A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Suicide

Tags

Avoiding suicide, Epigrams on suicide, suicide, Suicide is ugly, Surviving a friends suicide

A Dictionary of New Epigrams

Suicide

1. Suicide is never a good option if you can do one more thing to help anyone.

2. Suicide may end one’s pain, or it may not, but it certainly ends pleasure.

3. When you still can help other people, helping their suicide would be betraying them.

4. Suicide is a way of telling your friends you don’t value their well-being.

5. A curse of being conscious of one’s mortality is the realization that you can kill yourself and that continuing to suffer pain is a voluntary choice. That’s why you need a purpose beyond your personal needs to keep living.

6.Being alive and conscious of the Universe and its wonders is the greatest gift that physical reality can give, and suicide is throwing your greatest gift back into the meaningless void.

7. The discoveries of humanity are given to you for your use by the hundred billion other people who have gone before you, and that’s what you throw away with suicide.

8.Committing suicide violates every one of the basic rules of life — show up, pay attention, do your best, let it go, and repeat.

9. Suicide may end your problems, but it creates problems for others and for me.

10. I feel sad when a friend commits suicide, then annoyed with them for being so stupid that they couldn’t solve their problems,

11. then blind that I didn’t see their needs even if they didn’t express them,
then guilty that I didn’t help them.

12. Then, unhappy with the thought that others I know are probably desperate, and I don’t see it.

13. Then wondering, “will writing these epigrams help or hinder whoever encounters them?”

14. Some will say of the successful suicide, “Good riddance. I regret having met you. You cloud my thoughts and tear my vision.”

15. If you are compelled to commit suicide, be kind to your friends by going on an extended vacation to an exotic place, and not making any new friends there, and then just quietly drift away.

16. Avoid a dramatic public departure because it hurts most of those people who loved you most.

17. Nonexistence is just that nothing.

18. To choose nothing is to choose nothing.

19. Suicide is proving to other people that your life was worthless, at least to you.

20. The vast majority of the Universe is lifeless matter, and it took billions of years of stuff in the right environments to create life and to create you and your consciousness.

21. If you commit suicide, you are just getting out of the way, so microbes digesting your body can bring life and consciousness to a higher level. Of course, that will take another billion years, but consciousness will arise again.

22. Of course, the Beatles were right when they sang, “All you need is love.” But they missed the critical point; what you really need to do is to give love consistently to children.

23. Suicide is a very personal thing, especially when it’s done right.

24. Suicide is a futile attempt to escape from pain. The last days of life are still filled with pain.

25. What if you have a life after death, and you go around with a bullet in your head—forever. That’s got to be annoying.

26. I’m considering avoiding people with suicidal tendencies if I can’t help them.

27. It’s considered a bad thing to kill another human being, but to kill one’s self is to kill everyone and everything; it’s killing all life, it’s killing the whole Universe.

28. “To be or not to be” isn’t a question; it’s a decision.

29. Suicide isn’t a philosophical problem; it’s a practical problem.

30. If you think life is meaningless and without satisfaction, consider the limitations on meaning and satisfaction when you’re dead.

31. Probably most suicides are cries for help, but when successful, they choose, in a convincing way, to prevent anyone from helping them.

32. Not a single person of the hundred billion humans who have died has convincingly returned and hung around for another decade for people to admire them.

33. Life’s a grand play, and if your part is to be a suicide, give it your best and get off the stage.

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People with high Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) test scores of five or more are 30 times as likely to commit suicide as those with ACE test scores of 1 or less.

Of course LOVE means protecting children from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE):

1. Physical abuse
2. Sexual abuse
3. Emotional abuse
4. Physical neglect
5. Emotional neglect
6. Mother treated violently
7. Household substance abuse
8. Household mental illness
9. Parental separation or divorce
10. Incarcerated household member

and replacing them with Positive Childhood Experiences (PCE):

1. Physical security
2. Sexual protection
3. Emotional rewards for good actions
4. Physical care for all physical needs
5. Emotional support during difficulties
6. Mother always received kindness and respect
7. Household examples of responsible use
8. Household responsibility for each other
9. Parental mutual support of one another
10. Responsibility for public welfare

People raised with very low ACE scores and very high PCE scores should rarely have sufficient reason to commit suicide, and probably only then to save several of their friends’ or relatives’ lives.

 

Most people’s first response to new things is suspicion and fear.

Tags

ACE test, ACE verses PCE, fear, First response to stimuli, PCE test, Suspicion, Why people are afraid

At yesterday’s meeting on tranquility, during the discussion portion, one person mentioned that scientific research using MRI had shown that most people’s first thoughts about new stimuli were suspicion and fear. I didn’t respond to that idea, because I didn’t have any information on the subject. However, I was thinking that it was probably true because the background religion of the majority of people has fear-driven stories based on punishment for being in some outside social group. A second idea for why people fear novelty is based on the fact that most Americans have poor Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) test scores, and few have Positive Childhood Experiences (PCE). If a person’s life experience is that even things known from experience are painful, then an unknown new experience must be even worse, and that would be horrible.

From Wikipedia ACE test — “About 67% of individuals reported at least one of the following Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE); and 87% of individuals who reported one ACE reported at least one additional ACE.^[6] The prevalence of emotional abuse was 10.6%, physical abuse 28.3%, sexual abuse 20.7%, emotional neglect 14.8%, physical neglect 9.9%, mother treated violently 12.7%, household substance abuse 26.9%, household mental illness 19.4%, parental separation or divorce 23.3%, incarcerated household member 4.7%.”

I created a flip of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) test scores, and named it Positive Childhood Experiences (PCE).

Adverse Childhood Experiences versus Positive Childhood Experiences (ACE versus PCE). Clickable image.

As mentioned in the Wikipedia quote above the chart, 67% have some poor childhood experiences and of those 87% had more than one category of bad experiences; thus the majority of people, some 57% have 2 or more categories of adverse childhood experiences. I suspected that is the reason the MRI tests mentioned in the first sentence of this post were accurate, and that is why

Most people’s first response to new stimuli is suspicion and fear.

 

How can we express our love?

Tags

Creating an open channel, Creating calm communication, Expressing love, Human calming signals

Some say that giving attention and love to everyone can be done by smiling at them in a spontaneous appreciative way. I opine that everyone is capable of receiving love if it’s given in the right way. But what is the way of giving love so that it can be received? If the other person is in a desperate state of mind they may not be capable of receiving a positive input, because their mind is filled with suspicion and hate, and a smile is seen as a deception.

For anyone to receive love they must be in a safe state of mind, so our problem is to assure them that we mean them no harm. The standard human way to do this is with a smile, but even Shakespeare, hundreds of years ago, warned of smiling men, and of smiling Greeks bearing gifts. A suspicious person may be unwilling to receive any form of love, because their experience has been that letting down their guard pulls suffering into being.

Perhaps there is something to be learned from dogs and their natural “calming signals” that they send to each other. There may be similar graphics showing human calming signals used as guides for actors, but the dog signals are not overlain with human language and culture and are easier to understand. There is good reason to be suspicious of humans, because there is a huge media industry filled with thousands of actors whose occupation is to convincingly portray emotions to fit a pre-planned manipulation of the other person’s emotions.

Source – http://joyfordogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/body-language-Boogie.jpg

How can we know when human calming signals would be legitimate? The human actor’s signals could be practiced to include: a relaxed looking away, after making a brief eye contact to establish communication channel; blinking and moving back slightly; dropping chin slightly with a slight smile; moving slightly to the side while talking and then gently back toward the opposite side. Perhaps there is overlap with dog calming behaviors such as — licking the air, turning the head or body away, muzzle nudging, yawning to the side, pawing the ground, narrow eyes in simulated sleepiness, tactile contact on the side, play position with front elbows on the ground and butt high, approaching in a curve toward tail, sniffing butt, relaxed slow moving, sitting down and looking away, moving between, bumping, shaking off water twisting movement.

The idea here is to state objectively some subjectively mediated physical actions that are indicators of legitimate inner emotions. If we can display these toward people who have difficulties in being friendly it might be possible to expose to them that they might be attracted to, that would be helpful to them. But it is important to give people their private space, and often people will give clear signals that they want to be left alone. Some people will say, “Let them frog kick in their own pond slime.” I like to get at the root causes of human suffering and cut the cycle short, and that is best done by convincing young adults to avoid inflicting Adverse Childhood Experiences and promote Positive Childhood Experiences.

Adverse Childhood Experiences versus Positive Childhood Experiences (ACE versus PCE)

Give the next generation a positive base to build their lives upon.

Condensed thoughts Probaway July 2015

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Condensed thoughts July 2015

Condensed thoughts Probaway

January 2015

01 January 2015 – Probaway – Person of the year 2015 – Peter Higgs and Alan Guth – They discovered particles that could be found anywhere in the Universe, that are fundamental to our existence.

02 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 23 – If you are distracted quickly recognize that you have lost that moment for maintaining tranquility.

03 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Kindness – The greatest acts of wisdom are simple acts of kindness.

04 January 2015 – Progress review for Probaway and modern society – This blog began with a list of Life Hacks for creating a better world with good habits.

05 January 2015 – Imagine There’s No Heaven by Mitchell Stephens – book review – If God is incomprehensible to man, it would seem rational never to think of Him at all.

06 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 24 – The world is constantly making demands on us to do things that take us away from our personal duty to ourselves.

07 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Energy – A person without a present purpose has no energy and soon falls into despondency.

08 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 25 – Sometimes a friend gets a perk you would prefer had come to you, but that decision was some other person’s choice.

09 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Reliability – No one is reliable who is expected to act against their own self-interest.

10 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 26 – We can choose how we respond to inevitable events.

11 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Tranquility – Being courageous, constructive, and kind are the fruits of tranquility.

12 January 2015 – The Wisdom of Donkeys – by Andy Merrifield – review – My aim has been to clarify how the goal of tranquility, so prized by the Stoics, might be generated in our modern people.

13 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 27 – Our world does not exist intending for us to miss out on opportunities.

14 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 28 – To maintain control of your inner self is your personal responsibility.

15 January 2015 – Easy diet, easier diet, easiest diet. – Leave something on my plate for Grandma!

16 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Freedom – Without free speech there is not even the possibility of any of the other rights.

17 January 2015 – The Marshmallow Test by Walter Mischel – Book review – I think, therefore I can change what I am.

18 January 2015 – You can’t cure stupid, especially Detroit stupid, stupid, foolishness. – You can’t cure stupid, but sometimes even fools can cure themselves with forethought.

19 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 29 – To become a Stoic is easy to do once you are willing to abandon the wonderful things society pretends are available to you.

20 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Desire – The sage’s desire is to help another being find their way.

21 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 30 – Be content with the past, because there is nothing you can do about it.

22 January 2015 – The Bonobo and the Atheist by Frans DeWaal – Book review – Why not assume that our humanity, including the self-control needed for a livable society, is built into us?

23 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 31 – It is important to have a proper piety toward society’s gods, its ideas of justice, and whatever it is that created our universe.

24 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 32 – Remember the man who was violently cast out of the Delphi Oracle for asking if he should defend his brother, who was about to be murdered.

25 January 2015 – The Tao Teh Ching – #10 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – When training your self in the use of your secret source,
hold close to your essence and thus avoid dispersal.

26 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Ethics – Being ethical means doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons.

27 January 2015 – Risk of death measured by CriSTAL, Glasgow Coma Scale, RTS and START – What are the criteria that guide our medical people in triage decisions?

28 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 33 – Right now give some thought as to how you will behave when alone, and how you will behave towards others when in public.

29 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 34 – How you will feel a year from now about having accepted a pleasure, and how you will feel about having rejected it.

30 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 35 – If you can’t do the job correctly don’t start it, but if it is within your abilities, do a competent job, and ignore those who disparage you.

31 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 36 – Demonstrate your appreciation to your host by behaving appropriately, which usually means modestly.

Condensed thoughts Probaway February 2015

01 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 37 – When you choose to do some job that is beyond your ability, it is likely that you will fail, so do jobs where you will be successful.

02 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 38 – Never through lack of caution hurt your ruling principle of carefully seeking tranquility and contentment.

03 February 2015 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – 03 – The effort is now being shifted to tracking down every case of Ebola, and every contact made by each sick person.

04 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 39 – Pause for a moment and consider the endless new troubles you will acquire when putting on another man’s shoes.

05 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 40 – In Roman times girls attempted to get married quickly by making themselves as attractive as possible to marriageable men.

06 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 41 – It demonstrates a lack of judgment to spend excessive time exercising, eating, drinking, and copulating.

07 February 2015 – Saint Augustine’s analysis of lying – Even truth thought false by the sayer is a lie.

08 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 42 – When a man treats you badly or speaks badly of you, remember that he is coming from his own experiences.

09 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 43 – Choose the view that he is your friend and you have always solved your differences. Then approach the problem from a place of common interest.

10 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 44 – A man standing before you is neither his property nor his style; nor are you.

11 February 2015 – Will computer minds find an inherent meaning to the Universe? – Are the evolutionary goals of a Universal superintelligence even conceivable to humans?

12 February 2015 – Convert all of the Universe’s silicon into intelligent material. – To survive and reproduce oneself is the goal of an evolving silicon living system.

13 February 2015 – Vint Cerf discusses 1000 year storage of digital information – Digital vellum will make our current digital information available to people a thousand years in the future.

14 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 45 – If you don’t know why a person did a particular act, you don’t know if he did it well or poorly.

15 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 46 – Instead of showing off your knowledge, demonstrate it in your actions.

16 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 47 – Do things to maintain your own self-control over your body, but don’t tell anyone you are doing these things. They are for you.

17 February 2015 – St. Augustine’s Confessions – But, where does all of his abundance come from? It comes from Jesus’ idea that you should “help others live and live more abundantly.”

18 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 48 – A Stoic expects all benefits and harms to come from within himself.

19 February 2015 – Attention with kindness yields the best love. – Even arguing and fighting is a form of personal acknowledgment and validation.

20 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 49 – Nothing of value comes to me until I actually attempt to use the information that I acquire.

21February 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Love – Love is an expression in actions of the respect for another’s intentions.

22 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 50 – Your self-chosen rules’ function is to train you to personally gain control of yourself and your habits.

23 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 51 – Prepare now, because every moment of your life is a now, and it will be met with all that you have to offer.

24 February 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Lies – To lie to another convincingly trains one’s own self to lie to oneself, and thus to voluntarily ruin one’s own character.

25 February 2015 – The Tao Teh Ching – #11 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Clay may be molded into a cup, yet – From the void within arises the utility of the cup.

26 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 52 – We must never lie or everything becomes meaningless.

27 February 2015 – The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert – book review – The impressive thing about humanity creating this world-wide sixth extinction is that “we are doing it without even trying.”

28 February 2015 – My controversial jelly bean diet kills desire to continue eating. – The three jelly bean diet has been the easiest diet I’ve created, so far.

Condensed thoughts Probaway March 2015

01 March 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 53 – I choose to influence only that which is within my ability, and be content with the rest.

02 March 2015 – How to save the frogs of the world. – The freezing of frogs is a method for saving the frogs and probably some other species from extinction.

03 March 2015 – I am aware. – I enjoy the awareness that I am aware of my awareness and of its rareness.

04 March 2015 – Speak in complete sentences. – I have a habit of speaking too briefly and expecting whomever it is that is listening to fill in the missing words.

05 March 2015 – When an unknown opportunity knocks at least open the door. – The world is still filled with many potential unknowns that are easily discovered.

06 March 2015 – How to love one’s self. – Cultivate the habit of being loving to oneself through kind actions toward other people, because it generates the habit of being loving and kind to oneself.

07 March 2015 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – 07 March 2015 – If not treated the death rate from Ebola is greater than ninety percent.

08 March 2015 – How to drink beverages for greater pleasure. – Why beer tastes better from a glass than a bottle is because it flows over more of the tongue.

09 March 2015 – Living with a Wild God by Barbara Ehrenreich – review – Revealing a life of pain doesn’t help others find a path to tranquility.

10 March 2015 – Intelligence coupled with free will is not to be trusted. – People want security and a person exercising free will is unpredictable.

11 March 2015 – Superintelligence – Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom – review – Superintelligence is still in its infancy; what will its childhood be like?

12 March 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Gratitude – A demonstration of gratitude is a sure sign that a person is awake.

13 March 2015 – How Google Works by Eric Schmidt & J. Rosenberg – review – This is a great book for the one-in-a-million person applying to Google, but for most other general readers it will be a put-down.

14 March 2015 – Confirmation bias and be careful what you wish for. – Samumpsickle said, “Yep. That I can do, but is that what you really want?”

15 March 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Truth – Truth is often symmetrical with other truths, but also sometimes with falsehoods.

16 March 2015 – Adverse Childhood Experiences versus Positive Childhood Experiences – comments – I would like to meet people who have low ACE and high PCE scores.

17 March 2015 – Index of EarthArk category’s posts – A list of 115 EarthArk posts from the most recent to oldest.

18 March 2015 – Give thanks to Gravity. – It would be an orientating thing for us to go to our ultimate source of being and give thanks to The Four Fundamental Forces of Nature, for being so consistent and dependable.

19 March 2015 – Adverse Childhood Experiences versus Positive Childhood Experiences – This new chart adds numbers to each test’s items, one through ten. It also reformats the page so the two tests align each item for item.

20 March 015 – A photograph of a rainbow, moon and rainy street. – It was an overly abstract story for a camera club that talks a lot about cropping and blurry backgrounds.

21 March 2015 – Potential enemies of the EarthArk project – These are the profit-minded people who want to bring all life forms under their personal control, using DNA manipulation techniques.

22 March 2015 – Humanity must survive its dangerous moments to continue existing. – You and humanity must survive every deadly instant before your offspring can exist.

23 March 2015 – Do a quicker and easier EarthArk before it’s too late. – Start your personal EarthArk today, by putting seeds in a bucket.

24 March 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Evil – Evil is in the motivations of humans who willfully choose to injure people or other living things for personal pleasure.

25 March 2015 – The Tao Teh Ching – #12 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – The artists’ colorful works make your eyes too sensitive; the musicians’ melodic notes make your ears too delicate; the gourmets’ succulent flavors make your tongue too refined.

26 March 2015 – Dome Argus in Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. – The EarthArks can save millions of species, but they must be in place to do it.

27 March 2015 – Antarctica – A year on ice – movie by Anthony Powell – review – A year on ice will open your spirit to understand more soulfully where you now live.

28 March 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Doubt – Doubt is a momentary condition between the choice of options that can lead to depression when a decision can not be made.

29 March 2015 – I live within inertia and so do you. – A person 80 years old would have experienced 2,524,608,000 seconds of potential free will decision making.

30 March 2015 – A useful upgrade in percent % notation system. – If society learns to replace the % sign with p/00 we will make the meaning of the numbers more obvious.

31 March 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Death – Living is the astonishing thing in the Universe, as non-life is the default condition.

Condensed thoughts Probaway April 2015

01 April 2015 – Is suicide a free-will option, or is it a destiny? – Is it the champions of other people’s needs who are the most in need of help?

02 April 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Pain – Avoid pain by doing the right things at the right times.

03 April 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Wisdom – True wisdom is invisible because it brings tranquility, contentment and a quiet life.

04 April 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Contentment – It feels better to enjoy what you have than suffer over what you want.

05 April 2015 – The exit strategy of Kelsey Collins – I speak to the living – do little kind acts frequently.

06 April 2015 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – 06 April 2015 – Develop a weakened virus that can be sprayed into bat colonies.

07 April 2015 – A pleasantly tranquil walk in downtown Bend, Oregon – If you can look forward to helping someone live a better life you are needed and wanted.

08 April 2015 – Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot (OVER) – review – The only thing that consistently reduces population is lack of food, and starving is a terrible way to die.

09 April 2015 – What is the question we should be asking about our life? – I wasn’t, I am, I won’t be, and I am content with all of those?

10 April 2015 – Our habits are magnetically attached to confirmation bias. – What feels right at the moment is dependent on what happens to attract our attention at the moment.

11 April 2015 – The Unpersuadables by Will Storr – review – We are all unpersuadables – and once you realize that, you can be more comfortable with yourself and kinder to all those other foolish people.

12 April 2015 – My sad change of opinion – A government of the entrenched rich, by the entrenched rich, and for the entrenched rich that shall never ever perish from the earth.

13 April 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Success – The easiest road to personal success is found in being kind to others.

14 April 2015 – What do you want? – I came to my wish: “To let the world progress as it was going to do without my suggestions or my garden gnome’s help.”

15 April 2015 – In the shadows of unknowns – Use falsifiability as the starting point, as opposed to using it as an ending point proof of the not quite rightness of a theory.

16 April 2015 – Do what you want to do … but … – Do what you want to do, but give others the opportunity live healthier lives because of your actions.

17 April 2015 – Categories are only in our heads. – People believe they can claim superiority over others, because they exist on a higher plane, a more significant reality.

18 April 2015 – Be nicer. – It is not the helping of people that is desired, but their perception of being cared for personally.

19 April 2015 – How can we find truth? – The pirates who can somehow become legitimate will eventually triumph.

20 April 2015 – Your world might expand like mine just did. – The people are coherent wholes, and will explain themselves well, if given a chance.

21 April 2015 – I have opinions based on observations. What are yours based on? – Part of the fair play of conversation is to admit you are wrong when you are proven wrong.

22 April 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Grief – Grief is like the Laocoon snake, slowly squeezing the living breath out of now.

23 April 2015 – The good, the bad and the ugly of Ebola – To the research people weaponizing disease I would say – Remember that we and you too are part of humanity.

24 April 2015 – How do we identify wisdom? – Wisdom is the ability to find the exact thing that will make a difference, and the ability to propagate it virally.

25 April 2015 – The Tao Teh Ching – #13 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Honors and dishonors will disturb your equanimity; and when you think highly of yourself, your body will be filled with suffering.

26 April 2015 – The good and bad of prayer, and finding a better way. – When we pray for what is, and what will be, and what has been, our prayers will always be answered.

27 April 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 0 – Let me expose my confirmation biases, as best I can, to clear the way forward as much as I am able.

28 April 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 1 – The world is filled with many problems and many paths, and we have need for help along a proper path.

29 April 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 2 – Asking an undefinable entity to help one with human problems introduces a huge gap into reason and responsibility.

30 April 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 3 – To seek to live in a world of fantasy is what we are specifically guided away from.

Condensed thoughts Probaway May 2015

01 May 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Goals – If you don’t do something you won’t get anywhere, and you are eternally stuck where you are.

02 May 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs– 4 – I ask of my inmost being to validate life’s potential force.

03 May 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 5 – Let me embrace the past as it was, the present as it is, and the future as it will be.

04 May 2015 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – 04 May 2015 – During an epidemic most people would prefer to wear a health status badge than to die of an avoidable disease.

05 May 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 6 – The only way to avoid rewards is for the helping action to be done in secret, and therefore let my every kindness go unobserved.

06 May 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Resilience – Resilience is the conviction that the goal is worth the effort.

07 May 2015 – Should women be drafted into military service? – Drafting all people, men and women, into an army sets up a whole nation to be brutal and become ugly and miserable.

08 May 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 7 – I pray that at every moment as it occurs I am ready to participate. I am ready … now!

09 May 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Ignorance – One who refuses to observe reality will always be ignorant, and one who bases his actions on ignorance will always behave foolishly.

10 May 2015 – It’s time to say hello to our new reality. – Let us do what we can to bring a humane morality to this astonishing new world.

11 May 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Imagination – Until worldly facts convince the imagination of their functionality, imagination based on random experience will control our actions.

12 May 2015 – Thoughts condensed from the popular world – #93. Commit to your task and finish it with enthusiasm.

13 May 2015 – Yes, I’m on a spiritual path! – Our writing group chose to write for ten minutes about the word “path”. Click to read my little 149 word essay.

14 May 2015 – How to improve your ACE test score. – It’s impossible to change the past, but you can change your relationship to the past by retelling it in a helpful way.

15 May 2015 – You can’t have the impossible. – “You can’t have the impossible” sounds like an obvious falsehood, but it’s an obvious truth.

16 May 2015 – Prayers for the new millennium – Humanity needs a goal to have a purpose, to feel comfortable with ourselves, within our vastly expanded universe.

17 May 2015 – A typical Sunday for me – I left intellectual Berkeley, after 50 years, with some trepidation for the small resort town of Bend, Oregon. It’s different but wonderful.

18 May 2015 – A prayer for tranquility and contentment – Treat other people in a way that will maximize their tranquility within themselves and support their contentment with the world around them.

19 May 2015 – A quiet day, but memorable for me – It’s quite a pleasure having people respond positively to something I’ve done, because it is such a rare event.

20 May 2015 – How can I promote tranquility fairly? – People are who they are and creating tranquility in them is aided by accepting them as they are, a vast array of self-promoting habits.

21 May 2015 – Fear can be a good emotion or very bad. – Fear can drive you to be sensible. Don’t take unnecessary risks, and don’t ignore real ones.

22 May 2015 – Doing something worthwhile makes you feel good. – Do something worthwhile for other people, not something destructive and hurtful, or simply a waste of personal and public resources.

23 May 2015 – How to make a vertical take-off and fast horizontal flight copterplane. – The copterplane would go much faster and further than a helicopter, but others are pursuing it now.

24 May 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Judgment – A thoughtful man thinks about what he knows and figures things out from observed facts.

25 May 2015 – The Tao Teh Ching – #14 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Before something exists, you may draw it into existence; and
after it exists, you may draw it into non-existence.

26 May 2015 – Migraine prodrome visual pattern variations on colored backgrounds – I did an experiment where smooth colored areas matched the color of my scotoma, and it nearly vanished, but when shifting my gaze to a visually complex area it returned.

27 May 2015 – 10 things you know to be true – Within seconds everyone was bent over their notepads, writing furiously. When done we each read our efforts. Wow.

28 May 2015 –When shouldn’t we help other people? – Don’t help others if it hurts anyone; thus don’t help if it hurts you, don’t help if it hurts them, and don’t help if it hurts the health of society.

29 May 2015 – How can we identify actionable information? – Actionable information is that which enhances your overall survival and heritability.

30 May 2015 – We can’t predict the future very well and therefore …   – Have the reserves ready so you can act quickly and appropriately to rare problems.

31 May 2015 – What are the questions you should be asking today? – How can I learn to ask better questions?

Condensed thoughts Probaway June 2015

01 June 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Desire – To make your future life tranquil and contented intentionally choose to do things that will help you to be tranquil and contented in this moment.

02 June 2015 – Choose reality over fantasy and your life improves. – Change the way you see things to conform to reality, and your reality improves.

03 June 2015 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – 03 June 2015 – It might be possible to catch Ebola years later when a refugia organ site, like an eye, is ruptured, and the virus enters the blood system or infects a caregiver.

04 June 2015 – Discovering blank spots in our human reality – Infinitely close to everything in the Universe will be unknowable to us forever, but we can choose to enjoy what we do perceive.

05 June 2015 – Zebrafish, CRISPR, Plague Inc., and computer-generated DNA – Several of my Probaway Person of the Year choices get blended into a single scientific experiment.

06 June 2015 – Existentialism and reality are avoided by most humans. – Existential reality is too demanding for most humans so they choose to become willing slaves to an ideology.

07 June 2015 – Learning from a moment of forethought, a moment of action, and a moment of meditation. – An upgrade to a quiet mind, and a generalized quest for a better relationship with the world in general and ourselves in particular.

08 June 2015 – Thomas E. Lovejoy of World Wildlife Fund & Founder of PBS series Nature – My thought after the lecture was, to save humanity create ways for people to make money taking CO2 and other problems out of the environment.

09 June 2015 – Preparing for problem solving with pleasure – When we know we need to be flexible in our approach to a problem we should intentionally get ourselves into a pleasurable state of mind.

09 June 2015 – A powerful variation on quiet meditation – This loud variation on the usual quiet meditation reveals unexpected opportunities.

10 June 2015 – How can I learn to avoid fear and pain and be effective? – Be more effective by intentionally making your personal presentations less fearful and more joyful and positive.

11 June 2015 – Is ultimate truth subjective? – Truth in all of its guises is always an agreed upon approximation.

12 June 2015 – Watch for kindness and you will see it. – Asking for people to be kind, humorous and wise seems attainable to everyone.

13 June 2015 – It is easy to live better by avoiding anxiety and pain – When you have eliminated the sources of your anxiety you will decrease your experiences of anxiety.

14 June 2015 – Who decides what is true? – We decide at every instant what is true, who we are and who we will become, so choose wisely my friendly reader.

15 June 2015 – Do we have a duty to live or to die? – Our duty is not to be an unwelcome burden to ourselves or others.

16 June 2015 – What is beauty to humans? – Some of us were feeling the Universal as beauty, some were thinking of it as truth, and all of us were enjoying it immensely.

17 June 2015 – The good and bad of hitting age 80 – Old age isn’t for sissies, it’s for flexible, fun-loving, personal-purpose finding people.

18 June 2015 – Training the behavior of organisms like dogs – Here are some working suggestions for helping you and your dog into a cooperative relationship.

19 June 2015 – What is our duty to the Universe as intelligent conscious beings? – We are creating sililife (silicon life) but once it is established it can take whatever time is necessary, even billions of years, to do its evolutionary thing.

20 June 2015 – Hillary Clinton can become President of the United States – Creating impossible dreams brings people to failure, disillusionment, grief, despondency, and early death.

21 June 2015 – Curious conversations in Bend, Oregon – Curious conversations would be a true reality show about ordinary people’s personal stories.

22 June 2015 – Notes for creating a tranquil life with better habits – When some action doesn’t seem right, that is the moment to choose a better habit.

23 June 2015 – How can we thrive in our uncertain world? – To help others to live within their reality is something I can do, and so can you.

24 June 2015 – Show up, pay attention, give it your best, and let it go – Repeat – means frequently returning from one’s own inner thoughts to the external thoughts of the group.

25 June 2015 –The Tao Teh Ching – #15 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – It is impossible to predict sages’ obscure behavior, but
their actions always seem simple and obvious.

26 June 2015 – If you are going to do something well, do it every day. – If you are going to do something well, do it every day, but choose it wisely so it will be helpful to everyone.

27 June 2015 – Charles LeRoy Scamahorn USAF 1960 – I got my wings, but a year later both the Air Force and I decided I could serve our country better as a civilian and we parted ways amiably.

28 June 2015 – When do people ignore you? – People only see the pretty surface and only taste the sugar coating.

29 June 2015 – A meditation for stoics. – A tranquility and contentment meditation for everyone, even atheists and stoics.

30 June 2015 – Only when we look does reality stare us eye to eye – Some quatrains from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam with some stoic comments.

30 June 2015 – Condensed thoughts compilation from Probaway’s 2015 blog – This list also appears in the list at the top of probaway.wordpress.com as 2015.

Condensed thoughts Probaway July 2015

01 July 2015 – The Boy Scout helping the old lady across the street problem. – Those old women made me feel like I should be in training to be a “nice” teenager.

02 July 2015 – Venus and Jupiter are in conjunction and … ? – A Google search didn’t turn up much that was unique for the year 2015.

03 July 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Work – If what you are doing is not beneficial to you and someone else, stop doing it and find something to do that is beneficial.

04 July 2015 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – 04 July 2015 – In twenty years human diseases of the world may be gone, and most animal ones too.

05 July 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Suffering – The more clearly you see the world as it is, as opposed to the way you wish it to be, the less disillusionment you will be forced to suffer.

06 July 2015 – Projecting the convergence of unrelated current technologies – What will you value in five years?

07 July 2015 – Making sense of your normal body temperature – Remember 98.6°F for adults and one degree less for young and old.

08 July 2015 – A meditation for stoics, update #1. – A tranquility and contentment meditation gets you ready for action.

09 July 2015 – The EarthArk Project is still the right way to save species – List of EarthArk posts from the most recent to oldest

10 July 2015 – A meditation for stoics, update #2 – a challenge. – The goal is to learn to calm oneself and then act promptly with appropriate actions.

11 July 2015 – A coming reprieve from famines caused by population explosion. – The problems are growing but our ability to cope with them is growing too.

12 July 2015 – Human wants are not infinite. – Choose to limit infinite desires for fantasies to easily attained tranquility for what exists.

13 July 2015 – People respond positively to the tranquility – contentment meditation – “I choose to feel tranquil about my past.”

14 July 2015 – Disney’s Pluto can be seen in Pluto the dwarf planet. – I don’t know what the visual equivalant to earworms is but eyeworms seems appropriate.

14 July 2015 – People responded positively to the 3rd tranquility –  contentment meditation – When challenged we can enter a tranquil state and react with intelligent wisdom.

15 July 2015 – Update on the unknown unknowns of Doomsday – Always conduct yourself in such a way that a major change won’t take you out.

16 July 2015 – Whom can you trust? – You can trust people whose self-interest is compatible with yours, and you can’t trust people whose self-interest is hurt in any way by helping you.

17 July 2015 – Evolution of Information Scale (EVOS) – Life is a step in the process of organizing information.

18 July 2015 – How bad are the 21st-century military disasters? – As horrible as the world presently is, it is only 1/30 as bad as the 20th century.

19 July 2015 – Revisiting the Pain Scale in search of comfort. – Raise children in an environment supportive of their explorations and comforting of their pains.

20 July 2015 – The lesson of Ebola is to prepare an instant information kit. – Broadcast specific information on how to prevent a viral disease from spreading by demonstrating how to separate the virus sources from people.

21 July 2015 – Fully experience your present moment. – Before you begin any action commit yourself to an enthusiastic demeanor.

22 July 2015 – Road mine blast deflector – Steel wraparound skis on military vehicles would deflect road mines’ deadly power.

23 July 2015 – The 4th tranquility – contentment meditation – It might be appropriate to not suggest any words of meditation whatsoever for this exercise, not even the idea that previously we had done tranquility and contentment.

24 July 2015 – I will never leave you! – I assure you, that it’s quite an experience having a powerful shaman look you directly in the eye, and say, “I will never leave you!”

25 July 2015 – The Tao Teh Ching – #16 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Reach into your perfect void, and Attain the essence of tranquility.

25 July 2015 – Roget’s Thesaurus of Words for Intellectuals – Review – Following in the footsteps of Ambrose Bierce’s “The Devil’s Dictionary“, or alternatively, they are incredibly stuck-up snoots.

26 July 2015 – What’s happening to my personal communications? – Being eighty is wonderfully liberating, if one has cultivated comfortable habits.

27 July 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Silence – A wise man often sits silently and learns a great deal of wisdom from an arrant fool.

28 July 2015 – What is marriage for? – The goal of marriage is to raise a child, a perfect rose to your ideal self.

29 July 2015 – Love is real when it is mirrored back to its giver. – Give your love in a way that can be mirrored instantly.

30 July 2015 – If this is my life, what should I be doing? – All of these companions of my life tell me what I should be doing, and I do what works for me.

31 July 2015 – I never encountered a living thing I didn’t like. – Everything needs help to survive and they must get it from friends.

31 July 2015 – Condensed thoughts compilation from Probaway’s 2015 blog – This list also appears in the list at the top of probaway.wordpress.com as 2015.

Revisiting the Pain Scale in search of comfort.

Tags

ACE Adverse Childhood Experiences, pain, pain scale, PAINS~1, PCE Positive Childhood Experiences

Over the years I have posted many articles on pain, and I created the Pain Scale below to clarify what pain is, how to measure it, how to control it, and how to predict its probable future duration. Now I want to consider hidden pain: how to identify it, and how to prevent much of it.

Pain Scale – For measuring intensity of human pain – click to enlarge and make printable

Previous posts:

Measuring Pain in old people.
Measuring pain in old dying people
Pain Scale for Intensity Measurement and Management
The measured pain level varies with the injury type
The Pain Scale for measuring suffering and alleviation of suffering.

Pain injury to muscles and an estimate of the recovery time.

Risk of death measured by CriSTAL, Glasgow Coma Scale, RTS and START
Swearing eases pain, but causes other problems.

How can you know when someone is in trouble and refuses to acknowledge it? The Pain Charts above would give some idea of when an intervention would be called for, even if the person insisted they were okay. For example, any person who has experienced a physical or emotional PAINS~11 for one minute – Horrible; it hurts so much I have trouble walking – will according to the Recovery Time Chart still be suffering uncomfortable PAINS~5 a year later. These may be below awareness much of the time, but in a quiet time they will assert themselves into consciousness.
How to improve your ACE test score.

Adverse Childhood Experiences versus Positive Childhood Experiences chart

When we look further into a suffering person’s past, all the way to their childhood, it will become obvious that if the Recovery Time Chart is meaningful, then a single severe beating as a child will have noticeable effects thirty years later. Adverse childhoods probably don’t have a single beating but many, and thus the recovery would be even longer, and perhaps impossible without a deep retraining of the multitudes of automatic habits. Also, habits that form later in life are grounded in the already existing ones, and if these are formed within a world of pain they will be responding with pain-avoidance behaviors rather than love-seeking ones. Once again –

Raise children in an environment supportive of their explorations and comforting of their pains.

Condensed thoughts compilation from Probaway’s 2015 blog

Tags

Condensed thoughts, Condensed thoughts 2014

Condensed thoughts Probaway

January 2015

01 January 2015 – Probaway – Person of the year 2015 – Peter Higgs and Alan Guth – They discovered particles that could be found anywhere in the Universe, that are fundamental to our existence.

02 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 23 – If you are distracted quickly recognize that you have lost that moment for maintaining tranquility.

03 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Kindness – The greatest acts of wisdom are simple acts of kindness.

04 January 2015 – Progress review for Probaway and modern society – This blog began with a list of Life Hacks for creating a better world with good habits.

05 January 2015 – Imagine There’s No Heaven by Mitchell Stephens – book review – If God is incomprehensible to man, it would seem rational never to think of Him at all.

06 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 24 – The world is constantly making demands on us to do things that take us away from our personal duty to ourselves.

07 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Energy – A person without a present purpose has no energy and soon falls into despondency.

08 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 25 – Sometimes a friend gets a perk you would prefer had come to you, but that decision was some other person’s choice.

09 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Reliability – No one is reliable who is expected to act against their own self-interest.

10 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 26 – We can choose how we respond to inevitable events.

11 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Tranquility – Being courageous, constructive, and kind are the fruits of tranquility.

12 January 2015 – The Wisdom of Donkeys – by Andy Merrifield – review – My aim has been to clarify how the goal of tranquility, so prized by the Stoics, might be generated in our modern people.

13 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 27 – Our world does not exist intending for us to miss out on opportunities.

14 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 28 – To maintain control of your inner self is your personal responsibility.

15 January 2015 – Easy diet, easier diet, easiest diet. – Leave something on my plate for Grandma!

16 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Freedom – Without free speech there is not even the possibility of any of the other rights.

17 January 2015 – The Marshmallow Test by Walter Mischel – Book review – I think, therefore I can change what I am.

18 January 2015 – You can’t cure stupid, especially Detroit stupid, stupid, foolishness. – You can’t cure stupid, but sometimes even fools can cure themselves with forethought.

19 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 29 – To become a Stoic is easy to do once you are willing to abandon the wonderful things society pretends are available to you.

20 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Desire – The sage’s desire is to help another being find their way.

21 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 30 – Be content with the past, because there is nothing you can do about it.

22 January 2015 – The Bonobo and the Atheist by Frans DeWaal – Book review – Why not assume that our humanity, including the self-control needed for a livable society, is built into us?

23 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 31 – It is important to have a proper piety toward society’s gods, its ideas of justice, and whatever it is that created our universe.

24 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 32 – Remember the man who was violently cast out of the Delphi Oracle for asking if he should defend his brother, who was about to be murdered.

25 January 2015 – The Tao Teh Ching – #10 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – When training your self in the use of your secret source,
hold close to your essence and thus avoid dispersal.

26 January 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Ethics – Being ethical means doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons.

27 January 2015 – Risk of death measured by CriSTAL, Glasgow Coma Scale, RTS and START – What are the criteria that guide our medical people in triage decisions?

28 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 33 – Right now give some thought as to how you will behave when alone, and how you will behave towards others when in public.

29 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 34 – How you will feel a year from now about having accepted a pleasure, and how you will feel about having rejected it.

30 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 35 – If you can’t do the job correctly don’t start it, but if it is within your abilities, do a competent job, and ignore those who disparage you.

31 January 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 36 – Demonstrate your appreciation to your host by behaving appropriately, which usually means modestly.

Condensed thoughts Probaway February 2015

01 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 37 – When you choose to do some job that is beyond your ability, it is likely that you will fail, so do jobs where you will be successful.

02 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 38 – Never through lack of caution hurt your ruling principle of carefully seeking tranquility and contentment.

03 February 2015 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – 03 – The effort is now being shifted to tracking down every case of Ebola, and every contact made by each sick person.

04 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 39 – Pause for a moment and consider the endless new troubles you will acquire when putting on another man’s shoes.

05 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 40 – In Roman times girls attempted to get married quickly by making themselves as attractive as possible to marriageable men.

06 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 41 – It demonstrates a lack of judgment to spend excessive time exercising, eating, drinking, and copulating.

07 February 2015 – Saint Augustine’s analysis of lying – Even truth thought false by the sayer is a lie.

08 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 42 – When a man treats you badly or speaks badly of you, remember that he is coming from his own experiences.

09 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 43 – Choose the view that he is your friend and you have always solved your differences. Then approach the problem from a place of common interest.

10 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 44 – A man standing before you is neither his property nor his style; nor are you.

11 February 2015 – Will computer minds find an inherent meaning to the Universe? – Are the evolutionary goals of a Universal superintelligence even conceivable to humans?

12 February 2015 – Convert all of the Universe’s silicon into intelligent material. – To survive and reproduce oneself is the goal of an evolving silicon living system.

13 February 2015 – Vint Cerf discusses 1000 year storage of digital information – Digital vellum will make our current digital information available to people a thousand years in the future.

14 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 45 – If you don’t know why a person did a particular act, you don’t know if he did it well or poorly.

15 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 46 – Instead of showing off your knowledge, demonstrate it in your actions.

16 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 47 – Do things to maintain your own self-control over your body, but don’t tell anyone you are doing these things. They are for you.

17 February 2015 – St. Augustine’s Confessions – But, where does all of his abundance come from? It comes from Jesus’ idea that you should “help others live and live more abundantly.”

18 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 48 – A Stoic expects all benefits and harms to come from within himself.

19 February 2015 – Attention with kindness yields the best love. – Even arguing and fighting is a form of personal acknowledgment and validation.

20 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 49 – Nothing of value comes to me until I actually attempt to use the information that I acquire.

21February 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Love – Love is an expression in actions of the respect for another’s intentions.

22 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 50 – Your self-chosen rules’ function is to train you to personally gain control of yourself and your habits.

23 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 51 – Prepare now, because every moment of your life is a now, and it will be met with all that you have to offer.

24 February 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Lies – To lie to another convincingly trains one’s own self to lie to oneself, and thus to voluntarily ruin one’s own character.

25 February 2015 – The Tao Teh Ching – #11 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Clay may be molded into a cup, yet – From the void within arises the utility of the cup.

26 February 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 52 – We must never lie or everything becomes meaningless.

27 February 2015 – The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert – book review – The impressive thing about humanity creating this world-wide sixth extinction is that “we are doing it without even trying.”

28 February 2015 – My controversial jelly bean diet kills desire to continue eating. – The three jelly bean diet has been the easiest diet I’ve created, so far.

Condensed thoughts Probaway March 2015

01 March 2015 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 53 – I choose to influence only that which is within my ability, and be content with the rest.

02 March 2015 – How to save the frogs of the world. – The freezing of frogs is a method for saving the frogs and probably some other species from extinction.

03 March 2015 – I am aware. – I enjoy the awareness that I am aware of my awareness and of its rareness.

04 March 2015 – Speak in complete sentences. – I have a habit of speaking too briefly and expecting whomever it is that is listening to fill in the missing words.

05 March 2015 – When an unknown opportunity knocks at least open the door. – The world is still filled with many potential unknowns that are easily discovered.

06 March 2015 – How to love one’s self. – Cultivate the habit of being loving to oneself through kind actions toward other people, because it generates the habit of being loving and kind to oneself.

07 March 2015 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – 07 March 2015 – If not treated the death rate from Ebola is greater than ninety percent.

08 March 2015 – How to drink beverages for greater pleasure. – Why beer tastes better from a glass than a bottle is because it flows over more of the tongue.

09 March 2015 – Living with a Wild God by Barbara Ehrenreich – review – Revealing a life of pain doesn’t help others find a path to tranquility.

10 March 2015 – Intelligence coupled with free will is not to be trusted. – People want security and a person exercising free will is unpredictable.

11 March 2015 – Superintelligence – Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom – review – Superintelligence is still in its infancy; what will its childhood be like?

12 March 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Gratitude – A demonstration of gratitude is a sure sign that a person is awake.

13 March 2015 – How Google Works by Eric Schmidt & J. Rosenberg – review – This is a great book for the one-in-a-million person applying to Google, but for most other general readers it will be a put-down.

14 March 2015 – Confirmation bias and be careful what you wish for. – Samumpsickle said, “Yep. That I can do, but is that what you really want?”

15 March 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Truth – Truth is often symmetrical with other truths, but also sometimes with falsehoods.

16 March 2015 – Adverse Childhood Experiences versus Positive Childhood Experiences – comments – I would like to meet people who have low ACE and high PCE scores.

17 March 2015 – Index of EarthArk category’s posts – A list of 115 EarthArk posts from the most recent to oldest.

18 March 2015 – Give thanks to Gravity. – It would be an orientating thing for us to go to our ultimate source of being and give thanks to The Four Fundamental Forces of Nature, for being so consistent and dependable.

19 March 2015 – Adverse Childhood Experiences versus Positive Childhood Experiences – This new chart adds numbers to each test’s items, one through ten. It also reformats the page so the two tests align each item for item.

20 March 015 – A photograph of a rainbow, moon and rainy street. – It was an overly abstract story for a camera club that talks a lot about cropping and blurry backgrounds.

21 March 2015 – Potential enemies of the EarthArk project – These are the profit-minded people who want to bring all life forms under their personal control, using DNA manipulation techniques.

22 March 2015 – Humanity must survive its dangerous moments to continue existing. – You and humanity must survive every deadly instant before your offspring can exist.

23 March 2015 – Do a quicker and easier EarthArk before it’s too late. – Start your personal EarthArk today, by putting seeds in a bucket.

24 March 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Evil – Evil is in the motivations of humans who willfully choose to injure people or other living things for personal pleasure.

25 March 2015 – The Tao Teh Ching – #12 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – The artists’ colorful works make your eyes too sensitive; the musicians’ melodic notes make your ears too delicate; the gourmets’ succulent flavors make your tongue too refined.

26 March 2015 – Dome Argus in Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. – The EarthArks can save millions of species, but they must be in place to do it.

27 March 2015 – Antarctica – A year on ice – movie by Anthony Powell – review – A year on ice will open your spirit to understand more soulfully where you now live.

28 March 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Doubt – Doubt is a momentary condition between the choice of options that can lead to depression when a decision can not be made.

29 March 2015 – I live within inertia and so do you. – A person 80 years old would have experienced 2,524,608,000 seconds of potential free will decision making.

30 March 2015 – A useful upgrade in percent % notation system. – If society learns to replace the % sign with p/00 we will make the meaning of the numbers more obvious.

31 March 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Death – Living is the astonishing thing in the Universe, as non-life is the default condition.

Condensed thoughts Probaway April 2015

01 April 2015 – Is suicide a free-will option, or is it a destiny? – Is it the champions of other people’s needs who are the most in need of help?

02 April 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Pain – Avoid pain by doing the right things at the right times.

03 April 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Wisdom – True wisdom is invisible because it brings tranquility, contentment and a quiet life.

04 April 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Contentment – It feels better to enjoy what you have than suffer over what you want.

05 April 2015 – The exit strategy of Kelsey Collins – I speak to the living – do little kind acts frequently.

06 April 2015 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – 06 April 2015 – Develop a weakened virus that can be sprayed into bat colonies.

07 April 2015 – A pleasantly tranquil walk in downtown Bend, Oregon – If you can look forward to helping someone live a better life you are needed and wanted.

08 April 2015 – Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot (OVER) – review – The only thing that consistently reduces population is lack of food, and starving is a terrible way to die.

09 April 2015 – What is the question we should be asking about our life? – I wasn’t, I am, I won’t be, and I am content with all of those?

10 April 2015 – Our habits are magnetically attached to confirmation bias. – What feels right at the moment is dependent on what happens to attract our attention at the moment.

11 April 2015 – The Unpersuadables by Will Storr – review – We are all unpersuadables – and once you realize that, you can be more comfortable with yourself and kinder to all those other foolish people.

12 April 2015 – My sad change of opinion – A government of the entrenched rich, by the entrenched rich, and for the entrenched rich that shall never ever perish from the earth.

13 April 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Success – The easiest road to personal success is found in being kind to others.

14 April 2015 – What do you want? – I came to my wish: “To let the world progress as it was going to do without my suggestions or my garden gnome’s help.”

15 April 2015 – In the shadows of unknowns – Use falsifiability as the starting point, as opposed to using it as an ending point proof of the not quite rightness of a theory.

16 April 2015 – Do what you want to do … but … – Do what you want to do, but give others the opportunity live healthier lives because of your actions.

17 April 2015 – Categories are only in our heads. – People believe they can claim superiority over others, because they exist on a higher plane, a more significant reality.

18 April 2015 – Be nicer. – It is not the helping of people that is desired, but their perception of being cared for personally.

19 April 2015 – How can we find truth? – The pirates who can somehow become legitimate will eventually triumph.

20 April 2015 – Your world might expand like mine just did. – The people are coherent wholes, and will explain themselves well, if given a chance.

21 April 2015 – I have opinions based on observations. What are yours based on? – Part of the fair play of conversation is to admit you are wrong when you are proven wrong.

22 April 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Grief – Grief is like the Laocoon snake, slowly squeezing the living breath out of now.

23 April 2015 – The good, the bad and the ugly of Ebola – To the research people weaponizing disease I would say – Remember that we and you too are part of humanity.

24 April 2015 – How do we identify wisdom? – Wisdom is the ability to find the exact thing that will make a difference, and the ability to propagate it virally.

25 April 2015 – The Tao Teh Ching – #13 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Honors and dishonors will disturb your equanimity; and when you think highly of yourself, your body will be filled with suffering.

26 April 2015 – The good and bad of prayer, and finding a better way. – When we pray for what is, and what will be, and what has been, our prayers will always be answered.

27 April 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 0 – Let me expose my confirmation biases, as best I can, to clear the way forward as much as I am able.

28 April 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 1 – The world is filled with many problems and many paths, and we have need for help along a proper path.

29 April 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 2 – Asking an undefinable entity to help one with human problems introduces a huge gap into reason and responsibility.

30 April 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 3 – To seek to live in a world of fantasy is what we are specifically guided away from.

Condensed thoughts Probaway May 2015

01 May 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Goals – If you don’t do something you won’t get anywhere, and you are eternally stuck where you are.

02 May 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs– 4 – I ask of my inmost being to validate life’s potential force.

03 May 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 5 – Let me embrace the past as it was, the present as it is, and the future as it will be.

04 May 2015 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – 04 May 2015 – During an epidemic most people would prefer to wear a health status badge than to die of an avoidable disease.

05 May 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 6 – The only way to avoid rewards is for the helping action to be done in secret, and therefore let my every kindness go unobserved.

06 May 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Resilience – Resilience is the conviction that the goal is worth the effort.

07 May 2015 – Should women be drafted into military service? – Drafting all people, men and women, into an army sets up a whole nation to be brutal and become ugly and miserable.

08 May 2015 – My prayers begin to transcend humanity’s needs – 7 – I pray that at every moment as it occurs I am ready to participate. I am ready … now!

09 May 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Ignorance – One who refuses to observe reality will always be ignorant, and one who bases his actions on ignorance will always behave foolishly.

10 May 2015 – It’s time to say hello to our new reality. – Let us do what we can to bring a humane morality to this astonishing new world.

11 May 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Imagination – Until worldly facts convince the imagination of their functionality, imagination based on random experience will control our actions.

12 May 2015 – Thoughts condensed from the popular world – #93. Commit to your task and finish it with enthusiasm.

13 May 2015 – Yes, I’m on a spiritual path! – Our writing group chose to write for ten minutes about the word “path”. Click to read my little 149 word essay.

14 May 2015 – How to improve your ACE test score. – It’s impossible to change the past, but you can change your relationship to the past by retelling it in a helpful way.

15 May 2015 – You can’t have the impossible. – “You can’t have the impossible” sounds like an obvious falsehood, but it’s an obvious truth.

16 May 2015 – Prayers for the new millennium – Humanity needs a goal to have a purpose, to feel comfortable with ourselves, within our vastly expanded universe.

17 May 2015 – A typical Sunday for me – I left intellectual Berkeley, after 50 years, with some trepidation for the small resort town of Bend, Oregon. It’s different but wonderful.

18 May 2015 – A prayer for tranquility and contentment – Treat other people in a way that will maximize their tranquility within themselves and support their contentment with the world around them.

19 May 2015 – A quiet day, but memorable for me – It’s quite a pleasure having people respond positively to something I’ve done, because it is such a rare event.

20 May 2015 – How can I promote tranquility fairly? – People are who they are and creating tranquility in them is aided by accepting them as they are, a vast array of self-promoting habits.

21 May 2015 – Fear can be a good emotion or very bad. – Fear can drive you to be sensible. Don’t take unnecessary risks, and don’t ignore real ones.

22 May 2015 – Doing something worthwhile makes you feel good. – Do something worthwhile for other people, not something destructive and hurtful, or simply a waste of personal and public resources.

23 May 2015 – How to make a vertical take-off and fast horizontal flight copterplane. – The copterplane would go much faster and further than a helicopter, but others are pursuing it now.

24 May 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Judgment – A thoughtful man thinks about what he knows and figures things out from observed facts.

25 May 2015 – The Tao Teh Ching – #14 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Before something exists, you may draw it into existence; and
after it exists, you may draw it into non-existence.

26 May 2015 – Migraine prodrome visual pattern variations on colored backgrounds – I did an experiment where smooth colored areas matched the color of my scotoma, and it nearly vanished, but when shifting my gaze to a visually complex area it returned.

27 May 2015 – 10 things you know to be true – Within seconds everyone was bent over their notepads, writing furiously. When done we each read our efforts. Wow.

28 May 2015 –When shouldn’t we help other people? – Don’t help others if it hurts anyone; thus don’t help if it hurts you, don’t help if it hurts them, and don’t help if it hurts the health of society.

29 May 2015 – How can we identify actionable information? – Actionable information is that which enhances your overall survival and heritability.

30 May 2015 – We can’t predict the future very well and therefore …   – Have the reserves ready so you can act quickly and appropriately to rare problems.

31 May 2015 – What are the questions you should be asking today? – How can I learn to ask better questions?

Condensed thoughts Probaway June 2015

01 June 2015 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Desire – To make your future life tranquil and contented intentionally choose to do things that will help you to be tranquil and contented in this moment.

02 June 2015 – Choose reality over fantasy and your life improves. – Change the way you see things to conform to reality, and your reality improves.

03 June 2015 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – 03 June 2015 – It might be possible to catch Ebola years later when a refugia organ site, like an eye, is ruptured, and the virus enters the blood system or infects a caregiver.

04 June 2015 – Discovering blank spots in our human reality – Infinitely close to everything in the Universe will be unknowable to us forever, but we can choose to enjoy what we do perceive.

05 June 2015 – Zebrafish, CRISPR, Plague Inc., and computer-generated DNA – Several of my Probaway Person of the Year choices get blended into a single scientific experiment.

06 June 2015 – Existentialism and reality are avoided by most humans. – Existential reality is too demanding for most humans so they choose to become willing slaves to an ideology.

07 June 2015 – Learning from a moment of forethought, a moment of action, and a moment of meditation. – An upgrade to a quiet mind, and a generalized quest for a better relationship with the world in general and ourselves in particular.

08 June 2015 – Thomas E. Lovejoy of World Wildlife Fund & Founder of PBS series Nature – My thought after the lecture was, to save humanity create ways for people to make money taking CO2 and other problems out of the environment.

09 June 2015 – Preparing for problem solving with pleasure – When we know we need to be flexible in our approach to a problem we should intentionally get ourselves into a pleasurable state of mind.

09 June 2015 – A powerful variation on quiet meditation – This loud variation on the usual quiet meditation reveals unexpected opportunities.

10 June 2015 – How can I learn to avoid fear and pain and be effective? – Be more effective by intentionally making your personal presentations less fearful and more joyful and positive.

11 June 2015 – Is ultimate truth subjective? – Truth in all of its guises is always an agreed upon approximation.

12 June 2015 – Watch for kindness and you will see it. – Asking for people to be kind, humorous and wise seems attainable to everyone.

13 June 2015 – It is easy to live better by avoiding anxiety and pain – When you have eliminated the sources of your anxiety you will decrease your experiences of anxiety.

14 June 2015 – Who decides what is true? – We decide at every instant what is true, who we are and who we will become, so choose wisely my friendly reader.

15 June 2015 – Do we have a duty to live or to die? – Our duty is not to be an unwelcome burden to ourselves or others.

16 June 2015 – What is beauty to humans? – Some of us were feeling the Universal as beauty, some were thinking of it as truth, and all of us were enjoying it immensely.

17 June 2015 – The good and bad of hitting age 80 – Old age isn’t for sissies, it’s for flexible, fun-loving, personal-purpose finding people.

18 June 2015 – Training the behavior of organisms like dogs – Here are some working suggestions for helping you and your dog into a cooperative relationship.

19 June 2015 – What is our duty to the Universe as intelligent conscious beings? – We are creating sililife (silicon life) but once it is established it can take whatever time is necessary, even billions of years, to do its evolutionary thing.

20 June 2015 – Hillary Clinton can become President of the United States – Creating impossible dreams brings people to failure, disillusionment, grief, despondency, and early death.

21 June 2015 – Curious conversations in Bend, Oregon – Curious conversations would be a true reality show about ordinary people’s personal stories.

22 June 2015 – Notes for creating a tranquil life with better habits – When some action doesn’t seem right, that is the moment to choose a better habit.

23 June 2015 – How can we thrive in our uncertain world? – To help others to live within their reality is something I can do, and so can you.

24 June 2015 – Show up, pay attention, give it your best, and let it go – Repeat – means frequently returning from one’s own inner thoughts to the external thoughts of the group.

25 June 2015 –The Tao Teh Ching – #15 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – It is impossible to predict sages’ obscure behavior, but
their actions always seem simple and obvious.

26 June 2015 – If you are going to do something well, do it every day. – If you are going to do something well, do it every day, but choose it wisely so it will be helpful to everyone.

27 June 2015 – Charles LeRoy Scamahorn USAF 1960 – I got my wings, but a year later both the Air Force and I decided I could serve our country better as a civilian and we parted ways amiably.

28 June 2015 – When do people ignore you? – People only see the pretty surface and only taste the sugar coating.

29 June 2015 – A meditation for stoics. – A tranquility and contentment meditation for everyone, even atheists and stoics.

30 June 2015 – Only when we look does reality stare us eye to eye – Some quatrains from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam with some stoic comments.

30 June 2015 – Condensed thoughts compilation from Probaway’s 2015 blog – This list also appears in the list at the top of probaway.wordpress.com as 2015.

How to improve your ACE test score.

Tags

ACE versus PCE, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Human development, Improving your ACE response, Positive Child Experiences

It’s impossible to change the past, but you can change your relationship to the past. The Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) test is a list of ten simple yes or no questions about one’s personal bad experiences as a child. My previous blog post Avoiding Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) and creating Positive Child Experiences (PCE) gave statistics for how strong a predictor of a troubled adulthood the ACE test can be; and another previous post, Adverse Childhood Experiences versus Positive Childhood Experiences, provided a chart, shown below, that had intentionally opposing questions about childhood. This post will give some suggestions for how one might change their relationship to an adverse past into a more positive one. It is based on changing habits that are self-destructive into ones that are self-constructive.

Adverse Childhood Experiences versus Positive Childhood Experiences (ACE versus PCE)

Read through the numbered ACE questions and compare them to the numbered PCE questions. I contrasted them to make an alternate questionnaire, because there is more to having a good childhood than just not having a bad one. ACE question #10, Did a household member ever go to prison? is compared to PCE #10, Did a household member ever receive a public-sponsored award? I would include in the public award such things as being elected to a leadership position in an organization. It is possible to answer both of these questions with a yes, which is also true of all the other questions. The questions don’t cancel each other out, but by having a Positive Childhood Experience, a person does have more potential for a positive self-image and for positive habits to have formed in their childhood. Also, most adults will be able to find some positive behavior in their family members, even if it isn’t as pronounced as in the questions, and they can choose to remember those events; and by choosing to remember the positive events, and choosing not to dwell on the negative events we can to some degree reprogram our memories of our childhood to be increasingly more positive.

Each time we have the opportunity to tell a story about our childhood experiences we can pick one that reveals the good side of our guardians’ behavior and of our good times with those people. When we must talk about something negative, we can intentionally choose to put a positive spin on the story. For example, if our father was an alcoholic, we could say, “Yes, dad got drunk sometimes, but he always got up and went to work on time. He was a thoughtful provider.” Or, “Yes, he did go to prison, but there he had the time to cultivate some of his natural skills, and now he has some paintings he made in a local art show, and has a good job in construction.” Or, “He yelled at me a lot as a child, but I remember the times he defended me from the local bullies.” When telling these stories about your early years make a point of acknowledging the bad in a single word, but then talking for a long time about the various positive actions you can remember.

Every time you retell a story about some particular event about your guardian, try to remember even more of the positive things that happened, and at some point mention how those things have improved your life. By remembering the positive things about your past you will create a more positive foundation for living your future.

 

 

Is suicide a free-will option, or is it a destiny?

Tags

ACE, ACE Adverse Childhood Experiences, Coping with one's history, Freewill, PCE, suicide

The last few days have been gloomy for me because a friend of mine committed suicide. It wasn’t absolutely unexpected, because she had a poor ACE score, and her son had committed suicide several years ago. However, she had decided never to let that stand in the way of living life to the to the limits of its joy. She was our local Tony Robbins of can-do exuberance, and gave us wonderful monthly lectures on how we too could achieve her striking success in life. I had rewritten my ACE versus PCE chart to include her as my personal example of someone who wasn’t trapped by her negative past experiences. It appeared she had done everything necessary to turn a potential life of despair into one of continuously transcendent joy. Even when she was sitting still watching someone do their thing she was radiating exuberance.

Adverse Childhood Experiences versus Positive Childhood Experiences (ACE versus PCE)

In last week’s update of the  ACE-PCE test (PDF) I had added the line, “Of course many of the most successful people score poorly on these quizzes, and they may be the most valuable friends of all, because they learned how to cope with the most difficult of life’s problems.” I specifically had her in mind when I posted those words. … And now this?

Somehow, to retain my own confirmation-biased view of my world, I must make sense out of her sense-destroying act. As far as I know she never read the chart above, so I don’t think it had anything to do with her action, but she does throw into confusion my belief that people can choose to rise above their terrible childhood and extreme adulthood traumas. I just wrote a blog about free will a couple of days ago and had scheduled it but it was not yet posted when she ended her life. It’s titled, I live within inertia and so do you. It’s about the tiny effect our free will of the moment has on the momentum of the vast number of free will decisions of our past actions.

In her conversations of the last several weeks she had repeatedly spoken of her son’s suicide, and the voluntary quality of that act. She spoke with approval of his taking charge of his own life, and his voluntary ending of it. I sensed she was having some life stress, and I had a slight feeling that she was condoning suicide a little too strongly, but it seemed so abstract, and referring only to other people’s decisions. The feeling behind that idea was weak compared to the energy she exerted when talking about the various techniques for coping with life’s problems. It seemed strange that one of her last lectures was on the subject of lying. Everyone was astonished at the subject, but it was a great lecture, and enthusiastically received.

Is it the champions of other people’s needs who are the most in need of help?

Living with a Wild God by Barbara Ehrenreich – review

Tags

Barbara Ehrenreich, Struggle for existential identity, Wild God

This is a beautifully written autobiography about a pitiful life trajectory. Barbara’s life is a disaster in her youth through no fault of her own, because of her childhood, and she scored high on the Adverse Childhood Experience ACE test. Her alcoholic parents were depressed and later suicidal. They physically beat her when small, verbally abused her to the end of their lives, and even when she tied for first place in school condemned her for not beating her academic rival. She was on a path to self-destruction through most of her life and never formed lasting relationships with her husbands and many boyfriends. Because of her learning to write well at an early age, probably because she was constantly reading excellent books, she became able to express ideas to perfection.

Living with a Wild God by Barbara Ehrenreich tells of a desperate search by a nonbeliever in God for the truth about everything. She is fully versed in the problems of belief, and rejects Saint Augustine’s most famous statement, Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe, because it violates common sense. On page 232, she writes, “I believe nothing. Belief is intellectual surrender; ‘faith’ a state of willed self-delusion.” Thus it appears that she refuses to lie, even to herself, just because it would give her some existential relief. She claims to feel alone in a vast and unfeeling Universe, and yet to me she seems to be adored by a vast and supportive public.

For me the best statement in the book was on page 236, “To ask why is to ask for a motive or a purpose, and a motive has to arise from an apparatus capable of framing an intention, which is what we normally call a mind. Thus the question why is always really the question who.” This problem plays right into Pamela McCorduck’s main idea in her book, Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence. Also, that idea is the core of this year’s question at edge.org.

Barbara Ehrenreich’s life story seems reminiscent of Richard Rhodes. He too suffered a terrible childhood but rose to literary prominence writing about the sufferings of humanity.

Revealing a life of pain doesn’t help others find a path to tranquility.

Condensed thoughts compilation from Probaway’s 2014 blog

Tags

Condensed thoughts 2014

Condensed thoughts Probaway

January 2014

1 January 2014 – Jennifer Doudna and her team have created the ability to insert stretches of DNA exactly where they want them to go in a living chromosome’s DNA.

2 January 2014 – We lived and lived and nothing happened, and that’s as it was and should be.

3 January 2014 – The real interest is in finding new ways for humans to live more abundantly, and not so much for exploiting humans striving for personal superiority.

4 January 2014 – When you have eaten exactly enough for perfect health, place one jellybean in your mouth and slowly savor it.

5 January 2014 – “We lived and lived and nothing happened.”

6 January 2014 – Accept that some unknowns will remain unknown and participate fully in what you do know.

7 January 2014 – Topics worthy of discussion are those where verifiable truth can have some positive progress.

8 January 2014 – You are conscious of your life and you can choose to use it wisely.

9 January 2014 – These scientists are among the human heroes peeling away the obscurity and revealing the knowables within the previously unknown.

10 January 2014 – When the benefit of contact is humanity’s survival, the effort to make contact with UFIB becomes infinitely important.

11 January 2014 – Reclaim your adaptive energy by cleaning out stress-promoting habits.

12 January 2014 – “I resolve to be kinder to people, and to help them achieve their goals!”

13 January 2014 – I don’t want to learn I want to do…To create greater functionality for myself and others.

14 January 2014 – When a man is alone it is him against the whole world, and that is soon acknowledged to be dangerous and untenable.

15 January 2014 – Getting organized is like arranging the furniture, but keeping organized is closer to dieting in that it requires repeated efforts.

16 January 2014 – Buy what you need, not what you can afford.

17 January 2014 – Living is doing, and the function of observing is learning to do more effectively.

18 January 2014 – At the beginning of a meal, have a jelly bean placed on your plate for each ten pounds you hope to lose.

19 January 2014 – To help other people to find their personal goals and do what is necessary to move toward them.

20 January 2014 – Help people by acknowledging their efforts.

21 January 2014 – Everyone will accept who you are if you clearly expose who you are, and some of them will love you as you are.

22 January 2014 – Doing productive things together is the best of family life.

23 January 2014 – Teaching to current controversies generates life-long interest in learning relevant things.

24 January 2014 – Consciously take control of mental consciousness while doing physical exercises that are distracting to the point of pain.

25 January 2014 – War is dangerous! Don’t resort to war except when forced to it by the necessities of the nation.

26 January 2014 – Knowing what will succeed and what will fail, before anyone else does, is the very heart of successful strategy.

27 January 2014 – Is your interpretation of The Golden Rule selfish or expansive?

28 January 2014 – Ngrams from Google is a wonderful tool for observing the change in literary interest of individual words.

29 January 2014 – Without free speech there is not even the possibility of those other rights.

30 January 2014 – Controlling one’s emotions begins by learning to control shame.

31 January 2014 – An index of the Probaway blog site from 2008 – 2013

Condensed thoughts Probaway February 2014

1-12 February 2014, is a list of post titles from — January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December — 2008

13 February 2014 – The real paleo-adaptation of our species is flexibility of our behavior.

14 February 2014 – Swearing is a cry of momentary loss of control, and chronic swearing is symptom of unresolved chronic failures.

15 February 2014 – The path to slavery, “is to believe what you do not comprehend; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”

16 February 2014 – The only good thing to ask of the Universe is for it to continue to behave as it sees fit.

17 February 2014 – People must be fitted to the jobs they will be likely to perform.

18 February 2014 – Some male cuttlefishes’ ability to disguise themselves as females, and thus slip past the jousting bigger male cuttlefish, and secretly mate with the females, was the key selective factor for their camouflage abilities.

19 February 2014 – The outcomes sought for behind the concepts of faith, hope and love can be better attained by confidence, optimism and kindness.

20 February 2014 – Deep Learning will bring tremendous bounty to those who can use it.

21February 2014 – A performer has done a fine job if they have inspired one person in the audience to be more productive.

22 February 2014 – Ignore the impossible and achieve the possible and you will live a life of quiet contentment.

23 February 2014 – Pollyanna type actions will bring about a worsening of the very things they claim to be improving.

24 February 2014 – Collect better support for your argument, and avoid presenting false information as true fact.

25 February 2014 – A Postscript on Accurate Information

26 February 2014 – When you do a kind act you are practicing all the virtues.

27 February 2014 – Get on the euphemism treadmill, or get destroyed. Your choice.

28 February 2014 – You can truly say, “Of all who live, I am the one.”

Condensed thoughts Probaway March 2014

1-12 June 2014 are lists of post titles from 2009 — January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December – 2009.

March 13, 2014 “Light from Many Lamps” exposed wonderful ideas that were there for us all along, but were lost in the mist of the universal library.

March 14, 2014 We have the natural physical DNA wiring to easily learn many general things, like language, social customs, and morality.

March 15, 2014 The Happiness Scale is a measure of personal growth, and a template for future actions.

March 16, 2014 Light from many lamps – Quotes on mature actions – part 1

March 17, 2014 Light from many lamps – Quotes on mature actions – part 2

March 18, 2014 Light from many lamps – Quotes on mature actions – part 3

March 19, 2014 Light from many lamps – Quotes on mature actions – part 4

March 20, 2014 Light from many lamps – Quotes on mature actions – part 5 My rewrites.

March 21, 2014 Everyone has their own ideas, and your kindness is to help them clarify their ideas.

March 22, 2014 “Genius is the capacity of seeing what is not seen by other people.”

March 23, 2014 What can you do? Do that!

March 24, 2014 Especially during times of stress be open, clear and kind.

March 25, 2014 The Tao Teh Ching: Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Preface

March 26, 2014 Life is an activity, it is the doing of actions. So do something!

March 27, 2014 Being kind is the sanest thing you can do.

March 27, 2014 I clear the way, that they might live and live more abundantly.

March 29, 2014 Probaway person of the year – 2015 – contender Alan Guth

March 30 2014 Search and rescue upgrade for people lost in wilderness

March 31, 2014 Always carry aspirin in your wallet next to your money.

Condensed thoughts Probaway April 2014

1-12 April is a list of post titles from — January-February-March-April-May-June-July-August-September-October-November-December, — 2010

13 April 2014 Using a two part space-station connected with a cable an artificial gravity can be created and removed without expending any additional energy for the whole interplanetary mission.

14 April 2014  Humans are already nice because that’s what women have consistently chosen for breeding partners.

15 April 2014  Our kind deeds live forever in the form of enhanced human self-interest, which expands to all life’s self-interest, and to intelligence’s self-interest.

16 April 2014  When you have a scientifically defensible position assert it clearly, boldly and with an example. Let your audience cope with seeing the conflict with their previous untestable and unprovable assertions.

17 April 2014  We are in control of our actions of the future, but not of our actions of the instant present.

18 April 2014  There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home!

19 April 2014  What are predictors of super success in life?

20 April 2014  It would appear that the terror of the machines being in control already exists.

21 April 2014 Although these weeks at the Encampment for Citizenship may not sound like a typical success story, in fact they were the emotional foundation for quite a few more successful actions later in my life.

22 April 2014  Putting a few drops of your own blood into a raw dry-tooth socket may save you some grief.

23 April 2014  There are many pleasant paths for us to explore, but we must choose to explore them.

24 April 2014  In the infinity of the future it would seem inevitable that terrible things will happen. Now in times of calm thought and potential reflection is the time to prepare ourselves for appropriate action.

25 April 2014  This same Tao seems to possess different qualities
When we approach it in different ways.

26 April 2014  Without free speech based on published and enforced law you have no rights at all.

27 April 2014  Writing something down, especially in an indexable form as is now done on a computer, makes it more easily available, and more used and thus more valuable.

28 April 2014  When a machine is intelligent enough to design better intelligent machines an evolutionary process will soon make ultra-intelligent ones far surpassing human capabilities.

29 April 2014  The message to American youth – take charge of your life and your future by personal actions, and found a company.

30 April 2014  I like humor, and “Make sex unpleasant” is a good quip because of its obvious functionality, but utter unpopularity.

Condensed thoughts Probaway May 2014

1 – 12 May 2014, are lists of post titles from — January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December, – 2011

13 May 2014 – John Anderson – a good companion when walking out together into a very big and very beautiful world.

14 May 2014 – When an individuals freedom to think is limited, their adaptive ability is lost and their eventual failure is certain.

15 May 2014 – It’s by applying proper actions to one’s self that we will create habits with beneficial results.

16 May 2014 – It is cheap to prepare for black swan events, and devastating to endure them when unprepared.

17 May 2014 – The eudaimon helps others by removing those others’ impediments, and in doing so sets their own habits to removing impediments from their own inner selves possibilities.

18 May 2014 – If you are serious about long term survival, it’s better to live in New Zealand.

19 May 2014 – Black swan events are not pre-known, but their effects are not unknowable, and they can be prepared for and used.

20 May 2014 – We humans can never know ourselves very well, but our computers may soon become totally self-aware.

21 May 2014   Are you are fattening yourself on stuff that is a toxic waste?

22 May 2014 – A beautiful theory has a symmetry that generates symmetrical ideas.

23 May 2014 – Knowing what you don’t know is as valuable as knowing what you do know.

24 May 2014 –  Sometimes, I am smarter than a dog, but I must see through his mind.

25 May 2014 – When people call one thing beautiful, They generate a contrast, and thus
Ugliness is also brought into being..

26 May 2014 – For a person to destroy valuable goods and kill many people that someone must have a powerful reason.

27 May 2014 – If you wade through a drunken slough you deserve a drink of cool water.

28 May 2014 – Our whole civilization looks powerful, and it is, but it is also fragile, and stressed.

29 May 2014 – We can learn how to deploy our search resources, based on what has been found to be most effective from our past experiences.

30 May 2014 – One typical tip-off that an idea is questionable is that it gives you comfort if you simply believe it to be true.

Condensed thoughts Probaway June 2014

1-12 June 2014, are lists of post titles from — January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December — 2013.

13 June 2014 – To some degree, we are our brothers’ keepers, and we may choose to replace Adverse Childhood Experiences with Positive Childhood Experiences.

14 June 2014 – By 2100 there will be a sovereign global law, or there won’t be any laws.

15 June 2014 – It is strange to say, but the Rift may bring an end to humanity’s major problems.

16 June 2014 – We are not only the descendents of apes, we are the descendents of thinking women.

17 June 2014 – Your Rift perception of the moment will soon become the reality of your entire Universe.

18 June 2014 – Trust the one who has “his own skin in the game” to serve his own self-interest.

19 June 2014 – Cleanse your arteries, and keep them clean, by increasing your heart rate and blood flow to a higher level at least once a day.

20 June 2014 – Women must be given the final choice on whom they marry or humanity will wither and die.

21 June 2014 – An idea is only useful if it can be used, and is used.

22 June 2014 –  If you want to live to an old age, and have a reasonable hope that your grandchildren will live a healthy life, you might consider supporting some explorations into creating a world law with a single enforcer.

22 June 2014 – We must find a way to impose an acceptable world law.

23 June 2014 – Sex and death do have a fundamental traction in our reality because underlying them are the Darwinian principles of personal survival and species DNA survival, but they aren’t everything.

24 June 2014 – Useful new ideas come out of conflicting old ideas with validity only from a point of view.

25 June 2014 – By creating reactions without performing visible deeds, You may lead all to live in harmony.

26 June 2014 – Our perception is always in the past, our intentional action is always in the future.

27 June 2014 – It is layered feedback that makes a search work better.

28 June 2014 – I project thoughts into the abstract and the artificial, but in two years you will be starting to live it in your reality.

29 June 2014 – I spent some time sitting in the proposed UU sanctuary speculating on the events that will come to that place.

30 June 2014 – Condensed thoughts from Probaway’s June 2014 blog posts

30 June 2014 – Condensed thoughts semiannual compilation from Probaway’s  2014 blog

Condensed thoughts Probaway July 2014

1-12 July 2014, are lists of post titles from — January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December — 2014.

13 July 2014 – In the end good sense triumphs over fantasy, and the reasonable people live more happily.

14 July 2014 – The Universe permits all things that can be done and prevents all things that can not be done.

15 July 2014 – What can we do, but participate and enjoy our lives?

16 July 2014 – The City Council was so embarrassed about their speed ditches idea they repaved them, but they are still visible.

17 July 2014 – Survivors of extended horrific experiences have astonishing stories of their coping with the impossible.

18 July 2014 – When seeking man-eating tigers not seeing one is the perfect hunt.

19 July 2014 – Recognize the difference between the impossible and possible, the known and doable, and the unknown and the possibly doable.

20 July 2014 – By practicing standard transactions in an improv way people become more fully human.

21 July 2014 – The point of these improv games is to flex one’s mind and find new patterns spontaneously.

22 July 2014 – Fantasy celebrity families are surprisingly dysfunctional, which makes them interesting, and reasoned analysis is clear so it’s boring.

23 July 2014 – New life could come into existence spontaneously at present but it would be eaten immediately by our modern advanced organisms.

24 July 2014 – When arguing fantasies, avoid the questions of fact, because there are no facts that can be discussed, argue the application of the story.

26 July 2014 – Becker’s book “Escape from Evil” was an effort to transcend his “Denial of Death.”

27 July 2014 – I want to communicate to my friends the function of their brain and of their intelligence is to promote their long and healthy life.

28 July 2014 – The ability to learn proper social behavior is built into our genes; it is an automatic process, as easily done as is our ability to learn a language.

29 July 2014 – The attitudes of confidence and optimism are supportive of kindness; they all support each other and they are mutually inclusive, but kindness is in the actions.

30July 2014 – Without time you can do nothing, and without your attention everything is meaningless.

31July 2014 – Now is a wonderful time for action for those who are prepared to act.

Condensed thoughts Probaway August 2014

01 August 2014 – The goal s to stay involved in the existence you find yourself immersed within.

02 August 2014 – The internet and Google Earth, Street Views and photos can make paper novels come alive with visual details.

03 August 2014 – It is having an intention to do something helpful for yourself and for others that gives your life meaning.

04 August 2014 – We can choose to accept the reality that has existed, exists, and will exist and choose to be content with it.

05 August 2014 – Elder-hood can easily contain the most wonderful moments of a person’s life.

06 August 2014 – What can be done to maximize humanity’s happiness?

07 August 2014 – If Marcus Aurelius can not bring rational Stoicism to the world, who can?

08 August 2014 – Probaway Person of the Year, award – an arm rising from the sea with a seashell for a flame to symbolize wisdom and accomplishment.

09 August 2014 – When one makes a statement it seems to be an automatic reflex to come up with proofs of the verity of the thought.

10 August 2014 – A way to say and learn a person’s name.

11 August 2014 – Next time I will put wheels under my story so it will go any which way.

12 August 2014 – Inferno by Dan Brown – book review – Inferno was fun enough, but I must be paid well to read another of Dan Brown’s books.

13 August 2014 – Finding a cancer destroying bacterium would save billions of lives. – Once cancer-eating microbes were found they could be artificially selected to hurry along the most beneficial ones.

14 August 2014 – I’m on my hands and knees looking for the Skeptic in Bend – Now that I am officially geriatric it is probably better to be in a quieter community.

15 August 2014 – Making up improv games as we take our evening walk. – To do these games without missing a step becomes possible with a little practice, and I suppose this activity would satisfy the directors of the CDC as social, mind flexing, physical exercise.

16 August 2014 – The Earth Ark is humanity’s only hope for survival. – I have thought this through in many different ways trying to make it simpler and cheaper.

17 August 2014 – We lived and lived and nothing happened. – It was a delightful conversation, enhanced by an orange setting sun, a great variety of clouds, some with lightning bolts, and of course playing dogs.

18 August 2014 – How do I communicate to the public? Slogans? T-shirts? Posters? Comedy? ? – Booze – Better than Therapy! Once you become sensitized to the horrible advice coming at us from every directions it is surprising that people are as functional as they are.

19 August 2014 – I am not an atheist, but some of my friends claim to be. – I see my responsibility as being to reality and ethically to knowable humanity and not so much to a postulated being totally outside of my experience.

20 August 2014 – Are we human and do we know what is good for humans? – We are human and we do know what is good for humans, but we must choose the right forms of pleasure to seek.

21 August 2014 – The teller of the story is its greatest benefactor. NOT! – When we mask our real problems with a fantasy of artificial constructs that create beautiful hopes, we are on the path of self-destruction.

22 August 2014 – We always do what we think is right. – The problem then becomes how do we program our own inner zombie to react optimally to the various situations to which we will be exposed.

23 August 2014 – I was bait and switched !!! – This was a classic bait and switch if ever there was one.

24 August 2014 – I love you just the way you are. – They were encouraged to look in the mirror several times per day during different situations and moods and say to their reflection, and to their self,

25 August 2014 – The Tao Teh Ching – #5 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Nature contains a void: It responds to everything in the universe as excess, and Everything is drawn into its void.

26 August 2014 – Drink for pleasure not for pain. – “If wondering if you need another drink, you don’t.” It’s easy to say, “No thank you, I’ve had enough.” If people insist you take another, “Just say NO!”

27 August 2014 – Whom should we follow, and whom should we avoid following? – You can cope with your problems better when you are sober.

28 August 2014 – Pain and fear of pain are driving people’s actions. – Most pain and most fear of pain can be avoided by creating surplus in place of scarcity.

29 August 2014 – World population history graphed and smoothed. – 5000 ~ 0.005 ~ 5 million humans at 5000 BCE
4000 ~ 0.01
3000 ~ 0.02
2000 ~ 0.05
1000 ~ 0.1 ~ 100 million humans in 1000 BCE
1 CE ~ 0.2
1000 ~ 0.3
1626 ~ 0.5
1825 ~ 1. ~ One billion humans in 1825 CE
1925 ~ 2.
1975 ~ 4.
2000 ~ 6.
2025 ~ 8. ~ Eight billion humans in 2025 in eleven years ?

30 August 2014 – Aristotle and an Aardvark go to Washington by Cathcart – book review – – The Aardvark is a shortish book, with smallish pages, but it’s essential reading for every politician and newscaster.

31 August 2014 – Why did some skinny actors get fat? – The famine victim’s only counter is the conscious effort to stop eating when everyone around them is eating, and that is near impossible.

Condensed thoughts Probaway September 2014

01 September 2014 – Exploring the idea of games for creating habits of kindness. – To begin this process we need people raised from childhood with the practice of kindness as a virtue.

02 September 2014 – Why do some people thrive on intense experience? – The goal of risk takers must be something very important!, but what is it?

03 September 2014 – Why do people need supernatural motivations? – The cure – create a fantasy that you pay money to satisfy that will give your life meaning.

04 September 2014 – Are we ranking unimportant things as important? – Before any act that gives us physical anxiety that wells up from the gut, it is reasonable to ask, is the potential payoff worth the risk?

05 September 2014 – Antifragile is essential for implementing known projects. – One who is locked into things remaining exactly as they are will eventually fail, because if anything is certain it is that things will change.

06 September 2014 – How we might live forever, or at least much, much longer. – Stem cell implantation is speculation, of course, but it gives a direction for research.

07 September 2014 – Prepare a noble death song said Chief Tecumseh, 1813 – My postulated death song then becomes helping other people to a more abundant life.

08 September 2014 – Jack the Ripper returns again and again, and now it’s DNA. – Why did the Huffington Post article have so much linking to Doyle and nothing about Aaron Kosminski, today’s Ripper suspect?

09 September 2014 – Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates. – The book ends with the hippo not getting in a single grunt, but Saint Peter says to him, “Today’s your lucky day, Hippy!”

10 September 2014 – People around me create their own meaning for their life. – In the end it is what we have accomplished in our lives through completed actions that matters.

11 September 2014 – Action is driven by thoughts, and better thoughts bring better action. – Action is driven by thoughts, and better thoughts bring better action.

12 September 2014 – Things are good and people strive for their top values. – The Maturity Chart does point the way for people to grow in maturity and thus to cope better with themselves and with the world.

13 September 2014 – 2500 of Probaway’s condensed thoughts are now available. – Now is the time take a step up the maturity scale.

14 September 2014 – The dark side of Darwinism is the death of living things. – Only five generations of modern medicine are probably already having measurable deleterious effects.

15 September 2014 – The EarthArk Project made even easier. – The task at present is to purchase a shipping container, preferably one that can be refrigerated, in Christchurch to receive The Earth Ark envelopes.

16 September 2014 – Everyone I meet is convinced they are right. – So if you have read this far you probably agree, and didn’t need to read this blat in the first place.

17 September 2014 – Plantar fasciitis is in the news again. Here’s the cure. – Stretch the tendons and their little fibers slowly out to the point of mild tension, hold for a few seconds, stretch a little farther and hold for a few more seconds.

18 September 2014 – How to cure all human problems. – Once you clearly realize those things over which you have no influence, you can ignore them and go about enjoying your life.

19 September 2014 – Are US magazines in trouble? – Is the quality of advertising a magazine is willing to use a measure of the quality of the material it is willing to publish?

20 September 2014 – Maximizing total human potential is my goal. – Of course nature will inevitably win, no matter what we do.

21 September 2014 – An Akashic records session was inspiring. – There was a quickness of speech, followed by a brief quiet, and then another quick response, followed by another second of quiet.

22 September 2014 – Information is vanishing! – Hopefully the newer style of search engine strategies based on meaning will be more efficient at discovering the more mature ideas, and revealing them to the public.

23 September 2014 – The New York Times doesn’t know how to live. – To live well is to participate in your opportunities and to be content with the results.

24 September 2014 – The very 1st B-52 bomber flight lands at Moses Lake. – How can we have a human population ten thousand years in the future equaling that of ten thousand years ago?

25 September 2014 – The Tao Teh Ching – #6 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – The power to create voids never vanishes.
It is the magic source.

26 September 2014 – The Life Haven Project needs a retired cruise ship. – It is so remote from anywhere that only someone really prepared would endure the difficulty of going there.

27 September 2014 – David Deamer has another shot at Probaway Person of the Year – In a few years you may have your DNA on a memory chip because of David Deamer.

28 September 2014 – A World Lit Only By Fire, by William Manchester – review – Our wonderful world totters on the precipice of a new dark age that will be far darker than the previous one.

29 September 2014 – World population history tweaked. – World population from 5000 BCE to 2025 graphed on a logarithmic chart. The data is smoothed but within error bars of demographers.

30 September 2014 – Ebola case and death projections. – If Ebola establishes itself in several places outside of equatorial Africa, those dotted lines may become indicators of the greatest plague of all time.

Condensed thoughts Probaway October 2014

01 October 2014 – Update on my life risks as of my 79th birthday. – When there is an epidemic one could prepare to isolate oneself from contact with other people as much as possible.

02 October 2014 – How to prevent Ebola, the common cold and infectious disease. – Millions of people could be trained in days not to touch their mouths, eyes, and noses by having capsaicin sprayed on their fingers.

03 October 2014 – We need to maximize free speech and minimize suffering. – Free speech benefits everyone because accurate information is essential to expose inaccurate information and this promotes adaptation to reality.

04 October 2014 – Ebola compared to historical epidemics and wars. – Logarithmic charts are good for showing biological growth, which is how Ebola behaves, and we humans are now its food.

05 October 2014 – Help elbow Ebola out of existence. – Help stop Ebola transmission with the elbow greeting, a capsaicin finger treatment, and public touched places covered with antiviral gloves.

06 October 2014 – Spinoza – Theological-Political Treatise – Foolish speech based on fantasy must always be challenged with honest speech based on reality.

07 October 2014 – I live in the best of all possible worlds. – I accept the fact that whatever is beyond my influence I will not influence.

08 October 2014 – Calm your mind by replacing the big anxiety with a little one. – Calm your mind by replacing the big anxieties with a smaller one that can be solved, and when it is solved go back and fix the big problem with a clear mind.

09 October 2014 – Truth, Beauty, Joy, Action, Kindness and Contentment. – Contentment is available to those of us who are willing to abandon the quest for more of the material good things of life, to function wholly within those things readily available to us.

10 October 2014 – Stop Ebola with physical separation methods list. – The intent of these suggestions is to create as much physical separation between people as possible for the duration of the Ebola epidemic.

11 October 2014 – Life is not the default state of matter. – Once we accept our place in the Universe our lives become more meaningful because we then strive to help our fellow creatures to live their lives more fully.

12 October 2014 – Poets Squared Off In Quotations – Searching for their magic. – “The truth is out there!” is a false statement, because truth is a mental construct about something, and therefore it isn’t out there it’s in one’s mind.

13 October 2014 – Ebola – Comments on UN News Centre reports. – The new name EVD meaning Ebola Virus Disease just makes a confusing acronym.

14 October 2014 – How to stop being depressed. – Set enjoyable goals, even high ones, for yourself, but ones that you can fulfill; and avoid impossible goals as you will only fail and then be depressed.

15 October 2014 – The Ebola panic may come with the winter flu season. – Life naturally fills all niches available to it.

16 October 2014 – Ebola projection graph compared to Black Death – The sooner we implement the policy of physical separation the sooner Ebola will go back to zero cases.

17 October 2014 – Ebola – links to good source information and objective news. – The only effective control of Ebola is the physical separation of the virus from people.

18 October 2014 – What do I believe that’s false? – Religion is based on questionable assumptions, so do I believe in some things that are false?

19 October 2014 – Ebola updated logarithmic chart compared to war and disease. – The only effective control of Ebola is the physical separation of the virus from people.

20 October 2014 – Projections of Ebola’s response to effective vaccines. – TIME will tell, but it won’t tell for a year or more.

21 October 2014 – Ebola and sex – We must hope there is zero chance of transmission via sex.

22 October 2014 – Nature’s Imperative is to survive and reproduce. – Never challenge Nature’s Imperative to survive and reproduce, because you are going to lose.

23 October 2014 – The problem with faith unlimited by reality. – “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe” sets in place a system that rewards submission to human authority and discounts natural reality

24 October 2014 – Probaway’s handout kit for treating Ebola. – The Probaway 10-day Ebola survival kit.

25 October 2014 – The Tao Teh Ching – #7 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – The Universe is eternal and the Earth is long-lasting; They have existence, yet they do not strive for self.

26 October 2014 – A distribution plan for an Ebola home treatment kit and posters. – For diarrhea drink a quart of water with 1 teaspoon salt plus 8 teaspoons sugar.

27 October 2014 – Some problems with Ebola reporting. – – Until a vaccine is available – the only effective control of Ebola is the physical separation of the virus from people.

28 October 2014 – Ebola S1 [Subject 1] Emile Ouamouno of Meliandou, Guinea – Here is the Ouamouno family when Emile is about two, shortly before he caught Ebola.

29 October 2014 – The coming confusion of flu symptoms with Ebola symptoms. – Being infected with a large dose doesn’t give the body enough time to develop antibodies for eliminating the Ebola virus.

30 October 2014 – West Point, Monrovia, Liberia, responds to Ebola. – Until a vaccine is available – the only effective control of Ebola is the physical separation of the virus from people.

31 October 2014 – Ebola survivors are the most valuable people on Earth today. – Life Day – honoring those people who have risked their lives for humanity’s preservation.

Condensed thoughts Probaway November 2014

01 November 2014 – Ebola traced to Meliandou, Guinea, and the carriers are revealed. – The Ebola virus must remain in a carrier’s body fluid to survive. Koumba died only three days after onset of symptoms in the local hospital in Gueckedou.

02 November 2014 – Projecting the future of Ebola from November 2014 into 2015 – When a person is dehydrated they can not fight off infections and then they get much sicker and often die.

03 November 2014 – How we can help Post-Ebola syndrome sufferers. – We must support Ebola survivors by giving them well paid work that only they can do safely.

04 November 2014 – How can we accomplish anything? – God said, “I am that I am,” and I would encourage you to follow that example.

05 November 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – Introduction – At its best our life is like a Stoic Improvisation. – You are a tiny character in a great play the eternities choose.

06 November 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 1 – Some things are within our power to influence such as our thoughts, opinions, emotions, physical actions and creation of personal habits.

07 November 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 2 – Observe that your choice to get something good creates the hope of obtaining it, and your choice to avoid something bad generates the expectation of it not happening.

08 November 2014 – How to monitor potential Ebola carriers fairly but effectively. – Millions of phones and thermometers are available and only a few thousand would be needed to do this form of monitoring.

09 November 2014 – A hazmat suit for Ebola or entering a hospital for voluntary surgery. – In a short term desperate situation you could make a hazmat suit out of garbage bags and duct tape.

10 November 2014 – World population graphed logarithmically and smoothed. – This chart helps you stay oriented to what humanity is as a species.

11 November 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 3 – Everything of which you are aware, from the tiniest to the grandest, has some value to you.

12 November 2014 – “Kindness costs nothing,” claims an Irish proverb. – Kindness is revealing a worthwhile goal to another person that is attainable with doable actions.

13 November 2014 – What is the hierarchy of wealth? – People the world over find having about an average amount of money for their local social group provides the most sense of living well.

14 November 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 4 – When about to do something, for example going to a public swimming pool, consider what type of activity it is, and what kinds of things happen there.

15 November 2014 – Demonstrations of why we all see the world differently. – Our brain is filled with the images created by our experience, and these images modify what it is we see in the moment, and what we mean when we talk about these things.

16 November 2014 – Make what you want to do fit in with the conditions which will prevail when you are done. – Perhaps the best we can do as a person, or as a species, or as DNA is to “Live long and prosper.”

17 November 2014 – What is worth saving? DNA, Life, Humanity, Civilization, anything? – By then the problems should be obvious enough that effective actions will be needed and desperate actions attempted.

18 November 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 5 – What diverts us from our daily life of equanimity isn’t life’s difficulties themselves, it’s our habitual responses to them.

19 November 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 6 – Don’t take personal pride in the fine qualities of another being.

20 November 2014 – Quadcopter search and rescue system with multiple homebases. – The alternate recharging landing pads could be located anywhere there is easy access, and need be little more than a battery with an automatic hookup capability.

21 November 2014 – TIME – Person of the Year 2014 – Popularity list – This is a list of amazingly productive people, but when considered from a 500-year fame perspective, who begins to compare with Neil Armstrong?

22 November 2014 – How many days for Ebola to become symptomatic and infective? – Even a single virus can cause the disease, but it takes many days before it manifests any symptoms.

23 November 2014 – Prepare for the big events by practicing on the little events. – Everyone could improve their daily tasks by practicing them in an intentional way.

24 November 2014 – Always capitalize the word We. – In Our lives You and I are empowered by becoming a We.

25 November 2014 – The Tao Teh Ching – #8 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – It is because water does not contend, That water is not contended against.

26 November 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 7 – You must keep things in readiness and never stray far from your life’s boat, and be instantly ready to obey its demands.

27 November 2014 – Strive to be courageous, self-reliant, and kind in all actions. – The inner qualities like hope, faith and love because they are internal will go to the grave with one’s death

28 November 2014 – The Meaning of Human Existence by E. O. Wilson – review – Perhaps the Stoics will be comfortable in their quest for contentment with existence as it presents itself to be lived.

29 November 2014 – Of Human Bondage – W. Somerset Maugham – review – He has a moment of future reflection, and realizes he will be much happier with a warm and loving wife as a respected small-town doctor.

30 November 2014 – World Health Organization (WHO) Global Alert and Response (GAR) – Let’s employ these Ebola survivors rather than put healthy people at risk.

Condensed thoughts Probaway December 2014

01 December 2014 – Courage and hope compared. – To have courage is to be able to think and perform well even under difficult conditions.

02 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 8 – Choose to accept that things will happen as they have happened, as they are happening and as they will happen, and you can live contentedly.

03 December 2014 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – A positive indicator is that the large amount of money and personnel being invested on stamping out Ebola is now beginning to show.

04 December 2014 – Kindness and loving compared – There is more to love than kindness, but the point is that love must be expressed in some way for it to be meaningful to the other person.

05 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 9 – Illness is a challenge to the comfort of the body but not to the will of the mind.

06 December 2014 – Julian by Gore Vidal – book review – From that decision everything goes badly, and soon Julian was killed, possibly assassinated, and the Christians take over.

07 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 10 – Every time something happens to you it is an opportunity to fine tune your responses to that type of problem.

08 December 2014 – Abundance stubs my toe. – The advantage for most people using this chart is that they can quickly tune into the type of actions they should seek and those they should avoid.

09 December 2014 – An evening with Steve Layman and his goshawks – It is wonderful listening to someone talk about a subject he really knows and on which he is doing experimental research.

10 December 2014 – Going Dark by Guy R. McPherson – book review and video links – If we have a finite number of years on the planet, why not bring out our best right now.

11 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 11 – Avoid saying of lost possessions, “I have lost this thing,” but rather say, “I have given it back to where it came from.”

12 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 12 – Avoid, “If I don’t maximize my income I will have nothing to live on, and if I don’t routinely punish those who serve me they will treat me badly.”

13 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 13 – Let others observe that you react to external events with only a passive interest, and seek no reputation for having any particular ability to do anything.

14 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 14 – It is foolish for you to wish for impossible things, such as your wife, children, or friends should live forever.

15 December 2014 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – 15 December 2014 – TIME magazine has designated its Person of the Year 2014 to be The Ebola Fighters.

16 December 2014 – Ebola offers a unique opportunity for policy improvement. – Future public policy should be that survivors of epidemics are to be sought out and immediately trained as basic caregivers.

17 December 2014 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Dreams – When chasing a dream you must be careful, because while you keep your eye on the goal you must also keep your feet on the path.

18 December 2014 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Maturity – Live life to the fullness of the moment, even when that moment is one of dying.

19 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 15 – Remember to behave politely in all your life’s encounters as you would at a formal dinner party.

20 December 2014 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Action – Fine actions are better than fine words because they change things for the better.

21 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 16 – Future public policy should be that survivors of epidemics are to be sought out and immediately trained as basic caregivers.

22 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 17 – Your role in the grandeur of existence is as an actor in a play, and your part is to be as the author wants it to be.

23 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 18 – To the Stoic improviser all the worldly happenings about him are opportunities to exert his personal character and make something good of it.

24 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 19 – You will never be defeated if you never enter a contest you can lose, because those honors of status are dependent on externals, and won’t bring contentment.

25 December 2014 – The Tao Teh Ching – #9 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – When you fill a cup to the very brim it is hard to use;
When you sharpen a knife to its very keenest,
It is dull at the first stroke.

26 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 20 – Be aware that curses and blows are not emotionally hurtful, but rather your interpretation of them is what creates emotional anguish.

27 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 21 – Think briefly on death every day, and exile too, and every other horrible thing, but briefly.

28 December 2014 – Epictetus – Enchiridion – A manual of Stoic living. Paragraph 22 – If you play your role consistently, those who formerly doubted you will accept you as you are, and then it will be even easier to maintain your tranquility.

29 December 2014 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Abundance – It is a great awakening to realize how very little you need of the abundance that is readily available.

30 December 2014 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Wisdom – Because wisdom foresees the future, there is rarely a time when it leads to desperate situations requiring desperate actions.

31 December 2014 – Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) logarithmic chart update – 31 December 2014 – The first Ebola case, Emile Ouamouno, often played under a huge tree only fifty meters from his house. That tree was reported to be the nesting place of many bats.