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COSMOLOGY

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Death by Black Hole
By Neil deGrasse Tyson

Narrated by Don Graham

NEIL deGRASSE TYSON (AMERICAN ASTROPHYSICIST, AUTHOR, SCIENCE COMMUNICATOR.)

Neil deGrasse Tyson has become a famous translator of the science of cosmology for the layman because of appearances on Nova, and comedy programs like “The Daily Show”, “The Colbert Report”, and “Real Time with Bill Maher”.

“Death by Black Hole” is an exploration of the universe; i.e. how it was formed, where life comes from, whether life exists on other planets or in other universes, how the world might end, what a black hole in space is, and what would happen to the human body entering a black hole.

Tyson explores the molecular basis of creation. He notes how ethnocentric concepts of life have evolved from a belief in man as the center of the universe to man as a grain of sand in the desert; randomly placed by the “big bang” of creation.

Tyson describes man as a concretion of star dust molded by a molecular carbon based combination of atoms, super heated, cooled, and evolved over eons of cosmological time. He suggests that all planets may have forms of life. His evidence is the existence of extremophiles in earth environments. An extremophile is a living organism that survives in environments in which no human being could live.

THERMOPHILE ENVIRONMENT IN THE HOT SPRINGS OF YELLOWSTONE — ENVIRONMENT IN THE HOT SPRINGS OF YELLOWSTONE (Tyson writes of thermophiles, a type of extremophile that thrives in temperatures of 113 to 252 degrees Fahrenheit. )

Tyson writes of thermophiles, a type of extremophile that thrives in temperatures of 113 to 252 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tyson explores current understanding of an expanding universe, how it is measured through spectrographic analysis, and how expansion of the universe is accelerating.

He notes that the end of times for man may come from death of the sun, the turning of this universe’s white star to a red star to a black hole. Tyson notes that another possibility is that accelerating expansion of earth’s universe will cause a gradual cooling of the planet that will only allow extremophiles to survive.

Tyson suggests the most likely cosmological cause of the human race’s end is collision with an asteroid. Of course, the end that concerns us is humankind. Like Dyson’s explanation of the likely cause of dinosaur’s demise, human existence would disappear from the cataclysmic effects of a sunless planet hidden, cooled, and smothered by the debris of collision.

ASTEROID COLLISION WITH EARTH — Tyson suggests the most likely cosmological cause of the human race’s end is collision with an asteroid.

ET (FICTIONAL EXTRA TERRESTRIAL) — Tyson laughs at the idea of a movies creation of other life forms as distorted caricatures of human beings (like ET).

Tyson speculates about contact with extraterrestrials by noting that the general media fails to base concepts of other life forms on 20^th and 21^st century science. Tyson laughs at the idea of a movies creation of other life forms as distorted caricatures of human beings (like ET).

Tyson explains that SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is a long shot to hear a transmission from space as a first sign of contact. He wonders if other intelligent life is listening rather than transmitting so that everyone is listening and no one is transmitting. On the other hand, Tyson recounts sciences’ effort to send a radio transmission to a star cluster that will reach its destination a 1000 years from now. Ironically, the high concentration of stars in that system, makes that particular star cluster a bad focal point for intelligible reception. Extraterrestrial radio wave contact seems unlikely, based on these first attempts.

SETI (LISTENING FOR ANYBODY OUT THERE) — SETI (LISTENING FOR ANYBODY OUT THERE–Tyson explains that SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is a long shot to hear a transmission from space as a first sign of contact )

EFFECTS OF HUMAN DESCENT INTO A BLACK HOLE

As to the effects of a human body entering into a black hole. Tyson explains the human body would be stretched and contorted. Time and space are dissolved as you approach the event horizon. Before you reach the event horizon, your body is atomized.

Tyson explores the history of cosmology beginning with scientists like Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, Einstein, Durac, Hubble, and many other names known and unknown by the general public. “Death by Black Hole” is interesting but not fascinating. A number of videos on “you tube” summarize Tyson’s commentary.

WONDER OF THE WORLD

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.com

Knocking on Heaven’s Door
By Lisa Randall

Narrated by Carrington MacDuffie

LISA RANDALL (AMERICAN THEORETICAL PHYSICIST)

Lisa Randall believes the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is one of the wonders of the world; competing with the pyramids of Egypt in its colossal achievement. Located near the border of France and Switzerland, it is the largest construction project ever built.

“Knocking on Heaven’s Door” is the story of the Collider’s creation, inner workings, and scientific objectives. Along the way, Randall explores physics, sciences conflict with religion, the process of scientific research, and somewhat ineptly, the near economic collapse of the financial world in 2007.

LHC MAP SHOWING CERN SITE — “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” inspires one to visit the site, near Geneva, Switzerland. Randall’s description is of a 17 mile tunnel that is the coldest and largest vacuum on earth, capable of hurtling particles near the speed of light to collide neutrons that are meant to separate into constituent parts.

Randall’s information about LHC inspires one to visit the site, near Geneva, Switzerland. Her description is of a 17 mile tunnel that is the coldest and largest vacuum on earth, capable of hurtling particles near the speed of light to collide neutrons that are meant to separate into constituent parts. The idea of such a creation challenges one’s understanding; its reality is remarkable. How is it possible to control a neutron? What is the point of causing neutron collisions? Why should anyone care about particles of matter that cannot be seen?

Randall, as a physicist, does a fairly good job of answering those questions for a non-scientist. Neutrons are a chosen accelerator particle because they are divisible. Neutron control is exercised by magnets around an elliptical tunnel that contain accelerating neutrons within a super cooled vacuum that pushes and pulls neutrons to keep them in line.

Neutrons are particles made up of smaller elements, scientifically confirmed through repeated experiments. The makeup of a neutron was found by forcing collisions between neutrons that broke into separate elements. However, not all parts of a neutron have been experimentally identified. Einstein’s balance between energy and mass multiplied by the speed of light squared shows an imbalance between known elements of a neutron and a neutron’s mass/energy equivalence. The imbalance may be the Higgs-boson particle.

This is where the picture gets a little fuzzy for the dim-witted (meaning this reviewer). The Higgs-boson particle is sometimes called the God particle. It is surmised to be the glue or medium of mass in the universe; i.e. the key to dark matter and energy that make up 75% of the known universe.

The consequence of finding Higgs-boson is unknown which is the bête noire of pure science. Scientists seek to know for the sake of knowledge; not necessarily for its practical consequence. Is it important? Was Einstein’s pure science important? Hiroshima and Nagasaki answer that query.

As is well-known, Higgs-boson has been discovered. HIGGS-BOSON DISCOVERY

A quibble one may have with Randall’s book is that she digresses into derivative finance to suggest that more scientific analysis would obviate the kind of financial disaster that occurred in 2007. She suggests that proper analysis of the risk of derivatives would have stopped the madness. The naivete of that argument is that there were only a few that saw the collapse coming. Scientific analysis only convinces some. The history of politics, ignorance, and power are shown to have more influence than science or rational thinking.

TRUMP AND CLIMATE CHANGE — The President of the United States believes he is acting rationally by ignoring science and deregulating industries believed to be huge contributors to global warming.

How different is expert analysis from the scientific community on global warming. Scientific analysis misses part of what makes human’s human; i.e. minds can know something and still act irrationally; not to mention, rationality is often in the mind of the beholder. The President of the United States believes he is acting rationally by ignoring science and deregulating industries believed to be huge contributors to global warming. Randal admits as much in writing about beauty and truth and clearly notes that they are not necessarily equivalent because of human subjectivity.

Randall convinces one of the formidableness of LHC and the potential of its contribution to science. America may have missed a chance to be a leader rather than follower of one of the great contributions to science, the Large Hadron Collider.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

By Frederick Douglass

Narrated by Walter Covell

“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is an original source of history; i.e. words written by a man ahead of his time who acted on new-found knowledge and lived to write about it.

One may question the veracity of Douglass’s words but the truth of his experience is corroborated by reports of others of his time and by America’s history of Black revolution.

Douglass was a slave in the early 19^th century, 30 years before the civil war. He became a self-taught reader/writer and scholar, reporting on himself as “a slave become free”.

Slavery and racial prejudice are truths of American history. Resistance is made real in Douglass’s auto biography. Racial prejudice remains evident in today’s memory of the Watt’s riots and Black Panther movement of the 1960s.

Frederick Douglass was a canary in a coal mine that presaged the future of slavery and resistance to unequal treatment in the United States. His experience in 1820’s Maryland is the experience of Black militancy in the 1960s.

Advances in racial equality could only be started through education. However, Douglass infers that some level of violence is inherent in the drive for equality.

He recounts his physical resistance to the abuse of an overseer when he is near 16 years of age. The quality of resistance seems like that of a younger brother that becomes too big to be abused by an older brother that has been able to control his sibling’s behavior.

It is more complex in Douglass’s explanation because the overseer may also have been trying to maintain his reputation as a reformer of recalcitrant slaves. Any hint of physical resistance would be a strike against the overseer’s reputation.

ca. 1860s, Near Savannah, Georgia, USA — Slave Family In Cotton Field near Savannah — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

Douglass goes on to explain that physical abuse is only one of many ways that unequal treatment was reinforced by a white majority; e.g. slave owners refusal to educate slaves, slave owners withholding of food and clothing, slave owners sexual exploitation of slave women; more ways than can be counted, seen, or understood.

Douglass, like Colin Kaepernick, is not condoning violence but his story is a reality check on the consequence of resistance to unfair or unequal treatment.

Without physical resistance, social change has no impetus, no accelerator. Douglass did not write about murdering an oppressor. He wrote about human equality and the need to become confident in oneself; not to be property of another but to be equally human. The logical extension of that belief is an assertion of one’s self; i.e. a bully can only be a bully if the put-upon fail to fight back. Douglass fought back and gained self-respect. Short of murder, that contextualizes the Black Panther movement and reinforces the credibility of Martin Luther King’s, and today’s football player’s efforts to raise Black self-respect through education and non-violent resistance to unequal treatment.

An irony that is sometimes missed in the fight for equal rights is the negative role that religion played in the unequal treatment of Blacks.

Douglass notes in his auto biography that his greatest ill-treatment stemmed from people who professed strong belief in a particular religion. Douglass writes that be believes in God and feels blessed by God’s existence but white men and women, in Douglass’s experience, distort God’s truth through their religion to justify abhorrent behavior toward slaves.

“A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is worth listening to because it gives all Americans some sense of how bad we are, how good we can be, how far we have come, and how far we have to go to eliminate racial inequality.

COST OF CHANGE

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Factory Girls

By Leslie T. Chang

Narrated by Susan Ericksen

Leslie Chang is perfectly suited for this journey into the heart of China’s economic transformation.

Ms. Chang works for the “Wall Street Journal”. She has family generational experience of imperial and communist China from the 1920s to the present; she speaks Mandarin Chinese, and grew up in the United States. Chang brings intimate perspective to the dynamics of economic and social change in 21^st century China.

“Factory Girls” gives the world a glimpse of the tremendous cultural change occurring in today’s China.

Sixteen year old girls are leaving rural China to seek their future in the City. With little formal education, they are fuel for the engines of China’s rapid industrial growth. Chang follows several of these amazing young women back and forth from their rural beginnings to their immersion in the difficult life of factory work.

At home on one acre farms there is nothing for young women to do but eat, sleep, and be treated as a burden and betrothal obligation.

Anomie, culture, tremendous ambition, boredom, and opportunity lure these young women into an unknown world of commerce. Chang notes there is little Chinese law to protect children from the abuses of industrialization.

The city beckons because it offers more than the limited opportunity of baring male children. China’s cultural history emphasizes male value and female inferiority to fuel the ambition of young women anxious to prove themselves.

The drive for money, power, and prestige are as clearly evident in women as in men. Those drives have been unleashed by China’s industrial transformation.

The consequence to factory girls is good and bad; i.e. a consequence of living any life. But, for the factory girls, Chang seems to infer the cost of change is less than the cost of staying on the farm.

BEIJING CHINA HIGH RISES (TYPICAL IN MAJOR CHINESE CITIES 2018)
INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION ON A BAD DAY IN BEJING,, CHINA

China is not America. Though about the size of America, China has a population of 1.31 billion; America 325 million.

Chang’s book is frightening to American parents who have the luxury of endorsing extended childhood through college for those who have a high school education.

Imagine a sixteen year old daughter taking a train to a city where she knows no one; has no financial support, and is expected to make her own living.

It is hard to imagine an American daughter that has no opportunity except as a barer of male children. What is a young Chinese girl to do if her life options are limited? What is any human to do if their options are unfairly limited? The poor in America know, but that is another book.

“Factory Girls” is an impressive report of the massive cultural change occurring in China. It is an astounding affirmation of the “will to power” explained by Friedrich Nietzsche. It is the drive of the superman (or woman) to perfect and transcend the self through the possession and exercise of creative power.

One cannot help but admire the factory girls of China; i.e. as difficult as the reality of their lives seems to be.

BITCOIN

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Digital Gold, Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money

Written by: Nathaniel Popper

Narrated by: Robert Fass

NATHANIEL POPPER (AUTHOR, NYT'S REPORTER) — NATHANIEL POPPER (AUTHOR, NYT’S REPORTER)

Nathaniel Popper writes a book on the history of bitcoin. His history is a “Just the facts Mam” presentation. One will draw their own conclusion about the good and bad qualities of crypto currency.

Just like the dollar, pound, renminbe (yuan), franc, and euro, bitcoin is used for legal and illegal transactions. There are a host of criminals who have gamed currencies. Pepper recounts examples of bitcoin that show it is not exempt from currency manipulation.

BERNARD MADOFF (AGE 74) SERVING 150 YEAR PRISON SENTENCE

However, the manipulation takes the form of coding modification, or criminal hacking, rather than overt Bernie Madoff-like’ deceit. Wealth has been accumulated and lost in every medium of exchange since the beginning of barter between buyers and sellers. Popper shows that the fundamental difference between conventional currencies and bitcoin is how value is determined; who decides on what the value should be, and the transparency of change.

Popper explains bitcoin’s value is a consensus of its owners and users. Bitcoin value rises or falls based on most of its holder’s and merchant’s willingness to sell goods in exchange for bitcoin’ value. In contrast, conventional currencies are based on government fiat and national economic stability.

BITCOIN SYMBOL — Popper explains bitcoin’s value is a consensus of its owners and users. Bitcoin value rises or falls based on most of its holder’s and merchant’s willingness to sell goods in exchange for bitcoin’ value.

CHECKS AND BALANCES — All currencies offer exchange of goods based on willing seller and buyer discretion. However, conventional money does not rely on majority determination of value. Value of conventional currency is an inchoate combination of government decision, and the economic condition of respective nations. http://news.webshots.com/photo/2005825900056011884kLVAuD

All currencies offer exchange of goods based on willing seller and buyer discretion. However, conventional money does not rely on majority determination of value. Value of conventional currency is an inchoate combination of government decision, and the economic condition of respective nations. When aberrant government actions or economic crises occur willing buyers disappear, and currency value falls. However, bitcoin is not dependent on government regulation or the state of one economy. Bitcoin relies on its buyers and sellers and is independent of singular government decisions or any singular national economies.

INFLATION — When aberrant government actions or economic crises (like hyper-inflation) occur willing buyers disappear, and currency value falls. However, bitcoin is not dependent on government regulation or the state of one economy. Bitcoin relies on its buyers and sellers and is independent of singular government decisions or any singular national economies.

What Popper clearly explains is that troubled economic countries can see dramatic conventional currency movements that destroy wealth because of government decisions. However, he equally notes many examples of large devaluations in bitcoin. The difference is that devaluation of bitcoin is based on owners and users who are not tied to any single nation-state economy or government regulation. Bitcoin value is based on the opinion of its owners and users.

One might conclude bitcoin is more egalitarian than conventional currency because it is based on the will of the majority of owners and users. That may be true but the idea of depending on bitcoin’s open system modification of cryptographic code is a threat to the will of the majority.

Only code technologists understand the ramification of code changes in bitcoin. Most users can only vote in ignorance and hope. One may argue that is also true when electing a government; however, the difference is transparency. Bad governments can be judged by the public and eventually defeated. Cryptocurrency is, as its title implies, concealed. It is both secret and incomprehensible to most owners and users. Most bitcoin users can only vote in ignorance and hope that coders are acting in a majorities best interest.

No form of currency guarantees value. Every form of currency has its ups and downs. The difference is in who makes the decision about value. If you live in a highly inflationary country, bitcoin offers some level of stability. If you live in a wealthy and relatively stable country, bitcoin seems less attractive.

The future of bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies seems more utilitarian in a future where nationalism disappears and there is acceptance of a world economy based on equality of opportunity. We seem far from such a Utopian world.

A BRADBURY CLASSIC

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Illustrated Man
By Ray Bradbury

Narrated by Paul Michael Garcia

Flights of imagination sparkle and spin in this updated 1950s Ray Bradbury classic. This compendium of Bradbury’ tales is titled “The Illustrated Man”.

ROD SERLING (1924-1975, SCREENWRITER, TV PRODUCER, NARRATOR)

Bradbury spins stories; reminding one of late night re-runs of Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone”. Every episode sparkles with stars and planets, habitable by man but riddled with fear, death, and destruction. Bradbury grasps human nature and turns it against itself by writing stories that illustrate man’s selfishness, insecurity, wantonness, and aggression.

Tattoos come alive on rippling skin to act out a series of plays about mankind’s future. Everyone fears the illustrated man because his tattoos expose the worst in man. Belief that nuclear cataclysm will end life on earth blooms like a mushroom cloud. Traveling to other planets changes mankind’s environment but man’s nature remains the same.

THE ILLUSTRATED MAN (PLAYED BY ROD STEIGER) — THE ILLUSTRATED MAN (PLAYED BY ROD STEIGER IN A 1969 MOVIE) Tattoos come alive on rippling skin to act out a series of plays about mankind’s future.

AYN RAND (1905-1982) — AYN RAND (1905-1982, AUTHOR WHO FIRMLY BELIEVED IN THE VIRTUE OF SELF-INTEREST) Unregulated self-interest is a dangled reward stolen by one to keep it from the many; in the end the reward is destroyed by the selfishness of each against the other.)

These are not happy stories but they are great flights of imagination. Bradbury tells a story of human exile and deprivation that exacerbates selfishness when personal reward is dangled in front of exiled and deprived human beings. The dangled reward is stolen by one to keep it from the many; in the end the reward is destroyed by the selfishness of each against the other.

Insecurity is a devouring beast in the story of a planet blessed by an appearance of a Visitor (presumably Jesus) just before a rocket ship lands on the planet that has been visited. The captain disbelieves it has happened and is driven to track down this Visitor rather than settle in the insecure surroundings of a unblessed world. The captain is left to wander the universe, never to arrive in time to actually see the Visitor.

INFIDELITY — Wantonness is illustrated by Bradbury’s story of an unhappily married man.

Wantonness is illustrated by the husband that is unhappily married. He duplicates himself. His duplicate takes his place beside his wife so he can buy a ticket to Rio to exercise his fantasy. The duplicate is so perfect it becomes as human as the husband. The duplicate places the wanton husband in a box to die, and buys a ticket to Rio for his wife to accompany it in its fantasy.

Human kind is aggressive. Humans conquer and destroy civilizations. One world of the future prepares for a second visit from mankind by becoming the image of a City. This image devours the men of the second visit and assumes their bodies; i.e. the City image is transformed into the bodies of the humans from this second visit. The City image plans to return to earth to destroy those who had destroyed them.

NUCLEAR DETONATION ABOVE TEST TARGET 1986 — Human kind is aggressive. When human’s conquer or destroy others, others rise to destroy those who had destroyed them. An endless circle of life where agression eats itself.

Bradbury is a master story-teller. Paul Michael Garcia’s narration is a tribute to Bradbury’s skill.

TOTALITARIANISM

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Trial

By Franz Kafka, David Whiting (translator)

Narrated by Rupert Degas

FRANZ KAFKA (1883-1924, AUTHOR, NOVELIST)

“The Trial” is a Franz Kafka picture of hell; i.e. a totalitarian nightmare, ruled by bureaucracy and controlled through human despair. “The Trial” is a book to listen to because it mesmerizes when narrated by an artist but numbs when read by an undisciplined mind.

Imagine arbitrary arrests, undefined accusations, and undisclosed trials; i.e. trials operating in obscurity that secretly sentence the accused to mental purgatory or death; add shadows of human beings, dark rooms of judgment, stifling closeness, and oppressive anxiety. This is Kafka’s world in “The Trial”.

There is no lightness in Kafka’s tale; no human redemption. The main character, Ka (in this version of the book), is the only person that seems to seek self-understanding.

All other characters are “other directed”, trying to be what someone else expects them to be by playing whatever role they need to play to survive.

Kafka imagines a country of directionless people, subsumed in a bureaucracy that feeds on itself.

This is a country of directionless people, subsumed in a bureaucracy that feeds on itself. Citizens of this country are either a part of the bureaucracy or they are controlled by its administration.

Control is exercised by creating fear and anxiety. This characterization reminds one of Donald Trump and his current attempt to overthrow over 200 years of American government history.

Trump’s tacit support by the Republican party is a crime against democracy. Patriotic Republicans are diminished by Trump’s abhorrent behavior.

Should Trump be impeached a second time? It’s complicated. On the one hand, incitement by Trump on January 6th is obvious to most Democrats. On the other, Republicans now represent 70,000,000 Americans who think Trump is good for America.

There is no societal objective; there is only bureaucracy’s perpetuation. Lawyers, bankers, judges, business moguls, landlords, artists, servers and assistants of this society, though rarely singled out for terror or torture, are consumed with anxiety from an ever-present threat of arrest. The working public enriches itself by taking bribes to subvert bureaucratic action. The working public’s subversion is not destruction of the bureaucracy but a tacit acceptance of its hegemony.

Ka attempts to break the cycle of bureaucracy’s self-perpetuation. His attempt fails.

The redeeming quality of Kafka’s story is the human desire for freedom that is not extinguished even in the darkest times of a country’s repression. Against all obstacles, Ka insists on freedom. In Ka’s case freedom means death just as it did for many who died in Auschwitz, Dachau, and Treblinka.

Kafka’s hell exists in today’s world just as it did when it was published in 1925.

HEARTACHES, HEARTBREAKS, AND BELIEF

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Canterbury TalesBy Geoffrey Chaucer

Narrated by Charlton Griffin

What value does a 14^th century book have for a 21^st century person?

GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1343-1400) — GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1343-1400, AUTHOR, POET)

“The Canterbury Tales” is a rhyming entertainment (except for Christian preaching at the tales end) that recalls romantic heartaches, heartbreaks, and belief in divine justice that is as present today as yesterday. The unchanging nature of men’s lust for women and women’s superiority is comically and tragically told and repeated in Chaucer’s travelers’ tales. Though women play a primary focus in “The Canterbury Tales”, belief in Christianity and its power to heal and destroy is a paramount subject.

FIGHTING KNIGHTS — In the Knight’s tale, two brothers lust for the same woman. They plan to fight each other to the death but are interrupted by the King

In the Knight’s tale, two brothers lust for the same woman. They plan to fight each other to the death but are interrupted by the King. The woman wishes to retain her maidenhood and appeals to her deity to insure continued chastity. The two brothers and the woman have different agendas with each agenda appealed to a different god. The tale progresses with the three appellant deities determining the brothers and woman’s fates. It is an ironic pagan tale of Chaucer’s disbelief in many gods rather than the One.

In Chaucer’s tales, men are shown to be the weaker and dumber sex. Old rich men marry young beautiful women and become cuckolds. Powerful and rich young men choose poor and beautiful women to be their wives and treat them horribly to test their love and loyalty. Male insecurity and desire drive men to make foolish decisions about whom they should marry and how they might measure their worth through earth-bound pleasure. Men foolishly seek revenge at any cost while women seek justice through diplomacy and prudence.

WIFE OF BATH — In Chaucer’s tales, men are shown to be the weaker and dumber sex.

The incredible power of religion in Chaucer’s time is illustrated in the Nun’s tale of a chaste bride that convinces her betrothed to forgo conjugal relations for the sake of eternal life in heaven.

The husband asks for proof of an angel that visits his wife and, if he can see the angel, he agrees to forever forego sex with her. She refers her husband to the Pope.

The Pope convinces the husband to become a Christian; he returns home and sees the angel and agrees to his wife’s demand. The husband then convinces his brother to meet with the Pope and the brother also becomes a Christian. Her husband and his brother are executed because they refuse to obey their Overlord when he insists that they sacrifice to pagan idols.

After the brothers’ execution, the Overload summons the wife. The chaste wife is sentenced to be burned in her house because she also refuses to sacrifice to her Overlord’s deities. The fire fails to kill the wife so the ruler has an executioner sent to cut-off her head. The executioner strikes her neck with an ax three times but is unable to remove her head; a fourth strike is not allowed and she continues to preach her beliefs.

Neither mammon nor the Pope seem the equal of this wife.

Prejudice comes through Chaucer’s strong Christian beliefs; i.e. “The Canterbury Tales” endorses Christianity as the salvation of mankind with vilification of Jews which is presumably justified by Christian’ belief in Jewish betrayal of Christ.

It is perplexing to think that much of what Chaucer says about Christian believers remains true today but Chaucer’s understanding of women’s superiority to men in the 14^th century seems quite enlightened in the 21^st.

KNOWING NOTHING

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Thinking Fast and Slow

By Daniel Kahneman

Narrated by Patrick Egan

There are certain knowns that are known and certain knowns that are unknown. Well, I know I know nothing and Kahneman seems to prove it. Every chapter of Kahneman’s book suggests something one finds hard to believe is true.

Daniel Kahneman is a renowned psychologist and Nobel laureate. He is an American citizen that served in the Israeli military and used his education, research, and experience to write “Thinking Fast and Slow”. His observations explore many aspects of human decision-making.

How one runs their business or lives their life is framed by how they think. Kahneman explores two fundamental ways of thinking that reveal human strengths and weaknesses. “Thinking Fast…” is intuitive and easy. It is prejudiced by personal life experience and education. It is activated through an evolved instinct that forms the basis for snap decisions. In contrast, “…Thinking Slow” is a deliberative, calculating, and mind-numbing way of making rational decisions. Kahneman calls these mental functions System 1 and System 2 respectively.

“…Thinking Slow” is undoubtedly prejudiced by Kahneman’s scientific interpretation of “human thought and action”’ but judgment of his observations is the responsibility of the reader or listener; so, caveat emptor.

The more common decision-making tendency of the brain is to use System 1 rather than System 2 when making decisions because it is easier and because, as Kahneman notes, behavioral studies and brain imaging show human brains are lazy (not inclined to use System 2’ thinking because it is more laborious than System 1).

System 1 often leads humans to make incorrect intuitive decisions. System 2 potentially improves probability of making better, or at least more rational, decisions. However, System 1 is important to life and death decisions that require instantaneous action. System 2 requires one to consider options before settling on an action. A current example is the dilemma of choice in regard to social media. Fighting hardly seems logical based on the direction of technology. Flight seems equally illogical for the same reason.

FIGHT, FLIGHT, LIGHT — System 1 is important to life and death decisions that require instantaneous action. System 2 requires one to consider options before settling on an action.

FIREMAN NARROWLY ESACAPES FLOOR COLLAPSE — FIREMAN NARROWLY ESCAPES FLOOR COLLAPSE ( Using System 1 thinking the fire commander tells his team to get out of a burning house because his mind subconsciously gathers experiential information telling him the floor is about to collapse.)

Kahneman gives a more concrete example with an experienced fire commander. Using System 1 thinking the fire commander tells his team to get out of a burning house because his mind subconsciously gathers experiential information telling him the floor is about to collapse. The fire commander’s system 1 thinking saved his team’s lives.

Kahneman contrasts the value of System 2 thinking by exploring System 1’s habit of unconsciously bench-marking manufactured product pricing to seduce consumers to buy at higher prices; i.e. if a product is priced high, System 1 thinking is willing to pay a higher price.

Attention — The “halo” effect caused by System 1’ thinking gives too much weight to a one time “good” interview evaluation of an employee candidate.

Another observation is that employee interviews are often detrimental to the selection of the best job candidate. Kahneman describes the “halo” effect caused by System 1’ thinking that gives too much weight to a one time “good” interview evaluation of an employee candidate. To protect from the “halo” effect, Kahneman suggests that interview questions be structured and an employment process be standardized to give more objective criteria for choosing the best employment candidate. In other words, design an employee selection process based on clearly defined job requirements that are equally measured and fairly weighted for each candidate. Employer hiring solely based on a candidate’s interview is not a good determinant of employee performance.

This brief review is a single drip of sweat in a twenty hour work out. Kahneman undoubtedly exaggerates the import of some scientific studies but his writing engages System 2 thinking. A System 2 person will want to listen to “Thinking Fast and Slow” more than once.

NUCLEAR WAR

Consider whether “The Last Train from Hiroshima” horrifies more than enlightens. “Last Train from Hiroshima” is not for the faint hearted. It is a gruesome reminder of the horror of war.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough
(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Last Train from Hiroshima
By Charles Pellegrino
Narrated by Arthur Morey

Christopher Nolan’s remarkable performance in the movie “Oppenheimer” re-opens the terror of nuclear war. Consider whether “The Last Train from Hiroshima” horrifies more than enlightens. “Last Train from Hiroshima” is not for the faint hearted. It is a gruesome reminder of the horror of war.

Charles Pellegrino has written a story of Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s bomb survivors. Arthur Morey brings Pellegrino’s words to life. Pellegrino recounts survivor stories; i.e. what they saw, and what happened to them and their families in the aftermath of the world’s first use of a nuclear weapon.

Pellegrino is a wordsmith. He uses words that blow torch images on a listener’s mind. His words capture the horror of nuclear war; the physical and mental effect of a nuclear detonation on human beings.

hiroshima - ant walkers — The aftermath of Japan’s nuclear blasts left thousands of people with few apparent injuries. They wander in a fog of confusion, like ants in long lines following each other, single file to nowhere. They were, as Pellegrino explains, the “ant walkers”.

Hiroshima - Burnt to Ashes — Hiroshima – Burnt to Ashes

After Nagasaki’s bomb, a young girl walks out of a tubular bomb shelter and sees a shadowy figure that she presumes is an escaped zoo animal. It has rough, blackened, mottled skin, and is crawling on four limbs. It is a human being, exposed to the flash and burn (pika don) of the bomb.

Pellegrino describes the aforementioned crawling man as one of the “alligator people”, a classification that repeats itself on the skins of anyone that survives direct exposure to the bomb’s flash and burn. He tells the story of a “tap dancer” running down a street in Hiroshima; tap, tap, tapping the hard-surfaced street because he has no feet. Pellegrino recounts the story of a father greeting his lost daughter by asking “…do you have feet” because a Japanese aphorism believed ghosts are recognized as apparitions with no feet.

nagasaki bombing aftermath — Nagasaki bombing aftermath. Survivors are the “ant walkers”. Days later, the “ant walkers” are stricken with fever, vomiting, loss of appetite, and internal bleeding. Some survive to go through the same symptoms weeks or months later.

The aftermath of Japan’s nuclear blasts left thousands of people with few apparent injuries. They wander in a fog of confusion, like ants in long lines following each other, single file to nowhere. They were, as Pellegrino explains, the “ant walkers”. Days later, the “ant walkers” are stricken with fever, vomiting, loss of appetite, and internal bleeding; some survive to go through the same symptoms weeks or months later; some become crippled for the remainder of their lives; some die after the first onset of sickness; some die years later from leukemia or other maladies traced back to those two fateful August days in 1945.

RADIATION EXPOSURE DAMAGE FROM CHERNOBYL DISASTER IN THE FORMER U.S.S.R.

The survivor stories in Pellegrino’s book are so vivid that one wonders where real history ends and his imagination begins. Regardless of the veracity of Pellegrino’s survivor facts, his description of nuclear weapon damage and radioactive exposure is verified by later scientific experiments and accidents.

Once again–Iran, Russia, and North Korea threaten peaceful coexistence. “Never again” has been said before. One is left with thought and fear.

Addendum: I am writing this from the Vista Hotel in Hiroshima today. I will post an essay of the trip sometime later this year but this addendum is to reveal a comment from a survivor of the bomb blast in 1945.

Something not mentioned in Pellegrino’s excellent book is that those who survived the bomb were discriminated against because of the fear they had of contamination from those who were victims of the event. It is a reminder of the tragedy of the bombing but more importantly the ignorance of humanity’s discrimination.

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