Sounds

Merry Christmas!

https://soundcloud.com/maximilian-wilson/christmasstorymp3

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If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not Honor more.

Hybrid frogs

J.,

Whoa. Apparently these frogs have only halfway speciated.

P. esculentus ( genome RL) generally produces offspring by mating with another species, usually P. lessonae. In most populations, they produce gametes that only contain the R genome (the L genome is discarded): mating with P. Lessonae restores the L genome. Presto, more hybrids.

They can mate with others of their kind, but few tadpoles survive – essentially because the parental genome (R) does not go through sexual recombination – thus mutations have accumulated over the many generations since the original hybridization. Muller's ratchet.

In eastern Europe, it's the other way around: the L genome is clonal and the hybrids have to mate with P. ridibundus, with complex results (3/4 hybrids, 1/4 pure ridibundus).

Crazy, huh?

-Max


--
If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not Honor more.

Beatitudes

Hey,

I just realized this morning that these thoughts (in 3 Nephi 12) are all connected:

11 And blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake;

12 For ye shall have great joy and be exceedingly glad, for great shall be your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.

13 Verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you to be the salt of the earth; but if the salt shall lose its savor wherewith shall the earth be salted? The salt shall be thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men.

14 Verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you to be the light of this people. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

In other words, when men revile against you falsely, turn the other cheek. It is tempting (especially for me!) to get crabby and point out how the other party is being intellectually dishonest. That is the spirit of pride/enmity/contention, and giving in to it is akin to salt losing its savor. Rather, the Savior gives unto us to be the light of the world in maintaining charity and good humor even in the face of unjust persecution. Instead of fighting fire with fire, he urges us to live by the spirit, and "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." Those with eyes to see will see.

Remind me of this please, next time I get crabby about straw men. :)

-Max

--
If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not Honor more.

Santa Claus

I wouldn't be comfortable telling my kids that Santa wasn't real, because it would feel like a lie. I'd say, "Santa is metaphorically real, not a literal physical presence. Santa Claus is a collective identity for those who wish to do good with plausible deniability, a sort of nom de guerre if you will, a name which can legitimately be assumed for a time by anyone who wishes to do good anonymously, in company with others who are doing the same. You can legitimately claim to be Santa instead of yourself whenever you are doing the things that Santa Claus would do."

If they look confused at that, I'll give them the shorter summary: "I'll explain it when you're older."

--
If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not Honor more.

Daesh/ISIS and existential threats

Dear J.,

There's a medium-sized fight going on right now in the policy space about whether to prioritize military spending or fiscal prudence, and whether or not the U.S. should get involved directly in fighting Daesh/ISIS in Syria. I don't know if you've heard about that fight, but a major decision factor is whether or not ISIS is an existential threat to the U.S. or if that is just panicky overreaction to a threat which is still far militarily weaker than, say, Italy.

For me, here's the thing about Daesh/ISIS: I don't know if they're an existential threat to the U.S. because I don't know what it would take to destroy us, practically speaking. I don't know why the economy works in the first place and I don't know what it would take to break it. Say somebody launches a cyber attack that takes down 50% of the power plants in the U.S. for six months and crashes the databases of half of the Fortune 500 companies, losing a lot of financial data in the process. Or if somebody does an EMP over New York, and another over Los Angeles, that destroys 90% of all electronics in those areas. Neither of these things will physically kill all the people in the U.S., but does either of them push us into a Great Depression? My answer: I have no idea. I can believe in scenario where we're up and running again in a year, and I can believe in a scenario where the country dissolves into mass chaos (unemployment, Ferguson-style rioting, martial law declared, backlash against martial law). I don't REALLY believe in the mass chaos scenario, in the same way that as a kid I never really thought my parents would get a divorce, but that disbelief is founded more in emotional inertia than logical analysis.

I don't know if Daesh/ISIS is an existential threat because I don't know what an existential threat to the nation looks like any more. We're fragile.

See also 3 Nephi 8, where the murder of the chief judge destroyed the government: "And the people were divided one against another; and they did separate one from another into tribes, every man according to his family and his kindred and friends; and thus they did destroy the government of the land." Looking at the fault lines in America, that pattern (in response to a different stimulus) is not at all implausible. I guess we'll see, huh?

Happy American Thanksgiving, by the way! See you tomorrow.

Love,
M.


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If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not Honor more.

Enmity

Dear Y.A.

I want to share an experience with you.

In Elders' Quorum yesterday, re-reading President Benson's definition of "enmity" really brought something home to me. I don't really do "hatred" enmity, but he also includes "a state of opposition," and when arguments occur (about anything) I'm quite easily inclined to think, "No, what you're asking for won't work the way you think and is a bad idea. We shouldn't do that" which actually does qualify as "a state of opposition" and therefore enmity and therefore pride.

So I need to find a way to hold my opinions without opposition, without thinking to myself, "I don't want you to get what you are asking for." Non-religious example: gun control. I think trying to ban guns in the U.S. would be horribly counterproductive and just punishes law-abiders with more hassle without actually making anyone safer; but when someone starts talking about "gun crime," I need to not oppose them and want to gripe about their desires. Instead, I should find a way to disagree without opposing, which tends to emphasize areas of agreement and possible compromise. I don't have to think, "I hope you manage to ban guns in the U.S." but I CAN think, "I really value the culture of freedom in the U.S., and I value simple laws that people can actually keep. I hope you find a way to get what you want in terms of increased safety for everyone without compromising the things that I value." If I can do that I will avoid feelings of enmity and therefore pride.

It seems to me that the primary "re-thinking" the Church has done in recent years is to studiously avoid encouraging any kind of enmity or opposition between its members and gay activists. That doesn't mean that some people won't take offense anyway, but I do see a pattern of trying very hard to avoid opposition and seek mutually-agreeable compromises. Presumably this same approach would be taken by the Church on any potentially-contentious issue, not just this one. It's an emphasis on charity.

Hope you're doing great. I love you!

-B.C.

--

If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not Honor more.

Git magic, git

Written by Dan Glick:

You remind me of the branch
What branch? branch with the code
What code? code that hasn't shipped
Ship who? ship you
You do? remind me of the branch

My code was in too many folder trees, oh my
What could I do
My code was so spread out, and what were actual diffs?
Nobody knew

What kind of source control to use
SVN
or TFS
Maybe Perforce
Then somebody said

Git magic, git magic
Git magic, git magic
Pull my push and merge my change
Cherry-pick my commit range
DAG magic, DAG magic
DAG magic, DAG magic
Careful with rebase and squash
Pull the tip before you push

I couldn't find the hotfixes from prod
What could I do
Each file had conflicts left and right, and how to merge?
Nobody knew

What kind of source control to use
CVS
or VSS
Source Depot? Never!
Then somebody said

Git magic, git magic
etc.

--

If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not Honor more.

An Entire Separation

November, 2015

Dear Y.A.,

I sometimes see people ominously speaking of what the Church needs to do "to survive", and threatening ("more in sorrow than in anger") a mass exodus of their presumably legion like-minded cohorts if certain doctrinal changes are not made to their liking. I find this a striking, and surprising, fulfillment of the words written in 1831, in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 63:

"These things are the things that ye must look for; and, speaking after the manner of the Lord, they are now nigh at hand, and in a time to come, even in the day of the coming of the Son of Man. And until that hour there will be foolish virgins among the wise; and at that hour cometh an entire separation of the righteous and the wicked..."

I never could have imagined that the "entire separation" would happen THIS way. I always sort of expected to see the foolish virgins fall away in fatigue or embarrassment when faced with mockery and persecution and the need to sacrifice; it never occurred to me that they would threaten to hurl themselves out of the Church as a form of coercion against God.

We are always sad to see anyone leave, and yet no one can say the Lord never warned us that it was coming. Matthew 24:24. "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Our job is to make sure that, at least for ourselves, it is NOT possible to be deceived. Read your scriptures, say your prayers, listen to the Spirit. Amen, amen.

I love you! Good luck.

~B.C.

--

If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not Honor more.

Stupor of Thought

"But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong."

One thing you need to know about the Holy Ghost in order to understand revelation is that God is never, ever pedantic in his corrections. He will never tell you you're wrong in an minor detail that you weren't intending to ask about. This is why the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon has grammatical errors, and this is (one reason) why even plans you've made with inspired guidance need course corrections over time. If you're on the right track, the Holy Ghost will tell you to move forward even if you're 10 or 15 degrees off at first.

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If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not Honor more.

Epistemology

Interesting analogy:

'I am told, and there seems to be ample evidence to support it, that matter is indestructible, that it is eternal. As a youth, if I had been told by my teacher in school that the desk on which I wrote was indestructible, and then when the schoolhouse burned had seen the mocking ashes where my desk had been, I doubtless would have lost faith in my teacher. Clearly, and before me, was the evidence of his folly. But later in High School and University, where in the laboratory, I learned how to catch and weigh the gases, oils, and ashes that resulted from burning wood and found that the process of burning had not in fact destroyed anything, I concluded that my youthful skepticism was but evidence of the narrow limits of my knowledge. From then on, humility bade me hesitate before questioning the truths which witnesses of research and observation had established. My questing soul still questions, but my questions had to do with ways and means of deciphering and getting at the truth and finding the relationship between observation and intuition, between knowledge and faith.' -Hugh B. Brown

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If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not Honor more.

My Fair Lady and Pygmalion

So, everybody knows that the epilogue of Shaw's Pygmalion has Eliza Doolittle marrying Freddie. What I didn't know until I actually read the epilogue today (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3825/3825-h/3825-h.htm) is WHY. Shaw's reasoning is twofold:

1.) Shaw's Henry Higgins is a bachelor because he is a mama's boy; she is the primary woman in his life and always will be, and Eliza doesn't want to compete with that. In other words, Shaw's Higgins has no character arc--he's still basically the same person at the end of the play as at the beginning.

2.) Strong people are drawn to weak people, not other strong people. "This being the state of human affairs, what is Eliza fairly sure to do when she is placed between Freddy and Higgins? Will she look forward to a lifetime of fetching Higgins's slippers or to a lifetime of Freddy fetching hers?"

#2 is debatable (I don't agree with it myself) but #1 clearly doesn't apply to My Fair Lady as written, or as filmed with Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. Henry does arc. Ergo, Henry and Eliza probably do wind up together in the end--even in Shaw's telling, Eliza still idolizes Henry and occasionally fantasizes about him in private, so in a universe where Henry has actually realized that Eliza matters to him more than his mother does (as he does in My Fair Lady), odds are good that the interest will be reciprocated. Besides, they totally deserve each other.

-M.

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If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not Honor more.

On tolerance

You might like this. It makes me reflect on how I treat people who really, really get my goat. I think in some cases I do okay but I could do better.

-Max

The Emperor summons before him Bodhidharma and asks: "Master, I have been tolerant of innumerable gays, lesbians, bisexuals, asexuals, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, transgender people, and Jews. How many Tolerance Points have I earned for my meritorious deeds?"

Bodhidharma answers: "None at all".

The Emperor, somewhat put out, demands to know why not.

Bodhidharma asks: "Well, what do you think of gay people?"

The Emperor answers: "What do you think I am, some kind of homophobic bigot? Of course I have nothing against gay people!"

And Bodhidharma answers: "Thus do you gain no merit by tolerating them!"

If I had to define "tolerance" it would be something like "respect and kindness toward members of an outgroup".

--

If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not Honor more.

Epiphany

Subject: Epiphany

I just had an epiphany!!!!!

We were reading Alma 36 as part of Family Night and suddenly it hit me: the phrase "from time to time" in the Book of Mormon is not equivalent to the current English usage where it means "occasionally." In the Book of Mormon it means "time and again," or in other words, "continually."

Check out how that changes the way these scriptures read.

Alma 36:28-29
And I know that he will raise me up at the last day, to dwell with him in glory; yea, and I will praise him forever, for he has brought our fathers out of Egypt, and he has swallowed up the Egyptians in the Red Sea; and he led them by his power into the promised land; yea, and he has delivered them out of bondage and captivity from time to time.

Yea, and he has also brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem; and he has also, by his everlasting power, delivered them out of bondage and captivity, from time to time even down to the present day; and I have always retained in remembrance their captivity; yea, and ye also ought to retain in remembrance, as I have done, their captivity.

1 Nephi 18:1
And it came to pass that they did worship the Lord, and did go forth with me; and we did work timbers of curious workmanship. And the Lord did show me from time to time after what manner I should work the timbers of the ship.

2 Nephi 10:22
For behold, the Lord God has led away from time to time from the house of Israel, according to his will and pleasure. And now behold, the Lord remembereth all them who have been broken off, wherefore he remembereth us also.

Alma 49:21
And it came to pass that the captains of the Lamanites brought up their armies before the place of entrance, and began to contend with the Nephites, to get into their place of security; but behold, they were driven back from time to time, insomuch that they were slain with an immense slaughter.

Jacob 7:5
And he had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken.

Omni 1:17
And at the time that Mosiah discovered them, they had become exceedingly numerous. Nevertheless, they had had many wars and serious contentions, and had fallen by the sword from time to time; and their language had become corrupted; and they had brought no records with them; and they denied the being of their Creator; and Mosiah, nor the people of Mosiah, could understand them.

1 Nephi 16:29
And there was also written upon them a new writing, which was plain to be read, which did give us understanding concerning the ways of the Lord; and it was written and changed from time to time, according to the faith and diligence which we gave unto it. And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things.

1 Nephi 17:45
Ye are swift to do iniquity but slow to remember the Lord your God. Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words; wherefore, he has spoken unto you like unto the voice of thunder, which did cause the earth to shake as if it were to divide asunder.

See, in many of these cases, an English reader will at first think it's some kind of caveat, but in reality it's a very strong emphasis that the event in question is happening over and over. I know that this interpretation is true because it makes all of these scriptures' meanings clearer.

Note BTW that Doctrine and Covenants doesn't seem to use the phrase this way--in D&C, "from time to time" seems (for the most part?) to mean the same thing as it does in English. For example:

Doctrine and Covenants 20:61
The several elders composing this church of Christ are to meet in conference once in three months, or from time to time as said conferences shall direct or appoint;

I know the Book of Mormon is true, and that Nephi and Alma and Moroni were real people!

--

If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not Honor more.