***Quote of the day—by GOP’s Majorie Taylor Greene. Cites “…Pelosi’s Gazpacho Police”
Category: UncategorizedALPHAS
From THE PROPHET by Gilbran
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
PORTALS POTHOLES
I am considering doing edition 3 of THE LITTLE GREEN BOOK of TENNIS. Since published in 2015 (first edition ) high school teams have all changed players. Fifty percent of coaches have turned over. And, as always , things in the sports world change fast.
For years football coaches have often recruited unhappy players from other teams. Or those who can legally transfer and play at a different school. The new NCAA “Portals Rule ” has jetstreamed this strategy. One of the sad side effects of “Portals ” is that high school seniors are overlooked for older and seasoned upperclass college kids.
My guess is that this avenue will adopted to American college tennis. And it will undoubtedly involve international players who can now easily move to “greener pastures. American high school aspirants will be moved down the prospects list, or be dismissed even quicker.
RANDOM READING (NOTES )
Below are notes taken from books read recently. A rough collection.
YUVAL HARARI’’S BOOKS
HIGH LIGHTS
- Sapiens
- Homo Deus
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
In a nutshell #1 dealt with our past. 2. Our future, and 3. The Present
SAPIENS;
We are the deadliest species in the annals of biology
PAGE 4 SUMMARY
13.5 years ago—BIG BANG
Sapiens show up 70k, 70k ago neanderthals soon gone
Clue to Sapiens—gossip ability—led to communities, Law,religion,rules,communication.
Biology rules—hormones, genes, synapses
150 is ideal number for groups.
Page 360, parents in full retreat
From 1000 ad to 500 ad, not much happened.
500 million people in 1500 ad. 2014 there are 7 billion.
Happiness bulb born with, doesn’t change much.
Artificial Intelligence is the future. Not religion, God, Nature etc.
2—HOMO DEUS—a brief history of tomorrow
**deals with future. Mankind’s quest to upgrade humans to gods.
**mankind has almost and will conquer the three remaining super problems: famine, plague, and war. No need to work. Task—find
“happiness.
**artificial intelligence—where to go from here.
**homo sapiens may be more like Neanderthals the future homo deus.
**homo deus is where mankind is headed.
21 LESSONS for the 21st century
Protecting ourselves—war, ecology
What to do with fake news, terrorism
How to prepare our children for the future
“When has history been fair”?
Current problems: climate change, dying liberal democracy, a new world war? Fake news, technology goes wrong, immigration, the meaning of life today,.
Technology giving us the power to “reshape and reengineer humanity.
‘the reliance on the heart may prove to be the Achilles heel of liberal democracy.
Some folks are smarter than others. Listen to algorithms.
BxCxD=AHH! Biological knowledge multiplied by computing power multiplied by data = ability to hack humans c
Page 2
Some other good stuff:
THE BODY by Bill Bryson
*page 14 on skin color—sliver from cadaver, one millimeter thick from epidermis. That’s all
*memory: recall a deck of cards after 30 minutes. Oriental girl 17 seconds?
* teenagers in cars. Another teenager in car? Rate goes up 400x. page pp 63
* human brain shrunk size of tennis ball
* EXERCISE: 80% us men are overweight, 77% women. 35% are obese.
* FITBIT—tie to dog to up totals for job
* BIPEDS== YES BUT BACKS, KNEES. PELVIS—CHILDBIRTH.
*weight for women in 1960 was 144 to 166. Men 166 to 196.
* SITTING TO MUCH.
* I was your first wife!
* Asthma—good section pages 216-221. SMOKING FOLLOWS
* HICCUPS—one guy had them 67 years!
*
OUTLIERS—The Story of Success/by Malcolm Gladwell
CANADIAN JR. HOCKEY ALL-STARS (born n Jan. Why? The outlier?
10,000 hours. Bill Gates and PC. BEATLES—Pretty bad. Hamburg strip clubs . HAD TO PLAY 8 HOURS. PRACTICE,.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING JEWISH. JOE FLOM AND HOSTILE TAKEOVERS. WHEN TIME CAME, TIME WAS IN.
–BORN IN DEPRESSION—TAKE NO CHANCES.
JEWS AND THE GARMENT INDUSTRY. 3RD GENERATION WERE LAWYERS AND DRS. THE CHILDREN OF THE BOOK.
A CULTURE OF HONOR. SOUTHERNERS CALLED ASSHOLE WILL FIGHT YOU.
KOREAN CO-PILOTS AND NYC AIRPORT CONTROL.LERS
NOT OUTLIERS AT ALL. They are products of history and community, opportunity and legacy. Their success is not exceptional or mysterious.
Due to advantages, inheritances, , luck, some earned,,come not, variables critical to making them who they are.
MICHIO KAKU
HIGH POINT LECTURE WITH NIDO QUEBEIN—OUTSTANDING HOUR.
THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY
WILL FUTURE PIONEERS SEARCH SPACE FOR A NEW SAFE HOME AS THE AFRICANS DID, KNOWING THEIR GENERATION WOULD NOT BENEFIT, BUT OFFSPRING MAY?
—-NEAREST STAR TO US IS 4.2 LIGHT YEARS AWAY.
—-THREE WAVES OF SCIENCE MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL, TECH.
—ADVANCED CIVILIZATIONS SEEM POSSIBLE
——-ADMIRAL ZENG OF CHINA, BOATS 5X TIME COLUMBUS. NEXT EMPEROR BANNED SCIENCE. LET TO POVERTY AND DOOMED ANY PROGRESS
—PRESERVING HUMANS BY FREEZING NOT A CRAZY IDEA?
—-ARE WE IN THE LAST GENERATION TO DIE— IMMORTALITY NEAR?
—-FARMER===EVERY CHILD MAKES YOU RICHER. CITY==EVERY CHILD MAKES YOU POORER!
SCHIZOPHENICS. EVERYONE TALKS TO SELF. NO LEFT BRAIN TO PREFRONTAL CORTEX—-VOICES SEEM REAL.—
CLIMATE CHANGE—SEE ADDENDUM YUVAL HARARI’’S BOOKS
HIGH LIGHTS
- Sapiens
- Homo Deus
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
In a nutshell #1 dealt with our past. 2. Our future, and 3. The Present
SAPIENS;
We are the deadliest species in the annals of biology
PAGE 4 SUMMARY
13.5 years ago—BIG BANG
Sapiens show up 70k, 70k ago neanderthals soon gone
Clue to Sapiens—gossip abillity—led to communities, law,religion,rules,communication.
Biology rules—hormones, genes, synapses
150 is ideal number for groups.
Page 360, parents in full retreat
From 1000 ad to 500 ad, not much happened.
500 million people in 1500 ad. 2014 there are 7 billion.
Happiness bulb born with, doesn’t change much.
Artificial Intelligence is the future. Not religion, God, Nature etc.
2—HOMO DEUS—a brief history of tomorrow
**deals with future. Mankind’s quest to upgrade humans to gods.
**mankind has almost and will conquer the three remaining super problems: famine, plague, and war. No need to work. Task—find
“happiness.
**artificial intelligence—where to go from here.
**homo sapiens may be more like Neanderthals the future homo deus.
**homo deus is where mankind is headed.
21 LESSONS for the 21st century
Protecting ourselves—war, ecology
What to do with fake news, terrorism
How to prepare our children for the future
“When has history been fair”?
Current problems: climate change, dying liberal democracy, a new world war? Fake news, technology goes wrong, immigration, the meaning of life today,.
Technology giving us the power to “reshape and reengineer humanity.
‘the reliance on the heart may prove to be the Achilles heel of liberal democracy.
Some folks are smarter than others. Listen to algorithms.
BxCxD=AHH! Biological knowledge multiplied by computing power multiplied by data = ability to hack humans c
Page 2
Some other good stuff:
THE BODY by Bill Bryson
*page 14 on skin color—sliver from cadaver, one millimeter thick from epidermis. That’s all
*memory: recall a deck of cards after 30 minutes. Oriental girl 17 seconds?
* teenagers in cars. Another teenager in car? Rate goes up 400x. page pp 63
* human brain shrunk size of tennis ball
* EXERCISE: 80% us men are overweight, 77% women. 35% are obese.
* FITBIT—tie to dog to up totals for job
* BIPEDS== YES BUT BACKS, KNEES. PELVIS—CHILDBIRTH.
*weight for women in 1960 was 144 to 166. Men 166 to 196.
* SITTING TO MUCH.
* I was your first wife!
* Asthma—good section pages 216-221. SMOKING FOLLOWS
* HICCUPS—one guy had them 67 years!
*
OUTLIERS—The Story of Success/by Malcolm Gladwell
CANADIAN JR. HOCKEY ALL-STARS (born n Jan. Why? The outlier?
10,000 hours. Bill Gates and PC. BEATLES—Pretty badl Hamburg strip clubs . HAD TO PLLAY 8 HOURS. PRACTICE,.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING JEWISH. JOE FLOM AND HOSTILE TAKEOVERS. WHEN TIME CAME, TIME WAS IN.
–BORN IN DEPRESSION—TAKE NO CHANCES.
JEWS AND THE GARMENT INDUSTRY. 3RD GENERATION WERE LAWYERS AND DRS. THE CHILDREN OF THE BOOK.
A CULTURE OF HONOR. SOUTHERNERS CALLED ASSHOLE WILL FIGHT YOU.
KOREAN CO-PILOTS AND NYC AIRPORT CONTROL.LERS
NOT OUTLIERS AT ALL. They are products of history and community, opportunity and legacy. Their success is not exceptional or mysterious.
Due to advantages, inheritances, , luck, some earned,,come not, variables critical to making them who they are.
MICHIO KAKU
HIGH POINT LECTURE WITH NIDO QUEBEIN—OUTSTANDING HOUR.
THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY
WILL FUTURE PIONEERS SEARCH SPACE FOR A NEW SAFE HOME AS THE AFRICANS DID, KNOWING THEIR GENERATION WOULD NOT BENEFIT, BUT OFFSPRING MAY?
—-NEAREST STAR TO US IS 4.2 LIGHT YEARS AWAY.
—-THREE WAVES OF SCIENCE MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL, TECH.
—ADVANCED CIVILIZATIONS SEEM POSSIBLE
——-ADMIRAL ZENG OF CHINA, BOATS 5X TIME COLUMBUS. NEXT EMPEROR BANNED SCIENCE. LET TO POVERTY AND DOOMED ANY PROGRESS
—PRESERVING HUMANS BY FREEZING NOT A CRAZY IDEA?
—-ARE WE IN THE LAST GENERATION TO DIE— IMMORTALITY NEAR?
—-FARMER===EVERY CHILD MAKES YOU RICHER. CITY==EVERY CHILD MAKES YOU POORER!
SCHIZOPHENICS. EVERYONE TALKS TO SELF. NO LEFT BRAIN TO PREFRONTAL CORTEX—-VOICES SEEM REAL.—
CLIMATE CHANGE—SEE ADDENDUM
NEW BOOK-“RANGE” by David Epstein
TIGER WOODS VS ROGER FEDERER OR 10,000 HOURS (MALCOLM GLADWELL AND “OUTLIERS (TIGER), OR FED AND A DIVERSE BACKGROUND.
MERH CD’/ MERCEDES
AVERAGE AGE OF A FOUNDER IS 45
EVERYONE NEEDS HABITS OF MIND THAT ALLOW THEM TO DANCE ACROOS THE DISCIPLINES
NO TOOL IS OMNIPOTENT
TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE BROADLY REQUIRES BROAD KNOWLEDGE
OLYMPIANS AT 12-13 -RANGE
MUSICIANS —TRY AND CAN USE 3 OR MORE INSTRUMENTS
DAVE BRUBECK (TAKE FIVE) COULDN’T READ MUSIC
TO ACQIRE KNOWLEDGE SLOWLY HELPS YOU MAKE THE RIGHT MATCH
WINNERS NEVER QUIT (YET TO HONOR OR GOOD SENSE (W. CHURCHCHILL)
YOUNG PEOPLE SHOULD TAKE RISKS
“SUNK COST FALLACY” CUT AND RUN, KNOW WHEN TO FOLD. DEAD HORSE.
IN GOD WE TRUST. ALL OTHERS BRING DATA. NO DATA—REASON
THE GAME IS THE BEST TEACHER
BREAKTHROUGH AND FALLACY LOOK A LOT ALIKE INITIALLY
“IT IS AN EXPERIMENT, AS ALL OF LIFE IS AN EXPERIMENT” OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
********
“The Biggest Bluff” by Maria Konnikova
Author Konnikova is a professional psychologist who selects professional poker as a place to examine self, skill, luck and life. Below are simply some conclusions she arrives at. P.S.—She hired Eric Seidel, world champion of poker, as her coach:
And the biggest bluff of all? That skill can ever be enough. That’s the hope that allows us to move forward in those moments when luck is most stacked against us, the useful delusion that lets us push o rather than give up. We don’t know, we can’t ever know, if we’ll manage or not. But we must convince ourselves that we can. That, in the end, our skill will be enough to carry the day. Because it has to be.
Admitting to unknowing, accepting a lack of agency without resorting to gimmicks, and instead attempting to analyze the unknown as best we can with the tools of rationality: those are some of the most powerful steps we can take.
Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who wish to pretend to nonexistent knowledge and control and a Cosmos centered on human beings, will prefer superstition.
Nothing is all skill. Ever. I shy away from absolutes, but this one callout for my embrace. Because life is life, luck will always be a factor in anything we might do or undertake, but should chance go against us, all our skill can do is mitigate the damage.
I hope I can keep playing for a very, very long time. I don’t want to have to retire. This game is just too damn interesting. It’s such a beautiful game.
And it is. It really is.
*******************************
THE GOD DELUSION by Richard Dawkins
The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
If people wish to love a 7th century preacher more than their own families, that is up to them, but nobody else is obliged to take it seriously.
Behead those who say islam is a violent religion.
I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism.
We who love science must remember that the enemy of our enemies is our friend.
George W. Bush says God told him to invade Iraq ( a pity God didn’t vouchsafe the a revelation that there were no weapons of mass destruction.)
One of the truly bad effect of religion is that it teaches us that is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding.
Politics has slain thousands, but religion has slain its tens of thousands.
Those who can make you believe in absurdities can also make you commit atrocities.
There is in every village a torch—the teacher
And an extinguisher—-the clergyman.“
That it will never come again
is what makes life so sweet.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt in your “philosophy”.
What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.
The idea of a personal god is quite alien to me and seems even naive. Einstein
Everybody gets absolutely frantic about it because you’re not allowed to say these things. Yet when you look at it rationally there is no reason why those ideas shouldn’t be as open to debate as any other, except that we have agreed somehow between us that they should’t be.
The priests of the different religious sects…..dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight, and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subdivision of the duperies on which they live. Thomas Jefferson
SEPTEMBER 2021—BOOK COMMENTS CONTINUED
“Fields of Blood” (Religion and the History of Violence ) by Karen Armstrong.
At first this book seemed too deep. Indeed the detail and scholarship are thorough. Looking again I saw this as an excellent text for religion majors.
Atlantic Christian College , my alma mater, changed its name to Barton. I never knew much about the namesake (Barton Stone) but found these on page 274 of Fields of Blood:
“…Barton Stone railed against the aristocratic clergy who tried to force the erudite faith of Harvard on the people.
“Enlightenment philosophers had insisted that people must have the courage to throw off their dependence on authority, use their natural reason to discover the truth, and think for themselves.”
“When Stone founded his own denomination, he called it a ‘declaration of independence’: bringing modern ideals of democracy equality, freedom of speech, and independence … (to the populace).
Armstrong demonstrates again and again that the great spasms of cruelty and killing through history have had little or no religious overlay. In modern times Hitler, Stalin and Mao were all atheists, and the power behind the Holocaust, Armstrong says, was an ethnic rather than a religious hatred. An overemphasis on religion’s damage can blind people to the nonholy terrors that their states inflict. NYT REVIEW by James Fallows—2014)
…the main hope for peace is to keep faith and statecraft separate.
****ENLIGHTENMENT NOW by Steven Pinker. Sub- title is spot on (the case for reason, science, humanism, and progress).
This was a “stumble on” that is very good.
Louie: CK “The foundations of capitalism are shattering…” REALLY?
“…maybe we need some time where we are wandering around with a donkey with pots clanging on the sides…”
Flight—-sat on runway 40 minutes.
??? miracle of human flight—-sitting in a chair in the sky—New York to California in 5 hours is slow? Used to take 30 years and many would die, with an arrow through your throat. They’d put your hat on a stick and bury you and keep walking!
Page 9 on what educated Englishman (1600) would believe…witches, werewolves, unicorns, base metal to gold, etc. century later he believes none of these.
Thomas Jefferson: light from me doesn’t diminish my flame. Instruction is the same way…
“Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory”
Chris Rock: “ this is the first society in history where the poor people are fat.”
“…global citizen is 125 times more likely to die in an accident…” than a terrorist attack. for Americans—3000 times!
“We have at our fingertips…all the works of genius prior to our time…” plus that of our time. Those before had neither,
Three main threats: Overpopulation, Resource Depletion, and Pollution.
NASA: Man is the lowest cost, 150 pound, non linear, all-purpose computer system, which can be mass produced by unskilled labor.
“…society advances funeral by funeral!”
God and reason: “…faith, revelation, scripture, authority, tradition, and subjective appeal are not arguments at all.”
Incompatible beliefs, how many gods?, different religions, different sources, which miracles?, what they demand.
human errors, factual errors, plagiarism, scientific absurdness.
*****CHERRY PICKING OTHERS (lOVE AND THEFT—DYLAN)
FORGET THE ALAMO. This book contends much of “Alamo lore” is Alamo myth!
Real reason? Europeans were choosing cotton for clothing. This part of Texas was ideal for cotton farming—if you had slaves to do the work. Mexico was anti-slavery.
*******
AMERICAN HAPPINESS AND DISCONTENTS
the unruly torrent
(2008-2020) by George Will
CTE—1966- bear bryant’s heaviest player weight 223 lbs. 2011 NFL had 320 players weighing 300.
two bad features—violence and committee meetings (huddles)
…not the rules but the fiction that football can be fixed and still resemble the game fans relish.”
louisville brought pros and strippers to the bball dorm 22 times in 2 years. pitino—duh? yet hired by Iona.
“Drugs drain sport admirable excellence, which elevates as well as competitors.”
Wills cites vague “einstein” stanza from DESOLATION ROW. Final one clearer?
Yes, I received your letter yesterday, about the time the doorknob broke
When you asked me how I was doing, was that some kind of joke
All these people that you mention, yes, I know them, they’re quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces and give them all another name
Right now, I can’t read too good, don’t send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them from Desolation Row
“Do not speak unless you can improve on silence.”
ON VIETNAM
Easier to muddle through than to admit you were wrong
Westmoreland ( “never had general so effectively willed away the facts”)
Famous photo? plain clothed Viet Cong who had just cut the throat of a South Vietnamese officer’s wife, six children, and the officer’s Mother.
NO WAR IS OVER UNTIL THE LAST VETERAN IS DEAD
Size of our universe
page 55 —ton of facts
If there were only 3 bees in America, the air would be more crowded with bees than space is with stars.
A dog was trained to emit a whimpering sound every time it heard the word HILARY.
“College: The best seven years of my life!”
there is something to be said for exposing yourself to ideas other than your own.
Will—Chernow’s GRANT is great history writing.
More dying by lifestyle increasing!
ON EUTHANASIA—-Pages 354-355.
“I am doing everything I can to continue to live. No one should have the right to prolong my death.”
People spoke jauntily of “the conquest of space.” Well.
The universe, 99.9 (and at least fifty-eight other nines) percent of which is already outside Earth’s atmosphere, is expanding (into we know not what) at forty-six miles per second per mega parsec. (One megaparsec is approximately 3.26 million light years.) Astronomers are studying light that has taken perhaps 12 billion years to reach their instruments. This cooling cinder called Earth, spinning in the darkness at the back of beyond, is a minor speck of residue from the Big Bang, which lasted less than a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second 13.8 billion years ago. The estimated number of stars—they come and go— is 100 followed by twenty-two zeros. The visible universe (which is hardly all of it) contains more than 150 billion galaxies, each with billions of stars. But if there were only three bees in America, the air would be core crowded with bees than space is with stars. The distances, and the violently unheavenly conditions in “the heavens”, tell us that our devices will roam our immediate cosmic neighborhood, but in spite of Apollo 11’s still-darling achievement, we are not really going anywhere.
EUTHANASIA (PAGES 354-355
Cederquist says the most common reason for requesting assistance in dying is not “intolerable physical suffering”. Rather, it is “existential suffering”, including loss of meaning,” as from the ability to relate to others. The prospect of being “unable to interact” can be as intolerable as physical suffering, and cannot be alleviated by hospice or other palliative care.
In some countries, doctors actively administer lethal injections. No U.S. jurisdiction allows doctors to go beyond writing prescriptions for lede-ending drugs to be self administered orally by persons retaining decisional capacity.
Almost 30 percent of Medicare expenditures are for patients in the last six months of life, and about 16 percent of patients die in, or soon after leaving, intensive care units. Financial reasons should be decisive in setting end-of-life policy, but Cederquist notes that reducing “expensive and inappropriate care”— costly and agonizing resistance to imminent death “is the lowest-tech thing we can do in medicine.”Hence the importance of “slow medicine geriatrics,” avoiding a “rush to those interventions that build on each other”and thereby enmesh doctors and patients in ethical conundrums.The American Medical Association remains opposed to physician assistance in dying; the California Medical Association has moved from opposition to neutrality. Litigation has been unsuccessful in seeking judicial affirmation of a high that California’s legislature should establish. Legislation to do this has been authored by Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, chair of the Democratic caucus.
There are reasons for wariness. An illness’s sox-month trajectory can be uncertain. A right to die can become a felt obligation, particularly among bewildered persons tangled in the toils of medical technologies, or persons with meager family resources. And as a reason for ending life, mental suffering itself calls into question the existence of the requisite decisional competence.
Today’s culture of casual death (see Planned Parenthood videos )should deepen worries about a slippery slope from physician-assisted dying a further diminution of life’s sanctity. Life, however, is inevitably lived on multiple slippery slopes:Taxation could become confiscation, police could become instruments of oppression, public education could become indoctrination, etc. Everywhere and always, civilization depends on the drawing of intelligent distinctions.
Jennifer Glass, a Californian who died August 11, drew one. She said to her state legislators, “I’m doing everything I can to extend my life. No one should have the right to prolong my death”.
The Economist reports that in the seventeen years under Oregon’s pioneering 1997 law, just 1,327 people have received prescriptions for lethal medications—about seventy-four a year—and one third of those did not use them. Possessing the option was sufficient reassurance.
There is nobility is suffering bravely borne, but also in affirming at the end the distinctive human dignity of autonomous choice.Brittany Maynard, who chose to be with loved ones when she self-administered her lethal medications was asleep in five minutes and soon dead.
Larry McMurtry on North Carolina’s Triangle Rraleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill ) area : “ This prosperous area is the homeland of the yuppie redneck, a Southerner with working class prejudices and upper-middle- class money.
EXIGENCY
Is this not an urgent moment in the history of relationships?
Should there not be the possibily of a legal “covid divorce” or “pandemic
separation” during this severe confinment period. Some form of
no-guilt, no-penalty flight possibility, allowable during this moment that threatens
marriage, co-habitation, motherhood, etc.?
BOB DYLAN QUOTES (WITH JOHN ROBERTS )
BOB DYLAN QUOTES
BOB QUOTES —FINAL
John Roberts’ 139 Bob Dylan quotes appear on QUARA.
They are listed below. The next list is my effort to match Bob quotes
with the songs the quotes come from. I could not find four.
Some years back I did a similar project. Quotes Test 1 is a
matching test with selected quotes to be matched with correct
song titles. Answers are next (Don’t peek ).
Dylan Quotes Test 2, is similar with quotes and songs from
“Old Bob Dylan”, several from the Roberts’ collection, and
some “New Bob Dylan quotes.
John Roberts
I have been addicted to music from the age of 10.
What are some of the best quotes from Bob Dylan?
I am a huge Bob Dylan fan. I have a file on my computer were I collect quotes from Dylan.
I do not claim to understand all of them, but find them compelling.
So here they are :
- Advertising signs, Con you into thinking you’re the one, That can do what’s never been done.
- Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks, When you’re trying to be so quite.
- All my powers of expression and thoughts so sublime, Could never do you justice in reason or rhyme
- And it’s that ol’ sign on the cross, That worries me
- And there’s no use in tryin’, T’ deal with the dyin’, though I cannot explain that in lines.
- Anger and jealousy’s all that he sells us
- Are you so fast that you cannot see, that I must have solitude? When I am in the darkness, why do you intrude?
- As easy it was to tell black from white, It was all that easy to tell wrong from right.
- As he weeps to wicked birds of prey, Who pick up on his bread crumb sins
- At dawn my lover comes to me, And tells me of her dreams, With no attempts to shovel the glimpse, Into the ditch of what each one means
- At one time there was nothing wrong with me that you couldn’t fix
- Bankers’ nieces seek perfection, Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring.
- Beggar man, beggar man, tell me no lie, is it a mystery that we live or a mystery that we die.
- Betrayed by a kiss, on a cool night of bliss, In the valley of the missing link
- Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth, None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.”
- But Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination, Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards
- But I can’t think for you, You’ll have to decide, Whether Judas Iscariot, Had God on his side.
- But I feel nothing for their game, Where beauty goes unrecognized.
- But it grieves my heart, love, to see you tryin’ to be a part of, a world that just don’t exist.
- But the enemy I see, Wears a cloak of decency.
- But to remain as friends and make amends, You need the time and stay behind.
- Come on, give it to me, I’ll keep it with mine.
- Don’t think of me and fantasize on what we never had, Be grateful for what we’ve shared together and be glad
- Don’t criticize what you can’t understand.
- Even Jesus would never, Forgive what you do.
- Everything I am saying, you could say just as good
- Follow her down past the fountain where they lifted her veil
- For every enemy I faced, The cause was there before we met, And for every cause I fought, I fought it full without regret or shame.
- For years they had me locked in a cage, Then they threw me onto the stage
- Funny, the things you have the hardest time parting with, are the things you need the least.
- Gentlemen, he said, I don’t need your organization, I’ve shined your shoes, I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards
- He who is not busy being born, Is busy dying.
- Heart of mine go back home, You got no reason to wander, you got no reason to roam
- Horseplay and disease is killing me by degrees
- How can today make up for yesterday
- Hunger pays a heavy price, To the falling gods of speed and steel.
- I asked for salvation, But they gave me a lethal dose.
- I can’t help it if I’m lucky.
- I can’t remember what it was, That I came here to forget.
- I couldn’t tell her what my private thoughts were, But she had a way of finding them out.
- I count the years and I shed no tears, I’m blinded to what might have been
- I dreamed I saw St. Augustine, Alive with fiery breath, And I dreamed I was amongst the ones, That put him out to death.
- I fought with my twin, that enemy within, ‘Tel both of us fell by the way.
- I got a cravin’ love for blazin’ speed, I got a hopped up Mustang Ford, Jump into the wagon, love, Throw your panties overboard
- I got lost on the river, but I did not drown
- I know the reason, That you talk behind my back, I use to be among the crowd, You’re in with.
- I laugh and I cry and I’m haunted by, Things I never meant nor wished to say
- I love you dear, but how much longer can I keep singing this same old song.
- I once loved a woman, a child I’m told, I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
- I practice a faith that’s been long abandoned, Ain’t no altars on this long and lonesome road
- I think we better talk this over, Maybe when we both get sober
- I walk across the bridge in the dismal light, Where all the cars are stripped between the gates of night
- I was born here and I’ll die here, against my will
- I was so much older then, I’m younger then that now
- I went to sleep in Shreveport, woke up in Abilene and couldn’t figure out why I was wanted in a town half way in between
- I wish for one moment you could stand in my shoes. And for that one moment I could be you. Then you could see what a drag it is to see you.
- I’m not there, I gone
- If there is an original thought out there, I could use it right now.
- If you don’t believe there’s a price for this sweet paradise, Remind me to show you the scars.
- If you get close to her, kiss her once for me, I always have respected her for busting out and gettin’ free
- I’m going to spare the defeated, I’m going to speak to the crowd. I’m going to teach peace to the conquered, I’m going to tame the proud
- I’m lost in the haze, of your delicate ways.
- I’m not the one you want, babe, I’m not the one you need
- I’m singin’ love’s praises with sugar coated rhyme
- I’m the oldest son of a crazy man
- I’m too stubborn to be governed.
- I’m trying to love my neighbor and do good unto others, But oh, mother, things ain’t going well
- In fourteenth months I only smiled once, but I didn’t do it concisely
- In Jersey everything is legal as long as you don’t get caught
- In the dime stores and bus stations, People talk of situations, Read books, repeat quotations, Draw conclusion on the wall.
- It ain’t no use a-talking to me, It’s just the same as talking to you.
- It’s getting harder and harder to be me.
- It’s you and you only, I’m been thinking about, But you can’t see in and it’s hard lookin’ out
- I’ve been conjuring up all these long dead souls from their crumblin’ tombs
- Just when you thought you have lost everything, You find out there is more to lose
- Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
- Lost time cannot be found
- Lot of things can get in the way, when you’re tryin’ to do what’s right
- May you have a strong foundation, When the winds of changes shift
- Meet me at the bottom, don’t lag behind, Bring me my boots and shoes. You can hang back or fight your best on the front line
- More frailer than the flowers, these precious hours, That keep us so tightly bound
- My bewildering brain, toils in vain
- My clothes are wet, tight on my skin. Not as tight as the corner that I painted myself in
- My hands are sweating, And we haven’t even started yet
- My mind weaves a symphony and tapestry of rhyme
- Myself, for what I did, I cannot be excused, The changes I was going through can’t even be used,
- No, I do not feel that good, When I see the heart breaks you embrace.
- Now you’re standing there expectin’ me, To remember somethin’ you forgot.
- Now, I’ve always been the kind of a person that doesn’t like to trespass, But sometimes you just find yourself over the line.
- One too many morning, and a thousand miles behind
- Only one thing I did wrong, Stayed in Mississippi a day too long
- Patriotism is the last refuse of a scoundrel
- Please see for me if her hair hangs long, If it rolls and flows all down her breast. Please see for me if her hair hangs long, That’s the way I remember her best.
- Renegade priests and treacherous young witches
- Señor, señor, do you know where we’re headin’?
Lincoln County Road or Armageddon? - She may know what you need, But I know what you want.
- Since every pleasure’s got an edge of pain. Pay for your ticket and don’t complain
- Some things are too terrible to be true
- Some young lazy slut has charmed away my brain
- Something is happening here, But you don’t know what it is, Do you Mister Jones.
- .Stake my future on a hell of a past
- .Standing next to me in this lonely crowd, Is a man who swears he’s not to blame. All day long I hear him shout so load, Crying out that he was framed.
- .Stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow, Things should start to get interestin’ right about now
- .Still I wish there was somethin’ you would do or say, To try and make me change my mind and stay
- .Strange how people who suffer together have stronger connections, Then people who are most content.
- .Stripped of all virtue as you crawl through the dirt
- Take me for a trip on your magic swirling ship.
- .Tell me where it hurts and ,I’ll tell you who to call
- That god you have been paying to is going to give to you exactly what you have been wishing on someone else
- The answer my friend, Is blowin’ in the wind.
- .The empty rooms where her memory is protected, Where the angels’ voices whisper to the souls of previous times.
- .The louder they come, the harder they fall
- .The only thing we knew for sure about Henry Porter, Is that his name wasn’t Henry Porter.
- The pump don’t work, ‘Cause the vandals took the handle.
- The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure
- The vagabond at the door, Is wearing clothes you once wore.
- .There are many among us who feel, That life is but a joke.
- They have some hungry women there, And man, they will make a mess out of you.
- They tell me that revenge is sweet, And from where they stand, I’m sure it is.
- They’ll be no mercy for you once you’ve lost
- This woman so crazy, I swear I ain’t going to touch another one for years
- .Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail, The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
- Too much of nothing, Can drive a man insane.
- .Twenty years of schooling and they put you on the day shift
- .We kissed through the wild blazing night time
- Well, I’m preaching peace and harmony, The blessing of tranquility, Yet I know when the time is right to strike
- .When you ain’t got nothing, You’ve got nothing to lose.
- Y’ always got to be prepared, but you never know for what
- Yet there’s no one to beat you, No one to defeat you, Except the thoughts of yourself feeling bad.
- You always said people don’t do what they believe in, They just do what’s most convenient, then they repent.
- You can’t get to glory by the raising and the lowering of no flag
- 132.You don’t have to be afraid of looking into my face, We’ve done nothing to each other time will not erase
- You don’t need a weather man, To know which way the wind blows.
- 134.You gonna need my help, sweetheart’ You can’t make love all by yourself
- You know, I feel pretty good, But that ain’t sayin’ much.
- You might think me odd, If I tell you that I love you, Not for what you are, but for what you’re not.
- You were right from your side, and I was right from mine
- You will search, babe, At any cost, But how long, Can you search for what is not lost.
- Your conscience betrayed you when some tyrant waylaid you.
ANSWERS TO JOHN ROBERT’S FAVORITE QUOTES
1. It’s All Right Ma 26 One Too Many Mornings
2. Visions of Johanna 27 Changing Of The Guard
3. When The deal goes Down 28 Restless Farewell
4. Sign on The Cross 29 Dreamin’ of You
5. To Ramona 30. Lonesome Day Blues
6. No Time To Talk 31 Changing of The Guard
7. Is Your Love In Vain 32 It’s All Right Maw
8. Bob Dylan’s Dream 33 Heart of Mine
9. Gates Of Eden 34 Journey Through the Dark Heat
10 Gates Of Eden 35 Golden Tom-Silver Judas
11 Seeing The Real You at Last 36 Dark Eyes
12 Love Minus Zero 37. Shelter From the Storm
13 A Spanish Mary 38 Idiot Wind
14 No Time To Think 39 I Forgot to Remember to FORGET
15 All Along The Watchtower 40 Where Are You Tonight
16 Gates Of Eden 41 Huck’s Tune
17 With God On Our Side 42 I Dreamed I saw St. Augustine
18 Dark Eyes 43 Journey Through the Dark Heat
19 To Ramona 44 High Water
20 Slow Train Coming 45 Lost On The River
21 Restless Farewell 46 Positively Fourth Street
22 I’ll Keep It With Mine 47 When The Deal Goes Down
23 We Better Talk This Over 48 Kansas City
24 The Times Are a Changing 49 Don’t Think Twice
25 Masters Of War 50 World Gone Wrong
51. We Better Talk This Over 76. Lay Lady Lay
52. Chimes of Freedom 77. Silvio
53. Not Dark Yet 78.
54. My Back Pages 79. Forever Young
55. Wanted Man 80. Workin’ Man Blues
56. Positively Fourth Street 81. Where Teardrops Fall
57. I’m Not there 82. When The Deal Goes Down
58. Brownsville Girl 83. Mississippi
59. Where Are You Tonight 84. Tight Connection To My Heart
60. Girl From The North country 85. If Dogs Run Free
61. Silvio 86. Ballad in Plain D
62. We Better Talk This Over 87. Positively 4th Street
63. It Ain’t Me Babe 88. What Was It You Wanted
64. Sugar Baby 89. New Danville Girl
65. Nettie Moore 90. One Too Many Mornings
66. Up To Me 91. Mississippi
67. Ain’t Talkin’ 92. What’s A sweetheart Like You.
68. Up To Me 93. Girl From The North country
69. Hurricane 94. Changing of the Guard
70. She Belongs To Me 95. Senior
71. I Shall Be Free 96. She Belongs to Me
72. Cold Irons Bound 97. Silvio
73. 98. Hones With Me
74. Rollin’ & Tumblin’ 99. Rollin’ & Tumblin’
75. Like A Rolling Stone 100 Ballad of a Thin Man
101 Silvio 121 Rollin’ & Thunderin’
102 Tear of Rage 122 Chimes of Freedom
103 Mississippi 123 Too Much of Nothin’
104 Don’t Think Twice 124 Subterranean Homesick Blues
105 Brownsville Girl 125 Chimes of Freedom
106 No Time to Talk 126 Ain’t Talkin’
107 Mr. Tambourine Man 127 Like A Rollin’ Stone
108 Quinn The Eskimo 128 Sugar Baby
109 129 Sugar Baby
110 Blowin’ In The Wind 130 Brownsville Girl
111 Changing of the Guard 131 Ain’t No Righteous Man
112 Million Dollar Bash 132.
113 Brownsville Girl 133 Subterranean Homesick Blues
114 Subterranean Homesick Blues 134 What’s a Sweetheart Like You
115 Where Are You Tonight 135 Brownsville Girl
116 Like A Rolling Stone 136 If Not For You
117 All Along The Watchtower 137 Don’t Think Twice
118 Tom Thumb’s Blues 138 I’ll Keep It With Mine
119 Dark Eyes 139 No Time to Think
DYLAN QUOTE TEST # 1
120 Ain’t Talkin’
MATCH QUOTATIONS WITH SONG TITLES
QUOTES
1._____”If God is on our side, He’ll stop the next war.
2._____”And his brain has been mismanaged with great skill.
3._____”All right—where do you want this killing done?”
4._____”Is your money that good? Will it buy forgiveness? Do you think that it could?
5._____”Things are breaking up out there, high water everywhere.
6._____”Let’s disconnect the cables overturn the tables. This place just don’t make sense to me no more. Can you tell me what we are waiting for, Senor?”
7_____”May you have a strong foundation when the winds of changes shift.”
8_____”But you and I have been through that, and this is not our fate so let us not talk falsely the hour is getting late.”
9_____”I gaze into the doorway of temptations angry flames. And every time I pass that way I always hear my name.”
10. ___”Happiness is just a state of mind. Anytime you wish you can cross the state line.”
11_____”Before the sky there are no fences facing”
12_____”Something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is”
13_____”Ah, but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now”
14_____” strike another match, go start anew.”
15____”You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”
16____”For he gets hurt will be he who has stalled”
17___”But to live outside the law, you must be honest”
18____”And I’ll tell it, and think it, and speak it and breathe it”
19_____”But it’s not that way, I wasn’t born to loose you.”
20_____”Kick your shoes off, do not fear, bring that bottle over here.”
21____”I’d just be curious to know if you can see yourself as clear as someone who has had you on his mind”
22_____”Goodbye is too good a word girl”
23_____”So many roads, so much at steak, so many dead ends, sometimes I wonder what it’s going to take to find dignity”
24______”It’s only other peoples games you got to dodge”
25____”Just remember when you are out there trying to heal the sick, that you must first forgive them.”
26_____”You’d know what a drag it is to see you.
27_____”You went to the finest school all right Miss Lonely. But you only used to get juiced in it”
28_____”I got sidetracked in El Paso, stopped to get myself a map, went the wrong way into Juarez with Juanita on my lap. Then I went to sleep in Shreveport, woke up in Abilene wondering why the hell I’m wanted at some town halfway between.”
29____”Bury the rag deep in your face, for now is the time for your tears”
30_____”That long black cloud is coming down. “
DYLAN TEST (TITLES #1)
THE SONG TITLES:
A. Wanted Man
B. My Back Pages
C. Masters of War
D. Dignity
E. I Want You
F. License To Kill
G. Waiting for You
H. Forever Young
I. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
J. Subterranean Homesick Blues
K. Momma You Been On My Mind
L. With God On Our Side
M. Absolutely Sweet Marie
N. Don’t Think Twice
O. Like A Rolling Stone
P. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
Q. High Water
R. Open the Door, Homer
S. Senor
T. Positively 4th Street
U. All Along The Watchtower
V. It’s All Right Ma
W. Hattie Caroll
X. The Times They Are A Changin’
Y. Mr. Tambourine Man
Z. Highway 61
*. Every Grain of Sand
**. It’s all Over Now Baby Blue
***. Hard Rain
****. Ballad of A Thin Man
DYLAN QUOTES TEST # ! (ANSWERS)
1. L
2. F
3. Z
4. C
5. Q
6. S
7. H
8. U
9. *
10. G
11. Y
12. ****
13. B
14 **
15. J
16. X
17. M
18 ***
19. E
20. P
21. K
22.N
23. D
24. V
25. R
26. T
27. O
28. A
29. W
30. I
DYLAN TEST 2 (QUOTES TO BE MATCHED )
——“May you have a strong foundation when the winds of changes shift.”
—- “Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore.”
——Happiness is just a state of mind. Any time you wish you can cross the state line.
——- Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth, None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.”
—But I can’t think for you, You’ll have to decide, Whether Judas Iscariot, Had God on his side.
—— Sometimes babies never learn.
—-Don’t criticize what you can’t understand.—
—-He who is not busy being born, Is busy dying.
—-I asked for salvation, But they gave me a lethal dose.
—-I got a cravin’ love for blazin’ speed, I got a hopped up Mustang Ford, Jump into the wagon, love, Throw your panties overboard.
—-I laugh and I cry and I’m haunted by, Things I never meant nor wished to say.
—-I think we better talk this over, Maybe when we both get sober.
—-I was so much older then, I’m younger then that now.
—-I ‘m trying to love my neighbor and do good unto others, But oh, mother, things ain’t going well.
—-In the dime stores and bus stations, People talk of situations, Read books, repeat quotations, Draw conclusion on the wall.
—- Lot of things can get in the way, when you’re tryin’ to do what’s right.
—-.—-Patriotism is the last refuse of a scoundrel.
—- Three miles north of purgatory – one step from the great beyond
I prayed to the cross and I kissed the girls and I crossed the Rubicon.
—-You won’t amount to much the people all said
‘Cause I didn’t play guitar behind my head
Never pandered never acted proud
Never took off my shoes and threw them into the crowd
Goodbye Jimmy Reed – goodbye and goodnight
I’ll put a jewel in your crown – I’ll put out the light.
—-Sometimes the silence can be like the thunder
Sometimes I wanna take to the road and plunder
—-They tell me everything is gonna be all right
But I don’t know what “all right” even means.
—- The storms are raging on the rolling sea
The winds of change are blowing wild and free
You ain’t seen nothing like me yet.
——Maybe somewhere down the road a ways (at the end of the line)
You’ll think of me and wonder where I am these days (at the end of the line)
Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays (at the end of the line)
Purple Haze.
—- I loved you then, and ever shall,
but there’s no one here who is left to tell.
The world has turned black before my eyes
DYLAN TEST 2—SONG TITLES
—-Happiness is just a state of mind. Any time you wish you can cross the state line.
——I don’t cheat on myself. I don’t run and hide.
Hide from the feelings that are buried inside.
- TO MAKE YOU FEEL MY LOVE
2. NETTIE MOORE
3. WAITIN’ FOR YOU
4. RUBICON
5. FOREVER YOUNG
6. TRYING TO GET TO HEAVEN
7. IT’S ALRIGHT MA
8. WHEN THE DEAL GOES DOWN
9. END OF THE LINE
10. OH SISTER
11. BROWNSVILLE GILRL
12. MAN IN THE LONG BLACK COAT
13. AIN’T TALKIN’
14 WHERE TEARDROPS FALL
15. HIGHWATER
16. MY BACK PAGES
17. LOVE MINUS ZERO
18. LOVE SICK
19. THE TIMES ARE CHANGING
20. SWEETHEART LIKE YOU
21. GOODBY JIMMY REED.
22. ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
23. WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE
24. MOST OF THE TIME
25. MAYBE WE BETTER TALK THIS OVER
DYLAN TEST 2 (answers)
5——“May you have a strong foundation when the winds of changes shift.”
10—- “Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore.”
25——Happiness is just a state of mind. Any time you wish you can cross the state line.
22——- Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth, None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.”
23—But I can’t think for you, You’ll have to decide, Whether Judas Iscariot, Had God on his side.
11—— Sometimes babies never learn.
19 —-Don’t criticize what you can’t understand.—-Funny, the things you have the hardest time parting with, are the things you need the least.
7—-He who is not busy being born, Is busy dying.
14—-Roses are red and violets are blue, time is beginning to crawl,
I may have to come see you, where teardrops fall.
15 —-I got a cravin’ love for blazin’ speed, I got a hopped up Mustang Ford, Jump into the wagon, love, Throw your panties overboard.
8—-I laugh and I cry and I’m haunted by, Things I never meant nor wished to say.
26—-I think we better talk this over, Maybe when we both get sober.
16—-I was so much older then, I’m younger then that now.
13—-I ‘m trying to love my neighbor and do good unto others, But oh, mother, things ain’t going well.
17—-In the dime stores and bus stations, People talk of situations, Read books, repeat quotations, Draw conclusion on the wall.
12——She never said nothing, there was nothing she wrote.
She’d gone with the man in the long black coat
.20—-Patriotism is the last refuse of a scoundrel.
4—- Three miles north of purgatory – one step from the great beyond
I prayed to the cross and I kissed the girls and I crossed the Rubicon.
21—-You won’t amount to much the people all said
‘Cause I didn’t play guitar behind my head
Never pandered never acted proud
Never took off my shoes and threw them into the crowd
Goodbye Jimmy Reed – goodbye and goodnight
I’ll put a jewel in your crown – I’ll put out the light.
18—-Sometimes the silence can be like the thunder
Sometimes I wanna take to the road and plunder
6—-They tell me everything is gonna be all right
But I don’t know what “all right” even means.
1—- The storms are raging on the rolling sea
The winds of change are blowing wild and free
You ain’t seen nothing like me yet.
9——Maybe somewhere down the road a ways (at the end of the line)
You’ll think of me and wonder where I am these days (at the end of the line)
Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays (at the end of the line)
Purple Haze.
2—- I loved you then, and ever shall,
but there’s no one here who is left to tell.
The world has turned black before my eyes
—-
THE YUPPIE REDNECK
Larry McMurtry on North Carolina’s Triangle ( Rraleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill ) area : “ This prosperous area is the homeland of the yuppie redneck, a Southerner with working class prejudices and upper-middle- class money.
TODAY
Even the White House seems to have had enough.
“For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm,” White House COVID coordinator Jeff Zients said at a December press briefing.
LEGAL PADS
The last of my blogs (“Jeanne Robertson’s Last Performance”) has her suggestions about collecting her scripts or materials. Her tool of choice was mostly simple yellow legal tablets. She also wrote a book detailing for us how to see what is in front of us. I took her advice.
My reading choices became more of a search for interesting ideas and good writers. My Son, Dan recommended SAPIENS by Yuval Harari, which stayed on the best seller list for 60 plus weeks.
I clipped and I ” cherry picked ” all kinds of comments and ideas from Harari’s book Then he wrote a new one. And another!
My LEGAL PAD (the list to follow ) has grown. I don’t if I could organize it if I had the energy. Hear is the list. Do your own cherry picking.
YUVAL HARARI’’S BOOKS
HIGH LIGHTS
- Sapiens
- Homo Deus
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
In a nutshell #1 dealt with our past. 2. Our future, and 3. The Present
SAPIENS;
We are the deadliest species in the annals of biology
PAGE 4 SUMMARY
13.5 Billion years ago—BIG BANG
Sapiens show up 70k, 70k ago neanderthals soon gone
Clue to Sapiens—gossip ability—led to communities, Law,religion,rules,communication.
Biology rules—hormones, genes, synapses
150 is ideal number for groups.
Page 360, parents in full retreat
From 1000 ad to 500 ad, not much happened.
500 million people in 1500 ad. 2014 there are 7 billion.
Happiness bulb born with, doesn’t change much.
Artificial Intelligence is the future. Not religion, God, Nature etc.
2—HOMO DEUS—a brief history of tomorrow
**deals with future. Mankind’s quest to upgrade humans to gods.
**mankind has almost and will conquer the three remaining super problems: famine, plague, and war. No need to work. Task—find
“happiness.
**artificial intelligence—where to go from here.
**homo sapiens may be more like Neanderthals the future homo deus.
**homo deus is where mankind is headed.
21 LESSONS for the 21st century
Protecting ourselves—war, ecology
What to do with fake news, terrorism
How to prepare our children for the future
“When has history been fair”?
Current problems: climate change, dying liberal democracy, a new world war? Fake news, technology goes wrong, immigration, the meaning of life today,.
Technology giving us the power to “reshape and reengineer humanity.
‘the reliance on the heart may prove to be the Achilles heel of liberal democracy.
Some folks are smarter than others. Listen to algorithms.
BxCxD=AHH! Biological knowledge multiplied by computing power multiplied by data = ability to hack humans c
Page 2
Some other good stuff:
THE BODY by Bill Bryson
*page 14 on skin color—sliver from cadaver, one millimeter thick from epidermis. That’s all
*memory: recall a deck of cards after 30 minutes. Oriental girl 17 seconds?
* teenagers in cars. Another teenager in car? Rate goes up 400x. page pp 63
* human brain shrunk size of tennis ball
* EXERCISE: 80% us men are overweight, 77% women. 35% are obese.
* FITBIT—tie to dog to up totals for job
* BIPEDS== YES BUT BACKS, KNEES. PELVIS—CHILDBIRTH.
*weight for women in 1960 was 144 to 166. Men 166 to 196.
* SITTING TO MUCH.
* I was your first wife!
* Asthma—good section pages 216-221. SMOKING FOLLOWS
* HICCUPS—one guy had them 67 years!
*
OUTLIERS—The Story of Success/by Malcolm Gladwell
CANADIAN JR. HOCKEY ALL-STARS (born n Jan. Why? The outlier?
10,000 hours. Bill Gates and PC. BEATLES—Pretty bad. Hamburg strip clubs . HAD TO PLAY 8 HOURS. PRACTICE,.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING JEWISH. JOE FLOM AND HOSTILE TAKEOVERS. WHEN TIME CAME, TIME WAS IN.
–BORN IN DEPRESSION—TAKE NO CHANCES.
JEWS AND THE GARMENT INDUSTRY. 3RD GENERATION WERE LAWYERS AND DRS. THE CHILDREN OF THE BOOK.
A CULTURE OF HONOR. SOUTHERNERS CALLED ASSHOLE WILL FIGHT YOU.
KOREAN CO-PILOTS AND NYC AIRPORT CONTROL.LERS
NOT OUTLIERS AT ALL. They are products of history and community, opportunity and legacy. Their success is not exceptional or mysterious.
Due to advantages, inheritances, , luck, some earned,,come not, variables critical to making them who they are.
MICHIO KAKU
HIGH POINT LECTURE WITH NIDO QUEBEIN—OUTSTANDING HOUR.
THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY
WILL FUTURE PIONEERS SEARCH SPACE FOR A NEW SAFE HOME AS THE AFRICANS DID, KNOWING THEIR GENERATION WOULD NOT BENEFIT, BUT OFFSPRING MAY?
—-NEAREST STAR TO US IS 4.2 LIGHT YEARS AWAY.
—-THREE WAVES OF SCIENCE MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL, TECH.
—ADVANCED CIVILIZATIONS SEEM POSSIBLE
——-ADMIRAL ZENG OF CHINA, BOATS 5X TIME COLUMBUS. NEXT EMPEROR BANNED SCIENCE. LET TO POVERTY AND DOOMED ANY PROGRESS
—PRESERVING HUMANS BY FREEZING NOT A CRAZY IDEA?
—-ARE WE IN THE LAST GENERATION TO DIE— IMMORTALITY NEAR?
—-FARMER===EVERY CHILD MAKES YOU RICHER. CITY==EVERY CHILD MAKES YOU POORER!
SCHIZOPHENICS. EVERYONE TALKS TO SELF. NO LEFT BRAIN TO PREFRONTAL CORTEX—-VOICES SEEM REAL.—
CLIMATE CHANGE—SEE ADDENDUM YUVAL HARARI’’S BOOKS
HIGH LIGHTS
- Sapiens
- Homo Deus
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
In a nutshell #1 dealt with our past. 2. Our future, and 3. The Present
SAPIENS;
We are the deadliest species in the annals of biology
PAGE 4 SUMMARY
13.5 years ago—BIG BANG
Sapiens show up 70k, 70k ago neanderthals soon gone
Clue to Sapiens—gossip abillity—led to communities, law,religion,rules,communication.
Biology rules—hormones, genes, synapses
150 is ideal number for groups.
Page 360, parents in full retreat
From 1000 ad to 500 ad, not much happened.
500 million people in 1500 ad. 2014 there are 7 billion.
Happiness bulb born with, doesn’t change much.
Artificial Intelligence is the future. Not religion, God, Nature etc.
2—HOMO DEUS—a brief history of tomorrow
**deals with future. Mankind’s quest to upgrade humans to gods.
**mankind has almost and will conquer the three remaining super problems: famine, plague, and war. No need to work. Task—find
“happiness.
**artificial intelligence—where to go from here.
**homo sapiens may be more like Neanderthals the future homo deus.
**homo deus is where mankind is headed.
21 LESSONS for the 21st century
Protecting ourselves—war, ecology
What to do with fake news, terrorism
How to prepare our children for the future
“When has history been fair”?
Current problems: climate change, dying liberal democracy, a new world war? Fake news, technology goes wrong, immigration, the meaning of life today,.
Technology giving us the power to “reshape and reengineer humanity.
‘the reliance on the heart may prove to be the Achilles heel of liberal democracy.
Some folks are smarter than others. Listen to algorithms.
BxCxD=AHH! Biological knowledge multiplied by computing power multiplied by data = ability to hack humans c
Page 2
Some other good stuff:
THE BODY by Bill Bryson
*page 14 on skin color—sliver from cadaver, one millimeter thick from epidermis. That’s all
*memory: recall a deck of cards after 30 minutes. Oriental girl 17 seconds?
* teenagers in cars. Another teenager in car? Rate goes up 400x. page pp 63
* human brain shrunk size of tennis ball
* EXERCISE: 80% us men are overweight, 77% women. 35% are obese.
* FITBIT—tie to dog to up totals for job
* BIPEDS== YES BUT BACKS, KNEES. PELVIS—CHILDBIRTH.
*weight for women in 1960 was 144 to 166. Men 166 to 196.
* SITTING TO MUCH.
* I was your first wife!
* Asthma—good section pages 216-221. SMOKING FOLLOWS
* HICCUPS—one guy had them 67 years!
*
OUTLIERS—The Story of Success/by Malcolm Gladwell
CANADIAN JR. HOCKEY ALL-STARS (born n Jan. Why? The outlier?
10,000 hours. Bill Gates and PC. BEATLES—Pretty badl Hamburg strip clubs . HAD TO PLLAY 8 HOURS. PRACTICE,.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING JEWISH. JOE FLOM AND HOSTILE TAKEOVERS. WHEN TIME CAME, TIME WAS IN.
–BORN IN DEPRESSION—TAKE NO CHANCES.
JEWS AND THE GARMENT INDUSTRY. 3RD GENERATION WERE LAWYERS AND DRS. THE CHILDREN OF THE BOOK.
A CULTURE OF HONOR. SOUTHERNERS CALLED ASSHOLE WILL FIGHT YOU.
KOREAN CO-PILOTS AND NYC AIRPORT CONTROL.LERS
NOT OUTLIERS AT ALL. They are products of history and community, opportunity and legacy. Their success is not exceptional or mysterious.
Due to advantages, inheritances, , luck, some earned,,come not, variables critical to making them who they are.
MICHIO KAKU
HIGH POINT LECTURE WITH NIDO QUEBEIN—OUTSTANDING HOUR.
THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY
WILL FUTURE PIONEERS SEARCH SPACE FOR A NEW SAFE HOME AS THE AFRICANS DID, KNOWING THEIR GENERATION WOULD NOT BENEFIT, BUT OFFSPRING MAY?
—-NEAREST STAR TO US IS 4.2 LIGHT YEARS AWAY.
—-THREE WAVES OF SCIENCE MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL, TECH.
—ADVANCED CIVILIZATIONS SEEM POSSIBLE
——-ADMIRAL ZENG OF CHINA, BOATS 5X TIME COLUMBUS. NEXT EMPEROR BANNED SCIENCE. LET TO POVERTY AND DOOMED ANY PROGRESS
—PRESERVING HUMANS BY FREEZING NOT A CRAZY IDEA?
—-ARE WE IN THE LAST GENERATION TO DIE— IMMORTALITY NEAR?
—-FARMER===EVERY CHILD MAKES YOU RICHER. CITY==EVERY CHILD MAKES YOU POORER!
SCHIZOPHENICS. EVERYONE TALKS TO SELF. NO LEFT BRAIN TO PREFRONTAL CORTEX—-VOICES SEEM REAL.—
CLIMATE CHANGE—SEE ADDENDUM
NEW BOOK-“RANGE” by David Epstein
TIGER WOODS VS ROGER FEDERER OR 10,000 HOURS (MALCOLM GLADWELL AND “OUTLIERS (TIGER), OR FED AND A DIVERSE BACKGROUND.
MERH CD’/ MERCEDES
AVERAGE AGE OF A FOUNDER IS 45
EVERYONE NEEDS HABITS OF MIND THAT ALLOW THEM TO DANCE ACROOS THE DISCIPLINES
NO TOOL IS OMNIPOTENT
TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE BROADLY REQUIRES BROAD KNOWLEDGE
OLYMPIANS AT 12-13 -RANGE
MUSICIANS —TRY AND CAN USE 3 OR MORE INSTRUMENTS
DAVE BRUBECK (TAKE FIVE) COULDN’T READ MUSIC
TO ACQIRE KNOWLEDGE SLOWLY HELPS YOU MAKE THE RIGHT MATCH
WINNERS NEVER QUIT (YET TO HONOR OR GOOD SENSE (W. CHURCHCHILL)
YOUNG PEOPLE SHOULD TAKE RISKS
“SUNK COST FALLACY” CUT AND RUN, KNOW WHEN TO FOLD. DEAD HORSE.
IN GOD WE TRUST. ALL OTHERS BRING DATA. NO DATA—REASON
THE GAME IS THE BEST TEACHER
BREAKTHROUGH AND FALLACY LOOK A LOT ALIKE INITIALLY
“IT IS AN EXPERIMENT, AS ALL OF LIFE IS AN EXPERIMENT” OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
********
“The Biggest Bluff” by Maria Konnikova
Author Konnikova is a professional psychologist who selects professional poker as a place to examine self, skill, luck and life. Below are simply some conclusions she arrives at. P.S.—She hired Eric Seidel, world champion of poker, as her coach:
And the biggest bluff of all? That skill can ever be enough. That’s the hope that allows us to move forward in those moments when luck is most stacked against us, the useful delusion that lets us push o rather than give up. We don’t know, we can’t ever know, if we’ll manage or not. But we must convince ourselves that we can. That, in the end, our skill will be enough to carry the day. Because it has to be.
Admitting to unknowing, accepting a lack of agency without resorting to gimmicks, and instead attempting to analyze the unknown as best we can with the tools of rationality: those are some of the most powerful steps we can take.
Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who wish to pretend to nonexistent knowledge and control and a Cosmos centered on human beings, will prefer superstition.
Nothing is all skill. Ever. I shy away from absolutes, but this one callout for my embrace. Because life is life, luck will always be a factor in anything we might do or undertake, but should chance go against us, all our skill can do is mitigate the damage.
I hope I can keep playing for a very, very long time. I don’t want to have to retire. This game is just too damn interesting. It’s such a beautiful game.
And it is. It really is.
*******************************
THE GOD DELUSION by Richard Dawkins
The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
If people wish to love a 7th century preacher more than their own families, that is up to them, but nobody else is obliged to take it seriously.
Behead those who say islam is a violent religion.
I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism.
We who love science must remember that the enemy of our enemies is our friend.
George W. Bush says God told him to invade Iraq ( a pity God didn’t vouchsafe he a revelation that there were no weapons of mass destruction.)
One of the truly bad effect of religion is that it teaches us that is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding.
Politics has slain thousands, but religion has slain its tens of thousands.
Those who can make you believe in absurdities can also make you commit atrocities.
There is in every village a torch—the teacher
And an extinguisher—-the clergyman.“
That it will never come again
is what makes life so sweet.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt in your “philosophy”.
What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.
The idea of a personal god is quite alien to me and seems even naive. Einstein
Everybody gets absolutely frantic about it because you’re not allowed to say these things. Yet when you look at it rationally there is no reason why those ideas shouldn’t be as open to debate as any other, except that we have agreed somehow between us that they should’t be.
The priests of the different religious sects…..dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight, and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subdivision of the duperies on which they live. Thomas Jefferson
SEPTEMBER 2021—BOOK COMMENTS CONTINUED
“Fields of Blood” (Religion and the History of Violence ) by Karen Armstrong.
At first this book seemed too deep. Indeed the detail and scholarship are thorough. Looking again I saw this as an excellent text for religion majors.
Atlantic Christian College , my alma mater, changed its name to Barton. I never knew much about the namesake (Barton Stone) but found these on page 274 of Fields of Blood:
“…Barton Stone railed against the aristocratic clergy who tried to force the erudite faith of Harvard on the people.
“Enlightenment philosophers had insisted that people must have the courage to throw off their dependence on authority, use their natural reason to discover the truth, and think for themselves.”
“When Stone founded his own denomination, he called it a ‘declaration of independence’: bringing modern ideals of democracy equality, freedom of speech, and independence … (to the populace).
Armstrong demonstrates again and again that the great spasms of cruelty and killing through history have had little or no religious overlay. In modern times Hitler, Stalin and Mao were all atheists, and the power behind the Holocaust, Armstrong says, was an ethnic rather than a religious hatred. An overemphasis on religion’s damage can blind people to the nonholy terrors that their states inflict. NYT REVIEW by James Fallows—2014)
…the main hope for peace is to keep faith and statecraft separate.
****ENLIGHTENMENT NOW by Steven Pinker. Sub- title is spot on (the case for reason, science, humanism, and progress).
This was a “stumble on” that is very good.
Louie: CK “The foundations of capitalism are shattering…” REALLY?
“…maybe we need some time where we are wandering around with a donkey with pots clanging on the sides…”
Flight—-sat on runway 40 minutes.
??? miracle of human flight—-sitting in a chair in the sky—New York to California in 5 hours is slow? Used to take 30 years and many would die, with an arrow through your throat. They’d put your hat on a stick and bury you and keep walking!
Page 9 on what educated Englishman (1600) would believe…witches, werewolves, unicorns, base metal to gold, etc. century later he believes none of these.
Thomas Jefferson: light from me doesn’t diminish my flame. Instruction is the same way…
“Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory”
Chris Rock: “ this is the first society in history where the poor people are fat.”
“…global citizen is 125 times more likely to die in an accident…” than a terrorist attack. for Americans—3000 times!
“We have at our fingertips…all the works of genius prior to our time…” plus that of our time. Those before had neither,
Three main threats: Overpopulation, Resource Depletion, and Pollution.
NASA: Man is the lowest cost, 150 pound, non linear, all-purpose computer system, which can be mass produced by unskilled labor.
“…society advances funeral by funeral!”
God and reason: “…faith, revelation, scripture, authority, tradition, and subjective appeal are not arguments at all.”
Incompatible beliefs, how many gods?, different religions, different sources, which miracles?, what they demand.
human errors, factual errors, plagiarism, scientific absurdness.
*****CHERRY PICKING OTHERS (lOVE AND THEFT—DYLAN)
FORGET THE ALAMO. This book contends much of “Alamo lore” is Alamo myth!
Real reason? Europeans were choosing cotton for clothing. This part of Texas was ideal for cotton farming—if you had slaves to do the work. Mexico was anti-slavery.
*******
AMERICAN HAPPINESS AND DISCONTENTS
the unruly torrent
(2008-2020) by George Will
CTE—1966- bear bryant’s heaviest player weight 223 lbs. 2011 NFL had 320 players weighing 300.
two bad features—violence and committee meetings (huddles)
…not the rules but the fiction that football can be fixed and still resemble the game fan relish.”
louisville brought pros and strippers to the bball dorm 22 times in 2 years. pitino—duh? yet hired by Iona.
“Drugs drain sport admirable excellence, which elevates as well as competitors.”
Wills cites vague “einstein” stanza from DESOLATION ROW. Final one clearer?
Yes, I received your letter yesterday, about the time the doorknob broke
When you asked me how I was doing, was that some kind of joke
All these people that you mention, yes, I know them, they’re quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces and give them all another name
Right now, I can’t read too good, don’t send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them from Desolation Row
“Do not speak unless you can improve on silence.”
ON VIETNAM
Easier to muddle through than to admit you were wrong
Westmoreland ( “never had general so effectively willed away the facts”)
Famous photo? plain clothed Viet Cong who had just cut the throat of a South Vietnamese officer’s wife, six children, and the officer’s Mother.
NO WAR IS OVER UNTIL THE LAST VETERAN IS DEAD
Size of our universe
page 55 —ton of facts
If there were only 3 bees in America, the air would be more crowded with bees than space is with stars.
A dog was trained to emit a whimpering sound every time it heard the word HILARY.
“College: The best seven years of my life!”
there is something to be said for exposing yourself to ideas other than your own.
Will—Chernow’s GRANT is great history writing.
More dying by lifestyle increasing!
ON EUTHANASIA—-Pages 354-355.
“I am doing everything I can to continue to live. No one should have the right to prolong my death.”
People spoke jauntily of “the conquest of space.” Well.
The universe, 99.9 (and at least fifty-eight other nines) percent of which is already outside Earth’s atmosphere, is expanding (into we know not what) at forty-six miles per second per mega parsec. (One megaparsec is approximately 3.26 million light years.) Astronomers are studying light that has taken perhaps 12 billion years to reach their instruments. This cooling cinder called Earth, spinning in the darkness at the back of beyond, is a minor speck of residue from the Big Bang, which lasted less than a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second 13.8 billion years ago. The estimated number of stars—they come and go— is 100 followed by twenty-two zeros. The visible universe (which is hardly all of it) contains more than 150 billion galaxies, each with billions of stars. But if there were only three bees in America, the air would be core crowded with bees than space is with stars. The distances, and the violently unheavenly conditions in “the heavens”, tell us that our devices will roam our immediate cosmic neighborhood, but in spite of Apollo 11’s still-darling achievement, we are not really going anywhere.
EUTHANASIA (PAGES 354-355
Cederquist says the most common reason for requesting assistance in dying is not “intolerable physical suffering”. Rather, it is “existential suffering”, including loss of meaning,” as from the ability to relate to others. The prospect of being “unable to interact” can be as intolerable as physical suffering, and cannot be alleviated by hospice or other palliative care.
In some countries, doctors actively administer lethal injections. No U.S. jurisdiction allows doctors to go beyond writing prescriptions for lede-ending drugs to be self administered orally by persons retaining decisional capacity.
Almost 30 percent of Medicare expenditures are for patients in the last six months of life, and about 16 percent of patients die in, or soon after leaving, intensive care units. Financial reasons should be decisive in setting end-of-life policy, but Cederquist notes that reducing “expensive and inappropriate care”— costly and agonizing resistance to imminent death “is the lowest-tech thing we can do in medicine.”Hence the importance of “slow medicine geriatrics,” avoiding a “rush to those interventions that build on each other”and thereby enmesh doctors and patients in ethical conundrums.The American Medical Association remains opposed to physician assistance in dying; the California Medical Association has moved from opposition to neutrality. Litigation has been unsuccessful in seeking judicial affirmation of a high that California’s legislature should establish. Legislation to do this has been authored by Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, chair of the Democratic caucus.
There are reasons for wariness. An illness’s sox-month trajectory can be uncertain. A right to die can become a felt obligation, particularly among bewildered persons tangled in the toils of medical technologies, or persons with meager family resources. And as a reason for ending life, mental suffering itself calls into question the existence of the requisite decisional competence.
Today’s culture of casual death (see Planned Parenthood videos )should deepen worries about a slippery slope from physician-assisted dying a further diminution of life’s sanctity. Life, however, is inevitably lived on multiple slippery slopes:Taxation could become confiscation, police could become instruments of oppression, public education could become indoctrination, etc. Everywhere and always, civilization depends on the drawing of intelligent distinctions.
Jennifer Glass, a Californian who died August 11, drew one. She said to her state legislators, “I’m doing everything I can to extend my life. No one should have the right to prolong my death”.
The Economist reports that in the seventeen years under Oregon’s pioneering 1997 law, just 1,327 people have received prescriptions for lethal medications—about seventy-four a year—and one third of those did not use them. Possessing the option was sufficient reassurance.
There is nobility is suffering bravely borne, but also in affirming at the end the distinctive human dignity of autonomous choice.Brittany Maynard, who chose to be with loved ones when she self-administered her lethal medications was asleep in five minutes and soon dead.
JEANNE ROBERTSON’S LAST PERFORMANCE
Jeanne talked a lot about her height. She was larger than life. Husband , Jerry and I played poor golf equally together. We, joined by Alan White.and wife “Norma Rose”, enjoyed them both as dear friends. Many occasions with Elon University and it’s athletics programs.
Many times someone would say to me, “…I saw you on television with that funny woman!” Her video on an eight day white-water rafting trip down the entire Grand Canyon was a fan favorite and popular on youtube. A trip shared by me and wife Margaret, as tag alongs, who joined Jeanne’s group of professional speakers. Some Baptists sprinkled in totalling 30 “rafters .”
There are lots of similar Jeanne videos and books and performances. Never once does she disappoint.
The link below shows how to view her last video. Like her other material, about half of the hour long presentation is humerous.
The second half is different and I don’t feel I should define what she does. Suffice it to say, it is a from the heart gift. Directed toward her people or team –the nation’s speakers. But, true to form, good advice for many.
The Little Green Book of Tennis 