From Upside Down, It All Makes Perfect Sense

Tags

GOP, Humor, Iowa, life in the meadow, Zoology

These four days are the best of the year. After hours spent slaving over a hot stove, I produced a meal that lasts for 4 freakin’ days. And I relish every day, lounging, and napping, and just hangin’ out around the TV, with a book in hand should I desire it. Sigh. . . .life should always be so good.

Speaking of life.

I hate people who use partial words, or make up new words, combining others. It is not cute. It is not accurate. It is silly.

I would ban the use of “delish” and “terrif” and vics and perps (NO self-respecting police office I have ever known–and the number runs into the hundreds–ever used those words. It’s victims and suspects or defendants, period). I hate the “word” fantastical, and stupendulous, and spectaculicious.

So stop it.

Do you have stupid homemade words that you hate?

Before we get on with funny things: a couple of links you should follow.

David Frum, who is a legitimate Republican wrote a long piece for the NYMag. I subscribe to a site called “longreads” which sends me their picks every week of five really good articles that are longer than the usual Internet fare.

Frum writes about what has gone so terribly wrong with the GOP. You probably should read it.

On a completely different note. Did you know that bulldogs are getting close to being America’s favorite dog? Not quite, but close. Did you know that they have  a lifespan of about 7 years? Did you know it’s almost exclusively due to the manner in which we have bred them for their famous traits? Do you know that they have more health issues than any other dog, and have a fairly lousy quality of life?

Well you should know. And if you go here, you will find out all about bulldogs and their plight. If you think this is an isolated case, you would also be wrong. Collies were bred for a long time for very long and flat noses. Race horses are bred for very long slender legs that make it much more likely that they suffer broken legs. We bred animals to suit our esthetics or our needs, with little or no thought as to how it will affect the animal.

Be aware, and buy accordingly.

Okay, back to some fun.

I love Calvin and Hobbes.

So much so that  we named two of our cats after them. Not that they resemble either in character and personality.

This is one of my favorite frames.

Like Star Trek, much of life can be explained through their relationship and adventures.

I miss reading the funnies every day in the paper.

Speaking of which, is your local paper this weird-looking thing now? They chopped off about 1/4 of its width. It looks silly. I don’t read it any more. It doesn’t look serious.

Michele Bachmann is going to be at Barnes and Nobles in Cedar Rapids today. The Contrarian wondered if I wanted to go. As far as I know, you can’t speak to the silly woman unless you buy her book. Who would want to do that? And you couldn’t say much anyway, before her “handlers” shuffled you aside and away.

But I could do this.

And it would be even more satisfying.

I’d like to do this a lot.

To a lot of politicians.

To a lawyer or two.

To a TV “personality” or two.

To a host of so-called celebrities.

To God on occasion, but not often.

To our pets every night at 3: a.m. when somebody has just “GOT” to go out.

And then one of them crawls into my lap, and rolls his head and peers at me with such sappy sweetness that I want to do this:

You know what I mean.

And that’s the way I like to stay most of the time.

Soft and sweet, and loving and sappy happy.

And mostly I do.

Until I get on this infernal machine.

And start to read things, and ponder.

And then I see this:

And my blood begins to boil.

And I pound the table.

And I question the existence of intelligent life on this planet.

And I want to go to my bunker.

Except that I don’t have one.

And I’m too old to make it in the outback of Alaska with nothing but a hatchet and a shotgun. (I was always too old for that).

And besides, Alaskans, by and large are too strange for me.

So, I’m going back to contemplating my navel.

And What of Humans?

Tags

apes, evolution, humanity, paleontology, science, Zoology

We watched a repeat of a PBS show last night entitled Ape Genius. And I got to thinking, as I usually do, about what it is that makes us human.

Those who are against allowing access to abortion to those that choose it, always claim that it is axiomatic that “life begins at conception.” And in a sense I suppose they are right. When sperm enters egg, the process that will potentially result in a human being undoubtedly begins.

But is that human life? The Court has of course decided in Roe v Wade that a different definition should be used: viability outside the womb–when a fetus can exist on its own–breathe basically–then we have a legal human being.

In our early exploration of human origins, paleontologists came to the conclusion that what separated humans from animals was the making and using of tools. One human ancestor was even named as such–Homo Habilis–handy man. Today we know that other animals make and use tools, and so we can no longer define ourselves by that grouping.

Today we know that chimps make tools, they fashion “fishing poles” to gain termites, and they also fashion spears made from long narrow branches which they sharpen at one end and poke into tree hollows where their favorite food, Bush Babies, nest during the day. If the spear comes out bloody, they rip the tree open and get their meal.

One might conclude that humans can learn new skills and this is what makes them special. But most chimps can be shown a process involving several steps, and quickly follow suit. They can also figure out how to enlist the help of others, even humans to help them get a treat. They will co-operate in securing a food which neither can get alone.

Chimps are social beings, they play, they physically interact beyond that required for child rearing and sexual activity. They, like some other mammals grieve the loss of members of their group.

One bonobo chimp has a vocabulary of over three thousand words. You can direct her to locate, within sight or out of sight, various objects and place them in other places. Chimps can learn numbers and can “count”, and even come to learn the sequential aspect of counting.

One of the most fascinating tests I saw was where a box was presented and the “teacher” went through a number of steps, the last of which was to poke a stick into a hole and fish out a treat. Children and chimps did equally well in following the steps. Then the box was replaced by the same kind of box except that it was transparent. The teacher went through the same sequence of steps again.

But now things changed. The chimps realized that most of the steps had zero to do with the getting of the treat. They quickly abandoned all the steps except the last one. The children, however, even though they could clearly see that most of the steps were just “hocus pocus” and had nothing to do with getting to the treat, continued to do as they had been shown.

Were the chimps smarter?

It might seem so, but in fact, it showed the difference between chimp and human. Chimps don’t see themselves as teachers of new skills, nor do they see others as teachers. They merely mimic behaviors that lead to an end they wish. When they can see that parts of that mimicry are unnecessary, the stop wasting the time doing it.

Humans, on the other hand, recognize themselves as students, and they recognize adults as teachers. They do as instructed because they perceive their lesser position and the deference due the adult teacher. They in essence perceive that there may be reasons they don’t yet perceive, for doing what seem unnecessary steps.

Similarly, an ape may “learn” words and be able to identify symbols with words, but it is all a means to very specific ends. They follow instructions (anticipating rewards) or they “ask” for things–usually food. You can teach an ape to correctly identify a cloud or rain, but it will never ask you if you think the clouds look like an oncoming storm.

It, doesn’t, in other words, participate in a conversation. It does not really anticipate what you mean, seek clarification, or respond to your thoughts.

All of this gives us pause as we try to figure out when and why humans become something unique among the animal kingdom. The more we study chimps and other high-functioning mammals, the more winding the road to what separates us from them.

Most assuredly, it leads to the inescapable conclusion that evolution is the driving means by which life changed and adapted. So little, be it genetic or practically, separates us from some members of the mammal world. Yet the outcome of whatever small differences exist, is a mammoth gulf. No chimp has built a car or computer, let alone created knowing art.  

The philosopher calls us to “know ourselves”. And only when we truly do, will we, I fear, be able to see that our likeness as humans so far outstrips our otherness. Carl Sagan once hoped that seeing ourselves as the “little blue dot” would help confirm that idea upon the human psyche. Sadly that didn’t really happen. Perhaps our continued study of our nearest relatives may lead us to that. One can but hope.

 

Related articles

• Chimps Know Who They Are When Playing Video Games (techland.time.com)
• Amazing! Chimps Play Video Games and Grasp Who’s Who (livescience.com)
• Chimps and Dolphins Share Cultural Similarities (wired.com)
• Chimps give birth ‘like humans’ (news.bbc.co.uk)
• I control therefore I am: chimps self-aware, says study (lookatvietnam.com)
• Chimpanzees Have Feelings, Too: A book review of Andrew Westoll’s The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary (sustainabletimes.wordpress.com)
• A To Chimpanzee (thebeautifulbrain.com)
• Chimps lose out by “aping dominant member of the group” (news.bioscholar.com)
• Bonobo Brains — Built for Empathy? (primateprose.wordpress.com)
• Sentience, Free Will and Self-Determination (sangraalworld.wordpress.com)

It’s a Good Good Friday

Tags

Art, atonement, crucifixion, Jesus, religion, Zoology

I am aware of course that many of you are not believers, at least in a traditional way. And because of that, I try not to spend too much time on things having to do with faith, especially denominational faith. I leave that to my other blog, Walking in the Shadows. However I found this article so compelling that I thought I would share it with you, in keeping with the day.

I have for a long time not believed in what is referred to as “substitutionary atonement” or the tenet that God sent Jesus to earth with the express purpose of suffering and dying for our sins, the sin we carry from Adam’s original sin. It doesn’t comport with my view of God quite simply. As Kenneth R Overburg, SJ suggests, it takes Jesus out as Plan B, and replaced Him with the Word, foundational in creation, planned from the beginning to dwell among creation in the fullness of time.

It is the Incarnational model and centers Jesus as love offering, come among humanity at the right moment in time to offer the WAY to unity with the Godhead. Overburg writes a beautiful and compelling explanation of this interpretation which I think allows many who have rejected Christianity specifically because of the implications of the substitutionary atonement theory. Please enjoy, The Incarnation: Why God Wanted to Become Human.

♦

Isn’t he cute?

And aren’t they lovely?

Blessings to you all!

If You Say It, I’ll Deny It

Tags

evolution, GOP, humans, Iowa, Koch Brothers, Muslims, political science, Politics, right-wing neo-cons, sociology, teabaggers, Zoology

I like elephants. I can’t imagine why anyone would harm one. I recognize that they can inadvertently cause damage because of their size, but that’s more poor planning on the part of humans than on elephants.

Ingenious testing of elephants has found that they have cooperative skills, a sign of much higher social functioning. Few other animals share this skill, chimpanzees, hyenas, rooks, and of course, humans.

In fact, the elephants score higher than the other groups in literally understanding why they have to work together to achieve a goal. Given our lack of willingness to work together these days, I guess one could say that elephants have something to remind us about.

♦

Speaking of evolution, or science, one of those, what is likely in humanities future? While is can be argued that we are devolving rather than evolving, some people in the know suggest that our future may find us shorter and fatter. I’m doing a pretty good job of the latter at least, and I’m not very tall, 5’4″ doesn’t make me basketball material.

Scientists tell us that our ability to adapt (read make clothes and houses) slows down any need to physically change to meet the challenges of the environment. However, that nasty bugaboo to “creationists” and evolutionary naysayers, DNA genome development, suggests that we in fact may be changing on the inside more than we know.

Additional flies in the ointment are that natural selection doesn’t operate much any more because of our abilities to “save” babies who would otherwise die due to genetic and disease complications. And what may be even more important, our growing ability to manipulate genes may have the greatest impact. Makes ya just want to stick around and see how it all turns out!

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As much as the wacko right (mainly Beck) squawks about George Soros, they seem to poo poo the importance of the Koch brothers who fronted one of the first “tea” parties, and continue to meddle in everyone’s affairs. They are deeply imbedded in the success of Governor Walker’s move in Wisconsin to destroy public unions. Rachel Maddow documented their involvement in bringing in “counter” protestors. In fact she shows how they are always in the picture wherever needed to push the teabagger position that they so carefully have created. Moe has some good stuff on this too at Whatever Works.

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We seem to be living in times when people are not acting rationally for the most part. Groups continually act in total opposition to their own best interests. They are manipulated by obvious forces, yet they seem blind to it. What to make of all of it? A new book by Stanford professor, Dr. Francis Fukuyama, The Origins of Political Order, may point the way. A NYTimes review might whet your interest. I’ll see about getting a review copy.

♦

People and things that are just driving me nuts today:

• Peter King and his witch hunt against Muslims in America. This is being orchestrated to be an unassailable probe with King calling only “Muslims” who attack other Muslims for radicalism.
• My state is inundated with a plethora of sleazy Repuklicans “testing” the waters here. The funky smell of insane politicos fairly reeks with the likes of Newt and Herman and Mikey, The Donald, et al. Go SOMEWHERE ELSE! You are pollution.
• Mitt Romney’s pathetic attempts to distance himself from his own “Obamacare” in Massachusetts, and his rather upper class assail on the President’s abilities. Mitt, go away. It ain’t gonna happen. A huge section of your own wacko party doesn’t think you are a Christian–a must in GOPer circles these days.
• Computer crap. My reader is causing me fits. Won’t clear out “marked as read”, the refresh button works sporadically, and the next button also works when it feels like it. The Contrarian always downloads the fixes and always cleans the darn thing every few days, but this dial-up just tangles everything eventually. What was a one minute job, is now a twenty-minute one.
• Oil prices. I’m sure they never go up because of any “crisis” but I’m just as sure that every “crisis” is an excuse to raise prices. It’s one of those things we can’t control much because we just don’t have the cojones to invest in alternative energy programs like the REST OF THE MODERN WORLD!
• Anything at all to do with Charlie Sheen. The man is sick. Get him in a hospital. Stop making him “news.” He is no more so than a sick dog.

Hope you like the new look. If I were rich, I guess I’d redecorate the house every six months. But I’m not, so I do it here. Still tinkering with the wallpaper. Not sure what I like best. A vote? lol.

What’s on the stove: tostados!

Related Articles

• Mitt Romney’s Stupidity is Transcendent – Associated Content from Yahoo! – associatedcontent.com (stephencrose.wordpress.com)
• Elephants give each other a helping trunk | Not Exactly Rocket Science (blogs.discovermagazine.com)

The World Went On Without ME?

Tags

Catholicism, corn, energy, environment, fundamentalism, Internet, Muslims, Newt Gingrich, pasta, racism, Recipes, right wing, Zoology

It always comes as a bit of shock to me when the world doesn’t grind to a halt when I am somehow incommunicado. Yet, it seems that everyone went blithely on, mostly unaware that I was not producing fine literature for you to consume every day.

I shall remember this! Vengeance is sweet. When you least expect it, I shall get my revenge on everyone who actually lived life just fine thank you, with nary a thought about poor little old me. So, harrumph!

Not sure how things are around your neighborhood, but it’s intolerably hot and humid here. Everyone is grouchy.

Did I mention that it was hot? Dinner is a nice big romaine salad with feta and a ranch steak sliced on top. Some bread sticks. It’s all I can manage. It’s hot. It’s muggy. It’s miserable. Fans going everywhere. It’s hot.

Epicurious has a really nice recipe that seems perfect for the day. Pasta with corn pesto. Not too much effort, I’d make it except for the pasta in the morning and just reheat for a nice light meal with a salad and roll. Did I mention that about the only crop we got from the garden this soggy year was corn? Well, we put up 39 servings, which should take us through pretty near to next season.

I kept ready more hate stuff about Muslims and felt compelled to write our local Mosque here in Cedar Rapids (which has a really historic role in America by the way) and to the Imam who is in charge of the  proposed Islamic Center in NYC. I received lovely replies from both. Please consider just offering a word of support to your local Islamic community. And you can write to the Cordoba Initiative (for the NYC Islamic Center) at the following places:

FACEBOOK http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cordoba-Initiative/134998249864725?ref=ts
BLOG http://cordobainitiative.wordpress.com/
TWITTER http://twitter.com/cordobainit
WEBSITE www.cordobainitiative.org

It is essential that we combat this war of hatred being waged by a very few fundamentalist Christians and their instigators, the far right politicos, who are willing to risk violence in pursuit of votes.

Apparently there is quite a juicy article in Esquire this month by one of Newt (slippery) Gingrich ex-wives. It’s pretty much what you would expect of a right wing spouter of “family values” who tells his wife he need not live by what he preaches. He’s indispensable you see, and can be forgiven his many peccadillo’s. Of course he’s a fine Roman Catholic now, having annulled all the trouble away. (H/T) to Right Wing Watch)

There’s a weird little article at the NYTimes Science section on ugly animals. We are predisposed to like furry binocular visioned animals and dislike others. Some pics and some talk about how we just don’t like the creepy among us.

Did I mention it’s hot? I thought I forgot. Mauigirl recognized just how hot it was and escaped to the cabin in the woods. I live in the woods, and did I neglect to say it’s hot? She has some venting to do. It’s worth reading. So go there, and read about how the US is falling to wrack and ruin while European countries PLAN FOR A FUTURE–we’re too busy playing gotcha politics. Nero fiddled? The grasshopper played? Remember any of this folks?

I seem to have become generic again. My feather is missing on comments I leave. What gives WordPress?

Jan at Yearning for God fell and has some minor damage. Stop by and give her a hello. I’m sure it will help her feel better!

NCR‘s Melissa Musick Nussbaum has an older but still important post on sticking with your church even when the fit has become uncomfortable. Food for thought.

See the right wing is evil. More so than you think. Given their rich only, racist rhetoric, that seems most apparent. And as much as the scrabble about our “freedoms being trampled” it seems they are the ones always doing the trampling. Witness how they are trying to manipulate DIGG to reflect greater traffic on right wing sites and burying liberal voices. I guess their freedom is my stifled voice.

Well, since I have just noticed that it’s HOT, I’m going off to shower, and get under a fan for a while. Keep cool.

An Island in the Storm 07/23/10

Tags

atheism, botany, Desmond Tutu, evolution, Glenn Beck, language, religion, Zoology

I am interested in purchasing water futures. Iowa seems poised to have a good deal more water than she needs. Since this is the upside day, we are not going to grouse about rain, but rather, focus on heavenly stuff. I know there are states that are rather desperate for water, and I figure we should get involved in exporting the stuff. Oelwein, which is northwest of here abouts, got nearly ten inches of the wet stuff yesterday.

The Wapsipinicon, the usual tepid river that flows through the hamlet of Troy Mills, is raging, and frankly flooding may be in its future. Amazing to contemplate in late July for sure. So, I’m just sayin’, if you are water challenged, send me some dough and I’ll be sure to send some H2O your way. Just make the check out to me. I’ll be sure it gets deposited to the water consortium. Oh yes I will.

I ran into this funny post this morning about atheism. Not a rant, but actually funny. So you might want to stop by and read How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Atheists. 

Probably the most prestigious religious teaching facility in the USA is the Union Theological Seminary in NYC. It’s president, Rev. Dr. Serena Jones, sent this letter to Glenn Beck. I thought it was a hoot. Hope you like it. With thanks to Telling Secrets.

I’m guessing, but that’s good enough for me, that humans separated from other life forms most specially because we yack all the time. We are wordy people. We can communicate with precision because we can move beyond grunts, cackles, screeches, and gestures. Where would we be without words? How would we think? Well at least one person thinks words inhibit us. See if you agree or not.

You can hurry on over and see the top 10 new species of 2009. Fanfare! Lights! Red carpet! Here they come down the runway. Ewwww, yuck, ugly, creepy. I think they should have remained undiscovered. I guess we have already found all the cute critters. All that’s left are the butt ugly ones.

Just thinking about Desmond Tutu brings a smile to my face. The fact that he has announced his retirement from public life is sad, but understandable. What a lovely man.

I was just thinking. What is your favorite comfort food? The one you can eat almost endlessly? For reasons that defy explanation, I realized that mine is creamy mashed taters with a big fat pat of butter melting in the well. It’s simply glorious, always, every time. The Contrarian thinks it’s sacriledge of course not to have G R A V Y with said smushed potatoes, but I think that’s gilding the lily, destroying  the fine fabric of the carbohydrative smooth silky essense of the tuber. The faint tatoey delicate flavor is lost in a crecendo of meat derived goop. I stick with buddah, none of that oleo crap either. There are no bad ways to fix taters I don’t think. ( Well maybe German pototo salad–that is ugly crap!) But this is the best.

I don’t know about you, but I do follow the blog 1,000 Awesome Things. He wrote a book now, and is rich no doubt. I skim the posts but I’m not so impressed. Makes me wonder why some blogs take off and others don’t. Makes me want to start a blog called 1,000 Shitty Things. I think I can think of 1,000. But that’s the kind of optimistic person that I am. Hope you caught the irony there. And chuckled. But I’m looking forward to the new TV show with William Shatner called “S&#T My Dad Says–from the Twitter account. That dude got seriously rich. I’m not rich. I wonder about that. And about this. And why not.

Have a smashingly wonderful and glorious lovely weekend.

An Island in the Storm 07/16/10

Tags

Bethsaida, bible, Buddha, Dick Cheney, Humor, LeBron James, mice, religion, Zoology

Well, it’s Friday and as promised we are sticking to good news today. And the first good news is that the awful humidity (in the 80’s humidity wise with temps around 95) broke the next day and Thursday and today are ever so much better. Hope you are doing as well. This is vintage July weather and most welcome.

Good news that the oil spill appears to be capped for the time being. At least we can breathe a sigh of relief and turn our thoughts to the massive cleanup that will be required over perhaps decades. But at least the ugly gushing is no more and we can but pray that it stays that way.

First let me say that I am collecting good things throughout the week and so you may have already seen one or more of these depending on the blogs you follow. That said.

We have two lovely entries from Jan at Yearning for God. She shows us the Great Buddha statue in Kamakura, Japan. Imagine standing at the foot of this!

The other is a marvelous quote she included that has stayed with me as so very wise. The quote is Ann Quinlan, and the link is here. (Worth it to see a beautifully modern edge bookcase.

“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”

One might have thought that Western Civilization was a stake in the recent hoopdedoo about Lebron James move from Cleveland to Miami. Amidst the schizophrenic entries, I thought this one rather amusing: Zombies Plague Florida as LeBron Fever Spreads. This brought to you by SPN Headlines.

Our own dear OKJimm calls for calendar reform as only he can do it. If you missed it, oh please don’t miss it. If you are blue because of the calendar before you, then join in and change it to something more palatable. G’wan, you know you want to.

Jay Leno loves pics with animals reduced to embarrassment at the funny ideas of their allegedly superior owners. I thought this one was too funny. I Can Have Cheeseburger of course.

Dating tips anyone? VodkaandgroundBeef has the skinny on how to woo an Indian stud. You can judge how successfully it will work. Me, I have always found Indian men sexy. Women not so much. It’s the hetero thing in me no doubt. This goes back to my love affair with tennis stars. Armritraj brothers? Anyone remember?

Just had to throw this one in from Wounded Bird. If you are having trouble deciphering what it says, pull gently the corners of your eyes.

And excuse me, but I couldn’t pass up this. I actually said this last night when we heard the news. Dick Cheney has no pulse. He really is Darth Vadar. I mean how creepy is that? Thanks to Zaius Nation.

Since I’m always reading some sort of biblical studies text, I always peruse The Bible and Interpretation for interesting articles. There is a nice one on Bethsaida, so prominent in NT writings. Archaeological finds produce a picture of what life was like there during the time of Jesus. A lovely read. Enjoy.

I can’t help it, but the following headline just tickled me:

Oxygen therapy slows mouse wrinkles

I figured I could mention it to any “friends” the cats brought in, but I’m at a loss how to alert the rest of the mousy population who mostly lives in the greater out of doors. Perhaps little signs? I’m not sure where they can find a hyperbaric chamber. Scientists say they don’t think the findings are useful to humans. I’m glad that Japanese tax payers are thus footing the bill on this one.

That should be enough to keep your neurons firing. Happy weekend!