FROTHING AT THE MOUTH

 It seems in this day and age that everybody is offended by everything. A starlet wears her skirt too short, and the Twitterverse explodes with angry tweets. And the angry tweets provoke other angry tweets condemning the tweeters as twits. Then she wears her skirt too long, and we get another Twitterwar. Someone makes a casual, thoughtless remark that they would never have made if their brains had been in gear, and loud calls are made to "cancel" that person. If someone thoughtlessly refers to a person as "he" when the preferred pronoun is "ze," this is a crime against humanity. 

Fortunes are lost and careers are ended at the slip of a tongue, and almost nobody is immune to censure for the slightest offense. It's somewhat like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer.  

In the land of the First Amendment, you risk ruin every time you open your mouth. The PC police have a fundamentalist view of all transgressions against Wokeness. The least insensitive comment engenders cries for the harshest punishment. 

Many people with a strong survival instinct act as though their every word and action are being recorded on an enemy's cellphone video. Aesop is supposed to have said: "Wise men say nothing in dangerous times", and that quote has seldom been truer than it is today. Of course, the original version of Aesop's quote had been cancelled due to the man's obvious misogyny and has been gender-neutralized as "Wise people say nothing in dangerous times." Is there a statue of Aesop anywhere that can be torn down?

Anyone born prior to 1950 who has ever transgressed the least prohibition of the 21st century's version of morality is to be cancelled, written out of the history books as a hero and made a villain, and any statues of them must be torn down. 

That bigoted racist, Winston Churchill, who was largely responsible for saving Europe during World War II, is supposed to have said that a people who are at war with their past have no future. I agree.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S TEETH versus DONALD TRUMP'S TONGUE

 

At a recent campaign stop in Iowa, Donald Trump made some interesting comments:

 

“The Civil War was so fascinating, so horrible,” Trump said. “So many mistakes were made. See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you. I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died, so many people died. You know, that was the disaster.”

 

Trump went on to describe the Civil War as “vicious” and suggested that “Abraham Lincoln, of course, if he negotiated it, you probably wouldn’t even know who Abraham Lincoln was.” Trump says Civil War ‘could have been negotiated.’ Historians disagree. - TheWashington Post

 

Ambrose Bierce, who served as an officer in the Union Army wrote that warfare “untied with the teeth a political knot which would not yield to the tongue.” Contrary to Trump's assertion, the political knot that led to the Civil War could not be untied with the tongue.

 

The question of whether to negotiate was settled in the election of 1864. George McClellan ran against Lincoln on a ticket which included negotiating an end to the war. Lincoln’s re-election, which was aided by Union soldiers returning home on furlough to vote, demonstrated that negotiating a compromise wasn’t favored by either side, regardless of what Lincoln did.

 

A negotiated settlement would have been near impossible for the following reasons:

 

The Southern leadership (aka the slave-owning planter class) had been losing influence in national politics for years. The population boom in the North was beginning to overpower the Southern leadership in the House of Representatives. The addition of states in areas incompatible with slavery threatened to erode the Southern leadership’s influence in the Senate.

 

The Southern leadership decided that if their economy was to survive, it had to expand its influence or withdraw from the Union. The Southern leadership saw the election of Abraham Lincoln as a sign that its national influence was going to continue to wane; therefore, they seceded.

 

At the outset of the war, Lincoln’s stated aim was to preserve the Union, not abolish slavery. His views changed over the course of the war. He came to the conclusion that the only way to preserve the Union was to abolish slavery. Shortly before the publication of his Emancipation Proclamation Horace Greeley, the publisher of The New York Tribune, complained that Lincoln had no real policy for the Civil War.

 

Lincoln replied with a letter to The New York Tribune in which he said: “I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be ‘the Union as it was.’ If there were those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.”

 

After Lincoln’s death, Greeley wrote that he though Lincoln’s letter was intended to prepare the public for his revised war aim—to free the slaves. Lincoln had decided that he could not preserve the Union by compromising on the issue of slavery with the Southern leadership. Any compromise acceptable to the North would continue the erosion of the Southern leadership’s influence in national politics through population growth in the North and the addition of new Free States, and the Southern leadership saw such erosion as leading to the inevitable destruction of their economy and the ruin of the planter class.

 

NON-RANDOM EVOLUTION

 Some time ago I wrote a blog post which questioned the Darwinian article of faith--Evolution by Natural Selection. As I understood Natural Selection, It was a process of random selection of random mutations to the genetic structure of DNA. My questioning such an article of faith quite naturally caused some kickback from neo-Darwinists. 

One critiquer of my position argued that evolution was not random--that it was a non-random selection from a variety of random mutations. I see two problems with this thesis. First, it says that evolution is both non-random and random at the same time. This, of course, violates the logical rule of non-contradiction. As Aristotle put it, a thing cannot be and not be at the same time. Second, the way out of this logical contradiction is to recognize that if there is a non-random selection from random mutations, then the process of evolution is not random at all. In other words, an intelligence of some sort drives evolution.

To use the "intelligent design" escape from the neo-Darwinian self-contradiction is not to buy into the belief that the "intelligent designer" is God. Here is a theory of evolution which should be congenial to both theists and atheists--a "self-organization" theory. 

Science teaches that there are four fundamental forces of nature--the strong force, the weak force, electromagnetism, and gravity. I theorize a fifth force--the self-organizing force. The phenomenon of self-organization has been identified on all levels of physical science and biology. From the organization of subatomic particles into atoms to the organization of galaxies into clusters and superclusters, the clues of self-organization are everywhere. So how would a self-organization theory of evolution work?

To grossly oversimplify: 

Natural Selection posits that when the asteroid hit Mexico 66,000,000 years ago, the big, lumbering behemoth dinosaurs went extinct, but some dinosaurs accidentally evolved into birds and continue living to this day. This certainly was a fortuitous accident. Out of a near-infinity of possible random mutations (most of which would have been harmful), a mutation occurred which saved the descendants of the dinosaurs.

According to the Self-Organization Theory of evolution, when the asteroid struck, some dinosaur DNA reacted to the fact that its current structure was no longer working and reprogrammed itself to eventually become birds. It will be easy to say, "Self-organization is a godless process like the other four fundamental forces of Nature," and look no farther. But there is a new scientific theory floating around which is suggestive of an Intelligent Designer.

According to this theory, the Universe is actually a virtual reality simulation. Partial evidence of this theory is found in the fact that every aspect of the Universe is so well-organized. 

If we live in a virtual reality Universe, then it stands to reason that somewhere outside the Universe is a Virtual Reality Simulator. One atheistic view of the virtual reality simulator is to imagine the Universe as a computer simulation on somebody's laptop. A theistic view might be that the Virtual Reality Simulator is God. 

Regardless of which theory suits your fancy, or even if neither does, evolution by self-organization makes more sense than evolution by random accident aka Natural Selection.

HOW DO YOU FREE A SKUNK FROM A LIVE TRAP?

 

We have a critter problem in our neighborhood. Armadillos get into the yard to dig holes and root for grubs. I used to sit up late at night with a rifle and try to shoot them when they came into the yard. In order to shoot an armadillo, it has to come into the yard when you are out in the weather sitting on the side yard’s picnic table. I only saw one the whole time I was hunting, and that night all I was armed with was an air gun. I shot him in the butt and he hightailed it out of the yard. I switched over to a .22 rifle loaded with subsonic cartridges and never saw another armadillo on my late night/early morning vigils.

We decided to trap them, and we have caught countless armadillos in our traps. The first we caught I euthanized with a .22 pistol. Being a kind soul, I decided to make sure I killed him instantly. I walked up to the trap and held the gun close to its head. Apparently armadillos have very small brains. I hit his head, but not his brain. The armadillo jumped and tried to spin around. It couldn’t make full spin, but it did spin enough to spatter blood all over my business suit (I was going to court that morning). I shot it again in the chest and then went in to change clothes. The next few times I shot the armadillos in the chest with a .22 rifle. Maybe less human, but definitely less danger to your clothing.

Finally, the milk of human kindness got the better of me, and I started carrying them off to Osceola National Forest and releasing them. Armadillos are very uncooperative animals. I would often have to open the trap and shake them out. Not a lot of fun, since armadillos are known to carry leprosy.

We’ve caught other things in the trap: squirrels, housecats, and possums. Getting squirrels and housecats out of the trap is very easy—just open the door and they dash out. Possums are like armadillos, they don’t seem to want to cooperate with you when you try to get them out. I usually have to resort to shaking them out of the trap.

Yesterday, I was confronted with a new animal. A tribe of skunks seems to have invaded our subdivision. We first became aware of them when they started getting themselves repeatedly run over near the entrance to our subdivision. These incidents were most malodorous, and we could smell them from our house. Then the unthinkable happened. We caught a skunk in our live trap. How do you get a skunk carried off and removed from a live trap without getting perfumed? I called our pest control company, and they said they would be glad to dispose of the skunk IF they had set the trap. Since I had set the trap, however, they would not help.

At a loss for an idea about what to do, I went to that infallible source of odd information, YouTube, and found videos by two skunk trappers. One of them told how to improvise a lance with a hypodermic spearhead. He said it was best to get one of those long, extendable tree pruning poles and extend it to its greatest length. Fill the hypodermic with paint thinner or some other poisonous liquid and affix it to the pruning pole. Stab the skunk and push so that the hypodermic discharged the poison into the skunk’s chest. He said if you were gentle enough when you stabbed the skunk, it wouldn’t spray. If you weren’t gentle enough, the length of your lance would protect you. I decided not to follow this plan.

The next guy said skunks were pretty docile, and the best way to get them out of the trap was to SLOWLY walk up to the trap and CAREFULLY cover it with a blanket you wouldn’t care being rendered stinky. The blanket serves a twofold purpose. First, if the skunk gets agitated and sprays, it theoretically will contain the stench. Second, the blanket cuts off outside stimuli and renders the skunk less likely to spray.

This is the method I chose. First, I changed clothes into an outfit I was willing to part with if the plan miscarried. (My wife warned me that if I got sprayed I would be sleeping in the guest room until I was decontaminated). Then I got our best blanket (just kidding) and slowly walked up to the skunk. I covered the cage very carefully and without incident.

Next, I gently walked the cage to my pickup truck and loaded it in the bed. Then I drove slowly to the deep woods, being careful not to hit potholes. When I got into the wilderness, I was overjoyed to see that the skunk had not sprayed.  The final step was to convince the skunk to come out of his cozy cage. I set the cage on the ground, removed enough of the blanket to get the trapdoor open, and locked it in the open position. Then I waited from a safe distance. Like the armadillos and possums before him, he did not seem overly anxious to escape to freedom. I decided not to use the method I used for emptying the trap of armadillos and possums. I had better sense than to pick the trap up and try to shake the skunk out. Eventually the skunk found the open door and slowly walked to freedom. I wish I had taken pictures of the entire process, but it didn’t occur to me to do so until time to let him out.

Here he is  after he discovered the open door and decided to saunter out.

We have a critter problem in our neighborhood. Armadillos get into the yard to dig holes and root for grubs. I used to sit up late at night with a rifle and try to shoot them when they came into the yard. In order to shoot an armadillo, it has to come into the yard when you are out in the weather sitting on the side yard’s picnic table. I only saw one the whole time I was hunting, and that night all I was armed with was an air gun. I shot him in the butt and he hightailed it out of the yard. I switched over to a .22 rifle loaded with subsonic cartridges and never saw another armadillo on my late night/early morning vigils.

We decided to trap them, and we have caught countless armadillos in our traps. The first we caught I euthanized with a .22 pistol. Being a kind soul, I decided to make sure I killed him instantly. I walked up to the trap and held the gun close to its head. Apparently armadillos have very small brains. I hit his head, but not his brain. The armadillo jumped and tried to spin around. It couldn’t make full spin, but it did spin enough to spatter blood all over my business suit (I was going to court that morning). I shot it again in the chest and then went in to change clothes. The next few times I shot the armadillos in the chest with a .22 rifle. Maybe less human, but definitely less danger to your clothing.

Finally, the milk of human kindness got the better of me, and I started carrying them off to Osceola National Forest and releasing them. Armadillos are very uncooperative animals. I would often have to open the trap and shake them out. Not a lot of fun, since armadillos are known to carry leprosy.

We’ve caught other things in the trap: squirrels, housecats, and possums. Getting squirrels and housecats out of the trap is very easy—just open the door and they dash out. Possums are like armadillos, they don’t seem to want to cooperate with you when you try to get them out. I usually have to resort to shaking them out of the trap.

Yesterday, I was confronted with a new animal. A tribe of skunks seems to have invaded our subdivision. We first became aware of them when they started getting themselves repeatedly run over near the entrance to our subdivision. These incidents were most malodorous, and we could smell them from our house. Then the unthinkable happened. We caught a skunk in our live trap. How do you get a skunk carried off and removed from a live trap without getting perfumed? I called our pest control company, and they said they would be glad to dispose of the skunk IF they had set the trap. Since I had set the trap, however, they would not help.

At a loss for an idea about what to do, I went to that infallible source of odd information, YouTube, and found videos by two skunk trappers. One of them told how to improvise a lance with a hypodermic spearhead. He said it was best to get one of those long, extendable tree pruning poles and extend it to its greatest length. Fill the hypodermic with paint thinner or some other poisonous liquid and affix it to the pruning pole. Stab the skunk and push so that the hypodermic discharged the poison into the skunk’s chest. He said if you were gentle enough when you stabbed the skunk, it wouldn’t spray. If you weren’t gentle enough, the length of your lance would protect you. I decided not to follow this plan.

The next guy said skunks were pretty docile, and the best way to get them out of the trap was to SLOWLY walk up to the trap and CAREFULLY cover it with a blanket you wouldn’t care being rendered stinky. The blanket serves a twofold purpose. First, if the skunk gets agitated and sprays, it theoretically will contain the stench. Second, the blanket cuts off outside stimuli and renders the skunk less likely to spray.

This is the method I chose. First, I changed clothes into an outfit I was willing to part with if the plan miscarried. (My wife warned me that if I got sprayed I would be sleeping in the guest room until I was decontaminated). Then I got our best blanket (just kidding) and slowly walked up to the skunk. I covered the cage very carefully and without incident.

Next, I gently walked the cage to my pickup truck and loaded it in the bed. Then I drove slowly to the deep woods, being careful not to hit potholes. When I got into the wilderness, I was overjoyed to see that the skunk had not sprayed.  The final step was to convince the skunk to come out of his cozy cage. I set the cage on the ground, removed enough of the blanket to get the trapdoor open, and locked it in the open position. Then I waited from a safe distance. Like the armadillos and possums before him, he did not seem overly anxious to escape to freedom. I decided not to use the method I used for emptying the trap of armadillos and possums. I had better sense than to pick the trap up and try to shake the skunk out. Eventually the skunk found the open door and slowly walked to freedom. I wish I had taken pictures of the entire process, but it didn’t occur to me to do so until time to let him out.

Here he is  after he discovered the open door and decided to saunter out.

Here he is strolling toward the woods.

 

And here he is escaping into the woods.

All that was left to do was drive home, throw away the beggar weed infested blanket, pick the beggar weeds off my pants cuffs, reset the trap, and hope that no more skunks wandered into it.

SPACE SHOGI

 

Back in the 1980’s I invented a Shogi variant which transported the Shogi pieces to a 3-D board. The game was described somewhat inaccurately in Michael Keller’s World Game Review. I take full responsibility for the inaccuracy, blaming it on my poor effort to communicate the game to Keller.

 

The game is now on Wikipedia, using Keller’s description. I recently got a communication pointing out that the pieces were too lonely on a 9x9x9 playing field. I agree. I never meant for the game to be played on such a large field. It is now time for me to clear up the inaccuracies.

 

Space Shogi should be played on a field consisting of 81 cubes arranged 3x3x9. Think of the field as consisting of a row of three cubes, each one subdivided into nine smaller cubes. White occupies the 3x3x3 cube on one end of the field, and Black occupies the cube on the other side of the field. The middle cube is vacant.

 

The pieces are identical to those of orthodox Shogi, and their moves are extended to the third dimension. They are:

 

All the rules of orthodox Shogi apply, including captures, drops, and promotion of the pieces. The array is shown below, as are diagrams of the moves of the pieces.