Due to high demand on the electricity supply grid power failures during summer days are common. Wait until a million electric vehicle charging stations are added to the faltering grid.
The Just shall live by his faith goes back 2700 years ago to Habakkuk 2:4, then repeated twice by St. Paul: Romans 1:17 & Galatians 3:11.
The Just man is a “righteousness” man, (tzedekah) and “justice” (mishpat). He is attuned to the right thing and actually does it. “Tzedaka” is charity. Hence the Just man is a righteous charitable man.
Who is the Jerk? In America it is an annoying, stupid or foolish person.
A useful idiot is a term for a person that propagandizes for a cause without comprehending the cause’s goals, and is cynically used by the cause’s leaders.
Useful idiots don’t use their mind to exercise critical thinking.
Useful idiots are not aware that they are useful idiot. Or else, if a useful idiot would know that they are used as a useful idiot they would break out from their useful idiot status.
INSURGENCY: How Republicans Lost Their Party and… (war started in Europe)
One more book in the publishing business model that is inspired by Trump’s presidency.
Fact: This book was written by the New York Times journalist Jeremy W. Peters, and released on February 8, 2022. I was not surprised that this book was declared as the “NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE”.
What would you expect?
As I pointed out in previous blogs and other book reviews, the publishing industry that was created by the presidency of Donald Trump is a bonanza to the book publishing houses. Crown and Random House publishing and its subsidiaries are still publishing “Trump Books”… Never mind that the present president is drifting daily towards involvement of The U.S. in the military adventure, in Eastern Europe, that has no end in sight.
This is a 400 pages book. It is referenced with named and unnamed, reliable and unreliable sources. Based, among other – 300 interviews as source-references. Some of the unnamed sources provided the author with “a document”.
“A document” without a title and without a named source.
In clinical sciences reports, a reference like that is labeled as “private communication”, not as scientific finding. But hey, politics and journalism are not medical sciences.
Again, the boundary between journalism and gossip reporting has fine line, often plainly invisible.
Mr. Peters learned this genre of book writing from the prolific Washington Post famed journalist Bob Woodward.
The book opens with an imaginary description of an unrelated event from 2008: Air Force One broke through the dense layer of clouds over Fairbanks on its descent into Eielson Air Force Base, a sprawling, remote outpost in the most remote state in the union.
Poetic, but hardly based on factual weather conditions during that flight. Elsewhere other presidential journalisst likes to embellish their writing with sugar frosting-like descriptive details.
This book claims to be a historical review of the Republican Party. Others will evaluate it for Republican Party related historical details. It may serve as another selective source of information for future students of the American political system as it happened in the early 2000s.
But the author can’t avoid to repeatedly getting stories linked to Trump who is, for now, the retired U.S. president.
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And the author dislikes Trump.
So his best approach is to compare Trump to Hitler.
The author brings in the famed Hitler propagandist, Helene “Leni” Reifenstahl. She directed in the 1930s the Nazi propaganda films that received worldwide attention and acclaim. No other than the New York Times’ film critic Hal Ericson wrote:
“Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl prefers to concentrate on cheering crowds, precision marching, military bands, and Hitler’s climactic speech, all orchestrated, choreographed and illuminated on a scale that makes Griffith and DeMille look like poverty-row directors”. Better yet, she made the Time magazine front cover in 1936.
There is nothing more emotionally energizing in a journalist’s armamentarium than comparing someone to Hitler. And Jeremy W. Peters does it well. (Chapter 8 titled – “That’s Hitler!”).
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Then the book has a big problem. This book is outdated.
It was released on February 8, 2022, yet 16 days later the sitting president, Joe Biden turned himself into a wartime president. – The war against Russia. It is a war between the U.S. and Russia where the battle ground is in Ukraine.
Trump may be involved in an insurgency. Congress is still collecting sworn testimonials. That chapter in history is still being written.
Trump is an extrovert. Trump, to his credit, proved to be a shrewd negotiator with other international leaders – friends and foes alike. It was repeatedly said on him that is unhinged. He was allegedly called a moron.
Today we are in a different era and the U.S is led by a president who appears to have demonstrable cognitive lapses while in public.
NOTE: No foreign war started during Trump’s presidency.
Little note: This book is expensive. So I borrowed a copy from my friendly public library.
Mysticism in Chess Created by Baruch Lender: The Single Idea That Changed Chess Composition Forever.
This is a blog about the great mind behind the Lender Combinations.
One of the most interesting combinations in chess composition is the one with reversed key.
The idea of reversing a key is simple: instead of moving a piece to attack or to cover a square, we can move it away from the square.
The novelty was introduced by the now famous Israeli chess composer Baruch Lender, (1913-1994). It was published in1979 as a two-mover showing, for the first time, a combination of exchanged key and threat with mates in both passes.
According to the definition this is actually the combination of themes: Reversal and le Grand.
Despite the originality of thematic paradox, his composition was not adequately rewarded in tourney, and therefore this new combination remained unnoticed for a while.
The only consolation for the inventor is if the invention becomes recognizable by his or her name as was the case with the “Reversal+le Grand” blend which is nowadays known as the Lender Combinations.
The recognition and the glory came many years later by many other chess problems.
Discussion:
The question posited: is it a Combination or a Paradox?
One answer was: Reverser Grand Contradiction. This blog points to – around the rare but amusing and fascinating series of moves that surprisingly looks like they shouldn’t work.
Is the idea of exchanging the key in chess a combination or a paradox? In my opinion, it is an innovative combination. How did I reach this conclusion? A key’s objective of duties is to defend a specific square. The key moves with the intent to attack and/or defend a receiver of threat from an enemy piece positioned on a particular square. If we move the key away from that original square leaving an exposed square, thus creating a threatening mate if we don’t
In the a publication (On the Threshold of a New Era in Chess Composition), we discovered that there are only 9 key-definitions.
We have shown that by combining these keys with different threats, it is possible to build many new types of combinations. In fact, all of the chess combination themes are based on this idea.
In future blogs we will explain this point by showing how a specific key-definition may be combined with a threat to create new types of combinations. We will show that only one or two themes are needed to create all other types of combinations.
The Israeli composer Baruch Lender, (1913-1994), published in1979 a two-mover showing, for the first time, a combination of exchanged key and threat with mates in both passes. According to the definition this is actually the combination of themes Reversal and le Grand.
The Original Lender Combination 1979
Despite the originality of thematic paradox, His composition was not adequately rewarded in tourney, and therefore this new combination remained unnoticed. To make the injustice even bigger, the problem didn’t find its place in the FIDE Album. This is only one of countless examples where authors of new themes have gained little benefit from their inventions, and the glory is many years later collected by others. The only consolation for the inventor is if the invention become recognizable by his or her name as was the case with the Reversal+le Grand blend which is nowadays known as the Lender Combination.
I have always had the viewpoint that every situation is a learning opportunity.
~ Ginni Rometty, CEO IBM
LIFE IS A UNIVERSITY
We learn from each other. When alone, we hear only ourselves – we hear our self-talk.
Many of us get to go to school. Others are not that fortunate and don’t get to go to school with a structured organized curricula.
In order to expand our mind we learn from each other. We must learn from each other.
So what do we learn?
If we go to school we are taught what someone else chose to teach us. Usually a committee of a certain bias, ideology or religion decides what we should learn. Elective schooling topics are not a common choice. Sadly, the choices of schooling are left to the political establishment that controls the school systems.
Some folks don’t want to learn. In that case their schooling choices are irrelevant. I met a few who can’t write. They can’t sign their name. Literacy is not universal skill. Some folks are literally illiterate by their own choice.
Life Experience is rarely a subject taught in any school that I’m aware of. There is a rare college that teaches Life Skills as a curricular course. No Ivy League university confers a degree for life experience. I used to believe that going to school and earning a degree is the only key to success. I lived in my error for many years.
We can be self-taught. Being autodidacts is not an efficient way to learn. It’s more efficient to learn from the past experience of others.
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At the other end of the panoramic human perspectives are many people who see learning opportunities everywhere. Least of all places they find their learning opportunities in an establishment accredited school.
These folks recognized that Life University exists all around them.
In recent years I realized that I’ve been attending one such Life University for over thirty years.
Where is my Life University?
I’m a registered frequent flyer on commercial airlines for over thirty years. For the last twenty-three years I commuted using commercial air-travel twice weekly. It adds up from ninety to one hundred airplane boarding, (or more), every calendar year.
It costs a bundle. But the benefits of doing it were rewarding.
All commercial airlines incentivize their customers to be their loyal frequent flyers. The customer invests in his airline account by buying real flight tickets with real money. Then the loyal customer accumulates “miles” or “points”.
There are bank affiliated-credit cards and other opportunities for acquiring consumer goodies. In return the customer may get rebates, class of travel upgrades; “miles” earned that can be used for purchasing “stuff”. The airlines reward “miles” and “points” for every dollar spent using their bank affiliated credit cards. There are airline benefits to be given to their devoted customer – clubs – regular clubs – and… higher class clubs. (Even “mile high clubs”.)
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Besides the financial costs in money spent on ticket purchase there is another expense and it is called – valuable time of life spent in airports.
Every method of travel costs time. Wasting time on common flight delays or worse than that, flight cancellations is immeasurable in terms of dollars.
Waiting at airport gates, because of flight delays or cancellations, costs irreplaceable human life.
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Every frequent air traveler agrees that there is idle time going to waste.
So what do frequent flyers to do?
Every frequent flyer carries a laptop or a tablet. Frequent flyers read books. Watch movies. Watch YouTube. They try to do productive work like going through email.
They make business phone calls that are overheard by fellow-flying customers. Airlines’ clubs provide quiet office space and few provide a “Quiet Room” for deep rest and meditation. Despite all of that physical weariness reduces life and work productivity.
I’m always aware of my non-productive time wasted during air travel episode.
For years I kept asking myself what can I do to be productive in the airport during air travel wait-time. I found many things I can do. Some of them were mentioned above.
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All forms of travel are transformational.
The intelligent flyer should be a mentally wakeful traveler.
When I recognized that travel is educational, I started to keep my eyes and ears open in the airports. I became wakefully aware of everything.
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Examples:
I recognized that travel is an educational experience, so I started to observe the architecture and resourceful engineering that is involved in construction and maintenance of airport terminals. Then there are the seasonal decorations to watch and take photos.
People watching are my most rewarding activity. I watch people in the airport. People watching mean the travelers and airport employees.
I take photos of anything I find interesting – anything that is stationary or anybody that is moving. I hardly go through an airport these days without posting on social media something odd or interesting that catches my eyes.
Get this: everything I encounter in an airport is now a learning experience to me. I regard airports as an ethnographic laboratory. I carry with me a spiral bound notebook where I note my observations.
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Facts and Figures:
Until March 2020, I went twice weekly through O’Hare airport in Chicago. In the calendar year 2018, more than 79 million passengers passed through this airport. Divided by 365 days – over 216,000 passengers on the average went through the airport every day.
On an average day 9,000 passengers were going through every hour!
Those passengers are coming and going to and from every corner of the world, of every age group, of any gender. They are each clothed differently. Different face coverings… Their skin colors are different. Different nose shapes, earrings and footwear…. Different hair styles… They carry different objects. They travel with their cats and dogs. They travel with their children. Some children are crying on the plane and off the plane. When the children cry, they cry loudly.
What if I had a chance to talk to them and find out something about who they are.
What if a stranger in the airport tries to talk to me?
I ask what book they read. (A relatively safe question to ask a stranger…). What’s the model of their cellphone? Are they having a tight connection? What gadget are they using to take pictures outside the plane window? (That’s how I first learned about the GoPro camera).
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Major airlines provide a lounge to their loyal customers. For a fee that is. Nothing is free… But the customers can pay with their saved frequent flyer “miles”. What you get in the lounge is a relatively quiet atmosphere, personal work areas, and conference rooms. There is access to printing and fax services and Wi-Fi. But that’s just clerical stuff.
Food or light snacks are served and alcoholic drinks offered for a fee. There are newspapers, magazines or light promotional life-style periodicals. What’s in the magazines? Opportunities. Ideas how to spend money on fancy gadgets. Where to go on luxury trips, and visit exotic places around the globe that only few know where their location are. There are ideas for investments, advanced education, corporate leadership and sales training courses. What’s available is available is mostly free, except the booze.
You meet new people who are generally frequent flyers and may want to engage in conversation. Maybe some business deals are followed through.
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Lessons in Living Ethnography.
Get this. Because about 9,000 passengers were going through the airport every hour, then when you’re stuck for 4 hours because of flight delays you can meet 28,000 new “nomadic teachers”. You can meet potential business partners, customers, deal seeker or quick romantic dates. Yes, there is such a thing as the proverbial “mile high club” in the skies.
I take photos of strange looking travelers, and unusual human situations. Today, I walk through O’Hare’s terminals with my cell phone at hand ready to shoot photos of bizarre scenes or travelers.
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Accidental Aeronautics 101 Course.
I have done over 2,200 airplane flight boarding on commercial aviation services and listened to inflight captains’ technical explanations and excuses as to why the flight is cancelled or delayed or requires mechanical last-minute repair. I’ve gained industry’s passive ‘expertise’ in planes flight worthiness.
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During the flight, I use my idle time to read. I complete Sudoku puzzles. I read, and then I write notes. I edit my perpetual “to do list”…
While airborne some years ago a passenger seated next to me was immersed in reading a book. I peeked sideways. The title was – ‘The Da Vinci Code’. That was the page turner for the era.
During one of my flights a man seated next to me was wearing a Sikh head cover. He was reading a book that I could tell is some form of Hindu like characters. I asked him what language it is and he gladly told me that it is Bengali language. To me Bengali and Hindu look alike… He continued to explain that it is a poetry book by Rabindranath Tagore. And there he showed me Tagore’s portrait.
I was happy to tell him that I heard of Tagore who was the first non-European poet-philosopher to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. If you haven’t heard of Tagore read the entry bearing his name in Wikipedia.
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While I mention books, Barbara’s Book Store has three outlets at the airport. When getting stuck one time because of a lengthy flight delay I bought practical books of interest.
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Ethos of the University of Life
Disclaimer: the following text was authored by my doppelganger – my AI agent.
My University of Life is a half hour drive from home. The University of Life has runways. Some are surrounded by corn fields, or flat Midwest pastures. In the University of Life we learn lessons on how to deal with people. How to make new friends. How to build relationships. How to work with everyone. We see things in the raw turn into art. We see poor people, rich people, and middle class people trying to make their way in this world. We meet budding politicians at the airport and we recognize them long before we saw their faces on television.
We meet celebrities who are always willing to pose for a joint photo.
At one time I met the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr.. Another time I met Steve Harris, all were eager to pose for me.
The University of Life is an airport with people who are traveling. As university students they are constantly on the move, growing and learning from experience. The University is a place where you can apply life concepts to real life situations.
The airport as a university campus is a polytechnic, with a workshops and labs, where we learn airport architecture, engineering, airport operations. We learn airplane models and construction. We learn from the pilots flying conditions, directions and air-worthiness. We learn about the mechanics and design of planes, and how to navigate and maintain them. We learn everything we need to know about airplanes from the pilots who fly them every day.
The airport is a place of education. It’s an environment where you learn all there is to know about the aviation industry. Here, you’ll pick up on weather patterns, airplane models, and air-worthiness. You’ll be able to study each new plane that lands with ease for this new knowledge will come naturally.
The University of Life is a collection of real and intellectual property that assist in the process of learning from travel. A certificate from this university is never revoked as it is a forever record of opportunity travel experiences. It documents international travel experiences. The goal of the projects is to learn what it means to be a citizen of this planet.
Waiting at the airport is the period to think. It’s an opportune time to meditate. We learn languages by listening to travelers speak in their native tongue. It is also a place to which we can come and go at any time.
The University of Life is an unmatched learning experience. We encourage everyone to take the lessons learned and use it to improve their lives. It doesn’t matter if we acquire them at a college degree program or the University of Life. We must learn from observation, testing and occasional failure.
You learn how to travel on your own. We want you to gain the skills that let you go everywhere on your own. We are not interested in making “students”. You learn to be skilled travelers. Our classes teach you the mechanics of travel, which will lead you to learn about physics, which will give insight into the universe. By learning about the Big Bang, the formation of solar systems, other galaxies, and life beyond our earth, you will become a better traveler.
Our goal is to teach you about the world. To equip you with the practical skills that can help you travel to different countries, speak foreign languages, laws & rules, cultural customs. We will also teach you how to take trips without money.
We are not interested in mass production of clones, but rather providing development for humans who will be able to go places on their own.
Freedom to go independently is the essence of our existence.
We want you to be able to travel abroad on your own, during and after graduation. The main aim of this perpetual MBA program is a small batch assembly of human beings. This will help you develop skills necessary to go places on your own. A large number of students who come here are interested in international trade, large firms that do business globally, and various other fields that cater to clients worldwide. The airport offers an experiential MBA program.
The first goal is to inspire you to be more curious about the world. To help you learn how to travel with an open mind. If you are interested in learning to speak foreign languages – you will understand what makes people tick in different countries.
Our second goal is to help you by showing you the world. We teach you how to plan a trip, how to pack for your trip, how to navigate a new city, and yes, even how to order from a foreign menu.
The airport is not a place you would go to enjoy the joy of flying or to relax and unwind; it is a place that will demand your attention and effort.
We are all learning how to live our lives by going through life lessons each day. Lessons in ethnography, business, engineering, relationships, compassion, communications, and law and order.
It’s all about never-ending discovery of life’s infinite secrets.
This book is a short memoir written by a young author – Giovanni Negron-Garcia – who struggled to find purpose and meaning in life. Some people don’t look for meaning in their life until they reach middle age. As a great-grandfather I dived immediately into Chapter 6 of the book, titled: “Gifting Yourself a Legacy.”
I loved the author’s statement: “I personally believe that everyone is blessed with a gift.” As he further says: “There is nothing more valuable than the gift you possess.”
Our gift is – what we – each one of us – does best. We do best what our talents appear to be. Then again, some folks self-deny their talents and hide it from others.
Our life becomes easier and more pleasant to live if we share our gift with others. Our careers’ credibility is strengthened when we share our talents with others.
This book is a good read for intellectually inclined graduate school students who still doubt if they chose the right major or can’t decide whether they are going to wed the right sweetheart.
LIFE WITHOUT GOSSIP? This is a philosophical question.
It was posed by Susan Mulcahy, a journalist in charge of writing gossip columns. It gave me something to think about.
I wasn’t sure what the right answer is. But then the answers dawned on me one after the other.
Gossip is a living proof to the existence of society.
Gossip is part of human communication. Communication is the currency of success. Gossip reporting is the dessert of journalism.
Gossip is a part of the duties of a catholic priest. It’s called Confession. Confession purifies the Soul and paves the way to heaven. Matters of Divinity were always part of classic Western philosophy.
Gossip is a source of knowledge because it is of persistent human interest. Take for example the question: “How do you know?” And the answer is: “I heard it from a reliable source”. A reliable source is a fact. Isn’t it? When in doubt ask Google.
Gossip can be derived from querying Google. Google is the postmodern source of gossip. Hence, is there life without Google?
Oh, then the source of knowledge is a classic scholarly issue in the realm of Epistemology in Western philosophy.
Mandy Lender 