behind me as I gained momentum. Options and opportunities bombard me daily. A good strategy should involve a path where the number of choices could be diminished and there was some rational reason for encountering them instead of just blindly reacting to those presented.
Not to mix metaphors but a road less traveled just might be the answer. DakotaDawg does not care which path I choose as long as she has opportunity to see who else has been there before. If it eventually leads home she is happy.
Sometimes it is better without all the words and thinking –
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/16/2010
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
...Robert Frost
This is more what I thought I had in mind yesterday when I first went looking to find the path less travelled. I didn’t realize I was in such esteemed company when I went down my journey of discovery that led not at all where I wanted to go. Many others have investigated and commented on the Road Not Taken, even MacGyver.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Road Not Taken may refer to:
• "The Road Not Taken", a poem by Robert Frost
• The Road Not Taken, an album by country music group Shenandoah
• "The Road Not Taken", an episode of Stargate SG-1
• "The Road Not Taken", an episode of MacGyver, season 2
• "The Road Not Taken", an episode of Fringe, season 1
• "The Road Not Taken", a short story by Harry Turtledove
• "The Road Not Taken", a song by Bruce Hornsby
Was it really regret or dismay that Frost wrote about in his poem as he wondered what would have been the result of choosing the first path originally? Or, since he appears well satisfied with his selection when presented with a similar predicament later in life, was the fact that he would never have the same opportunity again what led him to pick the road less travelled even though it was a different one then the one he initially encountered?
How different might it have been if originally he followed the one that “bent in the undergrowth”? In both instances he is selecting one out of two. I rather am looking to find the intersection of three or possibly more options.
I continue thinking about looking for or finding a path, a route with several junctions at each intersection. For me this is a conscious decision to search for a different track entirely instead of which way or what to select when I encounter a couple of choices. I am far less concerned about what to do when presented with a need to make a decision between Door 1 or Door 2 than finding what alternatives I might consider that will present the most choices to find new ways.
As I look for the path to make a decision, it is the journey toward the juncture instead of the intersection itself and which way to go that affects me more… if that makes any sense.
I never have suffered from lack of options. Through life they have come at me like the stars when going to warp speed. Unlike the Millennium Falcon entering hyperspace I have not had the chance to leave my past behind me as I gained momentum. Options and opportunities bombard me daily. A good strategy should involve a path where the number of choices could be diminished and there was some rational reason for encountering them instead of just blindly reacting to those presented.
Not to mix metaphors but a road less traveled just might be the answer. DakotaDawg does not care which path I choose as long as she has opportunity to see who else has been there before. If it eventually leads home she is happy.
Sometimes it is better without all the words and thinking –
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/16/2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Finding the path… to enlightenment?
.
Feeling a little lost today I was cruising around through my virtual memory bank. I am not sure if it is some of the drugs from the medical procedure or the almost two day fast that put me into a funk so I asked my primary mnemonic colleague for a little assistance.
I was directed to a lot of possibilities as I searched for path and Shinzen Young had a Youtube video on the point with today’s posting:
It is not precisely what I was looking for… but less than ten minutes out of a life is not much in the grand scheme of things. I watched the video and embedded it in case the reader is so inclined.
According to Shinzen the first trap is the Map Trap. Although the path I am looking for is not one of spiritual and meditative enlightenment this seems to apply to my dilemma as well. Spending a great deal of time trying to find the right map to get pointed in the right direction is a hurdle for many.
Trap Two is the Fundamentalism or Mythological Trap. This is one of those circular arguments that will certainly take me off the path I am looking for and have not yet found. I am not looking to buy into a Mythological system no matter what. It seems to be a good thing if one has any successful method to achieve small or significant improvements in happiness both subjectively and behavior objectively.
Three – The Tranquility Trap… The problem of being stuck in a rut of tranquility in a good place has never been mine. I understand how too much tranquility possibly could prevent utter happiness or enlightenment.
Four – The Realm of Powers Trap… So the further out there or down there you get the more laterally you move. This is more and more sounding like Michio Kaku (加來 道雄) our beloved American Theoretical Physicist, string theory specialist, science communicator and futurist.
Five – The Enlightenment Trap… now this is something that I would not mind being trapped in a ‘Limbo of Enlightenment’ forever. Shinzen thinks of it as a continuum and it is dangerous to be stuck instead of continuing. There is of course enlightenment and then there is true enlightenment. On this I would have to equate complete or true enlightenment as an infinite thing that cannot be quantified. As such it is impossible to achieve and can only be sought.
Mercifully Six – The Observer Trap… if you just have to know watch the video and flush ten minutes if you are not quite as lost as the teacher seems to be.
For DakotaDawg and me it is more that we are looking for the path. We know the start of the path… it leads right out our front door. We also know the end of the path which leads right back through that same portal. It is all that middle that constantly causes the wonderment.
Neither one of us is searching for the beginning or the end but we get awfully wrapped up in the middle. I am not sure what this says about us other than it is the middle that is always changing. Our path varies from day to day and from morning walks to afternoon ones. The only constant is that if we take the same path day after day it becomes markedly boring.
We are going to search for new paths… to remember that the reason the hummingbird might have been buzzing my head out on the patio could have been that he was looking for that last drop of nectar in the feeder. As plausible is he was reminding me that the path to his happiness was right back into the house to find some more groceries for his feeder.
The reason DakotaDawg is back by the bathroom is not because she lost her way. Maybe her water bowl is empty and she wants me to fill it up.
I better get busy. I have an awful lot to do. Might be worth watching that video again.
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/15/2010
Feeling a little lost today I was cruising around through my virtual memory bank. I am not sure if it is some of the drugs from the medical procedure or the almost two day fast that put me into a funk so I asked my primary mnemonic colleague for a little assistance.
I was directed to a lot of possibilities as I searched for path and Shinzen Young had a Youtube video on the point with today’s posting:
It is not precisely what I was looking for… but less than ten minutes out of a life is not much in the grand scheme of things. I watched the video and embedded it in case the reader is so inclined.
According to Shinzen the first trap is the Map Trap. Although the path I am looking for is not one of spiritual and meditative enlightenment this seems to apply to my dilemma as well. Spending a great deal of time trying to find the right map to get pointed in the right direction is a hurdle for many.
Trap Two is the Fundamentalism or Mythological Trap. This is one of those circular arguments that will certainly take me off the path I am looking for and have not yet found. I am not looking to buy into a Mythological system no matter what. It seems to be a good thing if one has any successful method to achieve small or significant improvements in happiness both subjectively and behavior objectively.
Three – The Tranquility Trap… The problem of being stuck in a rut of tranquility in a good place has never been mine. I understand how too much tranquility possibly could prevent utter happiness or enlightenment.
Four – The Realm of Powers Trap… So the further out there or down there you get the more laterally you move. This is more and more sounding like Michio Kaku (加來 道雄) our beloved American Theoretical Physicist, string theory specialist, science communicator and futurist.
Five – The Enlightenment Trap… now this is something that I would not mind being trapped in a ‘Limbo of Enlightenment’ forever. Shinzen thinks of it as a continuum and it is dangerous to be stuck instead of continuing. There is of course enlightenment and then there is true enlightenment. On this I would have to equate complete or true enlightenment as an infinite thing that cannot be quantified. As such it is impossible to achieve and can only be sought.
Mercifully Six – The Observer Trap… if you just have to know watch the video and flush ten minutes if you are not quite as lost as the teacher seems to be.
For DakotaDawg and me it is more that we are looking for the path. We know the start of the path… it leads right out our front door. We also know the end of the path which leads right back through that same portal. It is all that middle that constantly causes the wonderment.
Neither one of us is searching for the beginning or the end but we get awfully wrapped up in the middle. I am not sure what this says about us other than it is the middle that is always changing. Our path varies from day to day and from morning walks to afternoon ones. The only constant is that if we take the same path day after day it becomes markedly boring.
We are going to search for new paths… to remember that the reason the hummingbird might have been buzzing my head out on the patio could have been that he was looking for that last drop of nectar in the feeder. As plausible is he was reminding me that the path to his happiness was right back into the house to find some more groceries for his feeder.
The reason DakotaDawg is back by the bathroom is not because she lost her way. Maybe her water bowl is empty and she wants me to fill it up.
I better get busy. I have an awful lot to do. Might be worth watching that video again.
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/15/2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
If I remember… oh yeah, Mnemonics.
.
Thinking about how to improve my memory I encountered another ‘new’ kick toward Mnemonics. In the attempt to do research Google suggested for more information I visit the School of Phenomenal Memory on the interweb - http://www.pmemory.com/ . So I took the plunge and started reading their promo material. Apparently they offer training (for a fee) over the internet that will even enable the paying student to be able to memorize entire books. Wow! Just what I need! I will never again have to struggle with Shogun since I have read it so many times already… well maybe only one more time to do the memorizing.
One of the most notable things I found and will never forget is this information directly from their homepage:
“Simple Memory Improvement facts you need to know!
1. You cannot improve your memory:
a. By reading a book on memory improvement.
b. By listening to memory improvement CDs or audio tapes.
c. By watching memory improvement videos.
d. By attending a seminar on memory improvement.
e. By taking memory improvement pills or medication.”
So much for the simple method and drug induced euphoria and all the other simple tricks I had been considering. I guess I will just start with the enrollment and get on with the memory workouts they suggest.
While on the site I decided to download the Free Giordano Memorization System Manual by Vladimir Kozarenko (a noted Russian researcher and author) in case there was a test later even though I do not intend to memorize the book… I will however review it and do a book report in a future blog posting if it is worth the trouble. The first thing that was definitely worth the trouble was immediately unsubscribing to the flood of email that followed the downloading of the wonderful free book which lists itself as a manual 161 pages long. Oh how I long to have an iPad or Android Tablet to store this on so I carry it around.
Since the entire second page of the book is the copyright and I don’t want to break Federal Law it might be better if I just commit the entire thing to memory since that is the one thing not listed as being illegal. I wonder if I should use their method outlined in the book or if I should rely on Encyclopedia Britannica instead:
“mnemonic
any device for aiding the memory. Named for Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory in Greek mythology, mnemonics are also called memoria technica. The principle is to create in the mind an artificial structure that incorporates unfamiliar ideas or, especially, a series of dissociated ideas that by themselves are difficult to remember. Ideally, the structure is designed so that its parts are mutually suggestive. Grouping items in rhymed verse has long been a popular mnemonic technique, from the "gender rhymes" of the Latin grammars to the verse for remembering the number of days in the months ("Thirty days hath September, April, June and November").
Learn more about mnemonic with a free trial on Britannica.com.”
From what I can gather from Google (my primary mnemonic colleague and crutch) Vladimir Kozarenko, instead of rhyming, seems to be a proponent of the “The Chain Method” which is a mnemonic technique, where visual representations of information are directly chained in series, one after another. Wiki says that “The Chain Method” ‘is useful for memorizing lists and connected pieces of information' and there are specific rules for using this mnemonic. Rule #1 is that the rules must be followed so that the memory technique works correctly. Rule #2 is that in developing the visual chain or representation of what is to be memorized (although Wiki lists it as #1) “only two items are visualized in the mind at a time.” And Rule #3 and #4 although not listed separately but as subsets of #2 are “Both images need to be visualized largely, colorfully, and in great detail. To ensure that the order of items is not confused, the second image is always placed, in the imagination, above, on the right side of, or piercing, the previous image.”
Wiki states: “This method is very good for quick memorization of simple information. One of the weaknesses of the method is its dependency on itself. If one of the connections is broken, it is very difficult to recall the rest of the list.”
I think that may take too much time to use to memorize an entire tome.
This method was derived from some information reviewed in yesterday’s research in the National Geographic article that harkened back to the Romans who borrowed heavily from the Greeks who in turn borrowed from the Egyptians. I am sure that the Egyptians probably borrowed the idea from somebody else.
I am not so sure how valuable this method of memorization is but obviously a lot of people over a long period of time thought highly of visualization if they did not religiously follow “The Chain Method”. For me it is not so much the inability to recall simple information… I always have my trusty pads to write them down. What I need to remember where the list is recorded – is it a notebook, an envelope or on the edge of a newspaper section near the Sudoku. And just as important where the pad or sheet of paper where that list is located.
DakotaDawg and I will continue our research of Mnemonics even though we both have no difficulty remembering where her food or water bowls are. On the issue of remembering the correct response to a command I seriously doubt that she will visualize any more than the treat in my hand or still in the cupboard.
I don’t have to remember in what subdirectory the Free Giordano Memorization System Manual by Vladimir Kozarenko is located. If WinDoze Explorer can not find it from the suggestions I type into the search box there is always Google or my trusty blog to find out where I can once again download my free copy and receive all of the other promotional literature from the School of Phenomenal Memory on the interweb.
I remember… oh yeah, must be Mnemonics.
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/14/2010
Thinking about how to improve my memory I encountered another ‘new’ kick toward Mnemonics. In the attempt to do research Google suggested for more information I visit the School of Phenomenal Memory on the interweb - http://www.pmemory.com/ . So I took the plunge and started reading their promo material. Apparently they offer training (for a fee) over the internet that will even enable the paying student to be able to memorize entire books. Wow! Just what I need! I will never again have to struggle with Shogun since I have read it so many times already… well maybe only one more time to do the memorizing.
One of the most notable things I found and will never forget is this information directly from their homepage:
“Simple Memory Improvement facts you need to know!
1. You cannot improve your memory:
a. By reading a book on memory improvement.
b. By listening to memory improvement CDs or audio tapes.
c. By watching memory improvement videos.
d. By attending a seminar on memory improvement.
e. By taking memory improvement pills or medication.”
So much for the simple method and drug induced euphoria and all the other simple tricks I had been considering. I guess I will just start with the enrollment and get on with the memory workouts they suggest.
While on the site I decided to download the Free Giordano Memorization System Manual by Vladimir Kozarenko (a noted Russian researcher and author) in case there was a test later even though I do not intend to memorize the book… I will however review it and do a book report in a future blog posting if it is worth the trouble. The first thing that was definitely worth the trouble was immediately unsubscribing to the flood of email that followed the downloading of the wonderful free book which lists itself as a manual 161 pages long. Oh how I long to have an iPad or Android Tablet to store this on so I carry it around.
Since the entire second page of the book is the copyright and I don’t want to break Federal Law it might be better if I just commit the entire thing to memory since that is the one thing not listed as being illegal. I wonder if I should use their method outlined in the book or if I should rely on Encyclopedia Britannica instead:
“mnemonic
any device for aiding the memory. Named for Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory in Greek mythology, mnemonics are also called memoria technica. The principle is to create in the mind an artificial structure that incorporates unfamiliar ideas or, especially, a series of dissociated ideas that by themselves are difficult to remember. Ideally, the structure is designed so that its parts are mutually suggestive. Grouping items in rhymed verse has long been a popular mnemonic technique, from the "gender rhymes" of the Latin grammars to the verse for remembering the number of days in the months ("Thirty days hath September, April, June and November").
Learn more about mnemonic with a free trial on Britannica.com.”
From what I can gather from Google (my primary mnemonic colleague and crutch) Vladimir Kozarenko, instead of rhyming, seems to be a proponent of the “The Chain Method” which is a mnemonic technique, where visual representations of information are directly chained in series, one after another. Wiki says that “The Chain Method” ‘is useful for memorizing lists and connected pieces of information' and there are specific rules for using this mnemonic. Rule #1 is that the rules must be followed so that the memory technique works correctly. Rule #2 is that in developing the visual chain or representation of what is to be memorized (although Wiki lists it as #1) “only two items are visualized in the mind at a time.” And Rule #3 and #4 although not listed separately but as subsets of #2 are “Both images need to be visualized largely, colorfully, and in great detail. To ensure that the order of items is not confused, the second image is always placed, in the imagination, above, on the right side of, or piercing, the previous image.”
Wiki states: “This method is very good for quick memorization of simple information. One of the weaknesses of the method is its dependency on itself. If one of the connections is broken, it is very difficult to recall the rest of the list.”
I think that may take too much time to use to memorize an entire tome.
This method was derived from some information reviewed in yesterday’s research in the National Geographic article that harkened back to the Romans who borrowed heavily from the Greeks who in turn borrowed from the Egyptians. I am sure that the Egyptians probably borrowed the idea from somebody else.
I am not so sure how valuable this method of memorization is but obviously a lot of people over a long period of time thought highly of visualization if they did not religiously follow “The Chain Method”. For me it is not so much the inability to recall simple information… I always have my trusty pads to write them down. What I need to remember where the list is recorded – is it a notebook, an envelope or on the edge of a newspaper section near the Sudoku. And just as important where the pad or sheet of paper where that list is located.
DakotaDawg and I will continue our research of Mnemonics even though we both have no difficulty remembering where her food or water bowls are. On the issue of remembering the correct response to a command I seriously doubt that she will visualize any more than the treat in my hand or still in the cupboard.
I don’t have to remember in what subdirectory the Free Giordano Memorization System Manual by Vladimir Kozarenko is located. If WinDoze Explorer can not find it from the suggestions I type into the search box there is always Google or my trusty blog to find out where I can once again download my free copy and receive all of the other promotional literature from the School of Phenomenal Memory on the interweb.
I remember… oh yeah, must be Mnemonics.
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/14/2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Looking for Answers. Is Memory the Key?
.
Elucidation is universally available but the revelations I am seeking are clustered together in remote regions of the media, the interweb and or already locked deep within my subconscious. It has been interesting trying to bring some from the netherworld back to my conscious world.
Last nite while I was in bed on the threshold of my dream state I was reading National Geographic, one of my favorite magazines. I am constantly puzzled by how some their articles relate to geography but do not question the wisdom of the editor. The particular article that I was reading is conveniently located at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/11/memory/foer-text.html.
In the days before Guttenberg memory was held in extreme esteem. People who were most likely geniuses in the first place were gauged brilliant by their ability to remember important and mundane information. Before the advent of the printing press and books memory was a precious asset.
From the article: “… the art of memory was codified with an extensive set of rules and instructions by the likes of Cicero and Quintilian and in countless medieval memory treatises. Students were taught not only what to remember but also techniques for how to remember it. In fact, there are long traditions of memory training in many cultures. The Jewish Talmud, embedded with mnemonics—techniques for preserving memories—was passed down orally for centuries. Koranic memorization is still considered a supreme achievement among devout Muslims. Traditional West African griots and South Slavic bards recount colossal epics entirely from memory.”
“But over the past millennium, many of us have undergone a profound shift. We've gradually replaced our internal memory with what psychologists refer to as external memory, a vast superstructure of technological crutches that we've invented so that we don't have to store information in our brains. We've gone, you might say, from remembering everything to remembering awfully little. We have photographs to record our experiences, calendars to keep track of our schedules, books (and now the Internet) to store our collective knowledge, and Post-it notes for our scribbles. What have the implications of this outsourcing of memory been for ourselves and for our society? Has something been lost?”
From my point of view the answer to the last question is a most definite yes! And the answer to the initial question is yet to be seen although I feel more and more a victim of those implications. There is no longer a nun standing over me with a meter stick demanding that I recite the multiplication tables or the homework assignment that I was to commit to memory. Father Fiore is not ready to smack me in the back of the head because I cannot recall the entirety of Caesar that we needed to know for the test.
I truly have become a victim of my memory crutches that more and more frequently are not adequate… those that I and the majority of society have implemented as a substitution for the real thing. Much of my memory is still stored in my computer despite my best attempts to retrieve it and store it properly.
Unlike ‘AJ’ in the article I do not seek to have a perfect memory of my entire past even though it might be entirely within my reach as believed by Florida State University Psychology professor K. Anders Ericsson. Again from that article: “Remembering everything is both maddening and lonely for AJ. ‘I remember good, which is very comforting. But I also remember bad—and every bad choice,’ she says. ‘And I really don't give myself a break. There are all these forks in the road, moments you have to make a choice, and then it's ten years later, and I'm still beating myself up over them. I don't forgive myself for a lot of things. Your memory is the way it is to protect you. I feel like it just hasn't protected me. I would love just for five minutes to be a simple person and not have all this stuff in my head. "Most people have called what I have a gift,’ AJ says, ‘but I call it a burden.’”
I intend to come back to this article again. Now, what I feel needs focusing on is how memory tools are not specifically taught as part of our educational system. Surely little aids to memory are shared by mentors, parent and teachers to students. There seems to be a dearth of how they fit into the big picture for surely memory is more than just a very detailed picture of our experiences.
Since old age, dementia and possibly Alzheimer's disease could affect us all maybe it is not a magic chemical cure or even ginkgo biloba that we should be searching for and relying upon. Could mental memory workouts started at a very young age and continued through life be as or more successful in staving off loss of memory or the inevitable onset of the inability to remember as well as we used to? Instead of relying on science to take up the slack and find the right combination of molecules to ingest couldn’t we just seek out the process of remembering and memory? Instead of trying to reverse the decline would sidestepping the need for chemicals be even better?
Throughout the history of mankind it seems that it is always the easiest way out that is sought as the primary solution to a problem instead of a structured and well designed strategy to totally avoid the problem instead. In medicine, the intervention after the fact receives far more attention and research dollars than the prevention model.
I am hoping in my own case it is not too late for intervention of memory calisthenics to be useful and/or successful. I hope I can remember some of the tricks the nuns tried to teach me to remember because I am not looking forward to daily molecular supplements being added to my medicine cabinet and alimentary tract.
DakotaDawg recommends (and I think I remember the article well enough to concur) that all concerned visit the URL listed above and read it. In case medical intervention becomes necessary and I act even more like a drooling idiot please point me in the right direction and hand me the correct bottle of pills.
I should have paid better attention to Cicero in high school… all I remember of my Latin is "Veni, vidi, vici.” , “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres.” and “Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae.” Like Caesar, Vera Zvonareva professes the same except the “Vini, vidi, vici.” part.
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/13/2010
Elucidation is universally available but the revelations I am seeking are clustered together in remote regions of the media, the interweb and or already locked deep within my subconscious. It has been interesting trying to bring some from the netherworld back to my conscious world.
Last nite while I was in bed on the threshold of my dream state I was reading National Geographic, one of my favorite magazines. I am constantly puzzled by how some their articles relate to geography but do not question the wisdom of the editor. The particular article that I was reading is conveniently located at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/11/memory/foer-text.html.
In the days before Guttenberg memory was held in extreme esteem. People who were most likely geniuses in the first place were gauged brilliant by their ability to remember important and mundane information. Before the advent of the printing press and books memory was a precious asset.
From the article: “… the art of memory was codified with an extensive set of rules and instructions by the likes of Cicero and Quintilian and in countless medieval memory treatises. Students were taught not only what to remember but also techniques for how to remember it. In fact, there are long traditions of memory training in many cultures. The Jewish Talmud, embedded with mnemonics—techniques for preserving memories—was passed down orally for centuries. Koranic memorization is still considered a supreme achievement among devout Muslims. Traditional West African griots and South Slavic bards recount colossal epics entirely from memory.”
“But over the past millennium, many of us have undergone a profound shift. We've gradually replaced our internal memory with what psychologists refer to as external memory, a vast superstructure of technological crutches that we've invented so that we don't have to store information in our brains. We've gone, you might say, from remembering everything to remembering awfully little. We have photographs to record our experiences, calendars to keep track of our schedules, books (and now the Internet) to store our collective knowledge, and Post-it notes for our scribbles. What have the implications of this outsourcing of memory been for ourselves and for our society? Has something been lost?”
From my point of view the answer to the last question is a most definite yes! And the answer to the initial question is yet to be seen although I feel more and more a victim of those implications. There is no longer a nun standing over me with a meter stick demanding that I recite the multiplication tables or the homework assignment that I was to commit to memory. Father Fiore is not ready to smack me in the back of the head because I cannot recall the entirety of Caesar that we needed to know for the test.
I truly have become a victim of my memory crutches that more and more frequently are not adequate… those that I and the majority of society have implemented as a substitution for the real thing. Much of my memory is still stored in my computer despite my best attempts to retrieve it and store it properly.
Unlike ‘AJ’ in the article I do not seek to have a perfect memory of my entire past even though it might be entirely within my reach as believed by Florida State University Psychology professor K. Anders Ericsson. Again from that article: “Remembering everything is both maddening and lonely for AJ. ‘I remember good, which is very comforting. But I also remember bad—and every bad choice,’ she says. ‘And I really don't give myself a break. There are all these forks in the road, moments you have to make a choice, and then it's ten years later, and I'm still beating myself up over them. I don't forgive myself for a lot of things. Your memory is the way it is to protect you. I feel like it just hasn't protected me. I would love just for five minutes to be a simple person and not have all this stuff in my head. "Most people have called what I have a gift,’ AJ says, ‘but I call it a burden.’”
I intend to come back to this article again. Now, what I feel needs focusing on is how memory tools are not specifically taught as part of our educational system. Surely little aids to memory are shared by mentors, parent and teachers to students. There seems to be a dearth of how they fit into the big picture for surely memory is more than just a very detailed picture of our experiences.
Since old age, dementia and possibly Alzheimer's disease could affect us all maybe it is not a magic chemical cure or even ginkgo biloba that we should be searching for and relying upon. Could mental memory workouts started at a very young age and continued through life be as or more successful in staving off loss of memory or the inevitable onset of the inability to remember as well as we used to? Instead of relying on science to take up the slack and find the right combination of molecules to ingest couldn’t we just seek out the process of remembering and memory? Instead of trying to reverse the decline would sidestepping the need for chemicals be even better?
Throughout the history of mankind it seems that it is always the easiest way out that is sought as the primary solution to a problem instead of a structured and well designed strategy to totally avoid the problem instead. In medicine, the intervention after the fact receives far more attention and research dollars than the prevention model.
I am hoping in my own case it is not too late for intervention of memory calisthenics to be useful and/or successful. I hope I can remember some of the tricks the nuns tried to teach me to remember because I am not looking forward to daily molecular supplements being added to my medicine cabinet and alimentary tract.
DakotaDawg recommends (and I think I remember the article well enough to concur) that all concerned visit the URL listed above and read it. In case medical intervention becomes necessary and I act even more like a drooling idiot please point me in the right direction and hand me the correct bottle of pills.
I should have paid better attention to Cicero in high school… all I remember of my Latin is "Veni, vidi, vici.” , “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres.” and “Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae.” Like Caesar, Vera Zvonareva professes the same except the “Vini, vidi, vici.” part.
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/13/2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
.
I have been quite possessed by connections between conscious and unconscious thought; how memory and the interplay of components of rational thinking and the dream world make us who and what we are. The known, unknown and even the hypothetical interact to shape our perspective.
To expound further on this I will quote from Nikola Tesla’s autobiography. Part of the passage that I am interested in highlighting today is how he formulated some of his greatest inventions. This was the process as he tried to define it to himself and others. I will embolden only part of this long excerpt. Of course the first part and catalyst of his inspiration and creativity came from the direct experience with his mother and how he remembered her. In Tesla’s own words:
"My mother was an inventor of the first order and would, I believe, have achieved great things had she not been so remote from modern life and its multi fold opportunities. She invented and constructed all kinds of tools and devices and wove the finest designs from thread which was spun by her. She even planted seeds, raised the plants and separated the fibbers herself. She worked indefatigably, from break of day till late at night, and most of the wearing apparel and furnishings of the home were the product of her hands. When she was past sixty, her fingers were still nimble enough to tie three knots in an eyelash. There was another and still more important reason for my late awakening. In my boyhood I suffered from a peculiar affliction due to the appearance of images, often accompanied by strong flashes of light, which marred the sight of real objects and interfered with my thoughts and action. They were pictures of things and scenes which i had really seen, never of those imagined. When a word was spoken to me the image of the object it designated would present itself vividly to my vision and sometimes I was quite unable to distinguish weather what I saw was tangible or not. This caused me great discomfort and anxiety. None of the students of psychology or physiology whom i have consulted, could ever explain satisfactorily these phenomenon. They seem to have been unique although I was probably predisposed as I know that my brother experienced a similar trouble. The theory I have formulated is that the images were the result of a reflex action from the brain on the retina under great excitation. They certainly were not hallucinations such as are produced in diseased and anguished minds, for in other respects i was normal and composed. To give an idea of my distress, suppose that I had witnessed a funeral or some such nerve-wracking spectacle. The, inevitably, in the stillness of night, a vivid picture of the scene would thrust itself before my eyes and persist despite all my efforts to banish it. If my explanation is correct, it should be possible to project on a screen the image of any object one conceives and make it visible. Such an advance would revolutionize all human relations. I am convinced that this wonder can and will be accomplished in time to come. I may add that I have devoted much thought to the solution of the problem.
I have managed to reflect such a picture, which i have seen in my mind, to the mind of another person, in another room. To free myself of these tormenting appearances, I tried to concentrate my mind on something else I had seen, and in this way I would often obtain temporary relief; but in order to get it I had to conjure continuously new images. It was not long before I found that I had exhausted all of those at my command; my 'reel' had run out as it were, because I had seen little of the world -- only objects in my home and the immediate surroundings. As I performed these mental operations for the second or third time, in order to chase the appearances from my vision, the remedy gradually lost all its force. Then I instinctively commenced to make excursions beyond the limits of the small world of which I had knowledge, and I saw new scenes. These were at first very blurred and indistinct, and would flit away when I tried to concentrate my attention upon them. They gained in strength and distinctness and finally assumed the concreteness of real things. I soon discovered that my best comfort was attained if I simply went on in my vision further and further, getting new impressions all the time, and so I began to travel; of course, in my mind. Every night, (and sometimes during the day), when alone, I would start on my journeys -- see new places, cities and countries; live there, meet people and make friendships and acquaintances and, however unbelievable, it is a fact that they were just as dear to me as those in actual life, and not a bit less intense in their manifestations. This I did constantly until I was about seventeen, when my thoughts turned seriously to invention. Then I observed to my delight that i could visualize with the greatest facility. I needed no models, drawings or experiments. I could picture them all as real in my mind. Thus I have been led unconsciously to evolve what I consider a new method of materializing inventive concepts and ideas, which is radically opposite to the purely experimental and is in my opinion ever so much more expeditious and efficient.
The moment one constructs a device to carry into practice a crude idea, he finds himself unavoidably engrossed with the details of the apparatus. As he goes on improving and reconstructing, his force of concentration diminishes and he loses sight of the great underlying principle. Results may be obtained, but always at the sacrifice of quality. My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea, I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop. I even note if it is out of balance. There is no difference whatever; the results are the same. In this way I am able to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching anything. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain. Invariably my device works as I conceived that it should, and the experiment comes out exactly as I planned it. In twenty years there has not been a single exception. Why should it be otherwise? Engineering, electrical and mechanical, is positive in results. There is scarcely a subject that cannot be examined beforehand, from the available theoretical and practical data. The carrying out into practice of a crude idea as is being generally done, is, I hold, nothing but a waste of energy, money, and time.
My early affliction had however, another compensation. The incessant mental exertion developed my powers of observation and enabled me to discover a truth of great importance. I had noted that the appearance of images was always preceded by actual vision of scenes under peculiar and generally very exceptional conditions, and I was impelled on each occasion to locate the original impulse. After a while this effort grew to be almost automatic and I gained great facility in connecting cause and effect. Soon I became aware, to my surprise, that every thought I conceived was suggested by an external impression. Not only this but all my actions were prompted in a similar way. In the course of time it became perfectly evident to me that I was merely an automation endowed with power of movement responding to the stimuli of the sense organs and thinking and acting accordingly. The practical result of this was the art of tele automatics which has been so far carried out only in an imperfect manner. Its latent possibilities will, however be eventually shown. I have been years planning self-controlled automata and believe that mechanisms can be produced which will act as if possessed of reason, to a limited degree, and will create a revolution in many commercial and industrial departments. I was about twelve years of age when I first succeeded in banishing an image from my vision by willful effort, but I never had any control over the flashes of light to which I have referred. They were, perhaps, my strangest and [most] inexplicable experience. They usually occurred when I found myself in a dangerous or distressing situations or when i was greatly exhilarated. In some instances i have seen all the air around me filled with tongues of living flame. Their intensity, instead of diminishing, increased with time and seemingly attained a maximum when I was about twenty-five years old."
Tesla often thought of himself as a quite gifted flesh and blood Automaton.
Also from Tesla and more on the topic:
"Here, in brief, is my own method: After experiencing a desire to invent a particular thing, I may go on for months or years with the idea in the back of my head. Whenever I feel like it, I roam around in my imagination and think about the problem without any deliberate concentration. This is a period of incubation.
"There follows a period of direct effort. I choose carefully the possible solutions of the problem I am considering, and gradually center my mind on a narrowed field of investigation. Now, when I am deliberately thinking of the problem in its specific features, I may begin to feel that I am going to get the solution. And the wonderful thing is, that if I do feel this way, then I know I have really solved the problem and shall get what I am after.
"The feeling is as convincing to me as though I already had solved it. I have come to the conclusion that at this stage the actual solution is in my mind subconsciously, though it may be a long time before I am aware of it consciously.
"Before I put a sketch on paper, the whole idea is worked out mentally. In my mind I change the construction, make improvements, and even operate the device. Without ever having drawn a sketch I can give the measurements of all parts to workmen, and when completed all these parts will fit, just as certainly as though I had made the actual drawings. It is immaterial to me whether I run my machine in my mind or test it in my shop.”
This process seems to indicate that one of the most creative and imaginative men in history either first had a vision or a desire to find some solution or truth. Only then does he start working out things in his conscious mind by first letting them incubate in the back of his mind. He does not try to work things out with models or by constantly dwelling on each problem. Instead he worked through all of the things about what it was he wanted to do in his conscious and unconscious thoughts until he conceptually arrived at his solution or felt one was forthcoming. Until he felt he was about to arrive at the solution he remained clueless except that he optimistically felt he knew in his unconscious that he had the answer even though it was still in his unconscious mind.
It was at this precise point he had that Ah-ha moment. An image that was spurred by something seemingly unrelated gave him the ability to make the connection between his conscious mind where he remained puzzled to his unconscious mind where he had achieved the resolution.
Such is the relationship between daydreaming and productive thought. There must be Hypersensitivity & Creativity... Imagination & Visualization for positive results.
I would like to bring attention to one man’s quest to insure that Tesla received credit for his place in the scientific world and his website: http://www.ntesla.org/index.php
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/09/2010
I have been quite possessed by connections between conscious and unconscious thought; how memory and the interplay of components of rational thinking and the dream world make us who and what we are. The known, unknown and even the hypothetical interact to shape our perspective.
To expound further on this I will quote from Nikola Tesla’s autobiography. Part of the passage that I am interested in highlighting today is how he formulated some of his greatest inventions. This was the process as he tried to define it to himself and others. I will embolden only part of this long excerpt. Of course the first part and catalyst of his inspiration and creativity came from the direct experience with his mother and how he remembered her. In Tesla’s own words:
"My mother was an inventor of the first order and would, I believe, have achieved great things had she not been so remote from modern life and its multi fold opportunities. She invented and constructed all kinds of tools and devices and wove the finest designs from thread which was spun by her. She even planted seeds, raised the plants and separated the fibbers herself. She worked indefatigably, from break of day till late at night, and most of the wearing apparel and furnishings of the home were the product of her hands. When she was past sixty, her fingers were still nimble enough to tie three knots in an eyelash. There was another and still more important reason for my late awakening. In my boyhood I suffered from a peculiar affliction due to the appearance of images, often accompanied by strong flashes of light, which marred the sight of real objects and interfered with my thoughts and action. They were pictures of things and scenes which i had really seen, never of those imagined. When a word was spoken to me the image of the object it designated would present itself vividly to my vision and sometimes I was quite unable to distinguish weather what I saw was tangible or not. This caused me great discomfort and anxiety. None of the students of psychology or physiology whom i have consulted, could ever explain satisfactorily these phenomenon. They seem to have been unique although I was probably predisposed as I know that my brother experienced a similar trouble. The theory I have formulated is that the images were the result of a reflex action from the brain on the retina under great excitation. They certainly were not hallucinations such as are produced in diseased and anguished minds, for in other respects i was normal and composed. To give an idea of my distress, suppose that I had witnessed a funeral or some such nerve-wracking spectacle. The, inevitably, in the stillness of night, a vivid picture of the scene would thrust itself before my eyes and persist despite all my efforts to banish it. If my explanation is correct, it should be possible to project on a screen the image of any object one conceives and make it visible. Such an advance would revolutionize all human relations. I am convinced that this wonder can and will be accomplished in time to come. I may add that I have devoted much thought to the solution of the problem.
I have managed to reflect such a picture, which i have seen in my mind, to the mind of another person, in another room. To free myself of these tormenting appearances, I tried to concentrate my mind on something else I had seen, and in this way I would often obtain temporary relief; but in order to get it I had to conjure continuously new images. It was not long before I found that I had exhausted all of those at my command; my 'reel' had run out as it were, because I had seen little of the world -- only objects in my home and the immediate surroundings. As I performed these mental operations for the second or third time, in order to chase the appearances from my vision, the remedy gradually lost all its force. Then I instinctively commenced to make excursions beyond the limits of the small world of which I had knowledge, and I saw new scenes. These were at first very blurred and indistinct, and would flit away when I tried to concentrate my attention upon them. They gained in strength and distinctness and finally assumed the concreteness of real things. I soon discovered that my best comfort was attained if I simply went on in my vision further and further, getting new impressions all the time, and so I began to travel; of course, in my mind. Every night, (and sometimes during the day), when alone, I would start on my journeys -- see new places, cities and countries; live there, meet people and make friendships and acquaintances and, however unbelievable, it is a fact that they were just as dear to me as those in actual life, and not a bit less intense in their manifestations. This I did constantly until I was about seventeen, when my thoughts turned seriously to invention. Then I observed to my delight that i could visualize with the greatest facility. I needed no models, drawings or experiments. I could picture them all as real in my mind. Thus I have been led unconsciously to evolve what I consider a new method of materializing inventive concepts and ideas, which is radically opposite to the purely experimental and is in my opinion ever so much more expeditious and efficient.
The moment one constructs a device to carry into practice a crude idea, he finds himself unavoidably engrossed with the details of the apparatus. As he goes on improving and reconstructing, his force of concentration diminishes and he loses sight of the great underlying principle. Results may be obtained, but always at the sacrifice of quality. My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea, I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop. I even note if it is out of balance. There is no difference whatever; the results are the same. In this way I am able to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching anything. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain. Invariably my device works as I conceived that it should, and the experiment comes out exactly as I planned it. In twenty years there has not been a single exception. Why should it be otherwise? Engineering, electrical and mechanical, is positive in results. There is scarcely a subject that cannot be examined beforehand, from the available theoretical and practical data. The carrying out into practice of a crude idea as is being generally done, is, I hold, nothing but a waste of energy, money, and time.
My early affliction had however, another compensation. The incessant mental exertion developed my powers of observation and enabled me to discover a truth of great importance. I had noted that the appearance of images was always preceded by actual vision of scenes under peculiar and generally very exceptional conditions, and I was impelled on each occasion to locate the original impulse. After a while this effort grew to be almost automatic and I gained great facility in connecting cause and effect. Soon I became aware, to my surprise, that every thought I conceived was suggested by an external impression. Not only this but all my actions were prompted in a similar way. In the course of time it became perfectly evident to me that I was merely an automation endowed with power of movement responding to the stimuli of the sense organs and thinking and acting accordingly. The practical result of this was the art of tele automatics which has been so far carried out only in an imperfect manner. Its latent possibilities will, however be eventually shown. I have been years planning self-controlled automata and believe that mechanisms can be produced which will act as if possessed of reason, to a limited degree, and will create a revolution in many commercial and industrial departments. I was about twelve years of age when I first succeeded in banishing an image from my vision by willful effort, but I never had any control over the flashes of light to which I have referred. They were, perhaps, my strangest and [most] inexplicable experience. They usually occurred when I found myself in a dangerous or distressing situations or when i was greatly exhilarated. In some instances i have seen all the air around me filled with tongues of living flame. Their intensity, instead of diminishing, increased with time and seemingly attained a maximum when I was about twenty-five years old."
Tesla often thought of himself as a quite gifted flesh and blood Automaton.
Also from Tesla and more on the topic:
"Here, in brief, is my own method: After experiencing a desire to invent a particular thing, I may go on for months or years with the idea in the back of my head. Whenever I feel like it, I roam around in my imagination and think about the problem without any deliberate concentration. This is a period of incubation.
"There follows a period of direct effort. I choose carefully the possible solutions of the problem I am considering, and gradually center my mind on a narrowed field of investigation. Now, when I am deliberately thinking of the problem in its specific features, I may begin to feel that I am going to get the solution. And the wonderful thing is, that if I do feel this way, then I know I have really solved the problem and shall get what I am after.
"The feeling is as convincing to me as though I already had solved it. I have come to the conclusion that at this stage the actual solution is in my mind subconsciously, though it may be a long time before I am aware of it consciously.
"Before I put a sketch on paper, the whole idea is worked out mentally. In my mind I change the construction, make improvements, and even operate the device. Without ever having drawn a sketch I can give the measurements of all parts to workmen, and when completed all these parts will fit, just as certainly as though I had made the actual drawings. It is immaterial to me whether I run my machine in my mind or test it in my shop.”
This process seems to indicate that one of the most creative and imaginative men in history either first had a vision or a desire to find some solution or truth. Only then does he start working out things in his conscious mind by first letting them incubate in the back of his mind. He does not try to work things out with models or by constantly dwelling on each problem. Instead he worked through all of the things about what it was he wanted to do in his conscious and unconscious thoughts until he conceptually arrived at his solution or felt one was forthcoming. Until he felt he was about to arrive at the solution he remained clueless except that he optimistically felt he knew in his unconscious that he had the answer even though it was still in his unconscious mind.
It was at this precise point he had that Ah-ha moment. An image that was spurred by something seemingly unrelated gave him the ability to make the connection between his conscious mind where he remained puzzled to his unconscious mind where he had achieved the resolution.
Such is the relationship between daydreaming and productive thought. There must be Hypersensitivity & Creativity... Imagination & Visualization for positive results.
I would like to bring attention to one man’s quest to insure that Tesla received credit for his place in the scientific world and his website: http://www.ntesla.org/index.php
John W. Wagner - teacher, author
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/09/2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Somewhere out there...
First I will divide by zero. It is making the impossible possible that really intrigues me.
Is this what happens when you divide by zero?
What are Dimensions? Although this guy is a little out there in more than one way, I would recommend viewing the entire ten minutes of this video… even if you have to lather, rinse and repeat a few times until you can catch the drift. This barely touches the surface of what I have been talking about and how even Einstein had to create imaginary numbers that defied our thinking in mathematics for some of the great discoveries of our age to occur.
Order will always emerge from chaos. I am not so sure it is not the other way around or that they are not the same thing just different parts of the same continuum. Some day I may be able to define how beginning and end are the same and now is only a point on the wave.
Silence cannot exist without sound as real cannot exist without imaginary.
I will talk to my imaginary friends while DakotaDawg goes up to the fence and tries to talk to that little puppy that has been crying in its kennel for days. I tried to talk to its owner but he tried to explain away his insensitivity. He called it training. :rolleyes:
I am hoping for tonite for there to be a little more of the silent end of the continuum. Now would be a good point in time.
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/08/2010
Is this what happens when you divide by zero?
What are Dimensions? Although this guy is a little out there in more than one way, I would recommend viewing the entire ten minutes of this video… even if you have to lather, rinse and repeat a few times until you can catch the drift. This barely touches the surface of what I have been talking about and how even Einstein had to create imaginary numbers that defied our thinking in mathematics for some of the great discoveries of our age to occur.
Order will always emerge from chaos. I am not so sure it is not the other way around or that they are not the same thing just different parts of the same continuum. Some day I may be able to define how beginning and end are the same and now is only a point on the wave.
Silence cannot exist without sound as real cannot exist without imaginary.
I will talk to my imaginary friends while DakotaDawg goes up to the fence and tries to talk to that little puppy that has been crying in its kennel for days. I tried to talk to its owner but he tried to explain away his insensitivity. He called it training. :rolleyes:
I am hoping for tonite for there to be a little more of the silent end of the continuum. Now would be a good point in time.
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/08/2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Wat’s Going On?
.
Got to wonder. I am trying to keep from getting confused over all the baggage that is added daily.
I am taking a few deep breaths to see what is highest priority, for today at least. It is so easy to just go with the flow and take things one at a time, normally not the way life is dealt.
Today it is working through an operation for my sister in law. My brother is in a bit of a tail spin, grasping fully the consequences and what they mean as they relate to his and his children’s past and future.
Some little things are not as imperative as they seemed. It is those small things though that stay in our memory to take us back to what really is important. Sometimes it is only one line from an entire song that we need to remind us most of the greater meaning... not always the one intended.
“Oh, you know we've got to find a way to bring some understanding here today.”
Gotta wonder What's Goin' on.
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/07/2010
Got to wonder. I am trying to keep from getting confused over all the baggage that is added daily.
I am taking a few deep breaths to see what is highest priority, for today at least. It is so easy to just go with the flow and take things one at a time, normally not the way life is dealt.
Today it is working through an operation for my sister in law. My brother is in a bit of a tail spin, grasping fully the consequences and what they mean as they relate to his and his children’s past and future.
Some little things are not as imperative as they seemed. It is those small things though that stay in our memory to take us back to what really is important. Sometimes it is only one line from an entire song that we need to remind us most of the greater meaning... not always the one intended.
“Oh, you know we've got to find a way to bring some understanding here today.”
Gotta wonder What's Goin' on.
© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/07/2010
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