This is an excerpt from the March 2012 edition of Popular Science:
Regar and the Central American patient proved that humans could survive, indeed thrive, with no pulse.....Rather than augmenting an existing heart...they would replace it entirely with two turbines, one to do the work of the left ventricle and one to do the work of the right.
Last March, they got their long awaited chance. A 55year old man named Craig Lewis showed up at the Texas Heart Institute with a case of amyloidosis....Lewis had slid form perfect health to death's door in less than a year.
The doctors attached him to a heart lung machine, and another device took over function of the kidneys. He kept going into cardiac arrest, though, and staying attached to the machines was no longer feasible in any case. "That's permissible for only 5 days, and he was on day 14,"
Cohn says...."There was no way he was going to survive a heart transplant; the amyloid would have attacked it."..... Cohn removed Lewis's disceased heart and replaced it with a pair of Heartmate II's.
Two days after surgery, Lewis sat up in bed and spoke with his family. An aspiring engineer, he even sketched ideas for how better to hook up the heart....The patients liver failed so bad that within 5 weeks, he lost consciousness and his family asked Cohn to witch the heart off. But he'd gotten those 5 weeks time to say goodbye. And he'd left a legacy.......
This excerpt is taken from a larger story on how they have already replaced in part or the total function of the heart with a small turbine. It is a continuous pump that produces no beat. The article talks about 2 people on this planet who walk around not with a thump thump of the heart rhythm but flatlined, with blood flow and pressure. Wild.
What moved me about this article was the time this "heart" gave to Craig Lewis. It is interesting how we live our lives and what amounts to a large part of our awaking time, is spent on focusing on moving time along. By not being at work or some function or with boredom. Or doing all the things that we MUST do and not spending time on whats important or worse yet, wasting time in the worst possible way. It is an interesting dynamic that when we are out of time, what would would give or do for just a few days or even hours more.
There have been many a philosophical tale or story devoted to what would you do in your final days and that notion usually brings a great swell of emotion. Depending on various factors some people would think to engage in extreme sports, skydiving or base jumping, or getting a Corvette. Nearly everyone would make it a priority contacting loved ones, cherished friends and reconnecting with people lost to time and commitments. What might you do dear reader?
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Book review in less than 100 pages.
Sam Harris (author) often seems amused but possibly 'unenthused' about being part of what some have called him and his compatriots "The Four Horsemen". Of course I am referring to Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Dan Dennett and Sam Harris, a quartette of godless heathens. In a review of his book, A Letter to a Christian Nation, Sam Harris nails several arguments home with a basic and thought out candor that would make a fan of political correctness shudder. But thank our lucky stars we don't really care for "pc" here.
I don't mean to insult unnecessarily but I can see how both a book like this and reality as we Atheists put it, is indeed very insulting to those whos beliefs we attack here. People who put faith before reason would find this a very hard read undoubtedly because Sam along with millions of others find that faith should be the last ideal to be propagated through ones mind. But faith is the ideal held foremost to these peoples minds so there is very little common ground with which to begin to converse on these matters in the most polite way.
All that aside this book is in the format of an open letter. Its roughly 100 pages is an easy read not loaded with overblown rhetoric but it is fairly simple and to the point. Some have chastised it as being "fundamentalist atheist" while attacking christian fundamentalists. It attacks the bible. So how can you believe in being christian but not believe in the bible is beyond me but I digress. It makes strait forward points that get to the heart of the matter and it WILL get you thinking. I give it a 9/10 only for being short even though that was the goal.
A couple of the arguments which I will highlight here is: Somewhere in the world a man has abducted a little girl. Soon he will rape, torture, and kill her. If an atrocity of this kind is not occurring at precisely this moment, it will happen in a few hours, or days at most. Such is the confidence we can draw from the statistical laws that govern the lives of six billion human beings. The same statistics also suggest that this girls parents believe - as you believe - that an all powerful and all loving god is watching over them and their family..........One wonders just how vast and gratuitous a catastrophe would have to be to shake the worlds faith. The holocaust did not do it. Neither did the genocide of Rwanda, even with machete wielding priests among the perpetrators. Five hundred million people died from smallpox in the twentieth century, many of them infants. God's ways are indeed inscrutable......Of course people of all faiths reassure one another that god is not responsible for human suffering. But how else can we understand the claim that god is both omniscient and omnipotent?
Even if you don't accept that as a valid argument, as seen in genesis god wiped out the population of the earth himself or in revelation god will do it again, to the point of god doesn't care about death. It should at least set the stage for further arguments and get a person thinking.
If you think that it would be impossible to improve upon the Ten Commandments as a statement of morality, you really owe it to yourself to read some other scriptures.....we need look no further than the Jains: Mahavira, the Jain patriarch, surpassed the morality of the bible (and the ten commandments [mine]) with a single sentence: Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture, or kill any creature or living being.
Sam goes on to say which makes my point for my follow up: Imagine how different our world might be if the bible contained this as its central precept.
Reading the comment section of another review of this book, the commenter had this to say "Hasn't the 20th. century taught us anything? People like Hitler (who said he was christian but was not), Stalin, or Mao suppressed religion and murdered people who practiced it". Sam Harris says reason should win out but a government that murders its people, does that seem reasonable? SO, it should seem apparent but if not immediately so we should strive for building up that wall of separation of church and state that Thomas Jefferson fought so rightly for.
It is a secular state that atheists, anti-theists, and the like should and overwhelmingly do strive for but they usually don't get that point across. They, I, would like to see a world where reason wins out but that thinking is set aside for the singular, personal mind. The conversations we have should reflect this in that criticizing religious beliefs should be like criticizing any other fact or idea but that in no way means one should adopt a totalitarian view against such religious ideas on the scale of government. To separate church and state does not say to DISALLOW the building of a church or similar.
So go out and buy this book and get some neurons firing. In ending ↓↓↓ abraham going to kill his son on orders from god. Fortunately for Isaac god either changed his mind or figured he temped abraham enough.
I don't mean to insult unnecessarily but I can see how both a book like this and reality as we Atheists put it, is indeed very insulting to those whos beliefs we attack here. People who put faith before reason would find this a very hard read undoubtedly because Sam along with millions of others find that faith should be the last ideal to be propagated through ones mind. But faith is the ideal held foremost to these peoples minds so there is very little common ground with which to begin to converse on these matters in the most polite way.
All that aside this book is in the format of an open letter. Its roughly 100 pages is an easy read not loaded with overblown rhetoric but it is fairly simple and to the point. Some have chastised it as being "fundamentalist atheist" while attacking christian fundamentalists. It attacks the bible. So how can you believe in being christian but not believe in the bible is beyond me but I digress. It makes strait forward points that get to the heart of the matter and it WILL get you thinking. I give it a 9/10 only for being short even though that was the goal.
A couple of the arguments which I will highlight here is: Somewhere in the world a man has abducted a little girl. Soon he will rape, torture, and kill her. If an atrocity of this kind is not occurring at precisely this moment, it will happen in a few hours, or days at most. Such is the confidence we can draw from the statistical laws that govern the lives of six billion human beings. The same statistics also suggest that this girls parents believe - as you believe - that an all powerful and all loving god is watching over them and their family..........One wonders just how vast and gratuitous a catastrophe would have to be to shake the worlds faith. The holocaust did not do it. Neither did the genocide of Rwanda, even with machete wielding priests among the perpetrators. Five hundred million people died from smallpox in the twentieth century, many of them infants. God's ways are indeed inscrutable......Of course people of all faiths reassure one another that god is not responsible for human suffering. But how else can we understand the claim that god is both omniscient and omnipotent?
Even if you don't accept that as a valid argument, as seen in genesis god wiped out the population of the earth himself or in revelation god will do it again, to the point of god doesn't care about death. It should at least set the stage for further arguments and get a person thinking.
If you think that it would be impossible to improve upon the Ten Commandments as a statement of morality, you really owe it to yourself to read some other scriptures.....we need look no further than the Jains: Mahavira, the Jain patriarch, surpassed the morality of the bible (and the ten commandments [mine]) with a single sentence: Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture, or kill any creature or living being.
Sam goes on to say which makes my point for my follow up: Imagine how different our world might be if the bible contained this as its central precept.
Reading the comment section of another review of this book, the commenter had this to say "Hasn't the 20th. century taught us anything? People like Hitler (who said he was christian but was not), Stalin, or Mao suppressed religion and murdered people who practiced it". Sam Harris says reason should win out but a government that murders its people, does that seem reasonable? SO, it should seem apparent but if not immediately so we should strive for building up that wall of separation of church and state that Thomas Jefferson fought so rightly for.
It is a secular state that atheists, anti-theists, and the like should and overwhelmingly do strive for but they usually don't get that point across. They, I, would like to see a world where reason wins out but that thinking is set aside for the singular, personal mind. The conversations we have should reflect this in that criticizing religious beliefs should be like criticizing any other fact or idea but that in no way means one should adopt a totalitarian view against such religious ideas on the scale of government. To separate church and state does not say to DISALLOW the building of a church or similar.
So go out and buy this book and get some neurons firing. In ending ↓↓↓ abraham going to kill his son on orders from god. Fortunately for Isaac god either changed his mind or figured he temped abraham enough.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
http://graysprovocation.com/
Title of the post is the topic. Beware this website has nudity. I would not want you walking into a place or website and having your sensibilities damaged.
This picture above is a sample on http://graysprovocation.com/ and I first became aware of this site when I found one of his videos here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKfl94x3ptg Titled "Ode to 2011". The content on the official site is slightly different and I recommend going there instead of youtube. The way I found this was, I was browsing through a genre of music called dubstep. Dubstep is a take on electronica music which features a driving heavy bass beat with the possibility of "glitch" included. Here is an example of another dubstep song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7-XLL3nbYU . The first video is a remix of Massive Attack's Paradise Circus by Zeds Dead.
I rather enjoy the music alone but I find the video to be extremely attractive and I believe it falls under "art" and not pornography. That being said it is a super sexy video which the author seems to label as a short compilation. The cinematography seems to capture the feeling of the music, at least for me, and the bass effects. Not really having a story line does not detract anything for it has more than latent sexuality about it, that it should fire off enough endorphins to keep you interested.
It appears this artist works along the west coast featuring models from Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. On his site are a mixture of tasteful stills and videos. A preview of a new video appears that may have a little more of a violent edge mixed with sexuality titled Gun Metal Grey and only gives a hint at the music which appears to be of another dubstep song. I feel this is an artist who could use a little attention and I give him the "Sine Deo" endorsement. He does sell some videos at a nominal price and I'm sure that helps to keep bringing these sexy models to the "stage", if you will.
This picture above is a sample on http://graysprovocation.com/ and I first became aware of this site when I found one of his videos here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKfl94x3ptg Titled "Ode to 2011". The content on the official site is slightly different and I recommend going there instead of youtube. The way I found this was, I was browsing through a genre of music called dubstep. Dubstep is a take on electronica music which features a driving heavy bass beat with the possibility of "glitch" included. Here is an example of another dubstep song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7-XLL3nbYU . The first video is a remix of Massive Attack's Paradise Circus by Zeds Dead.
I rather enjoy the music alone but I find the video to be extremely attractive and I believe it falls under "art" and not pornography. That being said it is a super sexy video which the author seems to label as a short compilation. The cinematography seems to capture the feeling of the music, at least for me, and the bass effects. Not really having a story line does not detract anything for it has more than latent sexuality about it, that it should fire off enough endorphins to keep you interested.
It appears this artist works along the west coast featuring models from Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. On his site are a mixture of tasteful stills and videos. A preview of a new video appears that may have a little more of a violent edge mixed with sexuality titled Gun Metal Grey and only gives a hint at the music which appears to be of another dubstep song. I feel this is an artist who could use a little attention and I give him the "Sine Deo" endorsement. He does sell some videos at a nominal price and I'm sure that helps to keep bringing these sexy models to the "stage", if you will.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Vanity Fair
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/06/hitchens-proust-questionnaire-201006
Christopher Hitchens (13 April 1949–15 December 2011) has died of esophageal cancer. He admitted in part that, staying up too late with friends smoking, drinking to keep the conversation going may have been the reason that cancer formed. Not a whole lot I can say here about this 'demigod' that has not been said before but he may not been a teacher in the classical sense but he is one to learn a great deal from.
Having a female friend who gets Cosmopolitan, I see they have many surveys but they are a little too female oriented. Combining these two threads is the topic of the link above. It is safe for work and life. If I may, in defiance to ACTA/SOPA,PIPA and take this survey myself to enjoy a mental exercise:
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Pain, misery, hunger, sickness when these things are so easily fixed in our community and world by sheer economics of needing to maintain a society where profit rules supreme.
Where would you like to live?
The future; I would like to know more about the universe, the sciences of the mind, and where we were going as a civilization. Do we prosper or something worse?
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
non-contingent happiness. Some sort of intrinsic happiness.
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
To my appetite and sometimes to my listlessness
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
The characters of Star Trek.
Who are your favorite characters in history?
That's more difficult to nail down for history usually has a lens on it. I would say the writers of our constitution, or the many unnamed, often times soldiers, through time who stood up to tyrants, theocratic leaders, and despots AND who knew they were doing a moral right.
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
All those women who wrote under male names or anonymous
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Evey in V for Vendetta, Star Trek Heroins especially Uhura for a female character in a technical role that commanded respect and not subservience.
Your favorite painter?
If I can abuse the openness of the question I would say Bill Watterson, even though he may be more of an animator.
Your favorite musician?
How do I pick just one? In my teenage years the one group that was most influential for me was Korn.
The quality you most admire in a man?
Not being afraid to fail, while not possessing arrogance but still not being submissive to the thoughts of others.
The quality you most admire in a woman?
The same as above but with the seemingly innate sense to take care for one another.
Your favorite virtue?
Honesty, in life and in truth
Your least favorite virtue, or nominee for the most overrated one?
Like Hitchens', faith. and piety.
Your proudest achievement?
I'll Let you know when I find one remarkable.
Your favorite occupation?
One that you can earn money on your owns terms. I have not found it yet.
Who would you have liked to be?
The US president after Sept. 11th 2001. I would hope I would have had the strength to differ in the course we took for this nation in nearly every regards. Especially so in how we have wasted our respect in the world that took so many years to build up.
Your most marked characteristic?
Internally; question everything. Externally; my height.
What do you most value in your friends?
The will to challenge me in a positive way.
What is your principal defect?
Intolerance of bad ideas or perceived stupidity
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
Living a life not worth dying for.
What would you like to be?
Free of daily physical pain in the chronic sense
What is your favorite color?
Clear
What is your favorite flower?
The tulip or possibly the Iris
What is your favorite bird?
The Mallard
What word or expression do you most overuse?
Expressions of frustration and/or disbelief, although feel I may not be at fault.
Who are your favorite poets?
Song writers. Vague I know but the marrying of music with words moves me the most. Pink Floyd for instance.
What is it you most dislike?
Myself sometimes. The monetary system.
Which historical figures do you most despise?
The Stalins, Pol Pots, Maos and Che Guevaras, the REAl bastards
Which contemporary figures do you most despise?
The Jerry Falwells of the world, Pat Robertson
Which events in military history do you most admire?
The desperate ones in retreat. The English Expeditionary Force in WW2 for instance. Its history combined with an emotion.
Which natural gift would you most like to possess?
Oration in front of many strangers.
How would you like to die?
At a ripe age and with as little pain as possible.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
I'm balding with glasses and fat which makes it hard to choose
What is your motto?
Paralysis through analysis
How would you do?
Thank you.
Christopher Hitchens (13 April 1949–15 December 2011) has died of esophageal cancer. He admitted in part that, staying up too late with friends smoking, drinking to keep the conversation going may have been the reason that cancer formed. Not a whole lot I can say here about this 'demigod' that has not been said before but he may not been a teacher in the classical sense but he is one to learn a great deal from.
Having a female friend who gets Cosmopolitan, I see they have many surveys but they are a little too female oriented. Combining these two threads is the topic of the link above. It is safe for work and life. If I may, in defiance to ACTA/SOPA,PIPA and take this survey myself to enjoy a mental exercise:
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Pain, misery, hunger, sickness when these things are so easily fixed in our community and world by sheer economics of needing to maintain a society where profit rules supreme.
Where would you like to live?
The future; I would like to know more about the universe, the sciences of the mind, and where we were going as a civilization. Do we prosper or something worse?
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
non-contingent happiness. Some sort of intrinsic happiness.
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
To my appetite and sometimes to my listlessness
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
The characters of Star Trek.
Who are your favorite characters in history?
That's more difficult to nail down for history usually has a lens on it. I would say the writers of our constitution, or the many unnamed, often times soldiers, through time who stood up to tyrants, theocratic leaders, and despots AND who knew they were doing a moral right.
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
All those women who wrote under male names or anonymous
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Evey in V for Vendetta, Star Trek Heroins especially Uhura for a female character in a technical role that commanded respect and not subservience.
Your favorite painter?
If I can abuse the openness of the question I would say Bill Watterson, even though he may be more of an animator.
Your favorite musician?
How do I pick just one? In my teenage years the one group that was most influential for me was Korn.
The quality you most admire in a man?
Not being afraid to fail, while not possessing arrogance but still not being submissive to the thoughts of others.
The quality you most admire in a woman?
The same as above but with the seemingly innate sense to take care for one another.
Your favorite virtue?
Honesty, in life and in truth
Your least favorite virtue, or nominee for the most overrated one?
Like Hitchens', faith. and piety.
Your proudest achievement?
I'll Let you know when I find one remarkable.
Your favorite occupation?
One that you can earn money on your owns terms. I have not found it yet.
Who would you have liked to be?
The US president after Sept. 11th 2001. I would hope I would have had the strength to differ in the course we took for this nation in nearly every regards. Especially so in how we have wasted our respect in the world that took so many years to build up.
Your most marked characteristic?
Internally; question everything. Externally; my height.
What do you most value in your friends?
The will to challenge me in a positive way.
What is your principal defect?
Intolerance of bad ideas or perceived stupidity
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
Living a life not worth dying for.
What would you like to be?
Free of daily physical pain in the chronic sense
What is your favorite color?
Clear
What is your favorite flower?
The tulip or possibly the Iris
What is your favorite bird?
The Mallard
What word or expression do you most overuse?
Expressions of frustration and/or disbelief, although feel I may not be at fault.
Who are your favorite poets?
Song writers. Vague I know but the marrying of music with words moves me the most. Pink Floyd for instance.
What is it you most dislike?
Myself sometimes. The monetary system.
Which historical figures do you most despise?
The Stalins, Pol Pots, Maos and Che Guevaras, the REAl bastards
Which contemporary figures do you most despise?
The Jerry Falwells of the world, Pat Robertson
Which events in military history do you most admire?
The desperate ones in retreat. The English Expeditionary Force in WW2 for instance. Its history combined with an emotion.
Which natural gift would you most like to possess?
Oration in front of many strangers.
How would you like to die?
At a ripe age and with as little pain as possible.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
I'm balding with glasses and fat which makes it hard to choose
What is your motto?
Paralysis through analysis
How would you do?
Thank you.
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