Monday, February 14, 2011
Current Affairs ... Foreign Relations/World Affairs ... History ...
I ran across this article today in “The Australian”, entitled “Why the West is on the Wane” by Michael Wesley. I highly recommend it! Back when I was a kid, the world was a battleground between two systems: our western mix of democracy, liberty, capitalism and open markets (with a twist of government regulation), versus the Communist world with its powerful doctrinal apparatus and a state institution that planned out and commanded as much as possible about economic, political and personal life. We all had faith that the west would win, but figured that the final victory would happen sometime well after the turn of the 21st Century.
So it was quite a surprise that the battle suddenly ended around 1990, with Communism the clear loser. Our system had clearly been vindicated, and it was just a question of mopping up until the whole world was a capitalist democracy. Well, who would have guessed that 20 years later it would become apparent that the sun is also setting on the West.
This is one of the most insightful articles on that topic that I’ve read. And who would be better poised to reflect on it than a commentator from Australia, » continue reading …
Friday, February 11, 2011
Photo ...
It’s almost mid-February here in the midst of an especially cold and snowy winter (at least for New Jersey; not sure if what we’ve gone thru would get much attention in Chicago, certainly not Moscow). But there are signs of hope; the days are noticeably longer, and there doesn’t seem to be any snow in the immediate forecast (I hope). I read that the jet stream finally straightened itself out, meaning that we might get an easier ride thru to mid-March. Can Spring be far behind?
A winter like this creates plenty of odd and imposing landscapes from the snow and ice, ugly landscapes that get in your way and tell the soul that times are not favorable. Here are two such landscapes right near my house.
But then again, if one looks hard enough, there can be found occasional vistas of simple beauty, like a shadow in the sun or a streetlight reflecting at night on a shiny, undisturbed field of snow. If you can find one that is not all crunched up. Well, once I started looking, I did find a few virgin fields, so here are two scenes; one by day and one by night.
In a few weeks this will all be replaced by mud, and then by the warmth and greenery of plant growth. And the monster-ish winter of 2011 will be just another bad memory.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Current Affairs ... Science ...
I went over to the Radiolab web site not long ago as to listen to a few recent editions (since Radiolab is on the radio at odd times). About a year ago, I posted a review here about the Radiolab experience – a combination of brilliance and annoying presentation (too much time spent chuckling to jokes and puns that aren’t shared with the listener). The recent stuff is about the same; except that some of it lacks the quality science reporting that made Radiolab worth putting up with.
One short Radiolab piece focused on startling coincidences in people’s lives. And that was about it, other than a quasi-philosophical rumination based on an old Warner Bros cartoon (coyote versus roadrunner) as to whether you would prefer the universe to be against you or to totally ignore you. Maybe this was a hint that our minds have a propensity to make too much of our coincidences, and that coincidences don’t prove that the universe has a “meta-awareness” of us, that determines our luck and lot in life. But it this was left hanging, and no experts were brought out to talk about probabilities of life events or genetic propensities in our brains to seek patterns and trends, even when there are none. So,we get all of the Radiolab smarminess, but none of the hard scientific content. Radiolab-lite; oh, just what we need.
I regularly watch PBS’s Nova scienceNOW, a Radiolab-style version of the classic NOVA show hosted by astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson. And to be honest, Nova scienceNOW is getting more and more annoying too, in the Radiolab tradition. » continue reading …
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Current Affairs ... History ...
The big national media machines (CBS, NY Times, Washington Post, NPR, etc.) and their staff seem quite excited about the recent uprisings in Egypt, giving them much air time and article space. This is quite similar to what happened a year ago when the masses took to the streets (unsuccessfully) in Iran. And there were more well-covered uprisings before that, including the various color-revolutions and velvet revolutions in eastern Europe in the 1990s and early 00s. Oh, and don’t forget Tienanmen Square in China back in 1989; again, much news coverage, but ultimately not a major change in how daily life was to be carried out.
I believe this fascination has something to do with the fact that these news companies are now managed by Baby Boomers who took their university educations in the late 1960’s, when uprising and revolution seemed in the air. Upset about Vietnam War conscription, they imagined the start of a new order, including the overthrow of the governmental and corporate powers in Washington and New York.
However, the unwashed masses outside the major campuses failed to join them, and the end of the draft in the early 70s soon quieted the scene. But we still have the music and culture of those youthful times; » continue reading …
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Brain / Mind ... Religion ...
One of the main tenants of Buddhism is that the self, along with our sense of self-awareness and our ego, is overrated. Buddhism teaches “annata”, the concept of “no-self”. We are earthly beings subject to perpetual change, and therefore there is nothing fundamental and unchanging within us, no matter how deeply you look within. Thus, we do not have a soul or a true essence unique to our own individual identity. We are just chaff blowing around in the wind.
Another key tenant of Buddhism is the importance of regular meditation, so as to realize the deeper truths (including the “fact” that our lives and selves are ultimately an illusion). Interestingly, there is a recent study on the effects of meditation on the human brain, that indicates this to be a bit paradoxical. The NY Times said of this study:
The researchers report that those who meditated for about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress.
More precisely, the study abstract in Psychiatry Journal states:
Analyses in a priori regions of interest confirmed increases in gray matter concentration within the left hippocampus. Whole brain analyses identified increases in the posterior cingulate cortex, the temporo-parietal junction, and the cerebellum in the MBSR group [group that meditated regularly] compared with the controls. The results suggest that participation in MBSR is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.
So, it seems pretty clear that these researchers are saying that » continue reading …
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Personal Reflections ...
I have memories of the long winters and huge snowfalls that happened in the early 1960s, when I was back in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades. As soon as you went outside you were surrounded by the cold white stuff. There were huge piles of it everywhere you looked. We haven’t had winters like that since.
But actually we have. In fact this winter, just about half over now, has seen more snowfall in my area than any year in the past. We’ve already broken the record, and probably still have a handful of storms yet to go. And actually, the runner-up years were not in the early 60s; the winters of 1996 and 2004 rank 4th and 6th; 1961 comes in 7th.
So we have huge snowpiles everywhere you go. And it’s starting to seem to me like like those early 1960s winters. But the piles today must be worse than in 1961, as we’ve had two-thirds more snow this year (with more to come, most likely). So it’s probably a mind question, about how everything seems bigger when you’re a little kid. I remember the strange feeling I would get as a 5th or 6th grader when I would go into a classroom where I had 2nd or 3rd grade. Everything seemed so much smaller than I had remembered! It seemed like a doll-house version of the classroom that was locked in my 2nd grade memories.
And thus the same for the snows of yesterday. They seemed so big and awesome when I was small. Now it takes a snow monster to re-kindle that feeling. And that snow monster has finally come to New Jersey. This will be a winter to remember! (Along with what I recall as monster snowfall, from 1961).
Stay warm, everyone, and keep your chin up. Spring will get here somehow, someday. It always does. This year, we will definitely have earned it!
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Current Affairs ... Food / Drink ...
In 1991 I was in my second year as a development officer with New Community Corporation in Newark, a non-profit community development agency. NCC had already started a number of small business ventures meant to create jobs for the low-income people of Newark, and maybe even leave NCC with a small profit to help start more businesses or build new housing or family centers. That was the theory, anyway; none of its businesses even returned a profit and almost all of them were closed by 2009. However, in the early 90s there was much hope in the air for NCC’s entrepreneurial outreach. It was going to be the next big wave in NCC’s efforts to lead the way to Newark’s revival.
As part of NCC’s entrepreneurial spirit, the leader and founder, Monsignor William Linder, immersed himself in the nitty-gritty of small business management. Aside from going to seminars and talking with vendors and business operators and bankers, he read as much as he could about the topic. His reading list included Inc. magazine, a business publication focusing on the little guys. Being new at the time, I was still one of his “trusted few” (he appreciated unquestioning loyalty, something I couldn’t do for long). So he would pass on some of his readings, including an occasional issue of Inc. This included the August, 1990 issue, which had as its cover feature a story about Rick Duhe and his failed attempt to make it as a soda-pop magnate, based on the spicy cola drink that he thought up. It was called Cajun Cola and it caught the attention of many newspaper writers and TV reporters around 1987 or so, as the next big thing; but it didn’t do well on the supermarket aisles and thus went the way of various other next-big-things that weren’t. (Interestingly, NCC’s business ventures would eventually go the same route, despite much initial media acclaim for Linder’s “social entrepreneurship”).
I read the article about Mr. Duhe and his adventure in soda capitalism and I was moved by it. It was well written and reflected the human / emotional side of what Mr. Duhe went through in thinking Cajun Cola up, in struggling to get it financed, produced and distributed, in receiving high praise from the food and culture critics, only to finally see his new-born business sink into a pit of debt and bankruptcy due to lack of sales. » continue reading …
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Photo ...
Just an imperfect attempt at sharing what I see . . . on a cold January night, outside my living room window. Basically, just some snow and some tree moonshadows on the driveway.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Foreign Relations/World Affairs ...
In my last post, I had a quick aside about Korea, as to whether it can avoid another war. I pondered that question some more, and I conclude, with much trepidation, that there is not going to be another big battle between the north and south. However, that does NOT mean that things are going to be just peachy for the USA with regard to North Korea.
Here’s my geo-political theory du jour. North Korea is essentially China’s puppet, part of China’s plan to weaken the USA’s global strength while keeping it alive as a market for China’s growing factories and trade networks. China cannot afford to take blustery swipes against America and its world dominance, like the old Soviet Union did. But China does want to see that dominance shrunken over time.
North Korea’s unending threats to our interests in Asia certainly are a drag on America’s military and economic posture. This will create an economic, technological, military and doctrinal vacuum in the East, as the USA grows more distracted and weaker. That vacuum will spread throughout the world. » continue reading …
Current Affairs ... Society ...
I’ve expressed my opinion in this blog as to where things in the USA seem to be headed; generally I think they’re heading south. I appreciate the fact that the USA is a great nation simply because people like me can express their political sentiments without fear of reprisal. There are still so many wonderful things about America. But increasingly, things seem to be going wrong. I had much more hope for America’s future back in the late 60’s and early 70’s, especially when the Vietnam war finally came to an end. But since then we’ve gone through a wide variety of crisis situations (e.g., energy shortages, terrorism, financial collapse, and once again, political assassination), and although things got better every time, the healing never seemed complete. It seems as though changes and problems are coming at us quicker and quicker every year, and are starting to overwhelm our national resolve. America once seemed to have unlimited resolve, but I’m not so sure about that anymore.
But that’s just me. I thought it might be interesting to consider another viewpoint, from a fellow who grew up in Canada. Back in 1984, in his early middle age (after completing med school and becoming a doctor), he moved to the USA and started a family here. Why? Here are some of his thoughts:
At the time, Canada’s economy was weaker and the country appeared to be on a socialist tack. Weather was a big factor also; I don’t like 5 months of winter, and the practice climate for MD’s was deteriorating. Ironically, this was about the time the US economy began to develop the imbalances that today have reached unsustainable proportions.
» continue reading …
