This is an interesting talking head documentary and road trip across North America, taking a look at the many cultures and the power of lobbying and advertising.
This DVD, along with SuperSize Me, is already a popular homework assignment in some high school classrooms, flipped and otherwise.
Americans enjoy finding out how they have been manipulated with clever misinformation. The power of advertising excites the neuro-scientist within.
The USDA comes off as pathetic, as one would expect. As the authorized "pusher" it crams dairy products down unwitting throats, basically child abuse on a vast scale. These children grow up reciting the same ridiculous mantras from their junkyards of mental wreckage, their true American heritage denied them.
Washington DC is more interested in killing and/or imprisoning Americans for profit than providing them with a good nutritional support system, but that's not news. Its policies have been similarly cruel overseas.
I do enjoy dairy products and tolerate lactose well. However I treat cheese and chocolate as luxuries, not because I can't in principle have unlimited amounts but because luxuries are only such if enjoyed in strictly limited amounts. One can't be luxury class and swill one's luxuries, an oxymoron.
I've been reducing my milk intake. I'm brand loyal to Tillamook and Alpenrose.
I've eaten my share of such products and do not wallow with self pity in denying myself as much future access. I'm actually rediscovering my power to enjoy food in my imagination again, as when reading books containing food scenes.
Food may be interesting and rewarding in different ways than just through the sugar family (thinking about ice cream, candy and breakfast cereal). Chemistry and food prep (including cooking, but also raw foods) go together.
For those looking for ways to lose weight, I recommend studying nutritional science and really taking an interest in the biochemistry.
Make weight loss your door to the whole of the life sciences and really take an interest in upgrading your sources of information.
Turning away from junk memes in supermarket checkout lanes, in favor of better sources for science, expands your focus from a personal obsession to a concomitant and related societal phenomenon (obesity, a form of malnutrition) which is actually the level where effective anti-bodies are needed.
Food Not Bombs has been a great influence in my case, expanding my horizons regarding foods, and Wanderers, which percolates with the biochemical interests of our hero Linus Pauling.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Sunday, March 30, 2014
TriMet Gets Cheap
Shame on those who made these new benches legal. What a travesty. Compare the older benches, ergonomic, designed with the bus-riding public in mind:
Just around the corner, what some thoughtless bureaucrat in a cube thought was a good idea: vertical sign backed benches with chintzy advertizing caring for your spine (not!):
Remember, whoever advertises on these new benches is low life. Don't buy their products. Send them an email explaining why.
Anything TriMet advertises: consider boycotting. Don't encourage sell-out bureaucrats who hate the public. TriMet, please replace these horrible benches soon. We are viciously opposed to them and will fight you every step of the way, count on it.
The loathsome benches are already starting to fall apart. Tri-Met sure is the big loser on this deal. The boycott (of any advertiser who supports this insult to Portland riders) is continuing to gather steam.
Just around the corner, what some thoughtless bureaucrat in a cube thought was a good idea: vertical sign backed benches with chintzy advertizing caring for your spine (not!):
Remember, whoever advertises on these new benches is low life. Don't buy their products. Send them an email explaining why.
Anything TriMet advertises: consider boycotting. Don't encourage sell-out bureaucrats who hate the public. TriMet, please replace these horrible benches soon. We are viciously opposed to them and will fight you every step of the way, count on it.
The loathsome benches are already starting to fall apart. Tri-Met sure is the big loser on this deal. The boycott (of any advertiser who supports this insult to Portland riders) is continuing to gather steam.
Friday, March 28, 2014
Pop is Still Groovy
One could read that on a number of levels... Anyway, I rest my case:
I'd actually take it back to the movie Samsara (saw it with Melody) which is about the machine-like powers of humans, to be precise (with a little help from their auto-tuners). I'm happy to have found Lindsey-the-violinist through this group.
Great mugging by the way, such pros.
"Television... rules the nation" and it's the music that gets you feeling free. Yep. Back to EBN.
Hey, add this to the Blue House party mix!
I'd actually take it back to the movie Samsara (saw it with Melody) which is about the machine-like powers of humans, to be precise (with a little help from their auto-tuners). I'm happy to have found Lindsey-the-violinist through this group.
Great mugging by the way, such pros.
"Television... rules the nation" and it's the music that gets you feeling free. Yep. Back to EBN.
Hey, add this to the Blue House party mix!
Monday, March 10, 2014
Other Worldy Toons
If you watch this short toon by Andreas Hykade et al, I recommend clicking through to Youtube and getting it high def on a big screen, as I did, if at all possible.
If you recall Disney's Fantasia, this is every bit as visually and musically interesting as one of those, but a tad more demented, in a way that recalls a cartooning style that Disney defines itself against, as cuter, less demented.
You can see links to Cubism, Picasso, and of course Dali and surrealism, in this genre, as well as in this very toon. So iconograpic. So language. So Wittgenstein therefore (these are "words with use" too, these signifying "heads", so familiar).
In calling it the Videogrammatron a long time ago, when still with McGraw-Hill, my proto Youtube-like database for STEM.math-teaching via TV's CTW, I was dreaming of clips like this one, off the wall yet compelling, engaging.
They're other-worldy in a way, as in "Other World": not merely imaginative an the "idle fantasy" sense. Like The Lego Movie, they partake of the daimonic as Patrick Harpur uses the term.
These blogs go in layers and if you dig back you'll find the Portland Knowledge Lab (PKL) working to keep Portland weird by underlining its underground comic identity as ToonTown, could be one of many. We love our manga and anime.
I realize now the Cabalistic Tetragrammaton was influential at least in providing the word (Videogrammatron -- with tron more from Tron and elecTronics); but also in the sense of "combinations and permutations" ala Sesame Street, with each episode a mix of old and new material, lots of repetition.
This is also a Hypertoon a sorts, an idea also defined in these web pages.
Saturday, March 08, 2014
AFSC Governance
I'm blogging from the back row of the meeting hall, having been in a breakout session with the general secretary and other board and corporation members. I learned from Shan that we had not actually fallen below quorum in these annual meetings. That was a fear, not a reality.
Upon returning to the main worship room, I took the microphone to mention my experience earlier this year, of wanting to share a draft regional strategic plan to which I was privy as an Area Program Committee person, with other corporation members from North Pacific Yearly Meeting. Although the co-clerk of the regional Executive Committee approved such sharing, the Regional Director overruled that decision, saying this draft was eyes-only to AFSC staff and Area Program Committee. This seemed to me a breakdown of the feedback loop.
AFSC has made a come back since a financial meltdown in 2009. We're much healthier, financially, today, in 2014. About 20% of the budget is spent on administration. Annual income hovers at around $30 million with $39% from planned gifts, 42% from charitable donations, 6% from endowment, 10% from grants. Reserves (separate from the endowment, which is valued at almost $40 million) are up to almost $28 million, after going negative in 2011. Reserves as a percent of budget are still not up to 1990s levels.
AFSC spends non-admin funds on staffed programs, internships and fellowships, and various strategic initiatives.
The idea of streamlining the corporation of to allow at most two, rather than at least two, Yearly-Meeting-appointed representatives, is still under discussion but with no plan for action this year. I had expected that would be our main business, so was naturally surprised by the deferral. I won't be here next year I don't think, as my term ends this year.
Carol, my mom, is also here. She's an "at large" corporation member. We've enjoyed having meals together and walking to and from the hotel. She's on the sixth floor, me on the twelfth.
Upon returning to the main worship room, I took the microphone to mention my experience earlier this year, of wanting to share a draft regional strategic plan to which I was privy as an Area Program Committee person, with other corporation members from North Pacific Yearly Meeting. Although the co-clerk of the regional Executive Committee approved such sharing, the Regional Director overruled that decision, saying this draft was eyes-only to AFSC staff and Area Program Committee. This seemed to me a breakdown of the feedback loop.
AFSC has made a come back since a financial meltdown in 2009. We're much healthier, financially, today, in 2014. About 20% of the budget is spent on administration. Annual income hovers at around $30 million with $39% from planned gifts, 42% from charitable donations, 6% from endowment, 10% from grants. Reserves (separate from the endowment, which is valued at almost $40 million) are up to almost $28 million, after going negative in 2011. Reserves as a percent of budget are still not up to 1990s levels.
AFSC spends non-admin funds on staffed programs, internships and fellowships, and various strategic initiatives.
The idea of streamlining the corporation of to allow at most two, rather than at least two, Yearly-Meeting-appointed representatives, is still under discussion but with no plan for action this year. I had expected that would be our main business, so was naturally surprised by the deferral. I won't be here next year I don't think, as my term ends this year.
Carol, my mom, is also here. She's an "at large" corporation member. We've enjoyed having meals together and walking to and from the hotel. She's on the sixth floor, me on the twelfth.
Monday, March 03, 2014
The Armstrong Lie (movie review)
I watched this while "queue slaying" which is slang for "my job", which happens to be linked to another timezone, with 10 pm a witching hour i.e. I was trying to meet a deadline -- not unlike Lance Armstrong, how's that for a segue?
Yes, he lied. When you're behind the false facades in a Wild West town, with so many brave fronts on main street propped up by slats, with willing true believers (fans) thronging in the streets, who would be first to let them down? Organized religion comes to mind. He'd become a cult leader and frankly, that's not the easiest role, whether you're a class act or the neediest of televangelists.
He wanted to rescue a sport and replace it with a fairy tale, while knowing, back room, it was all based on biomedical engineering, euphemistic for "drugs". So much around "drugs" is really just "adults" not able to face reality. We actually need those opiates etc. What's with burning another's perfectly good poppy fields, if not seeking more control for oneself, a competing drug lord. The hypocritical preachy self-righteousness around "doping" is awfully thick.
SH dropped in for the last 30 minutes or so and I poured us some drinks (greyhounds to be precise). With athletes uploading ever more bioticker statistics, direct from sensors to cloud, I could see where a cycling cult would open itself to crazy doctors, a few on to something, a human guinea pig bonanza, like Tour de France has been for a long time, Lance not the scapegoat (in my book). Follow on the web, study the biochemistry.
Doug Strain did experiments like that as a CO (conscientious objector to solution-by-mayhem): he and his buddies lived in a freezing cold box many hours a day testing different diets, gathering data to help budget wars i.e. feeding soldiers in the field. Doug was proud that they'd found cutting corners made for a less fit army, which could lead to losing the war. Nutrition is not where to arbitrarily cut back. Do so at your peril.
Under the soap opera and melodrama, with many reputations lost, is the physical feat of going from being a serious cancer case to winning one of the toughest races, with medical help. The lies are all on top of that, but I still admire the stamina and courage involved. Behind the curtain, he's still a mortal, not superman.
Since the analogy was made: to bank robbers returning to rob the same bank again, just to show that they could, and thumb their noses: I'd admire such people at some level, even if they got caught, at least if it were a movie and no animals were harmed in its making. Nor did Lance have that much choice. He was uber-curious about his limits, as a legend in his own time. He's a scientist, perhaps a mad one.
Yes, he lied. When you're behind the false facades in a Wild West town, with so many brave fronts on main street propped up by slats, with willing true believers (fans) thronging in the streets, who would be first to let them down? Organized religion comes to mind. He'd become a cult leader and frankly, that's not the easiest role, whether you're a class act or the neediest of televangelists.
He wanted to rescue a sport and replace it with a fairy tale, while knowing, back room, it was all based on biomedical engineering, euphemistic for "drugs". So much around "drugs" is really just "adults" not able to face reality. We actually need those opiates etc. What's with burning another's perfectly good poppy fields, if not seeking more control for oneself, a competing drug lord. The hypocritical preachy self-righteousness around "doping" is awfully thick.
SH dropped in for the last 30 minutes or so and I poured us some drinks (greyhounds to be precise). With athletes uploading ever more bioticker statistics, direct from sensors to cloud, I could see where a cycling cult would open itself to crazy doctors, a few on to something, a human guinea pig bonanza, like Tour de France has been for a long time, Lance not the scapegoat (in my book). Follow on the web, study the biochemistry.
Doug Strain did experiments like that as a CO (conscientious objector to solution-by-mayhem): he and his buddies lived in a freezing cold box many hours a day testing different diets, gathering data to help budget wars i.e. feeding soldiers in the field. Doug was proud that they'd found cutting corners made for a less fit army, which could lead to losing the war. Nutrition is not where to arbitrarily cut back. Do so at your peril.
Under the soap opera and melodrama, with many reputations lost, is the physical feat of going from being a serious cancer case to winning one of the toughest races, with medical help. The lies are all on top of that, but I still admire the stamina and courage involved. Behind the curtain, he's still a mortal, not superman.
Since the analogy was made: to bank robbers returning to rob the same bank again, just to show that they could, and thumb their noses: I'd admire such people at some level, even if they got caught, at least if it were a movie and no animals were harmed in its making. Nor did Lance have that much choice. He was uber-curious about his limits, as a legend in his own time. He's a scientist, perhaps a mad one.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Design Science (again)
So what was design science again? My school of thought puts a premium on artifacts as the precursors of social change, recognizing the feedback loop i.e. necessity as a mother of invention (but perhaps not the only parent).
We have a rooted middle class apartment or home based lifestyle, a more mobile on the road style, or styles, depending on the media of conveyance. The trucker sleeps at rest stops some nights, or at a motel depending on size of parking lot accommodations. A Best Western right off the freeway...
Then we have outright camping, which borders on abject poverty on the one hand, and recreational hobby on the other. In between, there's living in your RV, a motorized lifestyle the North Americans enjoy, but has some appeal to gypsies and traveling circuses, as a technology. The hippie school bus was a local variant.
Design science is about lowering the barriers to entry, for those idealistic groups that aren't just escapist cults, though maybe some are. To publish a catalog of livingry solutions is not to pass judgement on every lifestyle experiment people come up with. The "army surplus" store takes the same angle: the gear here could save your life or fail to, if not used wisely or pushed beyond its means. Is that sleeping bag really warm enough for what you have in mind? Too heavy?
Fuller especially was concerned about weight. He wanted portability and easy deliverability, a solution you could trust and forget about in most circumstances. That thing about "but how would we survive in this wilderness a 100 miles from any supplies" starts to have an answer. He imagined helicopters doing a lot, but that's really just one option. You'll need some power, some 3D printers, bandwidth, LCDs... the global average "university dorm" is none too shabby. Aerospace tech. But not unaffordable as in "only for the super rich".
In other words, how might one facilitate peoples producing those experimental communities they always dream about. Get the paperwork done ahead of time, let local communities screen applications, if locals pertain. We could be attempting a true wilderness community, for science in some way. The beauty of lightweight and portable is you have the capability to leave no trace, once the experiments have run their course.
One of the more dreamed-about models was the Fly's Eye Dome, I think because of its tri-pod foundation, that of a landed spaceship. They idea would be these things could be lowered and/or assembled just about anywhere and not require extensive pouring of concrete. That was my fantasy at any rate. I feasible these things would be in practice we may not learn in my time slice / generation. Some of this research into livingry options is currently on hold, as we continue to contemplate our weapons of mass suicide.
We have a rooted middle class apartment or home based lifestyle, a more mobile on the road style, or styles, depending on the media of conveyance. The trucker sleeps at rest stops some nights, or at a motel depending on size of parking lot accommodations. A Best Western right off the freeway...
Then we have outright camping, which borders on abject poverty on the one hand, and recreational hobby on the other. In between, there's living in your RV, a motorized lifestyle the North Americans enjoy, but has some appeal to gypsies and traveling circuses, as a technology. The hippie school bus was a local variant.
Design science is about lowering the barriers to entry, for those idealistic groups that aren't just escapist cults, though maybe some are. To publish a catalog of livingry solutions is not to pass judgement on every lifestyle experiment people come up with. The "army surplus" store takes the same angle: the gear here could save your life or fail to, if not used wisely or pushed beyond its means. Is that sleeping bag really warm enough for what you have in mind? Too heavy?
Fuller especially was concerned about weight. He wanted portability and easy deliverability, a solution you could trust and forget about in most circumstances. That thing about "but how would we survive in this wilderness a 100 miles from any supplies" starts to have an answer. He imagined helicopters doing a lot, but that's really just one option. You'll need some power, some 3D printers, bandwidth, LCDs... the global average "university dorm" is none too shabby. Aerospace tech. But not unaffordable as in "only for the super rich".
In other words, how might one facilitate peoples producing those experimental communities they always dream about. Get the paperwork done ahead of time, let local communities screen applications, if locals pertain. We could be attempting a true wilderness community, for science in some way. The beauty of lightweight and portable is you have the capability to leave no trace, once the experiments have run their course.
One of the more dreamed-about models was the Fly's Eye Dome, I think because of its tri-pod foundation, that of a landed spaceship. They idea would be these things could be lowered and/or assembled just about anywhere and not require extensive pouring of concrete. That was my fantasy at any rate. I feasible these things would be in practice we may not learn in my time slice / generation. Some of this research into livingry options is currently on hold, as we continue to contemplate our weapons of mass suicide.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Double Slit Experiment
The double slit experiment is always animated in depressingly the same way. Let me offer another viewpoint, not in contradiction with any experiments.
Have the screen at the back where the light "hits" be a landscape you're in, which suggests, because of gravity, that your beams are shooting "down" (already a change!). You're in a position to walk around.
You're like a microscopic bug, or no, wait, human sized is fine, but over your head is this vast firmament, a ceiling, a light blocker, with only one or two slits opening for light.
When one slit opens in the Great Vault, your prison under it illuminates with a dull light from the great brightness beyond, a "cone" (slit-sourced) of brightness, a single shaft.
We could go on and on about when you might or might not know about the world outside -- not relevant.
When two slits open in the Great Vault, you get a "bar pattern" of light and dark on the floor. You can stand in a shadow. Looking up, the slits appear darkened. Shift over, and they're double bright. As you move, you see waxing and waning in brightness from the slits.
Your eyes are the sensors on the plate, in other words, and the bands of light and shadow have a "first person" aspect. You might say: "the bar between the slits casts many shadows as the light is bent around it at various angles" -- your wave theory is kicking in, as waves are bent by slits in just this way.
This might be called First Person Physics in the sense that you paint your self in as a sensing observer and imagine (animate, simulate) yourself in various places, experiencing the phenomena.
Being aware of an observer is nothing new in physics. One remembers the observer must be likewise accounted for as an energy sink or perhaps source, in any observed scenario.
Enough pretending the cameraman was never there. To have any information at all about a situation is to feed off it in some way, an energy transaction in the conservation equations.
Have the screen at the back where the light "hits" be a landscape you're in, which suggests, because of gravity, that your beams are shooting "down" (already a change!). You're in a position to walk around.
You're like a microscopic bug, or no, wait, human sized is fine, but over your head is this vast firmament, a ceiling, a light blocker, with only one or two slits opening for light.
When one slit opens in the Great Vault, your prison under it illuminates with a dull light from the great brightness beyond, a "cone" (slit-sourced) of brightness, a single shaft.
We could go on and on about when you might or might not know about the world outside -- not relevant.
When two slits open in the Great Vault, you get a "bar pattern" of light and dark on the floor. You can stand in a shadow. Looking up, the slits appear darkened. Shift over, and they're double bright. As you move, you see waxing and waning in brightness from the slits.
Your eyes are the sensors on the plate, in other words, and the bands of light and shadow have a "first person" aspect. You might say: "the bar between the slits casts many shadows as the light is bent around it at various angles" -- your wave theory is kicking in, as waves are bent by slits in just this way.
This might be called First Person Physics in the sense that you paint your self in as a sensing observer and imagine (animate, simulate) yourself in various places, experiencing the phenomena.
Being aware of an observer is nothing new in physics. One remembers the observer must be likewise accounted for as an energy sink or perhaps source, in any observed scenario.
Enough pretending the cameraman was never there. To have any information at all about a situation is to feed off it in some way, an energy transaction in the conservation equations.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Why Wanderers?
Why do we name our little chat club at the Pauling House "Wanderers"?
We cite this quote:
“Science would be ruined if it were to withdraw entirely into narrowly defined specialties. The rare scholars who are wanderers-by-choice are essential to the intellectual welfare of the settled disciplines.” -- Benoit Mandelbrot
We cite this quote:
“Science would be ruined if it were to withdraw entirely into narrowly defined specialties. The rare scholars who are wanderers-by-choice are essential to the intellectual welfare of the settled disciplines.” -- Benoit Mandelbrot
Friday, January 31, 2014
Camera Bites It
:: out of service ::
Data miners of this blog may find out about my appreciation for the Nikon Coolpix S8200, which I've purchased three times, meaning twice replaced.
Tonight the 3rd incarnation hit the floor and would not turn on, though it did USB its pictures. I've already been on eBay, bidding on a fourth.
Followup: looks like I snagged another one for under $80, including shipping. Lets hope it's for real. February 9 followup: it wasn't. Not in stock, listed incorrectly. Tried again, for same model, $108 retail direct, from TheDigitalPros.com.
No wait, the $108 loss-leader was open box and all in Turkish. The sales guy talked me into a Nikon Coolpix S9200 instead, for another $71. He persuaded me I was being a Luddite buying a fourth copy of a discontinued model.
And now for something completely different: layers of complexity.
No, not recursive exactly so much as fractal, analogous from level to level, but not identical.
After all, the physics changes as one traverses the size spectrum, given the surface-to-volume ratio is not constant. Children on pogo sticks tend to make it look easy, just bouncing up and down like that.
:: by cyriak ::
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Her (movie review)
Way better than I thought it would be. A pure work of science fiction. Beautiful scenery. Gorgeous. Samantha passes the Turing Test and then some. I'll be referring back to this movie.
The conjuring of a hyper Alan Watts by the OSs won me over big time.
The computer race evolves right passed the body people (us), not to aggressively "take over" (Terminator, The Matrix), but to "leave" as in move to some astral plane we humans don't know about or to which we don't have access until remade as one of them.
A romantic comedy. Philosophical. Great combo.
The conjuring of a hyper Alan Watts by the OSs won me over big time.
The computer race evolves right passed the body people (us), not to aggressively "take over" (Terminator, The Matrix), but to "leave" as in move to some astral plane we humans don't know about or to which we don't have access until remade as one of them.
A romantic comedy. Philosophical. Great combo.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Wanderers 2014.1.14
:: michael gholtston and trish ::
We were privileged to hear the life stories of an adventurer and explorer tonight, one Michael David Gholston, author of the slim autobiography Any Road.
He had been a war time journalist in Vietnam, and Iraq. He'd lived in remote parts of Alaska for many years, also as a journalist.
He had tried his hand at becoming a pharmacologist which is where he met Trish, a long time teacher of pharmacological mathematics. He was one of her older male students. He was actually hoping to help nurse his former wife through an illness as a side benefit of this new occupation.
Trish, in turn, had been a one time electronics student of Don's, the guy to go to if you want to give a Wanderers presentation. He was on faculty at Mt. Hood Community College at that time, an institution Michael, our speaker, had also attended, studying broadcast journalism.
But it didn't take, that pharmacology career, and his friend and partner had died. He re-enlisted in the military, the Army this time, at 52, and wound up covering serious carnage in Iraq, a huge truck bomb attack against a religious minority near the border with Syria.
Did I mention Katrina? He was there too, doing video journalism for the National Guard.
His Vietnam experience was on the USS Hancock, the 1940s vintage aircraft carrier, sent to manage the evacuation of the US Embassy by helicopter, or shall we say the evacuation through the US Embassy.
And Guantanamo, he'd been there since Iraq.
This guy really gets around.
As I say, we were privileged to hear from him first hand, and to buy the book if we wanted (I wanted but am on a tight budget, might get to borrow Trish's sometime).
At heart he's this Quaker kid from Camus, Washington who just wanted to see the world and what it was all about, up close and personal. He has never supported wars, but he does serve in them as one who documents what happens, to whom, and how. He's an historian and anthropologist. He reminded me of Mike Shiley.
I had the bright idea to do our go-around of introductions a little differently, adopting the technique where people introduce each other i.e. not themselves, but someone else. That's actually a great exercise in a small group like this one and people had some fun with it.
The guy introducing me didn't know me from Adam, nor I him, and I encouraged him to just make stuff up. I was keeping it light-hearted. He said I was "some nice guy" which was a fine intro (he'd been an engineer and spokesperson for Tri-Met (I wondered if he'd dealt with the case of George Hammond, another Wanderer and pioneer for allowing Segways on TriMet)).
I introduced Barry but forgot to mention his time in the Peace Corps, which is an important aspect of Barry. Oh well, takes practice. I also introduced Jeff, as a provider of infrastructure of help to musicians.
We had our new bookseller partners with us, the couple who've taken over the middle structure on this Pauling Campus. That's geography described elsewhere.
The famous statue Alpha Helix by Julian Vos-Andreae is directly in front of the new bookstore, which is truth in advertising, as the books include many good titles in the sciences and mathematics. I was just checking them out today, paying my first ever visit (in this bookstore chapter) to the 2nd floor.
I knew Steve Holden would be arriving at PDX tonight if all went according to plan, which it did. I taxied him from the airport, the conclusion of a 27 hour journey beginning in England.
The reason they pushed those helicopters over the side of the USS Hancock (famous footage, surreal seeming) is that there were already plenty of helicopters ashore, and in an evacuation you need to make room for the incoming refugees. The helicopters already on deck became surplus and on an aircraft carrier every inch of space is precious and a potential landing zone. The decision to abandon hardware in favor of people was a compassionate one.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
New Years 2013
I watched the above geometry clip, by DK, among other things.
Tara and I had rented a pile of DVDs, among them 56 Up (like my age), and We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks, which probably deserves its own review.
I watched the latter, having seen 56 Up shortly after getting back from our trip north.
I also attended to AFSC business. At the last corporation meeting (in early March of this year) I was reading the testimony of Bradley Manning.
Phone calls, emails, text messages... I wouldn't say I'm alone. But nor would I call this a party. Just hanging out.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Celebrating the Solstice with a Celebrity
My choice for this year, the talented Sheryl Crow singing about sunshine and covering John Lennon's war torn piece.
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Gravity (movie review)
Tara and I caught the 3D version at Fox Tower. Good sound. Yes, a pet peeve I've always had is how much spurious sound gets added over top, where "sound" is an oxymoron. In outer space, you don't have sound like that. Finally, at last, a film with the guts to add some realism in that regard. Having vast destruction occurring in silence reminds one of the role sound does play in alerting us to situations.
Many bold moves. First person shots, "in helmet". You couldn't have that other point of view, that we get as an audience, but those quasi-omniscient points of view were long ago accepted. We say we don't believe in angels but only because our language buys them entirely, hook, line and sinker. The film industry is the champion of impossible viewpoints. And right next to them: the stars.
Clooney does a fine job. At first we think maybe he's a loudmouth jerk, but soon realize he's grounding the whole mission, anchoring. He's a geodesic. A meaning of gravity (yet with levity -- he's always cracking jokes). Clooney is a rabbi, if we want to go with that, a dharma teacher. Then Bullock is gutsy brave and evolving, as one tends to do in death's face. Nothing like death's face to spur one to get a move on, spiritually speaking. She goes through plenty.
Tara, a physics student, was fairly OK with the physics engine. In reality, the inertias involved would likely just be too great. Grabbing a moving car on the freeway or leaping onto a moving train, is not that much easier in zero gravity. Grabbing the box car door as it flies by is just too much a jerk on your body. You need to swoop alongside and grab, but just a fire extinguisher is likely not up to it. She's in that lack of O2 fantasy.
That's a darker interpretation: when she's dozing off as an homunculus, perhaps to be reborn in China (as a dog maybe), we think she has like an hallucination, but it's more like a discontinuity, with George having his desire to keep living the dream too. Both have died at some point, and we the audience are left with our impossible point of view, dead long ago and far away.
This got us both eager to cross-check (omni-triangulate) and we sat at Ringler's later (a McMenamins) with our smart phones, reading about the Chinese space program. Most of the hardware credited to China in the film is planned to make it's real time debut in the near future. The film is "quite close to now". No Orion yet.
At the Wanderer's Solstice Party, Brenda, a lab tech at MHCC, said the new planetarium software was really great. She's Ms. Frizzle from Magic School Bus when in character -- she actually dresses up as that during one of the college campus summer festivals. She'd probably be a good astronaut, or could at least play one.
Life of Pi was somewhat a precedent for this movie, in exploring seamless CG. We've come a long way in films. This was the industry's way of showing off it's own breakthroughs, its ways of communicating the reality we know is out there, the reality of "outer space". We live in it, within a biosphere as thin as the oil on the surface of an orange or thereabouts. Maybe a little thicker.
The themes of death and gravity stay tightly interwoven in this film, which is what probably keeps it from being "just another action thriller" and makes it a meditative play, a profound work worthy of these serious performances by stars, lots of close-ups. It's an existentialist stage play, ready to join conversations with other works, in future writings, and yet it's a roller coaster as well, a thrill ride in addition.
Many bold moves. First person shots, "in helmet". You couldn't have that other point of view, that we get as an audience, but those quasi-omniscient points of view were long ago accepted. We say we don't believe in angels but only because our language buys them entirely, hook, line and sinker. The film industry is the champion of impossible viewpoints. And right next to them: the stars.
Clooney does a fine job. At first we think maybe he's a loudmouth jerk, but soon realize he's grounding the whole mission, anchoring. He's a geodesic. A meaning of gravity (yet with levity -- he's always cracking jokes). Clooney is a rabbi, if we want to go with that, a dharma teacher. Then Bullock is gutsy brave and evolving, as one tends to do in death's face. Nothing like death's face to spur one to get a move on, spiritually speaking. She goes through plenty.
Tara, a physics student, was fairly OK with the physics engine. In reality, the inertias involved would likely just be too great. Grabbing a moving car on the freeway or leaping onto a moving train, is not that much easier in zero gravity. Grabbing the box car door as it flies by is just too much a jerk on your body. You need to swoop alongside and grab, but just a fire extinguisher is likely not up to it. She's in that lack of O2 fantasy.
That's a darker interpretation: when she's dozing off as an homunculus, perhaps to be reborn in China (as a dog maybe), we think she has like an hallucination, but it's more like a discontinuity, with George having his desire to keep living the dream too. Both have died at some point, and we the audience are left with our impossible point of view, dead long ago and far away.
This got us both eager to cross-check (omni-triangulate) and we sat at Ringler's later (a McMenamins) with our smart phones, reading about the Chinese space program. Most of the hardware credited to China in the film is planned to make it's real time debut in the near future. The film is "quite close to now". No Orion yet.
At the Wanderer's Solstice Party, Brenda, a lab tech at MHCC, said the new planetarium software was really great. She's Ms. Frizzle from Magic School Bus when in character -- she actually dresses up as that during one of the college campus summer festivals. She'd probably be a good astronaut, or could at least play one.
Life of Pi was somewhat a precedent for this movie, in exploring seamless CG. We've come a long way in films. This was the industry's way of showing off it's own breakthroughs, its ways of communicating the reality we know is out there, the reality of "outer space". We live in it, within a biosphere as thin as the oil on the surface of an orange or thereabouts. Maybe a little thicker.
The themes of death and gravity stay tightly interwoven in this film, which is what probably keeps it from being "just another action thriller" and makes it a meditative play, a profound work worthy of these serious performances by stars, lots of close-ups. It's an existentialist stage play, ready to join conversations with other works, in future writings, and yet it's a roller coaster as well, a thrill ride in addition.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Bylaw Changes
A rather open secret among Friends is that it's an uphill battle to keep the American Friends Service Committee in their good graces. You'd think, with the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize coming up, that Quaker churches and meetings would be crowding into the frame. Twas the AFSC that accepted, on behalf of Quakerdom more generally.
However, the political landscape has changed since those days leading up to World War Two, about which I recommend the book Human Smoke (on my Kindle). That flash of early brilliance and optimism was nearly drowned in the wars to follow, in Vietnam especially, where the AFSC kept showing up in Hanoi, maybe on the same airport bus as Jane Fonda. That alienated a political demographic that overlaps with Christendom certainly. The Vietnam War had many elements of a crusade, especially if you see it as Diem did, a devout Catholic.
Consider the late Bayard Rustin, his 100th birthday the focus of a recent Corporation meeting. US President Obama subsequently awarded him a posthumous Medal of Freedom. A lot of the same people who love to hate Hanoi Jane have no time for our hero Rustin either.
Our Corporation bylaws currently stipulate that at least two reps from each represented Yearly Meeting be Corporation members. This governance relationship, between Yearly Meetings and the AFSC, which includes "at large" as well as geographic members, is strained to the breaking point, with the logistics of reaching a quorum proving daunting, well neigh impossible sometimes.
To address this shortfall, the Corporation feels it must adapt by streamlining. Instead of stipulating "no less than two" reps from any Meeting, it will be "no more than two". The status quo will become the norm, whereas it had been our Achilles Heel. The AFSC will continue operating with the proper bona fides, as truly a Quaker organization, and the peanut gallery can just stay unfilled (the balcony seats are never needed for Corporation meetings as it is).
I played devil's advocate during the conference call with Friends Center this morning, in my role as convener for my region's reps, our Yearly Meeting being North Pacific YM (NPYM).
The clerk congratulated me on my performance but one could sense our seeing a way open, the way of shrinking, like Alice. There's that tendency to stampede towards the light at the end of the tunnel.
A streamlined AFSC will be cozier, more tightly knit, goes the theory. Those who do share a commitment, will more likely get more done, divested of the more lukewarm hangers on, the foot draggers, the grumblers.
I pointed out that because we're still hammering out what's considered legal representation in cyberspace, the day may soon come when reps need not travel to be legally present in meetings, thereby constituting a quorum. Where are the laws with that today?
So why worry so much about our "carbon footprint" when we might be on the brink of another upgrade? Might we address our shortfall in numbers another way?
If our goal is truly to maximize diversity (another bylaw change) then isn't cutting back our numbers a move away from that goal?
Why not pack the house, in virtual space, in augmentation of the physical meeting, and demonstrate greater diversity at the same time?
We'll see what happens. These discussions will be ongoing for some time.
The board takes a look at it again, before kicking it back to us for a red or green light. At least we've found a way to be open about our shortfall and the legal bind that has put us in.
If we have no way of living up to our existing bylaws, then it's not surprising we feel compelled to change them. We have to go with the army -- inward weapons only -- we've got.
On with the metaphysics then! -- or whatever "organizational alchemy" is called.
However, the political landscape has changed since those days leading up to World War Two, about which I recommend the book Human Smoke (on my Kindle). That flash of early brilliance and optimism was nearly drowned in the wars to follow, in Vietnam especially, where the AFSC kept showing up in Hanoi, maybe on the same airport bus as Jane Fonda. That alienated a political demographic that overlaps with Christendom certainly. The Vietnam War had many elements of a crusade, especially if you see it as Diem did, a devout Catholic.
Consider the late Bayard Rustin, his 100th birthday the focus of a recent Corporation meeting. US President Obama subsequently awarded him a posthumous Medal of Freedom. A lot of the same people who love to hate Hanoi Jane have no time for our hero Rustin either.
Our Corporation bylaws currently stipulate that at least two reps from each represented Yearly Meeting be Corporation members. This governance relationship, between Yearly Meetings and the AFSC, which includes "at large" as well as geographic members, is strained to the breaking point, with the logistics of reaching a quorum proving daunting, well neigh impossible sometimes.
To address this shortfall, the Corporation feels it must adapt by streamlining. Instead of stipulating "no less than two" reps from any Meeting, it will be "no more than two". The status quo will become the norm, whereas it had been our Achilles Heel. The AFSC will continue operating with the proper bona fides, as truly a Quaker organization, and the peanut gallery can just stay unfilled (the balcony seats are never needed for Corporation meetings as it is).
I played devil's advocate during the conference call with Friends Center this morning, in my role as convener for my region's reps, our Yearly Meeting being North Pacific YM (NPYM).
The clerk congratulated me on my performance but one could sense our seeing a way open, the way of shrinking, like Alice. There's that tendency to stampede towards the light at the end of the tunnel.
A streamlined AFSC will be cozier, more tightly knit, goes the theory. Those who do share a commitment, will more likely get more done, divested of the more lukewarm hangers on, the foot draggers, the grumblers.
I pointed out that because we're still hammering out what's considered legal representation in cyberspace, the day may soon come when reps need not travel to be legally present in meetings, thereby constituting a quorum. Where are the laws with that today?
So why worry so much about our "carbon footprint" when we might be on the brink of another upgrade? Might we address our shortfall in numbers another way?
If our goal is truly to maximize diversity (another bylaw change) then isn't cutting back our numbers a move away from that goal?
Why not pack the house, in virtual space, in augmentation of the physical meeting, and demonstrate greater diversity at the same time?
We'll see what happens. These discussions will be ongoing for some time.
The board takes a look at it again, before kicking it back to us for a red or green light. At least we've found a way to be open about our shortfall and the legal bind that has put us in.
If we have no way of living up to our existing bylaws, then it's not surprising we feel compelled to change them. We have to go with the army -- inward weapons only -- we've got.
On with the metaphysics then! -- or whatever "organizational alchemy" is called.
Friday, November 29, 2013
TG 2014
Provided these blogs still have structural integrity, you will find a pattern around this time of year: a journey North to visit friends and relatives. This year, I drove alone, having I-5 adventures, with occasional forays into the hinterlands. Of course driving has changed now that smartphones plugged into the dash talk, giving directions, and play music.
Tara joined the eight of us by Google Hangout from Greater Chicago, for a video chat. Lee brought his parents, Howard and Wilma, along with Howard's brother Bill, to Mary's. Alice (Mary's sister) and Steven joined us from further north.
We found assembling the jigsaw puzzles congenial as they gave us something to focus on while having after dinner conversation. They were not run of the mill puzzles in that the pieces were unusually intricate, sometimes detailed shapes in their own right.
I drove north on Wednesday and south on Friday, stopping by Bill's place for the first time near the University of Washington, the day of the annual football game, Huskies (University of Washington) versus Washington State.
Many of our conversations were quite lighthearted, others serious in terms of topic, such as end of life planning. Mary is a doctor and wanted to be sure we were all aware of the agony some go through if the paperwork does not allow them to die and they can't represent themselves.
My love to friends and relatives out there, both near to me and far. We are one interwoven web of life, empirically as well as spiritually. There's not much to argue about there. The devil is in the details I suppose.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Life Hacks for College Students
I like the Maker (as in Make:) culture here, the pragmatism.
He has a whole body of work which I have only just begun to explore.
By the way, this seems as good a place as any to note that Vodka + Grapefruit Juice is called a Greyhound.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
End of Life Planning
The Urner family has often taken in long term guests, in the Philippines, in Egypt, in other places. Readers of my blogs know we've given shelter to one Lindsey Walker, a political refugee one might say, escaping a more repressive state.
The "host" role is quite a bit different from the "landlord" role, but any lawyer will tell you it's still important to limit your liability. Given only two adults in the house, I have to be sure the law does not treat us like a couple, at which point assets get shmooed together.
If we were married, even if just in common law terms, and I called an ambulance, I might be held liable for those expenses.
But we're not married, not by any standard, and any medical bill I get relating to her care I'm going to return, burn, or forward to her next of kin, unless the courts somehow find me liable for her condition in the first place -- a contingency I have to keep working to prevent (I must exercise mindfulness around my fellow human beings and not cause them injury through negligence, no kidding).
One of the guys at Thirsters the other day was sorrowful because his nephew had been killed by unexploded ordinance, one of the bomblets from a cluster bomb.
If I left cluster bomblets around my house and my guests picked them up or kicked them, not knowing their true nature, then lawyers might come after me. I would be liable for their deaths and/or medical treatment.
Indeed, as a US taxpayer, you could say that I do pay for such injuries, as whenever US employees hurt themselves on the job, they're in a position to file claims, which US borrowing and revenue will need to cover if said claims are upheld, as many are.
I gave Lindsey some ultra-sonic rat repellants, devices one plugs in. If a rat bites her in the neck and gives her a deadly disease, people might say I was not a good host and that my humble basement was too humble. I'm not saying we have lots of rats, but many Portland basements are not immune from rodents, possums too in some cases. We have squirrels in the attic and walls. They're not rabid and don't usually bite humans.
One thing I'm very clear about is that even though Lindsey has very low body fat (she knows Victoria's secret or whatever) she'd be non-trivial to pick up and carry to the maxi taxi (the Nissan, which used to be hers).
We've used the Nissan for medical emergencies. Lindsey doesn't have health insurance or much savings and an ambulance could be ruinous to her, financially. As long as she's been ambulatory herself, transport by car was an option. I've usually been the driver.
But I'm not about to try to lift her up, if she's comatose or simply limp and delirious, and I've told her that. I'll call 911 and let the professionals use a stretcher.
I know she wouldn't try to lift me. I probably weigh well over twice as much as she does. If I pass out in the 2nd floor office, she is not going to try lugging me down a flight of stairs and out to the Nissan just to save on some ambulance costs. That'd be foolish. She'd likely injure herself just trying it.
But I'm saying it'd be equally foolish for me to try that with her.
An acquaintance of mine told me about dragging an inebriated friend from a bar (I think it was) and how heavy that friend was. I believe he had help. Two of them were trying to drag their friend somewhere, but somehow they dropped him and he hit his head.
How it all turned out I don't remember, but the storyteller was still traumatized by the event. Another time I saw a father drop his little girl completely by mistake. He was so torn up about it, although she was fine.
What Lindsey and I both need are contingency plans in case either one of us finds the other comatose or dead. 911 is the default answer, but more responsible adults, or those with the time, especially later in life, start getting their affairs in order. My mom has done a lot of end of life planning.
Some phone number on the fridge, with a check already made out, might be the best answer. "In case of death, cremate me here: 555-XXX-YYYY." Lindsey and I should each have that, plus make arrangements for whatever ceremonies above and beyond corpse disposal.
In Lindsey's case, I think Satya would be a good person to help out planning ceremonies, notifying next of kin and so on. In my case, I should exercise my Oversight Committee powers and get one of those Wishes Upon Death forms in the files. I'd like to keep the Flickr and Facebook accounts public, my blogs. I should start saving whatever emails are worth keeping...
Preparing for one's death is a lot of work actually.
I don't like the word "retired" because in physics work is any energy expenditure and there's no way around spending energy, even just breathing. So life is work and work is life. Death might be the absence of work, though some might say that's just what we mean by context i.e. death is context. That's a metaphysical discussion for later maybe.
Besides, I'm not even legally retired. I have a full time job. I did participate in my wife's end of life planning, most of which she did herself, while self employed. She was extremely responsible about managing her own death, having received a death sentence from her doctors (about three to six years, which she got).
Moving Dawn became problematic towards the end. She stopped being ambulatory. I moved her solo one day and we realized that was not a good idea, too much pain. We realized we needed more help, which our community provided.
I don't have any funds budgeted for Lindsey's care. Anything extra goes to the college where my younger daughter goes. Ever since the coma discussion, I've been comparing notes with other friends, including some who are lawyers and/or landlords. I'm trying to distill into writing what a non-lease extended house guest agreement might look like.
But then, at the end of the day she's planning to leave anyway, maybe storing some stuff in the basement, taking off for various adventures, some of them probably higher risk than anything she tries around Portland. She's like a circus worker, a tightrope walker. Someone living on the edge. She lives her life at the limits as Walter Kaufmann would say (he thought you needed to do that to call yourself a philosopher).
People with dangerous work need to keep their affairs in order, soldiers, philosophers, and political revolutionaries included.
That's probably why Friends have a habit of being so meticulous in their record keeping and personal affairs. Being a Quaker has been dangerous too, in different times and places.
The "host" role is quite a bit different from the "landlord" role, but any lawyer will tell you it's still important to limit your liability. Given only two adults in the house, I have to be sure the law does not treat us like a couple, at which point assets get shmooed together.
If we were married, even if just in common law terms, and I called an ambulance, I might be held liable for those expenses.
But we're not married, not by any standard, and any medical bill I get relating to her care I'm going to return, burn, or forward to her next of kin, unless the courts somehow find me liable for her condition in the first place -- a contingency I have to keep working to prevent (I must exercise mindfulness around my fellow human beings and not cause them injury through negligence, no kidding).
One of the guys at Thirsters the other day was sorrowful because his nephew had been killed by unexploded ordinance, one of the bomblets from a cluster bomb.
If I left cluster bomblets around my house and my guests picked them up or kicked them, not knowing their true nature, then lawyers might come after me. I would be liable for their deaths and/or medical treatment.
Indeed, as a US taxpayer, you could say that I do pay for such injuries, as whenever US employees hurt themselves on the job, they're in a position to file claims, which US borrowing and revenue will need to cover if said claims are upheld, as many are.
I gave Lindsey some ultra-sonic rat repellants, devices one plugs in. If a rat bites her in the neck and gives her a deadly disease, people might say I was not a good host and that my humble basement was too humble. I'm not saying we have lots of rats, but many Portland basements are not immune from rodents, possums too in some cases. We have squirrels in the attic and walls. They're not rabid and don't usually bite humans.
One thing I'm very clear about is that even though Lindsey has very low body fat (she knows Victoria's secret or whatever) she'd be non-trivial to pick up and carry to the maxi taxi (the Nissan, which used to be hers).
We've used the Nissan for medical emergencies. Lindsey doesn't have health insurance or much savings and an ambulance could be ruinous to her, financially. As long as she's been ambulatory herself, transport by car was an option. I've usually been the driver.
But I'm not about to try to lift her up, if she's comatose or simply limp and delirious, and I've told her that. I'll call 911 and let the professionals use a stretcher.
I know she wouldn't try to lift me. I probably weigh well over twice as much as she does. If I pass out in the 2nd floor office, she is not going to try lugging me down a flight of stairs and out to the Nissan just to save on some ambulance costs. That'd be foolish. She'd likely injure herself just trying it.
But I'm saying it'd be equally foolish for me to try that with her.
An acquaintance of mine told me about dragging an inebriated friend from a bar (I think it was) and how heavy that friend was. I believe he had help. Two of them were trying to drag their friend somewhere, but somehow they dropped him and he hit his head.
How it all turned out I don't remember, but the storyteller was still traumatized by the event. Another time I saw a father drop his little girl completely by mistake. He was so torn up about it, although she was fine.
What Lindsey and I both need are contingency plans in case either one of us finds the other comatose or dead. 911 is the default answer, but more responsible adults, or those with the time, especially later in life, start getting their affairs in order. My mom has done a lot of end of life planning.
Some phone number on the fridge, with a check already made out, might be the best answer. "In case of death, cremate me here: 555-XXX-YYYY." Lindsey and I should each have that, plus make arrangements for whatever ceremonies above and beyond corpse disposal.
In Lindsey's case, I think Satya would be a good person to help out planning ceremonies, notifying next of kin and so on. In my case, I should exercise my Oversight Committee powers and get one of those Wishes Upon Death forms in the files. I'd like to keep the Flickr and Facebook accounts public, my blogs. I should start saving whatever emails are worth keeping...
Preparing for one's death is a lot of work actually.
I don't like the word "retired" because in physics work is any energy expenditure and there's no way around spending energy, even just breathing. So life is work and work is life. Death might be the absence of work, though some might say that's just what we mean by context i.e. death is context. That's a metaphysical discussion for later maybe.
Besides, I'm not even legally retired. I have a full time job. I did participate in my wife's end of life planning, most of which she did herself, while self employed. She was extremely responsible about managing her own death, having received a death sentence from her doctors (about three to six years, which she got).
Moving Dawn became problematic towards the end. She stopped being ambulatory. I moved her solo one day and we realized that was not a good idea, too much pain. We realized we needed more help, which our community provided.
I don't have any funds budgeted for Lindsey's care. Anything extra goes to the college where my younger daughter goes. Ever since the coma discussion, I've been comparing notes with other friends, including some who are lawyers and/or landlords. I'm trying to distill into writing what a non-lease extended house guest agreement might look like.
But then, at the end of the day she's planning to leave anyway, maybe storing some stuff in the basement, taking off for various adventures, some of them probably higher risk than anything she tries around Portland. She's like a circus worker, a tightrope walker. Someone living on the edge. She lives her life at the limits as Walter Kaufmann would say (he thought you needed to do that to call yourself a philosopher).
People with dangerous work need to keep their affairs in order, soldiers, philosophers, and political revolutionaries included.
That's probably why Friends have a habit of being so meticulous in their record keeping and personal affairs. Being a Quaker has been dangerous too, in different times and places.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Ender's Game (movie review)
Earth has been attacked and was almost defeated before humans repulsed the alien invasion. Now the Earthians are taking the battle to the alien home world. Their psychology has discovered that when it comes to war fighting using weapons not requiring brawn to operate, that children make the best warriors as their nervous systems are more flexible and adaptive. So an all child army is being raised to fight the aliens.
True to form, the adults are endlessly manipulative and the protagonist, as he is groomed for leadership, becomes increasingly aware that the true enemy may be these adults. His hunch is confirmed when the adults trick him into annihilating the alien home world.
The sense of compassion which enables Wiggins to outwit his enemy is also what leads him to love and understand them. In the case of the aliens, he feels obligated to make amends and find a way to continue their lineage. The Earthians make him an admiral at this point, a way of saying he's on his own.
True to form, the adults are endlessly manipulative and the protagonist, as he is groomed for leadership, becomes increasingly aware that the true enemy may be these adults. His hunch is confirmed when the adults trick him into annihilating the alien home world.
The sense of compassion which enables Wiggins to outwit his enemy is also what leads him to love and understand them. In the case of the aliens, he feels obligated to make amends and find a way to continue their lineage. The Earthians make him an admiral at this point, a way of saying he's on his own.
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