Mission

I love the smell of new tires. It reminds me of nothing whatsoever. Except maybe tires. I was talking to a girl in a tire store once and she told me that after awhile, it gives you a headache. Another fantasy shot...

There was a truly hideous (in a bad way) stuffed Mr. Bigglesworth. I don't recommend seeking it out.

Well, insecurity is sometimes part of it. I think emotion is a primary culprit, though. That's why people who are drink are often more likely to act violently, be overly amorous and and generally behave in an emotional fashion. Your inhibitions are down, emotions can rule the thought process and some people act on that. That's the nickel philosopher's view anyhow.

I'm more of a scientist... You should have "0 and have been hit" and "0 and never been hit" as well. The gauge of success for those who chose the less emotional approach.

There was an 18" a Mini-Me in spaceflight/fishbowl togs. (I personally have the 18" Mao-suited version.) Interesting, when you merge topics, the topic adopts the name of the thread you start with. I must remember to this backwards next time.

None. I outfox/confuse people with dazzling logic. (Or illogic.)

Anyone ever play the Mars Attacks! pinball game? (Besides me.)

There are actually two other points I want to discuss from one of the books I read. They are both directly related to the brain as Chaos Theoreticians have viewed it. I will look at the first in this post. Norman Packard, another member of the "Chaos Cabel" had this to say: "At the pinnacle of complicated dynamics are processes of biological evolution of thought processes. Intuitively, there seems a clear sense in which these ulitimately complicated systems are generating information. Billions of years ago there were just blobs of protoplasm; now billions of years later here we are. So information has been created and stored in our structure. In the development of one person's mind from childhood, information methods became critical to the applicability of chaos to real-world problems." He is, in essence, saying that chaos is crucial to our minds in that we apply it to real-world situations and problems. Somehow, underlying our intellectual processes there is some innate recognition of Chaos Theory that the Chaos scientists are just beginning to comprehend and apply to the environment in which we live. What interests me is that we use this process and it is apparently integral to our minds, yet we don't understand it and have a hard time grasping it. Then again, I have always liked the example that the very intelligent Unitarian minister Eric Butterworth used to highlight the reasons we can't explain the ever-precense of God in our lives very well: it's like asking a fish to explain water. The fish exists in water and cannot, therefore, easily distance itself from this all-surrounding medium. In fact, the fish would have no concept of the water until he left it. (Then he would be a fish out of water. ) So it may be with Chaos Systems. They are so wired into our minds that distancing ourselves from the system is nigh impossible. We may live and move within the realm of Chaos Systems and to even recognize this fact requires a focused effort of mental will. We have to distance ourselves from ourselves and literally watch what we do as an impartial observer. (This is a fascinating thing to do and I highly recommend experimenting with it.) Lest I dip too deeply into the realm of mysicism, however, let me return to my central point. If each part of the world functions in a Chaotic Theory fashion with order-within-chaos reigning, and our minds work likewise, it is a difficult thing to recognize. In fact, past scientific studies have specifically excluded a great deal of the influence of Chaos Theory upon the systems we study and dismissed them as irrelevant. This could be in part because these systems are so complex and may be difficult to comprehend at first blush. The mathematics have proven to me to be exquisitely complex in one way and startling simple in another. It may also be that we just weren't ready to understand this component of systems. Science is built piece by piece, like a brick wall that must be started at the ground level with a layer of blocks before one can proceed up. The higher you go, the larger a foundation you require. Still, Chaos Theory seems so integral to our minds that I like the fish and water example better. I think our mind and physiology are so wired that chaos theory is an intergral part of our makeup, our environment and our universe. Chaotic Systems appear in astronomy, topological and biological systems and, apparently, in our very make-up. My impression is that we do not yet fully comprehend the Chaotic Theory and are still delightedly finding it in so many places that Chaos scientists have a hard time focusing on where to begin. (In their defense, Chaos Theory was essentially discovered in so many disparate scientific inquiries at once that it took a few big system minded people to even see the pattern of chaos in Chaos Theory. ) Still, I believe that a key component to understanding our own minds is to first understand how chaos theory works at the base level so that we can begin to grok where it fits into our minds. The digital computer is not a successful model of the human brain, as time has revealed. It coontains a better understanding than past endeavors, but it is too rigid and precise; two things our minds have not proven to be. The more I read about and (at least think) I understand about chaos theory, the more I think our minds intuitively comprehend and use it. I will leave you with this wonderful quote from Packard: "Billions of years ago there were just blobs of protoplasm; now billions of years later here we are." Bang, dirt simple.

Mission's favorite plane:

Well, it's portagee's turn and if he turns up for a turn at his turn, I'll turn aside faster than a tern flies and reveal the source of this quote. To keep the game going: "I am insane, and you are my insanity."

"We must build an atomic blaster!"

If I may recommend something to anyone who interested in enlarging their vocabulary: Word a Day It's a daily email that contains a word, it's definition, some etymology and a quote. I actually find most of my new words from the periodicals I read, but I really enjoy the quotes in Anu's missives. I've been getting this for six or seven years and have really built up my quote file using it. Plus, they are one of more respectful free email services I use. There are ads embedded in the email, but they're not too obtrusive. I highly recommend it I recently met a fellow trainer who recommends this service in his trainings. He makes it a point to use the word he receives at least once in conversation each day. (Being a professional trainer, he gets plenty of opportunities.)

Yes. We had that discussion previously. :angry: You're in charge of your local band of pirates? I thought you re-enactment folks had huge wars or events or something where you all gathered and drank grog, caroused and whatnot.

I wouldn't. I heard there are Rabid Wolf Spiders in there. (They bite, although it's not poisinous.)

Perhaps the normal relationship between men and women makes them deal differently with each other. (Ok, from my experience there's no perhaps about it much of the time.) A lot of what's up there struck me as broad generalizations. However, there is often a great deal of truth in generalizations. And, naturally, there are always exceptions to generalizations.

Inane is a cool word. Plus it sounds like insane which makes it doubly delightful. Complimentary or complementary? (Or both?) If the email is work-problem-related or spam, then I go blank. Or get irritated. Someday, I'm going to see a real pirate re-enacting gig. I may even wear my Pinky Suavo black pirate shirt, although that seems like it would require a certain amount of chutzpah (to me). Introvert. You must tell me when something interesting is going on out your way, John. ________________ "T.H.E.Y stands for 'The Horde of Ecumenical Yodelers.'" "RECOLA!" "No Pinky, they don't actually yodel!" "Well, why are "T.H.E.Y." called yoddlers if "T.H.E.Y." don't yodel?" "All government organizations like that have silly, nonsensical names that have nothing to do with their real purpose." "Like the Senate Ethics Committee?" --From the episode of Pinky and the Brain featuring Pinky Suavo

Interesting. FYI, the authors are both women.

I was reading an article in Managing For Success pages of the October 10th, 2005 IBD entitled Do Women Boost Earnings? It discusses a study by Robin Cohen and Linda Kornfield, managing partners at Dickstein, Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky which uses an (admittedly rather soft) scientific approach to the long-standing question of the value and importance of women in the workplace, specifically in managerial positions. Cohen says, "The group [of companies] with the highest representation of women in management had a 35% higher return on equity and a 34% higher total return to shareholders." (After reading the way they came up with this, I find their research methods to be a tad arbitrary, but I wanted to throw that out there.) What interested me was their thoughts on why female managers would improve the performance of a company. To wit: Thoughts?

So we're duelling programs? Will this escalate? Hmm. (This train of thought is still boarding at the station...) I was just reviewing the inanity that is this thread of discussion so far. Somehow I completely missed your suggestion about the chat room. You know, I've never used a chat room or a IM system. I like things that are a matter of record for some reason. (Creaky old Gen-Xer that I am... ) In fact, I usually prefer email to forums when something is important to me.

God that's funny! I just wandered off to go and comment on how much I liked this new avatar in the avatar thread! Freaky. Mystical. Stupid.

Varies based on initial conditions, baby! One of the components of the definition of a chaotic system.

Actually, I'm just a program running on a computer at Langley. I have been designed using an artificial intelligence algorithm that varies it's responses basic on a random number generation program that evaluates initial conditions and responds in kind. How am I doing so far?

In college I got involved in (and then had to find a way to start running) the college engineering magazine. We got our own computer and office just outside the engineering school vending machine lobby. (Microwave popcorn anyone?) The room had a giant glass front facing the lobby, but we had curtain. My pal Santiago and I became co-editors when I was co-oping and we would sit in the office 'till all hours, occasionally drink illicit alcohol (he JD, I scotch) and always talk about philosophy, life, cartoons and movies. Sometimes we would even edit and write stuff for the magazine. Things haven't changed a whole lot, have they? I only lie to kids when it's funny. I tell my nephew that he's going to turn into a turtle when he turns 5 or 6 or whatever to see what he does. (He often gets frustrated and hits me. I deserve it.) It was more fun before he began to understand sarcasm.

Nah, as I recall he only knocks them out. (Which was -freaking- hilarious!)

No. "It's not possible!" "Not...probable."