Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Lily The Pink - Repost from 2010



I knew, even back in 1969, that the reference was to Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound. But I didn't know, until I looked it up for this post, that Elton John, Graham Nash, and Jack Bruce were all in the original UK version, or that the song was based on an older one.



As for Lydia, she was from north of Boston, and there is a well-baby clinic with that name in Salem, founded by her daughter. Her 19th C patent medicine for "female complaints" - presumably menstrual discomfort - contained, among many other useless herbs, gentian root, which gives Moxie its distinctive aftertaste. It was also 20% alcohol.

Thus, Jonathan, Mrs. Pinkham's 19th C herbal concoction was the original Whixie.

PhD's

"I believe PhD's should be safe, legal, and rare." Helen Dale

I don't know if I actually believe that, but it just looked like a fun thing to say.

Cousin Marriage

The Case for Banning Cousin Marriage.  Do you want to raise your group's IQ? Ban cousin marriage.  There's five points in a generation right there. At the lower end, it can be the difference between living independently versus always having to have supports (including informal). And as group/national IQ is likely more important to your quality of life than your individual score, you should get your tribal elders convinced of this post haste.

Autism and Invention

An article that is already a bit dated from 2021, but sums things up nicely. This is one of Simon Baron Cohen's favorite topics, and you can find it in several forms across the internet. Is There a Link Between Autism and the Capacity for Invention? 

We can infer the existence of the Systemizing Mechanism in the modern human brain because 75,000 years ago, we see the first jewelry. If I make a hole in each shell, and thread a string through each hole, then the shells will form a necklace. And 71,000 years ago, we see the first bow and arrow. Again, the same "if-and-then" algorithm: If I attach an arrow to a stretch fiber, and release the tension in the fiber, then the arrow will fly.

and 

We went to the Dutch city of Eindhoven, where one-third of jobs are in IT and which is home to the Eindhoven University of Technology, much like MIT, and where the Philips Factory has been for over 100 years. We found autism rates were twice as high in Eindhoven compared to two other Dutch cities, Utrecht and Haarlem, matched for demographics. This is again consistent with a genetic link between autism in the child, and a talent in pattern-seeking among their parents.
There are an enormous number of anecdotes about Tesla, Edison, Musk, Gates, or Newton.  It is less common in females, but there is evidence that Emily Dickinson had autism. The best explanation I have heard for the gender difference is that women have an array of heritable social skills and/or the societal reinforcement nearly everywhere that they show more social skill, that disguises some of the Asperger's symptoms. 

My people. Not that we can't be extra frustrating in some ways, but I understand that thinking and humor quite naturally.

Monday, February 17, 2025

Christmas 2010

An odd way of doing nostalgia, even for me.

Three carols sung at Greenbelt in England (usually Northamptonshire).  They like to do "Beer and Hymns" there. You can hear the beer in these hymns.

Joy To The World

Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Shouldn't it be 'ark the 'erald Angels Sing in England?

Once In Royal David's City

At the planning for the department Christmas party that year, in mock outrage: "We are not going to have three divorced women singing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus!"

The Wyman Christmas Letters are still fun, even years later.


More Recent Links, As Promised.

Are We Headed Towards Idiocracy, by my favorite demographer Lyman Stone.  More mythbusting, as he has good evidence that our dysgenic worries are misplaced. 

 Sweden Open to Sending Peacekeepers to Ukraine, and they aren't the only ones in Europe.   DeepNewz The EU is divided, but I like that they are increasingly accepting some responsibility.

Related: Zelensky signs agreement mediated by UAE about return of POWs.  I had not realised that the UAE was taking such a forward role in such matters.  I am liking DeepNewz, especially for international, better all the time.

Canada is in worse shape than I thought, especially WRT immigration. (Aporia magazine.) Much of this was only vaguely know to me.

Last Boys at the Beginning of History via Rob Henderson


UN Aid to Hamas

 United Nations relief went to the leaders and not the citizens, according to the Jerusalem Post. The Israelis presented recorded evidence to the US, but Biden insisted all 250 trucks of aid go anyway.

I don't have a lot of confidence that anything will much work in Gaza.  But why on earth do we think that Trump is going to do any worse? 

Kenneth P. Green

A senior fellow at Canada's Fraser Institute, Green holds. PhD in Environmental Science and has published widely. His name was passed along at book club.  Recent articles include

Canada must build 840 Solar Power Stations or 16 Nuclear Plants to Meet Ottawa's 2050 Emission-reduction target.  

Canada should match or eclipse Trump's red-tape cutting plan.

Canada should heed Germany's destructive climate policies. 

I think I like this guy.

Environmentalist Contradiction

Stian Westlake at the Works in Progress newsletter had a 2023 piece Degrowth and the Monkey's Paw. He is a statistician by trade, and those folks often notice things, if you take my meaning.  He starts by noticing that the degrowth that was so earnestly desired by environmentalists has in fact been occurring in Britain for a few years now and wonders why no one seems to be happy about it, despite all the articles about how much better the acceptance of such an economy is going to usher in an era of people placing emphasis on more important things, like happiness.

It's Cowslip's Warren all over again, that rabbits will be happier if they learn to accept their fate.  Hmm.  You go first, let me know how that works out. Further into the article, Westlake touches on a longstanding complaint of mine:  many environmentalists don't seem to care as much about realities as they do appearances.

The backbone of these groups is largely comfortably-off people who have no desperate need for economic growth, and who sincerely believe they are protecting nature and the environment. For many people, “the environment” is less about ppm of atmospheric carbon and more about the view when they walk their dog; this is after all, a venerable environmental tradition stretching back to William Morris and beyond. They are pursuing what they see as a just environmental cause, and they don’t mind if it reduces growth—it just so happens that this particular flavour of environmentalism increases rather than reduces carbon emissions. (Italics mine)

In America, they want things to look like summer camp when they were young. They have a religious attitude to some aspects of nature, like forest cathedrals, or the sacrificial offering of recycling despite its lack of evidence for good effect. They interpret the destructiveness of nature in terms of the earth or Gaia being angry at us and punishing us. I recommend that those of you who are virgins not hang around any volcanoes. You never know.  

The oppose new housing of nearly all sorts in NIMBY fashion and then shudder at the unattractiveness of homeless camps; they approve of immigration but don't like shopping at Wal-Mart or downtown, where the immigrants are.

Sunday, February 16, 2025

Last Night When We Were Young

 


2010 Posts, Linguistics

Some of these still look interesting.

The most-likely origin of the use of the word wicked to mean "very."

The long trail of shifts in meaning for the word silly from "blessed" to well, "silly" as we use it now. With music by Maddy Prior and June Tabor

Onomastics, the study of naming, has always been a favorite of mine. 

American Dialects starting with Hans Kurath during the Depression and including Rick Aschmann's full North American dialect map.

 

Friday, February 14, 2025

The Dershow

Ann Althouse mentioned that Alan Dershowitz has a new podcast and quoted something from it.  It doesn't look new, but it looks interesting.  I'll listen to a few this week and get back to you.

The Frog and Peach

 


Recent Links - More to Come Soon

Hiding the Ball (via Rob Henderson)

Stereotype Accuracy is one of the largest and most replicable effects in Social Psychology.  Lee Jussim via Rob, see also Razib interviewing him a few years ago

Another Guarranteed Income Experiment.  via Aporia

Stonehenge  Okay, not all that recent.  I just ran across it recently and liked it.  

Review of "The Science of Human Intelligence" Cambridge University.  via Aporia. Not only a review but a summary. All the mythbusting you could want, plus some that society in general clearly doesn't want. It does not shy away from sexual and race differences

Grand Strategy In The 20th C

Sarah Paine of the Naval War College, a three part series that totals six hourts of podcast.  Transcripts Available. Lots of things I did not know especially about India and Pakistan and how they fit into all the balance/counterbalance moves by the Great Powers. Mao v Krushchev, Nehru v. LBJ i Part 1

Nov/Dec 2010 Links That Still Fit in 2025

From Sponge-Headed Scienceman:  L L Bean We Hardly Knew Ye.

Cost - Part I I start talking about Mental Health, but it broadens to government spending in general.

Cost Part II

Cost Part III

Comment In Full I had forgotten about Ymar

Theoden's Answer

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Human Groups and Species

We are currently in a period of finding more bones, with more ability to understand them - their DNA in particular, but also their isotope analysis, which tells us about diet and movement. There are different approaches to naming and categorising them.  Some like to name something as soon as they determine it is sufficiently different from what we have seen before.  More recently, archaeologists are holding their fire, as new finds rescramble everything anyway. Think of the brontosaurus, which was considered a relative of the apatosaurus, then synonymous with apatosaurus, then distinct from it.  Is it a diplodocus? Are they both diplodocus?  Isn't this particular skull really a brachiosaur? Aren't we wasting a lot of energy on this?

Did the Renaissance really happen or is it just seamlessly part of the High Middle Ages? If a literate society documents a non-literate one, is the latter still prehistoric?

Impressionism gave way to Expressionism, except in theatrical design, where things took different names. But wait! Is there really any clear distinction anyway? 

Is postmodernism a reaction against modernism, or a continuation of it?

Is rheology physics, chemistry, or biology? Sometimes...it depends on the context...why do you want to know? What's your real question?

My line for these matters has been "We make categories in order to break them."  We cannot learn things without categorising them.  But we can't describe reality with breaking categories.

This is what is happening with prehistoric remains now.  We call things Denisovan even though it is so varied that it's going to have to be redescribed a dozen times. Or Homo naledi, Homo floresiensis, Homo erectus beforehand.  They are all going to be something else soon enough.

Because we have to call it something, so that we know it's not Neanderthal or Modern human, or African.


Monday, February 10, 2025

Romanian Jokes

I struggled to convert this joke to Romanian and to learn to inflect it properly to tell it in 2000. A copy resurfaced and I print it here.  The translation hints: "Is your mother at home, Yes; can I speak to her? No, she's busy.  To get the full import, this was before cell phones, the little boy (baie mic) is speaking softly, and the last syllables of occupata are emphasised crisply.

(Pe telefon)

Mama ta e acasa?

(Baie mic, sopteste) Da

Pot sa ei vorbesc?

Nu.  Ea este occupata

Tata ta e acasa?

Da.

Pot sa lui vorbesc?

Nu. El este occupata.

Frata ta e acasa?

Da.

Pot sa lui vorbesc?

Nu. El este occupata.

Sora ta e acasa?

Da.

Pot sa ei vorbesc?

Nu. Ea este occupata.

Este oricine e acasa?

Da.  Politsist

Pot sa lui vorbec?

Nu. El este occupata

Este oricine e acasa?

Da.  Pompier.

Pot sa lui vorbesc?

Nu. El este occupata.

De ce sind tot occupata? (Why is everyone)

(Foarta sopteste very softly) Ma caute!     (They are looking for me!)


I found that the dumb and dumber sort of joke translates well into other cultures. Why are you buying some nails but throwing half of them back? The heads are on the wrong ends. You fool, those are for the other side of the house!  Or, Did you mark the spot where we caught all the fish? Ya look, right there in the middle of the boat. You are so stupid.  What if we get a different boat tomorrow? Or We've been lost two whole days.  What should we do?  I don't know.  Fire three more shots in the air? I can't. I am all out of arrows.


Garage Bands

The Seeds

Lyrically primitive - it rhymes and scans and expresses one idea, then a moderately contradictory one, both with cliches.

Musically primitive - lots of fuzz tone to jazz up some pretty simple and cliched riffs.

Haircuts, check.  Stupid costumes, check.

Garage band at its finest.  I loved it for what it was.



The Penny

So Trump and Musk are getting rid of the penny. It's about time. I swear I can recall Bill Bradley on Merv Griffin advocating for this even before he was Senator; maybe even as early as 1973. It was already a good idea then. Given inflation, the nickel would now be a worse deal than that, and a dime would just break even for efficiency.  Get rid of them both. No one uses coin 50-cent or dollar pieces anyway, leaving only the quarter as a useful coin.

Pennies rip up your pants pockets.  I hate 'em. And they just don't fit conceptually with a world with a quantum internet waiting in the wings.

Sunday, February 09, 2025

Pre-Super Bowl

I have a mild dislike for both teams. In my walks around the neighborhood I have asked the other old guys if they care about either team, because sometimes you do hear someone say "Yeah I have a nephew who works for the Eagles," or some such. There was none of that today.  In one conversation, I did allow that sometimes when some team is an underdog, or is staging a comeback late in the game, I will root for them. That guy said "I like to see them almost come back and think they are going to win, then have it snatched away from them," to which I said "You are an even more miserable sonofabitch than I am. But I kind of like that."

Saquon Barkley has had the sad misfortune of playing for the NYGiants his whole career but is now finally playing for a good team and has been spectacular.  I'm rooting for him, and I don't think if they are ahead late in the game I will be happy if he fumbles and the Eagles cough up Super Bowl LIX. Go Saquon. Jason Travis Kelce has won me many games in my keeper league, but AJ Brown has overcome a lot to be here. So call me ungrateful, but Go AJ. Go Eagles, sorta.

Adoption

Church was cancelled because of snow this morning, so a previous service from last April was played. The sermon topic was "Adoption," and I remember being deeply moved by it. I was deeply moved again, and I can see from behind that I start crying about halfway through it, which I had forgotten until I saw this again.

Snow Service . Scroll down and click the 10:30am service on the right.  The first thirty minutes is the worship band rehearsing and warming up.  The sermon proper starts at about 50 minutes of the video (20 minutes into the service) and goes about 35 minutes more.  The service closes a few minutes later.  I am in the front right pew, the bald guy drumming softly on them during the songs. I usually rise in sprightly fashion to sing, but this time I remain seated even after others start leaving.  Again, I had forgotten until I saw it again. 

Welcome to my world.  This comes very near my heart of hearts.

Gethsemane Lutheran Church

It was the church my grandmother was baptised in, and my mother, and then me, then my two oldest sons. My grandmother's family, the Lindquists in 1881 and the Nordstroms a few years later were among the founders of the church, and two of the twelve stained glass windows years after bear testament to the family donation. I did not grow up in the church. When my mother returned to Manchester in 1959 we started going to a Congregational church even though we lived next door to her Lutheran one. She never said why.  I have guesses. Services were still in Swedish until about 1950 and it was still very much an ethnic church, but I think her choice was more personal.

My wife and I went there for the first 10 years of our marriage starting in 1976. We were puzzled why God would lead us to a congregation of old Swedish ladies in hats, half of whom succeeded in dragging their husbands every week. Nursery through highschool, there were eight children in the Sunday School. They appointed us superintendents, because they had known my mother and grandmother - and great grandmother in some cases. Also we were young and everybody else was tired of the job. And also, I played the guitar. Still, we remain quite sure that we were led there directly.

I got used to liturgical worship there. (Tracy grew up Catholic and recognised the service as a close variation of what she was used to.) I still prefer it.  I hear clearly that others don't like it and why, but those issues don't bother me. If I had my way we would go up to the kneeler for communion every Sunday and have much more liturgy. But of course, I'm never going to have my way in worship and made my peace with it years ago.*

The church is closing May 18.  It was dying when we went there in 1976 and nearly died at least three times in the years since we left. I wrote the history for the 100th anniversary, which was appropriate as my grandmother had written the 75th and her uncle J.A. Lindquist had written the 50th. I still have a copy of it around here, and when I find it I will enter the text of it to this site.  Not because any of you will be that fascinated, but because the historical details are likely to be lost now, and at least they can be absorbed into the ocean that is AI.  I will note that from about 1950 to 1972 the church chewed up and spit out a different pastor every three years, most of whom left parish ministry thereafter. An ugly record.  When interviewing older members for the history, one said about my Aunt Selma Nordstrom that "some years I think she was the only Christian left in that place."

Who knows what will happen then?  My friend Dennis Sasseville, who literally wrote the book on Moxie, tells me that nearly all online sources say that it was created in 1876, but this was a year pulled out of thin air by the marketing people around 1900.  1884 or 1885 is more likely. (Still ahead of Coke in 1886, though.) Whether online sources will ever have the year right is anyone's guess. But it our job to chronicle and release it to the four winds. That's what I do for my ancestors here.

*For this reason I get irritated at those who feel they should be entitled to what they want for worship at their church.  I think it's good training to not get what you want in that instance.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes