Almost Contextless Links from Summer 2009

So many links saved up in bookmarks, so little time to synthesis them. So without further ado, these are some articles and essays and such that I found interesting during the summer of 2009.

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Even Now, There’s Risk in ‘Driving While Black’, by Brent Staples, June 14, 2009, NYT:

“Being black in America today,” Ms. Pager writes, “is just about the same as having a felony conviction in terms of one’s chances of finding a job.’”

Stunning.

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Would you pledge your soul as loan collateral?, Jul 3, 2009, Reuters:  The Kontora loan company in Latvia is offering loans with borrowers’ immortal souls as collateral, promising they will not sent debt collectors or use violence to retrieve unpaid loans.

“If they don’t give it back, what can you do? They won’t have a soul, that’s all.”

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Most of us think we’re “less susceptible to cognitive biases than the average person.” at Mind Hacks, 14 July 2009.”

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61 essential postmodern reads: an annotated list, LA Times, 16 July 2009. Annotated as to whether the book blurs reality and fiction, whether the author is a character, whether it has a self-contradicting plot, how ponderously long or snippetly short it is, etc.

I’ve read almost none of the books: Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Laurence Stern’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, and Steven Millhauser’s Edwin Mullhouse (one of my favourite books ever).

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Seeking (and Wanting and Liking):

“It is an emotional state Panksepp tried many names for: curiosity, interest, foraging, anticipation, craving, expectancy. He finally settled on seeking.”

Seeking is ” the mammalian motivational engine that each day gets us out of the bed, or den, or hole to venture forth into the world. “

“The mammalian brain has separate systems for …wanting and liking. Wanting is Berridge’s equivalent for Panksepp’s seeking system. It is the liking system that Berridge believes is the brain’s reward center. When we experience pleasure, it is our own opioid system, rather than our dopamine system, that is being stimulated. … Wanting and liking are complementary. The former catalyzes us to action; the latter brings us to a satisfied pause. Seeking needs to be turned off, if even for a little while, so that the system does not run in an endless loop. …

“But our brains are designed to more easily be stimulated than satisfied. … Creatures that lack motivation, that find it easy to slip into oblivious rapture, are likely to lead short (if happy) lives. So nature imbued us with an unquenchable drive to discover, to explore.”

This and more about addiction, novelty, satiety, ADD, etc., from Seeking: How the brain hard-wires us to love Google, Twitter, and texting. And why that’s dangerous, by Emily Yoffe, in Slate, Aug. 12, 2009.

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Hating the faceless other as a paranoid projection:

“There is something more dangerous about hating the government. The government is so distant, powerful and bureaucratically faceless that it can seem malevolent. Which pulls the paranoia out of us like a poison. All our wounds, failures, and frustrations are poured, in great buckets of bile, into our feelings about “the government.” And like with our sports teams, our anger and paranoia can personalize, turning political leaders into enemies and demons.

“In short, I think the poison of political discourse is due to this displaced anger and paranoia. When you see someone ranting about a political figure like the President what you are witnessing is an angry paranoid projection. A mind turned inside out by its own fears, frustrations and failures.”  Experimental Theology, 17 Aug. 2009

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Two pieces on the intersection of Rene Girard and  Mimetic Theory with  pop culture:

The Mimetic Theory: Listening to Madonna with Girard at Bread and Circuits, 18 Aug. 2009, and

3 Article Reviews at the Media, Film, Music, Religion course blog for an Australian university class called Studies in Religion and Spirituality, in the first review, of U2 is their Religion, Bono is their God, 23 Aug 2009.

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Holding heavy objects makes us see things as more important, at Not Exactly Rocket Science, 25 Aug. 2009. Four experiments show the link between physical and metaphorical weight.

The theory is that

“the link between weight and importance is rooted in our early childhood experiences, when we rapidly learn that heavy objects require more effort to deal with, not just in terms of strength but planning too. Our brain relies on these concrete physical experiences when it represents more abstract concepts, like importance.”

Also at Mind Hacks. where the sub-field of ‘embodied cognition‘ is invoked as a body of research demonstrating “that altering the physical condition of the body affects how we perceive and understand, even for concepts that we think are nothing but metaphors.”

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Next week, I hope to post almost contextless links for September and October.

November

Lots of things in my ‘blog fodder’ list but either too busy or too tired to do it right now.

 

Meanwhile, it’s November, the perfect time for poetry and images.

 

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“November’s sky is chill and drear,
November’s leaf is red and sear.”
-   Sir Walter Scott

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“November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.

With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.

The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.”
-  Clyde Watson

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“So dull and dark are the November days.
The lazy mist high up the evening curled,
And now the morn quite hides in smoke and haze;
The place we occupy seems all the world.”
-   John Clare, November

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“It is hard to hear the north wind again,
And to watch the treetops, as they sway.

They sway, deeply and loudly, in an effort,
So much less than feeling, so much less than speech,

Saying and saying, the way things say
On the level of that which is not yet knowledge:

A revelation not yet intended.
It is like a critic of God, the world

And human nature, pensively seated
On the waste throne of his own wilderness.

Deeplier, deeplier, loudlier, loudlier,
The trees are swaying, swaying, swaying.”
-   Wallace Stevens, The Region November

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“It was Autumn, and incessant
Piped the quails from shocks and sheaves
And, like living coals, the apples
Burned among the withering leaves.”
-   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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“When shrieked
The bleak November winds, and smote the woods,
And the brown fields were herbless, and the shades
That met above the merry rivulet
Were spoiled, I sought, I loved them still; they seemed
Like old companions in adversity.”
-   William Cullen Bryant, A Winter Piece

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Psychopaths: Fearful but Distracted?

Studies have suggested that psychopaths may not feel fear — but perhaps they “just find it harder to pay attention to what is scary and what is not.”

In this study of 125 male prisoners who scored as psychopathic (looking at levels of narcissism, impulsivity and callousness), fear-potentiated startle responses (in the form of blinks) were recorded as a measure of fear when red and green letters were flashed onto a screen. The prisoners had been told that an electric shock would sometimes follow a red letter but not a green one. The prisoners with strong psychopathic traits “flinched in response to red letters with the same strength as other subjects” but when they also had to indicate whether letters were capitals or lower-case, they barely blinked when shown red letters, while the control subjects continued responding as before.

As the experiment’s author notes, “this suggests that psychopathic individuals sense fear as much as anyone, and only seem fearless because they find it harder to pay attention to what is scary and what is not.”

Status, Dominance and Motive Blindness

From Robin Hanson at Overcoming Bias, commenting on a study about assessment of social power:

“Humans clearly attend closely to status, an important part of status is dominance, and a key way we show dominance is to tell others what to do.  Whoever gets to tell someone else what to do is dominating, and affirming their own status.  But we are also clearly built to not notice most of our status moves, and so we attribute them to other motives. And as long as we are making up motives, we might as well make up the most admired of motives, altruism.

“So we tend to think we tell others what to do in order to help them, and not to dominate them.”

Well-stated, I think.

Searching for a Sectional

We spent five hours we’ll never get back yesterday shopping for a sectional for the family room. I’ve never wanted one before but since I first saw this room, it’s the only thing I’ve been able to imagine here.  Imagination ≠ actuality.

First, they’re not cheap. I’ve found only one I really like (this Norwalk Horizon in a sage microfiber fabric) and it’s about $3,000, about what we paid for our last car. You can pay a lot more for a sectional. You can pay less, too, but you generally get pillows that are attached to the seat backs in the time-honoured way of cheap furniture everywhere.

Second, I’m having trouble finding on the showroom floor what I see in my mind. I’m looking for something about 8 feet by 6 feet in dimension (an L-shape), with a slim low arm, feet you can see (no skirting to the floor) and a generally modern feel to it. Washable micro-fiber fabric, not leather. With a bumper (i.e., ottoman).

We went to 5 furniture stores, plus 3 department stores that we thought might have furniture but didn’t (like JC Penney).  Three of the furniture stores sold sub-standard upholstered furniture, imo. The other two had a number of sectionals to look at, and so many fabric, wood (the feet), and configuration choices that my head is still spinning.

We haven’t bought anything. The price we were given yesterday for the Horizon set “expires” (goes up 5%)  in an hour but we’re not biting. Maybe we’ll buy it after the other house sells, or maybe we’ll find something else that will work well in the space. For now, we have a 20-yr-old slipcovered, overstuffed loveseat we’re using.  It fits two slim people and one slightly overstuffed dog.

Decidedly not a sectional

One Week

I’ve lived in the new house for one week now, as of 4 p.m. today. My feelings and thoughts so far:

In general, the house is feeling like a home but New London doesn’t. I miss my old town  and my friends, routines, and places there.

What I miss about the old house:

• the deck (a lot): being able to blend almost seamlessly the inside and outside is very important for me from spring through fall.

• the fence around the yard for the dog: taking her out on the leash is cumbersome and inconvenient for both the dog and me, and will only enworsen with winter

• the bathrooms:  man, I can’t wait to renovate these! It’s almost impossible to shave my legs in the showers. Our old bathrooms had been renovated, looked great, and functioned well, with tile and hardwood floors and a roomy shower and shower/tub combo.

• the whole-house lighting and dimmer system: we could control most of our lighting — including exterior lights — and some appliances like the coffee maker and the Christmas tree lights from two panels (one upstairs, one down) and it was so handy. Having to walk all the way into a dark room to turn on a light feels very retro and not in a good way. I also miss the dimmers in the kitchen and bathrooms particularly, but we are remedying that one room at a time.

• decent cell service: because the house is heated through electrical coils in the ceilings, we have almost no cell reception. I have to be near a window, in the corner of certain rooms, in the garage, or outside to be able to make and receive calls.

What I like about the new house:

• cable service: so much faster than in the old town. I really notice it when uploading photos.

• the spacious rooms that feel so capacious even in the midst of the packing mess of paper, boxes, and stuff everywhere.

• the carpeting: surprisingly, because I have always had hardwood floors and always loved them. But this carpeting — which is uniformly plush, neutral-coloured, and new throughout the house except bathrooms, kitchen, and one hallway — feels cozy, warm,  and somehow has the feel of the beach. What I don’t like is the linoleum, in the bathrooms, kitchen, laundry room and hallway — most of it, like the wallpaper, is obviously peeling, and it will eventually be replaced with hardwood.

• how close I am to everything in town, whether walking or driving. My old town was very walkable and nothing was very far away, but this is an improvement even on that.

• the privacy and beauty of the yard: though much hardscaping and landscaping needs to be done, the yard has apple trees, a birch, majestic spruces, peonies, and some interesting perennials and shrubs. There’s also a sort of hedge on both sides, a strip of wooded area behind, and a knoll on one side, all of which combines to give us a lot of privacy.

• the effectiveness of that electric heating system in the ceiling: there are thermostats (some programmable, some not) in each room and the halls, so heat can be calibrated very precisely. We can warm the rooms we are using.

• the amazing gobs of storage space throughout the house: an oversized garage with upper story, two attic areas off the upstairs bedrooms, three clothes closets for the two upstairs bedrooms, a large utility room and two utility closets, three linen closets, a separate walk-in food pantry, two large coat closets (haven’t had those in 15 years!), a walk-in closet in the master bedroom plus another clothes closet there, a sports equipment closet, 60 shelves of bookcase some of which sit atop 6 very  large cabinets (spanning about 20 feet), all kinds of counter and cabinet space in the laundry room, plus a large shed in the backyard. Truly l’embarras des richesses.

• back-up heating sources: a pellet stove, a wood stove and a wood fireplace.  I do miss the ventless propane stove we added to the old house, though: no muss, no fuss.

• light: many large windows in most rooms, except the dining room, which has a small window and is sort of dark. But it has sconces all around the walls (on a dimmer!) and it gets natural light from the living room it adjoins.

• more than enough electrical outlets every place I can imagine ever needing one.

Houses aside, I am feeling tired, low-energy, not the least bit interested in making connections or meeting new people, content to be home with the dog all day and with my spouse at night. The numerous, necessary superficial chats I’ve had with service providers, banks, credit card companies, etc., to change our address, cancel or start service, etc., plus the emails, texts, phone calls and Twitter/Facebook interactions with my friends, seem to be giving me enough social interaction for the moment.

Eventually I will reach out, take some walks, go to the coffee shop and library, check out the bookgroup and college classes, etc., but not for now. Now is the time for unpacking, grieving what’s been lost, and letting energy collect for what comes next.

A Moving Experience

I’ve been in the throes of buying a house and moving for the last month or so, with all the packing, paperwork, logistical planning, reconnaissance, and other organising and agonising involved in that endeavor.

Finally, last Friday, we moved, and this week is devoted to unpacking, arranging the house, finding a vet, calming the dog, starting and cancelling services, installing things, and not a little grieving of the people and places I miss. It’s just weird going to the grocery store and not knowing anyone there.

A few photos until I can get back to more thoughtful writing on Girardian and other topics:

Alpacas live across the street from us!:

Not a bad commute (if you have to work):

My new perch:

Magic Hat Bottlecaps Found While Packing

What is the Cost of the thing you have Lost?

The Devil is in the Potato Salad.

Find Salvation through acts of Creation.

30 Thoughts in 30 Mins

Or rather, 18 thoughts in 30 mins, from April. I found this list (inspired by Dave Pollard’s post) when I was getting things ready to pack for my trip to NH tomorrow to buy a(nother) house!

I remember, in April, not being able to think of anything new after a while. My brain went kind of dead. I think I’ll try it again this weekend and see what happens.  Give it a shot and see what you ‘think.’

1. Wonder what mom is doing now.
2. Why does everything have to be maintained? Houses, cars, crops and gardens, animals, us. What’s the purpose of that, if there is one? Is it part of some design, or not?
3. I miss mail delivery twice a day, though it’s never existed in my lifetime any place I’ve lived.
4. The chickadee is in the feeder. How does a bird that weight keep from being blown to the ground in 30 mph winds?
5. Is Twitter really any more ‘me me me’ than anything else? I find it interesting to read other people’s tweets and difficult to come up with my own, just as in a face-to-face encounter at the coffee shop.
6. Trying not to think about an elephant is hard. Yes, I mean an actual elephant.
7. Where will I be living in a year (assuming I am living in a year)? Can I avoid buying the house and instead choose the community?
8. I’m longing to be eating outside, on a warm day, near the ocean or the intercoastal waterway.
9. What would my life look like if I completely had the faith of Jesus, i.e., if I were fully alive?
10. As usual, more questions than anything else. So indeterminate.
11. This is hard to do. With meditation, thoughts are more fleeting and the habit is not to hold them or crystallise them.
12. Are we meant to protect people (adults) from themselves or from their circumstances? Another way to ask: How are we meant to care for each other?
13. Why do dreams feel like such powerful, lingering experiences?
14. Stainless steel appliances and granite countertops must be the most mimetic desire in North American culture. What a relief in my favourite UK home magazine to see none of it — they seem to use laminates and wood for surfaces, no stainless steel appliances. Stainless steel shows every fingerprint and granite is a menace to clumsy people everywhere.
15. It’s hard to believe there are only two separate genders for most living beings.
16. We have 7 or 8 Chinese and Thai restaurants around here but I seldom see an Asian person in town.
17. I love my dog’s eyelashes.
18. RIP Nick Plath.

The Good, the Bad, and Wishful Thinking

From Jane Haddam’s Living Witness (2009), crime fiction set in small town America about tensions between secular humanism and simple-minded Christianity, small town prejudices and newcomer arrogance, the pride of ignorance and the benefit of a liberal education, and the science of evolution and the morality of ‘Intelligent Design’:

“‘The world is never what we expect it to be when we’re children, ‘ Gregor said. ‘That’s the nature of childhood.’”

“‘Maybe. But it seems to me that things ought to be arranged better than they are. It seems to me that it should be easier to tell the good guys from the bad guys.’

“‘I think that’s a very dangerous opinion for anybody in law enforcement to have.’”