This week the District of Columbia's City Council made medical marijuana legal. As I read the article, I was stuck by the sad irony of my congresswoman going to DC, to "serve" Tennesseans, with employees who are under the influence of marijuana, attending social functions with people who use medical marijuana, eating dinner with them, and possibly even being with them in the same room, while they blaze up their medicine... meanwhile, back home, their constituents are being arrested, imprisoned, beat, shot, killed, economically ruined and raped, and marked for a life of substandard employment, for smoking marijuana.
The deepness, and injustice of this irony is just beyond sad.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
Modifications to my Family Tree
So, I'm sitting here reading the latest on Physorg.com (nerd news without much bias). They're decoding the Neanderthal genome from ancient bone samples, and it appears there may have been some succesful inter-species hanky-panky goin on... various populations in the near east and europe seem to have from 1 to 4% of their DNA in common with what were once thought to be a distant relative that could never be related to us...
But, if we think about it for a moment. Humans being what we are, and doing what we do. What would have happened if we ran into a culture that was less advanced than ours? History is pretty clear really. We'd "trade" with them and give them stuff that is worthless in our culture, but rare beyond wonder in theirs. We'd take their land and resources, enslave them, and as some livestock to this very moment could testify if they could talk, ancient humans would have used neanderthals as sex slaves. I mean, we all know what ppl do with their critters even today! Let's be serious for a moment. No matter how unattractive they may have been, the DNA materials would have encountered one another, and if they were capable of combining, they would.
Uglier, prettier, stronger, weaker? Smarter?
Perhaps the offspring were sterile?
Perhaps they rarely survived birth?
Perhaps they were revered and treated like nobility?
Killed on sight elsewhere?
Who knows, but the possibilities are endless and it makes one look at certain portions of Genesis from a different light, if you look at the book metaphorically instead of as seeing it as a historical document. Suddenly Lot's fear of being killed by whoever found him, when there were supposed to only be 4 people so far, and he killed one, leaving just his mom and dad.... and then he "met his wife and knew her"....
I don't know, but I do know this. I'm real curious to see what happens when they actually begin to understand mankind's actual DNA-printed family tree. I can't help but wonder if maybe the different races of mankind, are the differences left when colony of humans met a "lesser species", and absorbed it into their own genetic pool?
But, if we think about it for a moment. Humans being what we are, and doing what we do. What would have happened if we ran into a culture that was less advanced than ours? History is pretty clear really. We'd "trade" with them and give them stuff that is worthless in our culture, but rare beyond wonder in theirs. We'd take their land and resources, enslave them, and as some livestock to this very moment could testify if they could talk, ancient humans would have used neanderthals as sex slaves. I mean, we all know what ppl do with their critters even today! Let's be serious for a moment. No matter how unattractive they may have been, the DNA materials would have encountered one another, and if they were capable of combining, they would.
Uglier, prettier, stronger, weaker? Smarter?
Perhaps the offspring were sterile?
Perhaps they rarely survived birth?
Perhaps they were revered and treated like nobility?
Killed on sight elsewhere?
Who knows, but the possibilities are endless and it makes one look at certain portions of Genesis from a different light, if you look at the book metaphorically instead of as seeing it as a historical document. Suddenly Lot's fear of being killed by whoever found him, when there were supposed to only be 4 people so far, and he killed one, leaving just his mom and dad.... and then he "met his wife and knew her"....
I don't know, but I do know this. I'm real curious to see what happens when they actually begin to understand mankind's actual DNA-printed family tree. I can't help but wonder if maybe the different races of mankind, are the differences left when colony of humans met a "lesser species", and absorbed it into their own genetic pool?
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Why do we say mean things to people we love?
i think the reason we do these hurtful things is rather biological. I do not intend to step on anyone's religious toes, but have embrace evolution theory, and it just meant I had to roll back the clock as to when the universe began, not who created it.... that said, and roll with it, pretend the theory of an 4 billion year old earth could exist... (an attempt to dodge theological debate entirely)
We're primates All social primates are obsessed with their social position in the troupe. It is important to us for the rest of the troupe to respect us, etc.
as I understand it, we are programmed for love at a level so deep in the ancient core of our mammal brain that it is a mystical and thrilling experience. It's better than drugs when it's good.
But it is indeed like a drug. It will distract you from reality. It will make you blind to the truth. It can alienate you from your true friends. And it can lock on to the worst possible potential mate and for all the wrong reasons.
I say be very careful who you uncap the love potion with and take a drink, because it has a 6month plus withdrawal period, and some members of our species are like those birds that mate for life, once our love program locks on to one person, it never lets go (conversely, some people can brazenly change partners at the drop of their pants!)
We're primates All social primates are obsessed with their social position in the troupe. It is important to us for the rest of the troupe to respect us, etc.
as I understand it, we are programmed for love at a level so deep in the ancient core of our mammal brain that it is a mystical and thrilling experience. It's better than drugs when it's good.
But it is indeed like a drug. It will distract you from reality. It will make you blind to the truth. It can alienate you from your true friends. And it can lock on to the worst possible potential mate and for all the wrong reasons.
I say be very careful who you uncap the love potion with and take a drink, because it has a 6month plus withdrawal period, and some members of our species are like those birds that mate for life, once our love program locks on to one person, it never lets go (conversely, some people can brazenly change partners at the drop of their pants!)
Funny how people are
I do heat and air conditioning work for a living. It's not for everyone, I can tell you that. I probably wouldn't do it if I weren't brain damaged! I often find myself crawling under a mobile home on the lookout for brown recluses, black widows, snakes of various varieties, raccoons, armadillos, possums, cats dogs, all those types of poo and anything people consume or excrete as well.
Mike Rowe's got nothin on me.
Anyway, we install air conditioners in pre-existing houses and new construction as well, and service them. Our demographic ranges from millionaires to nearly indigent people that my honorable to a fault boss often takes a loss on his bill trying not to make them worse off than when we arrived for the bill. He runs such a tight ship that he hasn't made more than 25K in a year since I've known him, and he does $250,000 in business on most of those years. He's a good man. Our nation would be a better place if they had half his sense of honor.
It's funny how a millionaire will build a fence to hide his new air conditioner, and the pensioner's gather around theirs and brag on their neighbor's new units. It's odd how the people who "live like animals" will pay you in cash and you want to cut them a break, and how the millionaires complain for the same bill and pay by check, late.
It's funny to me how few people know how an air conditioner works! It's a magic box in the back yard that they either do not want the neighbors to know they have, or it can be a prized possession.
It's funny to me how people who are "educated" and earn ten times an hour what an air conditioner tech makes, and then piss and moan when you hand them a bill or fixing their air conditioner that is less than they earn in a day. (the parts really are very expensive, the "wholesalers" charge outrageous margins on made in china parts. If you live in a big city, and your fan capacitor burns out, the capacior costs less than 6 dollars. But it's made in china, for probably $.05 each, and then shipped around the world and sold or 10,000% markups, with three times the failure rate of a US made GE capacitor. If your computer circuit board goes out you'll pay $300 for something that could be made out of stuff from radio shack, by mexicans who earn a quarter an hour and probably costs $10 to manufacture and ship to the wholesaler. It's marked up $290, and then the technician has to add on the customary 30% plus the service charge and the labor..... and who does the work, I mean the real work. The people who's hands actually touch the product. The people earning the 10,000% markups have manicured hands and mansions, and the rest of us get thumpped a crumb.
Funny how people who don't get their hands dirty, spend 99% of their entire lives inside an air conditioned space earning $100 of dollars an hour, expect the guy outside sweating to repair their air conditioner to work for minimum wage... and hurry up because it's up to 80% inside.
Funny which of those two groups are the "celebrated" ones.
I take my hat off to the guy who picks up my garbage every Tuesday and Thursday!
"And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."
I take my hat off to the garbage man. He has moved a mountain. From my front yard, one garbage can at a time.
But I have to pay the Doctor $1500 to put 5 stitches in my finger?
Mike Rowe's got nothin on me.
Anyway, we install air conditioners in pre-existing houses and new construction as well, and service them. Our demographic ranges from millionaires to nearly indigent people that my honorable to a fault boss often takes a loss on his bill trying not to make them worse off than when we arrived for the bill. He runs such a tight ship that he hasn't made more than 25K in a year since I've known him, and he does $250,000 in business on most of those years. He's a good man. Our nation would be a better place if they had half his sense of honor.
It's funny how a millionaire will build a fence to hide his new air conditioner, and the pensioner's gather around theirs and brag on their neighbor's new units. It's odd how the people who "live like animals" will pay you in cash and you want to cut them a break, and how the millionaires complain for the same bill and pay by check, late.
It's funny to me how few people know how an air conditioner works! It's a magic box in the back yard that they either do not want the neighbors to know they have, or it can be a prized possession.
It's funny to me how people who are "educated" and earn ten times an hour what an air conditioner tech makes, and then piss and moan when you hand them a bill or fixing their air conditioner that is less than they earn in a day. (the parts really are very expensive, the "wholesalers" charge outrageous margins on made in china parts. If you live in a big city, and your fan capacitor burns out, the capacior costs less than 6 dollars. But it's made in china, for probably $.05 each, and then shipped around the world and sold or 10,000% markups, with three times the failure rate of a US made GE capacitor. If your computer circuit board goes out you'll pay $300 for something that could be made out of stuff from radio shack, by mexicans who earn a quarter an hour and probably costs $10 to manufacture and ship to the wholesaler. It's marked up $290, and then the technician has to add on the customary 30% plus the service charge and the labor..... and who does the work, I mean the real work. The people who's hands actually touch the product. The people earning the 10,000% markups have manicured hands and mansions, and the rest of us get thumpped a crumb.
Funny how people who don't get their hands dirty, spend 99% of their entire lives inside an air conditioned space earning $100 of dollars an hour, expect the guy outside sweating to repair their air conditioner to work for minimum wage... and hurry up because it's up to 80% inside.
Funny which of those two groups are the "celebrated" ones.
I take my hat off to the guy who picks up my garbage every Tuesday and Thursday!
"And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."
I take my hat off to the garbage man. He has moved a mountain. From my front yard, one garbage can at a time.
But I have to pay the Doctor $1500 to put 5 stitches in my finger?
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Love at First Sight Pt., 2
To say that this is because of "what one woman has done to me" seems to me that the whole point of the post was missed... as I thought about it, it turned from a short reply to another post.... surprise!
I simply cannot see how my post would leave you to believe that I think they will always end badly I think you're reading more to it than I intended.
I've not arrived at this understanding of love merely over one failed relationship. I've observed literally hundreds and only know of a few that have worked. I've read multiple books, listened to audio books out the wazoo... and since my work seldom demands all of my attention, I've literally puzzled on this very thing for 1000's of hours!
I believe romantic love is a wonderful thing, in moderation and without obsession. My understanding of its "mechanics" does not lessen my appreciation of a successful partnership! It certainly doesn't make me disbelieve in Love. I may as well claim to not believe in the internet. Love really is nearly mechanical, regardless of what sort of "magic box" or fairy tale definition one chooses to explain it. It has measurable elements and predictable results from given inputs. I just see as amazing what others insist to be wonderful. Two different words with different meanings that are very nearly the same.
A roller coaster is no less thrilling to ride for the engineer that designed or the workmen that built it than any given passenger.
My understanding of how my car's mechanical components and they interact doesn't cheapen or render my appreciation of my driving experience "less meaningful". On the contrary, my understanding of these things gives me confidence in it's performance ability, and what dangers to avoid due to it's limitations! It also makes me more attentive and understanding to the symptoms of improper function. Imagine how useful this would be in correlation to your own mind and behaviors!
So many people who are "religious" or "spiritual" wonder about the meaning of life, or "why am I here" and my biological, robotic understanding of human life makes this question extremely simple to answer.
Since I have no confusions about mysterious after-lifes, or reincarnations, I have only the present and a finite future to worry about. Why am I here? Simple. I am a father. I have two children. Right now the reason I am here it to take care of them and lay the mental foundations and educations to make them content, mentally balanced adults and productive members of the planet. All other things are of secondary importance, unless they may jeopardize that goal, of course. When I get done, or by chance along the way, should love cross my path again, as a result of this failed relationship and my intense study of it, I will be more likely to identify a mismatch before heartbreak ensues. I will certainly be more appreciative of the right person than I would If I had no appreciation for the incredible odds that have been overcome! etc.
I mean, since I am really just another animal. If I were, say a bird and I found myself in a bad relationship with eggs in my nest, what would I do?
I put it to you that a definition of one's self that is predictable and mechanical in nature is not less magical than one involving a divine creation, or some frilly wispy spirit with loftier destinations. Sentient beings auto assembled from scratch, from the very dust of the earth.... that's beyond magical. It's astronomically dumbfounding! To me it is, just contemplating the odds is a religious experience for me.
I do not disbelieve in the existence of Love. I understand it and its pitfalls and powers. When it comes my way, I'm going to most certainly buckle my seat belt and keep my hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times... but it sure is gonna be fun!
I simply cannot see how my post would leave you to believe that I think they will always end badly I think you're reading more to it than I intended.
I've not arrived at this understanding of love merely over one failed relationship. I've observed literally hundreds and only know of a few that have worked. I've read multiple books, listened to audio books out the wazoo... and since my work seldom demands all of my attention, I've literally puzzled on this very thing for 1000's of hours!
I believe romantic love is a wonderful thing, in moderation and without obsession. My understanding of its "mechanics" does not lessen my appreciation of a successful partnership! It certainly doesn't make me disbelieve in Love. I may as well claim to not believe in the internet. Love really is nearly mechanical, regardless of what sort of "magic box" or fairy tale definition one chooses to explain it. It has measurable elements and predictable results from given inputs. I just see as amazing what others insist to be wonderful. Two different words with different meanings that are very nearly the same.
A roller coaster is no less thrilling to ride for the engineer that designed or the workmen that built it than any given passenger.
My understanding of how my car's mechanical components and they interact doesn't cheapen or render my appreciation of my driving experience "less meaningful". On the contrary, my understanding of these things gives me confidence in it's performance ability, and what dangers to avoid due to it's limitations! It also makes me more attentive and understanding to the symptoms of improper function. Imagine how useful this would be in correlation to your own mind and behaviors!
So many people who are "religious" or "spiritual" wonder about the meaning of life, or "why am I here" and my biological, robotic understanding of human life makes this question extremely simple to answer.
Since I have no confusions about mysterious after-lifes, or reincarnations, I have only the present and a finite future to worry about. Why am I here? Simple. I am a father. I have two children. Right now the reason I am here it to take care of them and lay the mental foundations and educations to make them content, mentally balanced adults and productive members of the planet. All other things are of secondary importance, unless they may jeopardize that goal, of course. When I get done, or by chance along the way, should love cross my path again, as a result of this failed relationship and my intense study of it, I will be more likely to identify a mismatch before heartbreak ensues. I will certainly be more appreciative of the right person than I would If I had no appreciation for the incredible odds that have been overcome! etc.
I mean, since I am really just another animal. If I were, say a bird and I found myself in a bad relationship with eggs in my nest, what would I do?
I put it to you that a definition of one's self that is predictable and mechanical in nature is not less magical than one involving a divine creation, or some frilly wispy spirit with loftier destinations. Sentient beings auto assembled from scratch, from the very dust of the earth.... that's beyond magical. It's astronomically dumbfounding! To me it is, just contemplating the odds is a religious experience for me.
I do not disbelieve in the existence of Love. I understand it and its pitfalls and powers. When it comes my way, I'm going to most certainly buckle my seat belt and keep my hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times... but it sure is gonna be fun!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Lawn Darts and I, 1971 or 1972.
It was hot, so like any other Panama City Trailerpark boy, I was in cutoffs and dirty white converse sneakers. The kid on the other side of the ditch was buzz-cut and bronze colored just like me, only barefoot, his parents were poor. We were tossing a pair of Jarts over the low-hanging power-lines which ran parallel to the dolomite road and his trailer house. White and Blue. It was deep summer and everything was emerald green, so there must have been a recent rain, as it would have been dusty otherwise.
A short fence ran below the power lines and there was a shallow ditch just in front of the fence. I stood on the roadside, in the crushed dolomite, because I had shoes and he didn't. He is looking up, with his right hand high and quick as lightening at just the right moment, he snatches the jart right out of the air. Grinning like he'd won a gold medal, he watched me sail the second one up, and wham, another perfect performance!...
We'd been at this for a while now, because apparently he'd gotten bored with the agreed upon rules of throw-catch-confirm-ready-throw-catch - Brag on each other - - repeat
I snatched the first one out of the air like a pro, proud of another fine catch. I look over the short fence,. I think he was a year older than me, I looked up to him a little, and ... well my memories aren't very clear before this memory, and after wards it took a while I think before everything got back into a harmonious system. I have vague notions that his family life was horrible. I witnessed a ... well I saw him and another boy doing things boys weren't supposed to, and even then, when they got old enough it was supposed to be with a girl! And that paragraph is destined for another story.
But I look over the fence, and little bronzed trailer park boy has a grin from ear to ear, but no Jart. And then two things happened at once, and my exact perception of time isn't that great for that moment, but my primary memory is of how cartoon like he looked. His eyes suddenly got double their size, his hands began to fly up to his mouth and he tried to say something. Something hit me in the head. And then He just drained of all color. He literally went from bronze boy to what my redneck brain could only think of as (no offense) a yankee! It was like the color fell out of him, through his feet. Something was ran down my nose, and dripped off my nose and into my right shoe. It was red, and more of it fell all around my foot as I was looking at my foot. Then, my head kinda wiggled, and the jart landed on the ground at my feet.
About then, the A+B=C of it all hit me and I ran and I screamed all the way home. It as a fair run for a 6yr old, I'd say just over a quarter mile. In the kitchen door, I didn't want to bleed on the carpet, that was a standing rule, no bleeding on the carpet, or else.
"Moooooooooommmmmm!"
She is in the kitchen leaned up against the counter with the kind of dramatic lean that only a red-headed trailer park wife of the trailer sales lot of Cedar Grove, Florida can have. Smoking another link in her chain... and watching All My Children, ironically. And she turns disgustedly from the TV, as I expected, but then she had a whole body spasm and looked momentarily shocked. And then busted loose with the standard string of words in trailer parks to this day, "What the hell's wrong with you, quit that crying, what are you a wimp or something" And that is very close to a quote, because I've heard that part of the story at more than one get together. From her. It's a family tale. :)
And I stopped crying, because I knew one thing for damn sure, I was no wimp. And she cleaned it up with some peroxide, and I don't think a doctor was even considered right away, because I don't really remember well at all for a long time after that.
there's the memory of my parents being physically violent, that stuck out. We moved shortly thereafter, to Crystal River and they were divorced shortly after that...
I'll get down to the last bit. I get curious tonight and I hit wikipidia and start feeling the scar and imagining the angle of entry, and I narrow it down to the portion of the brain that is responsible for Self Awareness.
Self-awareness is the awareness of the self as separate from the thoughts that are occurring at any point in time. Without self awareness the self perceives and believes the thoughts that are occurring to be who the self is. Self awareness gives one the option or choice to choose thoughts being thought rather than simply thinking the thoughts that are stimulated from the accumulative events leading up to the circumstances of the moment.
I got really lucky though, I'm guessing that the Jart had to enter the skull at a depth of an inch or so, just to have enough stuff there to hold it upright, and it fell out on it's own accord so it didn't get me as deep as the boy in the video, and it was miraculously well centered so that the point of intrusion likely swept between the hemispheres and cause only surface damage.
I almost have a headache suddenly. But I'm glad I found this out because it sure explains alot! I've got an excuse for being an insufferable know it all with the bad habit of saying things that probably shouldn't be said, and in a calm rational manner. I'm just trying to help!
A short fence ran below the power lines and there was a shallow ditch just in front of the fence. I stood on the roadside, in the crushed dolomite, because I had shoes and he didn't. He is looking up, with his right hand high and quick as lightening at just the right moment, he snatches the jart right out of the air. Grinning like he'd won a gold medal, he watched me sail the second one up, and wham, another perfect performance!...
We'd been at this for a while now, because apparently he'd gotten bored with the agreed upon rules of throw-catch-confirm-ready-throw-catch - Brag on each other - - repeat
I snatched the first one out of the air like a pro, proud of another fine catch. I look over the short fence,. I think he was a year older than me, I looked up to him a little, and ... well my memories aren't very clear before this memory, and after wards it took a while I think before everything got back into a harmonious system. I have vague notions that his family life was horrible. I witnessed a ... well I saw him and another boy doing things boys weren't supposed to, and even then, when they got old enough it was supposed to be with a girl! And that paragraph is destined for another story.
But I look over the fence, and little bronzed trailer park boy has a grin from ear to ear, but no Jart. And then two things happened at once, and my exact perception of time isn't that great for that moment, but my primary memory is of how cartoon like he looked. His eyes suddenly got double their size, his hands began to fly up to his mouth and he tried to say something. Something hit me in the head. And then He just drained of all color. He literally went from bronze boy to what my redneck brain could only think of as (no offense) a yankee! It was like the color fell out of him, through his feet. Something was ran down my nose, and dripped off my nose and into my right shoe. It was red, and more of it fell all around my foot as I was looking at my foot. Then, my head kinda wiggled, and the jart landed on the ground at my feet.
About then, the A+B=C of it all hit me and I ran and I screamed all the way home. It as a fair run for a 6yr old, I'd say just over a quarter mile. In the kitchen door, I didn't want to bleed on the carpet, that was a standing rule, no bleeding on the carpet, or else.
"Moooooooooommmmmm!"
She is in the kitchen leaned up against the counter with the kind of dramatic lean that only a red-headed trailer park wife of the trailer sales lot of Cedar Grove, Florida can have. Smoking another link in her chain... and watching All My Children, ironically. And she turns disgustedly from the TV, as I expected, but then she had a whole body spasm and looked momentarily shocked. And then busted loose with the standard string of words in trailer parks to this day, "What the hell's wrong with you, quit that crying, what are you a wimp or something" And that is very close to a quote, because I've heard that part of the story at more than one get together. From her. It's a family tale. :)
And I stopped crying, because I knew one thing for damn sure, I was no wimp. And she cleaned it up with some peroxide, and I don't think a doctor was even considered right away, because I don't really remember well at all for a long time after that.
there's the memory of my parents being physically violent, that stuck out. We moved shortly thereafter, to Crystal River and they were divorced shortly after that...
I'll get down to the last bit. I get curious tonight and I hit wikipidia and start feeling the scar and imagining the angle of entry, and I narrow it down to the portion of the brain that is responsible for Self Awareness.
Self-awareness is the awareness of the self as separate from the thoughts that are occurring at any point in time. Without self awareness the self perceives and believes the thoughts that are occurring to be who the self is. Self awareness gives one the option or choice to choose thoughts being thought rather than simply thinking the thoughts that are stimulated from the accumulative events leading up to the circumstances of the moment.
I got really lucky though, I'm guessing that the Jart had to enter the skull at a depth of an inch or so, just to have enough stuff there to hold it upright, and it fell out on it's own accord so it didn't get me as deep as the boy in the video, and it was miraculously well centered so that the point of intrusion likely swept between the hemispheres and cause only surface damage.
I almost have a headache suddenly. But I'm glad I found this out because it sure explains alot! I've got an excuse for being an insufferable know it all with the bad habit of saying things that probably shouldn't be said, and in a calm rational manner. I'm just trying to help!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
“About me” A thought provoking notion
I loaded up Barbed Wire Monkey this morning to write a post, and I realized, My personal information was rather bare. I scanned down the list, wondering why I hadn’t filled any out yet, and how long it may take to complete, I’ve got other things I’d like to finish today… etc. And my “right brain” as I call it, seemed to have been amused by the About Me section. I’ve come to think that our brains are more than just two hemispheres of some miracle organ, so much as a beautiful example of evolution at it’s finest failures. It’s a long, convoluted story that I’ll get to at another date. I am going to give you a long paragraph (those who know me won’t be surprised), about my mind theory, as it is very pertinent.
I read a science story about a frog mutation that was usually fatal, I didn’t remember at the time, but Mr. Soluri, my highschool biology teacher taught me in 1983, amphibians have two-chambered hearts. They are limited in size, endurance and a vast number of other ways that humans are not, as mammals have an improved design, with four chambers. In much the same way as a 4-stroke engine is preferable to a 2-stroke engine. But this frog mutation resulted in two hearts forming inside the frog, effectively giving them the correct number of chambers, but configured in a fatal way. When I read this, the way my right brain understands genetic mutation and evolution caused me to experience what the Greeks called aporia. It’s where you run out of information and are left speechless. In other words, it’s the new frontier, unsettled land if you will. And an inquisitive mind stands there and begins to construct, where an un-inquisitive mind will turn back, and say “I can’t go there.”
So I stopped for a moment and focused on the particular thing that had caused me this mentally unbalancing pause. Imagine you’re walking, holding hands with someone, and suddenly that person stops walking. Are you the type of person that becomes annoyed, and drags at them, slow down to their pace, and look at them to try to determine what’s up? I felt this way inside my own mind. This time I stopped and investigated.
Well what if one of these four chambered frogs didn’t just mutate in one way that caused the four chambers, but also in such a way that proved, not fatal, but beneficial! The frog could be incapable of breeding with it’s own kind if the mutation was too great, or it might get gobbled up by a fish, but it also, might survive, and mate with another frog, or many frogs who also were prone to the fatal four chambered heart… well now. We’re on to something here. And as I realized that notion, I had another “right brain moment” as I call it, where I’ll get a faint, mental notion or image of something I’ve read, seen, or thought before. And this time it was several facts:
1. Some human birth defects are fatal, one of which is being born without a brain at all, just an empty skull. I don’t mean this in the funny, you’re a dumb-ass way, I mean it in the tragic, you’ve carried a child to full term and are expecting a happy new addition to the family, and a dead baby comes out because, though it is completely functional in every way, there is no impulse to drive it’s organs. It was alive only because it was on autopilot. It’s a great tragedy
2. A human being can be born with only half a brain, and again, I’m being serious here, even though the statement is inherently comical stay serious with me here.
3. A human being can survive losing half their brain, say to cancer, and still have a happy, long life after the loss, only paralyzed on the opposite side of the body missing the brain.
4. A human being having terrible seizures can be saved from certain death by having their brain cut in half, as the seizure is a “noise” “feedback loop” that bounced from one half of the brain, to the other, getting louder until it gets so tired from the effort they fall down, exhausted in the failure. You can imagine this clearly buy thinking of two people, trying to explain something to one another, and getting louder and louder, until they get blue in the face and pass out, or Democrats and Republicans trying to discuss Healthcare.
So, how did we get two halves of our brain, stuffed inside one skull? Think about it people. Real Hard. And as you do, chew on this notion. People who have split brained surgeries develop two, separate personalities, each controlling half the body. In this condition, the right hand literally does not know what the left hand was doing. If I had this problem there would be so many spanked tushes I’d get put in jail trying to go to Wal-Mart.
But my brain is in two pieces still connected, thank you. But I realize there just MAY be another me over there, and maybe he’s smarter than me. (Egad, what if it were a she, over there?)
My belief in this dual-mind causes me to stop when I’m “given pause”, because I realize that I may be missing something very important that my right brain can’t tell me about with words, because ironically enough, the portion of our left brain that generates and orders our thoughts into words and speech, is in all other primates, devoted to accurate memory. Please read this paragraph again, even if you think you got it. I read it five times to make sure I had it right, it’s a really difficult brain pretzel for me, the me on the left that is.
I think my right brain is far wiser than I. And I was given Great Pause over the About Me section…. And this is what I got when I stopped and thought about it a while.
I am an insignificant organism.
I live on the outer crust of a body of space junk whose core is so hot, it may be as hot as the surface of the sun. The stuff surrounding it is melted into a glowing hot mud we call magma. On top of this layer of mud, is a very thin crust of hard stuff, about 20, of the 1800 miles it takes to get to the center. Imagine the skin around your arm being crust.
I live on this skin. My species was once nearly extinct, but now has covered the skin in what I would consider a splotchy, putrid, infectious rash, if the earth’s skin were on my body. I would go see a doctor if I had an infection that did to my skin, what we are doing to the earth.
I’m male, I have offspring, I have a mate and there is great disharmony between us. My extended family is spread far, and in poor communication. I am a primate, who requires close family, and a cohesive community for complete happiness. It is my instinctual, nature to be this way, and as such, I am unhappy much of the time, if I do not specifically remain conscious of how things really are, and not how my nature craves them. (I have to exert mental effort to maintain my happiness, but I am most often successful).
The crust of this planet is surrounded by a very thin layer of air about 500 miles thick. I need this air to survive as it allows my body to combust the food I eat, and continue my life. Beyond this thin layer of air, is the harsh reality of the universe. I am only capable of life in the lowermost section of this layer of air. All in all, with the layer of air and the earth below, all 2300 miles of it, I can only survive in roughly 5 of these 2300 miles. That’s a thin layer only .21% of the whole.
This ball of stuff surrounded by air is spinning at 1000 miles per hour, orbiting around the sun at 65,000 miles per hour and our solar system is orbiting around the galactic center at a speed I can’t find on the internet quickly, and our galaxy is hurtling through space, faster with each passing second, at over 2 million miles per hour.
Add this to the recent scientific discoveries of Dark Matter and Dark Energy. They have just begun to scratch the surface of this, it’s about as well understood now as rocket science was in the 1800’s. And we have routine advanced in rocket science! So far, the majority of the people doing the science on things Dark, tend to believe, all visible matter composes only 15% of what’s out there.
So imagine how it changed people’s idea of the world around them when it became known that the stuff we breathe is actually SOMETHING! That there’s atoms floating around out there, and that’s what we just found out about the “vacuum of space”. We’re essentially floating in Dark Matter where we thought we were hurtling through space!
So what in the hell can I really say “about me” no matter what I say, I’m only going to be 15% sure, and in the big scheme of the universe, I’m so fragile and insignificant, me writing something “about me” is about as relevant as asking a bit of plankton about its neighborhood, what it does to survive and its family tree.
I can only conclude I’m nothing of consequence.
I read a science story about a frog mutation that was usually fatal, I didn’t remember at the time, but Mr. Soluri, my highschool biology teacher taught me in 1983, amphibians have two-chambered hearts. They are limited in size, endurance and a vast number of other ways that humans are not, as mammals have an improved design, with four chambers. In much the same way as a 4-stroke engine is preferable to a 2-stroke engine. But this frog mutation resulted in two hearts forming inside the frog, effectively giving them the correct number of chambers, but configured in a fatal way. When I read this, the way my right brain understands genetic mutation and evolution caused me to experience what the Greeks called aporia. It’s where you run out of information and are left speechless. In other words, it’s the new frontier, unsettled land if you will. And an inquisitive mind stands there and begins to construct, where an un-inquisitive mind will turn back, and say “I can’t go there.”
So I stopped for a moment and focused on the particular thing that had caused me this mentally unbalancing pause. Imagine you’re walking, holding hands with someone, and suddenly that person stops walking. Are you the type of person that becomes annoyed, and drags at them, slow down to their pace, and look at them to try to determine what’s up? I felt this way inside my own mind. This time I stopped and investigated.
Well what if one of these four chambered frogs didn’t just mutate in one way that caused the four chambers, but also in such a way that proved, not fatal, but beneficial! The frog could be incapable of breeding with it’s own kind if the mutation was too great, or it might get gobbled up by a fish, but it also, might survive, and mate with another frog, or many frogs who also were prone to the fatal four chambered heart… well now. We’re on to something here. And as I realized that notion, I had another “right brain moment” as I call it, where I’ll get a faint, mental notion or image of something I’ve read, seen, or thought before. And this time it was several facts:
1. Some human birth defects are fatal, one of which is being born without a brain at all, just an empty skull. I don’t mean this in the funny, you’re a dumb-ass way, I mean it in the tragic, you’ve carried a child to full term and are expecting a happy new addition to the family, and a dead baby comes out because, though it is completely functional in every way, there is no impulse to drive it’s organs. It was alive only because it was on autopilot. It’s a great tragedy
2. A human being can be born with only half a brain, and again, I’m being serious here, even though the statement is inherently comical stay serious with me here.
3. A human being can survive losing half their brain, say to cancer, and still have a happy, long life after the loss, only paralyzed on the opposite side of the body missing the brain.
4. A human being having terrible seizures can be saved from certain death by having their brain cut in half, as the seizure is a “noise” “feedback loop” that bounced from one half of the brain, to the other, getting louder until it gets so tired from the effort they fall down, exhausted in the failure. You can imagine this clearly buy thinking of two people, trying to explain something to one another, and getting louder and louder, until they get blue in the face and pass out, or Democrats and Republicans trying to discuss Healthcare.
So, how did we get two halves of our brain, stuffed inside one skull? Think about it people. Real Hard. And as you do, chew on this notion. People who have split brained surgeries develop two, separate personalities, each controlling half the body. In this condition, the right hand literally does not know what the left hand was doing. If I had this problem there would be so many spanked tushes I’d get put in jail trying to go to Wal-Mart.
But my brain is in two pieces still connected, thank you. But I realize there just MAY be another me over there, and maybe he’s smarter than me. (Egad, what if it were a she, over there?)
My belief in this dual-mind causes me to stop when I’m “given pause”, because I realize that I may be missing something very important that my right brain can’t tell me about with words, because ironically enough, the portion of our left brain that generates and orders our thoughts into words and speech, is in all other primates, devoted to accurate memory. Please read this paragraph again, even if you think you got it. I read it five times to make sure I had it right, it’s a really difficult brain pretzel for me, the me on the left that is.
I think my right brain is far wiser than I. And I was given Great Pause over the About Me section…. And this is what I got when I stopped and thought about it a while.
I am an insignificant organism.
I live on the outer crust of a body of space junk whose core is so hot, it may be as hot as the surface of the sun. The stuff surrounding it is melted into a glowing hot mud we call magma. On top of this layer of mud, is a very thin crust of hard stuff, about 20, of the 1800 miles it takes to get to the center. Imagine the skin around your arm being crust.
I live on this skin. My species was once nearly extinct, but now has covered the skin in what I would consider a splotchy, putrid, infectious rash, if the earth’s skin were on my body. I would go see a doctor if I had an infection that did to my skin, what we are doing to the earth.
I’m male, I have offspring, I have a mate and there is great disharmony between us. My extended family is spread far, and in poor communication. I am a primate, who requires close family, and a cohesive community for complete happiness. It is my instinctual, nature to be this way, and as such, I am unhappy much of the time, if I do not specifically remain conscious of how things really are, and not how my nature craves them. (I have to exert mental effort to maintain my happiness, but I am most often successful).
The crust of this planet is surrounded by a very thin layer of air about 500 miles thick. I need this air to survive as it allows my body to combust the food I eat, and continue my life. Beyond this thin layer of air, is the harsh reality of the universe. I am only capable of life in the lowermost section of this layer of air. All in all, with the layer of air and the earth below, all 2300 miles of it, I can only survive in roughly 5 of these 2300 miles. That’s a thin layer only .21% of the whole.
This ball of stuff surrounded by air is spinning at 1000 miles per hour, orbiting around the sun at 65,000 miles per hour and our solar system is orbiting around the galactic center at a speed I can’t find on the internet quickly, and our galaxy is hurtling through space, faster with each passing second, at over 2 million miles per hour.
Add this to the recent scientific discoveries of Dark Matter and Dark Energy. They have just begun to scratch the surface of this, it’s about as well understood now as rocket science was in the 1800’s. And we have routine advanced in rocket science! So far, the majority of the people doing the science on things Dark, tend to believe, all visible matter composes only 15% of what’s out there.
So imagine how it changed people’s idea of the world around them when it became known that the stuff we breathe is actually SOMETHING! That there’s atoms floating around out there, and that’s what we just found out about the “vacuum of space”. We’re essentially floating in Dark Matter where we thought we were hurtling through space!
So what in the hell can I really say “about me” no matter what I say, I’m only going to be 15% sure, and in the big scheme of the universe, I’m so fragile and insignificant, me writing something “about me” is about as relevant as asking a bit of plankton about its neighborhood, what it does to survive and its family tree.
I can only conclude I’m nothing of consequence.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)