My mind has many nooks and crannies ... like an english muffin
I Can Learn From Anyone
· ☕ 558  words life  · ✍️ Peter Hiltz
I’m an infovore. I take in a lot of information (or in the words of my sister-in-law - “more useless crap”) and occasionally it makes new patterns that I can learn from. Its not just written information. I can learn watching two carpenters do things differently. I can learn from listening to different conversations about practically anything (maybe not sports because I really don’t care). It doesn’t matter the socioeconomic level, intelligence level or age level.
Arsenic Before Oxygen?
· ☕ 211  words science  · ✍️ Peter Hiltz
So we know that life has existed on Earth for billions of years (think bacteria, not dinosaurs) but we also know that bacterial life existed for 1.5 billion years before there was free oxygen present. Life as we generally know it requires oxygen serve as a vehicle for electrons gained and lost through various metabolic processes. How did it all work pre-oxygen? There have been various theories posited, including life processes using hydrogen or sulfur or iron.
Hubris or Aspiration
· ☕ 486  words life  · ✍️ Peter Hiltz
There is a trope throughout history about hubris. Wikipedia defines it as “foolish pride, dangerous overconfidence or arrogance”. The Encyclopedia Britannica has a more nuanced definition: “overweening presumption that leads a person to disregard the divinely fixed limits on human action in an ordered cosmos.” The general theory of the trope is that hubris will lead to your downfall. As examples, in Greek mythology, think Icarus flying too close to the sun; in Christian theology think the fall of Lucifer.
Make the Chili
· ☕ 300  words life  · ✍️ Peter Hiltz
There is a Carrie Newcomer song called “Forever Ray” where the wife (Ella) shooes the husband (Ray) out of the house and suggests that since it is a nice day, maybe he could do something in the yard. So Ray goes out and buys a little cement statue of a rabbit on its hind legs holding a tray. Then everyday he leaves Ella a note on the tray held down by a stone with just something to say that he loves her.
Read the words
· ☕ 275  words politics  · ✍️ Peter Hiltz
Trying to have a rational conversation is difficult enough without people fixating on a single word in a sentence and then letting their lizard hind brain take control. A recent case in point was an article in the Washington Post about political scientists and sociologists concerned that the US is backsliding into autocracy. Link. One of the people commenting immediately started saying that this was sensationalist nonsense to sell papers - the President does not have autocratic power and the people around him are managing him very well so as to ensure that he never gets that power.
If We Close Our Eyes - Libertarian Edition
· ☕ 909  words politics  · ✍️ Peter Hiltz
I was browsing some libertarian social media sites trying to understand the different variations of libertarians and I was struck by the similarity with religious converts. If you believe in the invisible market hand, then everything will be fine is the same as if you believe in my version of God, then everything will be fine. When asking about exploitation, I was pointed to this quote: “With the State - biggest, baddest exploiter of all time - out of the picture, exploitation, in terms of aggression, would all but vanish.
Its not Capitalism v. Communism, Its Corruption v. Everyone
· ☕ 595  words politics  · ✍️ Peter Hiltz
It is painful to watch the echo chambers missing what is happening right in front of their faces because they are so fixated on the enemy they have been brought up to hate. Is it that corruption is okay if its the guys behind our cheerleaders engaged in the corruption? I see people point to the problems in Venezuela as demonstrating the evils of socialism. No, the problems in Venezuela demonstrate the evils of corruption.
Woe is You
· ☕ 402  words politics life  · ✍️ Peter Hiltz
Terry Pratchett once said “Satire is meant to ridicule power. If you are laughing at people who are hurting, it’s not satire, it’s bullying.” I absolutely agree. At the same time, I want you to think about the phrase “people who are hurting”. Let’s assume that someone is hurting but it is not “justifiable” in your mind. Have you now decided that they aren’t really hurting? There seems to be a tendency by both parties to a disagreement to deny the reality of any hurt feelings by the other side and claim that they are the only side that has the right to feel hurt.
RIP Ruth Bader Ginsburg
· ☕ 80  words politics  · ✍️ Peter Hiltz
RIP Justice Ginsburg. From a pure power politics perspective I can understand why the Republicans said that they will bring the next nominee to a vote before the US election. I can’t make people care about other people. But don’t for a second believe that there are any morals or ethics left in the bloody carcass of a once respectable party. As usual, feel free to disagree using this contact link.
When The Disgusted Have Left
· ☕ 119  words politics  · ✍️ Peter Hiltz
Apparently there is an old French proverb that says “When the disgusted have left, only the disgusting remain”. Painful, but true. There does become a point where leaving someplace because you cannot continue to work there and keep your integrity creates the danger that the place will get worse. However, if you have been sidelined and are no longer effective in trying to keep some integrity, morals, ethics there, then staying doesn’t help and maybe society is better placed for change from the outside.
Oh Look, A Squirrel! Christopher Columbus Edition
· ☕ 9131  words politics  · ✍️ Peter Hiltz
Introduction (because this will be long) There is an old proverb that you should never meet your heroes or heroines. If you do, you will see their feet of clay. How you do react? If you have idolized and attached a sense of yourself to the hero or heroine, people often either hide the issues and double down on the hero/heroine worship or they are so upset they throw away the good with the bad.
Counting Coup in an Echo Chamber and Other Wastes of Time
· ☕ 429  words politics  · ✍️ Peter Hiltz
I watched Ed Miliband’s speech in the UK Parliament and then watched all the social media posts from the “Remainders” congratulating each other. A typical title started “Boris Johnson’s humiliation by Ed Miliband…”. The same thing happens on the other side. It doesn’t matter whether it is in the UK, the US, India or elsewhere and it doesn’t matter what the subject is so long as there are at least two extremes on the position.
What is Respect?
· ☕ 662  words life  · ✍️ Peter Hiltz
I was reading an interchange on social media the other day about a shoplifting incident at a Lowe’s. In the discussion was a short interchange that got me thinking. One commentor said don’t bother reporting it to the police because they won’t do anything. Another commentator responded this is what happens when people don’t respect the police. My first thought was “What does respecting police have to do with shoplifting”. Then I wondered whether the second commentator was saying you don’t respect the police the police will not respond i.