Observations
We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane. Kilgore Trout -Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions, Ch 1.
True religion begins in doubt and continues in spiritual exploration. Debased religion begins in fear and terminates in certainty. -Neal Gabler
Family.
Opa welcomes Maiella!
Cindy and I are dancing with joy - our first grandchild has joined our family! Maiella Skye Estaris Wiebe, whose parents, Jenn and Benn, are starting their journey as parents. May they have as rich an experience as we have had! She was born at 3:21am on June 15th, 2013, weighed in at 6lb 14oz, was 20in long and is our sweetheart. Woo Hoo!Stepping back from blind partisanship
Steve King recently wrote a sharply drawn satire entitled If My Guy Loses: Confessions of an Anonymous Partisan in the Atlantic Monthly. His rather ingenious device is to give full voice to an angry everyman who is broadcasting a blind partisanship, anonymous in the sense that he could belong to any political party.
Examples: I will protest things I once advocated. I will threaten to move to Canada. I will criticize the president for dishonoring the office of the presidency while I question his patriotism, citizenship, and character.
Celebrating Frog – street jokester of Eugene
What does a dyslexic, agnostic insomniac do at night? He lies awake contemplating the existence of doG.
Years ago, my brother Craig and I were walking together on the way to somewhere in Eugene, Oregon, when a veritable gnome of a man approached us, towing a child's red wagon filled with what appeared to be hefty pamphlets. He introduced himself cheerfully as Frog, told us the joke above and offered to sell us one of his joke books that he carried in his red wagon.
Oregon Scribbler.
The Bible Tells Me So, continued (3)
A reader commented on my second post regarding the Bible and homosexuality:Do I make [GLBT people] feel unloved? Well if you are a sincere Christian, then no, setting out intentionally to make them feel unloved is not an option. As you note, love is a key goal in Jesus teaching, whether one believes that homosexual sex is sinful or not.
This is a loving response. It probably wouldn't need to be mentioned, were there not so many who profess to be Christians who are openly and markedly unloving in their response to that community. Yet the kind of charity the reader goes on to describe is limited. See my response in defense of a more supportive view.Oregon Scribbler.
The Bible Tells Me So, continued
A reader responded to my article The Bible Tells Me So, a short discussion of Matthew Vine's recent video about the Bible and homosexuality, arguing that Vine's interpretation was incorrect, and that Jesus proscribed homosexuality. See my defense of a more loving interpretation.
Family.
Grandbabies!
The birth of a new child in the family never gets old, even if it occurs a thousand miles away! My niece Janna and her husband Jerome recently had a baby, Deacan. Not long before Deacan was born, Matt and Katie Stewart had a baby, Miriam, the first grandchild of my old friends Tim and Laurie. And penultimate addition to the Wiebe family, Sophia, remains a source of regular, albeit once removed delight, thanks to Facebook.Oregon Scribbler.
The Bible tells me so
Matthew Vines, a young gay Christian, has made a serious argument that the Bible favors loving relationships for people of all sexual orientations, not just heterosexuals.
Cycle Oregon 2012!
Woo Hoo! I have signed up for the Cycle Oregon 2012 edition, that odd mix of pleasure and pain.
The Internet Filter – thanks, TED
Today, through the most typical Internet feeds, you see highly filtered content, often unbeknownst to you. For those who rely on the Internet more and more for news, opinions, and various other information, as I do, this has the solopsistic effect of virtual navel-gazing, and perhaps as insidious, when you ask the self-same question as another person, each of you often see very different things! Eli Pariser, in a recent TED talk, points out that major Internet sites like Google, Facebook, Amazon, the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, to name a few, are performing more and more algorithmic filtering of what you see to tailor the results to your perceived liking.
Virtual Choir 2.0: Eric Whitacre and 2,052 singers!
If you enjoy choral music, you won't regret spending five plus minutes listening to this lush rendition of Eric Whitacre's "Sleep", performed by over 2,000 singers! As in his first virtual choir performance, Eric collected individual parts recorded via webcam from all over the world, and combined them in a single video to produce amazing choral sound.
How did we get ourselves into this terrible financial mess?
The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.
How did we get ourselves into this terrible financial mess?
What is science? Maybe not what you think it is . . .
"[Science is] an effective, rational instrument for discerning (tentatively, partially, but always more accurately) the facts of the world."
- Chet Raymo, Skeptics and True Believers, p. 166Macroeconomics, the rap version
John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek rap out their macroeconomic differences in Fear the Boom and Bust. This parody is funny, but is also a 'simple' primer on the extremes of our current economic choices.
Cartesian dualism is driving me crazy
Cartesian dualism came up tonight while Cindy and I were talking, and I didn't understand it well enough to explain it, as is the norm with things philosophical.
So I chanced upon another three minute discussion of that very topic, a funny and clever and . . . short take on Descartes' thoughts about the mind and the body.
Descartes made easy
Philosophy is best consumed in three minutes or less, preferably in cartoon form. This is a hilarious and reasonably accurate take on Cartesian philosophy.
Plants talk, too!
As bacteria have been found to be chattering away with each other, it probably doesn't come as a surprise that plants talk, too. Stefano Mancuso, the founder of plant neurobiology (really!), studies plant signaling and communications.
It turns out that plants signal each other in several ways which help them to find nutrients, procreate and defend against predators. Ain't biology wondererful?
Once again, thank you, TED.
I hear America singing
Should we be optimistic about the future of the American dream? There is no reason we should not be. Walt Whitman was optimistic about America, and his optimism was rooted in the potential for each American to realize their personal vision in a nation constructed to minimize tyranny; America is the land of the free.Today we are facing the consequences of a long-term corruption of the American dream; we have deeply indebted ourselves and our nation in the pursuit of individual material betterment and the maintenance of a global military presence. The corruption is both individual and collective, and the failures cut across ideologies, social classes, and leadership hierarchies. With all of our self-inflicted troubles, this is no time to despair, but to reflect, re-prioritize, and act.
Book review, Title Endless Forms Most Beautiful, Author Sean Carroll, Rating 3.5,
Endless Forms Most Beautiful
Sean Carroll
Book review
Evo devo: where a little means a lot
Sean Carroll's overview of the new science of evolutionary developmental biology, or 'Evo Devo.', Endless Forms Most Beautiful, demonstrates new ways of testing Haeckel's old and discarded idea that 'ontogony begets phylogeny'. Evo Devo is bearing serious fruit; it would appear that a small number of genetic changes can produce very large, and species specific, changes, particularly those mutations occurring during an organism’s development or to the gene regulatory mechanisms of that organism; this is strong new support for the theory of evolution.
"Don’t judge a man by his opinions, but what his opinions have made of him."
Very recently, I was introduced to Lichtenberg, an early experimental physicist who retains a following not for his physics, but for his aphorisms.Resident physicians: Too tired, or what?
Residents, or resident physicians, are young physicians who are completing their training by working, under the supervision of other physicians, very long hours for several years in a teaching hospital. Concern is routinely raised regarding being treated by physicians who are still learning, and might be exhausted and perhaps making poor judgments. Two current medical residents debate the issue.
Family.
The promise of new life
In the face of my grand-niece, Sophia Catherine Wiebe, shines all of the promise of new life. She inspires me every day. I look forward to the day when Cindy and I have our own grandchildren.
Mother Teresa’s advice
Many years ago, my wife gave me a copy of some simple advice Mother Teresa had written regarding how to live well. I love the sentiments, although I find them personally very challenging to follow on a daily basis; I don't always live up to them, but I keep them visible as gentle reminders of how to be a good human being. An example:
"People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.
In the mood for a sweet scientific joke? Biology meets chemistry
I saw a restaurant called The True Taste, and I thought, well, okay, what is the true taste? So I went inside and looked at the menu, which had several sections. They were labeled "Brown Sugars," "Honeys," "Molasses" and "Artificials." I thought this was really weird, and I went over to the waiter and I said, "What's going on? Don't you guys serve food?" The waiter was actually the owner of the restaurant as well, and he explained to me that this was a tasting bar for sweeteners. He said that he had no background in the food industry, he'd never worked in a restaurant, but he was a Ph.D. biologist who worked on chemical sensing, and ...
The Mosque near Ground Zero, continued – Britt Towery
Britt Towery weighs in on the mosque near Ground Zero, in his post entitled All religions subject to U.S. Constitution. Here is a highlight : The center is not at Ground Zero but two blocks away. It is not designed as a local mosque but to serve the wider community. It also is meant to improve interfaith relationships among people of every faith. In a nutshell it is promoting tolerance.
The Mosque near Ground Zero, continued – Leonard Pitts
Leonard Pitts asks:
... One wonders how far from Ground Zero ... [is it] proper for Muslims to build? A mile? Twenty? A hundred? Or maybe nowhere within the borders of these United States.
The Mosque near Ground Zero – Uniting Americans Against Terrorism
"Build the mosque near ground zero! Families of the Christian and Muslim victims can share common grief, and Christians and Muslims, together as Americans, can show common cause in the fight against global terrorism." -Thomas A. Wiebe, The Oregonian, Short Takes, Aug 1, 2010The Bard of Wasilla
Sarah Palin is now the self-styled Shakespeare of Twitter, and has stimulated a twitter-based exchange of wit; however, the humor only served to obscure the fear-mongering of Palin's initial message.
Our vital Microbiome: bacteria cure diseases too!
Recently, normal bacteria from a human gut were transplanted into another person who was suffering from a terrible gastrointestinal disease, and the disease was eradicated! The New York Times recently published an article noting this feat, and summarizing our current understanding of the human microbiome, as the microbial species that inhabit our body are collectively known.
Toyota Prius’s not so "sudden acceleration"
Do Toyotas suddenly accelerate? The Department of Transportation isn't having any of it; it appears to be pretty much just driver error.
Examining race and innocence
Here is a thoughtful article regarding race and innocence, entitled "I'm black, you're white, who's innocent? Race and power in an era of blame", by Shelby Steele. It was published first in the Atlantic Monthly in June of 1988, and it is still relevant.
Is the International Baccelaureate program anti-American?
The International Baccelaureate (IB) program has slowly been catching on in U.S. high schools as a college preparatory alternative to the more typical Advanced Placement (AP) program. Some opponents to its introduction have labeled it 'anti-American'.
Watch USA v England . . . in Lego-motion!
A Lego reenactment of the goals scored in the USA vs. England 2010 World Cup group match.
For my brother Peter.
The bigotry of "judicial activism"
Stephanie Jone's Washington Post article, entitled "Thurgood Marshall's legacy deserves cheers, not sneers", is a solid response to the GOP flogging of Thurgood Marshall during the Kagan Supreme Court confirmation hearings last week; Marshall was accused repeatedly of being an "activist" judge. "Activist" is a term which is often used by conservatives to define a judge who goes beyond the Constitution to make law, rather than interpret it.David Brooks over-reacts to McChrystal’s firing
David Brook's opinion piece in the New York Times, The Culture of Exposure, was written in response to the article in Rolling Stone about General Stanley McChrystal, which precipitated McChrystal's loss of his Afghanistan military command. While I generally agree with Mr. Brook's sentiments regarding sensationalism from the media (of which he is part), some of which serves to over-expose poor private behavior, I find his response to Gen. McChrystal's dismissal from command incomplete and inadequate.
Oregon Scribbler.
Congratulations to Dr. Jon! Woohoo!
Our son Jonathan Wiebe graduated from the University of Virginia medical school recently, and just started his residency at Cedars Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. Congratulations, Jon!
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