Daryl’s Brain

This is just tooooooo weird!

Canadian company develops “thought-control” technology using brain waves.

A break from woodworking

This is a debate that is almost as old as humans. I imagine it’s not quite as old as us, just because I would think that the first humans likely either already knew the answer, or really didn’t care. However, I have seen it come up a few times now and thought I would put my two cents into the debate. Before I start, however, I do want to say that I cannot possibly cover the entire topic in a single blog post. So I won’t. I am just basically going to skim the surface. (Which is probably for the best as I am not really qualified to cover it in its entirety.)

First, I guess some definitions are in order. What is meant by “naturally good” verses “naturally evil”? I can’t speak for everyone who debates this topic, but for me, I always interpret it as a debate about the current, natural tendencies of the human being if all things were equal. For example, if a person had enough food to eat, and could spare a little bit for someone who was starving, would their natural tendency be to give that other person food, or would their natural reaction be to hoard what they had in order save it for themselves? What I am *not* talking about is whether the human race, as a specie, is good or evil. If you think that the existence of humanity is something that is universally wrong and contrary to “the nature of things”, then you have more issues to deal with then what human tendencies are. What I am talking about is what we are inclined towards, not the base value of our being.

“Ah,” you say. “But who is it who defines what is good and what is evil?” Excellent question; the answer is that it’s irrelevant at the moment. There are many, many things that are universally considered to be good or evil. Every culture in the world views tripping an old lady on the road as something that is wrong. That said, I am not writing this from the perspective of every culture in the world, I am writing it from the perspective of my culture, and I am Canadian. (While you may disagree with me that Canada, or even North America, counts as a culture, let me assure you that you are wrong.) So for the purpose of this discussion, and to avoid the debate of what the basis of right and wrong is, let’s just use what’s accepted as right and wrong by Canadian standards (which are very similar to, at least, the rest of North America).

“Fair enough,” you say (because, of course, you accept my argument) “But why is this even an issue?” Glad you asked. The answer is that it’s not an issue, it’s an airy fairy, academic debate that has little to no ramifications to your life, or the lives of those around you. For the most part. What really matters is not actually the nature of humanity, but the nature of you and I as individuals. Yes, I guess the nature of humanity plays a role here, but I really don’t care about whether someone else is naturally evil or not, what I care about is whether I am and, if so, what I can do about it.

This is where the debate reveals its reason for existence. You see, if I find out that I am naturally good, then I really don’t have to worry too much about my actions because they should, if I follow what’s in my nature to do, tip the scales for the better when all is said and done. If I am naturally good, then I can look to myself to realize my full potential as a human and become self-actualized. If I am naturally good, then I don’t need any one else’s input into how I run my life. I am my own master; I am a rock; I have no need for anything other than myself. I am, however, human. So this belief is only really sustainable if the same applies to all humans.

If, however, I find out that I am naturally evil, then everything changes. Remember what I just said in the previous paragraph? If I’m naturally evil, then the exact opposite of all of that is going to be the case for me. And if this is the same for all humans, then humanity needs to humble itself and ask for help from something greater then itself.

“Fine,” you say. “So what are the arguments of *both* sides of this debate?” Well, now that you asked that, I must be perfectly honest with you. I am biased towards my own opinion. I say this because I don’t know how well I will do at presenting the side that I think isn’t correct. However, not knowing what I’m talking about has never stopped me before, and it won’t stop me now. So with that I will attempt to detail out the basic arguments for both sides of this proverbial coin.

As near as I can tell, the majority of the arguments about this topic tend to go something like this:

“It’s obvious to me that humanity is naturally good/evil. Just look at all the good/evil that is happening throughout the world? See, that proves it!”

As you might have guessed by the way I worded that statement, I think that this is a very silly argument…for either side. What we do is often very different from what we are inclined to do, and what we are talking about is not what we have learned to do, but what we do naturally; our instincts. What do we instinctively want to do in any given situation? Unfortunately, the above statement comprises the majority of the arguments that you will hear when listening to people debate this topic.

The reason I think that humanities achievements (good or bad) are not a good indicator of what its true nature is, is that one can easily say that we are naturally good/evil, but there’s something acting against/for us that’s causing us to be, at times, evil/good.

As a side note, I guess one might say that there’s a third option; that humanity is neither naturally good nor evil. However, this would mean that we ourselves are then the only measure of what is good or evil. If that were true, then we would naturally be good by default because our own actions themselves would be the only moral compass we could follow. Very silly indeed as it means that, if we decided that tripping older people in the streets was right, then that by itself would make it right. I shake my head.

The other argument, well it’s more of a statement, I’ve heard is this:

“Humanity is naturally good/evil, and our evil/good actions are learned behaviours.”

And this, for me, is what brings us to the crux of the matter. A learned behaviour is something you’re taught, not something that comes naturally to you. If one is a learned behaviour and the other not, then that would solve the argument. But how can you know which is which?

And now I come back to my statement before when I said that, whether or not this was “human nature” was irrelevant, because what matters is what is natural to you or I. And this is what will give us the hint as to what all of human nature is like.

As children, did we need to learn to be nice, or did we need to learn to be nasty?

Well, I almost made it through the Christmas season without engaging at all in my Christmas rant.  Almost.  I did, this morning, feel the need to correct two people on the bus as to when the twelve days actually were, but apart from that I did not rant at all to anyone.  (Well, about this topic, anyway.)

Before the new year starts and the Christmas season ends, I do feel the need, however to state, for the record, what my New Year’s Resolutions will be.  Chances are, if you are reading this, then you know me.  If you know me, then you’ve probably heard one (or more) of my many, many schemes and world-saving ideas.  If you’ve heard at least one of these and did not walk away from me thinking I was a complete moron, then you probably have figured out that I have a tendency to start things and not finish them.

My New Year’s Resolution is this: to FINISH one thing I have already started.  Just one thing.  Doesn’t matter what.  I just want to start the cycle of completion.  Who knows, I may even enjoy the feeling of accomplishment that you get when you are done.  I will end this post with a quote from my favorite ants:

If you take a long vacation
Without making preparation
For the coming winter when you go
When you get back from your going
And the winter winds are blowing
There’ll be nothing left to eat but snow.

We don’t pretend it’s easy but at time it can be fun
And you’ll never feel a feeling that’s as good as the one that you feel when you’re done.

- The ants of Antsilvainia

My wife and I recently moved from Victoria to Langley where I encountered, for the first time, the modern, suburbian garage.  To understand the evolution of the garage, we must first understand where it has come from.  Basically, a suburban garage’s purpose was to either to park a vehicle to keep it protected from the elements, or to park a bunch of junk to keep it protected from an over-enthusiastic, garbage-throwing-away spouse.  With the advent of modern suburbia, this role has changed.

The difference between classic suburbia and modern suburbia is such an important factor here, that I must highlight the differences before going on.  Classic suburbia can be thought of as a large area divided into parcels of land called yards, on which houses (and the odd park) were built.  Modern suburbia, however, can be thought of as half the “large area” divided into houses that have a thin border of a yard in name only.  If you were to stand between two houses in modern suburbia and stretch out your arms, there’s a good chance you would be able to reach the exterior walls of both houses.

The concept of cramming as much house as possible onto a yard has not, however, increased the number of rooms in any given house, or, rather, it hasn’t increased the number of usable rooms.  Now you have things like a “great” room that is really just a living room, but used less so it looks nicer.  The same thing applies to the “formal dining area.”  You also have the basement suite, which would be usable if anyone could afford the house they just bought, but they can’t so it gets rented out.

In fact, apart from the common oversight of the chapel, there are several rooms completely *missing* from a modern suburbian home:

• The unfinished basement.

  No one seems to have an unfinished basement anymore where they can set up the kid’s toys to keep them busy until dinner.

• The workshop.

  While not really a missing room of the house itself, classic suburban homes have always had enough yard to accommodate this should the occupants desire it.  Now, however, there are little plastic buildings, slightly larger then a dog house, that accommodate the mower, weed-whacker, and sprinkler.

• The entryway.

  This former room has been completely assimilated by the rest of the house and now just opens up into whatever area of the house the front door happens to be attached to.

• A games room.

  Okay, this may not be missing, per say, but I am very surprised that houses this large do not accommodate this.

These missing rooms, combined with the absence of a real yard, are the main contributing factors to the evolution of the modern, suburbian garage.

Think about it.  What is a garage on a home like this if not just a smaller unfinished basement that happens to be on ground level and has a really big door and poor lighting?  But really, it’s so much more.

No one in modern suburbia uses their garage to park their car, that’s what the driveway is for.  (Well, there are a few.)  No one even uses their garage to store their junk.  (Again, a few exceptions do exist.)  No one uses their garage for what it was intended for.  So, what do they use it for?

1. Workshop.

   Many people use their suburbian garage as a workshop.  This can be a workshop where you build things (due to the lack of an actual workshop), or a workshop where you work on your special vehicle/project (due to the lack of space available in the driveway ‘cause that’s where the car goes…not to mention the lack of parking that’s a result from the proximity of all the houses).

2. Lounge for the grownups.

   With the garage door open parents are able to keep track of their kids more easily who are playing on the streets and sidewalks due to the lack of a real yard.  This has resulted in the advent of the modern suburbian lounge garage.

3. Storage of non-junk items.

   Due to keeping the garage door open all the time, and the proximity of all the houses, everyone can see into everyone else’s modern suburbian garage.  As a result, what is stored in the garage is usually nothing near junk…that’s in your walk in closet or spare bedroom closet.

4. Entryway.

   Yes, in some cases the garage has evolved into the main (not the “great”) entryway.  This is due to keeping the garage door open all the time, and some (though, not many) places to put things when you walk in through that area.

5. Games room.

   As a result of not having an unfinished basement for the kids, the kids get actual living room.  (We wouldn’t want them playing in the great room and a garage is no place for a kid to play.)  With the kid’s toys in the living room, where do the grownups go to play?  Heh…the modern suburbian garage, of course.

If you think any of this isn’t true, feel free to stop by our place for a visit.  Preferably between 5 and 8 PM so that more people will be home at the same time.

Apparently, if your voicemail gets hacked and is used to make $60,000 worth of long distance calls, you will still be responsible to pay $7,000 of that simply because it is deemed to be your responsibility to establish a password that is not easy to guess.

My question to the phone companies is this:

“How do you expect us to create strong passwords when all we can use are 4 – 6 numerical digits?”

This policy is absurd!

I love the “How Stuff Works” site!  One of my favorites.  Today, I read up on how to prevent a heart attack and learned some interesting things.  I’ve summed up the full article below and marked the ones that had surprising information (to me) in them with an *, but you’ll need to read the article to find out what the surprise is.

10 Steps to Avoiding a Heart Attack

#10 Exercise; specifically cardiovascular exercise
#9* Sleep; get 8 hours of sleep each night
#8* Aspirin; A daily, low amount can help
#7 Lower your cholesterol
#6 Lower your blood pressure
#5 Chill out; relax dude
#4 Stop smoking; obvious, but awfully difficult
#3* Undergo preventive screenings; hmmmmmmmm
#2 Know your family medical history

And the number 1 step to preventing a heart attack is…

#1 Adopt a heart-healthy diet

Okay, so most of this I already know, and some of it I even already follow.  At least that’s what I initially thought.  Then I thought “wait…how much of it do I really already follow?”  Well, lets see.

#10 – I’ve decided to start, but only just.
#9 – I try, but usually fail
#8 – Not at all
#7 – Haven’t thought about it
#6 – Haven’t thought about it
#5 – If you know me, you know I’m usually relaxed.  Often when stressed.
#4 – Done.  (btw, NEVER tell someone to “just quit!”  It doesn’t work like that.)
#3 – Never done.
#2 – I know my immediate family’s history.
#1 – What’s a heart-healthy diet???

My answer to #1 was not rhetorical.  I clicked on the links to figure out what they thought a heart-healthy diet was and why.  They listed out the top five foods in such a diet.  Again, I will list them, but you will need to read the article.

#5 Whole grains
#4 Legumes
#3 Alcohol – huh
#2 Nuts
#1 Fish

So, my conclusion is that I need to think more about this and make a couple of changes.  Of the top ten things to do to prevent a heart attack I have 3/10 which isn’t the best odds in the world.

How many of the ten items do you think you have achieved?

Doctors have created a list of who should be allowed to live and who should be left to die when a pandemic hits. My questions to them are:

• What makes someone over 85 years old, or a person with Alzheimer’s, a less valuable person?
• Have any of you even read any history books, or even head of the Holocaust?
• Are your own names on the list?

I was shocked when I read this article. I hardly know what to say. The fact that this is being taken seriously makes me want to cry.

The problem is not that some people are going to live at the cost of other people’s lives.  If the pandemic strikes, that will happen no matter what we do.  The problem is that this list sets a precedence with regards to the value of human life.  It states that one groups deserves a chance at life while the other doesn’t.  How far off from that are the gas chambers?

Looks like they found the gateway to hell, and it’s not San Francisco.

There also seems to be a back door to a similar place in the United States, however.

My body still hasn’t recovered from my “time away”, but I am glad to be home!

I will write a more detailed post at a later point, but for now I am going to just post my review of the movie “I am Legend”.

I saw this movie expecting a “what would you do if you were the last person on earth” kind of theme with a zombie twist. The person who was the last one left, however, had an obsession that the general public can not identify with: curing a disease that caused vampirism (not zombieism). Will Smith’s acting was, of course, very good, but the movie suffered from a lack of content and a major inconstancy that the entire plot hinged on. There was no real effort made to explain how the main character survived, kept that bacon for three years, or managed to sustain indoor plumbing. It was very predicable and a little cheesy…especially the fact that people turned into vampires. That said, the special effects were pretty good.

3/5

This movie will not become legend.

After writing this, I made the discovery that the movie is based on a book by the same name that is, of course, way better.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Okay, my life at the moment is crazy!  I am currently doing training for the Fraser Health Authority on how to use some new software.  They have scheduled me for 16 hour days and prevented me from accessing internet while I am training.  Every once in a while I chatch a break and get access, but not offten.

I have had 15 minutes today during which I could eat something as the breaks that are between sessions seem to be filling up with other things to do.  It is completely crazy.

Also, I knew I was reliant on internet, but I had no idea I was this dependant on it.  No work email, no personal email, no blogging *cough*.  And, the hospitals often don’t take any credit card to pay for things so I had to transfer over money into my account…but I didn’t have internet!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh