From Overheard...
August 26, 2005
Nonverbal Communication (A NYC Short Story)I'm in a bus stuck in traffic. I look out the window down at this woman driving alone in her car. She's talking on her cell phone. After watching her continue to talk for 15 seconds or so, I see her suddenly put the cell between her ear and shoulder, release the steering wheel and use both hands to give the "in quotes" gesture. I'm sure this helped alleviate any possible misinterpretation of what she was saying to the person on the other end of the phone.
--Lincoln Tunnel
Returned relaxed and now back at it.
I got back Sunday afternoon and took the long way home from the airport. The prior week was simply amazing. No internet, little to no phone service, and the ability to lounge profusely made for one of the more relaxing vacations ever..
Now it is true that I am a man of leisure, but this was a whole different level. I ate, read, swam, and slept with such abandon that it bordered on gluttony. None of it would have been possible without the generosity of some most wonderful people. To them I am truly thankful.
As of this week, my academic career is attempting to resume. Its success is still questionable. Ideally, the end is in sight. While true, it is the present that concerns me since I am not sure quite how to handle it. There are yet responsibilities to be fulfilled and goals to be achieved. My current problem is one of valuation. Solving it should be interesting.
Back from the Cape
New post and pictures to follow...
Farewell, my faithful friend.
August 8, 2005
It is not often that I feel like a small child, but tonight is one of those times. It is rare that an animal has had such a profound affect on one’s life. Hunter surely did on mine.
I am sad tonight. It’s the small memories that I’ll always take with me. For example, sharing a bed with a dog should not be difficult. You would think that a queen sized bed would have space enough for a dog and a human; unfortunately it was not. One of us had to go and from the growling and four paws in the back pushing me off the bed I realized whom he had nominated.
He truly was family. The fact that he would think, plan, and outsmart a number of very bright individuals is testament to both his intellect and brilliance. He was one of a kind.
As I sit here tonight, amongst friends who do not really know me and with a dog not my own: I realize what a loss I’ve encountered. Farewell my friend, I loved you.
by the way,
I'm thinking of adding contributors to this blog or starting a new collective one. Why? I'm bored. If you're interested, let me know.
here's some real old shit i came across today...
Subject: speak to je8us
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 23:02:22 -0800
speak at me said the jebo to jee-bús, i am added to the list of strawberries and bananas, would you not say. The question I present to thee is this. Is this, you say, or like to pretend, the actual result of, or the end sum of the holiday harvest. where will
you get your cornucopia with multi-colored maize? good question, no doubt but the perplexing sum of the mixed confusions that we find ourselves embroiled in, makes some, specifically myself, wonder why that color ever existed in the first place. To
think of yourself as a washing machine is not an altogether bad thing. POST IT BITCH! Father john I would now like to sing a song to you in french and then make millions of anglophonic children do the same. The 76-year-old retired Malaysian schoolteacher displayed so much vim during a recent hike through a national park in Sarawak, astonished rangers began calling her a "recycled teenager." as quoted somewhere that with light research you will most likely find, i said. My that is a big dangling participle, you really shouldn't bring it out in public like that. DATELINE: Friday the 29th of September, in the year 2000, Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset. i am now ready for my clasp.
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Subject: 30/11/2000-Plight of Procrastination...and ringing ears
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 01:04:57 -0800
RUN AWAY TO THE HILLS WHERE NO ONE CAN FIND YOU. ONCE YOU GET THeRE, TRY AND GET LOST. DON'T LET ANYONE FIND YOU BUT YOURSELF. YOU NEED TO KNOW MORE THAN THEY DO ANY WAYS. MY HEAD BREAKS WHEN THE PRESSURE GETS TOO GREAT. THE DAM HOLDING BACK
THE TIDE OF EXPRESSION CANNOT BE HELD BACK MUCH LONGER. I AM NOT SURE IF IT SHOULD BE. WHY. ONCE A COMMON THEME, NOW ONLY A RECURRING NIGHTMARE PLAYING WITH SURREALISTIC SUGAR PLUM VISIONS. BLIND, DEAF AND DUMB MUST I GO. THE EXPLORATION OF THE CRANIUM IS NOT EASY AND THE FINDINGS CAN BE DAMN NEAR APOCALYPTIC. THE WRITING IS GETTING SMALLER AS THE MENTAL EJACULATION STOPS AND THE MIND GOES FLACCID.
Happy 5th of August!
To all the Burkinabé out there, happy Independence Day!
Group think was the greatest power ever wielded by the National Socialists.
I guess the fact that he was deified in my childhood and his organization’s ability to tell people how to think makes me scrutinize his words even more carefully. This is a bit much though. Stem-cell research is the equivalent of Nazi experiments?
Here are a couple links:
Media Matters for America
The Rocky Mountain News
I especially like the denial of the requested apology:
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Dobson was not available for comment Thursday. Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics for Focus on the Family, said Dobson would not apologize.
"The Nazi experiment analogy is accurate and appropriate. If any apologies are due, it is advocates of destroying embryonic humans who should be apologizing," she said.
She said embryonic stem cell research does not fit the Nuremberg code, a set of standards for experiments on humans used in judging Nazi war criminals. In part, it requires consent of the subjects and requires researchers to avoid disabling injuries to the subjects.
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So then, here is the Nuremberg Code. I suggest reading it and see if you find any inconsistencies in Ms Earll’s logic, aside of course from the child like attitude of “Who me, apologize? They should apologize to me!”
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THE NUREMBERG CODE [from Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10. Nuremberg, October 1946–April 1949. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O, 1949–1953.]
Permissible Medical Experiments
The great weight of the evidence before us is to the effect that certain types of medical experiments on human beings, when kept within reasonably well-defined bounds, conform to the ethics of the medical profession generally. The protagonists of the practice of human experimentation justify their views on the basis that such experiments yield results for the good of society that are unprocurable by other methods or means of study. All agree, however, that certain basic principles must be observed in order to satisfy moral, ethical and legal concepts:
1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.
This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there should be made known to him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonably to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiment.
The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the quality of the consent rests upon each individual who initiates, directs or engages in the experiment. It is a personal duty and responsibility which may not be delegated to another with impunity.
2. The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study, and not random and unnecessary in nature.
3. The experiment should be so designed and based on the results of animal experimentation and a knowledge of the natural history of the disease or other problem under study that the anticipated results will justify the performance of the experiment.
4. The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury.
5. No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.
6. The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment.
7. Proper preparations should be made and adequate facilities provided to protect the experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury, disability, or death.
8. The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons. The highest degree of skill and care should be required through all stages of the experiment of those who conduct or engage in the experiment.
9. During the course of the experiment the human subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to an end if he has reached the physical or mental state where continuation of the experiment seems to him to be impossible.
10. During the course of the experiment the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has probably cause to believe, in the exercise of the good faith, superior skill and careful judgment required of him that a continuation of the experiment is likely to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject.
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Even assuming arguendo that stem-cells are people, do they have the legal capacity to give consent? Do children, mentally incapacitated individuals, senile senior citizens, comatose people, or even the alleged unborn have the legal capacity to give consent?
It is kind of like Fancy Food, just for people though.
The world may be coming to an end. I say this not as your normal purveyor of death and destruction, but rather as a person who observes things. For example, today this link is on the Yahoo! front page: Moustache Wax.
The quick hitting facts of my recent existence follow. I’m in the midst of reading two books, one of which is about a man and a gorilla. I drink a lot of lemonade. The weather has been on the warmer side. When not reading, napping, or lounging, I watch television. Specifically, that there food channel and various other program oriented channels.
I have come to the conclusion that my brain is quite bored with itself (we are two different entities). Its either boredom or I am slowly going insane. The reason for this diagnosis is that every time I sleep in the last two weeks, the brain doesn’t shut off. It has conversations with friends, goes on vacations and eats—all unbeknownst to me until my waking, at which time I’m startled by the solitude. Truth be told, the startling affect is starting to wear off. I expect to wake and realize that the last 7 hours were only a dream. The problem with this whole phenomenon is that it seeps into reality. This leads to confusing situations where I cannot remember whether I have told someone something in the ‘real’ world or the ‘Ryan sleepy time’ world.
I’ll keep you posted
