Making Moral Shit Up

Making moral shit up by both religious and scientific sapiens. When I talk about gratitude for some human's; these are unknown heroes of history who had to put up with a lot of shit so that we can complain about the annoying few minutes waiting time at the dentist. 

Excerpts from the new book It's a Gas: The Sublime and Elusive Elements That Expand Our World (A brief history of Nitrous Oxide and Chloroform):

There was also a belief among western surgeons that pain might be important to the success of the surgery. They thought it might be required for nature’s healing powers to be triggered. Thus there was no obvious demand from medical doctors for the development of anaesthetics. So although Davy discovered nitrous oxide to be a fast-acting anaesthetic, the medical profession wasn’t interested.

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In 1844, a dentist called Horace Wells attended a laughing gas show and wondered whether it might work as pain relief during teeth extraction. He tried it on himself while having a wisdom tooth extracted. He giggled while spitting blood, and realised laughing gas really did block pain.

After trying it on more than 10 other patients, he decided to go public, and performed a tooth extraction in Massachusetts general hospital, before a small audience. Unfortunately for Wells, the patient let out a small cry during the procedure, and although afterwards he said he felt very little pain, the conservative medical establishment who had been in attendance pounced on this as proof of frivolous fairground trickery. They dismissed nitrous oxide and ridiculed Wells. He would later fall into addiction, and killed himself in 1848, but he had ignited an interest in anaesthesia.

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Other doctors were outraged, but not about the safety issues. The mostly male medical establishment argued that alleviating the pain of childbirth was morally wrong, and that God had ordained that women should suffer while giving birth. The moral issues around pain relief became a hot public debate until Queen Victoria in 1853 was administered chloroform while giving birth to Prince Leopold, after which it received the royal stamp of approval. The queen later wrote to a friend who had also inhaled chloroform for pain relief: “Very glad to hear Minnie is going on so well & had the inestimable blessing of chloroform w. no one can ever be sufficiently grateful for.”

Grow Up - Enough With the Fireworks Already

Growing up in India, I enjoyed celebrating Diwali because I could play with fire and be macho. 

As time passed, I grew the fuck up. I grew the fuck up. I learned how much fireworks harm animals, ecosystems and the environment. 

So grow the fuck up and stop using fireworks in name of god knows what. Fireworks has nothing to do with you political ideology. 

Margaret Renkl reminds us that same but more politely than I do: 

For 15 straight years, our old dog Clark — a hound-shepherd-retriever mix who was born in the woods and loved the outdoors ever after — spent the Fourth of July in our walk-in shower. He seemed to believe a windowless shower in a windowless bathroom offered his best chance of surviving the shrieking terror that was raining down from the night sky outside.

Did he think the fireworks, with their window-rattling booms, were the work of some cosmic predator big enough to eat him whole? Did he think they were gunshots or claps of thunder spreading out from inexplicable lightning bolts tearing open the sky above our house?

There’s no way to know what he was thinking, but every single year that rangy, 75-pound, country-born yard dog spent the Fourth of July in our shower, trembling, drooling and whimpering in terror.

Clark was lucky. We have friends whose terrified dog spent one Fourth of July fruitlessly trying to outrun the explosions. The next day a good Samaritan found him lying on a hot sidewalk miles away, close to death. Other friends came home from watching the fireworks to discover that their dog had bolted in terror from their fenced backyard and been killed by a car.

And those were all companion animals, the ones whose terror is clear to us. We have no real way of knowing how many wild animals suffer because the patterns of their lives are disrupted with no warning every year on a night in early July. People shooting bottle rockets in the backyard might not see the sleeping songbirds, startled from their safe roosts, exploding into a darkness they did not evolve to navigate — crashing into buildings or depleting crucial energy reserves. People firing Roman candles into the sky above the ocean may have no idea that the explosions can cause seabirds to abandon their nests or frighten nesting shorebirds to death.

Then there’s the wildlife driven into roads — deer and foxes, opossums and skunks, coyotes and raccoons. Any nocturnal creature in a blind panic can find itself staring into oncoming headlights, unsure whether the greater danger lies in the road or in the sky or in the neighborhood yards surrounding them.

And all that’s on top of the dangers posed by fireworks debris, which can be toxic if ingested, or the risk of setting off a wildfire in parched summertime vegetation. Little wonder, then, that fireworks are banned in all national wildlife refuges, national forests and national parks.

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“All flourishing is mutual,” writes Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, in her best-selling book, “Braiding Sweetgrass.” This is one of the most repeated lines in contemporary environmental literature, and for good reason. It reminds us that all creation, human and other than human, is interconnected. At a time when life on this planet is faltering in every possible way, Dr. Kimmerer gently points out that our own flourishing depends on the flourishing of planetary systems that we are barely beginning to understand.

Addressing climate change and biodiversity loss on a planet with eight billion human residents won’t be simple. How to grow affordable food without using petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides that poison pollinators, for example, is a challenge. How to build enough housing for human beings without also disrupting natural ecosystems is a challenge. Such things are doable, though they won’t be easy.

But there are easy things we can do at no real cost to ourselves. We can eat more vegetables and less animal protein. We can cultivate native plants. We can seek out products that aren’t packaged in plastic, spend less time in cars and airplanes, raise the thermostat in the summer and lower it in the winter. As Dr. Kimmerer points out in “The Serviceberry,” her forthcoming book, “We live in a time when every choice matters.”

In that context, surely, we can give up fireworks. Of all the little pleasures that give life meaning and joy, surely fireworks don’t come close to the top of the list, and it costs us nothing to give them up. This is one case in which doing the right thing requires no significant sacrifice, one case in which doing the right thing has an immediate, noticeable, undeniably positive effect on a suffering world.

The conflation of selfishness with patriotism is the thing I have the hardest time accepting about our political era. Maybe we have the right to eat a hamburger or drive the biggest truck on the market or fire off bottle rockets deep into the night on the Fourth of July, but it doesn’t make us good Americans to do such things. How can it possibly be American to look at the damage that fireworks can cause — to the atmosphere, to forests, to wildlife, to our own beloved pets, to ourselves — and shrug?

The truly American thing would be to join together to make every change we can reasonably make to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, human and other than human alike. The truly American thing would be to plant a victory garden large enough to encompass the entire natural world.

 

Jane Goodall Interview

Well, I was very lucky. I was born loving animals, and I had a supportive mother. So apparently…when I was one and a half she came into my room and I'd taken a whole handful of earthworms to bed with me. And you know so many mothers would have said’ Oh how dare you,’ you know. She said Jane you were looking at them so intently I think you must have been wondering how do they move without legs. And anyway, she just said they'd die if they stayed in my bed and so we took them back into the garden.

- Listen to interview on Peter Singers Podcast Lives Well Lived

Wow, it's not hard for mothers to be kind. Try. Please, try to be kind to our fellow animals. 

The Elemental Foe - Poverty

Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. Most of humanity lacks a sense of what we are escaping everyday. 

We abuse and torture all animals in the name of protein, waste so much food every time we eat, waste so much water, electricity and zillion other material things. 

Next time you do any of the above and/or forgot gratitude, remember these lines from this important post: 

Even now, having escaped true poverty, you walk through your days with no consciousness of how closely it stalks behind you. Remember the last time you had to go an extra hour without eating? Remember the gnawing feeling in the pit of your stomach, the red fog that seemed to settle over your brain? You are always just a few hours away from that. You will never outrun it. Humanity as a whole is only a few days or weeks away; if the elaborate and fantastically expensive food supply and distribution system we’ve built were to suffer an interruption, we would be reduced to the level of starving wild animals in short order.

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It is industrial modernity — our single weapon against the elemental foe. It took centuries of blood and sweat to build, centuries of sacrifice by our sturdiest workers, our most brilliant inventors, and our most visionary leaders. And it is fantastically complex, far beyond the ability of even the most brilliant individual to understand in full; only collectively, at the level of society, do we shore up its fragile walls and keep it from collapse every day.

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And to us also falls the task of reminding the world that growth must be sustainable. If we burn the walls of our fortress to throw a party in the moment, there will be nothing left to protect our descendants, and the foe will devour them. It is tempting to believe that manmade climate change is not real, that natural habitats can be razed without consequence, and that the world’s waters represent an infinite safe dumping ground for pollution. These are all just more unaffordable daydreams.

Part of this task is to remind the world of the importance of technological progress. Without newer and more sustainable sources of energy and materials, our choice would be between degrowth and environmental destruction. Technology built industrial modernity, and technology sustains it, and only technology can extend it into the indefinite future.

But most of all, it falls to us to extend the fortress’ protection to every human on the planet. As you read these words, there are still billions of humans living outside the sheltering walls of industrial modernity — still grappling hand to hand with the foe. Less than half of humanity lives on more than $10 a day. Almost two billion live on less than $3.65. Two billion lack access to safely managed drinking water. Every day, 190 million people go hungry in India alone.

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If you want to understand the principles that underlie my political leanings, this is the key. Humanity is at war — a war so old, so terrible, and so all-consuming that even World War 3 would be a minor skirmish in comparison. Whether or not we remember it, we are always on death ground. 

We need to innovate to eradicate elemental foe, and eradicate pain and suffering of all living beings.

• Perceptually educate kids on this. 
• Work on turning this into an omnipresent awareness. 

Because as usual in the history of humanity, only a handful of humans will rise to the task and make this a reality. 

And yes, rest will be complacent. We cannot afford to keep complaining about the complacent 99.9% of humanity. 

Focus on lifting those handful of humans who act on it. 

 

Ancient Humans Show Evidence Of Plant-Heavy Diets

Previous research suggests that our ancient human ancestors were hunter-gatherers who relied heavily on eating animals. These assumptions have been replicated in popular “fad” diets such as Paleo and Carnivore, which emphasize humans’ ancestral diets and encourage heavy meat consumption. However, the science on prehistoric diets remains unclear. Did ancient humans truly prioritize hunting animals and only forage for plants when necessary?

According to the authors of this study, research on this topic typically relies on indirect evidence. Previous scholars excavated objects like spears and arrowheads, stone tools, and large animal bone fragments and made the assumption that large mammal hunting was the norm. However, other excavations suggest that plant-based foods were also part of early human diets, including studies of human dental remains. The authors wonder whether the overrepresentation of hunting-related artifacts in excavations, along with gender biases, have inflated the importance of hunting.   

In this study, researchers tested the hypothesis that human hunter-gatherers in the Andes highlands in South America relied mostly on large mammal hunting. They used a more direct research method called stable isotope analysis — this involves studying certain elements in human bone remains to reveal what types of food ancient humans ate. They also compared this information to plant and animal remains found at the excavation site. They sampled bones from 24 humans who lived in what is now Peru during the Archaic Period (9,000-6,500 years before present).

Researchers assumed their results would show a diverse diet with an emphasis on large animal consumption. However, contrary to previous research, the bone analysis suggested that plants dominated ancient diets in the Andes region, making up between 70-95% of dietary consumption. Wild tuber plants (like potatoes) were the main plant source, while large mammals played a secondary role. Meanwhile, meat from small mammals, birds, and fishes, as well as other plant types, played a much smaller dietary role. 

- More Here (full paper here)

This makes intuitive sense, try to replicate a typical American diet of three (or more) meals everyday with meat by hunting animals with rudimentary tools. Good luck, if you had a meal a week!

Our society, economy, and civilization is built on abusing animals. Most bodies are “built” on abusing animals. Factory farms is an euphemism for torture cambers for unwarranted protein needs of sedentary lifestyle of humans and masquerading in name of made up tradition, culture, health and god knows what else. In the end, these humans suffer in hospitals and hospice. 

How to stop this vicious cycle? I pretty much live to find even a marginal answer to this question. And I am open to the idea that this might be the wrong question and we need a new question(s). 

Meta Values - 28

I wish someone told this moron to me when I was in my teens. 

I started working out in my teens; in whatever way I can to get stronger and full of muscles. In other words, become rigid. But my main mission is to not get a list of diseases that my genetic lineage has. 

When Max was there and in my late thirties, I joined Crossfit and it helped my quality of life immensely. I learned stuff and quit Crossfit and do similar workouts at home. Even with five or six years of Crossfit, I still didn't learn the key message. 

I learned this during Max's last year. 

More than anything - Being stronger and simultaneously being flexible is the key to health and aging gracefully. 

Bruce Lee once said - "Be water, my friend." 

I think he meant for the mind which I follow with the Mind as a River thing in almost every moment of my life. 

But keeping the body flexible is key to graceful aging. 

Be flexible and strong simultaneously - I think that's the value for the rest of my life. 

Weight plus body weight training, boring stretching exercises, tons of walking (no running), and kinesthetics is enough in this lifetime (as of my knowledge today). 

Beautiful Lines On History

Historical analogies are only useful for suggesting what is possible, not what is probable. They are better for opening minds with questions, not for closing minds with presumed answers. 

- History, Humility, and Wishful Thinking

Beauty Of Uncertainty - A Source Of Inspiration

When I’m asked about this on occasion, I hedge the question too. But my answer is this: inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists generally. There is, has been, and will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It’s made up of all those who’ve consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. It may include doctors, teachers, gardeners – and I could list a hundred more professions. Their work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous ‘I don’t know.

- Poet Wisława Szymborska

I don't know is one of the reasons that kept me alive. There is so much that I don't know that I need to understand whatever little I can before my time is up. 

Thoughts On Solitude

Joseph Epstein turned 87 this year; he is one of those wise people we need to listen to. 

These wonderful thoughts from Epstein are my confirmation bias.  For the past two/three decades there are complaints about the loneliness epidemic and covid exposed people's inability to be with their own self. loneliness and solitude are not the same. 

Hell is other people. For me other people are like alcohol or junk food. It's fun in modicum. 

I always remember this: I was born alone. I will die alone. If I need to see reality as it is in the time in between, I need to immerse myself in it. 

In 2000, Bowling Alone, a book by the political scientist Robert Putnam, held that Americans had lost all sense of community and that “we have become increasingly disconnected from one another and now social structures—whether they be PTA, church, or political parties—have disintegrated.” A review in the Economist declared that “until the publication of this groundbreaking work, no one had so deftly diagnosed the harm that these broken bonds have wreaked on our physical and civic health, nor had anyone exalted their fundamental power in creating a society that is happy, healthy, and safe.”

Family, community, high sociability generally—here was where fulfillment was thought to be found. The vigorously social life was the good life; “was,” but apparently no longer quite is. What happened? With the advent of cellphones, podcasts, social media, and more, everyday living became quicker, more crowded, less under control. Especially among the young, therapy has become more frequent. Not more but fewer friends now seemed the ideal. Solitude has come to seem, to many, not such a bad idea.

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More than two centuries earlier, Montaigne wrote at essay-length on the subject of solitude. “Now the aim of all solitude, I take it, is the same: to live more at leisure and at one’s ease,” he explained. To achieve this, it is “not enough to have gotten away from the crowd, it is not enough to move; we must get away from the gregarious instincts that are inside us, we must sequester ourselves and repossess ourselves.” He notes that “real solitude may be enjoyed in the midst of cities and the courts of kings; but it is enjoyed more handily alone,” and adds that “the greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” Montaigne lived this ideal, retiring after an active political life for the better part of each of his days to a tower in which he kept his books and lived his private life, enjoying his own thoughts and writing them out in his essays.

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Aging can in itself be an agent of solitude. When young, I made it my business to know the top 10 songs. Now I know no top songs or even the names of popular singers beyond those of Beyoncé, Adele, and Taylor Swift. I once saw every new movie and knew the names not only of the stars but of most character actors. Now, in the checkout line at the supermarket, I read a headline in our version of the gutter press, “Jen Leaves Justin,” and after wondering briefly if Jen is Jennifer Aniston and Justin is Justin Timberlake, remind myself that in any case I could not care less.

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If one has had the good fortune to attain old age, as I at 87 have, more and more of one’s thoughts in solitude are about death. Montaigne would have approved. He held that to deprive death of its strangeness and terror, “let us frequent it, let us get used to it; let us have nothing more often in mind than death…. We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere.” Montaigne adds, “If I were a scribbler I would produce a compendium and commentaries of the various ways men have died.” Montaigne wished to die working on the cabbages in his garden. Instead, alas, he died, painfully, of quinsy, unable to speak owing to paralysis of the tongue, in 1592, at the age of 59.

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What do I achieve in my solitude? The authors of Solitude, whose subtitle again is The Science and Power of Being Alone, base their positive view on the subjects of their own study—that being good at solitude entails “optimism (having a positive outlook on life), a growth mind-set (seeing solitude as an opportunity to reflect and grow), self-compassion (being kind to oneself), curiosity (exhibiting an openness to learning and experiencing wonder and awe), and being present in the moment.” Apart from self-compassion and curiosity, I fail to qualify on any of these grounds.

My own thinking during solitude is unconnected, less than comprehensive, and far from profound. I wonder if, as a writer, I am capable of genuine thought only with a pen in hand or a computer keyboard under my fingers. One of the divisions among writers is that between those who write well but don’t need to write, Thomas Jefferson, Bernard Berenson, Winston Churchill, George Kennan among them; and those who feel themselves less than fully alive when not writing, I a minor figure among these. For me and others who fall into this latter category, André Gide’s “How do I know what I think till I see what I say” applies.

Writing and thinking, for us, in other words, are coterminous. Solitude, in still other words, for all its advertised virtues, may for us be an endeavor of limited value. Nothing for it, then, but to pull up a chair alongside Billie Holiday’s, and bemoan my own quite different relation to solitude.

 

Elephants Call Each Other by Name

Abstract

Personal names are a universal feature of human language, yet few analogues exist in other species. While dolphins and parrots address conspecifics by imitating the calls of the addressee, human names are not imitations of the sounds typically made by the named individual. Labelling objects or individuals without relying on imitation of the sounds made by the referent radically expands the expressive power of language. Thus, if non-imitative name analogues were found in other species, this could have important implications for our understanding of language evolution. Here we present evidence that wild African elephants address one another with individually specific calls, probably without relying on imitation of the receiver. We used machine learning to demonstrate that the receiver of a call could be predicted from the call’s acoustic structure, regardless of how similar the call was to the receiver’s vocalizations. Moreover, elephants differentially responded to playbacks of calls originally addressed to them relative to calls addressed to a different individual. Our findings offer evidence for individual addressing of conspecifics in elephants. They further suggest that, unlike other non-human animals, elephants probably do not rely on imitation of the receiver’s calls to address one another.

- Full paper here