Coffee is a drug, and Espresso is a condensed version (one could even say a perversion) of that drug.
An Espresso machine uses steam, instead of hot water, to make its coffee. And you drink it in a smaller cup. A good coffee shop has special pastries it serves with its coffees.
You can get a respectable high without getting drunk.
Monday, June 3, 2019
Sunday, June 2, 2019
Childhood Sexual Perversion
I was a victim of this at an early age, maybe four or so. My mother confused me with her father, who she was still in love with, even though he had died before I was born.
Whenever I tell this to a therapist (and I have had quite a few of them), they are not too surprised. It seems reasonable to them. People get things mixed up all the time, and this one doesn't seem too far-out to them.
But it sure does to me.
Whenever I tell this to a therapist (and I have had quite a few of them), they are not too surprised. It seems reasonable to them. People get things mixed up all the time, and this one doesn't seem too far-out to them.
But it sure does to me.
Massive Incompetence in the Computer Industry
I was employed in the Computer industry from 1980 to 2000, where I observed organizational incompetence on a massive scale. I could write a book about this period in my life, but I might end up in jail if I did.
The Internet and Cellular networks were invented in the Nineties and created a high tech boom, but this was followed by a bust before practical uses for them were found.
In the next 10 years, hundreds of Computer companies would be reduced to just four: Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
And the Personal Computer measuring two feet high, two feet deep. and a foot across would be replaced by the Laptop and the Smartphone.
Software would include the Windows operating system and the Cloud.
And the people who used all this marvelous stuff would become socially incompetent, and elect Trump as President.
The Internet and Cellular networks were invented in the Nineties and created a high tech boom, but this was followed by a bust before practical uses for them were found.
In the next 10 years, hundreds of Computer companies would be reduced to just four: Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
And the Personal Computer measuring two feet high, two feet deep. and a foot across would be replaced by the Laptop and the Smartphone.
Software would include the Windows operating system and the Cloud.
And the people who used all this marvelous stuff would become socially incompetent, and elect Trump as President.
Saturday, June 1, 2019
The Dominion of the Dead
This book begins with this introduction::
If I were to try to phrase the principal thesis of this study—a hazardous proposition, to be sure, since a number of diverse theses come together here—I would say that humans bury not simply to achieve closure and effect a separation from the dead but also and above all to humanize the ground on which they build their worlds and found their histories. And since I will be referring to the human rather often in these pages, let me put forward a premise here to the effect that humanity is not a species (Homo sapiens is a species); it is a way of being mortal and relating to the dead. To be human means above all to bury. Vico suggests as much when he reminds us that "humanitas in Latin comes first and properly from humando,burying" (New Science§12). By properly he means essentially and irreducibly. And if I have mentioned Vico more than once already it is because his New Science(1744) is the major inspiration for this study. Certainly it was Vico who first helped me understand how the human is bound up with the humus and why burial figures as the generative institution of human nature, taking the word nature in its full etymological sense (from nasci,"to be born"). As Homo sapiens we are born of our biological parents. As human beings we are born of the dead—of the regional ground they occupy, of the languages they inhabited, of the worlds they brought into being, of the many institutional, legal, cultural, and psychological legacies that, through us, connect them to the unborn.
If I were to try to phrase the principal thesis of this study—a hazardous proposition, to be sure, since a number of diverse theses come together here—I would say that humans bury not simply to achieve closure and effect a separation from the dead but also and above all to humanize the ground on which they build their worlds and found their histories. And since I will be referring to the human rather often in these pages, let me put forward a premise here to the effect that humanity is not a species (Homo sapiens is a species); it is a way of being mortal and relating to the dead. To be human means above all to bury. Vico suggests as much when he reminds us that "humanitas in Latin comes first and properly from humando,burying" (New Science§12). By properly he means essentially and irreducibly. And if I have mentioned Vico more than once already it is because his New Science(1744) is the major inspiration for this study. Certainly it was Vico who first helped me understand how the human is bound up with the humus and why burial figures as the generative institution of human nature, taking the word nature in its full etymological sense (from nasci,"to be born"). As Homo sapiens we are born of our biological parents. As human beings we are born of the dead—of the regional ground they occupy, of the languages they inhabited, of the worlds they brought into being, of the many institutional, legal, cultural, and psychological legacies that, through us, connect them to the unborn.
Addicted to Chocolate
I bought a whole bar of Hershey's chocolate when a bought some other groceries this morning. Then sat down and ate the whole thing!
In the back of my mind, I knew I should stop, but I couldn't.
In the back of my mind, I knew I should stop, but I couldn't.
AI and Ethics
Medium
These two do not fit together easily, as this article readily acknowledges.
The author, Mustafa Suleyman, is clearly a Muslum, whose company was bought by Google, but remains in London.
This shows, to me, that regulation of Google should proceed cautiously. Taxing it, instead of regulating it, might a better policy.
These two do not fit together easily, as this article readily acknowledges.
The author, Mustafa Suleyman, is clearly a Muslum, whose company was bought by Google, but remains in London.
This shows, to me, that regulation of Google should proceed cautiously. Taxing it, instead of regulating it, might a better policy.
I Hate You
I find myself saying this sometimes with great vehemence. Since I am trying to understand myself, I then try to understand what I just said. And the results have surprised me.
Two beings are involved in this statement, an "I" and a "You". And it is not hard for me to understand who they are. The first one, the "I" is God. The second one, the "You" is People. God is condemning his people, in no uncertain terms.
Statements like this are common in the Hebrew part of the Bible, what Christians call the Old Testament. And with the later parts of the New Testament, which predicts the end of mankind at the hands of a wrathful God. The favorite part of the Bible for Evangelicals.
People have always liked playing God, and pronouncing judgment on other people. And I am no exception.
Two beings are involved in this statement, an "I" and a "You". And it is not hard for me to understand who they are. The first one, the "I" is God. The second one, the "You" is People. God is condemning his people, in no uncertain terms.
Statements like this are common in the Hebrew part of the Bible, what Christians call the Old Testament. And with the later parts of the New Testament, which predicts the end of mankind at the hands of a wrathful God. The favorite part of the Bible for Evangelicals.
People have always liked playing God, and pronouncing judgment on other people. And I am no exception.
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