Random Notes 20170521

DC Swamp Rat Observations

This is a brilliant untangling of the various threads to Trump's Sting Operation:

The Truth About The James Comey Memo - Stefan Molyneux

Hillary supporters were committing suicide the day after election for this same reason: the alphabet soup networks are not reporting what is really going on. (But if you are smart, you know whom to tune in to!) Trump is preparing mass arrests and prosecutions of the Swamp Rats, and they are screaming bloody murder because they are headed to the guillotine (or prison, precisely). The only question is that of strategy. Will the calculation of Swamp Rat prosecutions help or hinder the mid-terms? If the calculation is hinderance, the arrests will have to happen in 2017/early 2018. If the calculation is to help, expect a very dramatic midterm season, marching the Swamp Rats in front of the Lincoln Memorial in handcuffs. It looks as if perjury will go against Comey if Trump wants to bury his ass, but I suspect he will turn on the Swamp Rats and sing like a canary if offered immunity from prosecution for perjury.

Trump and Eastern European Women

Why do people not understand what Trump is up to?  The answer is simple in Spiritual terms.  Trump has a thing  for Eastern European women. Eastern European women have Eastern Spirituality, which is a more ancient spirituality that the West is unfamiliar with.  Rudolph Steiner called this the Luciferian influence, while we in the West are of the Ahrimanian influence.  The God Ahriman is more materialistic, while the Luciferian god is more spiritual and beautiful.  Trump understands the Luciferian Way.  If you have spent any time in the East, or in Russia, you know exactly what I am talking about.  Thus, idiots in the West use Ahrimanian techniques to defeat Trump, but he is not playing an Ahrimanian game; he is playing a Luciferian game.  We in the West are not very much acquainted with Lucifer.  Thus, when we see a Luciferian game from Putin, or Trump, we will not be familiar with this God, and think the person is crazy, stupid, or foolish.  This, my friends, is a deadly assumption!  Trump has married, had plenty of sex with, and fathered children with Eastern European women.  He obviously knows how to handle these women.  Thus, he knows very well the Luciferian Way of the East!

It is that simple, my friends.

The Evil American Legislative Process

Rent Seeking Behavior

The American legislative systems has been a stock scam for a long time and it follows a predictable pattern.  The pattern is so predictable that it is surprising that someone has not identified it as criminal.  Then again, so many people benefit from the scam, it seems unlikely that it will go away any time soon.

Here is the standard scam.  (1) Have armies of lawyers create legislation in response to some fake threat such as insurance, health care, medical devices, energy, or anything.  (2) Have this army of lawyers work on this legislation for years, and become experts at the legislation.  (3) The legislation is so complicated that only lawyers, accountants and experts can understand it.  (4) make the penalties for non-compliance for the law so scary that normal people will fear non-compliance.  (5) Pass the legislation.  (6) The same army of lawyers creating the legislation are the only experts at the law, and become consultants and trainers on the new legislation throughout the nation as corporations and individuals scramble for compliance to avoid the stiff penalties.  (7) The consultants milk consultant fees for 2-4 years, up to a point where the nation is now up to date on the new legislation.  (8) Repeat the process over again with a new crisis and new legislation.

Examples:

• Americans with Disabilities Act
• Medical Device Regulatory Compliance
• HIPPA
• Obamacare

Ishtar and Babylonian Spirituality

The ancient mystery cults were quite intriguing.  One can read Rudolph Steiner for all the details, but all the temple cults had initiation procedures that were kept secret, usually on the pain of death.  The preparation period was weeks or days to prepare the body and mind for the spiritual awakening.  Upon awakening in this age, one could encounter the goddess Ishtar once the spiritual awakening happened.  The civilizations collapsed when the religions collapsed, when the temple initiation methods no longer produced the visions of the God or Goddesses.

One thing about these Gods and Goddesses is that they appear for a time in history, then, after several centuries, they become dormant and recede into merely a memory.  The other thing is that these creatures inhabit places.  Those who have not been to these places do not have a sense of the power of these Gods.  

Which brings us to the West attacking Iraq, and possibly Syria and Iran.  I will prophesy thus, 

"He whom attacks Iran from the West shall surely be destroyed by the powers of the Ancient Gods of Mesopotamia."

It is very clear that Iran is protected by a special God, like Russia has a special protector from some God or archangel.  Putin, and all of his predecessors, along with the Ayatollah, have a mysterious air about them that is not of this world.  It is unclear if this Mesopotamian force inhabits ISIS, or if ISIS is some terror Agent Provocateur from the West.  But it is very clear that if material might cannot conquer a territory, you can assume with some certainty that a God or archangel protects that country.  

I assert that the ancient Gods of Mesopotamia will never allow the West to enter that region with power and sovereignty.  Britain and France tried a long time ago, and the United States tried more recently.  All Western campaigns have failed.  This, my friends is the power of the Gods and spirituality.  

My intuitions also tell me that there is a minor God with lots of power within the region of Syria.  If these Gods have sufficient power, the West will fail there also, if they are stupid enough to make the attempt. 

We can also call these Mesopotamian Gods, the Ancient Gods of Babylon.  They have given strength and power to many regimes in that region from Assyria, Persia, Sumeria, Iran, Iraq, etc.  They go to sleep for a few ages, but they always awaken when called upon to protect that region from contamination of powers foreign to that region.

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Random Notes 20160518

The Immorality of Virtue Signaling

Traditionally, Virtue was the manliness of men; in common language, it means balls.  In modern degenerate American Puritanism, Virtue means the following: Emotional self-indulgence in the expression of False Pity for a Target group that the indulgent person knows said target has some repugnant characteristic.  In some sick way, the repugnant characteristic of the target group is directly proportional to the amount of virtue signaled.  

The expectation is that the Virtue Signaler will not expect a challenge to the signal.  When the Signal is challenged, the Virtue Signaler will use Shame on the challenger to perform a one-upmanship procedure with the desire of Confession of Sin on the part of the Challenger.  

Virtue Signaling is an Inquisition using Intimidation and social ostracizing to attack the Challenger.

In any situation of Virtue Signaling, when you identify the culprit and decide go on the attack, the attack must be ferocious, deadly, and Machiavellian in the sense that the Virtue Signaler will suffer from mental anguish for weeks from your attack.  Virtue Signalers must be given no quarter and Zero Tolerance.

Never attack a Virtue Signaler unless you intend to psychologically destroy your target.  Go in for the psychological kill or say nothing.

Trump the Deadly Machiavellian

So far, he has been able to identify some of the Deep State leakers with the firing of Comey. And, the Russian meeting was deliberate, designed to infuriate and generate leak leads. He is managing a Sting Operation, and it is going beautifully. Comey may have even been blackmailed into helping Trump. Only the fools will attack him now, and by their attacks, reveal their hand, and he can take them out. Only fools and those with nothing to lose are on the attack now. Pure Machiavellian. It is a beautiful sight to see. If he can get a guy like Bernie on his side, that would be the icing on the cake. Here is the thing: Trump has an unlimited tolerance for Stress, which his enemies do not understand. They have not read his book, obviously. And, he is a genius for timing - getting the high stress shit out of the way before any major election campaign for midterms. So, he will be brutal and deadly up until the midterm campaigns begin. Do not expect him to let up on all the nasty Machiavellian things until then.

80% of Winning is Psychology

Tony Robbins said this once.  It is true.  You can be the smartest person in the world, and do everything "right," but if your psychology is not right, you will repel people who are trying to help you and attract people who will bring you down.  Misery loves company is a harsh Truth.

A deadly and magnificent combination is High IQ combined with a winning psychology.  We see this in guys playing at the highest level whom refuse to lose, and will always find a way to win, no matter what, and even with what many around them think are impossible odds.  A winning psychology loves when the odds are against him, because he knows he is playing for a big upside if he wins.

Always find a way to win, and win big.

Psychology Findings and Power

Over the past 10-20 years, the findings in psychology have been enormous.  It is now scary when one understands the power of psychology over unsuspecting people.  The other problem is that it also has power over everyone regardless of intelligence and regardless of whether or not the people know anything about it.

Many writers in history have written that Charismatic people change the world.  People with a high level of psychological understanding combined with the will to use power are typically unstoppable.  Some examples where opponents were helpless include: Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Donald Trump.  Powerful people without Charisma who were taken down include the following: Dan Rather, Hillary Clinton, Patrick Buchanan, Trent Lott, and James Comey.  Doing everything correctly and acquiring tons of power is not a defense against a charismatic individual who is ready willing and able to exercise his power.  Historical figures include Hitler, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Napoleon, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Patton, Disraeli, Oscar Wilde, and the list goes on.  In the above list, we only need to list the last name, and we instantly know the person spoken of.  This is the power of charisma.

Studies done in the last few years have deepened our knowledge of psychology, and we can now train people to increase their charisma to a high degree.  We can train people to capture control over the minds of others and manipulate them.  And, the targets will never notice what happened.  We see similar effects online where there are algorithms running in the background of Amazon, and other places that match our past purchases, reviews, and search terms with advanced Bayesian Statistics to produce targeted marketing of items to us, which we seem to be unable to resist often.  This is the power of modern psychology.

There is a lot of benefit and risk to the findings of modern psychology - especially behavioral psychology.  The upshot is that we are closer to robots than we think.  The shocking truth is that with knowledge of some of our key psychological characteristics, we can program ourselves and others.  This is not exaggeration or hyperbole.

We have the ability to reprogram our minds to achieve unseen levels of success and achievement.  The down side is that there are tons of ways to exploit others using this knowledge in a Machiavellian fashion.

Nobody really knows the limits of psychology at this point.  We have only scratched the surface.  And, the strange thing is that more scientific minded people do not even believe the findings.  This is why the findings are not as well known.  People just cannot allow themselves to believe that we are programmable robots - with no exaggeration.

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Random Notes 20170514

Random Notes 20170514

Strange Prohibitions of Alcohol

Every time you meet a teetotaler, you meet a fanatic who has deep issues that they have not dealt with.

We are commanded in Christianity and Judaism to drink strong drink.  It is not optional.  Thus, it is a strange thing for weird American versions of Christianity to prohibit alcohol, and still carry the name Christian.  They have more in common with Islam than Christianity.  

Aside from the Islamic prohibition, why is it wrong-headed for Christians to abstain from strong drink?  It is very simple.  Strong drink reveals the character of the person.  The ancient saying, in vino veritas has always been a true saying.  

When people say that they have done bad things under the influence of alcohol, they are not revealing the Truth of alcohol, but revealing the Truth about themselves.  

Those who cannot tolerate strong drink are not to be trusted!

It reveals your character flaws and shows you what you need to work on, ye fools!

In my childhood, my family was part of a nasty sect called Holiness Oneness Pentecostalism, the most miserable and hateful form of fake Christianity imaginable.  In these madhouses, called churches, there were many idiots that claimed to have "been delivered" of addition to alcohol, drugs, et cetera.  However, upon closer inspection these people had not addressed the root cause of the problem, but simply traded one thing for another.  They were still people of low character and could not be trusted!  They had anger issues, family issues, sexual issues, and generally a lack of control in many areas of their lives.  But, this was overlooked because they "gave up" alcohol!

So, every time you meet a teetotaler, you meet a fanatic who has deep issues that they have not dealt with.  You were warned!

Unification of Traditional Religions: Christianity and Islam

I see in the near future, a grand unification of traditional religions against the tide of secularism and materialism.  How far this unification will go, and in what form, nobody knows, but those who are religious seem to feel this in the air. 

Terrorism is probably state sponsored Agent Provocateurs in all forms.  No religion benefits from terrorism, so we must assume it is all state sponsored.  Thomas Sowell wrote several years ago that all terrorists in the Middle East seemed to have backgrounds in the western education systems, specifically in France.  So, we can assume that some western agents at least are involved in creating Agent Provocateurs, and perhaps some of the secular Middle Eastern states also fall in to this instigation category.  What we are sure of is that religion does not benefit from terrorism. 

Thus, I see a mass unification of Eastern Orthodoxy with traditional Islam firstly, and then, we shall see western traditional Christians eventually join this coalition.

The coalition will put two civilizational models head to head: those who see men as mere chemicals made up of just carbon, hydrogen and oxygen molecules, cells, and organs versus those who see men as Children of God, and must be treated and respected as Children of God.

Why will this happen?  Western secularism has violated the Laws of God with Abominations.  God will kill us all for willful support of Abominations.

Evil Low Fat Dieting

If you have participated in any training regimen for sports, or have been involved in any sort of fitness program, you know that the Low Fat Diet is a complete fraud.  We are to eat meat, vegetables, and fruits.  Grains and sugar are the root of all evil.  You know this for an absolute fact, if you have paid attention during any intense training program.  If this is true, why do we still hear of people doing Low Fat diets without meat, eggs, and bacon?  (aside from traditional groups like some Indians, and periodic fasting such as Lent and Ramadan).  

We can assume that major money is at stake in the Low Fat Diet fraud.  Almost everything in a grocery store is poison.  Cereals have an entire aisle dedicated to them.  Candy has several aisles.  Soft drinks have entire aisles dedicated to them.  All these things are pure poison.  But, they are cheap poison easily marketed to the lower classes to make them unhealthy, unhappy, and not pose a threat to the system.  

High Intensity Interval Training

It seems like HIIT is the way to exercise, unless you are competing for certain events.  Sprinting on a bike and maxing our your heart rate a few times in one session gives you more benefit than riding ten miles on the bike at a steady state low heart rate.  

Instead of working our for one hour, it is more beneficial to max out for a few minutes at a time, rest for a long interval, then max out again for a few more times.  This can be done using any form of working out: cardio, weights, etc.  Peak State is exponentially more beneficial than steady state - in just about anything! 

It is the magical thinking method of Exponential Thinking versus Linear Thinking.  Or, you can study Pareto methods.

Donald Trump is a Genius

Those who have a combination of high intelligence and high emotional intelligence can spot this from a hundred miles away.  He has never made a mistake.  Everything he does is done using a maximum long term effect calculation.  He has the patience to ride a negative wave, only to turn the wave in his favor after the negative energy burns itself out - this takes virtuous stamina, patience, and balls.  He will be America's Putin, by the looks of things, although, it is difficult to exceed what Putin has done for Russia.  Time will tell, but he has the talent to pull it off.

New Meditation Technique 

I developed a new meditation technique for busy people, to be used during the week.  Here is how to do it:

3 times per day do the following:

• Close your eyes
• Get your meditation object clearly in your head
• Breathe as deep as possible, then exhale
• Holding the meditation object clearly in your mind, and then repeat five times total

That is all!  

The trick is to clearly keep your meditation object in your mind during the entire period of deep breathing.

On the weekend, when you have time, you may continue your normal meditation of 20 minutes or so per session.  But this procedure is for the busy days.

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Random Notes 20150607

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Random Notes 20150607

A Real Man Finds the Way

It amazes me that many men do not understand that the core quality of a Man is he who finds a way.  This means, we are responsible for winning, no matter what.  You cannot argue your way away from responsibility and say it is not your problem.  You must creatively pursue ends toward the goal with absolutely no excuses.  We are paid to win.  When we lose, we gain nothing; thereafter, we must regroup to fight the next obstacle with greater magnanimity and creativity, and pure force of will.  There is no option for inaction - absolutely none.  Inaction is losing, and that is intolerable to Men.  We must find a way to Win or Die.  

Southern Heat on a 30-40 mile Bike Ride

Living up North for 8 years in Indianapolis, I needed a way to acclimate to the Houston heat for the summer.  I grew up in the swamplands of South Louisiana about 2 hours from New Orleans, so I have some genetic history with this type of climate, but still - It has been about 15 years since I have had to live in the heat and humidity of the Gulf Coast climate.  

So, what is a dude like me to do to solve this problem?  If you read this blog, you know I am the most analytical guy on the planet, so I devised a plan that is fail safe.  Well, fail safe if I do not die of heat stroke!  I take the hottest point of the day, and I ride my bike for at least 30 miles within the space of two days.  Today, I will actually make 40 miles in the heat, counting yesterday.  Does this work?  Well, I was at a family event a few weeks back outside with boiling crawfish.  A few people there who never left the Gulf Coast climate in their lives were complaining about the heat, and I was feeling just fine, and had not even noticed the heat.  So, that is one solid data point.

When I was riding yesterday, I think the temperature was between 91*F (32.8*C) and 93*F (33.9*C).  

Houston People and IQ

The population is skewed toward a lower IQ over here.  When shopping for commodities, Wal-Mart is just an unpleasant place to be.  We all have been to the websites making fun of Wal-Mart people, and over here, the humor is reality.  You will see obese people riding battery powered buggies all the time, and you will see obese people wearing very short shorts.  I prefer to shop at higher value places like Costco and Sam’s Club where the people serving you tend to have higher IQ’s and do not just stare at you with a blank face when you speak to them in complete sentences with correct English grammar and pronunciation, and speak clearly with authority.  

I find that even among technical people over here, who tend to be on the higher end of the local IQ spectrum, they are not accustomed to higher level abstract and creative thinking as I was accustomed to when I lived in Indianapolis or in California.  I have to push them.  I have to give them responsibility, and not just hand them the answers without creative effort.  It is as if they are still in school, expecting to only deliver the “right answer” to the professor, when in fact, a man is responsible for creating new worlds with absolutely no excuses.  If there is an obstacle we must overcome, there are no excuses, we must overcome them.  This requires creatively coming up with one alternative after another until the best idea pops out and you move forward with the best idea of many.  Standing still and waiting is never an option when working with high achievers, unless you are meditating and focusing upon the solution.

Cold Showers

I have been reading Tim Ferriss and specifically his book, “The Four Hour Body.”  I decided to try out a cold shower.  Now, I am 41 years old and live in Houston, so this will be a shock to my system.  So, I showered as normal with warm water and slowly turned down the temperature.  As it got colder, it got to a point of shock where I would normally shout something like “Yaaaa!”  Trust me, your senses are wide awake after this moment.  You feel alive.  You feel energetic.  The Eustress brings out all sorts of consciousness in the moment you would not have otherwise.  Perhaps it can be a form of meditation “on steroids.”  I will continue to experiment with this in the next few weeks and see where this goes. 

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Freddy Martini  

Random Notes 20150322

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Travel Notes

Travel is the fastest way to learn.  No other experience teaches faster.  Spending $300 on a flight can usually gain you $3000 in experience - perhaps $30,000 if you are an astute observer.

The other side of travel that is not glamorous is that travel is a process of waiting.  You sit in the car and wait to get to the airport.  You wait in line for your boarding pass.  You wait in line at security.  You wait in the terminal for the plane to be ready.  You wait in line to board the plane.  You sit on the plane and wait until the flight ends.  You wait to exit the plane.  You wait for baggage.  You wait for the rental car or the taxi.  You arrive at your hotel.  Then, you no longer wait, and can now enjoy the fruit of the destination!

Houston

I have spent three weeks thus far in Houston.  I do not need a jacket.  I wear short sleeves everywhere.  Wearing a sport jacket often meets with curious stares - not so much impolite, but inquisitive.  

There are stores and malls of all sizes and types.  You can find any type of food to eat.  You can find any sort of specialty shops.  The roads are always humming with traffic.  Large trucks are everywhere with heavy equipment, machinery and product.  

The atmosphere is that of the Gulf Coast.  There is always moisture in the air.  You can smell the water in the air.  The lower clouds are always thick, and you hardly see the upper atmospheric clouds such as Cirrus clouds.  The sky is bright blue - as opposed to the dark deep blue of the Midwest - Missouri latitudes and higher.

The people generally do not give much care to their appearances, as one would expect in a large city.  Perhaps hard labor wears on the body and the soul of many.

However, the people are excessively polite.  I have heard only one guy say the word “motherF**Ker” in a business office.  I have had guys say, “sorry” because they were near me and perhaps I looked at them like I needed to proceed forward.  Perhaps my stare is intimidating…  

I have seen a few cycling pelotons riding through a boulevard.  I have seen some runners, too, although I expected to see a lot more for a city this size.

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Freddy Martini  

Random Notes 20150321

Random Notes 20150321

Friday, March 20, 2015

Body-Mind

Life coaches such as Tony Robbins have posited that the Mind and Body are closely linked.  To change your mental state, begin moving your body differently.  When you speak over the phone, the other person will hear and sense on a subconscious level your facial expressions and your body movement even though they cannot see you - you cannot fake this.

If you are depressed, you body is turning inward and drooping.  Change your body and you can snap out of it (assuming no underlying medical condition).  

To get in Peak State every morning I do a variation from the following menu:

• Shadow box each fist until the count total gets to 20
• Resistance tubes 5 times on bicep, forearm and squat
• Do 80 jumping jacks
• Push fists upward, then pull into chest violently and shout “Yah!!”
• Make a foot fist with each foot alternating with each step and count to 20 then stop.
• 20 sets of Breath Walking (look it up on youTube)
• 5 very deep breaths imagining that water is pouring over you and in and out your lungs.

In summary, the body and mind are linked tightly.  Change your movement and you can change your emotional and spiritual state.

Napoleon Hill

Hill claims that the secret to wealth will reveal itself only when one is ready for it.  This is true for many things.  The clarity of seeing large areas of the Earth from a plane comes from being high above the ground.  In the same manner, age brings us, in a way, to a higher view of things that we did not see when younger.  I recall at the age of 16 when my brain suddenly expanded to the point where I understood things at an astonishing rate that I had not gotten before.  The same experience happened when I began the practice of focused meditation around the age of 32.  Now, at the age of 40, I am more “ready” for some ideas that five years ago I would have considered absurd or silly.  What are some of these things?  

• Peak State is not a luxury, but a necessary practice to get exponentially better results.  Being in Peak State is a hell of a lot of work, but well worth it.
• Spirituality is necessary for higher quality strategic thinking.
• Drama is Truth for some people - for these people scientific reductionism has no meaning at all.  And, they are correct in more ways than one.
• Decisions are made on an emotional level.  We merely use logic to justify what we have already decided to “get the story straight.”
• All human endeavors involve Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit.  We can also say, in other words, Material, Mental, Emotional, and Meaningful.  Neglect of any of these will lead to the destruction and poverty of the souls participating.

East versus West

After years of studying philosophy, history, theology, the split between the East and the West comes down to Plato versus Aristotle.  Plato’s world is that of an imperfect physical world as an opaque reflection of the perfect realm of Ideas, or heaven; Christianity is Augustine’s “City of God.”  Aristotle’s world is that of Four Causes: Material, Formal, Efficient, and Final causes.  The Protestant and Catholic West is Aristotelian, interpreted through Thomas Aquinas.  The Eastern Orthodox is Platonic, as interpreted through the Fathers.  The West takes argumentation very seriously.  The East takes the City of God concept very seriously.   

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Freddy Martini  

Random Notes 20150313

Friday, March 13, 2015

Ministry

Ministry, in all of its forms, is a transference of emotion from the Minister to the Ministered.  In government, Ministers advise the executive, and transfer their emotion certainty to the executives.  In Christianity, the ministers are charged with the transfer of the three emotions of Faith, Hope, and Charity to their parishioners.  In sales, the salesperson is responsible for the transfer of the emotion of certainty and trust from himself to the buyer.  When this transfer does not happen, the sale does not happen.  In the same manner of any ministry, if the minister cannot transfer the emotion, he is not in the right vocation.

When friends come around for counsel, they, as a rule, are uncertain.  They are looking for a transfer of the emotion of certainty.

Eastern Orthodox Spirituality

Working and sometimes living among those of the Eastern Orthodox persuasion convinces me they have something to teach we Westerners.  They instinctively understand spirituality, as far as I can tell.  They do not have the materialistic mental blocks we Westerners have when we attempt to stay rational, and leave religion up to the arena of “opinion.”  Life is a reflection of the Liturgy.  The Liturgy is a reflection of life heaven.  Partaking of Communion means standing in heaven with all the host of Saints past and present - an elevation of the mind and imagination to things not of this Earth. 

Spirituality

It is a reflection of the structure of All Things - the Universe, if you will.  Orbiting of planets, formation of planets, attraction and repelling of charge, the integration of the human body with blood, food, love, sex, reproduction, motive motion, birth, life and death - all these things are a reflection of the inner nature and structure of everything.  

Beauty

What is beauty?  Those who say, “In the eyes of the Beholder” are liars or fools!  It is a combination and the proper proportion of balance, harmony, symmetry, eccentricity, and all these things.  But the greatest measure comes down to Aristotle’s Final Cause.  You will find that all things called beautiful have a high degree of serving their purpose, and in some form, showing and revealing their purpose in form.  Things that are ugly do not reveal and serve their purpose as well.  

Fear and Fake Boundaries

It is amazing the number of people out there that limit themselves, cutting their selves off from success with imaginary boundaries and limits.  I hear people talk about dumb things like internet privacy, information stealing, security, germs, viruses, AIDS, terrorism, and making minor social mistakes like it is the end of the world.  They are stunned and frozen in fear.  The fear causes them to stay in one place, paralyzed.  All of these fears are fake.  They are all urban legends.  This is all hysteria.    

So, what is the Truth?  Relax.  That is the Truth.  Breathe.  Find what you are good at, and pursue that.  Fear not.  Stay away from the fearful.  Associate with those on a clear path of life and growth.  Fear is death.  

You can always find something wrong.  Your success depends upon what you are focusing on 80% of the time.  Are you focused on the upside or on the downside?  Are you pumping iron or are you scared because some obese person said that you may get injured?  Think clearly about this.  Fear not!

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Freddy Martini  

Random Notes 20150220

New Orleans

We went to the French Quarter back on New Year's Day.  It was surprisingly nice.  Some areas were kind of disorganized as is expected of New Orleans, but we felt safe walking around there as a family.  We ate dinner and strolled all around until it was dark.  I even bought some cigars. 

I was on business this past week in Mandeville and Covington.  I drove across the longest bridge in the world, the Ponchartrain Causeway.  It is a steady drive from New Orleans to Mandeville.  I think the bridge is 24 miles.  There are two bridges with two lances each side by side.  There are a few drawbridges along the cause way to let ships pass through.  I think I also saw a lot of microwave towers, apparently to relay cell phone signals and other types of signals.  There were also call boxes from the old days of before cell phones.  The strange thing is that there are no break-down lanes on this bridge.  If you have car trouble, you will be stuck in one pan or another.  There are turnaround u-turn like structures every few miles for police, wrecks, and break-downs.  

Mandeville/Covington

Mandeville is on the North Shore of Lake Ponchartrain.  It is where the Causeway ends at the North side.  I was surprised at how neat and clean this area was.  We had spent a few hours in the French Quarter in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, and of course noticed some of the disorganization in the Big Easy.  But this North Shore area was spic and span.  I was told that in this area you do not have to worry about home invasions - you do not have to lock your doors at night on the North Shore.  

Fort Lauderdale

I flew from New Orleans to Fort Lauderdale before my final destination in Indianapolis.  It was 68 degrees when we boarded the plane in Florida.  When I landed in Indianapolis, it was 10 degrees!

On this flight, I had forgotten how much room you get sitting in the exit row seats.  I could sit in the middle seat without having the guy on the aisle seat get up.  I need to file this away next time I fly Southwest.  I prefer Delta, though.  First Class.  

Fear

People who watch the news are constantly in a state of Fear.  Can the networks sell good news and how good people are living the life?  Nope.  People are more likely to pay for a removal of pain than for an increase in benefits.  This is the sad fact of human nature.

But, for those wishing to break through to the top 20%, focus upon the upside of an issue instead of the downside reaps big benefits.  We can always find something wrong.  We can always feel nuts about the risk.  But, so what?  Life is risky, and there are always bad things we can focus on, but why torture ourselves?  Why worry about things you have no control over?  We are producing stress hormones doing this and we are harming our health.  We need to focus on the problem 20% of the time and on the solution 80% of the time.  This is what a winner does.  It is the path of health, too.  Moving forward into possibilities instead of fretting over non-existent, or unlikely risks.  Don’t jump off of a cliff.  But, once the pilot of the plane completes the checklist, it is time to open the engines full blast and take off.  Do not stop at 90% of the runway, because you will just crash.  There comes the point of no return where you have to takeoff and open the engines full blast because you cannot stop.  This is the point where faith that you have done your best does its magic.  Then, the sky is wide open.  

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J Istre 

Random Notes 20150210

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Community Coffee

Growing up in Louisiana, I grew up drinking Community Coffee.  Eventually I got sick of it from over use.  But, I drink it occasionally now that I live far away and cannot purchase the stuff in local stores.  Perhaps once every two weeks I may drink 2 cups of the stuff.  I have the Dark Roast Select, which is a little better than the regular stuff.  

Coffee is the social Sacramental Drink par excellence.  You cannot just pour the stuff from a bottle like soda drinks or bottled water.  You must go through several procedures to make it.  And, like tea, it is good for the essence of social life: conversation.  Gather around a cup of coffee and have communion with conversation.  Take this, all of you and drink it for this is my coffee, made for you. 

Tony Robbins Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle says that 20% of the causes produce 80% of the effects.  Tony Robbins says that the formula for success is 80% Psychology and 20% Mechanics.  Coming from anybody else, this may sound like another feel good, positive thinking bull crap statement.  But, Tony Robbins has the credibility to back up this assertion as he is one of the richest men in the world.

So, we should focus on managing our mental, emotional and spiritual energies most of the time, and only focus on the mechanics of execution 20% of the time.  A lot of this means to focus on the most important things, and delegate everything else.  Are we “stressing the small stuff”?  Outsource that stuff to India, China or the Philippines.  That is what I do.

The Problem of Induction

I have studied philosophy since 1992 - it has been 23 years.  The Problem of Induction is perhaps, still, the most haunting problem, the most persistent, and still there is no solution in sight.  What is the core of the Problem of Induction?  It is the foundation of the Scientific Method.

Consider the following.

• I have observed one million swans.
• All one million swans are white.
• Therefore, all swans are white.

Or, more scientific:

• I have observed 1000 pieces of copper.
• All 1000 pieces of copper conduct electricity.
• Therefore, all copper conducts electricity.

From the first, do you consider that there are any Black Swans?  

This process, my friends, is the Problem of Induction.  It is the foundation of the Scientific Method.  Yet, it has absolutely no basis in logic or proof.  It is a method that works most of the time, but not all of the time.  

• Jets crash.  
• The conclusions of medical studies change every 2 years.  
• Nobody can predict the stock market.

So, if we are dazzled by the supposed success of our “scientific civilization” we must remember that there is no reason to conclude the truth of any scientific claim - none whatsoever.  

This, when you think about it, is absolutely shocking.

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Freddy Martini  

Random Notes 20150203

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Random Notes

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The Flip Side of the Coin

It is well known that many people who have posited things in the first half of their lives turn around and repudiate, abandon, or refute these same things in the second half of their life.  Ludwig Wittgenstein was one of the most important examples.  He was perhaps the towering genius of philosophy in the 20th Century.   Simply, in his life’s first half, he had solved philosophy’s problem with the examination of the underlying logic of propositions and sentences.  The second half of his life, he insisted that all language was word games, and at the root of things, we could not get to the logic or structure of things on a fundamental level.  

Rhetoric Versus Truth

It is often said that there is a difference between Rhetoric - say, the things of rousing speeches and perhaps advertising where others attempt to seduce our emotions and feelings to either vote a particular way or purchase something - and Reality - the substrate of Truth: things as they really are.  However, this depends upon personal preferences, stage of life, and experience.  For some people, Rhetoric is Reality.  Emotions and feelings are the substrate of reality for these people, and the material construct of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics merely provide background support for feelings and emotions.  For many, a movie, a novel, or literature is the path to Truth, while Science is only entertainment.  Those of us well-trained in science, mathematics, and technical subjects need to understand that we perform our craft on only a subset of the reality experienced by humanity.  There is more out there - a lot more out there.

Spirituality and Commerce

McDonald’s is the symbol of the Lack of Spirituality.  When you consider the physical difference between coffee at McDonald’s versus coffee at Starbucks, the Chemistry is probably not that different.  However, the spiritual significance of the places are worlds apart.  One is a place to feed animals: exchange money, and put something in your belly.  One is a place to linger, contemplate, and meet others of like mind with the smells, atmosphere, and architectural layout that seeks to evoke lingering, study, and something more than shallow conversation; exchange money, a smile, or a joke, and get a product delivered with style and with a flourish.  Go slower to achieve quality of experience rather than fast Chemistry merely to feed the stomach.  There is an attempt to feed the soul, too.  This is why poverty can debase us: exchange the lowest cost for the barest essentials for the belly.  It is also why spiritual poverty debases us, too: cut pennies and go meet your friend at McDonald’s over coffee instead of Starbucks.  At what price of spirituality does one forego when going to McDonald’s?  The Good Book said that “Man cannot live by Bread alone,” which means, we are not animals that can live merely by some mixture of chemicals called “food” that we can ingest without the Ritual of a Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner.  Humans need rituals, or we will not Live.  It has to be more than just Materials (merely animal feed); it has to be Materials plus Meaning.  Someone once said that Man can life without almost anything, except, he cannot live without meaning.  This is essentially what the Good Book is trying to tell us.  We must assign meaning to material things or we will die spiritually.

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Freddy Martini  

Random Notes 20140916

Taleb Again

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Nicholas Taleb ignited a lot of thinking within me.  He talks about the problem of induction.  He speaks of being fooled by randomness.  He talks of travel and speaking many languages.  He talks about the false history of science and technology when in fact this is s history of tinkering more in line with engineering than science. 

Thomas Nagel

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I also downloaded the audio book from Thomas Nagel.  He is a guy who gets the problem of materialism and understands clearly the problem of consciousness.  Science is dead.  The Avant Garde movement in intellect right now is in Philosophy of Mind.  There is nothing new from science since the advent of Quantum Mechanics.  That was almost 80 years ago.  And, given some recent research, it is doubtful that science ever contributed anything useful to modernity outside of stealing ideas from engineers and inventors and making them their own.

If Science is Nonsense, how to we explain…?

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What caused the enormous technical explosion in the last 150 years if it is not science?  Well we had scientific thinking for hundreds of years, with nothing to show for it.  What caused the great technical explosion was humans discovering a very compact form of energy and exploiting it: coal, diesel, gasoline, and heating oil.  The reason we can build large systems and get components for high technology equipment is because we have a fast transportation system based upon fossil fuels that gets things to a destination faster by an order of magnitude than previous generations 150 years ago.  It took about 6 weeks to cross the Atlantic in the times of Samuel Champlain.  Now, we can cross the same ocean in 7 hours with a standard Boeing jet, and in 3 hours with a Concorde.  Materials for the manufacturing of goods can be brought together very fast.  We ship food to remote areas whereas before we had a risk of spoilage and mostly had to rely on local supply – very local supply.  The most important set of “laws of physics” are Maxwell’s Equations.  Why were they developed?  We finally had a source of energy – coal and steam – and we wanted to transport this energy across large distances using electricity.  Engineers figured all this out, and scientists swooped in and took the credit in the history books.

A New Civilization

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What causes advances?  Experimentation.  Tinkering.  It is those with the Fortitude (balls) to take risks and try new things.  These tinkerers will use everything at their disposal to mix things up and come up with something new.  

Freddy Martini