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 April 20,2024     I just finished walking 3.4 miles in under two hours from my home to the post office and back to mail a birthday card to my granddaughter. I wanted her to get the card before her birthday, I wanted to get exercise to keep my body including my heart healthy and  maintain my better body weight, and be out with sunlight and mild breeze. As I walked on the streets, parks, and stores to the post office I obeyed the crosswalk directions and signals, kept to the side walks and paths, and did deposit the birthday card at the post office. Earlier I greeted a friend who comes every few years to fix my computer which he did and we talked about his new job, his wife's job, some background about his parents and Rebecca shared some interests in jewelry making which his wife enjoys. His wife teaches at La Pietra Girl's school and I commented that we hiked with another art teacher from this school in the past and that the school had some horseback riding classes. He shared s
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 March 21, 2024     When studying history one approach is to look at the culture, group, tribe, city, and state to see if they endorse basic freedoms. Firstly the freedom of an individual to move from one location to another. Secondly, the freedom to disobey some person, group, or authority, and the third is the freedom to create or transform social relationships. Included in these freedoms is the ability to make promises in these relationships (the third freedom) and the the freedom to run away from a difficult situation is related to the first freedom. A slave cannot make promises since they have no rights. According to Roman law during the classical period, slaves could be mutilated and killed by the owner without repercussions. The family members under the patriarchal system were subject to the head of the households direction and could be abused, restrained, and beaten without repercussions to the perpetrator. In certain cultures throughout history monarchs became vessels from the
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 January 31, 2024     My adventures in hiking are less intense and much less risky due to age, health changes including cardiac pacemaker, atrial fibrillation, past heart attack surgeries and stents, torn achilles tendon, peripheral neuropathy, loss of vision especially in left eye with macular hole treatments ongoing, etc. Tomorrow I'll hike up from Hawaii Kai up Hahaione Ridge towards Kuliouou Trail. Here the elevation gain is over 900 feet in four + miles on a secure trail without ropes or severe narrow drop-offs. I'm missing the Kahekili Trail hike with the Solemates and Rusties Group. Here's why  https://the-wanderlust.com/2015/01/kahekili-manamana/  and  https://www.google.com/search?q=Kahekili+Trail+in+Ka%27a%27awa&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lpg=cid:CgIgAQ%3D%3D,ik:CAoSLEFGMVFpcFB2RUFzOFk4cndCaE1TcEVkRnZ6QUdKQXlrSzRfNjNKb3FPcEw0     I show you this 1827 feet climb in less than three miles round trip because I would like to go but at this stage in my life it'
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January 14, 2024     My opinions concerning Israel's foundation as a Jewish state accepting most anyone as potential citizens who have Jewish birth heritage are mixed and ambivalent. Israel describes itself as a democracy but critiques of its lack of democratic practices and and antidemocratic pronouncements mostly point out that non Jewish citizens are often marginalized and have less protections. The label Palestinian also becomes a point of contention since the Palestinian can often describe a history of repression, an identity which has aspects of being a lower cast, and discrimination in education and economic advancement. Yet to some Jewish citizens and Jewish advocates of Israel, Palestinian is associated with anti-Jewish hatred, suicide bombers detonating themselves in marketplaces, terroristic attacks and extreme mistrust.      For example, Palestinians may use the history of Zionism, the settlements history since 1920, the history of the partition conflicts and wars and t
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 12/31/2023      Happy New Year. Life and change is like the uncertainty principle of quantum physics. When you are aware of change you know your living and when you are aware of change time is suspended. When your experiencing time, change and your life experiences are less certain since you've suspended your awareness of life and change for those moments of reflection on time. In human affairs absent hypothesis testing using the scientific method all we know is change and life. Choice then is awareness of change, life, and our certainty of free will. But if life and change suspends time, choice also is in the philosophical mind bending uncertainty.     The scientific method involves testing your hypothesis by gathering observations that can be verified by other independent observers and see if the data and hypothesis flow and support each other. I'm reminded of the hypothesis of phlogiston. " The  phlogiston theory  is a  superseded scientific theory  that postulated th
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December 14, 2023      I've been studying a series of articles, stories of Jorg Borg, and a fascinating book The Rigor of Angels by William Egginton about science, knowledge and reasoning as described by Kant, Heisenberg, Einstein, and other scientists. My forays into these issues and thinkers included Robert Sapolsky, a brilliant neuroscientists whose book Behave I reviewed in a previous post (February 26, 2021) and who has some interest in the subject of free will. I tried out explaining some of my confused understanding to others, delved further into Kant's antinomies, and tried some fiction of Jorg Borg. To escape from these pursuits I just finished a part chase, many world, science fiction novel that was a delight to read (Infinity Gate by M. R. Carey) which incorporates the many worlds hypothesis I will describe later in this blog.      Kant defines an antimony "is the consequence of a finite entity trying and failing to grasp the infinite" https://una
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