Saw this Bill Maher film a while back, and while it's not a very fair or even handed treatment of the subject of religion, it does beg the question of a standard code of civilized behavior, which is free of religious compulsion. Note that I am not referring to a code of ethics, which is distinct and different, being, being defined by both situation, and culture. I'm talking, as it were, of a code of conduct here.
Some of us, including some corporate entities, have adopted, and utilize such a code. However, I cannot, right now, think of one that has been documented and codified, other than simple credos, such as google's "do no evil". There is the Hippocratic oath, which begins with, "First, do no harm", but that is specific to the occupational field of medicine, and it's related corollary, the principle of Ahimsa, is, in fact, a religious tenet of the Jaine sect of Hinduism.
I'll see what I can find...
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Students and Teachers
A guy in NA used to say, "There's students and there's teachers.", meaning, "some people watch others and learn from their mistakes, while some people make mistakes which other people learn from."
Well, if I could only learn from my own mistakes, I'd be doin' good. I wonder if there is any real understanding, out there, of our tendency to make certain mistakes over and over again. Let's see...
- Here's a fairly comprehensive recital of the pragmatic issues, as a tutorial on addiction.
- A fairly cursory overview of the physiological issues, ca. 1999, of addiction.
- A slightly more comprehensive physiological overview of addiction, ca 2000.
- A more recent psychiatric investigation into the mechanisms of addiction and learning. Now we're getting a clue.
In the background visual, the formation of hydrogen bonds is shown explicitly. However, the repulsive forces between the electronegative oxygen poles are just as important. It is the continual conflict between the two that produces the oscillation. Both attractive and repulsive forces function to maintain the oscillatory system. The longevity of the oscillatory system is dependent on the balance of these two opposing forces. The better the balance, the greater the longevity of the system.
However, it should be noted that a maximally static system, exhibiting only mild activity, would still be oscillatory, although the oscillations would be infinitesimally small. The potential influence of additional external forces, applied in a chaotic way, are also worth consideration. I still think it's a great model.
Well, if I could only learn from my own mistakes, I'd be doin' good. I wonder if there is any real understanding, out there, of our tendency to make certain mistakes over and over again. Let's see...
- Here's a fairly comprehensive recital of the pragmatic issues, as a tutorial on addiction.
- A fairly cursory overview of the physiological issues, ca. 1999, of addiction.
- A slightly more comprehensive physiological overview of addiction, ca 2000.
- A more recent psychiatric investigation into the mechanisms of addiction and learning. Now we're getting a clue.
In the background visual, the formation of hydrogen bonds is shown explicitly. However, the repulsive forces between the electronegative oxygen poles are just as important. It is the continual conflict between the two that produces the oscillation. Both attractive and repulsive forces function to maintain the oscillatory system. The longevity of the oscillatory system is dependent on the balance of these two opposing forces. The better the balance, the greater the longevity of the system.
However, it should be noted that a maximally static system, exhibiting only mild activity, would still be oscillatory, although the oscillations would be infinitesimally small. The potential influence of additional external forces, applied in a chaotic way, are also worth consideration. I still think it's a great model.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
ch... ch.... ch... Changes
Like the old David Bowie song, you know...
Those are water molecules forming iso-octamers, via hydrogen bonding.
Like Trysh used to say "Believe it. It's Happening.". All the time.
Like they say in those inner city NA meetings, whenever anybody says "God is good", everybody else responds with "all the time".
We, human beings, are something like 98% water. Iso-Octamer formation, and all sorts of other aqueous behavior is happening within us, all the time.
Like our heartbeat, all the time.
Like our breath, all the time.
Like eating.
Like Sleeping.
Like laughing.
Like crying.
All the time.
...until it stops.
Those are water molecules forming iso-octamers, via hydrogen bonding.
Like Trysh used to say "Believe it. It's Happening.". All the time.
Like they say in those inner city NA meetings, whenever anybody says "God is good", everybody else responds with "all the time".
We, human beings, are something like 98% water. Iso-Octamer formation, and all sorts of other aqueous behavior is happening within us, all the time.
Like our heartbeat, all the time.
Like our breath, all the time.
Like eating.
Like Sleeping.
Like laughing.
Like crying.
All the time.
...until it stops.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Yay!!!
this is the first post of my new blog. I'm more interested in how it looks than what it says, which really means that I'm more interested in what it says by the way it looks, than what it says directly.
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