Mid-morning. Chores, bath, breakfast, paper and kitchen police. Carol is readying for a luncheon at eleven-thirty. You want to mow the grass but it is too wet presently.
Lunch of three stalks of celery painted inside with peanut butter and a diet drink while watching last night’s “Event”. You saw a slip up in logic in the plot which is bothersome to you, perhaps two slip-ups when last week’s show was so good.
The Vice President had confessed secretly, why wasn’t it brought out for debate, why work with only present evidence? People could not have died of the 1918 flu so quickly. Nor would they today as implied. Perhaps I am missing something, perhaps not, but the series is weakened for me – I’ll have to wait until the next episode (which is obviously the point). This series has had some good surprises and has a forward march to it. Here I am being critical of something already put together unlike book four.
Carol said she was going to the Polo Restaurant, which we have never eaten at – about the only thing left of the real polo field that was in the area before the shopping area itself. It rains just enough to keep the grass wet and it is supposed to keep raining until Friday which will make this one of the wettest Aprils on record in Cincinnati. I think I need a nap.
You discovered a 12 January 2011 BBC science article on intelligence and environment and this is an area being discussed in this chapter:
“Is there a genius in all of us?”
. . . They now know that genes interact with their surroundings, getting turned on and off all the time. In effect, the same genes have different effects depending on who they are talking to. . . .
"There are no genetic factors that can be studied independently of the environment," says Michael Meaney, a professor at McGill University in Canada." And there are no environmental factors that function independently of the genome. [A trait] emerges only from the interaction of gene and environment."
This means that everything about us - our personalities, our intelligence, our abilities - are actually determined by the lives we lead. The very notion of "innate" no longer holds together.
"In each case the individual animal starts its life with the capacity to develop in a number of distinctly different ways," says Patrick Bateson, a biologist at Cambridge University.
"Like a jukebox, the individual has the potential to play a number of different developmental tunes. The particular developmental tune it does play is selected by [the environment] in which the individual is growing up."
From: bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12140064
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This shows more evidence that our environment (and our reaction to it) shapes us perhaps more than our genes. This certainly lessens our sense of free will independence. This applies to the Living. What about the Dead – do they have more or less of a sense of Free Will than we do?
Carol arrived home, enjoyed her lunch and company. You wonder about Free Will – we need to finish those three important aspects of your Westerville environment. Post. – Amorella.
You had a nap then mowed the yard and helped Carol rake the consequences. Both tired, you ate at Panera, came home, watched the national news and last week’s “Bones” which neither of you enjoyed. Heading to bed within the next half hour as it is now dusk. Post. It is supposed to rain all day tomorrow so you will be rested and have the time. Later, dude. – Amorella.
I have to say I agree. I mowed without help and hurriedly because I was interrupted by showers several times. Lots of grass clogged and was injected in cow paddy sized heaps which took time to rake and dispose of. At least it is done before this next set of real rains begin later tonight. . . . Accuweather says two to three inches of rain before tomorrow night – several thundershowers in the process.
I wonder, why is it people say “thundershowers” and not “showers with lightning”? People say “thunder and lightning” rather than “lightning and thunder” which is much more logical and just as easy to say, is it not?
I find these seemingly little things quite disturbing. I am not being unreasonable in questioning such aspects of our linguistic nature. I am sure our grammatical nature changes our processes of understanding our underlying environment. I am sure this is going to affect the way the Dead from various ancient cultures consider one another.
You forget they have been dead for a time. They don’t speak English and “thunder and lightning” or “lightning and thunder” do not apply. These thoughts are unimportant in the story even if there may be a legitimate point to them. Besides, the shamans have already consider far more important problems, real problems, when the Dead rise together beside and over the River Styx. What about the underbelly of the Styx – the bed below the bed of the river? The importance of depth lies near the bed of the river, not below it. How is your analogy going to take into account what holds the analogy in the first place? Now there is something to think about, boy, don’t you think? Post. Amorella.
I want to have these analogies in order and in my head before we go further. This bringing together of the Dead for this Rebellion has to make sense.
We agree, orndorff. Now, post. – Amorella.
I feel you are more legitimate when you sign your name.
Really.
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