Page 37

by: Ormond Otvos

Fri May 29, 2009 at 18:46:33 PM EDT

Proposition 8 reasonably must be interpreted in a limited fashion as eliminating only the right of same-sex couples to equal access to the designation of marriage, and as not otherwise affecting the constitutional right of those couples to establish an officially recognized family relationship.

The Hippie Mission, a blast from the past.

by: Ormond Otvos

Fri May 29, 2009 at 18:12:23 PM EDT

http://news.google.com/newspap...

Apparently Google is digitally archiving every major newspaper in the country.

Hope you've never appeared in one that you wouldn't want revealed.

I'm glad to see this. There are so many doubters around.

Illiterate firefighters...

by: Ormond Otvos

Wed May 27, 2009 at 13:20:05 PM EDT

John McWhorter makes too much sense...

If you can't read it through, that's his point.

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs...

(cawff, cawff...)

by: Ormond Otvos

Wed May 27, 2009 at 13:12:53 PM EDT

Interesting article in Foreign Policy on a REAL problem. It mentions the USA as using 17 year olds, and also explodes some myths quite forcefully.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/s...

Today's thrills...

by: Ormond Otvos

Wed May 27, 2009 at 04:31:28 AM EDT

Honda Helix. Looks like some damn fool used a low speed tire valve.

Rode it down upright. Like windsurfing straight down wind out of control. Almost.

That's about five times that's happened.

I never get a flat in a car.

Adrenaline is a trip.

How did your day go? Get arrested at a demo?

Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding

by: Ormond Otvos

Thu May 21, 2009 at 14:11:58 PM EDT

Forky and I attended a lecture Tuesday nite at the Academy of Sciences by Dr. Hrdy.

Her thesis is that basing theories about human social interaction on competitiveness, even between tribes, is a bad idea, because humans are hypersocial, and unique in having alloparenting, or the raising of babies by anyone who comes along. She thinks this a much stronger evolved trait than competitiveness, but much overlooked by our patriarchal war driven society.

She also pointed out that during the million years before modern Homo Sapiens, when Homo Ergaster was the working model, there were probably not 100 thousand on the planet, and the likelihood would be to cooperate with anyone you met, against starvation and predators, not compete with them, in order to get through the various glaciations, droughts, and diseases that served as chokepoints on population growth.

I didn't know this to be the case, and it is actually pretty hopeful, since my attitudes about the future of the human race have to depend to a large extent on the best available evidence from people who have studied these things in detail.

Meanwhile, back in real life...

by: Ormond Otvos

Wed May 20, 2009 at 18:13:28 PM EDT

We now have an administration freely interposing itself in the management culture of industry after industry. It won't be the regulations that will be costly, but the revolution in values. When Washington is a profit center, C.E.O.'s are forced to adopt the traits of politicians. That is the insidious way that other nations have lost their competitive edge.

Like the Japanese? Even I have trouble following this leap, even after rereading the column.

Anyone help with this?

Dear parents!

by: Ormond Otvos

Sat May 16, 2009 at 14:34:31 PM EDT

I'm going to presume you're open to evidence, aware of the various beliefs of various religions and philosophies, and maybe even aware of how you learned these beliefs, and how you adopted some of them.

The question I want to ask you is this: will you be giving your children the opportunity to look at all these beliefs before they decide which ones are the best, or will they just be expected, for the convenience of you, the parents, to adopt whatever beliefs you may have?

You are being studied. Here are the parameters:

by: Ormond Otvos

Fri May 15, 2009 at 18:59:32 PM EDT

To react to these stimuli in real time, the poster relies on its internal states which are composed of three units - motivation, homeostasis, and emotion - and controlled by its internal control architecture. The three units have a total of 14 states: the motivation unit includes six states (curiosity, intimacy, monotony, avoidance, greed, and the desire to control); the homeostasis unit includes three states (fatigue, hunger, and drowsiness); and the emotion unit has five states (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and neutral).

Works for me. You can figure out where to get it.
(curiosity)

The Destruction of Alternative Dissent

by: Ormond Otvos

Fri May 15, 2009 at 01:43:44 AM EDT

http://www.adbusters.org/magaz...

Can of whoopass off the shelf.

by: Ormond Otvos

Mon May 11, 2009 at 16:46:03 PM EDT

Failure to reach accord with Taliban in Pakistan. Enlistment of tribal warlords in Afghanistan who caused the emergence of the Taliban. Brilliant moves. Inevitable.

Like Indiana Jones in the marketplace, confronted with a crazed sword-wielding religious maniac, the West pulls out its guns and ends the confrontation.

It's coming to this, inevitable, like the economic collapse caused by greed. This war will be caused by weird religion used to fill psychological holes caused by poverty, disease, and existential angst, in the leaders, in the subjects of the submissive religion.

In the 44 step of the Escalation Ladder, orgasmic war, world population might drop by more than half, and the remainder left in chaos and starvation and disease. And yet we already knew it would.

Rationality isn't the answer without an understanding that reason is processed by emotions, which are largely instinctive and conditioned body states (feelings). Few of us condition our own feelings into emotions directly by reason. It's called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy now. Later it will be called Species Survival Technique, and be administered by the media. At the points of bayonets.

I seriously doubt the world will then realize that allowing crazy religion was the cause of the problem. Religion is nothing if not conditioning of reason by direct manipulation of feelings into emotions. It's unthinkable. Right?

Too bad. It was nice to live in the USA, like it was nice to be British or Roman at the height of empire. I wonder how much comfort will be left for any significant portion of the population after the wars?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/...

Ikey and the White Squall: Part II

by: Ormond Otvos

Mon May 11, 2009 at 04:16:45 AM EDT

The Dark Night

My gear stowed in the aft cabin, I busied myself with the bizarre confusion in the engine room, evidence of years of homegrown fixes - loose clamps, corroded wiring, dripping injector hoses, loose tools. The Irene hadn't been out in deep water for a turtle's age, and the first wild roll would be dropping wrenches in the batteries in an overture of sparks and explosions. I'm a technician, not a magician, so I kept the location of the EPIRB  and life vest floating just below the surface of my awareness.

I barely noted the change in the engine as Ikey bossed his recalcitrant crew of landlubbers in the complexities of leaving the dock without leaving a finger or toe behind. Our medical supplies were largely drinkable or used for cutting steak, though you'd never want to gainsay the antiseptic qualities of 151 rum. Not being the skipper, I was responsible for no one but myself, a fortunate thing, as events unfurled like a pirate flag later in the evening.