Internet Search Techniques

Internet Search Techniques

This advice is very useful and I hope that you take the time to read it.

Time to Think

Today, I remembered having read something about the shortest event ever measured. I don't remember the event, but I remembered that it lasted 2 attoseconds. I knew that an attosecond was quite short. I thought that an attosecond was to a second as one second is to a million or maybe a billion years (although I really doubted the latter). I'm not sure why, but I looked it up today and found out that one attosecond is to one second as one second is to the time the universe has existed. How can one possibly live in "the moment" when discrete actions begin and end in such an infintesimally small amounts of time?

The Egyptians and Proclus may indeed have been right when they said that "god" was not to be found "out there somewhere", but in the eternal present the eternal now. "God" or whatever you want to call the Source of Being may indeed "exist" in all the way down outside the very bottom of time and bring all creation about with actions infinitely small and infinitely short. It's just a thought.

Mayberry

We all have images in our minds of bucolic small towns where everyone knows everyone else and all the people get along for the most part. A place where most are disposed to help anyone in the town in almost anyway they can. It does not matter whether it's Mayberry, Lake Wobegone, or the suburb of "The Wonder Years." These places are part of the American Identity and what makes these places such a persistent idea is that they exist and existed- not as perfect as the myth, but closer to it than one might imagine. These places are rapidly disappearing due to a number of factors and one of these is chrystal meth. According to Walter Kirn, writing in today's New York Times Book Review, Methland - The Death and Life of a Small American Town by Nick Reading gives the reader a very effective and engaging account of how, why, and by whom these towns are being destroyed. Reading also describes how meth is a symptom of the diseases destroying the towns - it is not the cause. Finally, he also shows how one town began a process of recovery that appears to be working. I have placed this book high on my reading lst and I hope you will do the same. The unending "Dateline", "60 Minutes", et al reports will not bring about the political action needed. The only thing that will lead to political action is us. Our leaders will not act until we force them to - with letters, emails, phone calls, demonstrations, etc. There are solutions out there and it is up to us to make the politicians find and adopt them.

Minds and Gods

Image via Wikipedia

This is a fantastic book that in the world I wish and even pray for everyone would be intensely interested in. The author, Todd Tremlin, demonstrates through cognitive science that various neural structures and programs that came about as a result of evolution function together to actually predispose us to believe in divine agents as long as these agents have a limited number of "unbelievable" attributes and that these "unbelievable" attributes are somehow acceptable. The book is a fascinating tour of the mind. One might expect that a book such as this would have as one of its messages that our cognitive predisposition to attribute phenomena to divine agents argues against the existance of such agents. However, Mr. Tremlin makes it very clear that this is not a conclusion with which he would agree. He does, though, make it very clear that an understanding of these predispositions is essential as they can create unconscious and subconscious assumptions about our God or gods with which our conscious mind would not agree. All-in-all, whether you are agnostic, athiestic, or very religious, this is a book that you should definitely read.

The flag says it all.

I need to warn you about this book . . .

Discovering God: The Origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of Belief… by Rodney Stark

Rarely have I been so disappointed by a book - even "Evolving God" was less disappointing. I am just under halfway through and I can't stand it any more. Stark totally dismisses Ancient Egyptian religion as a polytheistic "temple faith" that gave nothing to its people. The only thing he deems of any worth is Akhenaten's heresy because it is somehow obvious that monotheism is much better than polytheism. It seems that, for Stark, the only worthwhile discoveries of God are those of a capricious deity who deems his creations to have no value whatsoever and who consigns the overwhelming majority to eternal damnation for the edification of the infinitesimal elect. Oh, I forgot, the other acceptable and valid discovery is of a deity who takes one very insignificant group of human beings as his "chosen people" - the rest of humanity being completely unworthy of the attention of the supreme being and who should furthermore be subject to periodic genocides because of (among other terribly important factors) their inability to say shiboleth. Greek religion is also dismissed as degenerate as that of the Egyptians. A tradition that gave us philosophy, science, math, ethics, and democracy is summarily judged to be worthless superstition. (I wonder if one could even find an Athenian of the 5th century BCE who actually believed in the their creation myths as literal truth. But, suppose one could; how is that any different from the belief of many 21st century Americans that an apple and snake determined the fate of humanity?)
The faith of the Egyptians led to a civilization that lasted for 3,000 years and that left for all humanity some of its most meaningful monuments and symbols. Even the cross as a symbol of divinely granted life is something we owe as much to the Egyptians as to the Romans. The Egyptians were also the first (as far as we know) to develop the archetype of the godman whose death and resurrection redeems creation. As for their "temple faith that had nothing to do with the common man", the Egyptians enthusiastically participated in every celebration of every "god." They knew that they formed a valued part of the order of creation and that the pharaoh and priests carried out rituals necessary to maintain that order just as they carried out similar rituals that were also essential to that same divinely mandated order. Religion was an integral part of their lives - so integral that they would not understand the question; "What is your religion?" The Egyptians also understood the need for dualism in creation. They understood that it was not possible for Horus to destroy Seth because they knew that chaos was just as necessary to creation as order. If chaos seemingly gained the upper hand, Egyptians knew that that was the way of creation. They did not assume that they were worthless worms in the sight of God and that any setback or illness was because they had angered their "god." They also knew that what we take as their "gods" were nothing more than attributes of God and that their myths were just ways of finding some understanding of that which is essentially unknowable. Before you decide to jump on me, I should point out that I know that Egypt was not a paradise and that there were many priests who encouraged every superstition so that they could benefit from it. What I am referring to are their ideas - I understand that a lot was lost in their application. However, one should always keep in mind that, of all the peoples and religious systems in the world, the Egyptians were unique in one way. When they thought of paradise, they saw it as being just like Egypt, only a little better. I suppose that is of no importance to Stark. Just as it is of no importance that almost everyone who was privileged enough to experience Ancient Egypt said that the Egyptians were the "happiest and most satisfied people in the world."
I regret buying the electronic version of the book. I just don't think that returning it in an email to the publishers would have the same effect as sending back the book itself. I do not think that I should agree with the author of every book I buy, to the contrary. However, an author who publishes a book with a title such as this one should give the religions of the Greeks and Egyptians an honest review. Otherwise he should make it clear on the cover of the book that he believes that the only great religions are those that are monotheistic and that engender things like pogroms, inquisitions, jihads, and genocide.
All this aside, I should be grateful to Mr. Stark. I had been debating whether I should leave my Judeo-Christian traditions and beliefs completely behind and embrace Perennial Philosophy or not. Mr. Stark made me see the choice in the starkest of terms and, because of him, there is no longer any debate within me. He made me see that I want nothing to do with certainties of this kind of monotheism as they are false certainties that have given the human beings little in exchange for all that they have cost us. ( out of 5 stars)

If you are interested, you can read other reviews (all of which are shorter than this one - I promise) at: http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=millsge

Executive Compensation

This is the most rational and just executive pay policy: Establish a maximum multiple of the average employee salary. Mandate that annual pay increases cannot be more than the increase of the average employee salary. Bonuses cannot be more than a maximum multiple of the average employee bonus. I know of no more just, reasonable, or effective pay policy. Can someone out there get this idea to someone who can do something about it?