I remember as a kid during the 1960s when the Grammy Awards would be shown on TV...and acts like Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, and Henry Mancini would walk away with the awards while the wildly popular rock and roll musicians of the time would be uniformly snubbed...it wasn't until 1967 when the Beatles were finally honored for their song Michelle and the Sgt. Pepper album the following year's ceremony. But in subsequent years a funny sort of reversal would happen...corresponding to the rise in rock-oriented criticism in magazines like Rolling Stone...in which elitism stemming from music critics would invade this genre itself. So while progressive groups like the Moody Blues, King Crimson, Yes, and Rush would be making history with their groundbreaking music and other acts like Journey, the Doobie Brothers, the Cars, and Bon Jovi were capturing the allegiance of masses of Americans, they have been largely shunned from admission to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, located in Cleveland, Ohio, was founded in 1983 and began inducting members two years later. It appropriately took very little time for the musical innovators from the 1950s and earlier like Chuck Berry and Little Richard to gain admittance as well as supergroups like the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Over the years the membership list has swelled in number...yet several of the inductees do not enjoy anything approaching general popularity and many of those refused entrance were important and extremely popular during their time. Of the bands I mentioned before, only Rush, Journey, and Yes were inducted...and only just recently, almost as afterthoughts. True, the Moody Blues are on the list of next year's nominees put out just four days ago, a list also including Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, the Cars, Bon Jovi, Kate Bush, J. Geils Band, Depeche Mode...among others. The final inductees will be announced in a couple of months, but should I even care whether the Moody Blues, one of my all-time favorite bands, is selected? And what about the Doobie Brothers, not even nominated...I just don't get this elitism...
To me, the essence of what rock and roll is all about is young folks listening to the records of their music idols and copying out and practicing the songs on their guitars and other instruments until they can completely cover them...and then coming up with their own original music...that's how the Beatles and the Stones got started and it has absolutely nothing to do with professional critics and music historians, noses upturned, sitting on their high and mighty thrones pronouncing their judgments on what is influential and artistic and what isn't. Rock and roll is the people's music, belonging to the masses, not to an exclusive club of insiders who think and act like they know better than everyone else...
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Saturday, October 7, 2017
Just Finished Reading Mischling by Affinity Konar
When I went to my local public library and checked out Affinity Konar's novel Mischling, which I later discovered was based in part on a true story, as usual I read a preview of what it was about...and so knew well in advance that I was in for a story about terrible suffering: after all, anything about Auschwitz is going to be very, very serious and somber. So I braced myself and proceeded, knowing that no matter how many accounts I hear or read about this horrible chapter in human history I will never be able to fully understand and feel what these people had to go through...
During World War II, within the German Nazi concentration death camp Auschwitz in southern Poland operated one of the most infamous "physicians" the world has ever known: Josef Mengele, who routinely mutilated, poisoned, and in other ways tortured and killed countless victims...all for the purported "advancement" of science. One of his chief areas of interest was twins ("Zwillinge"), and he sought them out among the population, mostly Jewish, sent against their will to this hell on Earth. And so arrive Paula and Stasha, identical twin girls with distinctly different personalities, accompanied by their mother and grandfather and then separated from them soon after they disembark from their train. Mengele interviews them...wondering aloud whether they are "Mischling" (of "mixed" race) and they join a large group of other children, twins and triplets...some of them are horribly disfigured and others are ominously missing their counterparts. It is the year 1944, when the extermination camps are going full throttle carrying out Hitler's "Final Solution" in murdering the Jewish population of Europe (along with other groups like the Romany) in a mass genocide...at first, it appears that being twins has saved them from this fate. But as the story progresses, with alternating chapters expressing first Stasha's point of view and then Paula's, they discover that their futures may be eventually much worse and Mengele is in truth anything but the kindly "Uncle Doctor" that he insists they call him...
Two reactions: something that has always fascinated me is the way some brave people, while appearing on the surface to work "for" the bad guys, are really working for those suffering oppression. In Mischling, one of Mengele's assistant doctors fills this role and ends up saving the lives of many...but later on she is still scorned as being a collaborator by one of the former girl prisoners. The other reaction is the fascination I feel about the anarchy at the close of the conflict: the Nazis are in retreat ahead of the advancing Soviet army, and the protagonists, as wandering refugees, find themselves in a social no-man's land as they alternately encounter pockets of German soldiers, Russian soldiers, the Jewish resistance, collaborators with the Nazis, other concentration camp refugees...and just people at large struggling to simply survive, the need to make any sense of this insanity long vanished from their priorities...
No, I'll never fully be able to emphasize with the torments and struggles of the German death camp prisoners under the Nazi regime. With Mischling, Affinity Konar has put my own so-called problems in perspective: in stark contrast with the experiences of Paula and Stasha, my trials are trivial...
During World War II, within the German Nazi concentration death camp Auschwitz in southern Poland operated one of the most infamous "physicians" the world has ever known: Josef Mengele, who routinely mutilated, poisoned, and in other ways tortured and killed countless victims...all for the purported "advancement" of science. One of his chief areas of interest was twins ("Zwillinge"), and he sought them out among the population, mostly Jewish, sent against their will to this hell on Earth. And so arrive Paula and Stasha, identical twin girls with distinctly different personalities, accompanied by their mother and grandfather and then separated from them soon after they disembark from their train. Mengele interviews them...wondering aloud whether they are "Mischling" (of "mixed" race) and they join a large group of other children, twins and triplets...some of them are horribly disfigured and others are ominously missing their counterparts. It is the year 1944, when the extermination camps are going full throttle carrying out Hitler's "Final Solution" in murdering the Jewish population of Europe (along with other groups like the Romany) in a mass genocide...at first, it appears that being twins has saved them from this fate. But as the story progresses, with alternating chapters expressing first Stasha's point of view and then Paula's, they discover that their futures may be eventually much worse and Mengele is in truth anything but the kindly "Uncle Doctor" that he insists they call him...
Two reactions: something that has always fascinated me is the way some brave people, while appearing on the surface to work "for" the bad guys, are really working for those suffering oppression. In Mischling, one of Mengele's assistant doctors fills this role and ends up saving the lives of many...but later on she is still scorned as being a collaborator by one of the former girl prisoners. The other reaction is the fascination I feel about the anarchy at the close of the conflict: the Nazis are in retreat ahead of the advancing Soviet army, and the protagonists, as wandering refugees, find themselves in a social no-man's land as they alternately encounter pockets of German soldiers, Russian soldiers, the Jewish resistance, collaborators with the Nazis, other concentration camp refugees...and just people at large struggling to simply survive, the need to make any sense of this insanity long vanished from their priorities...
No, I'll never fully be able to emphasize with the torments and struggles of the German death camp prisoners under the Nazi regime. With Mischling, Affinity Konar has put my own so-called problems in perspective: in stark contrast with the experiences of Paula and Stasha, my trials are trivial...
Friday, October 6, 2017
Quote of the Week...from Tom Petty
And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down...Gonna stand my ground and I won't back down.
---Tom Petty
The above lines are from Tom Petty's hit song I Won't Back Down a part of his blockbuster 1989 Full Moon Fever album. Although the song was co-written by him and Electric Light Orchestra front man Jeff Lynne, I have to believe that the sentiments in its lyrics were fully Tom's. As most of us already know by now, he passed away this past Monday at the way-too-early age of 66, on the heels of that infamous Las Vegas terrorist attack the night before...October 2nd was really one majorly sorry-ass day...
I Won't Back Down is my all-time favorite Tom Petty song, both musically and lyrically. It's important to know where I am and just how far I will go in compromising my principles and best interests in order to match up with what I perceive the world expects from me...somewhere and sometime I have to draw the line and "stand my ground" in spite of the negative consequences: now seems as good a time as any. On the other hand, it's all too easy to develop a cynical attitude about how I'm treated by this "world" and walk around with a mountain of a chip on my shoulder...better to pick my battles and fight them steadfastly and let the numerous, far less important things go...
I would say that I'll miss Tom Petty, and in a way it's true although I never met him...but he's pretty much immortalized himself in his music and the friendships he made with others, even though he admitted to having difficulty in making new friends (I kind of find that hard to believe). I'll always have that music, and no, I'm not going to live forever any more than Tom did: we all have that crossing to make some day...although extremely advanced, lucid old age gets my vote for the best time...
---Tom Petty
The above lines are from Tom Petty's hit song I Won't Back Down a part of his blockbuster 1989 Full Moon Fever album. Although the song was co-written by him and Electric Light Orchestra front man Jeff Lynne, I have to believe that the sentiments in its lyrics were fully Tom's. As most of us already know by now, he passed away this past Monday at the way-too-early age of 66, on the heels of that infamous Las Vegas terrorist attack the night before...October 2nd was really one majorly sorry-ass day...
I Won't Back Down is my all-time favorite Tom Petty song, both musically and lyrically. It's important to know where I am and just how far I will go in compromising my principles and best interests in order to match up with what I perceive the world expects from me...somewhere and sometime I have to draw the line and "stand my ground" in spite of the negative consequences: now seems as good a time as any. On the other hand, it's all too easy to develop a cynical attitude about how I'm treated by this "world" and walk around with a mountain of a chip on my shoulder...better to pick my battles and fight them steadfastly and let the numerous, far less important things go...
I would say that I'll miss Tom Petty, and in a way it's true although I never met him...but he's pretty much immortalized himself in his music and the friendships he made with others, even though he admitted to having difficulty in making new friends (I kind of find that hard to believe). I'll always have that music, and no, I'm not going to live forever any more than Tom did: we all have that crossing to make some day...although extremely advanced, lucid old age gets my vote for the best time...
Thursday, October 5, 2017
10/1 Sermon on David, Part 3
For last Sunday's sermon at The Family Church here in Gainesville, we had as speaker Kevin Sides, a member in our church who has been active over the years with Athletes in Action...and is a gifted orator. He continued the ongoing series about David of the Old Testament...and focused on Psalms as he titled his message Growing in Times of Trials...
Kevin drew upon three Psalms as he presented his talk: Psalms 142, 57, and 34 in that order...just click on the Psalm's number to read it in the New International Version on Bible Gateway. He revealed to have recently experienced trials of his own and studied the life of David and how he, as a man of God, got through his difficult times. Kevin identified three parts to the process of growing through our troubles: bring them to God, receive God's perspective on them, and respond to God's instructions in them. He pointed out that early on in trials we tend to be consumed with ourselves and our circumstances but as we turn to God the tone changes as we seek his mercy, rescue, and guidance. It is then that we are in a position to receive God's true perspective on trials and our true role within them. Besides these important points, Kevin made some great statements like "The wilderness is just part of God's plan", "God knows our difficulties better than we know ourselves", "We grow and develop as human beings through difficulties and hardship more than through comfort and ease", and "We all experience trials: either we're in the wilderness, just coming out, or about to go in". Through Christ we can present ourselves to God in all of our messiness and ask him to clean it all up. In other words, trials are a part of God's plan for us...sure, we often play a part in bringing them on through our own willfulness and transgression...but the way to respond is to seek God, not blame him...and realize that trials are a natural symptom of a vibrant, growing life...
I wasn't able to personally attend this past service, but I was able to hear Kevin's message in its entirety through the church's YouTube video website, which you can also access through the following link: [link]. The Family Church, located at 2022 SW 122nd Street in far-western Gainesville, has its weekly Sunday services as 9:30 and 11...with the sermon message, worship music, prayer, and fellowship. Looking forward to being there next time...
Kevin drew upon three Psalms as he presented his talk: Psalms 142, 57, and 34 in that order...just click on the Psalm's number to read it in the New International Version on Bible Gateway. He revealed to have recently experienced trials of his own and studied the life of David and how he, as a man of God, got through his difficult times. Kevin identified three parts to the process of growing through our troubles: bring them to God, receive God's perspective on them, and respond to God's instructions in them. He pointed out that early on in trials we tend to be consumed with ourselves and our circumstances but as we turn to God the tone changes as we seek his mercy, rescue, and guidance. It is then that we are in a position to receive God's true perspective on trials and our true role within them. Besides these important points, Kevin made some great statements like "The wilderness is just part of God's plan", "God knows our difficulties better than we know ourselves", "We grow and develop as human beings through difficulties and hardship more than through comfort and ease", and "We all experience trials: either we're in the wilderness, just coming out, or about to go in". Through Christ we can present ourselves to God in all of our messiness and ask him to clean it all up. In other words, trials are a part of God's plan for us...sure, we often play a part in bringing them on through our own willfulness and transgression...but the way to respond is to seek God, not blame him...and realize that trials are a natural symptom of a vibrant, growing life...
I wasn't able to personally attend this past service, but I was able to hear Kevin's message in its entirety through the church's YouTube video website, which you can also access through the following link: [link]. The Family Church, located at 2022 SW 122nd Street in far-western Gainesville, has its weekly Sunday services as 9:30 and 11...with the sermon message, worship music, prayer, and fellowship. Looking forward to being there next time...
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Weekly Short Story: Presposterous by Fredric Brown
Preposterous is a 1954 short story...a short, short story...by Frederic Brown, whom I've previously reviewed for his short story The Weapon. It doesn't quite fill up a page...but it doesn't have to, for the message here doesn't take very many words to express. A father is berating the mother for having tolerated their son's reading of trashy pulp science fiction magazines. Why, this material just puts crazy, impossible ideas in children's minds and then what are they good for? After finishing his brief tirade, dad leaves for work...and the piercing irony of his complaints sets in...
Humanity has the quality of being very adaptable: people tend to quickly adjust themselves to whatever circumstances they find themselves in. On one end, poverty and suffering becomes normal...but on the other so does great wealth...just look at the reality TV shows full of folks surrounded by riches...but who are utterly unappreciative of their material blessings and constantly bicker with each other. And with innovations that improve the quality of our lives, such as smartphones, the Internet, and drastically improved medical knowledge and procedures, it takes very little time for them to be treated as simply the status quo and not things to be marveled at. For example, by the time that Apollo 13, the moonshot that was aborted in transit due to an explosion in the Service Module, was launched, the population was already so jaded with this third moon venture only nine months after the first one that television networks wouldn't even cover it in prime time...
You might think that with all of the tools we have been given to improve our lives that our attitudes toward each other would also respond in kind...but I see the same old entrenched arrogance, grievances, and prejudice coming out of people's mouths and on social media...another innovation also widely taken for granted. But what does this have to do with Frederic Brown's story Preposterous? Its final short...but packed...paragraph lays out a different future human scenario...but with the same old type of complacent, unimaginative, and unappreciative (but adaptable) people the world is loaded with today...
I own the book From These Ashes, which is a collection of all of Frederic Brown's short science fiction (he also wrote in the mystery genre)...some stories like Preposterous and The Weapon have profound messages, some are primarily escapist entertainment...and some are just plain silly. You might find this story on the Internet, but I'm not sure whether the copyright is still in effect and if any such websites are on the up and up...
Humanity has the quality of being very adaptable: people tend to quickly adjust themselves to whatever circumstances they find themselves in. On one end, poverty and suffering becomes normal...but on the other so does great wealth...just look at the reality TV shows full of folks surrounded by riches...but who are utterly unappreciative of their material blessings and constantly bicker with each other. And with innovations that improve the quality of our lives, such as smartphones, the Internet, and drastically improved medical knowledge and procedures, it takes very little time for them to be treated as simply the status quo and not things to be marveled at. For example, by the time that Apollo 13, the moonshot that was aborted in transit due to an explosion in the Service Module, was launched, the population was already so jaded with this third moon venture only nine months after the first one that television networks wouldn't even cover it in prime time...
You might think that with all of the tools we have been given to improve our lives that our attitudes toward each other would also respond in kind...but I see the same old entrenched arrogance, grievances, and prejudice coming out of people's mouths and on social media...another innovation also widely taken for granted. But what does this have to do with Frederic Brown's story Preposterous? Its final short...but packed...paragraph lays out a different future human scenario...but with the same old type of complacent, unimaginative, and unappreciative (but adaptable) people the world is loaded with today...
I own the book From These Ashes, which is a collection of all of Frederic Brown's short science fiction (he also wrote in the mystery genre)...some stories like Preposterous and The Weapon have profound messages, some are primarily escapist entertainment...and some are just plain silly. You might find this story on the Internet, but I'm not sure whether the copyright is still in effect and if any such websites are on the up and up...
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Tuesday's List: The Chapter Headings of Neil deGrasse Tyson's Latest Book
In my mind, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is currently the greatest popularizer of science in the world today, a worthy successor of past giants like Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan. He has written a number of books over the years, but it wasn't until his latest, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, that I got around to reading one. This one I purchased on Kindle, so I can take it with me wherever I go and read it...and reread it...at my pleasure on my cellphone. Tyson's book should be adapted to a twelve-part television series, although there is a great amount of overlap with Cosmos, which Sagan was responsible for the first time around and Tyson for its remaking...
The chapter headings are in blue and capitals, along with some commentary from me about each. Hope you enjoy it and get around to reading this remarkable book. I know I'm going to look at some of Neil deGrasse Tyson's earlier works...
1 THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD
Perhaps the most amazing thing about the beginning of the universe is the exactitude with which events can be measured by the "one ten-million-trillion-trillion-trillionth of a second" after the instant of the Big Bang and lengths by "one hundred billion trillionths of a meter" with precise times given for when the different fundamental forces of the cosmos each became distinct...yet nothing is known of what happened before the Big Bang...
2 ON EARTH AS IN THE HEAVENS
Newton and Einstein established the universality of physical laws...not just on Earth, which isn't intuitively obvious...
3 LET THERE BE LIGHT
There was no light in the universe until after 380,000 years when it had cooled enough for electrons to combine with nuclei to form atoms...freeing photons to travel unimpeded from collisions with them throughout the cosmos...
4 BETWEEN THE GALAXIES
Who would have thought it: the so-called "space" between the galaxies is full of things like "dwarf galaxies, runaway stars, runaway stars that explode, million-degree X-ray-emitting gas, dark matter, faint blue galaxies, ubiquitous gas clouds, super-duper high-energy charged particles, and the mysterious quantum vacuum energy"...I don't know about you, but that last one kind of creeps me out...
5 DARK MATTER
Since dark matter does not interact with light or chemically with other matter, it's virtually impossible to pin down...yet there is a big discrepancy between the observed motions of galaxies with their known masses and the theories that predict those motions, which can only be reconciled by the presence of such a type of mass...
6 DARK ENERGY
The ever-accelerating expansion of the universe can only be accounted for by inserting the concept of dark energy which, like dark matter, has never been observed or measured...its existence was accidentally predicted through Einstein's "blooper" of his "cosmological constant lambda"...
7 THE COSMOS ON THE TABLE
A element-by-element romp through the Periodic Table, and their respective origins in the cosmos...
8 ON BEING ROUND
Spheres are the natural shape of objects in the universe...but only when gravity exceeds the chemical and physical bonds between the matter within the objects. At a certain mass threshold, celestial objects form spheres...hence smaller, irregular-shaped moons like Mars' Phobos and Deimos...and spheres like our Moon and the larger moons of the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...
9 INVISIBLE LIGHT
In the early 1800s, the light spectrum was expanded to include invisible infrared and ultraviolet...as we now know, the visible light portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is relatively small, with the waves, in order from shortest to longest, being the gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared light, radio waves, and microwaves...although this list is far from comprehensive. So with instruments detecting non-visible sources of radiation we can learn much more about the universe...
10 BETWEEN THE PLANETS
Asteroids, comets, gravitational and magnetic field effects from other planets, the solar wind (high-energy charged particles ejected by the sun), dust...and of course all those moons...are a few of the "goodies" to be encountered in the supposedly empty space between the planets in our solar system...
11 EXOPLANET EARTH
Many planets...called "exoplanets" for being outside our solar system...have been discovered in other star systems of late. How would intelligent, scientifically and technologically adept beings in a distant star system be able to detect Earth's presence as an exoplanet from their perspective...and what scientific means that are now available to us would reveal to them the nature of our home planet, whether it supports life...and even possibly intelligent life?
12 REFLECTIONS ON THE COSMIC PERSPECTIVE
The author expresses his deep concerns for the ongoing problems here on Earth, but also stresses that much of the trouble and turmoil around us could be ameliorated if more and more people took on a cosmic perspective, which he lays out as a kind of manifesto...
I finished chapter 12 at page 208, so this is a pretty short book. Tyson introduces the many concepts without snowing the reader under in overly technical explanations...but in the final analysis, he is true to his opening words: "The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." That having been said, Neil deGrasse Tyson made a whole lotta sense to me...
The chapter headings are in blue and capitals, along with some commentary from me about each. Hope you enjoy it and get around to reading this remarkable book. I know I'm going to look at some of Neil deGrasse Tyson's earlier works...
1 THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD
Perhaps the most amazing thing about the beginning of the universe is the exactitude with which events can be measured by the "one ten-million-trillion-trillion-trillionth of a second" after the instant of the Big Bang and lengths by "one hundred billion trillionths of a meter" with precise times given for when the different fundamental forces of the cosmos each became distinct...yet nothing is known of what happened before the Big Bang...
2 ON EARTH AS IN THE HEAVENS
Newton and Einstein established the universality of physical laws...not just on Earth, which isn't intuitively obvious...
3 LET THERE BE LIGHT
There was no light in the universe until after 380,000 years when it had cooled enough for electrons to combine with nuclei to form atoms...freeing photons to travel unimpeded from collisions with them throughout the cosmos...
4 BETWEEN THE GALAXIES
Who would have thought it: the so-called "space" between the galaxies is full of things like "dwarf galaxies, runaway stars, runaway stars that explode, million-degree X-ray-emitting gas, dark matter, faint blue galaxies, ubiquitous gas clouds, super-duper high-energy charged particles, and the mysterious quantum vacuum energy"...I don't know about you, but that last one kind of creeps me out...
5 DARK MATTER
Since dark matter does not interact with light or chemically with other matter, it's virtually impossible to pin down...yet there is a big discrepancy between the observed motions of galaxies with their known masses and the theories that predict those motions, which can only be reconciled by the presence of such a type of mass...
6 DARK ENERGY
The ever-accelerating expansion of the universe can only be accounted for by inserting the concept of dark energy which, like dark matter, has never been observed or measured...its existence was accidentally predicted through Einstein's "blooper" of his "cosmological constant lambda"...
7 THE COSMOS ON THE TABLE
A element-by-element romp through the Periodic Table, and their respective origins in the cosmos...
8 ON BEING ROUND
Spheres are the natural shape of objects in the universe...but only when gravity exceeds the chemical and physical bonds between the matter within the objects. At a certain mass threshold, celestial objects form spheres...hence smaller, irregular-shaped moons like Mars' Phobos and Deimos...and spheres like our Moon and the larger moons of the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...
9 INVISIBLE LIGHT
In the early 1800s, the light spectrum was expanded to include invisible infrared and ultraviolet...as we now know, the visible light portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is relatively small, with the waves, in order from shortest to longest, being the gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared light, radio waves, and microwaves...although this list is far from comprehensive. So with instruments detecting non-visible sources of radiation we can learn much more about the universe...
10 BETWEEN THE PLANETS
Asteroids, comets, gravitational and magnetic field effects from other planets, the solar wind (high-energy charged particles ejected by the sun), dust...and of course all those moons...are a few of the "goodies" to be encountered in the supposedly empty space between the planets in our solar system...
11 EXOPLANET EARTH
Many planets...called "exoplanets" for being outside our solar system...have been discovered in other star systems of late. How would intelligent, scientifically and technologically adept beings in a distant star system be able to detect Earth's presence as an exoplanet from their perspective...and what scientific means that are now available to us would reveal to them the nature of our home planet, whether it supports life...and even possibly intelligent life?
12 REFLECTIONS ON THE COSMIC PERSPECTIVE
The author expresses his deep concerns for the ongoing problems here on Earth, but also stresses that much of the trouble and turmoil around us could be ameliorated if more and more people took on a cosmic perspective, which he lays out as a kind of manifesto...
I finished chapter 12 at page 208, so this is a pretty short book. Tyson introduces the many concepts without snowing the reader under in overly technical explanations...but in the final analysis, he is true to his opening words: "The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." That having been said, Neil deGrasse Tyson made a whole lotta sense to me...
Monday, October 2, 2017
Last Night's Las Vegas Concert Massacre
A little before one late last night (Gainesville time) I turned off the TV and went to bed...a short time before the breaking news story that is dominating the airwaves today: a lone gunman massacred at least 58 people and injured more than 500 during the last day of an open-air country music concert in Las Vegas. The alleged perpetrator, who stationed himself in a 32nd floor suite at the Mandalay Bay hotel overlooking the event and then shot himself dead as the police approached his room, is identified as Stephen Paddock, a 64-year old resident of Mesquite on the outskirts of Las Vegas. As of this writing, no motives have yet been determined. It looks as if Paddock, who had rented out his hotel room since Thursday, gradually smuggled in one automatic weapon after another until he finally had a considerable arsenal...and then knocked out two different windows as he began shooting while country music star Jason Aldean was performing. At first, many of the reported 23,000 there thought the gun sounds were fireworks...but as the carnage became apparent and Aldean and his entourage fled the stage, a general panic ensued as the endangered spectators tried to escape the fire...
My heart and prayers go out to all those directly affected by this tragedy, as well as their families and friends. It looks once again as if the first responders...especially the police and firemen...were heroes as they bravely exposed themselves to hostile fire and put their own lives on the line to help people find shelter from the deadly barrage...
My heart and prayers go out to all those directly affected by this tragedy, as well as their families and friends. It looks once again as if the first responders...especially the police and firemen...were heroes as they bravely exposed themselves to hostile fire and put their own lives on the line to help people find shelter from the deadly barrage...
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Just Finished Reading Stephen King's Firestarter
Several years ago I saw the movie version of Stephen King's 1980 novel Firestarter, starring Drew Barrymore, David Keith, Martin Sheen, and George C. Scott. After seeing it, I felt no need to read the book, but lately after noting how divergent some of King's film adaptations were from the original stories, I though I'd go ahead and read it anyway. As it turned out, there were some minor differences...but the movie by and large "stuck to the script". The only real problem I had with it was the casting of George C. Scott as the homicidal psychopathic native American John Rainbird...reading the book gave me a completely different picture of this character...
Firestarter is one of those stories common to the era in which it was written...the government has very sinister, secret, and ruthless factions within it where the law and protection of life and liberty are meaningless: in this particular story the offending agency is called the Shop. As the result of one of their experiments, Andy McGee and his future wife Vicky are induced through a hallucinogen into having psychic abilities...which change their DNA and are passed on to their daughter Charlie. Charlie has the talent of pyrokinesis, which means she can start fires with her mind. The bad guys in government want to control this innocent family for their own nefarious ends, all supposedly in the name of national security. Firestarter is how Andy, Charlie, and to a lesser degree Vicky deal with their persecution...you'll have to read it yourself (or watch the movie) to find out what happens...
Firestarter hits upon a belief that I've always subscribed to: if you find that you have a special paranormal ability, then the last thing on Earth you want to do is let it become common knowledge. For you will then become a target and your so-called rights will good for nothing anymore when, if you had been able to keep it to yourself, then you could have cautiously and sparingly used your gift for your own benefit. The problem with Firestarter was that the Shop was deliberately looking for signs of paranormal ability among its test subjects, who themselves were uninformed of this. So when Andy McGee innocently called out one of the "volunteers" by name when it hadn't been revealed, it quickly became too late to back out...
I've read better Stephen King novels than Firestarter, but I tend to suspect that there are clandestine agencies within our government, which by dint of their secrecy and security clearance can and do trample on the rights of the very people they are supposed to serve. To me, that's a lot scarier than the dubious ability of someone to mentally make fires. Somebody in the story once hysterically called Charlie a monster for her paranormal capabilities, but the Shop was full of the worst kind of monsters as they rationalized the murders and kidnappings of their fellow human beings with their insulated, bureaucratic self-righteousness...
Firestarter is one of those stories common to the era in which it was written...the government has very sinister, secret, and ruthless factions within it where the law and protection of life and liberty are meaningless: in this particular story the offending agency is called the Shop. As the result of one of their experiments, Andy McGee and his future wife Vicky are induced through a hallucinogen into having psychic abilities...which change their DNA and are passed on to their daughter Charlie. Charlie has the talent of pyrokinesis, which means she can start fires with her mind. The bad guys in government want to control this innocent family for their own nefarious ends, all supposedly in the name of national security. Firestarter is how Andy, Charlie, and to a lesser degree Vicky deal with their persecution...you'll have to read it yourself (or watch the movie) to find out what happens...
Firestarter hits upon a belief that I've always subscribed to: if you find that you have a special paranormal ability, then the last thing on Earth you want to do is let it become common knowledge. For you will then become a target and your so-called rights will good for nothing anymore when, if you had been able to keep it to yourself, then you could have cautiously and sparingly used your gift for your own benefit. The problem with Firestarter was that the Shop was deliberately looking for signs of paranormal ability among its test subjects, who themselves were uninformed of this. So when Andy McGee innocently called out one of the "volunteers" by name when it hadn't been revealed, it quickly became too late to back out...
I've read better Stephen King novels than Firestarter, but I tend to suspect that there are clandestine agencies within our government, which by dint of their secrecy and security clearance can and do trample on the rights of the very people they are supposed to serve. To me, that's a lot scarier than the dubious ability of someone to mentally make fires. Somebody in the story once hysterically called Charlie a monster for her paranormal capabilities, but the Shop was full of the worst kind of monsters as they rationalized the murders and kidnappings of their fellow human beings with their insulated, bureaucratic self-righteousness...
Saturday, September 30, 2017
My September 2017 Running Report
In September I had to contend with some soreness in my right foot, as well as some back strain issues...limiting my ability to train. I missed seven days of running because of this, but managed somehow to run a total of 47 miles during the month. My longest single run was for just 3.5 miles...it's been a while since I've run anything on the order of middle distance, much less the long distances that I prefer...
So with the weather supposedly cooling a bit this coming month, I should hopefully be able to get back to increasing my mileage. It sounds like a broken record, for my running so far in 2017 has not been anywhere near what I want it to be. Yet I think I may have solved that foot problem by going back to the protective shoes I used to wear...ever since I switched back, my feet seem fine. In any event, I will need to drastically get back my endurance over longer distances if I'm to run upcoming races this fall and winter. And I'd better hurry up: the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon SE of Gaineville will be held November 11, just six weeks from now. And then there's the 10K Turkey Trot on the Tacachale campus in NE Gainesville on Thanksgiving. Next year will spotlight the Ocala Half-Marathon and the 15K Newnan's Lake Run, both in January, and the Five Points of Light Half-Marathon here in Gainesville in February. A grand total of five middle-to-long distance races in our immediate area. If I can remain healthy, I should be able to swing this...
So with the weather supposedly cooling a bit this coming month, I should hopefully be able to get back to increasing my mileage. It sounds like a broken record, for my running so far in 2017 has not been anywhere near what I want it to be. Yet I think I may have solved that foot problem by going back to the protective shoes I used to wear...ever since I switched back, my feet seem fine. In any event, I will need to drastically get back my endurance over longer distances if I'm to run upcoming races this fall and winter. And I'd better hurry up: the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon SE of Gaineville will be held November 11, just six weeks from now. And then there's the 10K Turkey Trot on the Tacachale campus in NE Gainesville on Thanksgiving. Next year will spotlight the Ocala Half-Marathon and the 15K Newnan's Lake Run, both in January, and the Five Points of Light Half-Marathon here in Gainesville in February. A grand total of five middle-to-long distance races in our immediate area. If I can remain healthy, I should be able to swing this...
Friday, September 29, 2017
Quote of the Week...from Senator Bill Nelson
One of the great privileges of being a part of the Senate, it being the greatest deliberative body in the world, is out of the discussions of ideas, hopefully truth can ultimately be achieved.
---Bill Nelson.
---Bill Nelson.
Bill Nelson is one of the two United States senators from my home state of Florida. Originally a Democratic congressman who once flew on the Space Shuttle back in the 1980s, he is a staunch advocate for our space program and for Florida's future role in it. He also is very strong on national defense, the environment, the rights of seniors...and above everything, the interests of the state he represents. Although Nelson's speech mannerisms can be at times a little irritating, their content is almost always spot on, making him one of the few politicians on Capitol Hill that I consistently agree with. He's up for reelection next year, and most Floridians are anticipating that Republican lame duck governor Rick Scott will run against him, making the contest a most difficult one to win. The above quote, reflective of Nelson's three terms of service in the United States Senate, is once again totally true...and you can test its validity out as C-Span 2 shows its floor proceedings live...
If you're like me and sick and tired of the talking media heads spinning the issues out of control...both from the "left" and "right"...then maybe you'd appreciate a more dispassionate setting where those same issues can be discussed and debated in a civil manner, and without the participants interrupting each other and flying off the handle. In the Senate there is a deliberate atmosphere of comity, and the senators are constantly referring within their speeches to the opposition party as "our friends across the aisle". That doesn't mean that they aren't fully committed to promoting their own viewpoints and criticizing the others': it means that within this setting, at least, personalities are deemphasized while the issues at hand, with their various ramifications, get the deserved center stage...
I have been following the Senate on C-Span 2 since 2001...one of my first experiences was of an eloquent and persuasive speech by Senator Jeff Sessions, now our attorney general. Over the last sixteen years there has been a lot of turnover in this body, but I have made it a point to know all of the senators by name, state, and appearance...and a little about each one's politics and speaking styles. I was a little distressed by the recent Republican primary loss in Alabama by Luther Strange to Judge Roy Moore...I got to like "Big Luther"...as the president accurately depicts him...for his gentle politeness as well as when he would preside over the Senate. So in a way, the personalities are still there...but on the floor the talk is all about the issues, which is the way I wish the media in general covered politics. Notice that in this article I've praised both Democratic and Republican senators...that's because, my political leanings notwithstanding, I've come to greatly respect...and even like...these people. I'm a firm believer that gentle, reasonable persuasion can change hearts much better than can smears and hyperbole...although the last presidential election didn't exactly bear that out, did it...
If you're like me and sick and tired of the talking media heads spinning the issues out of control...both from the "left" and "right"...then maybe you'd appreciate a more dispassionate setting where those same issues can be discussed and debated in a civil manner, and without the participants interrupting each other and flying off the handle. In the Senate there is a deliberate atmosphere of comity, and the senators are constantly referring within their speeches to the opposition party as "our friends across the aisle". That doesn't mean that they aren't fully committed to promoting their own viewpoints and criticizing the others': it means that within this setting, at least, personalities are deemphasized while the issues at hand, with their various ramifications, get the deserved center stage...
I have been following the Senate on C-Span 2 since 2001...one of my first experiences was of an eloquent and persuasive speech by Senator Jeff Sessions, now our attorney general. Over the last sixteen years there has been a lot of turnover in this body, but I have made it a point to know all of the senators by name, state, and appearance...and a little about each one's politics and speaking styles. I was a little distressed by the recent Republican primary loss in Alabama by Luther Strange to Judge Roy Moore...I got to like "Big Luther"...as the president accurately depicts him...for his gentle politeness as well as when he would preside over the Senate. So in a way, the personalities are still there...but on the floor the talk is all about the issues, which is the way I wish the media in general covered politics. Notice that in this article I've praised both Democratic and Republican senators...that's because, my political leanings notwithstanding, I've come to greatly respect...and even like...these people. I'm a firm believer that gentle, reasonable persuasion can change hearts much better than can smears and hyperbole...although the last presidential election didn't exactly bear that out, did it...
Thursday, September 28, 2017
9/24 Sermon on David, Part 2
Last Sunday at The Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his series on David, king of Israel. This message's title was Life's Battlefields and focused on the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel, particularly chapter 17, verses 26-50...you can read it in the New International Version (or a different translation if you prefer) via the following link to Bible Gateway: [link]. The setting is the confrontation between the Israelites, led by King Saul, and the Philistines, championed by the arrogant giant Goliath...who is challenging anyone to face him: no one wants to. David steps up, however...much to the consternation of his brothers...and tells Saul that it was God who rescued him from the bear and lion when he was herding his sheep, and that same God will protect him from the Philistine...
Pastor Philip drew four important principles from this passage: listen to the right voice, use what God has already given me, focus on the size of God and not the size of the problem, and rely on God's power and not my own. The setting in 1 Samuel was literally a battleground, but our lives have times in which we must either take a stand...or retreat. Sometimes prudence is called for, especially when it involves discerning the significance of the "battle", e.g. someone out in traffic is overcome with road rage against me...discerning God's wisdom through the Holy Spirit will lead me away from any conflict of that sort. But other times God will direct and empower me to stand up and face the adversary, be it human or situational...with the emphasis, of course, on God being the one in charge. He will not ask of me anything that he hasn't already equipped me for: David was equipped with his life experience of fighting predators while shepherding, his sling, and stones....and more than anything, his faith in God...
You can watch the video for this message by clicking on the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [link]. The Family Church, located at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holds its Sunday morning services at 9:30 and 11 and invites you to attend. There's the weekly sermon, inspiring praise music, friendly folks all around, and prayer and discipleship opportunities...and, of course, that delicious complimentary coffee...
Pastor Philip drew four important principles from this passage: listen to the right voice, use what God has already given me, focus on the size of God and not the size of the problem, and rely on God's power and not my own. The setting in 1 Samuel was literally a battleground, but our lives have times in which we must either take a stand...or retreat. Sometimes prudence is called for, especially when it involves discerning the significance of the "battle", e.g. someone out in traffic is overcome with road rage against me...discerning God's wisdom through the Holy Spirit will lead me away from any conflict of that sort. But other times God will direct and empower me to stand up and face the adversary, be it human or situational...with the emphasis, of course, on God being the one in charge. He will not ask of me anything that he hasn't already equipped me for: David was equipped with his life experience of fighting predators while shepherding, his sling, and stones....and more than anything, his faith in God...
You can watch the video for this message by clicking on the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [link]. The Family Church, located at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holds its Sunday morning services at 9:30 and 11 and invites you to attend. There's the weekly sermon, inspiring praise music, friendly folks all around, and prayer and discipleship opportunities...and, of course, that delicious complimentary coffee...
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Wednesday's Short Story: The Big Front Yard by Clifford Simak
Back in May I discussed another of the great twentieth century science fiction writer Clifford Simak's short stories: Huddling Place, from 1944. But one of the first sci-fi stories I ever read was his 1958 The Big Front Yard, which I found while thumbing through one of my father's old paperback anthologies. It also appears in Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 20 (1958), published by DAW Books in 1990. Unlike many other stories I have read over the years, it has strongly stuck with me to this day...and for good reason...
Hiram Taine is a solitary handyman living on the edge of the woods outside a New England village with his dog Towser. The folks from the village like and respect him, and bring in their broken down televisions and other contraptions for him to repair. One day he notices that Towser is acting as if he is smelling a rat or woodchuck...and it seems to be coming from the basement. Later he discovers that the ceiling of the basement has been replaced by an impermeable smooth glassy barrier. Not freaking out as I (and most people) would have done, Taine with his "Yankee sensibility" continues to go about his own business in town and returns home to find his house's front closed in on itself, completely impassable. Going in from the back, he sees that the front windows and door open out to a very sunny desert scene...while it's still nighttime and New England in the back! Whatever "rats" had built the basement ceiling had also transformed his house into a gateway to another planet. Taine knows they came from outer space because Towser had picked up their buried spaceship's scent. And the story continues from there...
When I first read The Big Front Yard as a kid, the idea of just walking through a door and instantly traversing enormous distances greatly intrigued me...even now I often joke about wanting to be able to step into a closet and come out at some distant destination, saving me the time, expense, and hassle of going through all that tedious travel. But when I reread it the other day, I picked up on something else: there is a character named Beasly, a man whose features you might recognize in a few others you know in your own life. He does odd jobs around town to earn his frugal lifestyle and is generally regarded as somewhat slow-witted, consequently commonly being jeered at by some of the town's kids and shown disrespect by those he works for...except for Taine, who treats him as an equal. But as it turns out, Beasly has a special talent that has gone undiscovered for his entire life, a talent that is crucial to the story's successful outcome. I wonder how many of us regard ourselves as superior to others whose mental faculties we deem to make them not quite "complete", when the truth is that each and every one of us are complete in our own right and deserve an opportunity for a dignified life within our society...
Hiram Taine is a solitary handyman living on the edge of the woods outside a New England village with his dog Towser. The folks from the village like and respect him, and bring in their broken down televisions and other contraptions for him to repair. One day he notices that Towser is acting as if he is smelling a rat or woodchuck...and it seems to be coming from the basement. Later he discovers that the ceiling of the basement has been replaced by an impermeable smooth glassy barrier. Not freaking out as I (and most people) would have done, Taine with his "Yankee sensibility" continues to go about his own business in town and returns home to find his house's front closed in on itself, completely impassable. Going in from the back, he sees that the front windows and door open out to a very sunny desert scene...while it's still nighttime and New England in the back! Whatever "rats" had built the basement ceiling had also transformed his house into a gateway to another planet. Taine knows they came from outer space because Towser had picked up their buried spaceship's scent. And the story continues from there...
When I first read The Big Front Yard as a kid, the idea of just walking through a door and instantly traversing enormous distances greatly intrigued me...even now I often joke about wanting to be able to step into a closet and come out at some distant destination, saving me the time, expense, and hassle of going through all that tedious travel. But when I reread it the other day, I picked up on something else: there is a character named Beasly, a man whose features you might recognize in a few others you know in your own life. He does odd jobs around town to earn his frugal lifestyle and is generally regarded as somewhat slow-witted, consequently commonly being jeered at by some of the town's kids and shown disrespect by those he works for...except for Taine, who treats him as an equal. But as it turns out, Beasly has a special talent that has gone undiscovered for his entire life, a talent that is crucial to the story's successful outcome. I wonder how many of us regard ourselves as superior to others whose mental faculties we deem to make them not quite "complete", when the truth is that each and every one of us are complete in our own right and deserve an opportunity for a dignified life within our society...
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Tuesday's List: Fundamental Units of Physics and Derived Formulas
A few decades ago I was studying basic college physics when I tired of having to remember all of the formulas in mechanics and electricity...and decided to develop numerical strings for each type of quantity that, for me at least, were easier to retain. Now in physics there are seven fundamental units, of which everything else can be derived (back then I only used four):
1 mass.......................kilogram (kg)
2 length.....................meter (m)
3 electric current........ampere (A)
4 time........................second (s)
5 thermodynamic temperature...degree Kelvin scale, or kelvin (K)
6 amount of substance...mole (mol)
7 luminous intensity.....candela (cd)
For the purposes of this article, I'll leave off the last three units, although you might find it interesting that thermodynamic temperature does not figure into the formula for energy...heat energy or otherwise. What I did was to write out four-number strings, each number representing the exponential powers for the units or combinations thereof. So...
mass: 1 0 0 0 kg
length: 0 1 0 0 m
current: 0 0 1 0 A
time: 0 0 0 1 s
From this we can derive more strings:
area 0 2 0 0 length-squared
volume 0 3 0 0 length-cubed
velocity 0 1 0 -1 length per time
acceleration 0 1 0 -2 length per time-squared
density 1 -3 0 0 mass per length-cubed
force 1 1 0 -2 mass multiplied by length per time-squared
energy 1 2 0 -2 mass mult. by length-squared per time-squared
power 1 2 0 -3 mass mult. by length-squared per time-cubed
pressure 1 -1 0 -2 mass per length per time-squared
charge 0 0 1 1 current mult. by time
voltage 1 2 -1 -3 mass mult. by length-squared per current per time-cubed
Each number of the string represents the exponential power of that fundamental unit within the formula...and you multiply across the string. A unit represented by "0" simply isn't present within that formula. I found this numerical mnemonic system, once learned, to be easier to remember...
And it's also easier to see relationships between the different formulas, for example:
We're taught that force=mass x acceleration...or:
1 0 0 0 mass
0 1 0 -2 acceleration
1 1 0 -2 force (note that when multiplying exponents you add the powers)
If you're interested, you can go through the whole physics textbook like this and the formula derivations can get to be almost a matter of second nature after a while...
1 mass.......................kilogram (kg)
2 length.....................meter (m)
3 electric current........ampere (A)
4 time........................second (s)
5 thermodynamic temperature...degree Kelvin scale, or kelvin (K)
6 amount of substance...mole (mol)
7 luminous intensity.....candela (cd)
For the purposes of this article, I'll leave off the last three units, although you might find it interesting that thermodynamic temperature does not figure into the formula for energy...heat energy or otherwise. What I did was to write out four-number strings, each number representing the exponential powers for the units or combinations thereof. So...
mass: 1 0 0 0 kg
length: 0 1 0 0 m
current: 0 0 1 0 A
time: 0 0 0 1 s
From this we can derive more strings:
area 0 2 0 0 length-squared
volume 0 3 0 0 length-cubed
velocity 0 1 0 -1 length per time
acceleration 0 1 0 -2 length per time-squared
density 1 -3 0 0 mass per length-cubed
force 1 1 0 -2 mass multiplied by length per time-squared
energy 1 2 0 -2 mass mult. by length-squared per time-squared
power 1 2 0 -3 mass mult. by length-squared per time-cubed
pressure 1 -1 0 -2 mass per length per time-squared
charge 0 0 1 1 current mult. by time
voltage 1 2 -1 -3 mass mult. by length-squared per current per time-cubed
Each number of the string represents the exponential power of that fundamental unit within the formula...and you multiply across the string. A unit represented by "0" simply isn't present within that formula. I found this numerical mnemonic system, once learned, to be easier to remember...
And it's also easier to see relationships between the different formulas, for example:
We're taught that force=mass x acceleration...or:
1 0 0 0 mass
0 1 0 -2 acceleration
1 1 0 -2 force (note that when multiplying exponents you add the powers)
If you're interested, you can go through the whole physics textbook like this and the formula derivations can get to be almost a matter of second nature after a while...
Monday, September 25, 2017
The Ongoing NFL Kneeling-at-the-National Anthem Controversy
I wrote early on in the 2016 National Football League season that I strongly disagreed with the tactics taken by then-San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick as he remained seated during the pregame playing of the National Anthem as a protest against how he perceived blacks and other minorities were being treated in this country. Several players on his team and others joined him in this silent but ostentatious action, and at the time I stated that since the league was not going to take any disciplinary action against them then I would boycott the season. And I did, until I noticed that that same league was making sure that the police and our brave soldiers were being honored during different halftime shows and decided that in an imperfect world, they were probably doing the best they thought they could. Still, I objected to the protests...and multimillionaire Kaepernick, a sympathizer of brutal communist totalitarian dictator Fidel Castro, should have been the last person to emulate or be called "courageous" for taking his stand...or should I say "seat". But it seemed that the furor over all this had finally died down until it looked as if all of the teams were blacklisting Kaepernick, a capable pro quarterback who was an available free agent but not being considered...and believe me, some teams desperately need a quarterback who doesn't totally suck. As this 2017 season has begun and progressed, more and more players were seen kneeling during the anthem, and the league offices once again averted their eyes. Then President Trump went off on one of his spontaneous rants the other day at a rally aimed at his whopping 35% base of supporters and angrily urged fans to walk out of stadiums and for the teams to fire players who refuse to honor our national symbols. I thought it was interesting that during the Charlottesville incident when white supremacist racists demonstrated against the removal of a Confederate statue, his off-the-cuff reaction was that they had a legal permit to do so and then equated their actions with the counter-demonstrators. But with these NFL protestors Trump decided to make a "moral statement" instead and come down harshly against them. So let me see...when it's white racists protesting, our prez says there are some very good people among them and takes great pains to emphasize that it's their legal right...when it's blacks protesting against white racism, he says "Fire them!" H-m-m, I think I'm beginning to understand where Mr. Trump stands on race...
In spite of disliking the protests at the playing of the National Anthem, I do respect and agree to a great extent with the reasons for them...blacks and other minorities really don't get a fair shake in this society, especially with regard to their treatment by police and how the justice system more severely prosecutes them. But I'm standing back and watching how it's all being spun on TV and I have to wonder whether I'm the only one who discerns that the issue is being twisted around a bit. To disrupt an assembly through protest is in of itself a deliberate act of disunity...to stand together at the playing of the anthem would have been the act of unity. Instead, different teams are all pretending to be "united" by holding arms and doing other sorts of symbolic acts...but the unity is among themselves only, not with the fans or the people at large. And Trump is consequently being portrayed as a "divider"...which I agree he most assuredly is, but not for the reason they're all giving over the air...and it's a shame, because I find myself at times agreeing with the president's positions on different issues: if he only didn't act as a wrecking ball in promoting his viewpoint. The protesters most certainly are ALSO dividers, not unifiers, and it might be argued that their divisiveness is for a good cause...you're not going to hear me disagree on that one. But I think that all of this symbolic stuff going on isn't going to make anyone's life better...if anything it will just entrench those whose mindsets need the most change. In any event, our bumbling, blustering president has turned the protests from a social statement into a political one: if you're against Trump, then kneel, if you support him, stand...never mind how you feel about the honor and privilege of being an American anymore...
In spite of disliking the protests at the playing of the National Anthem, I do respect and agree to a great extent with the reasons for them...blacks and other minorities really don't get a fair shake in this society, especially with regard to their treatment by police and how the justice system more severely prosecutes them. But I'm standing back and watching how it's all being spun on TV and I have to wonder whether I'm the only one who discerns that the issue is being twisted around a bit. To disrupt an assembly through protest is in of itself a deliberate act of disunity...to stand together at the playing of the anthem would have been the act of unity. Instead, different teams are all pretending to be "united" by holding arms and doing other sorts of symbolic acts...but the unity is among themselves only, not with the fans or the people at large. And Trump is consequently being portrayed as a "divider"...which I agree he most assuredly is, but not for the reason they're all giving over the air...and it's a shame, because I find myself at times agreeing with the president's positions on different issues: if he only didn't act as a wrecking ball in promoting his viewpoint. The protesters most certainly are ALSO dividers, not unifiers, and it might be argued that their divisiveness is for a good cause...you're not going to hear me disagree on that one. But I think that all of this symbolic stuff going on isn't going to make anyone's life better...if anything it will just entrench those whose mindsets need the most change. In any event, our bumbling, blustering president has turned the protests from a social statement into a political one: if you're against Trump, then kneel, if you support him, stand...never mind how you feel about the honor and privilege of being an American anymore...
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Just Finished Rereading Stephen King's 11/22/63
Back in April of 2012 I read for the first time Stephen King's time travel novel 11/22/63...here is a link to my article about it: [link]. Since I'd be simply repeating from I wrote about this outstanding piece of speculative science fiction, I thought I'd go off in a (very) slightly different direction today...
Time travel has always been a popular theme in fiction and its prospects appeal to a wide swath of the population...at least to that part that is capable of reflection and isn't constantly surrendering itself to pleasure-seeking and ego gratification. I think I might have an answer as to why the idea of venturing into the past or future appeals to a lot of us: time is the dimension of space-time in which we can't travel other than the steady, second-by-second pace with which we live it out. I can imagine what the beach is like and I can also physically go there. And I can imagine the past or future...but my brain and body are trapped in the now. What time travel fiction accomplishes is to make the now a totally personal and portable concept, with the travelers toting it around with them "whenever" they go. And once you can separate now from the notion that we're all locked into the present, where we dwell with our earlier life...and even earlier nonexistence...trailing back on one side, and our future life...and death and beyond...projected ahead on the other...then immortality sounds a bit more achievable, even if this is only felt unconsciously. But even if time travel were possible, we still live within our own physical bodies, subject to wear and tear by aging and vulnerable to injury and disease. But it does seem exciting to some people to be able to escape the confines of our own lifespans and experience other times...as if they were getting away with something much more meaningful and transcendent than traveling cross-country or abroad...
In the 2012 article I wrote about 11/22/63, I alluded to the movie Groundhog Day, which was a different kind of time travel story...one with impenetrable temporal walls confining Bill Murray's character to a single, repeating day. There's another time-themed story, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, that has as its protagonist Billy Pilgrim, who has become "unstuck" in time and goes back and forth through different points within his lifespan and experiences. His time travel, like that in Groundhog Day, while in many ways different, is also based on subjective, experiential reality and not on scientifically provable objective reality. I imagine that if there is truly anything to time travel, it will be as a subjective and not an objectively demonstrable experience...
Time travel has always been a popular theme in fiction and its prospects appeal to a wide swath of the population...at least to that part that is capable of reflection and isn't constantly surrendering itself to pleasure-seeking and ego gratification. I think I might have an answer as to why the idea of venturing into the past or future appeals to a lot of us: time is the dimension of space-time in which we can't travel other than the steady, second-by-second pace with which we live it out. I can imagine what the beach is like and I can also physically go there. And I can imagine the past or future...but my brain and body are trapped in the now. What time travel fiction accomplishes is to make the now a totally personal and portable concept, with the travelers toting it around with them "whenever" they go. And once you can separate now from the notion that we're all locked into the present, where we dwell with our earlier life...and even earlier nonexistence...trailing back on one side, and our future life...and death and beyond...projected ahead on the other...then immortality sounds a bit more achievable, even if this is only felt unconsciously. But even if time travel were possible, we still live within our own physical bodies, subject to wear and tear by aging and vulnerable to injury and disease. But it does seem exciting to some people to be able to escape the confines of our own lifespans and experience other times...as if they were getting away with something much more meaningful and transcendent than traveling cross-country or abroad...
In the 2012 article I wrote about 11/22/63, I alluded to the movie Groundhog Day, which was a different kind of time travel story...one with impenetrable temporal walls confining Bill Murray's character to a single, repeating day. There's another time-themed story, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, that has as its protagonist Billy Pilgrim, who has become "unstuck" in time and goes back and forth through different points within his lifespan and experiences. His time travel, like that in Groundhog Day, while in many ways different, is also based on subjective, experiential reality and not on scientifically provable objective reality. I imagine that if there is truly anything to time travel, it will be as a subjective and not an objectively demonstrable experience...
Saturday, September 23, 2017
The Gustav Mahler Test
No, this isn't an examination about the late 19th/early 20th-century Austrian composer Gustav Mahler...not that the works of this important link between romantic and modern classical music aren't worth examining. Instead, this is more like a litmus test than an academic one...and it indirectly concerns my driving...
I am one of those people who can't keep their hands off the radio dial when on the road...don't worry, I'm looking where I'm going. My favorite stations are few in number: WUFT/Classical on 102.7, WUFT/NPR News-Talk on 89.1, WHHZ on 100.5 (alternative rock)...and occasionally WIND on 92.5 (classic rock)...I've pretty much given up on WSKY/97.3 with its extremely biased right-wing political talk format. Sometimes I find myself riveted to one station...more often, I'm surfing around on the dial for something interesting. But for the last couple of weeks, I have been listening to a CD that my friend Rob from work gave me a while back: Mahler's Ninth Symphony in D-Minor, which he composed shortly before his death and was consequently never performed in his lifetime. But it is widely considered to be one of his best symphonies, and the symphony is the form that he excelled in. Although Mahler's Ninth is difficult to get my arms around...it seems much less structured to my untrained classical music ears than a symphony by Mozart or Beethoven...I have come to sense more and more that its mood matches mine, almost as if a kind of synchronicity is going on. As a result, this CD has become a test of sorts regarding whatever is on the radio. When I'm on the radio the question comes up: does any of this stand up to Mahler's Ninth? Usually it doesn't and I switch over to the CD, which picks up on the symphony at the point when I left off the previous time. But lately, I haven't even bothered to listen to the radio and just keep the Ninth playing in the background as I drive...
I am one of those people who can't keep their hands off the radio dial when on the road...don't worry, I'm looking where I'm going. My favorite stations are few in number: WUFT/Classical on 102.7, WUFT/NPR News-Talk on 89.1, WHHZ on 100.5 (alternative rock)...and occasionally WIND on 92.5 (classic rock)...I've pretty much given up on WSKY/97.3 with its extremely biased right-wing political talk format. Sometimes I find myself riveted to one station...more often, I'm surfing around on the dial for something interesting. But for the last couple of weeks, I have been listening to a CD that my friend Rob from work gave me a while back: Mahler's Ninth Symphony in D-Minor, which he composed shortly before his death and was consequently never performed in his lifetime. But it is widely considered to be one of his best symphonies, and the symphony is the form that he excelled in. Although Mahler's Ninth is difficult to get my arms around...it seems much less structured to my untrained classical music ears than a symphony by Mozart or Beethoven...I have come to sense more and more that its mood matches mine, almost as if a kind of synchronicity is going on. As a result, this CD has become a test of sorts regarding whatever is on the radio. When I'm on the radio the question comes up: does any of this stand up to Mahler's Ninth? Usually it doesn't and I switch over to the CD, which picks up on the symphony at the point when I left off the previous time. But lately, I haven't even bothered to listen to the radio and just keep the Ninth playing in the background as I drive...
Friday, September 22, 2017
Quote of the Week...from Brooks Atkinson
People everywhere enjoy believing things that they know are not true. It spares them the ordeal of thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for what they know.
---Brooks Atkinson
In his heyday from the early to mid-twentieth century, Brooks Atkinson was a famous figure, writing influential theatrical reviews for more than three decades for the New York Times and serving as an overseas correspondent in China during World War II and afterwards in Moscow. I don't know the context and origin of the above quote (nor do I know Brooks Atkinson for that matter), but I know where I found it: a book of cryptograms! But whatever Brooks Atkinson may have originally meant by this saying, I thought it had a very broad application to myself, others around me...and the way the world in general works. That having been noted, though, I'm going to specifically apply it to something that's been eating at me for years: "parrot politics"...
Parrot politics is a term I coined myself, although it should already be a commonly used expression. It's meaning is self-evident: the ever-increasing tendency for people to "parrot" whatever they hear or read from others they are following in the media, be it talk radio, the Internet, television, printed media, etc., as if it were something they had thought up for themselves. I see a lot of this phenomenon on Facebook, and from BOTH sides of the political spectrum. It's easy to detect: somebody around you suddenly goes off on a detailed rant that they obviously couldn't have reasoned out for themselves but is rather a repeat of what they got from another source. The content is usually like this: "our" side is ever-so highly principled with its advocates being people of honor, wisdom, and good intentions who deserve respect while the "other" side is slimy and deceitful with its advocates being full of ulterior motives, selfish, stupid, and corrupt, half of whom belong in jail and none of whom should be in politics. It's not the media people who formulate and present these opinions that I have the major problem with (although they should know better)...no, it's the unquestioning "believers" among the general population who may not even understand what they are passionately regurgitating to others but choose to do it because they know it promotes "their" side and slams the other. It's kind of like watching a game and your team just got away with a penalty but you expediently claim there was no foul committed. Wouldn't it be ultimately more productive to take each issue and discuss it on its pros and cons...and leave out the personalities?
I have my own political perspectives and tend to lean toward one party over the other...I've made no secret of that here on this blog. But when I'm listening to the opinions of others, regardless of their political orientation, I do try to think for myself and discern the difference between what is true and what is just a rehash of twisted propaganda. Unfortunately, the trend, with some folks at least, seems to be going in the opposite direction...
---Brooks Atkinson
In his heyday from the early to mid-twentieth century, Brooks Atkinson was a famous figure, writing influential theatrical reviews for more than three decades for the New York Times and serving as an overseas correspondent in China during World War II and afterwards in Moscow. I don't know the context and origin of the above quote (nor do I know Brooks Atkinson for that matter), but I know where I found it: a book of cryptograms! But whatever Brooks Atkinson may have originally meant by this saying, I thought it had a very broad application to myself, others around me...and the way the world in general works. That having been noted, though, I'm going to specifically apply it to something that's been eating at me for years: "parrot politics"...
Parrot politics is a term I coined myself, although it should already be a commonly used expression. It's meaning is self-evident: the ever-increasing tendency for people to "parrot" whatever they hear or read from others they are following in the media, be it talk radio, the Internet, television, printed media, etc., as if it were something they had thought up for themselves. I see a lot of this phenomenon on Facebook, and from BOTH sides of the political spectrum. It's easy to detect: somebody around you suddenly goes off on a detailed rant that they obviously couldn't have reasoned out for themselves but is rather a repeat of what they got from another source. The content is usually like this: "our" side is ever-so highly principled with its advocates being people of honor, wisdom, and good intentions who deserve respect while the "other" side is slimy and deceitful with its advocates being full of ulterior motives, selfish, stupid, and corrupt, half of whom belong in jail and none of whom should be in politics. It's not the media people who formulate and present these opinions that I have the major problem with (although they should know better)...no, it's the unquestioning "believers" among the general population who may not even understand what they are passionately regurgitating to others but choose to do it because they know it promotes "their" side and slams the other. It's kind of like watching a game and your team just got away with a penalty but you expediently claim there was no foul committed. Wouldn't it be ultimately more productive to take each issue and discuss it on its pros and cons...and leave out the personalities?
I have my own political perspectives and tend to lean toward one party over the other...I've made no secret of that here on this blog. But when I'm listening to the opinions of others, regardless of their political orientation, I do try to think for myself and discern the difference between what is true and what is just a rehash of twisted propaganda. Unfortunately, the trend, with some folks at least, seems to be going in the opposite direction...
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
9/17 Sermon on David, Part 1
In embarking on a new series about the important Old Testament figure of David, The Family Church's senior pastor Philip Griffin delivered a message titled The Heart That God Chooses and, relying primarily on passages from the book of 1 Samuel, Chapters 10-17 as well as from Acts 13:22 and Psalms 51:10, contrasted the responses of Saul and David to God's calling upon them to be the first king of Israel...
As 1 Samuel 17:7 explains, God looks at the hearts of people, not their outward appearance. And how does one's heart manifest itself to the Lord? Pastor Philip delineated fours ways: a willingness to wait, a desire to obey, a bold faith, and genuine repentance. Saul wouldn't wait a day or two for Samuel to make the required sacrifice to God, but David was willing to wait many years after his anointing to finally become king. Saul's disobedience in this matter is contrasted with how God saw David, testifying that "he will do everything I want him to do". When the Philistines presented the giant Goliath as their champion, Saul shrank back in fear caused by lack of faith, but David stepped forward and proclaimed God...not himself...as the champion on his side. And as for repentance, Saul would often back down in sorrow from his wrongful actions...but only temporarily. David, himself flawed, however was true in his repentance...particularly in the affair of Bathsheba and Uriah...
No, it's not like it was three thousand years ago and I doubt that anyone reading this is dealing with their proper role as a warrior/king on a brutal battlefield. But in our daily lives we are confronted constantly with situations that can challenge our patience, our obedience to God, and our faith...while calling us to humbly repent whenever we transgress. Let us be people whose hearts speak to God!
For the Biblical passages used in Philip's message, I invite you to use the search engine on the Bible Gateway site through the following link: [link]. And you can view this sermon off the church's YouTube video website...here's a link to it: [link]. The Family Church, at 2022 SW 122nd Street in western Gainesville, holds its Sunday morning services at 9:30 and 11...
As 1 Samuel 17:7 explains, God looks at the hearts of people, not their outward appearance. And how does one's heart manifest itself to the Lord? Pastor Philip delineated fours ways: a willingness to wait, a desire to obey, a bold faith, and genuine repentance. Saul wouldn't wait a day or two for Samuel to make the required sacrifice to God, but David was willing to wait many years after his anointing to finally become king. Saul's disobedience in this matter is contrasted with how God saw David, testifying that "he will do everything I want him to do". When the Philistines presented the giant Goliath as their champion, Saul shrank back in fear caused by lack of faith, but David stepped forward and proclaimed God...not himself...as the champion on his side. And as for repentance, Saul would often back down in sorrow from his wrongful actions...but only temporarily. David, himself flawed, however was true in his repentance...particularly in the affair of Bathsheba and Uriah...
No, it's not like it was three thousand years ago and I doubt that anyone reading this is dealing with their proper role as a warrior/king on a brutal battlefield. But in our daily lives we are confronted constantly with situations that can challenge our patience, our obedience to God, and our faith...while calling us to humbly repent whenever we transgress. Let us be people whose hearts speak to God!
For the Biblical passages used in Philip's message, I invite you to use the search engine on the Bible Gateway site through the following link: [link]. And you can view this sermon off the church's YouTube video website...here's a link to it: [link]. The Family Church, at 2022 SW 122nd Street in western Gainesville, holds its Sunday morning services at 9:30 and 11...
Weekly Short Story: Barrier by Anthony Boucher
During the past few days I have been rereading my all-time favorite Stephen King novel 11/22/63, an odyssey about time travel. In line with this theme I picked another time travel "special", the 1942 short story Barrier by Anthony Boucher, which appeared in the collection Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 4 (1942) published by DAW Books in 1980. You may be familiar with this book, for I've already discussed two tales from it, Mimic by Donald A. Wollheim and Nerves by Lester del Rey...it contains a few other gems as well...
Once you overcome the impossible physics of time travel...at least into the past...the way is open for wild speculation and the paradoxes that can occur. Neither King in 11/22/63 nor Boucher in Barrier disappoint in this respect. In Boucher's story, a time machine built in the "advanced" time (from 1942's perspective) of 1973 propels John Trent...hired by the inventor for the trip...500 years into the future. He finds himself in a stagnant and totalitarian society...science and free thought are prohibited and everything "legal" derives from that time's scriptures and their interpreters, an apparent dig by the author against organized religion. Everything in this society is run by the principle of Stasis...no societal change, no scientific development...and definitely no time travel...are allowed. They have gone so far as to construct a barrier to time travel...Trent manages to get through because his machine is from the past. The Stasis builds another, more effective barrier and at the instant it is activated, many time travelers from the future collide with it...and the conflict between the totalitarian status quo and the future full of inevitable change ensues in earnest, with our hero in the middle of it all...
Change and growth are indispensable to a healthy society, and Anthony Boucher is by no means alone in emphasizing this. And while principles and precepts can be important guidelines in structuring a society, it is also crucial that people rely on what they can see going on before them with their own eyes and not practice denial of reality in favor of dogma...I see too much of that denial going on in the world around me. But what I liked the most about Barrier was the time travel speculation...and the ingenious way how Bokor, one of the time travelers from the future, is able to circumvent the Stasis and "beat the system"...
Once you overcome the impossible physics of time travel...at least into the past...the way is open for wild speculation and the paradoxes that can occur. Neither King in 11/22/63 nor Boucher in Barrier disappoint in this respect. In Boucher's story, a time machine built in the "advanced" time (from 1942's perspective) of 1973 propels John Trent...hired by the inventor for the trip...500 years into the future. He finds himself in a stagnant and totalitarian society...science and free thought are prohibited and everything "legal" derives from that time's scriptures and their interpreters, an apparent dig by the author against organized religion. Everything in this society is run by the principle of Stasis...no societal change, no scientific development...and definitely no time travel...are allowed. They have gone so far as to construct a barrier to time travel...Trent manages to get through because his machine is from the past. The Stasis builds another, more effective barrier and at the instant it is activated, many time travelers from the future collide with it...and the conflict between the totalitarian status quo and the future full of inevitable change ensues in earnest, with our hero in the middle of it all...
Change and growth are indispensable to a healthy society, and Anthony Boucher is by no means alone in emphasizing this. And while principles and precepts can be important guidelines in structuring a society, it is also crucial that people rely on what they can see going on before them with their own eyes and not practice denial of reality in favor of dogma...I see too much of that denial going on in the world around me. But what I liked the most about Barrier was the time travel speculation...and the ingenious way how Bokor, one of the time travelers from the future, is able to circumvent the Stasis and "beat the system"...
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Tuesday's List: Miami Dolphins and Florida Gators Football Win-Loss Records Since 1966
The first football game I ever watched on TV was early during the 1967 season, in other words 50 years ago...and it was between the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams, two teams that will face each other this Thursday night. But although I successfully rooted for the Rams in that bygone game, I came to be an ardent fan of the Miami Dolphins, beginning with their third season in 1968. That year I also started to follow college football and pulled equally for Florida, Florida State, and the University of Miami. After moving to Gainesville in 1977, my allegiances focused on the Gators, but I still supported the Dolphins. Over the years, Miami and UF have had their glory seasons and some not-so-good times. Below I've listed each team's win-loss record, starting with 1966, the first year of the Miami Dolphins as well as the year that Gator quarterback Steve Spurrier won the Heisman Trophy. I've marked with an asterisk (*) the years that the respective teams made the postseason. Those times Miami made it to the Super Bowl and lost I highlighted with blue and their Super Bowl championship years I highlighted with red. Similarly, the years Florida won the Southeastern Conference championship I highlighted with blue, their National Championship seasons with red (they naturally won the SEC those years as well). So here's that list, which I admit to putting on this blog in order that I can easily refer to it:
DOLPHINS GATORS
1966 3-11 9-2*
1967 4-10 6-4
1968 5-8-1 6-3-1
1969 3-10-1 9-1-1*
1970 10-4* 7-4
1971 10-3-1* 4-7
1972 14-0* 5-5-1
1973 12-2* 7-5*
1974 11-3* 8-4*
1975 10-4 9-3*
DOLPHINS GATORS
1967 4-10 6-4
1968 5-8-1 6-3-1
1969 3-10-1 9-1-1*
1970 10-4* 7-4
1971 10-3-1* 4-7
1972 14-0* 5-5-1
1973 12-2* 7-5*
1974 11-3* 8-4*
1975 10-4 9-3*
1976 6-8 8-4*
1977 10-4 6-4-1
1978 11-5* 4-7
1979 10-6* 0-10-1
1980 8-8 8-4*
1981 11-4-1* 7-5*
1982 7-2* 8-4*
1983 12-4* 9-2*
1984 14-2* 9-1-1
1985 12-4* 9-1-1
1986 8-8 6-5
1987 8-7 6-6*
1988 6-10 7-5*
1989 8-8 7-5*
1990 12-4* 9-2
1991 8-8 10-2*
1992 11-5* 9-4*
1993 9-7 11-2*
1994 10-6* 10-2-1*
1995 9-7* 12-1*
1996 8-8 12-1*
1997 9-7* 10-2*
1998 10-6* 10-2*
1999 9-7* 9-4*
2000 11-5* 10-3*
2001 11-5* 10-2*
2002 9-7 8-5*
2003 10-6 8-5*
2004 4-12 7-5*
2005 9-7 9-3*
2006 6-10 13-1*
2007 1-15 9-4*
2008 11-5* 13-1*
2009 7-9 13-1*
2010 7-9 8-5*
2011 6-10 7-6*
2012 7-9 11-2*
2013 8-8 4-8
2014 8-8 7-5*
2015 6-10 10-4*
2016 10-6* 9-4*
2017 1-0 1-1
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