I Knew That!

And what I knew was… wrong. For values of “wrong” that include the outdated. You see, when I was in grade school, I really, really did not pay attention most of the time. First grade taught me that school was a bit stupid. “Who are Dick and Jane that I should care one whit about their inane activities?” was the basic reaction my six-year-old mind had to the silly idea that I should be taught to read, for example. I was a naturally ego-centric six-year-old, and so I really could not understand why people were trying to “teach” (for values of “teaching” that included crippling my reading with “look-say” crap) me how to do something I already did, less well. That tended to color my response to school right off the bat.

But there were subjects that caught my young mind, even though the methods of presentation were boring or off-putting. Geography is one example. Maps had fascinated me from my earliest recollections of them. Boundaries, places, geographical features: all gripped my imagination. So, when in third grade the subject of the countries of the Americas–North and South–and the States of the Union were presented in class, I ate that stuff up with a spoon.

But I never noticed until just recently that in 1960 Brazil had changed its capital. That’s 52 years of “seeing” (in my mind’s eye) the capital of Brazil as being in the wrong place, with the wrong name.

But that’s OK. I don’t plan on traveling there anyway. *heh* That’s kind of how I view African nations anymore, too. I DGARA anymore what someone’s calling some crappy lil third world country this week or what the latest warlord has declared to be the capital.

Oh, wait:back on topic? OK. The map is not the territory, even with the best maps colored by the most fecund imaginations. And the best maps are incomplete, outdated. Even the county assessor’s aerial survey map of my own house is inaccurate and outdated (two slightly different things: the property line is an approximation and there’ve been notable changes in exterior structure, etc. since the photos were taken).

All models of reality are just that: models, approximations based on a data set which is necessarily less than the reality they represent. What we know from models is even less than the models themselves, because the models are always based on more information than they represent and our grasp of even the models themselves may well be incomplete as well. And reality is a moving target while models, or maps, of reality are at best snapshots.

And that’s part of the problem–not all by any means, but part–with the Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Scare-ism models and true believers’ dogmatic acceptance of the Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Scare-ism’s high priests’ pronouncements from those models. All the models the cult bases its beliefs on are extremely simplistic representations of a few climate factors from a huge, highly complex system, so the models themselves, as has been demonstrated over and over again, are deeply flawed (none of the Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Scare-ism’s models predicting doom and gloom have yet been able to “post-dict” previous era’s climate, for example. If they cannot “post-dict” what temperatures, for example, were in 1900, then they’re essentially useless in predicting future temps).

Just remember whenever someone says “the science is settled” in any area–not just the area claimed by the Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Scare-ism–maps change, and maps are far less complex and open to change than our understanding of the simplest things in scientific endeavors. Read Aristotle. Genius. Wrong. Read Newton. Genius. Wrong. Read Galileo. Genius. Wrong.

Read Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Scare-ism’s high priests. Dumb. And Dumber. And “wronger” than any of the geniuses who preceded them and whose graves they piss upon with their insistence that their poor models–rain-faded sidewalk chalk sketches of a child’s crayon drawing of a painting of a photo of a shadow of a statue of a man would be a more accurate representation of a man than Warmistas’ models are of climate change–have “settled” the science.

Remember: just because the capital of Brazil was Rio de Janeiro (under two different names) for about 400 years doesn’t mean it still is.

“A Day Late…

Forty-six years ago, I purchased a set of books, the Great Books of the Western World as compiled by Mortimer J. Adler, et al. The 54-volume set was a tad expensive for a high school kid (twice what I paid for my first car, in fact; nowadays, USED copies of the set run from ~$350 to ~$1,200 on Amazon), but has been a great resource for decades. Sadly, the bindings are in rough shape (largely the result of toddlers getting their hands on ’em a couple of decades and more back, as well as simple wear from use), and some volumes are in downright raggedy shape.

Fast forward to today. I picked up 40 of the 54 volumes in excellent condition at a library books sale of donated books. Most appear completely unread, untouched, although volume 1 of the complete works of Shakespeare is well worn (though still not as worn as my original copy). Glad to have ’em. Oh, why only 40 of the 54? Well, volume 2, the first of two volumes comprising the “Syntopicon” was missing from the donated collection, and 13 other volumes had been purchased by one person before I purchased the rest.

I’ll probably print up some book covers for the “raggedy” copies in my original set and place them in among the “new” set for use, as I still use them for reference, although I have re-read few of them entirely in the last couple of decades. I may also add volumes from the 1990 “second edition” of the collection, at least some works that I don’t already own in other editions as separate copies–who doesn’t already own at least one copy of Kierkegaard’s “Fear and Trembling” for example, or “Waiting for Godot” [Beckett], Animal Farm [Orwell], etc.? I think I may skip volumes 59 and 60 (heavy on 20th Century) from the new edition. I despise Joyce, detest Faulkner and Ftzgerald, and Virginia Woolf gives me a rash. The ones in the collection that are worth anything, IMO, I already have, usually in multiple copies (Brecht, Beckett, Chekhov, Eliot, Shaw and others), anyway.

The recent “classes” via Hillsdale College dealing with the Constitution (thanks for the tip, Diane) have already gotten me re-reading background the Founders drew on in the discussions that formed our national government, so this is a timely find for me.

So, I worked a little bit tonight on some bookshelves. *heh* I may actually get our books organized more sensibly this year. Hey! It could happen! At least I have plenty to read and plenty to re-read (and plenty that’s worth re-reading) handy.


BTW, from that great *cough* reference work, Wikipedia (which nevertheless does have a few good articles), this:

“The scientific and mathematical selections also came under criticism for being incomprehensible to the average reader… “

Well, boo-hoo. Literacy is more than just puzzling out weird hieroglyphs on a page. Other criticisms of the collection are on a par with that one. *yawn* Yes, it’s incomplete, but hey, “Great” used to mean something more than simply “good” or “trendy” or “makes feminazis and multi-cultis feel good”.


Addendum 2: It’s interesting, to me at least, that this work was compiled and the “Great Conversation of Ideas” (largely via the tool of the Syntopicon–a monumental work in and of itself, IMO) fostered as a project sponsored by the University of Chicago, and yet The Zero, that soi-disant “constitutional scholar” who (mis)taught as an adjunct prof at that institution, seems completely unaware of the works (and ideas) contained in this collection except in a sort of weird, twisted mythological manner, since he never seems to get references to Western Civ (history OR concepts) anywhere near right.

Late Bloomer

I’ve always been a late bloomer in nearly every aspect of my life. Just slow, I guess, or maybe I’ve just been distracted a lot of the time by the one or two areas where I “bloomed” early, I dunno.

Anywho, I do know what delayed my love affair with coffee for a while. Sophomore year in high school. Band trip into Mexico. We stayed in all kindsa places–whatever the communities would arrange for lodging. Big towns/cities: maybe commercial lodging facilities. Small towns? Notsomuch. I recall lodging accommodations in a convent–yeh, a convent. They were pretty hard up to take on a bunch of high school boys as lodgers even for a night.

Breakfast the next morning? Some questionable egg dish, tortillas and some “fresh ground” coffee. No, I mean it tasted like some ground they’d just dug up and put in the pot to boil. Overnight. Those of us who tried it wanted to take back the previous night’s concert for the town.

It was four years before I tried coffee again.

One Thing About eBooks…

…and particularly Kindle books, is the ease of taking notes within the books–and searching notes. This is especially useful for those books that have error reporting enabled. One of my fav notes to submit in an error report is, “Consult Inigo Montoya. (No, not that quote; the other one.)” I generally slug that comment in wherever a word is misused. And, oh, am I finding a slew of those! The quality of proof readingand copy editing has really, really declined in recent years, and in self-published books it is frequently non-existent… or of a “quality” that can only–charitably–be described as comparable to toxic sewer sludge.

Oh, well, at least I have the joy of making LOADS of snarky notes, and even–happy-happy-joy-joy–submitting a few as “error reports”.

Gottalovethat.

Timeless Wisdom

I don’t know who first said it (and am not even sure where I last saw it *heh*), but this ranks up there with, “Never get involved in a land war in Asia,”* as timeless wisdom:

“A human without at least one sharp pointy thing and the ability to start a fire is just whining hairless ape in most survival situations.”

Yeh, I feel naked without at least two or three “sharp pointy things” on my person at all times, and since I can start a fire with my burning gaze of scorn… *heh*

Continue reading “Timeless Wisdom”

Consider the Lilies…

“Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Luke 12:27

OK, so the picture isn’t of “lilies of the field” but another, as beautiful and even more useful, flower.

Consider the dandelion, cursed by dunderheaded, tasteless American enstupiates who deem it a weed simply because it can enrich their dull, boring, monochromatic lawns with glorious color and beautiful textures. This flower gifts those who aren’t too dull-witted to see with both a beautiful, slightly variegated green and a stunning, joyous yellow. Moreover, its leaves, roots and flower are all highly nutritious and, when properly prepared and served, delicious as well. Not only that, but if one were to perform a simple search for medicinal properties of dandelions, one would quickly discover that the plant has multiple medicinal properties above and beyond its nutritional values.

And the stem even has uses beyond nutritive and therapeutic values. Perform a search for “dandelion latex”. Surprising, no? (Those in the know have answered, “No.” *heh*) Moreover, the latex produced from dandelions causes far fewer allergic reactions than the common rubber plant latex.

And this wonderful plant is exceptionally hardy! Just ask any idiot who’s tried to eliminate it from their ugly, boring, monochromatic lawn. Oh, and self-propagating!

What more could one ask from a beautiful ornament of nature? Beauty, utility, hardiness and easy propagation! This wonderful flower has it all! I rejoice that my dandelion crop is so very full this year, so far, and am doing everything within my power to help my neighbors’ yards experience the same bounty.

*heh*


Oh, and my wild allium “crop” is also doing well. Happy-happy-joy-joy!

🙂

Books

[See Update 2 below.]

I’ve said I read a lot, and I do, but I’ve still not read all the books I consider it’d take to become really literate, some of the old–and even “new”–classics, in particular. Oh, I got a set of The Great Books in high school and found them thoroughly engaging (I even “neglected” to purchase the lit–and most of the historical “source” books for a sophomore Western Civ course in college… since I already had ’em in my dorm room in my GB collection). But TGB doesn’t encompass all the useful classic literature*, and a few really powerful works have been authored in the last century or so that are worth including as “new” classics, so…

I’ve been trying to flesh out my library of readings over the past couple of decades, especially. Some barriers:

  • Local libraries are often a little thin on really significant works, and the county library here in America’s Third World County is particularly thin in that regard. Besides, libraries want the books returned, generally disapprove of notes written in the books in their collection and often have editions that are not well-formatted, especially when considering PD works, for some reason.
  • Book budget and space. Face it, I don’t have room to properly store the books I already have, and books are expensive–even used books. Often, the books I’ve been looking for have been a bit hard to find, especially in editions that are within my budget.

Enter eBooks. For several years now I’ve been collecting an eBook library I can read in text or html format on my computers. That has worked quite well, and the 1,000s of PD books available at Project Gutenberg have provided me a great selection. Storing the books has been no problem, and sorting through my electronic library is easy-peasy.

Recently, with the Kindle Fire given to me by Son&Heir as a Xmas gift, I’ve been re-downloading almost all (it’s a work in progress) the eBooks I had already downloaded in text or html as Kindle-formatted books… then uploading them to my Amazon Cloud storage. I’ve also been duplicating the Great Books collection in Kindle format so that I can eventually–hopefully–have all my library that it’s possible to have in electronic format, even, where possible (and it has proven to be possible in more cases than I had thought it would be), old sci-fi books I’ve had for 40 or more years.

Here’s one, of many, places I’ve been using to obtain PD books in Kindle format recently:

freekindlebooks.org Searches for free eBooks or free Kindle books can result in more than you’ll have time for. A lot of free eBooks are self-published, and, of course, many are dreck. Still, some new self-published eBooks are quite good.

Go ahead. Make a list of all the books you always thought you ought to read and hunt ’em down. There may well be a free eBook version available.


*For example, I had not in earlier years read Mark Twain’s “1601: Conversation, as it was the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors” but have since repaired that unfortunate lacuna in my literary education. *heh*


Update: I had scheduled some car work for this A.M., so I downloaded a couple of lightweight novels to read while keeping an eye out on the work being done. I wasn’t expecting much, but I expected that the $0.99 book would at least have had a lil better proofing than the freebie.

Oh, boy, was I wrong!

Lousy plotting. Jejune characters. And not a page without glaring grammar, punctuation and spelling errors, combined with the occasional nonsensical sentence structure, loads of misused words, misplaced apostrophes and capitalizations. Was this written when the author was in seventh grade or something and then self-published without the benefit of any proofreading at all?

And then there’s the worthless ending.

A waste of $0.99.

The freebie has at least been better edited. Oh, it’s still just a “skim once” (if that) book, but although it has some idiosyncratic word uses and lousy punctuation, at least the grammar is better* (although that’s almost damning with faint praise) and the spelling is less atrocious–almost as though this book had been exposed to a spell checker.


Update 2: OTOH, another freebie (well, I could swear it was free when I downloaded it the other day–no, really!), The Truth About Sharks and Pigeons by Matt Phillips, is as much fun as reading a Douglas Adams book, maybe more. Consider,

Dully he wondered if his whole life was about to flash before his eyes, and he wondered if it would be okay to skip that bit as it really wasn’t going to be very interesting.

Strangely, the book’s well-written enough that chuckles like that one don’t seem to get stale.

Those Frustrating Brit Mystery Shows

You know the ones I mean: generally well-acted, pretty darned good (as in superior to most cable fare on US TV) production values, great music and sound, scenery and settings to die for, interesting faces and voices, etc. OTOH, pretty predictable plots, lots of evidence why Britain used to be “GREAT Britain” (with tons of pointers for those who want to emasculate the US as well *sigh* ) and far too much use of “classic” whodunit camera techniques. And what’s with the stupid four-episode “seasons”? That’s pretty crappy, guys. Just sayin’.

So many good things hampered by a few glaring faults. Better than what I can find on cable TV, though.


Still… Positives include Inspector Lewis, the spinoff from the long success of the Inspector Morse books and the series. Sometimes I want to say, “Take Inspector Lewis, PLEASE,” but usually it’s really quite good on the whole. An example: the theme music. Just wonderful stuff, but I could swear one motif in the theme is outright “borrowing” of a Beethoven motif. That in itself is only to the good, of course (heck, I’ve “borrowed” a motif here and there for development into something else, myself), if I am correct (just noticed it–yeh, I’m kinda slow *heh*–and haven’t replayed the section I’m thinking of in my mind’s ear, but it seems so at first thought), but, regardless, that it even evokes such a thought is an indication of the quality of the music.

And that reminds me: it’s probably time for my quarterly refreshment of Beethoven’s oeuvre in my mind’s ear (it used to need refreshment less often for memory replay, but my mind’s ear just ain’t what it used ta be, ya know? :-)). Fortunately, just about every recording of every Beethoven work I’ve been able to lay my hands on is now stored on my Amazon Cloud Drive (as well as available to load en masse onto a pocket-sized mp3 player) and accessible to listen to almost anywhere on multiple devices.

So, thanks to the prod from Inspector Lewis, I’ll be “seeing” the aural landscapes of Beethoven’s mind’s ear a bit more directly over the next couple of weeks’ time. Thanks, Robbie.

Kitchy or Just Dumb?

Not a lot to choose from between the two, and not much wiggle room at all in labeling this creepy idea. If I were to see something like this in real life, I’d be sorely tempted to dope slap a couple of “idjits”:

“Balance” from the Hivemind

So, the usual Hivemind and barking mad leftards are in an uproar for the blowhard Limbaugh’s characterization of a confessed libertine as a “slut”.

“slut: noun an immoral or dissolute woman”

Seems fair. In my opinion, it closely resembles (closely resembles” as in “seems to be a perfect fit for”) Sandra Fluke’s own confession of her “need” to have a Roman Catholic educational institution finance the means for her to have “protected” sex when, where and however she pleases with whatever (and however many) partners she can get to have sex with her.

Seems like she confessed to at the very least “needing” to engage in sluttish behavior to me.

So what’s the problem? It’s “discourteous” or “ungentlemanly” or some such thing according to standards rejected by the Hivemind and associated barking mad leftards? Not as applied to their own speech standards which approve of publicly voicing rape fantasies and worse about such people as Sarah Palin and Laura Ingraham, while calling them by much, much more vulgar, even obscene, terms.

Of course that’s the problem. Their “standards” are simply this: “We can say and do anything we damned well please, and anyone who disagrees with us can say only what we allow them to.” If that were not the case, then Hivemind members like Keith Olbermann, Bill Maher, Mike Malloy and a rogue’s gallery of others would have been tarred, feathered and run out of the business long ago. Sample a little typical “rational” and “civil” discourse from the Hivemind’s Malloy, as but one small example of thousands:

Get that. Malloly celebrates the deaths of tornado victims and mocks religious beliefs he deems to be held by people in the so-called “Bible Belt”–which happens, in his tirade, to coincide with the locations of most of those killed by recent tornadoes.

Typical of the nasty, hate-filled, hate-spewing leftard Hivemind. In fact, it’s so normative that people are largely inured to it, it seems, and simply accept their hate-filled spew as normal speech. Have someone push back with an accurate description of an anointed, manufactured hero/ine of the Hivemind, though, and there will be hell to pay, as the blowhard Limbaugh discovered.


BTW, Rush Limbaugh a “blowhard”? Yep. Anyone who will apologize for simply speaking what would seem to the truth to any rational observer is a blowhard.