WHAT'S IN A NAME?

 Thanks TC (I think).

TC asked me to do a post on spelling since the blogging community members have slipped in this area, even old Mr pedantic the ex-schoolteacher.

I thought that I'd list the names of some philosophers which are a minefield for the incorrect speller,

Here goes:

• Albert Camus
• Immanuel Kant
• Martin Buber
  Thomas Aquinas
• Socrates
• Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Martha Nussbaum
• Sigmund Freud
• Baruch Spinoza
• Cometan
• Edmund Burke
• Emile Durkheim
• Epictitus
• Hildegard of Bingen
• Jeremy Bentham
• Thomas Khun
• Socrates
• John Hick
• John Locke
• Marcus Aurelius
• Sor Juana
• Max Scheler
• Michel Foucaut
• Simone de Beauvoir
• Rene Descartes

Ha ha. I hope that you got as fun out of that as I did.

IT'S A STRANGE, STRANGE WORLD WE LIVE IN ....

.....   IT'S A STRANGE , STRANGE WORLD WE LIVE IN MASTER JACK

I was listening to National Radio yesterday and one of the commentators recounted that he heard a news report that Scots College in Wellington, a former single sex boy's school, was to admit girl students. When walking in Wellington he passed a girl wearing a uniform from a single sex girls school - Marsden I think - and asked her what she thought of Scots College allowing girls in and what did she think of her school letting boys in. The girl backed away with a horrified look on her face - not from the thought of her school letting boys in but from the fact that a complete stranger, a man, asked her a question on the street. This led to a discussion about 'stranger danger' and the fact that parents are so terrified of something happening to their kids that they instil fears and worries in them that might be, on balance, unwarranted.

STRANGER DANGER

While not exactly on point, this Catherine Tate video clip does show parent influence on children.

DON'T KILL US

I do think that things are getting out of hand. It's a shame to think that children are being cocooned and not experiencing the world naturally and interacting with people outside of their own closed circles. You only have to witness the morning and afternoon drop offs and pickups of school children by parents, usually mothers in their behemoth vehicles to take the little angels to school and home when the distance is only a kilometre or two. Compare that to our walking, cycling, tram or bus trips we made on our own when we were at primary school.

No wonder children today spend incredible amounts of time on social media platforms and have their heads buried in smartphones, tablets or computers. They are then seeing a world that is actually different from the real one and is in fact a virtual one.

THANKS DAD

Do plants have feelings?
Do they feel gratitude?

We have a little bank of herbs in the kitchen, on the bench - basil, mint, Thai basil and another basil.
I have them sitting in little bowls close to the sink so that it's easy to top them up with water. They get a bit of shade but also, depending on the time of day, sufficient sunlight through the kitchen window.

When I water them I immediately notice a burst of aroma from them individual to the herb that they are. It's like they are thanking me for giving them some refreshment and saying "THANKS DAD"

Is that crazy?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICHARD (OF RBB)

2 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

Yes, I'm sure that you, like me have been wondering why a  bloated, nasty, self-serving, amoral, immoral and orange narcissist could ever be president of USA.

This man seems to be, in a short space of time, knocking down any good that that country has done over the last couple of decades, furthering all the bad things that have been created and turning a blind eye to problems that all humanity faces.

Well it just may be that this isn't an accident and that the Republican backers of Trump aren't stupid and may well have a nasty game-plan going on.
I like Noam Chomsky's essays and here is one that has a great insight into what is going on in the USA and how we all are being adversely affected.

This is worth watching and listening to.

TRUMP'S DISTRACTION

.

PATHOS

"The candy floss salesman 

Watches ladies in the sand

Down for a freaky weekend in the hope 

That they'll be meeting Mr. Universe."

- 'Up The Pool' Jethro Tull


UP THE POOL

This song is inherently sad due to its nostalgic musing. Ian Anderson thinks back to the times he spent at Blackpool both growing up and on his later visits when he was living in London.

The verse above about the lecherous candy floss man watching 'desperate' young women sums up one of life's little ironies - aspiring to something you can't have. Sad really.

GOOD /BAD

Here's an interesting article about a moral dilemma:

GOOD - BAD

Should good deeds be rewarded?

Should the perpetrator of a good deed expect some sort of reward?

Does being on the 'moral high ground' condone other forms of bad behaviour?

This is interesting because we are increasingly being made aware of horrible behaviour from religious people, politicians. business leaders, famous entertainers and people of power, position and influence. It's only the rise of social media and immediacy o other forms of media and communication that is making this so overt - the implication is that things have always been this way.

Why do people behave in this way? Is it because they feel that they have a 'god given right' because they have attained fame, prosperity or position?

I think bad bastards are bad bastards no matter what 'good deeds' they do to disguise it.

I'm black and white and am an unforgiving bastard.

Turn the other cheek?

No way.