Misc. Post

Well I said my next post would be light-hearted, so this will be that.

First, I'd like to point out that I just noticed how many labels (at the bottom of my posts) I put on all of the posts and that only 3 of them have been repeated. This means two things: (1) - my blogs haven't had very many related themes and (2) - the three repeats are what matter to me most. I believe (2) is exactly right. "Human beings" and their "value", and "philosophy" are the most important things in my life right now.

Second, does anyone know why we have to quotation marks outside of punctuation? (See the last sentence of the previous paragraph as well as all of the quotation uses below) I understand following the rule when it pertains to dialogue, but why should that rule follow when you're just referring to a short phrase that you want set off by quotations? It has nothing to do with the sentence as a whole, so why should the punctuation have to fit inside of the quotes?

Third, earlier I mentioned that I had 3 labels which had been tagged two times. Here's the catch, I'm going to label (appropriately so) those three things for this post considering I mentioned them in this post. So as I typed it in the 1st paragraph, was incorrect for me to say the proposition that "those labels have been tagged 2 times"? I guess as I typed it, it was not, but as you read it, it is. 

abstract form: I say, "A", followed by "this line contains one "A". 

How can I form a statement over time when the very statement I'm trying to say defeats itself? My 2nd statement is true when I form it, but after it is formed, it becomes false.

Does this have ramifications for everyday life? Maybe and maybe not. Any ideas out there? Time and knowledge is a possibility for one of my papers coming up here so that is my particular interest in this subject right now.

Follow-up to Previous Post

I asked my readers to respond to the last post concerning certain African churches and their treatment of what they call "witch" children and I am very pleased with all those who took the time to contact me! That being said, I need to apologize for the immaturity that pervaded the last post. I homogenized an entire religious stance in one paragraph. It was simply unacceptable.

I tried to show that whatever you believe, this should affect you. But what came out was, "If you're Christian, you're wrong, and if your secular, you need to show Christians that they're wrong."

In regards to me putting words into Christian's mouths, that was uncalled-for as well. My whole point of that bit was to say that, when I was a Christian, those were things I heard which I found to be unacceptable. Now, they seem even more so. So what I was asking for was a response that went above and beyond the common phrases that were thrown around before. It did not come across as such, and again, I apologize. All the responses I did receive did count as being more than those simple phrases.

Before I received all the responses I did, I was actually planning on coming up with a new post. I noticed a majority of my blogs come across as 'religion-bashing.' We all know there are plenty of those, and I did not want this to be a space for that. And my last post went above and beyond all my others in its anti-religion statements. So I wanted to say I do not want this blog to be only concerned with religion and that I will keep it much more balanced as this blog evolves.

Almost speechless

This video is... well I can't find appropriate words for it. [original link is no longer available, try youtube. it breaks it up into 9 parts but it should still work]

I just ask that you watch at least the first 7 to 10 minutes, but I think the full time of the video is most impactful. Also, if you do only have time for the first ten minutes, you must also skip to 31 minutes in and watch the clips of the evangelism video created by an African church.

I will give a few of my reactions as best I can, while at the same time trying to not effect how you view this video. So I would suggest first watching it, to get your own views, and then read my personal thoughts below.

- I do not care what you believe, this raises problems for your belief structure. 

If you're religious (Christian especially since Jesus' name is being evoked in this video), well... I'm sure you can justify this is some off-hand way or just say that we cannot understand the ways of the spiritual, but I will NOT accept those accounts. If you take that route, you must have more meat to your argument than "the will of god is unknowable" because this horrendous experience deserves way more consideration than that. 

If you're secular, we have only ourselves to blame and this call to action is urgent. We cannot keep on mutilating our society like we do. Superstitions and myths have dominated our race for far too long. (I'm not saying Christian doctrine is useless but the Old Testament certainly discusses ostracizing wayward children and stoning delinquents, punishments not unlike some of the appalling occurrences shown in this video.) But more importantly, action is required if we have only humanity to blame. We cannot fallback on saying things will work out in the end. We have to take a stand and bring about this change  ourselves.

- This reminds me of the witch trials of Salem as well as the Dark Age period where the church had ultimate authority and could account for any aberrant behavior as evil and demon-like.

- I'm simply disgusted. 

The Good and Bad of Movies

Movies are dangerous. In my opinion, they are the most expressive of the possible mediums we as humans have at our disposal. By being able to combine both the oral and visual transmissions of ideas, movies mirror reality more closely than any of the other forms of expression such as books/novels/poems and paintings and songs. Don't get me wrong, I find all of the latter to be great vehicles for communicating thoughts and feelings from one to another, but movies, due to the reasons I mentioned above, are able to have a much more drastic and direct effect upon us.

Often times, I will catch myself doing something that I would only have seen in a movie. Certain facial expressions, catch-phrases, mannerisms, all from movies. I know for a fact that the first time I ate after watching the Dark Knight that I licked my lips like the Joker. Its cheesy, odd, and yet I found myself subconsciously mimicking the character (a villain no less) I saw on the big screen. Sometimes I'll even think of how I'm supposed to react in certain emotional situations based on some scene I can recall from a movie.

The dangerous aspect of movies lies in the fictitious and doctored-up storylines and acting (its called 'acting' for a reason) found within almost every single movie. While some movies more closely mirror reality, they almost always alter some portion of the narrative so that the story becomes movie-worthy. If movies were nothing but accurate representations of reality, there would be no problem or worry, but this is not the case.

But like I mentioned before, movies are, for me, the best method of portraying the various troubles and highlights of humanity. And personally, I love movies. I can watch a movie and spend hours discussing the quality of the movie, from the writing, to the movie-sets, to the themes found within the story; but sometimes I wonder if we are creating a false reality for ourselves by bombarding our mind with all these impactful scenes and stories, that for us, are so real, but in *reality* are merely 'fit for hollywood.'

Why Time Flies

First off, I hate when people look back on a week and say, "Man that week flew by" or, "Ugh! This week will never end, it's going so slowly!" Unless the earth slowed down on its trek around the sun, the days and weeks still went by at the same rate. And yes I am somewhat aware of relativity, but as long as none of us were going light-speed, I believe we were all going about the same speed as we stayed attached to the earth. (That being said... I can't help but say it sometimes)

I'm going to present two ideas, none of which are mine, but that do seem to provide likely answers as to why we get these feelings of time 'flying' and why we always have to let everyone else know that it is for us.

1.

I read this one awhile ago, but I can't recall where I read it. Its simple, yet makes complete sense. After one year of life, that past year was 1/1, or 100%, of your experience. After your twentieth year of life (of which I am about 4 months from completing!!!), the previous year was 1/20th of your experience. So each year, since we are unable to expand our brains,  causes the percentages of our brain to get reconfigured. While this does seem too simple, and it probably is, it does make sense and is most likely correct to an extent.

2.

This one comes from Jeff Hawkins (creator of the PalmPilot) in his book, On Intelligence. One of the main subcategories to his overarching theory is that the brain's neocortex has a hierarchy of cells. Thus, there are lower levels and higher levels to it. The lower level take in basic sensory experience and then relays this up to the next level. At the next level, those cell's input is comprised of the various neuron firings from the lowest level. As this level recognizes patterns, it relays to a higher level where they see a pattern and begin to do different things with it. This a very poor reconstruction of his argument but I think it will do for this. 

Now when these patterns are something we've seen before, they follow a certain path and this pattern fits the previous path and so we recognize it (from memory). When it is new, it does not follow a common pattern. So while we see a person and we recognize (from memory) that it is a person on one of the mid-levels of the hierarchy (because all our low-level inputs show a pattern consistent with the inputs a person has normally given us), that is where it stops and we cannot associate a name with the person (which would be a higher-level task). So when a new series of inputs fits a pattern we've already seen, it is 'recognized'. If an experience is completely new, our neocortex takes notice of it and it goes all the way up the chain to the Hippocampus, where it is stored (in a sense).

Now how does this relate to why time flies???? Well Hawkins suggests that over time, and after more and more experience, we see less and less 'new' things. So while we may see 500 baseball games, they start to blend together because not a lot of 'new' experiences are occurring. We remember our 'first baseball game at Wrigely,' but we most likely won't remember the 73rd one, unless it happens to be the game the Cubs win the World Series (which would certainly be 'new' for us!!). In his diagram then, as a pattern is familiar, it will follow similar paths that we already have. If nothing new results, then it doesn't make it to the hippocampus. But if a guy spills his beer all over you in the 8th inning, that is most likely a new experience and it makes it all the way to the hippocampus to be stored. So while you may not be able to tell a friend how many strikeouts Zambrano had, you will certainly remember that spilled beer.

Again, I seem to avoid the question! But here is what it comes down to. As we experience more and more, less and less becomes 'new', because we have all this background that our brain is able to relate to the current situation. I think Hawkins uses the quote, "The more you experience, the less you remember." So in regards to the passing weeks of our life, as we experience less and less new information, it tends to not make it all the way to the hippocampus and as a result, we do not remember it. So weeks where we do 'the same old thing' are not the 'memorable' ones and our brain aptly 'discards' them.

another good example is people's names. Lets say you meet a new person and their name is generic, like Sarah. If you know 50 Sarah's that is most likely going to be tough to remember. But if her name turns out to be Jerra, it will most likely be foreign to you and you'll comment "Wow, that is a different name!" and you'll most likely remember that person and their name. While this is something we've all experienced, I'm still amazed at how Hawkin's theory is able to explain it scientifically and anatomically.

Side note: On Intelligence has become one of my top 2 or 3 books of all time. I've read it in two days and am disappointed it is over with. At the beginning of the book Hawkins says that when people read his book, they find themselves nodding in agreement with the things he says and how they can relate it to their lives. What is brilliant about his book is that it takes all these different aspects of our lives (on the scientific as well as social levels) and provides a theory of the brain that explains almost every part of them! While reading it, I did just what he said people usually do and thought back to all these instances that have occurred in my past that this theory explains. Now, after reading it through, I experience something and immediately think back to his book and how it perfectly explains what just happened (like with why people say "time flies"). 

I strongly encourage everyone to read this book! I know people always bombard you with these different books that they think is the greatest book ever, but seriously, this will change how you view your every-day life. I'm not saying you're going to quit your job and divorce your wife, but it will provide insight into why we do things we do and why we experience different things the way they do.