"I of my own knowledge…"

Thinking, Fast and Slow

I am reading a book by a retired professor of psychology who is a winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. Probably a pretty dull book, right?

Pretty dull book, wrong. It’s lively, consistently engaging, and useful. It’s called Thinking, Fast and Slow. The author is Daniel Kahneman.

A while ago I sent out a puzzle to my email list,  saying that a bat and a ball together cost $1.10, and the ball cost $1 more than the ball did, so how much did the ball cost. I and many of my friends were flummoxed by this elementarily easy puzzle, not because we’re stupid (we aren’t) but because of the way we habitually process information.

That puzzle came from this book. Here’s another. (This time, forewarned that there might be a rat in the cellar, I got the answer right, easily. I predict that you will too, for the same reason: You are forewarned. This is what his book is about, how the mind uses two systems to process information. Forewarning mobilizes system 2.)

“If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?

“100 minutes OR 5 minutes”

If you got the answer right without hesitation, you haven’t learned anything by this puzzle.

If you got it wrong, or got it right only after you hesitated and then rejected the wrong answer, you have experienced the shift from system 1 to system 2.

If you don’t know if your answer is right or wrong, email me and I’ll tell you, but that is a sign that you are not shifting over to system 2 when you should.

This is a fascinating book!

Another little excerpt from my conversations with Hemingway, forthcoming this fall as Hemingway on Hemingway.

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Those of you who have been wondering how you were going to get by for another day without The Cosmic Internet as an ebook are in luck. It is now available for Kindle on Amazon, courtesy of a couple of my friends, which means it’s just a couple of clicks away. Bear in mind, it is published not by Hologram Books but by Rainbow Ridge books.

This article from http://news.yahoo.com/mysterious-animal-shaped-structures-oldest-known-163202661.html via my friend Michael Langevin.

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This article from http://news.yahoo.com/mysterious-animal-shaped-structures-oldest-known-163202661.html via my friend Michael Langevin.

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Again from PEERS.

The official version of things gets presented in the “news” media, and government reports, and political statements, etc., and anyone questioning them is portrayed as a looney or at least a monomaniac. A “conspiracy theorist.” Then, once you start digging, at first you think you’ve gone down the rabbit hole. After putting enough things together, you realize that in breaking your trust in the “news” media and government, you have begun to emerge from the rabbit hole. Where some people go wrong is in assuming that because they know some things, even many things, that are not true, they necessarily know what is true. But (as long as they remember to examine their own premises, and not just those of others) even if they’re confused, they’re better off than the people who aren’t confused only because they continue to believe a consistent but entirely unreal version of events.

Digging Deeper: Jesse Ventura’s Alternative Take on American History
2011-04-04, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/excerpt-63-documents-government-read-jesse-ventura-…

In his new book, 63 Documents the Government Doesn’t Want You to Read, former wrestler turned governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura takes a close and at times disturbing look at major historical events. Ventura draws on public but often overlooked information about such events as John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the 9/11 attacks, offering fresh, often intriguing insights. Here is an excerpt: “There is little value in ensuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.” – John F. Kennedy This book is titled 63 Documents the Government Doesn’t Want You to Read, lest we forget that 1963 was the year that claimed the life of our 35th President. The conspiracy that killed JFK, and the cover-up that followed, is the forerunner for a lot of what you’re going to read about in these pages. In fact, the idea behind this book came out of writing my last one, American Conspiracies. In poring through numerous documents, many of them available through the Freedom-of-Information Act, I came to realize the importance of the public’s right to know. Let me begin by saying how concerned I am that we’re moving rapidly in the direction President Kennedy tried to warn us about.

Note: Jesse Ventura reveals amazing information in this powerful interview. You might appreciate the video and all 10 pages available at the ABC News link above. For key reports from major media sources that shed light on the unsolved assassination of JFK and other major US political leaders, click here.

And this re-evaluation is WAYYYYYYYYY overdue! Goblecki Tepi in Turkey already put paid to the academically accepted fairytale that says civilization is only a few thousand years old. The whole chronology has been jury-rigged repeatedly, but (to change metaphors) the wheels are finally coming off the model. Wait till the start actually examining the evidence that civilization is actually hundreds of thousands of years old, periodically interrupted and overthrown by great natural catastrophes which buried most but by no means all of the evidence.

This is via PEERS.

Lost city ‘could rewrite history’
2002-01-19, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1768109.stm

The remains of what has been described as a huge lost city may force historians and archaeologists to radically reconsider their view of ancient human history. Marine scientists say archaeological remains discovered 36 metres (120 feet) underwater in the Gulf of Cambay off the western coast of India could be over 9,000 years old. The vast city – which is five miles long and two miles wide – is believed to predate the oldest known remains in the subcontinent by more than 5,000 years. Debris recovered from the site – including construction material, pottery, sections of walls, beads, sculpture and human bones and teeth has been carbon dated and found to be nearly 9,500 years old. The city is believed to be even older than the ancient Harappan civilisation, which dates back around 4,000 years. Author and film-maker Graham Hancock – who has written extensively on the uncovering of ancient civilisations [said,] “Cities on this scale are not known in the archaeological record until roughly 4,500 years ago when the first big cities begin to appear in Mesopotamia. Nothing else on the scale of the underwater cities of Cambay is known. There’s a huge chronological problem in this discovery. It means that the whole model of the origins of civilisation with which archaeologists have been working will have to be remade from scratch,” he said.

Note: Dozens of manmade complexes found under the ocean have been found, yet most archeologists are largely ignoring these finds as they don’t fit the academic consensus. For an interview with former Economist reporter Graham Hancock, who finds lots of solid, astounding evidence of a lost civilization, click here.

I wrote this up and sent it to some friends last April 2, when the Fukushima disaster was still in its earliest stages. It doesn’t seem any less appropriate a year later.

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We don’t hear much about poetry and power these days. Here is a 15-minute recording of John F. Kennedy, in the final days of his life, addressing Amherst College and speaking not only of Robert Frost but of the larger issue of politics, power and poetry.

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/80308LXB5kOPFEJqkw5hlA.aspx

To cite the accompanying blurb:

Audio recording of President John F. Kennedy’s address during a ceremony at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. In his speech President Kennedy explains the importance of public service from educated citizens, and describes the role of an artist in society, noting Frost’s contributions to American arts, culture, and ideology. The President discusses the nature of strength and power, famously stating, “When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”

One thing leading to another, I was referred to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum site (http://www.jfklibrary.org/) which among other things contains transcripts and some recordings of various of his speeches. This one, delivered in that last splendid summer of his life, when so many things came to culmination, is a good example of John F. Kennedy as an orator. Not one of his masterpieces; not a particularly great occasion, and you can see the professional speechwriter’s touch throughout — but if you are old enough to remember, it does bring it back. To hear rather than read the speech, go to http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/lPAi7jx2s0i7kePPdJnUXA.aspx

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