The Story of the Soul

Posted on February 1, 2023 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

The following is transcribed (with minor changes for translation purposes) from 2 hours, 39 minutes in the 877th podcast of Joe Rogan with Jordan Peterson:

It isn’t as if intellectuals are characterised by an intrinsic moral superiority. ‘Oh they are smart so they will leap to the defence of what is right’. No. There is no evidence for that. Intelligence and moral wisdom aren’t the same thing. Like, if you are corrupt and smart, all that makes you is way more treacherous…You are 56 headed snakes instead of 2.

I have had clients who had very serious personality disorders who were very intelligent. It’s like.. that’s not necessarily a good thing for them. They are just better for arguing their pathology.

Let me tell you a story…

One time I had this client. This woman was just ruined. She looked like a street person and had very dirty clothes. She was so shy she couldn’t even approach you. She had to shield her eyes from you as if you were emitting light. She did that to everyone on the street and she was bent over and humble like a Chinese peasant brought before the emperor.

One of the things I was doing with her in Behavioural therapy was just trying to get her to present herself in a more normal manner so that people wouldn’t shy away from her and be instantly prejudiced towards her.
She wasn’t bright this woman. I think she only had a seventh-grade education and quite intellectually impaired. She lived with her sick Aunt who was schizophrenic and had a satanically possessed alcoholic boyfriend that was always tormenting my client. She lived in absolute hell.

But she had this dog and she used to take it and walk the dog all the time. And then she had come to the behavioural therapy clinic partly because of her own problem, but she had come to this place called the Douglas hospital where she had been inpatient in the hospital. And in the hospital, there were these long-term psychiatric patients. And they looked like something out of a Hieronymus Bosch painting (see above) or Dante’s Inferno. I mean these people…this is way worse than ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest‘. These people were seriously destroyed. And they couldn’t be let back on the street…They were there for life.

She had decided that part of the reason that she wanted to come to the hospital was because she had been institutionalised there and she thought that maybe when she took her dog out for a walk, that she could go and get one of those damn inmates and take them out for a walk also.

Now, this is a person who was moral.
Dumb as a post… screwed in 50 different directions and nothing going for her. And she had the ‘bloody’ moral capacity to just decide that there was someone worse off than her and believe me – that wasn’t easy to find. And maybe she could do them some good if the hospital would let her. Which they didn’t do by the way.

Yeh well, that’s the story of the soul. That’s not the intellect – that’s for sure.

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Posted in Reflections

The AnkiDroid Collection (Part 32) – Beethoven, Assyrian Army & LUCA

Posted on February 1, 2023 by observationblogger — 7 Comments

Ankidroid additions related to Science, History and Philosophy. More information about Anki can be found in this article.

My Favourite Beethoven Piece

Beethoven in 1815, portrayed by Joseph Willibrord Mähler

Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 Adagio Un Poco Mosso

I was finding it frustrating not remembering my favourite classical pieces. It’s a cinch to remember titles by contemporary music artists like Perri’s Jar of Hearts or Evergone, but a pain in the rump to remember the Van’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 Adagio Un Poco Mosso o Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 Mov 2. I have this blog where I can write about them, but I’m not going to remember the titles unless I put them to memory using my Ankidroid.

I was listening to this sublime piece by the Van only yesterday. If Classical music doesn’t do it for you, then I beg you to just listen from 1.30 until 2.30. The transition between the sweeping Violin ensemble into the single finger piano playing is something to behold. Someone described listening to Beethoven ‘like never being alone’. I had the sensation that life couldn’t be more beautiful listening to this. I will never forget the name of this piano concerto.

The First Great Military Army in History

The Assyrian Army

The Assyrians were a warrior society and major ancient Mesopotamian (Modern Iraq) civilization and grew to become the greatest empire in the ancient world prior to the conquests of Alexander the Great and, after him, the Roman Empire. They were cruel and ruthless and existed between 1360 – 1070 BC. Eventually the Babylonians took them down in 612 BC.

LUCA

LUCA – Last Universal Common Ancestor

Cerca 3.8 billion years ago there existed the last common ancestor of all life. Single Cell organisms branching to Bacteria or Archaea (another microorganism) which then branch out to form Plantae, Animalia and Fungi. LUCA’s genes metabolized Hydrogen as a source of energy and survive in scorching acidic waters.

Researchers found in the 1970’s at the depths of 2km near the Galapagos Islands – hydrothermal vents (400-degree waters). Here the Bacteria or Archaea in this vent ecosystem converted the chemical energy from black smoke’s complement of minerals into biologically available energy – food. Elsewhere food chains ultimately came back to the sun’s energy – plants capture the sun’s light and convert it into sugars creating complex food chains.

On the ocean floor there is no sun, but the single cell organisms take hydrogen gas or iron sulphide and use them to power their own metabolisms. Animals eat them or enslave them in their bodies to produce energy unreliant on the sun. Conditions ideal for LUCA.

Our lineage may not have seen the sun for millions of years.

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Posted in Music, Reading, Science

Largo from Xerxes (1738) – George Frideric Handel

Posted on January 31, 2023 by observationblogger — 4 Comments

This exquisite opening aria from Handel’s 1738 opera Serse is known as Ombra mai fu and Largo from Xerxes or Handel’s Largo. The opera was a commercial failure, lasting only five performances in London after its premiere. In the 19th century, however, the aria was rediscovered and became one of Handel’s best-known pieces. Handel adapted the aria from the setting by Giovanni Bononcini, who, in turn, adapted it from the setting by Francesco Cavalli. 

The title translates from the Italian as “Never was a shade“. It is sung by the main character, Xerxes I of Persia, admiring the shade of a plane tree.

Tender and beautiful fronds
of my beloved plane tree,
let Fate smile upon you.
May thunder, lightning, and storms
never disturb your dear peace,
nor may you by blowing winds be profaned.

Never was a shade
of any plant
dearer and more lovely,
or more sweet.

Originally composed to be sung by a soprano castrato (and typically sung in modern performances of Serse by a countertenor, contralto or a mezzo-soprano; sometimes even by a tenor or high baritone an octave below), it has been arranged for other voice types and instruments, including solo organ, solo piano, violin or cello and piano, and string ensembles, often under the title “Largo from Xerxes” or (as in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town) simply “Handel’s Largo”, although the original tempo is marked larghetto.

Steve Brooker wrote in the comments of the video below that ‘Beethoven said Handel was able to achieve dramatic effects with simple techniques and praised him as the greatest composer. This piece, sung by the lovely Patricia Janeckova -a rising star is a thing of elevated beauty‘.

References:
1. Ombra mai fu – Wikipedia

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Posted in Music

23/1 – 29/1/23 – The Moon and The Joker

Posted on January 30, 2023 by observationblogger — 5 Comments
news on the march

Welcome to Monday’s News on the March – The week that was in my digital world.

The New Science of Moon Formation
Video presentation at PBS Space Time

I wrote in a new card entry recently for my AnkiDroid Collection about the origin of the Moon. It goes something like this:

The standard giant-impact hypothesis suggests that a Mars-sized body, called Theia, impacted the proto-Earth, creating a large debris ring around Earth, which then accreted to form the Moon. This collision also resulted in the 23.5° tilted axis of the Earth, thus causing the seasons. The Moon’s oxygen isotopic ratios seem to be essentially identical to Earth’s… 

This video expands on the fascinating topic of the formation of the moon.

Einstein once asked whether “the moon exists only when I look at it?”. It was rhetorical objection to the idea that measurement in quantum mechanics causes reality to become real. But there was a time when the moon didn’t exist, and then hours later suddenly did. At least, according to the latest simulations of its formation. (View the full presentation here)

Alan Watts – The Joker
Audio presentation at Positive Vibes

One of Alan’s most popular seminars, and for good reason—in The Joker, listeners will find out why every society needs fools in order to remind itself not to take life so damn seriously.

…the function of the fool became more sophisticated than that, and he became a person whose function was not simply to make jokes and to be a funny man, but to remind the monarch of his humanity so that he would never, never get too stuffy. You’ll remember, perhaps, the lines in Richard II, where the king says:

Within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his watch and there the antic sits,
Scoffing at his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a little time,
To monarchize, be fear’d and kill with looks,
And then at the last comes death, and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!

See, that was, in a way, the function of the fool. He was reminding you of your finitude; of your mortality; and death, at the end—in somewhat the same way as monks used to keep, on the desks in their cells, a grinning skull. And all this is, of course, nowadays thought very morbid, because today we repress death very, very strongly. (Listen to audio presentation here)

news on the march the end
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Posted in News, Reflections, Science

As it Seems (2013) – Lily Kershaw

Posted on January 29, 2023 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

I accidentally stumbled upon this song when I was looking for another song on You Tube. Some accidents pay dividends and that was the case when I heard As It Seems by Lily Kershaw. Apart from the gentle cadence and sweet voice of Lily, I found myself enchanted by the lyrics. It’s nice when you can relate so personally with a song. The feel of this song As It Seems reminds me of Natalie Merchant’s music especially the song Motherland.
All music described Lily as: ‘A folk pop singer, songwriter, and guitarist with a knack for writing melodic and narrative songs that carry an uncanny emotional resonance… that aren’t afraid to move into deeper territory than the typical pop song. 

Well I knew
What I didn’t want to know
And I saw
Where I didn’t want to go
So I took the path less traveled on
And I’ll let my stories be whispered
When I’m gone…

Well in this life you must find something to live for
‘Cause when the darkness comes a callin’
You’ll go back to where you were before
‘Cause this life is as
Fragile as a dream, and
Nothing’s ever really
As it seems…

Lily Kershaw was born on June 20, 1991 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She first began working as an actress, taking small television roles at a young age. Concurrent to her acting career, she was also playing guitar and honing her craft as a songwriter. Her public breakthrough as a musician came when one of her songs, As It Seems was featured in the season seven finale of the popular CBS television series Criminal Minds in 2012.

It is stated in Song Meanings – this song is about someone who’s dying and looking back. Lily Kershaw herself stated that it was about “death“, inspired by a “life crisis” and a “troublesome romantic relationship“.

References:
1. Lily Kershaw – All Music
2. As It Seems – Song Meanings

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Posted in Music

Arms (2011) – Christina Perri

Posted on January 28, 2023 by observationblogger — 2 Comments

All aboard the Christina Perri train! Choo Choo! I spent yesterday updating songs to my music library project and trying to get back into blogger-mode. I realised as I was adding the new additions that about half of all the new songs were by Christina Perri. One of those is today’s featured song, the magnificent Arms. I’m yet to hear a bad song by Perri, in fact almost all songs by her that have arrived in my You Tube feed end up in my music collection. After hearing so much of her music yesterday, I came to the conclusion last night that Christina Perri IS my favourite female contemporary music artist. She knocked Eva Cassidy, Kasey Chambers and Marcela Gandara off that esteemed pedestal.

I’ll say it straight up that Perri’s facial expressions and accompanying voice in the first 25 seconds of the official video release below just leaves me breathless. That’s the aspect of her art which bewilders me is that this type of music isn’t what normally impresses me, but in the case of Perri’s music, by the end of each Perri song I hear, I just want to f&%king cry. I can’t remember the last time, if at all, I had this emotional connection with someone’s music. I must be getting sentimental in my old age.
Arms was the second single released from her 2011 debut album Lovestrong. The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 94. Arms briefly made a comeback in 2017, reaching #36 on the iTunes chart.

[Verse 3]
The world is coming down on me and I can’t find a reason to be loved
I never wanna leave you but I can’t make you bleed if I’m alone

[Bridge]
You put your arms around me
And I believe that it’s easier for you to let me go…

[Hook]
I hope that you see right through my walls
I hope that you catch me cause I’m already falling
I’ll never let a love get so close
You put your arms around me and I’m home

Arms is Perri’s first song to be recorded with a full band, as Perri’s one previous single, Jar of Hearts, contained no drums. Like Jar of Hearts, Arms is built around a piano melody.  Although the song “packs a little less venom” than Perri’s lead single, it still lyrically contains the “crazy” lovesick emotions typically referred to Perri’s style of music. Lyrically, Perri begins the song in a happy tune, singing “I never thought that you would be the one to hold my heart / You came around and you knocked me off the ground from the start.” More into the song, Perri begins to question the relationship, ultimately finding comfort as she ends the song repeating the hook. Arms progresses from a folky ballad to a melodic love song, incorporating timpani drums.

Perri stated:

‘Arms’ is about the fight between your heart and your mind. Your heart wants to be loved but your head is always telling you reasons not to be with him or her, or how you are not worth the love. It’s about the struggle and finally giving in when you’re wrapped in their arms. Then you get it. Then you feel loved and love wins.”

The music video for the single was filmed in what Perri described as “a two-day shoot that kicked my ass so hard.” Perri had co-written the video treatment herself. Perri stated that she took a physical pummeling as she played a super-hero during the shoot, jokingly adding, “I don’t know why I think I’m an action hero” For the flying scenes, she was involved in weeks of training. It still escapes me why she needed that, but she is better than almost all birds I have seen flying in the sky. So, I suppose it kinda paid off.

Below the music video I have forwarded a magnificent live version by Perri in St Pete, Florida. I hope you enjoy.

References:
1. Arms – Christina Perri

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Parque Tayrona & Palomino – The Carribean Coast, Colombia

Posted on January 27, 2023 by observationblogger — 4 Comments
The Mendihuaca River as it meets the Sea

‘Papa, these mountains seem like something straight out of Jurassic Park’ – Jesus Mateo (my son seen on the right above)

I have been absent from my blog because I was with my family the last 10 days on the Carribean Coast, Colombia. I say this with trepidation, but I believe I had the best time of all in this region, after nearly 14 years spent in Colombia. I live in Colombia’s capital, Bogota which is besieged by rain, traffic congestion, air pollution and general population stress. None of those negative aspects could be found in the regions we visited in the Magdalena and Guajira Department (‘Department’ otherwise known as ‘state’ in English). Infact the region we visited receives half of the yearly rainfall of Bogota.

Our time was mainly spent in this area presented above. I had read in backpacker sites that the surf on the Carribean coast in these parts we frequented were virtually ‘Un swimmable’ due to rips and the force of currents etc. I laughed it off and so did Connie. Below is the result of literally the first wave I caught at Palomino beach. I’m not sure what is worse, the blood or my gigantic nose. I need a nose job.

This small wave close to the shore drove me forehead into the pebble laden shore. I think you can still find an imprint of my nose on this beach. Just after this occurrence, my daughter Katherine looked at me and screamed (which is never a good sign) and flew towards Mama. That scared me more since I thought my head was cut wide open. Thankfully that didn’t happen, and my son and I ventured minutes later to tackle the fury of this wave – power. We learnt over days how we could adapt to the currents and wave ferocity and had a wonderful time like I remember body surfing with my younger brother in my youth in North Haven, the mid north coast, New South Wales, Australia.

Later in Palomino we stayed in this small rustic and artesian beach place. I cannot begin to describe how ‘cool‘ this place is. I’ll try it by sending this video below of a restaurant / disco cafe bar we ventured just meters from where we stayed. You can tell we were dying of hunger at this point awaiting the Pizzas and almost salivating.

Really, everything we did on the Carribean Coast seems now just like a dream. I was walking along the Mendihuaca beach and saw the seawater meeting the shore and for the first time in many years since I lived on the coast in Australia, I felt the feminine Mother of nature connecting with me. I was so grateful for that and it’s trippy for sure, but I’ll never forget this time we had together at these places.

Thank you for allowing me to share just a smidgeon of what we experienced with you.

Posted in Reflections, Sport and Adventure

Lagrimas Negras (Black Tears) – Miguel Matamoros

Posted on January 12, 2023 by observationblogger — 2 Comments

Trío Matamoros, around 1930. They recorded the first known version.

I delved into watching street music called ‘Son Cubanos‘ (They are Cubans) in Havana, Cuba and this song as presented below in the documentary film ‘Feliz Cuba‘ (Happy Cuba). It was ‘Chevere‘ to watch the musicians being jocular and enticing the Señora (Lady) to sing this song and when she finally did at her door – what a commensurate piecemeal! This is music unpolished but at its finest.

A loose English translation of the initial verses follows:

Although you have left me abandoned
Although all my illusions have already died,
Instead of cursing you with righteous anger
In my dreams I fill you with blessings.

I suffer the immense pain of your loss
I feel the deep pain of your departure
And I cry without you knowing that my crying
has black tears
It has black tears like my life.

And I cry without you knowing that my crying
has black tears
It has black tears like my life.

Lágrimas Negras (Spanish for Black Tears) is by Miguel Matamoros, first recorded by the Trío Matamoros in 1931. The song was written in the Dominican Republic, in 1930, when Matamoros was on his way back to Cuba from the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929.

The lady in the video below is naturally beautiful and the gentlemen who accompany her are gentlemen of music, so simple, but obviously talented that this interpretation becomes a jewel.

Reference:
1. Lagrimas Negas (song) – Wikipedia

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Posted in Music

The AnkiDroid Collection (Part 31) – Orbits, Generations & Lysenkoism

Posted on January 11, 2023 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

Ankidroid additions related to Science, History and Philosophy. More information about Anki can be found in this article.

Orbits

To celebrate New Year’s Day, I wrote a post about the earth’s revolution around the sun amongst other things.

Why do planets / moons orbit but not crash into each because of the mass differential and gravity?

The trick to staying up is sideways momentum and speed. You see orbits like when you throw a ball, but of course it will eventually hit the ground. The reason the moon continues in orbit is because of speed. If the ball is thrown fast enough and had no air slowing it down, then it would orbit forever.
The moon orbits every 27 days at 3600 kilometres an hour. The only way it would crash into earth is to slow down.

Generations

What is Sovietizing the Science called?

Lysenkoism was named after the Soviet bioligist Trofim Lysenko’s influence upon science and agriculture in the first half of the 20th Century and his rejection of natural selection. It illustrated the disastrous intrusion of politics and ideology into the affairs of science. Lysenkoism led to repression and persecution of scientists who dared oppose Lysenko’s pseudo-scientific doctrines. COVID 19 ring any bells? His idea if given the proper conditions, is that all organisms have the capacity to do anything which had attractive parallels to social philosophies of Karl Marx – ‘that man was largely a product of his own will’.

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Posted in Reading, Science

La Venia Bendita (1997) – Marco Antonio Solis

Posted on January 10, 2023 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

I was awestruck by ‘this song ‘La Venia Bendita‘ the first time I heard it and it continues to captivate me. Marco Antonio Solís sings this with such vigour, but the delicateness and passion are manifest. It also makes me both happy and sad. The juxtaposition between the Mariachis wailing and Solis’ aching delivery really sets this song apart.

This is the second song to be presented in recent days heralding from Mexico in the ‘Ranchera‘ genre. The title ‘La Venia Bendita‘ (the Reverential Blessing) can be interpreted when a couple is going to get married in the Catholic church and the father (priest) blesses that union with the ceremony; this means that the couple already has the reverential blessing of God to live together.

A loose English translation of the initial verses follows:

Sing it with feeling, as you know, Marco

He lacks hours a day, to continue loving us
it was barely noon
And today we are dawning
Only our souls know what is happening

We lack blood in our veins, to endure what we feel
And more holes in the ground
For the time to die
Where to bury so much death from this that we live so much today?

Kiss me like this, slowly and let’s lengthen the destiny
Well, this beautiful love
What happened to us along the way?
It has the reverential blessing of the powerful divine

Marco Antonio Solís Sosa (born 29 December 1959) is a Mexican musician, singer, composer, and record producer. Solís has been awarded five Latin Grammy Awards, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and has been inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame. Solís also became known in the industry for outside writing and producing for popular singers such as Rocío Dúrcal who has featured here.

Reference:
1. Marco Antonio Solís – Wikipedia

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