Relationships

I've come to a realization about my philosophy. I'm relativistic.

Things have limits. Oh yes. But these limits are defined not by a little single point, but more by volume, and they are, in the end, pinned down by their relationships. Eventually, just the relationships based on particles which collide with one, then the other.

Indeed, a photon trail of reflected light is, in fact, a relationship between all the things struck, and from the photon's point of view time is stopped, and happens all at once (at least, that is the mathematical statement in Einstein's theories. So in a way, if only poetically, the photon strikes all the objects simultaneously, and connects them in spacetime.

And my point? These relationships are how one gets some readings on things. How we make a measurment. Relativity and skepticism are not about denying things exist (!) or that they can be compared. They are an explanation of in what sense and by what means things can be said to exist, and in relativity is a statement that not only can things be compared but that's all you can do, the thing in itself is considered a thing in relation.

When using relative means to figure people, it is pretty hard, impossible, to peg a person, which means to visualize and understand the limits to their volume and thereby their potential. You can limit a person in your mind, but in reality, your estimate is wrong to some degree, and in humans, it can be a huge and unlimited degree of error, because people do change.

As do relationships.

Vacation

I'm not one to explain why I don't post... but perhaps I'm changing in that regard.

Hotel Rwanda

I finally saw this movie, of course, I was aware of the history of the genocide in Rwanda but still, this movie is an eye opener. My wife and I were not sure if we should let our daughter see it... knowing how terrible the story is, but it turned out to have been told very well... the violence is oppressing but not graphicly so... it's what really happened that is so distressing.

For one thing, it helps one remember this wasn't some war among savage people living in the jungle, this was a massacre from house to house in neighborhoods that look, in many cases, just like any American or Western neighborhood. A million people hacked by machete.

It's a great movie, I highly recommend it.

Just one more thing for those that might not know. This whole thing starts by a Western Power playing a good old Roman Empire trick...

(1) You always get a local to run the show locally

(2) Always choose the local from a minority. A ruling minority will clamp down, it's the only way for them to survive.

And that is where Hutu anger at Tutsi's came from... the pattern really goes back quite far in these things. Mind you, that should generate not one iota of sympathy for any individual who has chosen brutal inhumanity, and Rwanda's example is very brutal, very cruel indeed.

By Request

1) What is the nastiest thing you've ever eaten?

Rocky Mountain Oysters



2) What is one food that you ate when a kid that you absolutely refuse to now, since you're on your own and don't have to?

none, I'm omnivorous. Mom didn't make me eat onions... and now I love them.


3) Have you ever eaten an endangered critter? If not, what was the best thing you've ever eaten?

no! what a terrible idea. And that it would taste good dripped in forbidden appetite... it wouldn't for me. That forbidden thing never got me excited in any of the domains. No... I'm an iconoclast because it's directly fun... not because it's forbidden.

Best thing: Dungeness Crab.

Wildest thing: Rattlesnake

4) What food can you never get enough of?

hot sauce is too a food.

5) Have you ever eaten any critter's testicles? Why?

Yes. Cows testicles, in Colorado, where they are quite popular, they are called Rocky Mountain Oysters and I had just a bite because I believe you can try most anything once. It didn't taste too bad but... well, I was still disgusted. And besides I was still a kid. I prefer actual oysters myself and don't see the resemblance actually... ahem.

6) Who is the better cook, your significant other or your mom?

shinobi, who tagged me for this, said "I will tag Owlish because he posts recipes and stuff, and pyrrho, because I want to see how he answers #6. Tee hee." Now the premise of this blog is that I write it with my mother. The fact that mother doesn't post is perhaps what we call a sub text... though she will one day... one day she will! But she does sometimes read this, and even if she didn't, she is a part of the audience. But my mother is a very wise and mature lady, not probably too sensitive about who I would chose. So it is not a cop out, no, NOT a cop out to say that they are both great cooks. I, on the other hand, am not a bad cook, but I'm a lazy cook, which is to say that I mostly don't cook anything decent. If I were single I would eat healthy by steaming vegitables and eating them on rice and pasta with hot sauce every night.

If I HAD to chose, I would choose my significant other because, well frankly, she might make me dinner tonight, it doesn't get better than that!