We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
In the name of al-Qaeda, we thank the infidels of the West for removing the largest obstacles in the path to attaining our glorious future World Caliphate, where Allah (Peace Be Upon Him) shall reign supreme forevermore.
Up to this point, our righteous path has been blocked by Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Bashar al-Assad of Syria. Thanks to the combined efforts of America's military, the European Coalition, NATO and America's right-wing bloggers, we have already disposed of three of these obstacles, with only one left to go. Although Iraq was briefly in Western hands, it shall soon be ours once again.
Our special thanks go to sites such as Hot Air and PJ Media, who encouraged us at every step in both Libya and Egypt. Their constant praising of us as "rebels" and "freedom fighters" was especially encouraging to the troops in the field.
A blogger by the name of Walter Russell Mead recently wrote a very important article titled Why Syria Isn’t the Big Story This Week, which a number of bloggers, including Instapundit and Hot Air, linked to.
...to punish a bloodstained government for its use of chemical weapons against its own people.
Yes, that's who did it, Mr. Mead, as Assad's most mortal enemy, the Israeli Mossad, will helpfully corroborate.
He then goes on to describe how, even though the world might be in flames next week and you'll be paying $12 a gallon the week after that, the 'real story' was India's economy.
Again, we thank the West deeply for its support, praise be to Allah.
As for Syria, after our first successful gassing of the citizens (their martyred souls shall rise to Heaven, praise Allah!), the present plan is to wait until the perfunctory bombing begins, then stage another attack, blame it on Assad, then watch the bombing escalate to the point where he must relinquish the kingdom.
Even if the bombing fails to dispose of this tyrant, he will still be tremendously weakened, and we should have control of every city except Damascus within a few years.
Your Editor Dog is back after 12 days without phone, email, internet, TV, or radio. That was a blessing, and put life in perspective - as corny as that may sound. Home is good, work is good, but away is good too. We saw very few Americans, which was different too.
I'll post a few Show 'n Tells of pics when and if I get them organized, with my usual snappy commentary, keen observations, and handy travel tips.
In short, our itinerary was flying non-stop to Milan (Malpensa airport, Italy's largest and busiest), arriving at 7 am local time and picking up our rental car (thanks, Costco international rentals) which they unaccountably and without charge upgraded from an Audi A3 sedan to a Mercedes diesel standard shift wagon which was a comfortable car to drive. The standard was handy for the mountain driving and endless uphill hairpin turns.
We promptly escaped Milano and headed east on A-4 (which is Italy's I-95 - busiest highway in the country) to our excellent B&B about a third of the way up the western shore of Lake Garda, but we had to spend a few hours on the way checking out Bergamo (parked in the town center and took the funicular up to the old city, and had an elegant lunch and a good stroll). Then we proceeded up to our 15th C. B&B farmhouse (Thanks, Karen Brown) in Gardone Riviera for a couple of days on the lake before driving up (the long, scenic route with tunnels, curvy roads, and the large Alpine foothills via Riva del Garda for a brief look-see - lots of quick stops for a caffe or Coke) before getting on the A-22 through Trent and Bolzano to our B&B high on an alpine hill outside Ortesei in the Val Gardena in Italy's Alto Aldige on the Austrian border for a few days of energetic hiking in the Sud Tyrol where nobody speaks Italian but mainly German or Ladin. (Yes, I can write run-on sentences if I need to.) The Val Gardena in the Dolomites is an UNESCO World Heritage site.
After that, we cruised down from the Alps on A-22 to Verona in the Veneto, and spent a few days exploring the old part of the charming city from our elegant old hotel (which was about twelve steps from the Piazza del Erbe) before departing early yesterday morning to drive the A-4 again from Verona to the airport in Milan. Verona has the most beautiful women in the world, in abundance. Juliets, most of them, and they know how to dress - and walk - for maximum impact. Make a note of it, you single fellows. La Bella Figura.
Highest points of our trip:
- Rigoletto in the Arena di Verona, 4th row center. This year was the centennial of Verona's opera season in the huge Roman arena, built to seat 20,000 blood-thirsty citizens of Roman Verona. They request that you dress nicely for the good seats, so we did.
- Hiking above the top of the Seceda funicular in Ortesei, up to 3200 m. where you have to take a breath between each spoken phrase while hiking until you get down a few hundred meters where there is a bit more oxygen.
- Seeing the sort-of Persian, sort-of Klimt, stunning Madonna of the Rose Garden at the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona:
Thanks to Mrs. BD for yet another splendidly-planned joint-birthday adventure.
Here's your Editor, high in the Dolomiti at the tree line. Yes, we hiked our butts off. As usual on our trips, we lose weight from our levels of activity despite very fine dining.
Gwynnie is up in Eastport, Maine and learning about the Old Sow whirlpool. According to Wikipedia, Old Sow is the largest tidal whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere, located off the southwestern shore of Deer Island, New Brunswick, Canada, and Moose Island, the principal island of Eastport, Maine.
According to popular etymology the name "Old Sow" is derived from "pig-like" noises the whirlpool makes when churning; however, a more likely origin is the word "sough" (pronounced "suff"), defined as a "drain," or a "sucking sound." Early settlers to the area may easily have mispronounced "sough," as "sow," due to its similar spelling to other words with "sow-sound" endings, such as "plough."
The whirlpool is caused by local bathymetry and extreme tidal range where waters exchange between Passamaquoddy Bay and the Bay of Fundy, combined with the unusual topography of the location's sea floor at the confluence of the numerous local currents.
Old Sow is one of five significant whirlpools worldwide (Corryvreckan, Scotland; Saltstraumen, Norway; Moskstraumen, Norway; and Naruto, Japan are the others). Although the tidal currents within Western Passage surrounding Old Sow compare with faster whirlpools elsewhere, the speed of Old Sow's vortex is considerably slower than Moskstraumen, the world's most powerful whirlpool.
Tremendous water turbulence occurs locally in the greater Old Sow area, but it does not usually constitute a navigation hazard for motorized vessels with experienced operators at the helm; however, small craft — especially vessels with keels (sailboats) and human-powered vessels — are warned to avoid these waters when the tide is running.
Besides Old Sow and its numerous "piglets" (small and medium whirlpools surrounding Old Sow), other area phenomena include standing waves, upwellings (that on rare occasion may even spout several feet into the air), and 10- to 17-foot-deep or more, non-vortexing depressions in the water.
Robert Godfrey writes in Smithsonian Magazine: “The reasons for the Old Sow are several. To begin with, some 40 billion cubic feet of water floods into Passamaquoddy Bay with each incoming tide and mixes with the countercurrents from the St. Croix River to the north of the bay. There's a 400-foot-deep trench to the southwest of New Brunswick's Deer Island Point that continues as a 327-foot trench to the northwest. Bisecting the trench is a 281-foot undersea mountain. All that water flooding into the bay has to negotiate a right-angle turn to get around Deer Island Point, and then it slams into that undersea mountain. When heavy winds coincide with especially high tides, it becomes liquid chaos and disaster for the unwitting seafarer.”
See also It’ll Thrill Y, It’ll Kill Ya in WIRED Magazine... "Chaos isn't just a theory in the Passamaquoddy Bay. Here in the waters off of Eastport, Maine, lurks the Old Sow, the western hemisphere's biggest whirlpool. She shows up wherever and whenever the spirit and tides move her, occasionally opening her maw suddenly in the form of a madly spinning, 40-foot-deep hole in the ocean, several hundred feet wide. Sometimes she's more subdued, creating a funnel-shaped hole roughly 12 feet wide and 12 feet deep.
That conclusion should be obvious. Roughly 48 percent of our college graduates are in jobs that the require less than a four-year degree, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the future looks worse: growth in the number of graduates in this decade is likely to be nearly three times as great as the projected number of jobs requiring such degrees. Despite incredibly lax standards (the typical full-time student spends about 30 hours a week on academic matters) and rampant grade inflation, well over 40 percent of entering students fail to graduate within six years.
That conclusion should be obvious. Roughly 48 percent of our college graduates
are in jobs that the require less than a four-year degree, according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the future looks worse: growth in the number of
graduates in this decade is likely to be nearly three times as great as the
projected number of jobs requiring such degrees.Despite
incredibly lax standards (the typical
full-time student spends about 30 hours a week on academic matters) and
rampant
grade inflation, well over 40 percent of entering students fail to
graduate
within six years. - See more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/08/too_many_people_are_going_to_c.html#sthash.MdCB3djG.dpuf
That conclusion should be obvious. Roughly 48 percent of our college graduates
are in jobs that the require less than a four-year degree, according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the future looks worse: growth in the number of
graduates in this decade is likely to be nearly three times as great as the
projected number of jobs requiring such degrees.Despite
incredibly lax standards (the typical
full-time student spends about 30 hours a week on academic matters) and
rampant
grade inflation, well over 40 percent of entering students fail to
graduate
within six years. - See more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/08/too_many_people_are_going_to_c.html#sthash.MdCB3djG.dpuf
That conclusion should be obvious. Roughly 48 percent of our college graduates
are in jobs that the require less than a four-year degree, according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the future looks worse: growth in the number of
graduates in this decade is likely to be nearly three times as great as the
projected number of jobs requiring such degrees.Despite
incredibly lax standards (the typical
full-time student spends about 30 hours a week on academic matters) and
rampant
grade inflation, well over 40 percent of entering students fail to
graduate
within six years. - See more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/08/too_many_people_are_going_to_c.html#sthash.MdCB3djG.dpuf
Shopping for electronics at Best Buy already feels like some kind of hidden camera prank, with staff who never want to help and rarely know a thing about the gear they're selling. But an artist who refers to himself as Plastic Jesus took things one step further by secretly stocking Best Buy displays in LA with a useless plastic box complete with a description of the non-existent product.
And then there's the "useless" empty plastic 'Project Box' from Radio Shack, just waiting to be stuffed with batteries and switches and relays and all kinds of fun electronic goodies:
Best of all, compared to the Best Buy price, the $14.99 Radio Shack wants is a steal!
Knowing the full-truth that unites the human race, and not teaching all is deathly guilt, learned carpenter Jesus from Mason Rabbi Hillel! But Marx, innocent grandson of 2 rabbies, learned only half truth! As Mao wrote in Redbook 51: Marxist-Communism, once in power, is utterly unworkable, has less value then cowdung. Its power is the gun! What an apology we Rabbis owe Israel, Marx, Mao, all mankind, for not teaching Astronomy's great All-One-God-Faith, that with just 6 words eternally unites the human race! As teaches African-shepherd Astronomer Israel for 6000 years, LISTEN CHILDREN ETERNAL FATHER ETERNALLY ONE! For on God's Spaceship Earth, with Bomb and Gun, we are All-One or none! All-One! All-One! All-One! Exceptions eternally? Absolute none!
Got that? It's deep and makes good sense (if you are on an acid trip).
It's the hippy soap, Dr. Bronner's. It's organic, whatever that means. When I saw the bottle, I remembered this stuff. Knew a hippy-styled girl in college who used it.
On the top of Maggie's Farm, we seem to reject being subject to the efforts of do-gooders. Is the road to hell paved with good intentions? Do-gooders always seem to either want my money, or want to control me.
In just eight dense pages, Prof. Oakley covers a lot of ground and goes far beyond the Law of Unintended Consequences. She touches on psychology, science, medicine, philosophy, and politics. It's a remarkable paper which indeed pulls enough threads together to represent a potential paradigm shift. One quote:
The bottom line is that the heartfelt, emotional basis of our good intentions can mislead us about what is truly helpful for others. Altruistic intentions must be run through the sieve of rational analysis; all too often, the best long-term action to help others, at both personal and public scales, is not immediately or intuitively obvious, not what temporarily makes us feel good, and not what is being promoted by other individuals, with their own potentially self-serving interests.
Indeed, truly altruistic actions may some-times appear cruel or harmful, the equivalent of saying no to the student who demands a higher grade or to the addict who needs another hit. However, the social consequences of appearing cruel in a culture that places high value on kindness, empathy, and altruism can lead us to misplaced "helpful" behavior and result in self-deception regarding the consequences of our actions.
THE IDEA THAT VIOLENCE in human society has decreased over time invites scepticism, incredulity and sometimes anger. It hasn’t been a smooth decline – and it isn’t guaranteed to continue – but it is a persistent historical development, visible on scales from millennia to years, from the waging of wars to the spanking of children. The human mind predisposes us to believe that we live in violent times – especially when stoked by news media that follows the watchwords: “If it bleeds, it leads.” We tend to estimate the probability of an event based on the ease with which we can recall examples, and scenes of carnage are more likely to be beamed into our homes and burned into our memories than footage of people dying of old age.
No matter how small the percentage of violent deaths may be, in absolute numbers there will always be enough to fill the evening news. This disconnects our impressions of violence from actual proportions. Also, distorting our sense of danger is part of our moral psychology: no one has ever recruited activists to a cause by announcing that the world’s becoming a better place.
One purpose of The Moral Sense was, as Wilson put it, “to help people recover the confidence with which they once spoke about virtue and morality.” The other goal was to trace the origins of human morality. Summoning an array of anthropological evidence, Wilson elaborated on the idea that our moral sense is innate, acquired not through learning but through evolution. These sentiments do not spring to life fully formed; instead, they are cultivated within family and society. Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson had advanced the idea of inborn moral affinity but Wilson enlarged upon it, proposing that the moral sense rested upon four foundational pillars: sympathy, fairness, self-control, and duty.
We haven't discussed computer security in a while, so let's hop through a few things.
As for an anti-malware program, I'm still a fan of the Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite, although it appears from a few reviews I read the other day that there are a number of quality programs out there these days, so there doesn't really appear to be a 'best'.
As for the freebie programs, like AVG and Avast, I'd be worried that it'd turn into a case of 'you get what you pay for'. As far as I can tell, while they get high marks for anti-malware prevention, they don't monitor browser activity in real-time. It should be noted that hackers are so smart these days that you don't actually have to click on a box to get infected. Just visiting the site will do it. So, real-time browser monitoring seems important. Using a freebie also raises the question, if you aren't going to spend computer money on a quality anti-malware program, just what are you going to spend it on?
The biggest problem with the new wave of 'smart' viruses is that, should they manage to slip by your present program and infect your system, they won't allow any other anti-malware programs to be installed. I've seen two computers with the problem in the last few years, both not allowing either Zone Alarm or Norton Anti-Virus to be installed.
For that problem, it appears the best program out there at the moment is Malwarebytes, which should install and hopefully find that bad boy. It's only hitch is that it deems every non-officially-sanctioned program a threat, including patches and 'keygen' programs, so be careful that it doesn't remove anything legitimate. It's not a real-time anti-malware program, just a file scanner.
When it comes to browsing, Rule #1 is that you never, ever click on a pop-out box on a web site unless you're 1,000% sure it's legitimate. I was on Fark.com the other day and one of those "Your system might be infected! Click HERE to get a FREE SCAN of your system!" boxes popped up when I went to the 'Video' section. Now, maybe it was an earnest attempt to keep my system as clean as possible and Fark was only thinking of bettering humanity — or the whole site's run by a bunch of doofuses and some hacker snuck in overnight.
The two most common 'messages' in the boxes these days are the "Might be infected!" variety and either a Flash or Java 'You need to update!' box. Avoid both at all costs.
On the subject, here's a question for you. Let's say you're a clever hacker and you put two buttons on the box, "OK" and "CANCEL". Wouldn't you make them both install your nastyware on their systems?
Now what about that little 'close' box on the upper-right of the box? If you were a clever hacker, wouldn't you make that also do the dirty deed?
When that box popped up on Fark the other day, I immediately hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete, opened Task Manager, right-clicked on the browser's entry on the first panel and selected 'End Task'. That closed down both the browser and the 'warning' box without clicking anything on the site. That's the proper way to avoid such intrusions.
Ah, modern green technology. Here, those clever Brits have built a 'green' building that not only houses tenants, but also replaces your electricity-hungry stove by providing its own hot plates for your cooking convenience!
As far as the old-style rationalists were concerned, any desire to ritualise death and remember the dead was a sign of a failure of nerve, and an inability to grow out of religious indoctrination – especially all that Christian stuff about personal survival, arraignment before a divine judge and consignment to heaven or hell. But in fact Christianity does not speak with one voice when it comes to death and dying. In the gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus issued a severe reprimand to a disciple who wanted to give his father a proper funeral: get back to work at once, he said, and “let the dead bury their dead.” The rebuke may seem like an enlightened anticipation of 20th-century rationalism, but it is also perfectly consistent with some main doctrines of Christianity: if the body is just a temporary home for an immortal soul, and a perpetual temptation to sin, then the sooner we shuffle it off the better.
Any age has its darkness, and the age of modernism was decidedly not an exception. Kramer pointed out that even Eliot had "illustrated the apparently unavoidable paradox that the advent of modernism brought with it the seeds of its own perpetual renovation." This "perpetual renovation" had the potential for decadence as surely as it had the promise of fresh insights into the particularities of modern life, and no one knew this better than Kramer. Much of his life as a critic was spent exposing the humbuggery and snake oil that is often gathered under the label of "postmodernism" (or of "modernism" for that matter).
Pic: Famed videophile Dr. Mercury utilizes over a decade's worth of clinical expertise as he carefully crafts together today's serious piece of work.
If you happened to catch my Dixie Lily video post a while back, whoever put the clip together did a superb job of matching up the accompanying pics with the song's lyrics.
Using the free Windows program 'Movie Maker', this is fairly easy to do and obviously (glancing at pic) a barrel of fun. As long as you've got the song, the rest is up to Google Images.
For the long, arduous process (1. Load pic 2. Drag pic to timeline), we shall dip below the fold.
Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. As with all his other compositions, Leroy Anderson wrote The Typewriter for orchestra, completing the work on October 9, 1950.
This particular orchestration was performed in a June 12, 2011 concert by members of the National Orchestra and Chorus of Spain in Madrid. The (typewriter) soloist is Alfredo Anaya. Watch his expressions and actions throughout the video...wonderful!
Many of the younger crowd who may see this video won't remember the old typewriter. But we geezers remember it well. That was a long time ago.
The Jewish High Holy Days begin this evening with Rosh Hashanah.
One of the traditional Rosh Hashanah greetings is Shana Tovah, which literally means have a good year. The meaning goes deeper. To have a good year is to have sincerely repented one's transgressions and set yourself on a better acting and thinking path.
The eve of Rosh Hashanah, and the concluding of Yom Kippur in the evening 10-days later when our fate is sealed by G-d, is a period of especially intense inspection of self and correction of self. It is Jews' most solemn holiday period (read, Holy Days).
It is also a time to come together with loved ones as well as to find ways to come together with former adversaries. It is a time to enjoy our customs, especially the blowing of the ram's horn (shofar), especially at Rosh Hashanah, to literally "come awake" to ourselves, our relationships with others and with G-d. And, it is a time to enjoy apples and honey, to symbolize our hopes for a sweet new year. It is a time of long days of prayer. For me, the longer the better, as it is not the words so much that are important as entering a sense of transcendence in which I rise above ordinary thoughts to reach new breakthroughs, understandings, and ways to become better.
Like for other Jewish occasions, Rosh Hashanah has become a time for our modern youth to create new music, to bring new verve into our traditional ways. Enjoy this one. (I'm not getting it to embed, so please click through to YouTube.) P.S.: In the video, the tossing of bread into moving waters (tashlich) is to symbolize casting off our sins.
Here's a snippet of the verses: "Atonement's what I'm after; It's a new year, now we gotta do something"
The Jewish High Holy Days, and the Hebrew month of Elul's introspection preceding them, require of each of us to "do something", at the very least, to create a better self and world. Our custom has been adapted into Christianity with Lent, and into Islam with Ramadan. May we all earnestly work to be better. We all need to and we all need it.
The speakers on a stock Windows system do not sound their best. You need to make a small adjustment or two.
First, start playing a rock song (or anything with a good bass track) in the background.
— Open Control Panel, 'Sound'
— Click on 'Speakers', 'Properties'
— Click on the 'Enhancements' tab
— Check the 'Loudness Equalization' box, then 'Apply' down below. It should either stay the same or get a bit louder. This feature plays quieter-than-normal songs slightly louder to compensate.
— If you don't have a subwoofer on your system, you might want to check the 'Bass Boost' box, then 'Apply' and see what you think. It might lower the overall volume a tad but the bass will be louder.
To make sure the overall volume of the system is up, there should be a little speaker icon in the SysTray on the right side of the Task Bar. Click on it and slide the volume all the way up.
With that taken care of, it's time for a system test. Ideally, we want a sound file that will test low frequency response, high frequency response, transient response, tracking and speaker balance.
Thankfully, there's a cut on the 1974 National Lampoon Stereo Test And Demonstration Record that satisfies all of these grueling parameters. Turn your speakers way up, make sure you're right in between them, and listen carefully:
"Well, good luck!"
The entire album can be downloaded here, although be forewarned that the above stands alone in its majesty — rusty, vibrant tang and all.
We all know that loneliness sucks. Often, not having enough alone time sucks too. Sociality takes effort and thought, and can be draining at times. At it best, it is effortless, delightful, supportive, and life-enriching.
I count myself lucky in having so many pals, friends, and good acquaintances. I do not know why life evolved that way, but I guess God gave me a fairly appealing personality. I figure that I was raised properly, have pleasant manners, know how to dress and to make cheery dinner table conversation, have a decent sense of humor about life and an abundance of interests and controversial opinions.
For those who were born socially awkward or unskilled, life can be especially difficult. Socializing agreeably requires some training, example, and experience, and perhaps a little talent for it. Most of all, it requires remembering that it's not about YOU.
Every human feels rejected, unwanted, or like an outsider sometimes. That is normal. Some people give up on making connections, and that is a shame. We all need people around who can just open the front door without knocking and walk in, knowing that they are welcome for a coffee or a beer or a glass of Scotch. We all need people who are willing to take a chance to seek us out, too, for connection. That is a blessing.
Remember that Asiana flight crashing at San Fran Int'l a while back, clipping off the tail as it hit the edge of the runway?
The reason that was given was, due to some confusion in the cockpit, the autopilot was assumed to be taking care of the aircraft's speed, which it wasn't. So, they lost altitude quickly at the end and clipped the edge of the runway.
But that doesn't really answer why the pilot was trying to land so near the edge of the runway in the first place, what with a long, expansive landing strip in front of them. And this is especially true in S.F., where there's no pre-runway to safeguard against such things, because the runways jut out into this big watery thing called a "bay".
But upon watching the following video, pointed out to me by my buddy Feebs, I was suddenly reminded of a nasty experience I once had, which might just answer that elusive why.
For airplane buffs, this is a very interesting video showing the last number of minutes of an airliner landing at SFO from inside the cockpit.
A few things to watch for:
— I like they way they label it "Silicon Valley, CA". Silicon Valley is a euphemism for an area loosely composed of parts of San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.
— Since we presume they didn't do any editing-out in this thing, both the 'Landing' and 'Shutdown' check lists are stunningly short.
— There's an interesting moment when the computer calls out "200" feet, and it appears the pilot actually has to give it the verbal command to "continue" for things to progress as normal. I presume he's actually talking to the co-pilot, following routine, but you'll see what I mean about it appearing like he's talking to the computer.
— It's also interesting how bouncy the cockpit is once they touch down. You don't get that feeling at all from the rest of the plane, but these guys are seriously a'shakin'.
— And how in the world do the pilots see those baton-waving directional guys way down on the ground? For the final 'stop' command, do they raise some guy way up on a crane in front of the cockpit? Well, not exactly.
What they're going to do is fly in high over S.F. heading southward, go down to the South Bay (Silicon Valley), turn around and head back up to the airport over the bay.
It was watching that particular shot as they neared the edge of the runway that reminded of a time when I came in over water and faced a similar edge.
It was at San Carlos airport, mid-way down the Peninsula, and I was being given a demo ride by an instructor. I was about 30 or so, had just come into a small inheritance, and wanted to fulfill a lifelong dream of getting a pilot's license.
We took a Cessna 172 up, up and away, flew over the coastal range that runs down the spine of the Peninsula, cruised out over the Pacific, did a few basic acrobatics, and headed back home.
And there was the edge in front of us, and the pilot came in low, over water, aiming for the very rim of the runway. At the last moment, I was 99.99% positive we were going to hit it with the wheels, cartwheel over and die.
Whoomp! We landed safely and I immediately (1) signed up for lessons with (2) the condition that it not be that guy. It honestly scared me like I've seldom been in my life.
And just why was he trying to get so close to the edge, when there was figuratively miles of runway in front of him?
Because getting close to the edge was the only challenge in sight.
In my Culture in the Cockpit post, I noted how sometimes airline disasters can almost be directly attributable to countries with militaristic backgrounds whose Air Force pilots then turn to commercial aviation, and how that "don't question authority" mindset can often be their undoing.
But this is different.
Place yourself in the Asiana plane, as a junior pilot wanting to impress his superiors by just nailing that edge. Except that this time the autopilot doesn't have your back.
All of the following headlines were spotted on my daily rounds in the MSM over the past three years. I didn't specifically hunt down any of them just for the post.
I have been thinking about it. As I commented then, sociologists tend not to discuss psychology. A good rule of thumb is that a person's character traits - personality traits - determine a lot about their adaptation to life and to reality - their success in making goals, and pursuing their goals, for themselves.
It doesn't matter where character traits come from: genetics, examples, or wherever. What matters is the balance between the useful ones and the detrimental ones.
Furthermore, some character traits, like obsessionalism, are good for some things (eg being a pilot or surgeon) but detrimental for others (eg being a jazz musician, or displaying emotion in relationships). For another example, the capacity for controlled violence (useful for cops and soldiers and, in fact many other jobs too including my own, at times). People are even beginning to talk about the usefulness of Asperger's traits.
Each of us is our own stew of traits and strengths and weaknesses. Mature adults do not blame the world or others for their difficulties, but look at themselves, try to identify their shortcomings, and try to improve them if they chose to.
I do not view social class or income as a measure of life success or life adaptation. In my professional world, we use other, less superficial measures such as quality and stability of relationships, breadth of interests, responsibility and reliability, self-control, active engagement in life, and so on.
However, as Murray implies, social class can be a very rough measure of human adaptation for people with material ambitions: people in the upper middle class tend to be more adaptable and able socially and intellectually, and those in the lower class tend to either have more adaptive problems, or to cause more problems for others (which includes governmental or charitable dependency, crime, disorder, etc).
Before I run out of space, I want to say a word about social capital, as I constructed my own practical understanding of it. In my simple-minded way, applying one's social capital means participating in and contributing to one's community, whatever that may be. Being a constructive part of it, beyond the bare minimum of holding down a job or raising a family.
Whether it's as simple as introducing people to each other, throwing holiday parties, getting a stop sign on a corner, helping a kid find a job, volunteering at church, raising money to sustain the local chamber group, running a Boy Scout troop, attending town meetings, joining clubs, starting a softball team, or coaching soccer, we all have ways to contribute to our social network, our neighborhoods, and to our communities. I do know how corny all that sounds, but I believe it is very important.
Our social capital is truly the kind of capital which we must either spend or waste before we die. People who do not jump in and spend theirs before they die are selfish, mean, and un-American, in my book.
Feral pig, Wild Boar, Wild Hog, Russian Boar, farm pig. They are all pigs, all very slight variants of the one species Sus scrofa. (The tusks are removed from farm pigs at birth.) In the US, they are all called "pigs."
No sus scrofa is native to North America.
We have posted in the past about the pig/boar hybrids which have been expanding their range across the US, wreaking havoc in the process to woodlands and to agriculture. They are so prolific, and so destructive, that most areas of the US now have open season on the pigs. Hog wild: Feral pig population explodes in U.S
Distinguishing European (aka Russian) Boar from farm pig/boar hybrids is almost impossible, but it is thought that, in many or most areas, most animals are hybrid. Since they're all the same species, it doesn't really matter. Pigs.
Texas and California have seen enormous population growth of Sus, but they have spread around the country - even around Albany NY where the biggest pigs have traditionally been the NYS politicians.
Since every area in the US in which they have appeared is eager to be rid of them, year-round hunting opportunities are abundant. Hunting over bait stations is entirely legal. Some use AR-15s, some use bow, some use revolver, and some macho dudes use baying dogs and kill the pigs with a hunting knife.
There are simply not enough pig hunters to control these creatures, so I propose releasing Wolves into areas where the wild pigs are a problem. The Wolves would have a field day.
Some people do not enjoy the taste of wild pig, which is a bit gamier than the corn-fed farm pig. I have had the wild boar, the same Sus scrofa, which lives in the Appenines of Umbria, and it is a special treat when cooked the ways the Umbrians do it. "Cinghiale." I've had it there cooked several ways, and the sausage too. Even snuck some cinghiale salumi home in my bags.
This being a fairly dead weekend in the blog world, I thought I'd just re-post this old gem. I don't do many you-are-there pieces, but they're lots of fun to write. Another fave of the genre is Treasure Hunting With A Metal Detector.
As a small side note, some of the bloggers here don't know that blog protocol dictates that the word 'repost' be included somewhere (title or text) in reposts, so check the dates before responding to a comment. There are two like that below.
(an email to friends, September '00)
Howdy, all —
I've just returned from Colorado Springs and I thought I'd share some of my experiences with you.
First off, sorry, no photos. It's a nice place, but I really didn't want to haul my $800 'photographically-compliant computer' (AKA "digital camera") all over the place. Just picture amazing rock formations and incredible vistas and you've got it.
There are few places on the globe where you can actually see the curve of the planet. You can't see it from sea level. You and I would see it, out on the ocean, because we know the Earth is round, but it would just be an illusion. Hold a straightedge up and it's flat as flat can be. You need two somewhat unique things lined up next to each other, a fairly rare occurrence.
You (1) need an extremely wide, vast plain, flat as a pancake, and (2) a fairly high (10,000 feet-plus) mountain perched right on the edge of aforementioned pancake.
I give you Kansas and Pike's Peak.
Most high mountains are in the middle of mountain ranges. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true. As such, the horizon is very irregular. But Pike's Peak is right on the edge of the Colorado Plateau, looking out across flat, flat, flat, Kansas.
You see The Curve.
Your first thought is,
They were right! It is round.
Maybe you already knew it, but it's always nice to have it confirmed.
"the thing is, tho, that the moral or ethical question of entering consequentially into a stranger's life is not the same question as whether or not one is lonely."
His excellent phrase "entering consequentially into a stranger's life" got me thinking. As a psychotherapeutically-oriented shrink, most of my work is to "enter consequentially into strangers' lives," and that is a privilege and sometimes a frightening position which I am paid to do as a professional person.
Most adults are cautious, aren't we? - about who we permit into our lives, and to what extent. We may make exceptions with relatives, clergy, or people with white coats, but, generally, our interpersonal lives consist of concentric circles, admitting few to our inner sanctum.
The reason for that is, of course, because confiding in someone, being emotionally intimate with someone, cannot be inconsequential for normal people. Relationships affect us and affect our lives, so they are a serious matter and potentially dangerous.
Loneliness is painful. Lonely people, sad to say, and substance-abusers may be less discriminating about whom to let in. Fact is, though, closeness is always somewhat risky for both people involved because we humans get attached and thus vulnerable.
Buddy's comment, however, was on the topic of Sugar Daddies and mistresses, sort-of about the idea of sexual intimacy rather than personal or emotional intimacy. There is the hooking up culture of course. A college student recently told me that if he strikes out and doesn't get laid by a different girl each night of Spring Break in Nassau, he will feel like a loser. But I do not mean to be discussing purely recreational or athletic alcohol-infused sexual adventures.
What I am wondering about is whether it is possible for a Sugar Daddy and the gal, over time, not to form an affectionate attachment despite the basic free-market win-win foundation of the relationship. Or even regular co-workers.
Perhaps some people are more capable of inconsequential intimacy or exploitative intimacy than others. Not perhaps. Definitely.
Knowing the full-truth that unites the human race, and not teaching all is deathly guilt, learned carpenter Jesus from Mason Rabbi Hillel! But Marx, innocent grandson of 2 rabbies, learned only half truth! As Mao wrote in Redbook 51: Marxist-Communism, once in power, is utterly unworkable, has less value then cowdung. Its power is the gun! What an apology we Rabbis owe Israel, Marx, Mao, all mankind, for not teaching Astronomy's great All-One-God-Faith, that with just 6 words eternally unites the human race! As teaches African-shepherd Astronomer Israel for 6000 years, LISTEN CHILDREN ETERNAL FATHER ETERNALLY ONE! For on God's Spaceship Earth, with Bomb and Gun, we are All-One or none! All-One! All-One! All-One! Exceptions eternally? Absolute none! 
We haven't discussed computer security in a while, so let's hop through a few things.
Pic: Famed videophile Dr. Mercury utilizes over a decade's worth of clinical expertise as he carefully crafts together today's serious piece of work.
The speakers on a stock Windows system do not sound their best. You need to make a small adjustment or two.
Remember that Asiana flight crashing at San Fran Int'l a while back, clipping off the tail as it hit the edge of the runway?
Feral pig, Wild Boar, Wild Hog, Russian Boar, farm pig. They are all pigs, all very slight variants of the one species 
(an email to friends, September '00)