The crazy world continues to spin

Here are a few of the things that take up a small number of the billions of neurons in my skinny brain:

01.   Wow!  That's smart!

Scientific American magazine for July 2011 includes the following article, that I highly recommend:
"The Physics of Intelligence..Evolution has packed 100 billion neurons into our three-pound brain. CAN WE GET ANY SMARTER?"

The author, Douglas Fox doesn't think we can get too much smarter.. but perhaps technology and culture may someday enable us to form a collective human entity (like bees)  that would be smarter than the sum of its parts.  Could this be where we are heading with Facebook and other social media?  Wikipedia?  Google?

What about other creatures?  It was interesting to hear this week that an elephant has now figured out how to use a tool to gain access to food normally out of his reach.  This puts Jumbo in the same brainpower category as dolphins, otters,  and chimpanzees.

And.. of course.. whales.  Think about a humpback..  it works with its siblings to round up schools of herring, mackrel, and krill for supper.. all the while singing popular whale songs as it glides effortlessly through its environment.. enjoying all of the activity going on in its enormous brain.

02.  Hay ride?

Well, the Iowa Straw Poll voting is over and results are in.  It is interesting to me that each voter has to have a $30 ticket, that is probably handed to a supporter by one of their candidate's staff..  so, the candidate whose staff is not agressive enough to get many tickets.. logically gets less of the vote.. at least it seems that way to me.  Check it all out on Wikipedia.  An explanation of the vote and a tabulation of the results by year is shown.  Very interesting.

03.  Papa Smurf

Last Thursday, I picked up a book at the Westminster Senior Activity Center, called Winters' Tale.  No, it wasn't written by Shakespeare.  It was a book of short stories by Jonathan Winters.   I have liked Mr. Winters for many years and his brand of crazy humor, so I couldn't wait to sit down quietly and read his book.  Unfortunately, even though he has been making people laugh for 60 years (He's almost 85 years old),  this book was the most unfunny book I have ever read.  I got almost all the way through before I threw the book in the recycling bin. 

I see by his website ( http://www.jonathanwinters.com/ ) that some signed copies of that book are selling for hundreds of dollars.  I wonder why.

However, don't let what I say influence you.  If you like Mr. Winters' work, check out the book and form your own opinion.  And, by all means, listen to the NPR interview of him on his website.  Perhaps this will help you remember when Johnny Carson presented him with a stick and Jonathan did "stick schtick" with it for ten minutes.  I certainly have enjoyed all of Mr. Winters' "schtick" for many years, and I wish him many more years of humorous activity.

04.  Ow! That smarts!

It was mentioned today on NPR that Leon Trotsky was killed by someone thrusting an ice pick through his eye.  Yuk!  I know how that feels.  Every few weeks I have to have eyeball injections for macular degeneration in my right eye.  But it is doing me good.  When I started, I saw a round black ball through that eye.  Now, there is no black ball at all, but just a picture of reality that is kind of wavy.  Someday, I may even be able to read with that eye again.  Using both eyes together, my vision is extremely good.

Last month, at the preliminary examination (before the shot), the examiner said: "Even though your right eye ain't too good, your left eye is smokin'!"  Hey, man, that's good to hear.

05.  Save on savon

It was also mentioned on NPR today that "air baths" are just as good as soaking in a soap filled tub.. probably better, because you don't get all that "unsightly soap film" all over your body.  My cousin Charlie enlightened me a few years ago that perspiration per se does not smell.  Tell that to the deodorant sellers.   

06.   Dog-napping

I read where the thefts of dogs has increased in the past year.  The most common theft occurs in home invasions.. burglaries..  besides the giant TV, the dog is snatched as well. 

The second most common theft is from the car where the dog is sitting while the owner is in a store like WalMart.  Having the window cracked is probably  a help to the thief. 

The next most common theft occurs when the owner ties the dog up outside while they shop inside.

In all of these instances.. why didn't the dogs bite or scare away the thief? Was the dog napping?

Just be aware that these thefts are taking place, and make sure you have a micro chip implanted in Fido.

07.  Dog-pooping

The Week magazine mentions that a Taiwanese city has offered dog owners who clean up after their pets, a ticket to a lottery drawing for every bag of dog poop turned in.  The prize can go as high as $2,100.

08.  Anti-Social Media?

The Week magazine also mentions that a crime fugitive taunted police on his Facebook page.  "Catch me if you can.  I'm in Brooklyn."  Apparently, he didn't do his privacy setting properly, so police shortly popped in on him at his apartment, where he was still interacting with Facebook.

09.  Cell phones

I have mentioned this before.  One of the most glamorous movie stars of all time was named Hedy Lamarr.  However, most people do not know that she and a co-inventor developed "frequency hopping" which is now used in cell phone technology. Check out this website.. it even has a copy of the invention documents.

http://www.inventions.org/culture/female/lamarr.html

10.  Pope Joan

A new religious book has been published by Random House:  Absolute Monarchs:  A History of the Papacy by John Julius Norwich.   I haven't read the book yet, but I am intrigued by a review in The Week magazine.  May I quote:  "Legend has it that there was even a female pontiff.  Pope Joan, the story goes, briefly became the leader of the Catholic church during the ninth century by disguising herself.  She was purportedly discovered when she gave birth while attempting to mount a horse."

11.  Satan triumphs?

The West Memphis 3 were just released from prison.  Prosecutors decided not to retry them for the  1993 slaying of three cub scouts.  The slaying has been reported as part of a horrible Satanic ritual.
Many felt that they were wrongly convicted.  They were allowed to plead "guilty" in exchange for release; thereby, saving the prosecutor from retrying the case and losing because of the lack of original evidence.   We will probably now be able to revisit the documentary about the case on TV.

12.  Stinkbugs attack!

So far, we have lost our Zuchini and Squash plants to stinkbugs.  Now they are eyeing up our tomato plants.  Unfortuately, there is no way to get rid of them in a reliable way.  We can't use insecticides.  We are squirting them with soapy (savon) water.  They don't like that, but just fly away in disgust.  There are traps that use stinkbug sex hormone... but, as with Japanese Beetle lures, that is exactly what they do.. lure other stinkbugs to join them.  At least we have lots of tomatoes this year and can share them, albeit reluctantly, with the bugs.  I'm glad they don't like flowers.

March Meditations

Apologia:

Some folks called "Anonymous" have asked if they could refer to this blog in their writings. Since they are "Anonymous", I can't contact them directly, so if they are reading this, I would say: "Be my guest." However, please be careful, because some of what I write comes from my own ideas which may not be the same as those of people in the mainstream of U.S. society. Also, some of what I write may be based on news items I have read about or heard about in "off-beat" sources. I attempt to mention my sources, when I can remember them.. just be careful because sometimes I write about things that happened some time ago.

While I am at it, I may as well also mention that most of the cartoons that accompany these blogs were drawn by me, and while some are original, most were probably copied many years ago from books, magazines and newspapers. Usually, I can't remember the source -- let's face it.. I'm an old dude. However, when I do remember the source cartoonists, I will mention them.

01. Common decency... and LOVE:

As I can see from lots and lots of Facebook entries, the Supreme Court decision in the Westboro Baptist Church case is extremely unpopular. On a recent CSPAN radio call-in show, almost all of the people who called in praised the decision because it reinforces our free-speech rights. However, almost all of those same people thought that the Westboro picketers had moved far beyond the limits of decency.

While I agree that we need to preserve our free-speech rights, I feel that we should have some established limits to "hate-speech", as they do in several European countries who went through the Hitler years and know how such speech can be used to inflame the masses.

I find it hard to understand the members of the Westboro Baptist Church.. I was a member of a Baptist Church for several years and I found the teachings of the church to be of a loving nature. In fact, when I was in my early teens and was getting into trouble, members of the Baptist Church helped me understand that what I was doing was hurting other people, especially people that I loved and who loved me.

Several years ago, I had the experience of attending a Baptist church in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania a couple of times. After the services, the preacher would stand in the front of the church and offer hugs to anyone who wanted one. The line to get those loving hugs was very very long. I believe that everybody in the Congregation went up to get one. A few years later, I met the preacher in another setting and he immediately recognised me and gave me one of his famous hugs. This, of course, is what life is really all about... loving one another.. not hating one another.

The most famous people-lover/people-hugger of all time is of course, Leo Buscaglia (search my earlier blog entries if you don't know about Leo.)

02. Moebius Strip:

When I was a kid, my grandfather showed me the great attributes of the Moebius strip. This is, of course, the twisted figure that has no beginning and end, and which can be manipulated in miraculous ways. Cyril Kornbluth was intrigued by the Moebius strip and coined the following wonderful poem:

The Unfortunate Topologist

A burleycue dancer, a pip

Named Virginia, could peel in a zip;

But she read science fiction

And died of constriction

Attempting a Moebius strip.

http://mathssquad.questacon.edu.au/mobius_strip.html

03. Words to Live By

In 1983, I published the fourth Friday the 13th edition of Words To Live By.. being vital quotations collected over the years by some computer geeks that worked with me at the Social Security Administration. I came upon them again the other day and thought that some of the observations made then, are valid still today.

"On flextime, you're not late if you come in early." - Joe Johnson
"If you can't handle the job, get out of the fire." - Henry Drumheller
"Learn to be sincere, even if you have to fake it." - Bernie Rubin
"No program should ever Abend in production." - Morrison Clark
"If your computer run is going fine, you've obviously left out something important." - Lloyd Hess

Also contained in the document are some recipes, one of which was by Calvin W. Schwabe:

Grilled Rat, Bordeaux Style

Catch some alcoholic rats that inhabit wine cellars. Skin and eviscerate them, brush them with a thick sauce of olive oil and crushed shallots. Grill over a fire of broken wine barrels.







04. Frank W. Lewis

In my February 6, 2011 blog entry, I mentioned Frank W. Lewis, who created the cryptic puzzle for the NATION magazine for years. I mentioned a little of his accomplishments and why I admired him. What I didn't know at the time (and should have) was that he was a fellow member of the American Cryptogram Association (ACA). We have NOM's in this group (kind of like aliases).. mine is AHAB. Frank's was R. MASTERTON, an anagram of Montserrat, where he lived until the island's volcanic eruptions got the better of him.

HONEYBEE (another ACA member) says in The Cryptogram for March-April 2011: "...(he) would look at a Monome-Dinome ciphertext and see the 'ump-ti-ump-ti-ump-ti' that the dinomes make. Every time I solve a Monome-Dinome that memory still makes me smile."

A family member also mentions something that I did not know about Frank: "... his work in cracking the Japanese shipping code enabled the navy to pinpoint the exact location of any Maru sailing in the vastness of the Pacific, which contributed to the Allied victory and materially shortened the war..."

Vale, R. MASTERTON!

05. Kidspy

The Week magazine reports that school administrators in a Philadelphia suburb used webcams to spy on students at home. The webcams were on school-issued laptops. One of the students was shown a picture taken by one of the cameras that a school official says proved that he was taking drugs. The student says he was eating candy in his room. Was the use of these webcams a violation of the Fourth Amendment and privacy laws? A class action suit filed by angry parents may decide this.

06. Brain power?

Somebody named Reymann says that people should deviate from their normal routines from time to time, to challenge their brains. Two ways:

1. Brush your teeth with the opposite hand.
2. Get dressed in the morning with your eyes closed.

07. Mencken:

The German Society of Baltimore, Maryland can count Henry L. Mencken as their most famous member. (I am also a member, but not quite so famous...) I quote: "... Mencken is America's most quoted literary figure. Mark Twain comes in second... the Mencken Room at the Pratt Library (in Baltimore) accumulates 1,000 pages annually in the (Mencken) scrapbook...in his lifetime Mencken wrote 40 books, produced 15,000,000 words."

08. Stupid Criminal Award Winner:

From the Intertel newsletter: As a female shopper exited a convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the police car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied: "Yes, officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."

09. Langston Hughes

I mis-quoted a poem by Mr. Hughes in an earlier blog entry. I believe this is the correct version.

Impasse

I could tell you,
If I wanted to,
What makes me what I am.

But I don't really want to -
And you don't give a damn.

10. Study result:

A three year study at Oxford University discovered that ducks like water.

11. Longest word still?

In 1983, the longest word in the Oxford English dictionary was:

FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION

Which means: The act of estimating something to be worthless.

(Check me out on that, Brother Joe)

12. The Stone Reader

I'm told a documentary with this title is now a cult favorite. It's about the search for the author of The Stones of Summer, a book published to great reviews in 1972, sold just a few copies, and then disappeared, along with the author, Dow Mossman. Mossman was found in Iowa.. an ex welder and unemployed newspaper bundler. Now Dow is back writing again and his book has supposedly been republished. I'll have to get a copy of the documentary from Netflix and try to track down the book... maybe.

http://www.lostbooksclub.org/sos_main.php

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Idiot Savant

Kim Peek died on December 19th, at his home in Salt Lake City. He was an Idiot Savant and the inspiration for the movie Rain Man. He was 58 years old.

ScientificAmerican.com is the place to go for more information. However, in the meantime, one might remember this about Kim.

During his lifetime, he learned 9,000 books by heart.

He read a page in 8 to 10 seconds and never forgot it.

He could identify hundreds of classical compositions, with all of the information about them and about their composers. In recent years, he learned to play many of these compositions on the piano.

Yet.......he could not button his coat.

MRI's showed that he lacked a corpus callosum, the nerve tissue that normally connects the left and right halves of the brain. Maybe this allowed the two hemispheres to function like one giant hemisphere.

He had a recorded IQ of 87.. far below normal.. but IQ was probably not a good test of his kind of intelligence.

He was not autistic.. but rather he was outgoing and likable.. especially since the debut of the Rain Man movie. Before that time, he was rather reclusive.

Kim liked Shakespeare and Mozart, and who could fault him on that.

Check out the writings of Darold A. Treffert and Daniel D. Christensen, who studied Kim for years.

His large head has been compared to that of Mozart's, and who knows, perhaps if he had tried, he could have composed music.

It seems to me that Kim was a pilot for the next evolutionary step by man. It's a shame he didn't live a longer life so he could be studied more. I wonder if his brain will be preserved, as was Einstein's.

My grandfather always said that I was an Idiot Savant when I was a young child. I do remember relatives giving me complex mathematical problems and then applauding the answers I gave them.. and which I'm sure I just pulled out of the air. I'm certain that they were just "pulling my leg". But.. if I did have this talent, it went away a long time ago.

This subject is intensely interesting to me.
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Brain Fitness

Massachusetts General Hospital is in the forefront of research in Mental Fitness. In their latest newsletter: Mind, Mood and Memory they discuss ways to keep your mind sharp as you grow older.

Until recently, scientists thought that the adult mind was unchangeable... now, it is known that the brain can make new cells through a process called neurogenesis.. growing additional branches and connections.. in a process called synaptic placisticity. It's those darned synapses again! The more synapses you grow, the more your brain stays young.

In addition:

Aerobic exercise can reverse symptoms of age-related brain decline. (Get off your dead butt and start moving!)

Regular intellectual stimulation may even reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
(I would strongly recommend cryptic crossword puzzles.)

Social activity promotes the formation and survival of brain cells. (Make some new friends!)

Constant stress can cause atrophy of brain connections.. so, reducing stress is very important.
(Meditation might be one way.. omm ni paa ti suuum.) (Massage is also good.)

Diet is important. Excessive caffeine and alcohol should be avoided. (How much is too much? How much is too little? What about chocolate?)

Folic acid is an important supplement. (Take a trip to a health food store and look around. Lots of good stuff there.)

Sleep is important... They suggest 6 to 8 hours a night. This gives time for your "sleepy-time" brain to sort and categorize what you have experienced during the day and get ready for tomorrow.

(Ben Franklin may have said: 6 hours of sleep a night for a man; 7 hours of sleep a night for a woman; 8 hours of sleep a night for an idiot.)

He also said: Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

He also said: The early bird catches the worm.... but look what happened to the worm when it got up so early!

Watch out for the effects of diabetes. And smoking. And excessive drinking. (You know what you are supposed to do and not do.. and shame on you for being bad.)

Speaking of brains, I received a weird brain honor last week... I received a certificate honoring me for being a member of Mensa for 40 years!.. This required little effort on my part.. just opening the yearly membership letter, writing a check, sealing the envelope and mailing it off so that I could be a member for yet another year.

I must admit that my Mensa membership has opened lots of intellectual vistas for me. I hope that I can make it to 50 years and another certificate.

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