noosphere

life

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:12:00 -0400

my family is going through a difficult time right now. and the people who are probably having the most difficult time of it are the littlest ones. luckily the oldest has got some wise old soul and is actually in therapy right now. when i first heard, it broke my heart, but given the situation it’s for the best, she could use a neutral party to unload on. the littlest, she asked me some difficult questions this visit. i answered as best as i could, the truth that i knew. she’s my special charge because i’m her favorite. they say it’s because i let her get away with alot; it’s true in some way, but i do it because i understand her. she’s so very smart and aware.

everything’s going to be okay as long as i keep following my heart. such an interesting thing for a scientist-in-training to say, but so true and matter of fact really. at any rate, my father, and everyone else it seems, tends to be too much on the practical track. in delicate times like these, children need fixtures in their lives. i must do what i can.

good night all, kind dreams~

A Must See: The Maltese Falcon.

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:51:41 -0400

sleepysheep:

I watched The Maltese Falcon yesterday. That movie is amazing. Humphrey Bogart is awesome as private detective Sam Spade, a guy who gets mixed up in the acquiring of the elusive Maltese Falcon, a statue worth a fortune. Mary Astor and Peter Lorre co-star and do an excellent job. I love this story and it’s the movie with one of my favorite movie quotes ever. “What is it?” “The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of.” So good. Really well done. Take a watch if you get the chance.

def one of my favorite movies that i’d forgotten about. thanks for the remind!

best wishes for better health soon!~

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:23:22 -0400

best wishes for better health soon!~

feeling kind of miserable physically and really craving a cigarette. sigh. so i’m writing...

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:29:00 -0400

feeling kind of miserable physically and really craving a cigarette. sigh. so i’m writing about it here because, well, see the post from last night. sigh. thanks actually, it’s really helping alot. not with feeling better but with the cig craving. thanks!

okay, going back to work now. long days.

PBS Poll on Palin: qualified or not?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:28:34 -0400

Sorry if you’ve seen this already. The link below takes you to a PBS poll asking whether or not Sarah Palin is qualified to be Vice President.

According to a friend of mine, the Republicans are spamming (or boting or whatever you call it) the site. When I voted, the results were at 49% yes and 49% no, which is difficult to believe so it seems there is something funny going on at the least.

Please chime in if you’ve got a couple seconds to spare:

http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html

the ankle’s healing nicely, i think. well, the loose feeling’s gone. thank you to the...

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:55:14 -0400

the ankle’s healing nicely, i think. well, the loose feeling’s gone. thank you to the lovely person who sent me the lovely energy the other day, it felt so warm and nice.

sigh. the universe has been piling on the lessons these days. which is appropriate, the time is coming, so many times are coming it seems.

well, better be ready.

i’m quitting smoking. finally. i don’t usually tell people because sometimes that pressure is enough to start me smoking. prob true for alot of people. but telling it here is okay, no one in my daily life reads this so this place becomes more like an invisible support network where i worry less about being judged and feel more free to reach out to a space where i might remember my invisible promise.

so thanks, internet and david karp and tumblr team.

david: via suitep

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:12:34 -0400

david:

via suitep

tuneage: Medeski, Martin & Wood - “Just Like I Pictured...

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:51:09 -0400

tuneage:

Medeski, Martin & Wood - “Just Like I Pictured It”

noahkalina: Beirut - Un Dernier Verre (Pour La Route)

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:30:42 -0400

noahkalina:

Beirut - Un Dernier Verre (Pour La Route)

put away the summer clothes the other day. now i look into my closet and feel much calmer. i guess...

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:45:19 -0400

put away the summer clothes the other day.

now i look into my closet and feel much calmer. i guess i just havent found the right summer stuff. i’m happy with the pieces i have for the fall and winter, missing some chunky sweaters and other small things, cardigans, i need to figure out how to fix my favorite orange one.

& i’ve had these clothes for ages & am perfectly satisfied. i don’t need new things all the time, these old clothes are like old friends, as something so close to one’s skin should be.

i’ve chosen them carefully, the misery footprint should be very low. i don’t like trafficking in pain. this world needs so much fixing.

Naturally Obsessed: The Making of a Scientist, documentary sneak preview

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:52:35 -0400

Naturally Obsessed: The Making of a Scientist, documentary sneak preview: the bright side of o.c.d.

The Great Children's Read at Columbia University

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:51:00 -0400

The Great Children's Read at Columbia University:

for any of you with children. sounds like a great event. also they might be giants will be there! ‘the sun is a mass of incandescent gas’ and ‘the alphabet of nations’ , and that scary song about the edison museum and so many more absolutely fun

and lisa loeb!

i will be in the park picking up garbage with consilience that day. alas.

“Every so often an idea comes along that transforms our...

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:15:40 -0400

“Every so often an idea comes along that transforms our understanding of how the world works. Columbia Law School Professor Michael Heller has discovered a market dynamic that no one knew existed. In his new book The Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives, Heller reveals a free market paradox: usually, private ownership creates wealth, but too much ownership has the opposite effect – it creates gridlock. When too many people own pieces of one thing, cooperation breaks down, wealth disappears and everybody loses.”

Details: The Playboys of Tech

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:52:00 -0400

Details: The Playboys of Tech:

david:

Technology’s emerging stars aren’t code-crunching wallflowers. They’re serial daters and socialites as hungry for fame—and women—as they are for fortune.
Hah! Am I daft for enjoying this article?

no, it was quite hilarious. thanks for sharing!

thanks again for such a great space, david karp. & if it’s not too much trouble, please tell charles i said “write me back already, i know you’re busy but sheesh : )”. thanks bunches & dōmo arigato~

reform: (via noosphere) In NYC on Saturday? LDEO is actually in Palisades, NY. More info...

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:50:15 -0400

reform:

(via noosphere)

In NYC on Saturday?

LDEO is actually in Palisades, NY. More info here:

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/about-ldeo/maps-contact

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/events/open-house

Buddhist Ethics and Moral Modularity

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:58:58 -0400

The Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy
Welcomes OWEN FLANAGAN (with responses from WAYNE PROUDFOOT)
Please join us Friday (OCT 24 @ 5:30) for his lecture entitled:
“BUDDHIST ETHICS AND MORAL MODULARITY”

ABSTRACT
Modularity has proved a profitable way of thinking about the perceptual system. The five senses comprise fast-acting, cognitively impenetrable, special-purpose information processing systems. In VARIETIES OF MORAL PERSONALITY: ETHICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL REALISM (Harvard, 1991), I suggested that the modularity of morals was worth serious consideration since it seemed to me that morality – as exemplified in virtue theories – involves multifarious special purpose competencies, viz.: the virtues. There is now a serious empirically informed proposal that moral competence and moral performance are best explained in terms of (something like) moral modules.

Jonathan Haidt originally posited four universal intuitive domains that socio-moral life typically engages or activates: suffering/compassion, fairness/reciprocity, purity/sanctity, and hierarchy/respect. Haidt and Joseph (2007) add a fifth special purpose intuitive mechanism: ingroup/loyalty. These mechanisms underwrite intuitions that originally arose to meet specific adaptive challenges and serve still as the foundation(s) of morality, or something in the vicinity. Each module engages different emotions. Moral modularity makes an empirical prediction: we ought to see all four or five modules represented prominently in every ethical tradition (then and now, as it were).

I ask: Does Buddhist ethics bare out the prediction? I think the answer is yes for Aristotle (Plato) and Mencius (Confucius). But I am not sure whether Buddhism conforms to/and/or supports modularity. A entirely separate – or so I say – question is this: even if there are intuitive modules upon which morality is/can be built ought we to do so (Mencius famously says growing his four sprouts is like growing one’s four limbs). I will try to have some interesting (if not fully intelligent or intelligible) things to say on the matter (mostly the first one).

== SPEAKER BIO ==http://fds.duke.edu/db/aas/Philosophy/faculty/ojf
== WHEN ==Friday - Oct 24th, 20085:30 -7:30
== WHERE ==Rm. 101, 80 Claremont AvenueDepartment of Religion, Columbia University
== DIRECTIONS ==Click link below for a Google map with directions http://maps.google.com/maps?q=80+Claremont+Ave,+New+York,+NY+10027
== ADMISSION ==Admission is free, but seating is limited. We recommendthat you arrive early to ensure a place.
== DINNER ==All are welcome to attend dinner with the speaker.Dinner guests are responsible for the cost of theirown meals. If you wish to join us, please RSVP tothe following address: cdk2001@columbia.edu
== PODCASTS ==Please visit our website to download free audiopodcasts of past speakers and to find out aboutupcoming events: The Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE?If you would like to receive—or stop receiving—emailfrom the CSCP, please send a email with the words”subscribe” or “unsubscribe” (no quotes) to:comp-philo-seminar-request@columbia.edu

i am of five minds and two dimensions today as i wait for my laundry to dry eat oatmeal for...

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 12:30:34 -0400

i am of five minds and two dimensions today

as i wait for my laundry to dry

eat oatmeal for breakfast

and prepare to venture outside

in the intermittent rain

fatboy slim - weapon of choice i just got the dune reference in...

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 12:04:00 -0400

fatboy slim - weapon of choice

i just got the dune reference in this song. omg… i triple heart it now.

darn. won’t play here. will play at youtube tho’ if you care to go there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WW8flwpH-Q

"we are of all things complete known and otherwise sound when we understand our place within the..."

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:34:00 -0400

“

we are
of all things
complete

known
and otherwise
sound

when we
understand
our place

within
the greater movements
of time

the lesser symphonies
of sorrow

the triumph
of all joy

jah love

.
.
.

there is the divine
in all of us

stardust running
through our veins

we are the light
amidst the light of lights

flowing
and in form

we are
one love
.
.
.

”

home, one day…

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:04:56 -0400

home, one day…