№ 433. Experience, Observation and Imagination

"A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination — any two of which, at times any one of which — can supply the lack of the others."

--- William Faulkner

And everyone thinks he/she/they is/are a writer today. Imagination.

№ 432. Thirteen Life Learnings in 2019

1. Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind.

Cultivate that capacity for “negative capability.” We live in a culture where one of the greatest social disgraces is not having an opinion, so we often form our “opinions” based on superficial impressions or the borrowed ideas of others, without investing the time and thought that cultivating true conviction necessitates. We then go around asserting these donned opinions and clinging to them as anchors to our own reality. It’s enormously disorienting to simply say, “I don’t know.” But it’s infinitely more rewarding to understand than to be right — even if that means changing your mind about a topic, an ideology, or, above all, yourself.

№ 431. Black Mirror Reality

Globalization and the internet may have made the world smaller, but now we're experiencing a counterattack, the regionalization of truth.

№ 430. Reading the Signs of the Times

Technology

The question for historians is not simply how a politician should be judged and commemorated today, but also how s/he should be understood within the context of his/her time.

№ 429. Make Your Own Kind of Music

№ 428. Tipping Points

When is an emergency really an emergency?

If you’re the captain of the Titanic, approaching a giant iceberg with the potential to sink your ship becomes an emergency only when you realise you might not have enough time to steer a safe course.

And so it is, says Prof Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, when it comes to the climate emergency.

Knowing how long societies have to react to pull the brake on the Earth’s climate and then how long it will take for the ship to slow down is the difference between a climate emergency and a manageable problem.

№ 427. The Art of Stringing Facts

"We all have one life, but books make that life richer by letting us experience the lives of others - real or imagined.... Lists are often boring, but stories strings facts together with an underlying logic that makes them both interesting and memorable.... I appreciate the logic that makes for a great scientific idea, as well as the art of thought that produces a great story.... Book makes the one life we live that much richer. Life isn't always beautiful and enjoyable, but good writing always is." --- Lisa Randall, theoretical physicist and writer.

№ 426. Id & Ego

Trump is Calvin

"One might compare the relation of the ego to the id with that between a rider and his horse. The horse provides the locomotor energy, and the rider has the prerogative of determining the goal and of guiding the movements of his powerful mount towards it. But all too often in the relations between the ego and the id we find a picture of the less ideal situation in which the rider is obliged to guide his horse in the direction in which it itself wants to go." --- Sigmund Freud

№ 425. The Social Media Coliseum

The philosophers Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke have proposed the useful phrase moral grandstanding to describe what happens when people use moral talk to enhance their prestige in a public forum. Like a succession of orators speaking to a skeptical audience, each person strives to outdo previous speakers, leading to some common patterns. Grandstanders tend to “trump up moral charges, pile on in cases of public shaming, announce that anyone who disagrees with them is obviously wrong, or exaggerate emotional displays.” Nuance and truth are casualties in this competition to gain the approval of the audience. Grandstanders scrutinize every word spoken by their opponents—and sometimes even their friends—for the potential to evoke public outrage. Context collapses. The speaker’s intent is ignored.

Christoph Niemann

№ 424. The Crown

What, exactly, is the point of the royal family? Why, in a time of boisterous populism and expanding social consciousness, do the British continue to tolerate this emblem of entitlement and reaction? No one seems to know the answer, least of all the royals themselves, and herein lies the fundamental irony of Morgan’s show, which returns Nov. 17 for a third season. Constitutionally, the role of the monarch is to keep his or her mouth shut, to abjure what Elizabeth, in “The Queen,” calls “the sheer joy of being partial.” This sphinxlike silence is, in turn, conducive to a second, more intangible function: to serve as a conduit for mass emotion, a projection screen for national yearning or catharsis. In other words, the royals are celebrities. For about a thousand years, they were the only celebrities. As that began to change, around the midpoint of the last century, the House of Windsor found itself fumbling for a fresh raison d’être.

№ 423. Gander

Gander’s population may have been small, but the town was also immensely hospitable. To say the locals bent over backwards to accommodate their unexpected guests would be a gross understatement. When flyers stepped off of their planes, Gander’s citizens met them with homemade bagged lunches. The town converted its schools and large buildings into temporary shelters, and when those lodgings filled up, citizens took strangers into their own homes. Medical personnel saw patients and filled prescriptions free of charge.

Meg's Blog

№ 422. Tokyo 東京 Through Square Lenses 2

№ 421. Tokyo 東京 Through Square Lenses

№ 420. Climate Change

Climate change is not a belief system.

We know that the earth’s climate is changing thanks to observations, facts and data that we can see with our eyes and test with the sound minds that God has given us.

And still more fundamentally, here's why it matters: because real people are being affected today; and as Christians we believe that God’s love has been poured in our hearts to share with our brothers and sisters here and around the world who are suffering.

Caring about this planet and every living thing on it is not somehow antithetical to who we are as Christians, but rather central to it.

Being concerned about climate change is a genuine expression of our faith, bringing our attitudes and actions more closely into line with who we already are and what we most want to be.

And not only that; if we truly believe we’ve been given responsibility for every living thing on this planet (including each other) as it says in Genesis 1, then it isn’t only a matter of caring: we should be at the front of the line demanding action.

№ 419. Caring for the Soul

"All of this is therapy the way Socrates used the word: it keeps your soul healthy and vital, and that is the best way to prevent soul sicknesses like depression and frustration. Every day you have choices. You can do things that wound your soul, like being dominated by the work ethic or compulsively seeking more money and possessions, or you can be around people who give you pleasure and do things that satisfy a desire deep inside you. Make this soul care a way of life, and you may discover what the Greeks called eudaimonia—a good spirit, or, in the deepest sense, happiness."

"When people observe the ways in which the soul is manifesting itself, they are enriched rather than impoverished. They receive back what is theirs, the very thing they have assumed to be so horrible that it should be cut out and tossed away. When you regard the soul with an open mind, you begin to find the messages that lie within the illness, the corrections that can be found in remorse and other uncomfortable feelings, and the necessary changes requested by depression and anxiety."---Thomas Moore

№ 418. Ad Astra

When we dream about
our future, we plunder scenes,
plots and peoples. Like

mobius loops wrung taut,
we fuse words, knives and prayers.
We build sand castles,

kites plastered on sticks,
and tin men to slay terrors.
Then wake up consumed.


 

№ 417. The Giving Tree

№ 416. Waking Up to Binary Dreams: A.I. in Ed

"Every educational expert I spoke to for this story began by making the same point: to understand how AI could improve teaching and learning, you need to think about how it is reshaping the nature of work.

As machines become better at rote tasks, humans will need to focus on the skills that remain unique to them: creativity, collaboration, communication, and problem-solving. They will also need to adapt quickly as more and more skills fall prey to automation. This means the 21st-century classroom should bring out the strengths and interests of each person, rather than impart a canonical set of knowledge more suited for the industrial age.

AI, in theory, could make this easier. It could take over certain rote tasks in the classroom, freeing teachers up to pay more attention to each student. Hypotheses differ about what that might look like. Perhaps AI will teach certain kinds of knowledge while humans teach others; perhaps it will help teachers keep track of student performance or give students more control over how they learn. Regardless, the ultimate goal is deeply personalized teaching."

№ 415. Bellini is a Papa-Paparrazi

With my cellphone, it's been a cinch
taking shots of food and travel.
I've long ditched my DSLR for the handy all-in-one gadget.

Maybe it’s just as well that Bellini—as well as other photographers, of any genre—have laid down their Leicas and Nikons. The current culture of Me, Me, Me and anyone who can hack an online account has taken away a significant chunk of the paparazzi’s power, and the need to spring attacks to show how celebrities look and act when stripped of glamor and polish. Anyone with a mobile phone can now act just as despicably—or honorably, as revelations can swing both ways. Anyone with just enough crazy and lack of conscience can be a harbinger of the truth, whatever truth it may be.

№ 414. Books Through Square Lenses

"Read! Whether your path is to build an empire or to find the lifelong companionship of music, every path is possible with that power. It all begins with one word; the same word that was delivered to an ancient prophet on the wings of an archangel: اقرأ" --- Mohammed Fairouz, from the book "A Velocity of Being, Letters to a Young Reader".

№ 413. Baler Through Square Lenses

№ 412. "Thunder Road"

"Thunder Road"

Bruce Springsteen

The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays

Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again

Don't run back inside
Darling, you know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore

Show a little faith there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty but hey you're alright
Oh and that's alright with me

№ 411. Taipei Through Square Lenses