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Showing posts from December 29, 2024

Brain "warshing"

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I prefer to pronounce brainwashing with an Ohio or American Midland Dialect. "Warsh". Its a catchy pronounciation. Step one of any effective brainwashing is to eliminate any notion or self-evidence of brainwashing. "I am absolutely sure I am not brainwashed. I am an American. I believe in the individual. I believe that all of my ideas and thoughts are my own." Those thoughts are a good starting place. The fact is that you, as a human, are a herding animal. It is a lesson that I found in my time in Antarctica and watching my own herding animals. "No man is an island" --John Donne (1572–1631). Is also a good start. We are all affected by our instincts. Tribalism being one of them. Many of us have lost a lot of our instincts. When we loose enough we probably fall somewhere into the vast ontology and categories of mentally ill. So, You are what you eat, both informationally and physically. Think different. Use what you learned in school about empathy. Pr...

Columbia, Guyana, and Suriname

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We are back-- again. This time from Northern South America. As we planned, we spent midnight Christmas eve in a new and interesting place. We were at 35000 ft above the Eastern Venezuela jungle. We had a flight leaving Bogota at 11:00 PM arriving in Georgetown Guyana at 3:00 AM. We have noticed at lot of what you might call "odd hour" flights outside the US. It makes sense, the Western world (West Europe, US, etc.) connects with these flights. It makes sense to schedule flights as "connecting". On our initial flight from Atlanta to Miami one of the passengers was arrested when we landed. We don't know the details, but it was noteworthy and a minor inconvenience. After we landed, the pilot came on the PA and admonished the cabin crew "Do your Jobs". He left the airplane shortly afterwards while were requested to stay in our seats. Eventually, We are allowed to deplane and the police showed up to deal with the person. Subsequent segments took us to...