Misguided Evolution

Some animals evolve cool camoflauge, claws, fangs, the ability to soar high above, really sharp eyesight or the ability to grind and then mass manufacture eyeglasses.

Some species are not so lucky. Through some weird genetic turn of events, they just get born in a dark area with a light bulb in their stomache. Like a lit-up cheap highway eatery on a hungry dark night, it is an open invitation to diners. Why his frog ancestors ever thought it was a good idea to keep this genetic development is beyond me? If I ever saw anything with a translucent red light glowing from its abdomen, I would mock or run relative to size. I certainly would not mate with it in the hope of mixing its genes with mine. But taste is subjective regardless of species, and that is how we get the glowing Cuban Tree Frog. Way to go douchebag.

Smiling Makes You Live Longer, Frowning Turns Your Kids Gay

From the Globe and Mail:

He who laughs, lasts
“It has long been thought that a happy disposition can [have an] impact on life expectancy, and the recent study by experts at Wayne State University in Michigan seems to back this,” The Daily Telegraph reports. “They came to their conclusions by studying 230 pictures of major-league baseball players printed in the 1952 baseball register. … Researchers then ranked the players according to their smiles and laughter lines. … Of the 184 players who had since died, those in the ‘no smile’ section lived an average of 72.9 years while the ‘partial smile’ group lived to around the age of 75. Those with the widest grins lived an average of 79.9 years – a full seven more years than their glum colleagues. The study also found that putting on a false smile did not work, as only those who looked genuinely happy had the extra life expectancy.”

Smiling leads to health. This is just good news and a word of warning to those who go through life with a gnarled world view. On the flipside, smiling is also a sign of naivete. I always thought naiveousiousness was an underated disposition. In a society where knowledge = power, naivete has always been discouraged. Those engaging in it got what they deserved. Now we know that naivete might be a long term survival tactic on an evolutionary scale.

Ponderance: The opposite of naivete is shrewdness. Shrewdness has value in its own right. If you are shrewd and can see the 'true nature of things'; you are likely not to get tricked by street-wise con men in a game of chance for example. The naive man is likely to lose it all (while smiling before, during and after). But at the same time, the shrewd man is likely to die early. So, perhaps, it is meta-shrewd to actually be naive because it allows one to achieve arguably the over-arching goal of life - longevity.

Perhaps, the health benefits of naivete also explain the benefits of faith-based religions. Faith, by its very nature, draws lines in the sand where the questioning stops, and reason no longer has credence. It encourages a naivete. And, we all know that faith can be comforting. And, now, apparently, healthy.

Possible Equations:

Naiveness + smiling = some hardship in life through being duped + an additional 5 years on your life vs. avg. life span

Shrewdness + a sharp eye = ability to read social actions - .9 years off average life span

Hot Hands and Random Chance

Rationalists tend to believe that the notion of 'hot hands' in sport are foolish notions that result from the average sports fan's failure to think rationally and to understand the true nature of probability. According to them, a hot (athletically, not sexually) basketball player who has hit his last 5 shots should be no more likely to the next one than his average shotting percentage would indicate. For such a rationalist or skeptical view see http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/10-04-07/#feature

The skeptics are incorrect.

I agree that probabalistically a hot player would be no more likely to hit the next shot - But this is the result of probability theory's inability to account for any behavior that falls outside the study of averages. Proabability theory is impovershed in this way, and a poor predictor of any events involving phenomena that falls outside its controlled experiments. This problem is componunded by its many of its advocates inability to properly understand the theory itself.
According to probability theorists, a player will hit an accuracy streak through chance alone. If I flip a coin enough times then odds are that eventually I will flip 'heads' 7 times in a row. This will look like a hot hand if I intend to hit 'heads'. But in reality, its just probable and will sort its itself out to 50/50 in time. There is no magic hand.

But, this ignores that shooting is a skill. There are better and worse ways to take shots. When someone is in the zone or has the magic hand his body is remembering accurately the best and minute details of the best physical position(or motion) to be in. When he hits many in a row, this position is constantly being reinforced and is thus easier for his body to remember and falls naturally and (often) unconsciously into place. That is, after all, why we practice - so our bodies will do the correct things naturally in reflexive situations.

When someone is in a cold streak, his body has forgotten the better motion. Physical memory is fleeting. Linguistic memory is more permanent as we can write things down and look back at it later. No such thing is possible with the body. At times, we either remember (or relearn it) or don't have it. Wittgenstein's Private Language Argument makes a similar point to this. He said there can be no non-social language that only one person could understand because there would be no way to know you are recursively referring to the same thing more than once. With private language also goes non0cncious body language.

Further, body motion during hot streaks is often non-conscious. Tennis players have no time to compute a serve being directed at them at professional level speeds. Not that it would really help them to think about it. Rather, their movement is all pre-reflexive habit born out of endless practice. Players who do hit cold streaks often complain about over thinking their game.

So, yes, hot hands do exist, and yes, I would bet on the player on a streak. All it takes is understanding that sports are skill-based and quite unlike coin tosses. I shouldn't really even have to point this out.

Rationalists are a proud lot and like to show average people the error in thinking about superstitious magic hands and streaks. Its part of what being an asshole is all about. But, if you are going to be arrogant, its best to be correct and undertstand the phenomena you are investigating.

Certainly Post-Modern but Bad?

This is a new Art Museum in Metz, France. Its hard to tell if its an eyesore or fascinating. At the outset, it certainly seems stupid. The inspiration for the roof was on old straw hat bought by the architect years ago at a flea market.

Architecture is, in the main, supposed to blend in with the surroundings. If the area is traditional, it should with some exceptions fit in with that motif. Many municipal construction codes reflect this hope. But there is also beauty in variety and it is often pleasurable to walk around a neighbourhood where you can feast eyes on different style buildings that clash but never dominate one another. And, there is something almost inherently liberal about the idea.

It should come as no surprise that the architect to this building is Japanese. The Japanese have been building riduculous, overly thought, unlivable structures since the early 60's. The Pruitt-Igoe housing project is the scarriest example of note. In Pruiit- Igoe's case, it was modernity rum amok, with thought only to rationality and efficiency; which people have never really cared for when constructing dwellings. In the Metz museum's case above, it is post-modernity run amok, with all thought to play and none to the people who have to drive by a concrete hat with paintings inside everyday. Though the notion is vague, livability must come first in any architectural considerations. Play and efficiency only after.

In contrast, look at this kick-ass building from Bilbao, Spain. No hat, no matter how stunning or beautiful could ever inspire the builiding of this work of art. This shits all the fuck over any old weirdo straw hat.

The Emergence of a City

Why do cities emerge in some places but not others? This isn't a hidden fact, rather its something we learn in Grade 8 Social Studies. But its easily forgotten, and lost with time.

We know that Detroit is a city built by the automobile ... but why Detroit at all? Apparently, Detroit is close to ore deposits which help build cars somehow.

One thing that seems to clearly to the emergence of a city is a bay. A bay is an area of water mostly surrounded or otherwise demarcated by land. Bays generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds. Lack of winds and waves can be quite conducive to commerce and are also nice to look at.

Not so long ago, the sea was the most obvious (and, sometimes only) choice for transport of goods. In some ways, it still is. It just doesn't make sense to get your imported canned peas flown in. We are capable of patience. With the importance of shipping routes goes bays (or rivers, at least).

Will our concept of urban center ever escape from the notion of natal proximity? Probably not. It should be one of those few constants that define the anthromorphic condition of living on this hot and salty planet.

There are some exceptions. Phoenix (the city not the mythical bird) is not near any major water source suitable for the shipment of goods but is now a major city. But, this should remain an exception. (FYI: Residents of Phoenix= Phoenicians.... That's Fucked!) In this vein, there will be no major cities in Kazakstan or anywhere on the Asian plain. Likewise, Saskatchewan shall remain Saskatchewan, never to be NYC.

And, don't tell me about trucking. The heyday of trucking has passed due to rising fuel costs - and, in its time, could not solely maintain a signifigant city of great population density without aid of harbour, river or bay. Boats needn't ever worry about fuel. Everyone knows that boats are fueled by their respective captains love of the sea.

Possible Equation(s)

(Proximity to) Natural Resource multiplied by (Proximity to) Bay or Harbour + Established Rule of Law (necessary for flourishment eg. see Africa) = Emergence of City

(Proximity to) minor River + Emergence of Air Conditioning + Old People who like Dry Air = Phoenix

Mushrooms and Science

When I was young, there was a homeless man in the park who started to think he was an orange after indulging in too many psycheledelics. It was a cautionary story. We all knew that overindulgence could lead to the average person quitting Pink Floyd at the first beckoning of fame and then retreating to the British countryside to chew your hand and live with your mom. That was all a fate we all wanted to avoid.

Nevertheless, you knew something was up with mushrooms. They were just far too strong and powerful. For all the industrial waste churned out like tie-dye and Timothy Leary; there had to be something scientists could do to make it respectable, cold, bureaucratic but useful. And perhaps they have ...

Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again
By JOHN TIERNEY
Published: April 11, 2010
As a retired clinical psychologist, Clark Martin was well acquainted with traditional treatments for depression, but his own case seemed untreatable as he struggled through chemotherapy and other grueling regimens for kidney cancer. Counseling seemed futile to him. So did the antidepressant pills he tried.
Nothing had any lasting effect until, at the age of 65, he had his first psychedelic experience. He left his home in Vancouver, Wash., to take part in an experiment at Johns Hopkins medical school involving psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient found in certain mushrooms.
Scientists are taking a new look at hallucinogens, which became taboo among regulators after enthusiasts like Timothy Leary promoted them in the 1960s with the slogan “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Now, using rigorous protocols and safeguards, scientists have won permission to study once again the drugs’ potential for treating mental problems and illuminating the nature of consciousness.
After taking the hallucinogen, Dr. Martin put on an eye mask and headphones, and lay on a couch listening to classical music as he contemplated the universe.
“All of a sudden, everything familiar started evaporating,” he recalled. “Imagine you fall off a boat out in the open ocean, and you turn around, and the boat is gone. And then the water’s gone. And then you’re gone.”
Today, more than a year later, Dr. Martin credits that six-hour experience with helping him overcome his depression and profoundly transforming his relationships with his daughter and friends. He ranks it among the most meaningful events of his life, which makes him a fairly typical member of a growing club of experimental subjects.
Scientists are especially intrigued by the similarities between hallucinogenic experiences and the life-changing revelations reported throughout history by religious mystics and those who meditate. These similarities have been identified in neural imaging studies conducted by Swiss researchers and in experiments led by Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins.
In one of Dr. Griffiths’s first studies, involving 36 people with no serious physical or emotional problems, he and colleagues found that psilocybin could induce what the experimental subjects described as a profound spiritual experience with lasting positive effects for most of them. None had had any previous experience with hallucinogens, and none were even sure what drug was being administered. The monitors sometimes had to console people through periods of anxiety, but these were generally short-lived, and none of the people reported any serious negative effects. In a survey conducted two months later, the people who received psilocybin reported significantly more improvements in their general feelings and behavior than did the members of the control group.
After 14 months, most of the psilocybin subjects once again expressed more satisfaction with their lives and rated the experience as one of the five most meaningful events of their lives.
Dr. Martin’s experience is fairly typical, an improved outlook on life after an experience in which the boundaries between the self and others disappear.
Dr. Martin and other subjects described their egos and bodies vanishing as they felt part of some larger state of consciousness in which their personal worries and insecurities vanished. They found themselves reviewing past relationships with lovers and relatives with a new sense of empathy.
“It was a whole personality shift for me,” Dr. Martin said. “I wasn’t any longer attached to my performance and trying to control things. I could see that the really good things in life will happen if you just show up and share your natural enthusiasms with people. You have a feeling of attunement with other people.”
The subjects’ reports mirrored so closely the accounts of religious mystical experiences, Dr. Griffiths said, that it seems likely the human brain is wired to undergo these “unitive” experiences, perhaps because of some evolutionary advantage.
““There’s this coming together of science and spirituality,” said Rick Doblin, the executive director of MAPS. “We’re hoping that the mainstream and the psychedelic community can meet in the middle and avoid another culture war. Thanks to changes over the last 40 years in the social acceptance of the hospice movement and yoga and meditation, our culture is much more receptive now, and we’re showing that these drugs can provide benefits that current treatments can’t.”
Researchers are reporting preliminary success in using psilocybin to ease the anxiety of patients with terminal illnesses. Dr. Charles S. Grob, a psychiatrist who is involved in an experiment at U.C.L.A., describes it as “existential medicine” that helps dying people overcome fear, panic and depression.
“Under the influences of hallucinogens,” Dr. Grob writes, “individuals transcend their primary identification with their bodies and experience ego-free states before the time of their actual physical demise, and return with a new perspective and profound acceptance of the life constant: change.”

Possible Equation(s):

Psychedelics + Mature age + Depression + Controlled Bureaucratic Circumstance - minus California = Happiness

Psychedelics + California + Jesus Freaks - Maturity (or Job) divided by the number of times you halucinate without psychedelics X multiplied by the amount of New Riders of the Purple Sage Concerts (NRPoS) attended = Joining the Manson Family Becoming An Orange

Two Possible Results:

Psychedelics are wasted on the young.

Timothy Leary and his pseudoscience were the actual worst possible things for the expansion of the use of psychedelics.

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Apparently, all kinds of shit in daily life 100 years ago wasn't experienced in monochrome. Apparently, black and white was a view only we have of those times based on a limitation present in the technology of photography at that point and not a reality faced by those living within those times. Tea picking was one of the joys early century folk experienced in color. This takes place in Russia 1905.

Here's another ...

Also Russia 1910

Apt Observatoration: Experiencing the world in color hardly seems worthwhile if you have to spend all glamourous day at a gravel pit. The woman on the left is obviously not wearing a bra.





Working Hard or Hardly Working? ...

Old People and Social Wisdom

From Social Studies, Globe and Mail

It turns out grandma was right: Listen to your elders,” Randolph Schmid reports for Associated Press. “New research indicates they are indeed wiser – in knowing how to deal with conflicts and accepting life’s uncertainties and change. It isn’t a question of how many facts someone knows, or being able to operate a TV remote, but rather how to handle disagreements – social wisdom. And researchers led by Richard Nisbett of the University of Michigan found that older people were more likely than younger or middle-aged ones to recognize that values differ, to acknowledge uncertainties, to accept that things change over time and to acknowledge others’ points of view. ‘Age effects on wisdom hold at every level of social class, education and IQ,’ they report in … Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

This strikes me as counter-intuitive: old people being more open minded about others opinions. For me, old people tend to like ethnic jokes in a manner that belies a deep felt suspicion of the subjects of said jokes. Also, they give the stink eye to kids who ride dirtbikes down the street.

Perhaps, the age-tolerance connection is true but in a very local way. I don't think of the elderly as being greatly receptive to new large scale social trends or hair styles, but perhaps they can see the validity in the viewpoints of those around them - grandchildren, neighbours, family. They are certainly kinder to grandchildren than parents are.

The connection between social wisdom and tolerance of different view points is interesting if not necessary. If the old get social wisdom, then what does youth get? Probably passion. Passion for Belief X usually belies intolerance about Belief -X. How can one be passionate about a belief whilst acknowledging that the contrary viewpoint to said belief has a pretty good chance of being correct. For example, people passionate about ending racism are not likely going to have a great appreciation for the viewpoint of racists (nor, perhaps, should they). Older people, perhaps, may try to be more conciliatory to those viewpoints even if they personally abhor them. They may seem them as inevfitabilites of human nature that need to be worked with rather than eradicated outright.

Youth seems to beget drive. Artistic and intellectual achievement tend to be a largely young man's game. Drive is connected to passion, which may be connected with a certain narrow mindedness of intolerance.

Possible Equations:

Intolerance + Ideology + view of Change as Possible - your age from 65 = Passion

Passion = Creativity (eg. early Kinks)

Tolerance + Recognition of Inevitabilty of Differing Opinions (experience of meeting douches multiplied by # of years lived) + calcium deficiency + hip replacement surgery= Pragmatism and Balance

but ... (the Negative Remainder)

Pragmatism and Balance = shitty works of art (musicians over 35)

Sagae - Part 2 (Country Life)

Founded 400 years years by Dutch migrant workers driving their station wagons through Japan, Sagae is a cherry and rice growing town. The Dutch proceeded to be massacered by the surrounding locals, but their memory lingers on in one dilapidated windmill and a special species of tulip native only to Sagae.

Currently, the two types of people living in Sagae are those too young to move away and those who would never fathom wanting to leave the place. Japan doesnt't have the love of the countryside the country folk of Canada and America do. If you are country folk in Japan, you hide the fact and stare gape-jawed at city folk just passing through in a tone of quiet awe. In contrast, North American rurality think their brethren in the city are gay. Both are just two forms of the same activity : Learning how to cope though hatred - either self (Japanese) or other (N. American) directed. Loathing can be highly functional (and fun, and constructive).

Dog Eating

I've eaten dog. Once. By mistake. In China.

I attempted to order duck soup at a resturaunt in the south Shinghfhdj province of China near Hong Kong in this restuarant. The staff heard dog soup and thats what we got. Realization was had post-eating.

Fact: Tastes like beef

Bad Moustaches

Like all things of grand and timeless scale, facial hair is marked by contrasts. It can make a man a real man; yet destroy a woman. It can make one seem rugged, yet unworthy of trust. Two of its more famous styles are French in origin - the moustache and the goutee - yet the French eschew it.

For your consideration, an example of bad facial hair...

This lengthy moustache presents both barriers to basic necessities like eating foods, and the sweeter things in life - like being active socially or having friends. The thought of this man eating soup turns my stomache. I shudder to think that this could be a larger social trend of that historical period because it would throw my whole love of humanity - or, at least, mid-19th century humanity - into question.

If you're going to grow a moustache, do it right ...

Sagae - City of Magic Part 1

Ok, so its not really a city of magic. And, I've heard it described as one of the ugliest towns a well-travelled person had ever scene. But that person was kind of a jerk.

Its a city I lived in for a few months located in Yamagata-Prefecture Japan. Its cold there; especially beautiful in the winter when a soft white layer blankets the ugly. You can see mountains in the far distance if you are inclined to gaze out windows in search of such things.

The houses are 2 and 3 stories big and hold multi-generational families of 5 and 6. Its one of the few places in Japan not to have a lot of apartments. The houses are fairly intersting looking: people construct home-made dilapidated additions on then giving box-cutter houses an original feel. Building an attachment onto a house is actually easier in bureaucratic Japan. Canada and America have loads of red-tape determining what type of structures may or may not be built. Public safety and soft paternalism are the reason. Contrastingly, Japan's bureaucracy is less concerned with safety that with adding additional fees to beef up coffers; they haven't found a way to effectivly levy fees for building permits. In what of the great unfortunate paradoxes of life: where safety suffers, individuality and uniqueness flourish. Bureaucracies make us safer through managing our lives. But only uniformity can be effectively managed in a timely fashion, thereby, letting unique design and self-reliance decline. Making a choice between the two has no real correct answer except in reference to momentary inclination.

Possible Equation (s):

Bureacracy x Codified Set of Guidelines to Follow + Public Demand for Safety from Mishap + Accountability + Bureaucratic Sticklers at the City Hall = Uniformity + Safety

Uniqueness in Design + Self Reliance = Beauty + People trapped under the rubble of a unique but shoddily constructed Dwelling

Wounded Soldier and Understatement

This photo was titled Wounded Soldier. Sometimes a title doesn't really capture a piece of art or diagram - but this really says it all.

Taken during World War, this indellibly changes the way I conceive of caualties in war. Previously, I thought of war as that of all major injuries or no injuries at all. Either, you got blown up or had a major gun shot wound. We don't really ever think of the toes stubbed whilst fighting for freedom. Our hearts are too romantic for that. But this changes everything. This guy looks like, instead of fighting an enemy with major fire-power, he took on an army of fierce but tiny-fisted monkeys who proceeded to beat the shit out of him. And absolutely no disrespect to the man in the picture. He is probably happy that he fought against the Kaiser so some lazy ingrate heathen could sit at a computer and type a blog about him when he should be working. And isn't that what freedom is all about?

Photography and Anxiety about Life Goals

Can looking at old photographs stip up an anxiety about the progress you have made thus far in your life? I'm thinking perhaps.

The person who has no photographs has fuzzy, slightly blurry memories of the past. Fuzziness lends warmth to memories. There are no fuzzy and traumatic memories of the fiery car crash that you were in. Traumatic recalls are sharp and painful; almost like you are still there. Rather, time and deacying neural network seperating you from said event produce a warm glow like an old blurry tube TV that takes an hour to warm up.

The person who has photographs has a sharp reminder of the past. The past is always present in the form of a photo. This affects the brain as looking at photos re-work old memory circuits associated with the memory.

As for life progress, the photo is a sharp reminder of wasted potential. Youth shows limitless potential - the vastest sea of possibilities. Humans see possibilities as variably open with youth but closing with age. These potentialities are not always realistic. That is why so many of the fat or short dream of playing in the NBA. But, they are real as potentialities as possibilities only need the real estate of imagination to be real. Possibilities, by there own very nature, cannot be actual.

On the other hand, humans natuarally see possibilities clsoing with age. Psychological comfort is achieved by doing so. Age is ineveitable and squandered oppurtunity is as excusable as the ineveitable passing of time. Of course, we could have achieved that at that time but now were old, so its fine.

So when we see youth in others in person or ourselves in photos we invariably see squanderd possibility. This squandered possibility is not the gradual shelving of our small disappointments of missed chances. But the explosion of in your face squandering that hits you all at once. Sight is out strongest sense, and can still trigger the strongest and primal motional feeling.

Possible equation:

Photo X ( degree of look of promise in subject`s eye in Photo X + Age of youself in Photo X (where 18 is optimal age of promise minus 1 for each year over/under) Multiplied By X perceived success at life Minus - actual success = degrees of Anxiety