Philosophy and Old Texts

Quote:

There is nothing to stop us from lifting a sentence from an old text and seeing what it can do for us now. If we want to lift the thought, not just the sentence, we may have to put some work into deciding what the sentence meant. If we aren't prepared to do that we shouldn't expect too much of it, and we certainly shouldn't disparage its author if we don't get too much from it. But given that precaution we will often find it relevant to our concerns, because much philosophy arises from facts about human beings and human life which are pretty stable -- at any rate they haven't changed much over the last 3,000 years.

From Edward Craig, Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (New York, Oxford University Press, 2002)

A Shadow in the City by Charles Bowden, good quote

(an undercover cop thinking about his rules for working smart)

Be yourself, Sonrisa advises. Never stance, never lie about yourself. Just be yourself. Don't pretend to be more than you are, people will smell the fraud coming off you. Don't be tough, just be natural. If you are reading some cookbook, then you are the guy reading a cookbook. Don't pretend to be reading something else. Because the trick in this world of deals and frauds and rip-offs is this: Be trustworthy. Be natural. Don't talk about yourself, don't tell others anything, absolutely nothing, that they don't need to know for the deal. But given this curtain of privacy, still be natural and open. If you do not drink, then refuse the drink. If you do not like t**** bars, say so. If you don't know shit about bikes, admit it. And for God's sake, don't pretend to be some tough guy because in the room someone eventually will test your claim.

Chapter 2
A Shadow in the City: Confessions of an Undercover Drug Warrior
by Charles Bowden
San Diego, Harcourt, Inc., 2005

Favorite Quotes for 2011

Curiosity demands that we ask questions, that we try to put things together and try to understand this multitude of aspects as perhaps resulting from the actions of a relatively small number of elemental things and forces acting in an infinite variety of combination.
--Richard Feynman

Luxury lies not in richness and ornateness but in the absence of vulgarity.
--Coco Chanel

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

That's what Tolstoy meant in War and Peace when he talked about the unknown "x," that spirit that enables people to do things that just aren't reasonable to others.
--Bernard Rapoport

The Word for World is Forest does what serious science fiction does best. It shows us our own world, made strange and familiar; makes us feel the beauty and mystery of this totally extraordinary (one of a kind, you know) planet. And rails against abuses, not in polemic speeches, but though the focused lens of a simple, tragic drama. It's a minor masterpiece.
--Gwyneth Jones on Ursula K. Le Guin (from 80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin)

If you break the little promises you'll break the big ones. That's what you said.
--Cormac McCarthy, The Road

I am a trichotomist. By that I mean, when I'm in business, I'm a predator and, I hope, a civilized one; when I'm charitable, I'm philanthropic; but when I'm in politics, I'm idealistic.
--Bernard Rapoport

Alas, Babylon quote: Bold People

Josh Hickingbottom got me a cool novel, "Alas, Babylon," by Pat Frank from 1959.

Good quote about people need to get through a crisis:

"Bold people, audacious people, tenacious people. Impatient, odd ball people . . . Ruthless people who will fire the deadheads and a**-kissers. Impatient, odd-ball me like [Admiral] Rickover pounding desks for his atomic subs. Rude people who will tell the unimaginative, business-as usual, seven-carbon sons of b**** to go take a jump at a galloping goose."

Thanks. Josh. Merry Christmas.

A few good quotes and connections

Charlie Black, a freshman from University of Texas, happened to go see Louis Armstrong at a club in 1931. He knew nothing of jazz and never heard of Louis Armstrong.

“He played mostly w/ his eyes closed. Letting flow from that inner space of music things that had never existed.

He was the first genius I’d ever seen. It is impossible to underestimate the significance of a 16 year old southern boy seeing genius for the first time in a black person.

We literally never saw a black man in anything but a servants capacity.

Louis opened my eyes wide and put to me a choice: Blacks, the saying went, were ‘all right in their place’, but what was the place of such a man, and of the people from which he sprung?’”

Charles L. Black

Excerpt from Ken Burns’ Jazz Documentary

Charles L. Black went on to become a distinguished teacher of Constitutional Law at Yale and in 1954 was on the team of lawyers to convince the Supreme Court in Brown vs. Board of Education that segregating school children on the basis of race and color was unconstitutional.

Thanks to Scott Elkin for transcribing: http://scottelkin.com/music/charles-l-black-on-louis-armstrong/comment-page-1/#comment-38323

In talking about Duke Ellington's Music in Ken Burn's Jazz, writer Stanley Crouch said:

"You know, if you can get to this, come on in, you know what I mean? ‘Cause that’s always in the music, in Duke Ellington’s music there’s always, “Hey, come on in, you know.” You know, all kinds of ways, come on in. Sometimes this, sometimes he’d grab you by the arm and say, “Come on in.” Sometimes, “Hey, why don’t you come on in here.” You know what I’m saying? Anything from those, you know he’s got those, you know he’s got that, it’s always that he’s always trying to pull you into something, you know. And it’s, so it’s got that, so there’s a kind of a welcoming quality that you associate with the highest form of civilization, I would suggest. See, because civilization in a certain sense can be reduced to the word welcome, you know, in some sense it can be that."

George Freidman, The Next 100 Years

Cultures live in one of three states. The first state is barbarism. Barbarians believe that the customs of their village are the laws of nature and that anyone who doesn't live the way they live is beneath contempt and requiring redemption or descruction. The third state is decadence decadents cynically believe that nothing is better than anything else. If they hold anyone in contempt, it is those who believe in anything. Nothing is worth fighting for.

Civilization is the second and most rare state. Civilized people are able to balance two contradictory thoughts in their minds. They believe that there are truths and theat their cultures approximate those truths. At the same time, they hold open in their mind the possibility that they are in error. The combination of belief and skepticism is inherently unstable. Cultures pass through barbarism to civilization and then to decadence as skepticism undermines self-certainty. Civilized people fight selectively but effectively. Obviously all cultures contain people who are barbaric, civilized, or decadent, but each culture is dominated at different times by one principle.

Thirty Methods of Influence--Covey

From Stephen Covey, Principle-Centered Leadership

1. Refrain from saying the unkind or negative thing.
2. Exercise patience with others.
3. Distinguish between the person and the behavior and the performance.
4. Perform anonymous service.
5. Chose the proactive response.
6. Keep the promises you make to others.
7. Focus on the circle of influence.
8. Live the law of love.
9. Assume the best of others.
10. Seek first to understand.
11. Reward open honest expression or questions.
12. Give an understanding response.
13. If offended, take the initiative.
14. Admit your mistakes, apologize, ask for forgiveness.
15. Let arguments fly out open windows.
16. Go one on one.
17. Renew your commitment to thing you have in common.
18. Be influenced by them first.
19. Accept the person and the situation.
20. Prepare your mind and heart before you prepare your speech.
21. Avoid fight or flight--talk through differences.
22. Recognize and take time to teach.
23. Agree on the limits, rules, expectations, and consequences.
24. Don't give up, and don't give in.
25. Be there at the crossroads.
26. Speak the language of logic and emotion.
27. Delegate effectively.
28. Involve people in meaningful projects.
29. Train them in the law of the harvest.
30. Let natural consequences teach responsible behavior.

Head's Blown Off and Your Scarf Will Conceal It

Great quote from Eve Ensler

YOU KNOW WHEN YOU GO OUT WITH SOMEONE
AND YOU THINK THEY'RE IN THE SAME ZONE AS YOU

AND FIVE MINUTES INTO THE CONVERSATION YOU'RE LIKE,
"OH, MY GOD !"
THAT'S WHAT IT WAS LIKE WITH THIS WOMAN.

YOU KNOW, YOU TRY TO BE HIP.
"RIGHT, RIGHT."


MEANWHILE YOUR HEAD'S BEING BLOWN OFF,
YOU JUST HOPE YOUR SCARF WILL CONCEAL IT.

Chilean Miner Rescue in the Big Picture; Making the Impossible Happen

I was really moved by this Radio Editorial.

October 16, 2010 - SCOTT SIMON, host:
National Public Radio

The 33 men pulled up from the depths of Chile's San Jose mine this week looked strong and proud: victors, not victims. Their survival was a marvel that enlisted drillers, engineers, doctors, geologists, scientists, psychiatrists, bureaucrats, clergy, and volunteers from around the world.

But the men saved themselves too. They had the hard, hidden part: living with isolation, hunger and despair for 69 days, trapped in a small, dark space 2,000 feet below the ground that tried to crush them.

They told reporters yesterday the first 17 days were hardest. They had no word from the surface or proof they were being searched for. Some of the men squabbled, which they made a pact never to speak about. They made jokes about cannibalism as they watched themselves starve. After 17 days, the refuge chamber into which they'd scrambled to escape began to feel as close as a tomb.

Now, the men - who may always be known as Los Treinta y tres - can look ahead to sunnier days.

Chile's president, Sebasti�n Pi�era, embraced each miner as he emerged and said: You're not the same after this and neither are we. We will never forget this. I think that we embraces the world. Millions of families, including ours, got our children out of bed to watch the men rise from the earth, wave, sing, and blow kisses. We told our children: remember this night whenever you think something is impossible.

President Pi�era says he also knows that this magnificent achievement stemmed from what may be reckless disregard of mine safety. Never again, he says, will we permit people to work in conditions so unsafe and inhuman as they worked in the San Jose mine.

It's tempting to say the rescue of the miners, like the landing on the moon, or the return of Apollo 13, shows that humans can do anything if we just work together. Landing on the moon, or rescuing 33 miners, are daunting but direct enterprises. They have start points and finish lines. The trials of war, famine, terrorism, poverty, global warming, joblessness and loneliness twist and turn.

This week it was good to be reminded that skill, courage, and dedication can also move the earth. When 33 men were buried, people uncovered strength they never knew was inside. Failure was not an option. This week we were all Chilean. Viva.

National Public Radio Link

CDC 6 Winnable Diseases--Which one can an engineer help win?

In early October, Center for Disease Control Director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden announced a list of six diseases which can be concerned.

1.) Healthcare Associated Infections
2.) HIV
3.) Motor Vehicle Injuries
4.) Obesity, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Food Safety
5.) Teen Pregnancy
6.) Tobacco

There are a lot of specific challenges here for physicians, biomedical engineers, and chemists to tackle. What can the physicists and physical engineers bring to the table?

My first approach is to re-rank them as to the potential role of physical science. The top three would be Motor Vehicles Injuries, Healthcare Associated Infections, and Nutrition and Physical Activity

Motor Vehicle Injury Reduction has been addressed with engineering solutions for decades. Seat Belts, Safety Glass, Airbags, Third Tail light, Anti-locking Brakes, and Crumple Zones have save many lives. Much of these go back to Ralph Nader’s consumer rights investigations of automobiles in the 1960’s.

Auto Safety Systems are often divided into two groups: Crash Avoidance and Crashworthiness. DUI Interlocks and Ceiling Airbags are another emerging area of engineering approaches to these diseases. Maybe related to DUI Interlocks, seat belt interlocks or cell phone interlocks could be explored.

One example of how small technology changes can lead to safety improvements is the use of LED lighting in brake lights. LEDs illuminate faster than the old style incandescent bulbs. A few milliseconds may not seem like much, but when a drive is reacting to a stopped car and slamming on their own brakes, milliseconds may be the difference between rear end and safe stop.

Can the engineers who work with Mass Transportation Technology and Policy help reduce motor vehicle injuries? Trains, subways, buses, and walking are safer than cars.

Healthcare Associated Infections must be addressed with a mix of practices, packaging and monitoring. Could timers increase hand wash times? Could bacteria sensors be used to trigger room sanitizing? Could technologies developed for biological and chemical attacks be more widely used in hospitals? Some materials are being made with anti-bacterial properties. Can these be more widely used in healthcare environments.

With people carrying more and more technology on their person, can this be one way to approach Nutrition and Physical Activity? One analogy is a casino player’s card. In many casinos, guest can obtain personalized cards which can be inserted into slot machine, video poker games, and even some table games like blackjack. Could such a tracking device be used to track physical activity, both on the street and in the gym?

Could a MP3 or smart-phone application be used to track physical activity? Some smart-phones and watches have GPS technology built in; these could used to track mileage for walkers, runners, and hikers. Blue tooth technology could be used to connect to treadmills and cardio machines at the gym?

The three most challenging diseases are Teen Pregnancy, HIV, and Tobacco. All of these are dominated by personal choice, knowledge of outcomes, and practices. Can targeted ventilation systems reduce the problem of second hand smoke?

Phantom Limbs and Medical Science on Public Radio

From the website at Radio Lab

Radio Lab

Warning: this section gets gorey. We'll start off with fatality, trauma, and bear attack. Neurologists Robert Sapolsky and Antonio Damasio weigh in on 19th century philosopher William James, and his theory of emotion (and of bears), which says “emotion is a slave to physiology.”

Then we'll look at sensations of feeling that hang on long after the physiology goes away. Radio Lab takes a field trip to the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (a collection of medical oddities), and finds a photograph of the severed feet of Civil War soldiers (pictured, on the right.). Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C., CP 1043.

And then we'll speed back into the present-day to see brain doctor V.S. Ramachandran solve the case of a painful phantom limb. Pain relief by but mere smoke and mirrors.


Audio Link