Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/12/13

*Compiled interviews from the Summer, 2020.*

Jaime Alfonso Flores Navas interview recommendation from Guillermo Alejandro Escarcega Pliego, the Founder of the Hall of Sophia, originally published through In-Sight Publishing. However, the claimed IQ score was not confirmed, while the accepted recommendation based on standards of trust came with this presentation as an assumption or that an IQ score was confirmed by Guillermo, so the publications were respectfully removed from In-Sight Publishing after acknowledgment of this fact by Guillermo, i.e., the scores never confirmed in the first place, at all. To respect scores of others who confirmed or had a public listing of a score, the interview is published, with further editorial work on it, here, rather than In-Sight Publishing’s main platforms; this seems as if a reasonable balance between the promise for an interview to Navas and the unconfirmed score, and to others with publicly available test scores and interviews. It shall remain here. If you wish to support the work of Pliego, then you can send an email to noetiqsociety@icloud.com or submit Mexican Pesos — potentially, other currency — to PayPal at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/LuzPliego, which is under the name “María de la Luz Escarcega Pliego,” presumably Guillermo’s mother, even grandmother, or guardian. Navas talks about his experiences and views here.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What is the heritage from Mexico for family?

Jaime Alfonso Flores Navas: My family, for the most part, has had a great history of pro-American people, like my grandparents, chiefly my grandads, especially from my father’s side. My cousins, almost all of them, and nearly all my uncles and aunts; I will be the first of the family to make an American life and marry an American person.

Jacobsen: How did family history get tangled up with American history?

Navas: My father never knew how I actually was raised. I grew up under American culture and traditions. I have met American sisters and aunties as friends first. Those families one meets during life; some of them very close to me.

Jacobsen: As you were growing up, what was the image and experience of America?

Navas: I grew up under American culture, cuisine, and traditions. My friends at a very early age were from California and Miami, Florida, who had relatives from Denver, Colorado.

As a kid, I was certainly not socializing. I liked my privacy. I had many different interests from those of the rest of my peers, like geography. I had self-taught all the countries in the world, their capitals, the shapes of their countries, their location, the location of their capitals, and their flags at the age of 5.

I had learned from American made materials, sharks, which I have beloved since the age of 7; wildlife upon the whole especially wild cats. Hence, practically, all documentaries I have ever watched ever since have been American, like National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Reader’s Digest, which is same as for books.

Plus, my neighbours who were some of the children I used to play with and talk to only, plus they invited me to their celebrations and events, naturally including Halloween, Thanksgiving Day, 4th of July, etc. Our time together included watching TV, and almost all TV shows included American TV series and movies, e.g., films like Jaws.

I admired the might of the shark. Although, I knew it was merely and purely fictional; that sharks had such a blood lust, though I loved always how sophisticated American TV series and films were in their making. Everything I had written in my stories, for I love to write novels of myself only, have been based upon what I have seen on American TV; as well, it has influenced how I learn everything, and how I imagine discoveries, breakthroughs, etc.

I have always loved and fancied American ladies and I have been planning to marry one ever since I was a kid, for the most part. I have always loved how America is more than any other country, the land of opportunity, where one may get land a lot easier and faster than almost anywhere else in the globe, and enjoy more freedoms.

The land where despite having a lot poor people as well; one may attain dreams, grow prosperity if one is willing to work hard. America is the country I most love and admire. I have been regarded as a true patriot for the U.S. as I indeed am, feel and act. I have felt great with the ground-breaking majority of Americans, cannot complain.

Jacobsen: As you were growing up, what was the image and experience of Mexico?

Navas: Good question! I did not know much about Mexican culture or traditions, but I did know Mexican history through school, from the pre-Hispanic era to the Mexican Revolution mostly.

Despite I did not have a poor opinion on Mexicans at first, I had it clear that Mexico was a third-world country, with lots of poverty, corruption, and social problems; I, eventually, tried to find out my identity. I believed both countries were like counters, foes.

Now, I was lucky that, as a kid, my teachers for the most part loved me so much and even spoiled me, and most of my family members loved me too so much. Many people in Mexico, though, have been either too good or too nasty/narrow-minded.

Jacobsen: How have you integrated both American and Mexican identity?

Navas: Excellent question! I have been into American traditions. As you know, ever since I was a very little boy, including these Thanksgiving Day, Halloween, Independence Day, Christmas, etc.; I, nevertheless, experienced Mexican traditions at school, mostly at grammar school, like traditional dances in huge events like festivals, Mothers Day.

I very rarely ever experienced Mexican traditions outside school, though the headmistress, Rosa Elena Franco Lopez Portillo, tried to instill students’ love and respect for Mexican traditions and to embrace Mexican traditions.

I disagreed in light of my outside-of-school background. Ironically, in a generation-trip to Southeast Mexico, in 1998, in all places we went, she had for the most part American food ordered for me, for I am also very picky about food, like McDonald’s and while celebrating my 12th birthday. She bought me American gifts!

In all, I rarely ever had Mexican friends and even more rarely went to a Mexican friend’s house. Almost all friends I ever went to their homes have been Americans. Since I have mild Asperger ‘sconditions, I felt like: if I had to choose between both, to some extent, and since I had been mostly familiarized with American traditions, cuisine, media, etc., then I neglected Mexican culture for a lifetime.

In fact, I became much more involved into American life, by Asperger’s conditions, thus neglecting any other culture from the world and even acting in non-American ways. Until, very good friends from the only church I ever attended service on a regular basis — an American church in Mexico.

These and other religious friends and American friends from the Internet urged me to accept people from all over the world, even hollering at me to accept who I am as a Mexican-born man. Since I was born in Mexico, if I wanted to marry an American lady, that would help stir her interest up even more in me.

Such Bible study lasted a few years, literally, it worked. An instrument was a Bible study, which they performed on me. Even after having taught me more about humankind, I made very good friends with a very good Mexican man named Victor Manuel, who happens to be a very smart fellow and a very well-learned man in Mexican life, traditions, and history.

Recently, he strongly recommended me a few good books written by foremost Mexican, now late, historians, who are now history, in order for me to embrace my Latin roots. He claimed as my friend to be greatly interested in it.

It was also rather interesting that my American friends who lived in Mexico literally knew a lot, lot more about Mexico than I did by all accounts. Some even wanted to show me that many non-American ladies are beautiful too and worthwhile, including Mexican ladies.

My friends have taught me to integrate both [Ed. American and Mexican cultures] in me. Despite having been born in Mexico a very close friend, Bob, told me. Okay, I do, certainly, have the entire American mindset, though maybe with a little hint of Mexican perspective.

He gave me an example of an American family who moved to South Korea, two American parents who work at the American embassy, and had their son born in the U.S., but raised in Korea for about 20 years. Naturally, that kid would have been raised under American culture, but he may also know a little of Korean point of view.

Jacobsen: Most gifted people will be entirely forgotten to history. Thus, the importance of intellectual development is important for societies. Also, there is an importance in ethical education too. How can this be part of the educational systems in America and Mexico?

Navas: Despite both countries, to be honest, do possess huge educational deficiencies in elementary school, middle school, and high school education, America has a great college education tradition. Now, it’s a lot easier for the non-rich to attend prestigious colleges, e.g., Harvard, which was in the 1940s for the rich young men.

America also has a great many gifted people and talented individuals’ programs. Also, there is a tradition of young people who tend to think up devices themselves, independently. In most places throughout the globe, not just America, nevertheless, several gifted people suffer a lot for being different and/or too arrogant to mingle in society and have miserable lives.

Jacobsen: The five main vetted high-IQ societies for listing in Wikipedia have been Mensa International, Intertel, Triple Nine Society, the Prometheus Society, and the Mega Society. If folks want to join some societies, those would be the safest bets. Others have various forms of legitimacy, illegitimacy, and activity, and areas of emphasis.

Fundamentally, it’s not my place to tell these communities what to do or not do, obviously, so anything coming from me is just another opinion among a large number of others, i.e., don’t take the opinions that seriously. Anyhow, what has your experience been with the high-IQ societies?

Navas: It has been for the most part good to the extent of that one can exchange ideas, go deeper into breakthroughs and have really interesting conversations and even comraderies.

Jacobsen: Any preferred tests in the high-range?

Navas: Mensa test or Giga Society test. Stanford-Binet is good too, but remember this, intelligence on its its own is subjective, so certainly are IQ tests.

Jacobsen: How many IQ tests have you taken?

Navas: 10 in all.

Jacobsen: What jobs have you worked at, in your professional history?

Navas: I have taught mathematics briefly and worked on my own. Plus, I — unlike many high-IQ people who preferred not to earn a degree, and I am not here to judge them but to respect their choices — am taking my math degree.

Jacobsen: What are your academic qualifications?

Navas: I have been a Valedictorian student. I earned highest-performance medals for it, scholarships, honorific mentions, even was the founder of the position at my elementary school: Ecology Ambassador, for which my then 5th-grade teacher assisted me, as well as the standard-bearer at ceremonies.

I once wanted to become a biologist in order to become an ecologist, but I wavered when seeing how tough life can be for ecologists. I admire them. However, I had, and still have it clear; I wanted to get married and have a stable family.

The best way to be a polymath nowadays is being a mathematician and working in a good environment while being married. I chose mathematics as a degree, naturally being a Valedictorian student.

Jacobsen: You mentioned hoping to get married. What would be an ideal marriage for you?

Navas: I believe marriage on its own is neither a blessing nor a curse. It depends on the individuals who conform to it. Here, I should stress the word: partner, for I believe in gender equality.

One should be in love with love not and one should be alright with oneself prior to engaging into a relationship, especially marriage, without idealizing the partner, and having a life plan, and if actually being into a relationship,

One should know what one wants, and after having met people as friends one should choose one with whom being a partner and best friend. We don’t choose who we fancy or like, but we do choose how to express love and who we want as a partner. Marriage should not be based on just sex or vain things.

I am a very monogamous person. I expect my partner to be the same. One should ask oneself: Would you marry someone who is just like me? Would I marry myself? This entails, of course, not to be selfish, insecure, or weak, and to be, certainly a congruent person for the most part.

Good communication, commitment, willingness to express and give love and to be loved every minute and making every day as if it were the first one, to be amazed by the person one loves. Naturally, I don’t want to be in a relationship or marriage where my lady expects me to solve, say, do, or think everything. Common interests are great too, and to wonder: where am I going in this relationship (given the case)?

Love is a privilege that comes with responsibilities and responsibilities that come with pleasure, I mean, privilege. To make each other, help one another grow together and help each other become better people without, of course, trying to change the partner (that is silly for sure, to pretend to change someone), to support each other in dreams, to offer comfort and cry in hard times, to give space to my lady when she wants and to listen to her; but I would ask her to be straight to me, please.

I would accept her comments, questions, and suggestions if she wants to correct me in anything with respect. I will gladly hear and thank her. I would never disrespect her by anyway and will ask her what she wants, calmly, how she wants things. I will listen patiently and gladly.

Personally, I prefer ladies who are older and taller than I am, without children, though I love them, a relationship with a woman who already has kids would be a lot more complicated for me.

Jacobsen: Any personal opinions on religion?

Navas: I don’t think religion on its own is wrong, on the contrary. I think religions with a healthy sense of spirituality are pretty good. They, certainly, should remind us that we are not the foremost and/or the topmost creation or being, which is really arrogant.

I think like every system, religion changes, slowly if you will. I hope that religion does not promote the other extreme. Ironically, the idea that mother nature is at the disposal of humans, meaning that humans are the center of the world. Personally. I believe that extremes and radicalism are not healthy, both extremes may touch each other.

Jacobsen: Any attitudes about the current states of science?

Navas: I find it fascinating that nowadays, science may, ironically, save and I dare say, ransom faith in a higher being, for in the past science was harshly persecuted by the church, especially in Europe. Moreso the irony, in the past, centuries ago, in order to become what we closest as a scientist, they had to be a church member, like Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Now in a time in which even many, if not most, scientists claim to be either agnostic and/or even atheists, we observe that those scientists who remain open-minded are seeing that such complexity and order in the cosmos including life and lifeless concepts, even if they seem too simplistic, could not have been created or engineered just by sake, without a specific order.

Jacobsen: What has been some of the work around multiverses by you?

Navas: In 2014, I made a model that explains why there possibly cannot be more than just one you and me, not even in the past or future, or even in different parallel universes or multiverses, which I shall call existences.

We observe this from, for instance, how even if there were “identical” beings to us, even a small variation of the simplest thing would alter an outcome, meaning that such a chain reaction would come into effect, meaning that by one simple act done differently from us here by our “Distant equal versions of us” would significantly alter everything in a life, then in a community, then in history.

This should be borne in mind along with the understanding of how symmetry and asymmetry works in atoms and molecules, from small to huge things.

Jacobsen: What has been some of the work on chemistry for you? What area of chemistry has been the most fascinating to you?

Navas: I haven’t worked on chemistry, actually. Ssorry, I believe there was interference in the phone while we were chatting, but I said I would, if I had time, do stuff on chemistry. However, among all branches of it. I most like Biochemistry, no doubt about it, because it is a good starting point about how life works, from chemistry.

Everything is chemistry, but that bridge and gap between just chemistry, even organic chemistry and biology. How do you solve that puzzle?

Jacobsen: Who inspires you?

Navas: Too many to pick one outright, Maria Montessori the Italian educator, Abraham Lincoln as you know America’s 16th president, Werner Von Heisenberg who as the head of Nazi A-bomb programme halted the projects and risked his life so greatly for he knew Nazi Germans were unethical.

He jeopardized his own life more than anybody else even being a German. He had all to gain, but he hated Nazism and was clever and strong enough to hide it for a greater purpose. Had Nazis appointed anybody else, quite likely, they would have won the war; and, we would not live!

Jacobsen: Any mathematical minds in history who impress you?

Navas: A tough one for sure, too many to begin with, but Srinivasa Ramanujan may be the one if you ask me who first comes to mind for that. For instance, his rolling shield and the theories extrapolated in a notebook he wrote during his last year being alive. It helped explain black holes. Until now, we are able to begin to understand it, thanks to his formulae.

Jacobsen: What ethical system makes the most sense to you?

Navas: I don’t believe that any system has the ideal structure at 100%. Each system has pros and cons and every person thinks differently. Hence, I am certainly not a radical, nor I am a fundamentalist.

I believe that I had to pick one which closest fits me is Christianity for its universal rules, like: Don’t do to others what you don’t want for yourself. Ideally speaking: Love the others as you love yourself, and Jesus loves you.

Jacobsen: What is the current state of women’s rights in the United States?

Navas: Despite the United States of America has had an impressive role in women’s rights and has been one of the leading nations in the struggle of gender equality, American women on average earn about 77% of what men make in jobs.

Of course, it vastly varies from one region to another, chiefly from liberal states to conservative ones. If we take into consideration New England states like New Hampshire and Maine, we notice that the gap is not as huge as that of Texas or Alabama, even in wide, rural outdoorsy states like the Dakotas.

Curiously and this is part of American history full of paradoxes, Wyoming, what most consider a conservative state, was the very first place in America to have ever granted women the right to vote in 1869, hence its nickname: Equality State.

We have watched the progress of American women suffrage and education. Oberlin College in Ohio, which was also intended for coloured women, was opened in 1837, through even as late as the 1970s and 1980s when quite a few colleges and Universities still banned women from attending.

Extraordinary women like Lucretia Mott who were activists for women’s right to vote and all women who fervently struggled for it. Until, it was finally achieved in 1920 when the 19th amendment was passed, making Warren Gamaliel Harding the first U.S. president to have ever been elected under women’s suffrage, until 2016 when we saw the first American lady to have ever been postulated by a party in America to be an actual candidate to contend for the American presidency.

Sadly, despite all huge progress in America, I consider that America will have her first American lady president in some years ahead. Women in the U.S. are still subject to physical, mental, labour, social, economic, and spousal violence.

We still see a lot of prostitution across the country, sadly, including a lot of women who are brought from aboard to be exploited not just sexually but also to get their organs trafficked. I intend to help end this regrettable practice.

Jacobsen: What is the current state of women’s rights in Mexico?

Navas: Mexico has a far worse situation for women by all accounts. Mexican women attained their voting rights for the first time until about 1955. Culturally, Mexican ladies, have been more subdued to misogyny and machismo. Only recently, Mexico has been allowing its ladies to work and participate more in the government, from marginal 9% to more than 50% since 1997, not long ago.

Despite more Mexican ladies now working in order to make a living and earn the same rights, many women in Mexico still believe men should be purveyors and breadwinners and remain married to them no matter what.

Jacobsen: If we look at some of the concerns over women’s rights for you, what are the main concerns now?

Jaime Alfonso Flores Navas: My main concerns are that:

Despite we as humankind have progressed to a large extent in some areas, including some in technology at giant pace:

There is still a huge disparity in rights between men and women in almost all of the world.

Such disparity is seen in all accounts in culture and society that range from a huge gap in wage inequality for men and for women. In some countries such disparity even peaks to 32% of salaries earned by men and women, there is the great prejudice that still remains in most of the globe about “women not being as good as men to perform the same activities at work.”

This ranges from normal or the common people’s environment to higher leagues, look at say sports, soccer, despite I’m no big fan to soccer. I know that World FIFA for male players are far more profitable and draw far more attention than those about women.

Beauty contests, which are, of course, not just for women but for men, the ones for ladies like Miss Universe are far more widely watched. I hate to say; they’re profitable around the world. Obviously such are to actually compare women as though if they were nothing, just objects, this mirrors another sad reality that still is clear in several countries and still a lingering problem in many more: Women are to be seen, but not listened.

If a lady cheats on her husband, then this is terribly seen in so many places by so many people. But if a husband cheats on his wife, it is not as frowned upon. In fact, in several countries, this practice is not just well seen, but even lawful and rewarded.

This also entails what many still think of what a woman should be like: a devoted wife, to attend her husband and children, to stay home, at the kitchen and to be cheated on, mistreated and even dumped away as if she were nothing, a submissive woman with no rights, no actual voice and to depend on her husband completely.

The regrettable prostitution practice. Some call it the oldest job or occupation, but it is neither a job nor is it an occupation. Guys who support this don’t think: Would I ever like it if my mom, my sister, my cousin, my friend, or my daughter be into this?

So many don’t get to think that such women have parents. Moreover, because of women not seen actually as equals or peers in life, the huge gap in rights disparity; women left with their children and limited education and job opportunities feel they have the need to earn money for them and for their children at expense of their bodies, as if they were products for sale.

I have been invited a number of times to hire them and I always refused. My advice is: naturally, please, don’t hire them, don’t support this meretricious practice. I’m not against prostitutes. I’m against prostitution.

Don’t let your fellows push you, it’s your choice, not theirs. You will not disappoint anyone. You should not be about if it comes to treat a human as an object. It’s not a sign of manhood to use prostitutes, on the contrary, not to hire them and treating ladies with respect and equality is a sign of manhood, even if a lady pushes you to do otherwise. Use your brain, and use your heart.

I brought mistreated women up. This entails that many women are still subject to domestic violence, from psychological, emotional, even spiritual to physical violence, and even sexual violence. Guys who mistreat their ladies and/or children are not men.

I must add that personally also consider that when it comes to talk about God; most people in the English language, for instance, refer to God as a him. I don’t think God has a gender. Instead, he is beyond that. I refer to God as it, e.g., God is our guide, may Its Will be achieved. Not just in English language, we observe misogyny, but in several languages.

Jacobsen: You have a multiverse theory from 2014. What is it? How does it work?

Navas: My multiverse theory or as I call it more appropriately, a model, explains why, in an infinite space (it must be infinite for stars and all matter is moving away to the space to a faster space than what it was supposed to be, and it will be exponentially fast); there cannot possibly be any equal or what would be called an exact duplicate of you and me, and all else.

That also entails free will and keeps from order to chaos. It entails symmetry and asymmetry, from atoms and smaller particles to larger, incredibly much larger concepts like a universe, say a huge group of stars and galaxies.

That since in nature there is order. Yet, there cannot be an exact order all the time, it may be impossible for an exact duplicate of you, me, etc., to exist, especially in a perfect time in which you cannot put a specific point on it, neither on space nor on time.

So there can’t be an exact duplicate of you and me, etc. Otherwise, everything would have to be exactly identical on the other side, as almost in a mirror, in infinite space time where no particular point can be placed?

There is a Universal principle that holds not just for religion, philosophy or theology but also for science: As above, so below. We recall how similar a solar system can be to an atom, as I had told at age 2.

Jacobsen: How does the multiverse theory incorporate the Big Bang theory framework?

Navas: As a direct consequence of that there cannot possibly be equal replicas or duplicates of you, me nor anything else, it shows that Big Bang was just as it was.

Jacobsen: Does this multiverse theory bring together any more dimensionality than the normal three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension?

Navas: On its own at first glance, it may seem to bring up just 3 dimensions, but uses time as just a parameter, not as a dimension. Time is not a dimension. It hardly uses more than 3 dimensions ever, on its own in a basic level.

Jacobsen: Why are jaguars a fascination for you?

Navas: The animals, not the cars nor they war attack aircraft. Jaguars are mysterious, powerful, they have a particular spot pattern in their pelts as well as the orange-ish color on them make them look regal, elegant, beautiful as well as their particularly stocky and sturdy appearance that is not lean as that of a leopard (jaguars are lb by lb the most powerful cats), which make them the most powerful cat in the Western Hemisphere.

They are also among the few felids that love to swim and swim very well! Yes! Not all cats hate water, that makes them masters of virtually aby ecosystem they live in and they reign upon. Even their mystery on its own is hard to describe, though, we know that they are a key part of their ecosystem and more important than we had previously imagined.

Jacobsen: You have an adaptation on top of Kung Fu as well. What is the adaptation of this Kung Fu? What was the thought process behind the adaptations?

Navas: Kung Fu is not just a martial art, but a way of life; an entire philosophy that has lasted for thousands of years. Kung Fu practitioners have millennia of style, tradition, techniques, and philosophy. I must add that the very term Kung Fu means: skillful work, to practice Kung Fu is to do something well.

The branch I’ve most practiced in Shaolin style derivation, American style as well and Sanda, and Wu Shu has been the way I dare say, I have most used. We use the Ying Yang philosophy, of that there are two forces in the Universe, positive and negative.

I have been into martial arts since 1993 when I first began in Tae Kwon do, my master was named Cesar Augusto Rodriguez, a world su-champion whose master had been Mr. Moon, who brought it to Mexico. He was recommended by my beloved grandma who loved me so much.

To Mr. Cesar Rodriguez, I owe so much. He even invitted me to appear in a magazine with him, which I agreed upon.

Eventually, I turned to Kung Fu in light of its wide variety of techniques and being the most complete of all martial arts.

We are taught that we are to use our brains before using our body as arms. Someone who actually can fight avoids fighting at all cost, and fights only if it is the very last resource, so we train in order to avoid fighting.

I had rediscovered a Kung Fu technique I nicknamed “jaguar,” but I made my own variant of it, an attack to the nape near the occipital bone in the skull, a deathly one and very painful. I discovered it by accident, and not because I practiced it on anyone, no sir! Heaven forfend! It was in a kitchen while accommodating goods from Walmart in the wooden table and below.

I have also designed Kung Fu weapons, talked to my fellow Kung Fu practitioners and masters. They quite rightly deduced such was a combination by all accounts of old Kung Fu “tools,” including forms and exercises to be used on, which I devised myself as well as well as the counter forms and counter exercises.

Kung Fu is such a marvelous Martial art and the most complete, including in weapons, for which its virtues I must extoll. One of my weapons I named Korst, from Kill Worst, a contraction. I have been a master and a champion, though I seldom ever compete, despite quite a few invitations from my masters, mostly “Lalo” Rodriguez Pineda.

My arguments are that I don’t have anything to prove or show. Must I add that despite I’m no Buddhist, I do believe in Kung Fu meditation, and how it complements with Tai Chi Chuan, the slow movement yet not necessarily easier form to Kung Fu, both complementing one another like Ying Yang.

When representing Ying Yang, I either draw just the black part or the white one, for when either being in light or darkness, one part shows and the other remains invisible merging with the environment, and making the other one, more evident.

Also, we know that we should be in equilibrium with the objects around us, for they haven’t harmed us, and to underestimate a foe in a fight, no matter if such foe is smaller, lightweight, old, etc., hence it is another reason why we avoid fighting for the most as we possibly can.

I must add that how we conceive cosmos in Kung Fu has partly and just partly inspired me in my conception of the Universe.

Jacobsen: How are humans like machines?

Navas: On the phone while talking in part I of the interview, I mentioned that machines, say computers, adding machines, etc… are totally unaware of themselves and even unaware of that they are able to perform large computations.

We humans are supposedly aware of ourselves, fact that casts us apart from the rest of animals. Sadly, the mass is easy to control, like robots. I must say I really like and see fit how you accommodated this set of questions, for it shows key elements in the right place and time and good thing it was online, so to say a “place.”

A linear dimension Internet being a virtual universe also, part from being a virtual Universe, is and a good proof of that machines shall never gain proper life, let alone a higher degree of intelligence than that of humans, mostly, God!

You did recall I mentioned the year 2014, about my Multiverse theory, which does not entail time as a dimension being this a dimension not a bit but as a parameter, and that, we shall recall that time is not important, life is, speaking of my definition of life.

Jacobsen: What is the level of and kind of prostitution in America?

Navas: Prostitution in America is a lingering problem. Despite it being outlawed in all states except in about 8 out of 16 counties in Nevada, about 20% of men claim to have hired the service. Rhode Island had allowed it within the timeframe of 1980–2009.

Puerto Rico, due to a staggering economy, in 2014 was about to allow it in order to prevent economic collapse provoking what is known as inceldom, being this an ideology that has led to waves of violence as well as mass scale assassinations nationwide in the U.S.

It is also a major problem in the U.S. because a lot of prostitution is given by the massive entrance of illegal immigrants who hail from all over the world, from Mexico and Latin America upon the whole, Eastern European countries, a lot from Asia and Africa as well.

Every state in America has its own laws to ban and in the case of Nevada, regulate it, and has worked to a large extent since the enactment of the Mann Act in 1910, speaking of Mann, manly law, oh man! Prostitution still is a largely practiced activity throughout the nation.

Fortunately, though until recently, on April 11, 2018, the Congress of the United States approved an act, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, a.k.a., FOSTA-SESTA in order to severely punish online platforms that connected sex traffic, though in my opinion it has to have success to some extent for the victims.

Sex slaves’ lives have been imperiled and since sex trafficking networks are huge and elusive, has become increasingly hard to arrest their members, traffickers, and pimps, meaning that certainly over 20% of men in the country have paid for sex.

As for the part of the question of what types of prostitutions exist in America, I herein list them with a very brief description:

Street prostitution: Illegal throughout the nation, tending to be highly concentrated in a particular spot of blocks in especially larger cities. The most dangerous kind as such of prostitution in the U.S. for women, since they are not protected by any kind, 68% of them are known to have been raped, quite possibly more which is unknown due to the humiliation, fear and grief the victims suffer, with 82% reportedly having been physically assaulted.

Over 20% of prostitution in America is within this type. Such slaves are taken into trucks, called lizard lots and they are given a radio or buds to communicate. There are two hierarchies on this, the indoor and outdoor workers. Indoor workers enjoy more freedom to choose their clients, while outdoor ones have far less freedom to choose and are far more susceptible to be robbed and seriously being physically assaulted, even kidnapped (over 20%, over 1 in 5!)

Brothel prostitution: Like street prostitution, since prostitution is outlawed in almost all America, this type is to be found in large cities and major highways where legal resorts like saunas, massage parlors and spas. Here many Asian immigrants are particularly often to be found.

Child prostitution: The most disturbing type of prostitution and the most alarming that about 100K children are forced to work in the country every year. These include not just national born children who, if detained, may go to juvenile and rehab facilities, unlike children who are brought from Latin America and Asia chiefly who are lied to by telling them they will have protection, temporary work visa, and many more benefits.

Sadly, many of these children end up dead, their organs trafficked and even sent to countries as far as Central Africa, Middle East, Thailand, etc.

Escort: Agencies that have both independent and directly being attuned to such agencies. Here, the profits vary according to the age, gender, location, ethnic background and types of service, as well as area or experience, closely related to type of service many times (e.g. magazine, podcast, etc.).

Male escorts tend to charge less than a woman whose fee, in both cases, is paid in cash with often yet not mandatory tipping, although credit card payments is another choice, especially in large agencies. Nowadays with Internet access, when contacting the agency, the client may be allowed to search based on physical features and type of service being offered.

Red light districts: Found in places like The Block, Maryland (MD) and due to the zone in this case, other services are to be found near that place, like adult arcades in sex shops which abound there as well along with strip clubs where sex and peep shows are also available.

Jacobsen: What is the level of and kind of prostitution in Mexico?

Navas: I know far less about Mexico at that too. Mexico has had a big problem on prostitution since the Aztec Empire, as described by orthodox Roman Catholics who arrived there and saw life in Tenochtitlan, the capital to Aztec Empire.

Nowadays, child prostitution is a major type of such exploitation at which point it is called child sex tourism, being this a foremost spot on it along with Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, India and Thailand. The numbers of such practice has been on the raise steadily, especially in recent years, to over 30 K children under the age 18 in such circumstance.

Many of those children are taken to the U.S. via Ciudad Juarez, a border city between Mexico and the U.S. in the Mexican state of Chihuahua and are “stored” in places called maquiladoras. In Mexico’s largest city, Mexico City, from the 13K street children.

95% have been engaged into a sexual encounter with grownups, mostly via prostitution, and in one of the poorest spots in Mexico, Chiapas, illegal immigrants from Central and south America are particularly imperiled, like their children, where children are sold for $100 or $200 Mexican pesos, being this one of the worst places according to UNICEF and other institutions in terms of prostitution.

Both, Mexican-born children and immigrants either legal or illegal are abducted and lured into prostitution. Other key spots for Child sex tourism (with tourists comprising people from Canada, United States and Western Europe) are Acapulco, Ciudad Juarez, Cancun, Tijuana, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun.

Corruption is rampantly seen in this matter, for local authorities have allowed pimps to exploit children, for not just foreigners but also local authorities, police, business people and more sexually exploit them, clearly indicating that Mexico is a main provider of children and trafficking, but it’s not restricted to children but also to women and indigenous people, homosexual people as well and people with any type of disabilities like physical to mental.

Regrettably, some shelters have allowed for sex trafficking as well, being also vulnerable to thievery, physical violence as well as recruiting from criminal gangs with the threat to harm their families. Mexico has been classified as “Tier 2” country for it does not meet the least required standards for the eradication of human trafficking.

Jacobsen: How do sexual trafficking networks function between the United States and Mexico (and Canada)?

Navas: By corruption and by apparently innocuous frames of saunas, massage, job opportunities. Unfortunately, Canada as you sure know better than I do how its laws work, 14 year olds are allowed to be into online sex trafficking and pornography, by law. Such allows for pimps in Canada to get 14 year olds and up into the country for such purposes.

Jacobsen: What are some effective ways to combat sexual trafficking and prostitution networks?

Navas: Creating conscience by talking to people and making social changes as well into the law like passing effective bills to prevent these atrocious practices from being performed, and this should be done in my opinion not just state by state (which works to some extent) but also laws enforced nationwide. Of course all of this takes time and work.

Jacobsen: How are human beings capable of a 5–8-dimensional conceptualization of the world and its relations?

Navas: Humans have 5–8 dimensions in their minds conceptually. Nonetheless the human, conceptually speaking, is unable to know about it, let alone conceive such dimensions. We humans are able to question ourselves and even change the environment for our needs (primitively anthropocentric), as well as being able to account for the past and future, as well as causes and consequences.

We are able to classify, organize, think of like in sets for the most and distinguish patterns better than any other Earth creature (which is key to intelligence, to realize and distinguish patterns, but not everything that intellect is all about). Humans make machines perform myriads of operations.

Such machines are unable to realize they perform them, unlike humans who are much aware of such operations, that they need them and what and how to do to achieve them, but humans are unaware of that they have 5–8 dimensions.

Jacobsen: How does this make humans apart from machines to you?

Navas: This is what I mean about humans being separate from machines, their ability to be aware of what they are, and operations, when needed, when by curiosity one performs them, how to compute them or what to do in order to get a certain result, like operating machines, making them work for us, and, of course, we depend on them.

The paradox is that on this first level, human is apart from machines, but the human being unaware of that it has 5–8 dimensions, unites human somehow to machines, not just in intra-dependent a human is to them, but on how at that basic scale human is unaware of such fact that helps make a difference from life to non-life, animate to inanimate.

Jacobsen: What is your theory of life? Or, what is life?

Navas: I have submitted my theory at UNAM and some biology teachers have availed it. I wish to have the Giga Society review it. It has to connect, so to say connect; I shall explain a better term in a little: biology, philosophy, social sciences, as such.

As I see it, life is communication, an extra-dependendent intra-connective communication. This makes the aforementioned branches communicated, ironically. We consider from an organ, an important one, like a heart, even if it has been careful taken care of and frozen in order to be used by somebody else in the near future, such heart must be intra-connected, self-communicated, depending also on the temperature, non-pathogen agents, and a life-span of the heart before it “expires.”

But if such heart has been cut off, it won’t help anymore. Bacteria, even the most adaptable one, require certain temperature and having had enough sunlight energy stored in their organisms, as well as many other organic components in the right proportion and quantity like Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen or not, Nitrogen, phosphate, etc., but they must have a certain inter-communication in order to be able to survive.

Even earthworms, if totally torn, they would not be able to reproduce themselves, dealing, of course, with evolution, and how organisms adapt themselves to a certain environment, and so there can be life; there must be death, dealing with the so known life cycle of an organism: Birth, growth, reproduction, and death, dealing, of course, with the survival instinct.

Naturally, this is how I see it, I’m open to know more and to correct if wrong, gladly, for this is a theory and just a theory, and in science as we know, what we once took as absolute truths and even part truths have been torn down and replaced, and that’s what makes science alive.

Jacobsen: How does this theory of life differentiate from machines, automatons?

Navas: Excellent question! A machine can get parts of its components replaced without problem, but they don’t reproduce, and are not communicated depending on certain outer agents like temperatures, they don’t feel anything within their hardware and would not have survival instincts and would not evolve on their own.

Bear in mind that, given how humans have 5–8 dimensions in their minds conceptually speaking and such having been given with evolution, a machine would never gain proper intellect, let alone become smarter than us.

Jacobsen: Who do you consider the smartest and most evil person in the history of the world?

Navas: The smartest person in history could be either Leonardo da Vinci or Terence Tao.

Da Vinci was an extremely gifted man who was able to literally be centuries ahead of his day, and his inspiration chiefly came from mother nature, he was well known as a great polymath.

He is the best example of that human imagination is limited to our senses, was our imagination as great and powerful. We would be able to imagine things beyond what our senses have perceived. Okay, at times, we have in our bodies involuntary responses, not directly attuned to our spinal chord, like the arc reflex, the knee jerk test shows that.

But with such he best did with his works, from artistic to natural, and both combined; of course, he shows that our imagination, beyond being inconsistent, is conceptual. So, he is the best example that we know of that our imagination is limited (great and best things from it), going directly to conceptual without going through inconsistent actually, more than we can imagine!

Terence Tao, the American-Australian mathematician with 230 in IQ is another great candidate. Mathematics are the best exam challenge to our imagination! I told you on the phone that mathematics is, along with logics, logically, the branches in human knowledge that most challenge our imagination and one cannot be ahead of the day as in virtually all other branches of human knowledge.

As for the evillest person in history, to be honest the first example that came into my mind was Josif Vissarionovich Stalin for he killed his own people as well, beyond massive genocides he perpetrated and people he disappeared. It was between him, Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, for Himmler was the one who most devised and engineered Nazism as a system.

A common pattern among these is that: They were smart people say with IQ between 130–145, just little below genius rank, who were rejects and had lonely lives and were opportunistic, as well as they had serious school and academic problems.

Adolf Hitler did not even finish middle school and was a poor student. Stalin was expelled from his school, and Himmler, despite his dad was the headmaster to the college he attended; he was very lonely. Let´s say, he did not make them most of it.

Naturally, another common pattern is the time in which they lived and the circumstances in human history they faced, as well as the place, in a certain creation in Europe they were born and raised, and somehow grew with a certain military tradition, to which they were very devout and outstanding.

Jacobsen: What is the most important aspect of the emancipation of women?

Navas: That women, being treated as equals as men by all accounts, I mean, rights and duties, that they should make the best of their abilities at work, school, home (having the same hierarchy as men) and society (no to be stigmatized and having the same voting and voice rights) at the same scope as men do, should also be treated gently.

I mean, to have a special care about not hitting them, about giving them the right opportunities to keep working and have a salary and help from the institutions they work at while they are pregnant and give birth to children and they should be given protection from abusive guys who try to hurt them anyways by any mean.

We all should remember that we all were given birth by women. We should respect them equally and be thankful to them for having brought us to the world. It is impossible to advance as society if we don’t act in gender equality.

This even goes, as I see it, like not even naming ladies after a man’s last name when married, for they are not properties nor are they belongings, instead an agreement should be reached by the couple.

Jacobsen: How can the religious traditions help in the furtherance of human rights?

Navas: I am sure that ever since people existed, at least most, prefer good over evil, and religion promotes good for most, like willing to not harm others, and do to others what you want for yourself, and helping the others.

Religion has to a large extent prevented a worse conduct from men to women and if church never was, but since religion changes; people change their views of religion. Now, women’s rights are being more protected by religion upon the whole.

Jacobsen: How can human rights be an important part of the advancement of women’s rights (as part and parcel of human rights)?

Navas: Women are just as humans as men are, same species, with feelings and sensitivity and same cleverness as men. They can by no means be casted apart from men in any way, rights of course, by any accounts. How can we see a human as 77% as worth the other? No way!

Jacobsen: When do human rights and religious law come into conflict?

Navas: We humans primarily wish and want to be loved and accepted, to a greater or lesser degree and in different forms, though by this I also mean that one should bear on mind that one is not the center of the Universe, and certainly not as species in our planet, and that is a huge problem we have.

We think we are the center of the Universe, if we are not even the center of the world as neither species nor as individuals. I said it in a specific order. Religion has changed, the way we see it and its teachings has changed.

It’s good to realize we are not the greatest creation on earth, hence it’s good at that point as I see it, to believe in a higher being. Humans may have to some extent interpreted a higher being on their image and likeness, but we know what is right deep down almost always.

We know that it’s not OK that women are seen and treated as lesser forms of humankind. They don’t like it. If we love, say a woman, from our mom, to a lady we fancy, if we love them, we want them to be happy, as happy as possible, and have the same opportunities as we do. Religion may help at that, as Jesus once said: Do onto others what you’d want for yourself.

Jacobsen: What do you consider the source of morality?

Navas: Not to do to others what we don’t want for ourselves, and we know it, and being congruent with it. It may be seen on religion, in philosophy, free thinking. Since I believe in a higher being, and we humans have goodness, even the worst person has goodness within, as incredible as it may read.

We have that consciousness, that awareness, that feeling of that what we are ding is either right or wrong, it may be that tenuous connection humans have with such higher being.

Jacobsen: Love, it’s life or death for meaning; it’s life or death for our lives. In the cases of life or death of meaning, it can be in relation to individuals and social relations, and intimate partners. These drives and connections can be transmuted to other cases and individuals in a number of ways.

It still comes from love and a search for meaning, in some fundamental sense, coupled with it. In the life and death for our lives, this can be in an immediate sense or in an extended sense. In the extended sense, I would mean the survival of families, of gene pools, of species. How do you see love?

Navas: Excellent insight about life and love Scott! It’s about how to see love and something that may even go beyond: feeling it.

Love is wise, more than smart. One should love oneself in order to offer the best of oneself to others, anyone to be thought of. The ability to love I think is within all humans, more than just survival instincts. To love oneself is to respect oneself, to be tidy, clean, to have nice thoughts (as many as possible). To love is to live, and if when we die, if we have been able to love that much, we can die happy.

I love about love also; that love defies our imagination, which is restricted to our senses by evolutionary traits, and proves we are alive, even more so than math does. It is, therefore, harder, if not impossible, to define love.

Love also defies Cartesian mind-matter dualism and Kantian philosophy, for example, which to some extent deals with free will. I love even more that we don’t choose whom we fancy and love, nor to what extent (to some extent, events, situations, circumstances influence that as well), so this poses a great mystery to our free will and from the rational perspective, questions it for sure at that, that is what makes us each person unique.

The combination of our traits, individually, even if we had evolved more, illustrates better that humans have 5–8 dimensions in our minds. On the one hand, we are unique. We have no free will, but this, of course, can be seen deeper from the scope of free will and a human being that cannot be changed, let alone modify her/his love (notice I use her first as a gentleman and not him as so may do, stop misogyny); and because, we are unique and have free will at how to express thought and feelings.

It’s a greater responsibility. A responsibility that gives pleasure and a pleasure that gives responsibilities, similar to that: Love knows reasons that reason knows nothing of (a logic also derivates to neither true nor false logical theorem), but love goes even beyond. One day you just tell yourself, “Wow, I’m in love.”

Jacobsen: You have been highly self-controlled in the wish for a life partner or a wife for life. One woman, committed, loving, sharing, growing, and reciprocating, together as a couple until death do you part. Why is lifelong monogamy important to you?

Navas: One should know what one wants in a partner. It’s okay if one does into know at first, hence one, in my opinion, should first make friends and not use people to what is so-called “practice.” One should know an inkling of one wants not; therefore, one should not use them just to experience.

This may be a rough example: If you go to a restaurant, and you order something in the menu you don’t like, why would you then order it? Another example: If you try to play a musical score, why play one that makes you feel sad if you aren’t sad? Instead play one that makes you feel inspired, thoughtful, etc… Music to your ears!

One should know what one wants in life, to have a life plan. Love is not a game. From about 5,000 known mammal species, up to 5% are monogamous for life, but we are supposed to be more evolved. We think and feel more.

I have been asked by some: Why haven’t you ever dated anyone on 3D, etc.? Do you fear engagement, commitment, or don’t you just like it? My answer has been: Because I believe in commitment and healthy relationships I haven’t had, because I have been finding/waiting for the special one for me.

Also because, I love stable relationships, and that entails responsibility, more than at first may seem, from loving oneself, accepting oneself, knowing oneself and what one wants and how to express feelings, what do about them (we have free will at that, in knowledge), as well as to be aware at large of what the partner thinks and feels. It basically goes to: Since we are partners, a match, what I don’t want for myself, I don’t want it for you. I would not want my partner to cheat on me. That would denote insecurity, irresponsibility. That she does not know what she wants. So, what’s the point on keeping on it? Once a cheater, most likely always a cheater.

I have been searching and finding, I hope, the best person for us, not just me, entailing reciprocal love, which deals also with perseverance, dedication, passion, hard work, the ability to tell and admit when one makes mistakes and with the right disposition to thank gratefully after asking why a certain conduct should be changed. This, of course, does not mean one can change the partner, that is really dumb, but one instead can convince, educate, show, make someone see a point of the other person wants to expose. Unrequited love, it’s sad, but it’s dumb; only idiots dream of what they can’t have or happens to dumb people.

Put it this way, the best way to show, as I see, continually is to bear in mind that dumbs criticize people, regular people judge situations, big minds evolve ideas, beyond analyzing them just, and so forth.

Jacobsen: Why is waiting for the right person, the one, important for you?

Navas: Because since:

1. One should not be in love with love.
2. One should wonder where one is going in a relationship and to think what lies ahead in the relationship.
3. I really hate the idea of leaving someone I really love behind.
4. Someone compatible with me is rather preferable.
5. Would hate to date or be with someone I don’t love, especially most.
6. If I date someone is because I love her, else I’d feel like if I were using her.
7. It’s important o be with someone without idealizing the partner, to love the partner just the way the match is.
8. A relationship should be not 50/50 but 100/100.
9. It’s also hard to explain in words, for feelings and more.

I see with whom to grow as a person. We both should help one another grow in love and make each other stronger; hence, I have been searching or the one for us.

Jacobsen: How do you see the relation of monogamy and polygamy and love?

Navas: One should be monogamous to one’s partner if in love; otherwise, it is not worthwhile staying. Polygamy is given many times because one feels lonely, or in human terms, more than biological (evolutionary ones) it may be seen as teenage immaturity.

Polygamy is seen as something desirable, about how many women a man can have, even in many Western societies guys compete to see who can possibly flirt and attract more women and sadly bet and lie about how many ladies they have flirted and taken to bed — again, misogyny, clearly without love.

Jacobsen: Do you believe in the concept of sin? If so, why so? If not, why not?

Navas: When a little kid, I did, due to my Christian formation. Now I see it as just an entry, a little hard in my opinion, to denote one’s mistake, mostly a willful mistake. I think there are no mistakes if one learns from them.

This is cyclic. It may be a mistake to see mistakes as just that, about if we realize they are not mistakes. We learn from them, then the cycle is completed. I don’t believe, of course, God is a judge; that would be way too human.

Jacobsen: What is the purpose of love?

Navas: A good question! I will start my answer, from not just the logical part, but also the loving and heart-from part:

What has more purpose: loving or hating? What is easier? Loving or hating?

If we observe, think and feel, we wish to be accepted someway, somehow.

We can give suffering and evil a purpose, as humans, for we are able to convey compassion, support, aid and help.

This does not mean we can justify sacrifices, evil, etc., like saying the end justifies the means, (Machiavelli did not mean to be mean), for that would be more than arrogance.

Jacobsen: What is the meaning of love to you?

Navas: The purpose of living, to appreciate the marvels not just of mother nature from physical and natural sciences, but how great and powerful love is, and more is the marvel, shown via mother nature. Thus, it shows our best side as humans, but, naturally, love goes beyond humans. Love means all.

Jacobsen: How does love bring forth the better parts of our nature?

Navas: Love is the best expression of freedom as well. It’s freedom and gives us freedom. Love withstands dark nature and overcomes everything, when being rational and true, so it gives freedom without hurting others on purpose.

Even evil people are capable of love, though, I believe most evil people are so wretched that they don’t have an inkling of it.

Anna Frank, despite all she endured, fervently believed all humans are good, deep down, that is so incredibly remarkable.

Love is the best indication of being alive.

Jacobsen: Is ‘hell’ in a metaphorical sense the inability to love?

Navas: Basically, yes, it’s great to love and to give love, and this does not entail being selfish. It’s “better,” in my opinion, to give love. I wrote in quotation marks because it’s complemented with being love.

Jacobsen: Do you believe in an afterlife? If so, why? If not, why not?

Navas: If we define the afterlife as you having no end in our mortal and material lives, yes, we call them ghosts, spirits. They make be a fine example that human minds have 5–8 dimensions.

Although, here comes an interesting rub: If our human imagination is limited to our senses, and human minds for the most part are unable to conceive more than 3 dimensions in the conventional sense, in the conceptual sense it is much harder, yet, human minds have such dimensions and are unaware of it, how then could a ghost be able to conceive such dimensions if it was part of a human being?

If I believe in heaven or hell as pragmatists do, I definitely don’t.

Others say realms where human beings go, not sure to be honest, I find it hard to believe due to evolution (more evolved humans would have their souls going there) and in the cosmos there are other beings, intelligent forms of life, similar to that of ours, why would we not have testimonials about them? Like I said, I hardly think of this being a possibility, but I don’t entirely rule it out.

Some others believe in reincarnation. I think rare cases do occur, but they are uncommon for sure.

Jacobsen: How does aging bring a coming to terms with mortality for you?

Navas: 1. We should give our lives a purpose and to make the world a better place than what it was like before we came here. Otherwise, it’s pointless to live.

1. Biologically though, by the way, we can live longer, and in the near future, with body parts cloning, we will be able to regenerate our bodies and virtually live forever.
2. One of my quotes states: To think is to live.
3. Wisdom does not necessarily come with age, it depends on how we grow, and children have certain wisdom, unconscious if you will, but lots are to be learned from kids.

Jacobsen: What is the main feared thing in life for you?

Navas: Lack of love, that is not life.

Jacobsen: How does your theory of life explain cosmogenesis?

Navas: My theory of life only explains what life is in terms of biology reconciling philosophy and social sciences. Yet, it gives a precept: there must be some sort of communication in terms of bondage or link that say in a universal code, allows for something more than creation of the inanimate.

If we could see one thing: Everything falls the easiest possible way, that would help explain the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, so from simple things, as the universe evolves, and one of this way to evolve is by self replication and self selection, we see an equilibrium between “from order to chaos” and what we conceptually understand as evolution. In short: Life shall find the way.

Jacobsen: How does this explain multiversal cosmogenesis?

Navas: It is far more difficult to explain multiversal cosmogenesis from M-Theory on its own. In principle, so there can be multiverses, here must be a certain order and chaos entailed, like since there cannot be placed a particular point in space or time (also known as the Super Copernican Principle), this happens to be a paradox.

A multiverse other than ours could have originated far away much longer ago than ours, and so forth. Certainly, this means variety and this aids for the existence of life.

Jacobsen: What differentiates — to quote Bill Sidis — the animate from the inanimate?

Navas: Basically what he meant to say when talking about Pflüger and 2nd Law of Thermodynamics is that, an alive being is able to manipulate and control its temperature at will, or to some extent, at least.

Jacobsen: Why is there something rather than nothing?

Navas: So, there can be nothing; there should be something. See it this way, from the conventional point of view, a point in space is an abstraction, it can also be conceived as a 0-dimensional concept, so it entails neither true nor false statements in logics and its derivatives.

So, there can be then something; there should be nothing. In fact, nothing would be something, like number 0, say, in order to learn to count, we have to learn to count not. It can be seen like a binary duality but it entails neither true nor false.

Its derivatives may help us see it also like, beyond something and “nothing” there can also be nothingness, really, a sort of “fiber” that in our humanly limited minds cannot be conceived. Yet, it’s based upon something we are familiar with.

Jacobsen: Why is space so huge?

Navas: I will answer this with a question: Why is space so small? Space and time are relative, meaning they are relative in size as well. What we may conceive as huge could also be seen as infinitely small, and vice versa.

As for why space is infinite, as I see it, it is because if there is space, there must be infinite space in order to keep physics’ laws operating, and, because space has more than just 3 dimensions combined with time, space would need to be infinite. This follows from my answer in the previous question, but with an equilibrium: as above, so below.

So there may be a 0-dimensional concept, from 0 to all, all meaning infinite, there should be endlessness. Now, in a place, where we have a point, meaning 0-dimensional concept, such space can also be expanded, twisted, etc., meaning that has more than just 3 dimensions on its own, now imagine a four-dimensional concept, or more, say a black hole, when altering not just space but also time, we conceive that such point has been expanded! This means space is infinite and has to be so it can be twisted, altered, etc.

Jacobsen: Why three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension?

Navas: There are not just 3 spatial dimensions but many more, in the conventional sense. Time has more than 1 dimension.

Jacobsen: Do other universes in the ensemble exhibit more than 4-dimensionality?

Navas: For sure!

Jacobsen: Could they exhibit partial dimensionality, as in 3.23 dimensions or 9.11 dimensions?

Navas: Good question! Yes, something not too similar from what we know so far, but that would be also in the conceptual sense, not just the conventional one.

Jacobsen: Or dual partial dimensionality, what about 3.16 spatial dimensions and 6.66 temporal dimensions?

Navas: 6.66? What the hell! Perhaps, yes.

Jacobsen: What makes America a great country? What makes America a terrible country? How do we reconcile these great and terrible views of the country?

Navas: America is a great country in LIGHT of that she has been the land of opportunity in so many ways to immigrants, like being able to acquire lands easily, faster and much cheaper. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was way beyond the question for a European to even dream of lands.

America has also been a nation that has learned from other nations’ mistakes and her own, and has been a country that with every crisis, has emerged stronger. Naturally, she has erased and re-written once, and again.

American laws have been great.

American women are the best and most beautiful ones on Earth (for me).

America is also the land of the free.

Jacobsen: Why gather so many personal quotes on love or otherwise?

Navas: At first, I was just sharing a few ideas with friends about what I consider about what marriage should be, in light of so many failed and broken marriages and relationships, what women want. At first they were just about 40, basic ones, but it grew a lot.

Jacobsen: What is the ultimate life goal for you?

Navas: Love.

Jacobsen: What is the comprehensive and collective purpose of all these interests and intellectual pursuits for you?

Navas: To potentialize my mind, and making a better world.

Jacobsen: What makes a good date to you?

Navas: Where we start talking and there is a certain chemistry. There may not be anything at first, but some attraction, at least a good communication with a good sense of humor, things in common, preferably to have good lunch or dinner, in her favorite place as long as its not a wild one, to talk about music, books, politics, philosophy, stories.

I would invite food as a gentleman, not that I believe in traditional roles, for I would also be okay if we split up the bill. Naturally agreeing, being honest and laughing, being myself and hopefully herself too.

Jacobsen: What makes a bad date to you?

Navas: To be with someone with whom I have nothing in common with, or very little, someone with no intellect, to find out she has a boyfriend already or she is too nasty.

Jacobsen: What if you never find love, marriage, and a family life in the manner hoped?

Navas: I would be committed to support the struggle for gender equality, struggle against prostitution, to assist ecology (in the non-direct way) and do research and progress on econophysics. I would also help make America a better place and support her allies like Great Britain. I will keep learning so much from books and Internet and make more inventions.

Jacobsen: How much do finances factor into the overall idea of a happy life for you?

Navas: At least 12 million USD of nowadays.

Jacobsen: Any guesses as to the intelligence level of Leonardo da Vinci and William James Sidis with an S.D.?

Navas: Leonardo Da Vinci surely had 220 or more, up to 235 I think. He is a hero for sure! Despite many adversities in his life, he was way ahead of his day.

William James Sidis, despite he was a great genius, he was miserable for sure. Many think his IQ was 250–300, but I think those numbers mean nothing on their own. I guess his actually was of about 220–230, because no doubt, his was higher than Goethe, even higher than that of Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician and jurist. The numbers I gave are just my opinion.

Jacobsen: How many women geniuses have we simply lost due to the seemingly incurable prejudice of their male lords and masters over the centuries (and millennia)? Hypatia’s murder, apparently by a mob of Christian men, is only one early example of a sentiment enacted outwards to a woman polymath.

Navas: I was about to bring that up, but I did not want to overwhelm my previous answers. Yes, women have lost a lot of ground despite being a majority and surely several women have been among the brightest ones in human history but hadn’t been given a chance nor they had been acknowledged.

The case of Hypatia of Alexandria’s case was really regrettable, she died murdered by Christian fanatics because her teachings were considered profane. This is a clear example of that fanaticism and radicalism are terrible, regardless of the trend. Hypatia’s case was the most explicit example of such misogyny.

Mileva Maric, several centuries later, was another example, hence Albert Einstein is certainly the scientist I most loathe myself for lacking not just originality and taking too much credit without giving it to whom most deserved, based also upon misogyny.

I can’t possibly imagine how much such stupid trends have set back humankind’s progress by all accounts: social and political, but also scientifically, artistically, technologically, etc.

I should bring up a few more other notable women in science: Margaret Mitchell, who at age 29 discovered a new comet in the 19th century. She was American.

Clara Barton, who founded the Red Cross helped so many lives during the Civil War.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: A New Hispanic (New Spain was the name of what later would be known as Mexico) sour or nun who was no doubt a genius. She literally used a man’s disguise in order to pursuit an education for her love to knowledge, was a poetess, an intellectual, who obviously as ahead of her day.

More is the paradox, more than mere irony: the first worksheets ever to be known to us were produced by a woman in Ancient Mesopotamia, Enheduanna (2285–2250 BC), daughter to Sargon of Akkad (Sargon the Great, 2334–2279 BC). It’s not really clear whether or not she was a direct blood kin to him, but she surely trusted him a lot, for the priest works in the temples in the city of Ur.

She was a very bright woman. I said paradox beyond mere irony (mere a limited humanly context) because she lived in what much later would become a Moslem nation that began to capture, enslave and sell black people during what despite was the golden age for the Middle East to scientific and technological advances, began a really regrettable practice and, as well known it is, Islam as a religion tend to subdue women in the most atrocious ways.

I shall briefly name other important women in history, like the last Celtic ruler in the British Isles who bravely fought Roman invaders: Bouddica, queen to Essenians; Nodira, a great Uzbek ruler whose tenure was great and she ruled greatly.

There was a great woman whose writings were first and thanks to them we have Christianity as we know today, Perpetua, a Roman woman who became a disciple to Christianity during the Roman Empire and was captured to be taken to the Roman circus.

This is a very famous one too: Joan of Arc.

*Here I give you a personal reference to Enheduanna, though I knew about her in Cosmos, by Neil deGrasse Tyson, a very charismatic man who is a stern follower to Carl Sagan. Enheduanna

Jacobsen: Who seem like some of the smartest women alive today, or in history?

Navas: I will mention the smartest women on Earth currently living, and remarkable women from the past as well.

There is a Russian woman, I forgot her name, her IQ is 193 too, she is old I think, saw her quite quickly once. (please let me browse more about her)

Some claim Marilyn vos Savant who scored 186–228.

Personally, I think the smartest woman currently alive is Edith Stern: over 200 in IQ she has, who is an inventor and holds at least 128 U.S. patents on her name.

Another good candidate could be: Alia Sabur, the youngest professor, though I don’t know her IQ.

Here I mention some of the smartest women alive I know about:

Gina Langan: 182

Ruth Lawrence: 175

Judith Polgar: 170

Manahel Thabet: 168

Olivia Manning: 162

Fabiola Mann: 162

In history:

Agatha Agnesi 180

Madame de Staël 180

Hypatia of Alexandria (170–190)

Marie Curie: 180–200

Cleopatra: 180

Grace Hopper: 175

Mileva Maric, she was much smarter than Albert Einstein. Despite she did not even finish her degree because of her being a woman and she had dashes with Albert, she provided the mathematical framework of many of Albert’s theories.

In fact, some consider she is the actual mother to the Theory of Relativity, so not a good idea to have Albert as a relative, for his relatively high IQ and moreover, his relative well-deserved fame. He associated with others for his works.

Had it not been for his wife, NOBODY would ever had known he even lived, the would never had been more than a patents office employee in Switzerland. Here I show you a book about her: https://www.amazon.com/Einsteins-Wife-Story-Mileva-Einstein-Maric/dp/0262039613/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Mileva+Maric&qid=1593809117&s=books&sr=1-1

Jacobsen: What are the sub-categories or types of love to you?

Navas: To me there is, in romance, just once love, though we may reach agreements and be clear about what place we are in.

Jacobsen: How does love impact the body?

Navas: When in love, our body releases dopamine, which makes us feel something like when we eat chocolate; when in love, even if just infatuated, we feel somehow a high sensation, that literally is similar to that of being stoned, high.

I am very much aware. Although, I haven’t so far experimented it. For I’m pretty virgin, that lovemaking helps the organ we know as heart work better.

Addendum I: Jaime’s Favourite Personal Quotes

Jacobsen: You have some personal quotes. What are some of the favourites?

Navas: Hard to pick Scott, I herein give you almost all my quotes, but I first provide you my tendency on them: paradox in them to mirror truth from within as to without, from inner to outer.

A few notes on my quotes. It’s clearly specified on Facebook that they have been subject to copyrights and FBI.

They are not numbered because of a good reason; knowledge cannot be quantifiable.

Some have no quotation marks because they are truth for sure.

Some claim guess who as credits because of the supreme being I consider.

There is more space or gap between some of them denoting order and mystery, to be more between some of them:

“One may be shy when talking to the person one loves most, romantically, and it may seem like weakness and insecurity, but the other side is quite the opposite, sensibility, which renders a lot of strength. Two sides of the coin apparently, yet two extremes in love.”

“Betray yourself NOT, that’s what you must NOT do, don´t betray thy goals.”

“How come we say: God bless America; America is a blessing hence the best implicit way to express it is: God bless America the blessing.”

“What IS the greatest country in the world? Russia, for its vastness, China in terms of anthropocentrism for the largest population, but America or the USA is the greatest one (at the MOST) in light of her grandeur and grandiosity.”

“Infinity can be relative also.”

“It’s great to assist others and not thinking we are the center of the creation, but our own world is too complex enough, hence it’s better to help others and nature.”

“America is touted the MOST paradoxical country, ironically America is the GREATEST dream, but for the same reason it’s the MOST REAL thing and the MOST REAL dream, the GREATEST human accomplishment under God.”

“Time and space are not just relative, but also paradoxical just like the Universe or this sub-existence, but most of all, this existence and many others quite could be also paradoxical.”

“Have as much ambition as you can, for there’s nothing you cannot do.”

“It’s a lot easier, far easier to search in light than to search in darkness, just because of scape, the speed, but also because there is nothing as elusive to humans than the subtle of the deep of the obvious, that enlightens a lot, within light, the more we get, the better. Yet don’t let light blind you, as a tree blinding you from a forest.” (Because of itself being so fantastic and WONDERful, whilst darkness is blinding also.)

“It’s paradoxical that the topmost problem to humans means the lowest and meanest path while for many it many seem the highest yet deepest issue.”

“God has given us intelligence to understand it as best as possible we can.”

“Love and care ecology, and nature, for without it we could not just exist the way we know.”

“Every single self-idea and breakthrough in life is an awakening as well as learning new stuff.”

“To realize we have 5 dimensions in our minds is deep, to understand it is high, living accordingly is elevated and serving life accordingly is divine and sublime.”

“Count your awakenings not for the sunrises but for every single new logical idea that comes across your mind, and every single discovery.”

“To think and to have the right intuition is to live at least in the plane, talking on plain terms.”

“Understand how we have 5 dimensions is neat, understanding why may be mature, but giving it a for what, a good one is subtle, not doing so is sin.”

“Every nap that does not yield a good inspiration is a wasted one.”

“Sometimes it’s required to see things from above in order to see through them.”

“When one accumulates something that is not gonna use out of fear one has no little mustard faith seed on the positive, and when one accumulates something out of fear that weighs more than oneself one is already in danger and that would be fearful enough! yet to fear fear itself is healthy, sane.”

“Imagination and logics are not only the optics with the which we look at the world, but also how we mostly feel it and live it with.”

“If our imagination is so humanly limited and inconsistent, don’t even try to imagine what would become of us if we don’t use it or limit it even more.”

“It’s funny how when a crowd is yelling something say in protest and riots I can’t understand what they say coz of lot of chaos with apparent order, but in opera with harmony single order, etc., I can’t understand anything either.”

“Mathematics make infinite sense, but love makes infinitely more sense.” (From imagination that is defied by both, and this entailing transfinite numbers, categorizable infinites, love for mathematics as an under and upper scope, and of course love.)

“How is it possible that small minds can shelter so big nonsenses, but they cannot home the smallest bright ideas, and it’s funny how the biggest minds don’t shelter the biggest dullness and shelter the biggest bright ideas.”

“The top problem of humans not only at individual stage, but also as a global one, is to think to be the center of the world, for their ability to modify the environment and their path, and just imagine if no human thought they were the center of the world…”

“It’s funny how if intelligence is so subjective to our perception, and so to our intelligence…can we say both sides are on balance if we tried to resume to just terms?”

“How come we say God bless America if America is the blessing?”

“Ironies and paradoxes are somehow the inverse verses in life insofar as we see it, not just organic life at times.”

“It takes one to be brave when it comes to a new breakthrough, for curiosity takes to that, hence at times it takes even more rare to question: established things or new discoveries.” Guess who (plus the paradox factor)

“It takes to be so much awaken to accomplish dreams.”

“Those who dream are more awake than those who do not have dreams at all.”

“It is paradoxical this whole creation, hence we must wonder and ask about it, but more paradoxical is that we don’t wonder about that paradox on its own.”

“A top problem to humans is not to focus on solutions.”

“Cleverness is to dream; dullness is to fantasize.”

“Funnily interesting that when I provided the warning about FBI and my copyrights early on I had to a little extent some creativity of my own.”

“To learn by oneself is cleverness, applying is honor.”

“Sadly ironic that since history rhymes a lot, and one of the most, if not the most rhyming and constant trait has been war, war is not one bit poetic.”

“Sadly ironic that since history rhymes a lot, and one of the most, if not the most rhyming and constant trait has been war, war is not one bit poetic, but it ma be even sadder or even more heroic that despite that heroes are and love thrives.”

“Intelligence is the greatest of all paradoxes.”

“U.S.A. is the best country in the world”
Guess who means God, people.

“I’m an American patriot with American heart, therefore I exist.”

“To think correctly is the best of all medicines.”

“Laying the foot in order to give the first step is better in any instance than not laying the foot at all (by not giving the first step) for not giving the first step is LAYING THE BOTH FEET!”

“Its paradoxical within humans that they want to know more, ignorance annoys them, but they fear and to some extent it annoys them what they don’t know.”

“How come spare time and need into curiosity are the chief inventive leaders?”

“The most contagious of all diseases is irrational fear.”

“If humans all learned to love and take care of nature wars would be over.”

“It’s difficult to find worthwhile things that are easy.”

“Humility and amazement are the blood for learning.”

“The Universal question is: Why and how are why and how the universal questions?”

“If you’re not confused about it then you did not have it clearly understood (humanly speaking and under some circumstances).”

“Genius is to make ‘difficult’ stuff simple and the simple, subtle.”

“It’s somehow funny that the rectangular objects called books are not entirely compatible with the Great Book of life (Big Picture).”

“In practice theory may be very subjective but at times experience may be even more.”

I was thinking about what my favorite quote is from all those I have compiled by myself, and I then thought “The subtlest way to get to know oneself is by having own logical and deep phrases.” That´s my favorite quotation after all (on gen.).

“Why is art is the subtlest and the gateway to the art of knowing and how?”

“U.S.A. has been the miracle posed by God to guide the world in human-like following way.”

“It is good to know that the lord was and is good despite many who claim he was good “

“Funny it’s crystal and VERY clear that the lazy one has a pale future and white as in the whitest papers and has a dark future so dark that is so black.”

“The real nutcase is the one who has no proper ideas and nor logical ideas at all.” Guess who, Me

“It takes a fair amount of analysis, memory and imagination to compile quotes, and apparently they limit imagination, but I don’t want to imagine what would be of the world without them.

“Fantasizing is the sweetest of all deaths being alive.”

“The one who does not study correctly does not know her/himself (the right thing would be to say the one who doesn’t study correctly almost knows a minimal part of her or himself, for that person knows she or he doesn’t like to study, but doesn’t know what her or his likes would be, just half a minimal part, but the poetic art would be lost).”

“Crazy the lazy and the lazy goes crazy.” (predictability and Newton’s quote on being unable to calculate human insanity)

“If you believe everything that reads on the books, you better don’t read at all, especially do not write any book’ likewise if you believe everything you hear, don’t listen at all, but above all then do not talk at all.”

The metamessage from the Haunted Mansion is “It is hell when we think of ourselves as the center of the world and the center of the Universe by default.”

“Young innocence and experienced maturity on their own are good into a romantic relationship, to keep the wonderment of innocent young as an “experienced grownup.” is virtue, but comparing both, about which is most important is the top of cynicism.

“Every single subject at school and every branch of science is like a string in the big life guitar.”

“Each and every subject at school is math, just perceived in a different way.”

“I think, therefore I live, thereafter I am. (talk about it with a ghost)
(funny that Descartes´s spirit is more into corrected than in his own words which have less life)

“Since Statistics, probability and logics are the least consisting of all math branches, and we think: we are slaves of what we say? especially on those? Proofs?????”

“Have you ever wondered why and how curiosity is the mother of all “inventions.” being that this is not an invention? (Curious thing I did not find a more creative way to lay the terms in plain facts, don’t you think?) (Curious would be that this being apparently the most curious argument would not be the most curious as such, being so curious that this quote is curious, especially if we define curious in many scales).” Curious don’t you think? is there a more subtle or creative way to say it was me?

“The lazy fellow so slow that something as sluggish as idleness is fast enough to catch up with him/her.”

“If intelligence is the greatest of all paradoxes, and paradoxes are the greatest expressions of sense of humor, it’s even a greater paradox that intelligence is not the greatest expression of sense of fun, even funny paradoxically and it’s the greatest expression of sense of groove, especially because it’s in the middle (neither dull, nor God like and it takes intelligence to be really funny) hence it’s one of those situations written in sentences that can neither be false nor they can be true. Not so funny is it?”

“Justice is the equilibrium of seeing and not seeing at the same time (beware, using this the wrong way can take to hell, for indifference is the perfect crime, you see but you’re blinder if you don’t act).”

“A very sane way to classify humans is that we all humans are divided into 4 basic types of braincases: holly ones, poor ones, damn ones, and plain ones (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Tim Burton, most graphic one), not seeing this is insane, to some extent…”

“Most people ignore this: If fear at the large context is the most contagious of all diseases, why isn’t fear to ignorance a brink for no ignorance?”

“Since there is nothing more elusive to humans than the subtle of the deep of the obvious, and how it is in the surface, one should consider one is one’s own worst enemy by not believing n oneself, as light and dark… easier to search in light than dark, but beware not to be selfish!”

“You may think ignorance and indifference are the worst crimes, two opposites and extremes, especially indifference, but the perfect crime committed by evil is the one that cannot possibly be known (ignorance by people or craftiness of committer) but now don’t be indifferent to this one, the obvious but subtle thing here is that the perfect crime does exist indeed, and it is indifference in all ways, negligence, uncaring, etc., whether not know that happened or worse, everyone knows that happened and laws don´t enforce to curtail it and, maybe you did not see this, but now that u do, it would be worse if u neglect it.”

“The art of learning and having own ideas (its being even far more alive) is the eternal youth source, for every time we learn something and we wonder more, the younger we become.”

“The greatest thing about genius and intelligence is that genius does not exist, maybe the smartest idea,” quirky paradox.

“The day when we live with plants and animals as our equals, that day prehistory will actually end.”

“Amazement, humble attitude, curiosity and intelligence are the ABCs of breakthroughs.”

“Science and Spiritual studies are married for both share the idea of explaining existence in a world that needs both desperately.”

“So curious don’t you think that curiosity is the cure to some extent to ignorance, but also makes it hurt worse?”

“Funny math is born to die, but makes the mathematician live forever if contributions are done, physics is born to apparently live, without those biology and life could not be possible, perhaps, such a logical mathematical reasoning shall live forever.”

“Is it the most logical argument in ground terms that logics was born to die? that would be funny because logics is so alive that it gives life to everything apparently tangible that it dies because of that.”

“Metalogics is the breath that God printed in all things, and since it was born to die, that´s what also makes it immortal, logical right?”

“I don’t doubt that doubt is the break in the trip of learning that speeds learning up.”

“Think love, love to feel, feel the love, and love to think.”

“If I thought to love, love to feel, feel the love and loved to think the quote “Think love, love to feel, feel the love, and love to think.” could be done the right way which I would think to love, love to fee, feel the love and loved to think, would be a blessing, but if mistaken would be a curse.”

“To think correctly is free, not to do so is quite expensive.”

“To first give love to oneself is fortitude, to get love from oneself is inspiring, but only take love for oneself is weakness and not to give love to others is cowardice given this mindframe.” (OK, partly inspired by Lao Tzu, but remember what Leonardo da Vinci said about not overpassing our teachers?)

“Funny and wise is that we say and do: live today as if it were the first day of your life, and the last one.”

“Probably it would be reasonable to better analyze ideas rather than facts or people, in my opinion, would be the best path for progress.”

“Benjamin Franklin’s quote, ‘If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do something worth writing,’ and to think and have logical proper ideas is matter of survival are the two sides of the same coin, a coin I call survithinking.”

“Wonder this: if you’re a money magnet for you attract money to you, you’re successful, if money attracts you, you´re actually poor, but if you attract money for the welfare of your loved ones, the community and nature, wealth has no limit.”

“Apparently coining logical terms is quite paradoxically cheap and hard, but not doing so is QUITE expensive, this I call -unchexpensive-Coining-”

“The equilibrium of life is one of the off-beat most ones for all parts are connected and communicated but we get balance from two sides yet the other one, the top most one has no need of the others intrinsically yet cannot be completed without the two others.”

“Understanding and deriving others wise quotations is clever but having proper ones and evolving them is wisdom.

“Interesting that in life its required to see things right from above, but life cannot be seen right from above nor many other angles from, and somehow it can.”

“A zero at left hand has no rights.”

“Especially when it comes to mathematics, it may seem a lot safer many times to be at shoulders of the giants than being following steps. Not laying the feet would be worse!”

“Imagination in many aspects is like servant who serves the master analysis, and not the analysis master so many times, who cleans and prepares the entrance of analysis.”

“It’s really so funny that if comedy comes easy not, real life and reality actually come a lot harder, undoubtedly!”

“The real deal and not an ordeal is to know not what other choices we could have taken but to understand those by what we have already taken the ones we already did.”

“Interestingly not so odd that it is neither true nor it is false that we cannot coin a quote on DIVINE LOVE for it’s the TRUTH.” Neither it is false nor it is true it was me.

“If math was born to be dead especially Pure math, what does that tell us about quotes?” (Logics, metalogics, metamath and metamessages).”

“Irrational Fear being so slow and or the slow ones that she or he who acts diligently and solves problems and is faster at previewing and having proper ideas.”

“Humanly speaking, it may seem that in order to invent (actually discover) we need imagination but imagination to humans, so far is an invention on its own.”

“I act so fast and create so boldly and craftily that fear never reaches me.”

“Paramount is the quote that on its own may be seen from as many points of view or versions yet they all are true.”

“A quote that is right in ALL versions of it may seem to be a puzzle with several parts but such quote is on its own just a part of a puzzle, especially if it mirrors the author.”

“A quote that is right in ALL versions of it may seem to be a puzzle with several parts but such quote is on its own just a part of a puzzle, especially if it mirrors the author who we know may feel free to wonder as for the author and ourselves: how free is he not only about the ability to think and express but to own and be slave what the author knows and keeps quite and/or talks about?”

“NO question: doubt offends, YET, questions can be either a path to heaven, or a path to hell, so who said Ignorance is bliss, especially on HOW to ask? not to mention by what?”

“Differential equations are the arteries that make the blood of life and universe life flow like poetry uncovered.”

“The deeper the ocean of knowledge is compared to the infinite space, paradoxically, does not quench my thirst for knowledge, the more I drink from it the thirstier I feel.”

“Paradoxically, we have more and less free will than we imagine because of our imagination.”

“Odd that for slow minds mouths can be too fast.”

“Curious it is that what gives curiosity die is what makes it even much more alive.”

“Curious it is that what gives curiosity die is what makes it even much more alive. Wondrous it is that we cannot wonder by what wonders are, don’t you think?”

“Imagine how far we can go if events conquer our imagination, to some degree it would be good that imagination abashes us, for we are largely imaginative beings, but let’s not allow imagination conquer us, yet with it we make great progresses.”

“Love is the solid rock upon which u build your being, your life, your essence, more love, but someone with solid rock head and heart cannot be strong enough for that.”

“Strong minds would understand this and most likely feeble-minded people would not: It takes a fair amount of strength in being and mind to change by oneself (especially for values, love, etc.) yet it takes feeble minds to pretend to change somebody else.”

“It would be the top of mediocrity do things out of conceiving God in mere sense of need and to consider God needs us.”

“In mathematics, a plan that works once is a step but may also be seen as a lucky trick, if it works two times straight it’s a procedure, if it works three or more times it’s a rule, if it works over 5 times, it’s a method, if it works more it’s a law: Interesting generalization.” (Consider seeing from the reverse: I understand I know almost nothing, then I sense, I learn, I copy I sense I understand the greater my ignorance was, and so the cycle goes on.)

Is it funny there are no quotes for quotes as such?”
(For curiosity leading humans.)

“Need is the most illusory and most dangerous invention of human mind.”
(Something we should know and especially not to ignore.)

“Is need the most hazardous “perception.” of humankind? How curious is it that we wonder that and how much? Need to…?”
(What does this tell you about what are so called problems and/or opportunity areas?”)

About opportunities and problems “It’s said justice is blind but it’s way blinder to turn a blind eye into opportunities, areas of opportunities (problems) Better not to ignore this beyond need in order to improve life.”

“Zeros, we cannot live without them but we can live better with them, we cannot die without them but it’s better to die with them.”

The above statement and quote mirrors something about math: “What makes math mortal makes them immortal.” and “Were math born to die?” and Me

“Curious that if it wasn’t for curiosity the vast majority of humans would had committed suicide (not having curiosity on its own is suicidal, not dare will) yet when exploring into curiosity and more we don’t know what’s gonna happen, at times perhaps what happened to the cat whose curiosity killed.”

“People may talk about quotes, some may talk about their contents, but how can we wonder and dig more about their truths?” (Notice the parts of people, some, etc.; and the apostrophes.)

“While the stubborn doesn’t know what she/he is saying the wise doesn’t say what she/he knows, plus more stubborn the one who argues a stubborn, but even more for stubborn ones, perseverants must be many people especially if only one.”

“When understanding ecology and animal nature I understand politics better but I stay away from politics by checking animal behavior.”

“There are at least two ways to question what you are being taught or you are learning: Either not believing it (not believing everything you read, hear, etc.) by logics, intuition, etc.) and asking many, many and as many questions as you possibly can about it to prove it either more true or prove it wrong or neither true nor false….”

“When sculpting, rendering a being’s soul is your essence, essentially, but when rendering a spirit on the rocks from inspiration is pure freeing…”

“It’s curious that we may grasp the idea or gist of a book but is that what it’s actually saying? Meta-messages show that the truth may not be entirely true, the starting point of knowledge in contrast with apparent total ignorance.”

“Curious enough it is that new ideas, new discoveries are needed but very urgent is the most curiosity, yet essential is to improve life in harmony with life/biology in order to keep it alive and us.”

“There is nothing more elusive than the subtle of the deep of the obvious, hence the obvious, especially the most obvious should not blind us.”

“At times the one who knows what one wants takes perseverance, not knowing what one wants may lead to stubbornness, knowing how to reach what one wants and finding who one is heroic, whilst not knowing and being alienated and stubborn is tragic and villainous for the most, but the opposite to the aforementioned is traitorous, even more stubborn and far more villainous.”

“We should know more about that for humans, knowledge has two faces, especially when we find out more and how we feel about it. There is a very common human face when discovering something: amazement, but this renders either smarts or foolishness, depending, but the more we are fascinated the more we see it has another two faces, surprise and bafflement and even at times extreme bafflement (depending on one uses it for as human, for the better or for the worse.”

“Fruit cases and idiots are to be sent mailing, but headstrongs are to be totally avoided, nobody should ignore this (see the connotation of ignorance here?).”

“Funny that comedy doesn’t come easy let alone reality and real life.”

“To dream is to live, to achieve is to super live, to be amazed for how big we can dream and do is glory, but to fantasize is to die; we don’t need that much intuition to realize the statement, do we?”

“Is Secret the most controversial term and even more the most controversial concept to humans? The irony is that it is and many things can be derived from this one, even more so if we think of that “ignorance is the shadow of secret.”

“Is it necessary to bear on mind the mindlessness and foolishness of the dumbs in order to help appreciate intellect in humans and the genius of a few? necessity, stressing here curiosity. In 3 levels: naive approaches, junction of amazement and non-amazement in a face that shows both potentially, and stubbornness especially: Not necessarily need and mere curiosity. How insane are they? Are they insane enough? (Beware curiosity doesn’t become an essential-most part of need.”

“If you’re able to count your money you’re not a rich person, nevertheless God’s blessings and himself are gifts I am far less able to count such that money is a mean and I serve Master God so first we are not too great when we help others who are in need especially bearing on mind that money is a way, but having in heart more (also to aid ecology and thank it most of all) so if you’re a rich person you can count on your money, but you cannot count it, but infinitely more unmeasurable is God to be counted on and infinitely less measurable and we are great by helping others and not when it comes to do it (what a congruence).”

“It’s alright to be a rightist, you’re correct and it’s you’re right if you’re, but overcorrectness is not right! am I right?”

“This is essential, and beyond mere survival: some claim love is a survival mechanism, but hatred is a lot more.” (Come on, that were so love could be defined and it’s not possible to define.)

“I am the master of money, so God is my master so I can serve the Lord in harmony (including ecology).”

“Those who lack imagination are the most insane and evidently the craziest ones, those who have limited imagination fantasize, even those with imagination but those with creative imagination and realize their virtues are the ones that move the world.”

“To think is to live, but to feel and be congruent with one´s heart and mind is making the soul stronger.”

“Not moving from a comfort one is dying, discoveries take some degree of chaos from curiosity, curiously not moving is far more chaotic.”

“If logics is the art of being confident of thinking the wrong way, what would we say and imagine about metalogics?”

“It’s amazing in truth how unquestionably question and amazement are close relatives that seem to be married and create more…”

“History flows and may and may not give characters free will, but heroes and main characters are hooks that nail history down.”

“An author’s quote may mirror what the author is, but metamessages and derived quotes echo the author even more.”

“If a quote mirrors what an author is and metamessages and derivate messages which the author, the author may become a shadow in the sand of time, but a greater echo in time, but certainly the original quotes become the shadows.”

“We have to fear just fear itself but we should fear not to have fear even more, but above all, fear not to focus on solutions, and worse even: to ignore this quote.”

“There is nothing more elusive to humans than the subtle of the deep of the obvious, at times because there is nothing more elusive than the subtle of the obvious.”

“Curiously it may seem dumb to get into something we don’t know anything about and nobody does, dumber is not to get into it for there is no fool question, just the one that is not wondered and expressed, for mistakes do not exist if we learn from them.

“Math were born to die, especially and ironically for those characters who find out new things in math are hooked to history, but because of that math are even more prone to die, ironically also because this mirrors that what makes math mortal makes them immortal (inconsistency, non-applied math).”

“Quotes, especially if derived ones, may be a twin blade sword.”

“Paramount is that from the plain sentences from the Bible quotes are not readily available, but quotes can be made if putting the right statements from the Bible together, especially when reckoning them together correctly.”

“Imagination and curiosity: not too surprised yet very surprised how both complement one another, despite curiosity and questioning may seem the antidote to lack of imagination and over imagination….”

“It’s funnily curious that math may be seen as a game by all scopes: either for it’s a game that should groove us all, OR for those who don’t take it the way it should be (either too seriously or don’t like it) as a game too, yet for any scope it should be learned at taught (even self-taught) with the children’s natural curiosity…Not a joke they are though!”

“If breakthroughs are made beyond need, and then beyond curiosity, but to improve life (American philosophy), and, one of the greatest questions to us humans is: Who we are…. this holds better in the gap between need and curiosity, but it’s more NECESSARY between curiosity and life-improvement, and noticing this is a twin-blade sword, then the both sides of the balance are in equilibrium to humans?” (What makes the quote alive, and gives it life.)

“We should first let our minds fly and fly our minds before setting the first step… (laying the foot, for worse or for better), especially considering quantum leaps.”

“Happiness may be searched, found, constructed, but when you really know you’re alive is when you are overjoyed (beyond mere happiness).”

“The irony of neither being linear because of being linear is that it may seem very sensical to use the brain to serve life, dumber is to use the brain to just use humankind but the top of dumbest is to use the brain to serve machines.”

“The greater irony of neither being linear because of being linear is that it may seem very sensical to use the brain to serve life, dumber is to use the brain to just use humankind but the top of dumbest is to use the brain to serve machines for it takes courage to dare to live and it may even seem rather dumb to try something new if one doesn’t have a clue about where that may lead one especially considering human imagination is limited to natural senses, also inconsistent is and conceptual as well yet those are great reasons to also go beyond even when bravery at times may seem to be dumbness when the risks are higher.”

“Freedom is to be able to know what one wants, attain it but also having the strength and the ability to control desires from which it starts.”

“Sanity in soliloqueries is the one in which people question themselves and talk to God and their conscience, and insanity is for those who have no conscience but pretend and say they are talking to their conscience.”

“Freedom is to be able to know what one wants, attain it but also having the strength and the ability to control desires from which it starts but most of all, to be able to break buildups down and expand one´s panorama.”

“I feel like a cat when it comes to laugh about that religions once proven may die before math do.”

“Funny that logics in quotes is apparently so evident but metalogics is to some extent more.”

“So funny that comedy comes easy not, but funnier is that real life and reality come harder.”

“Math, numbers and letters have been witnesses to human history, because math evaluates and unites.”

“Mathematics, what evaluates and apparently separates does so because it unites.”

“A reason why for the most we cannot be ahead in time at math for almost all, is because math is like a friend who gives us more when we learn than what we can give to it?
yet we are to fight what we read, wonder more been beyond mere questions, and own examples being created for if it works once its luck, if it works twice it´s a rule, if it works more than 3 times it´s a method, and a number of times, countless times it works and that’s what unites things, analogies.” (Reason….)

“An edifice with no books has no soul, so give me more and more books so my soul never dies and I will give you books.”

“Quotes are the best way to talk to oneself especially if they come from oneself.”

“What is more predictable and least prophetic, denial or confusion? Surely ignorance and indifference are the worst friends to those.”

Freedom is paid with the blood of the brave, when honorable American flag waves is because of the breath of those who died for America and sacrificed it all for her ideals of honor, peace, equality, such wind goes among us when we stand for those values like powerful and proud like eagle and peaceful like doves, and such wind makes us fly with humility as well and elevates us for God has them in glory.”

“Logics is the mirror too interesting and curious for metalogics is the mirror to amazement and humility being this set a mirror to the first one, but since both seem to be the two sides of a coin, also stands that one doesn’t know what lies ahead, with luck we go ahead.”

“Logics is the mirror too interesting and curious for metalogics is the mirror to amazement and humility being this set a mirror to the first one, also mirrored to one another are that high and elevated is logics while it’s also deep and profound.”

“Logically numbers are great friends with whom I play for math is a game so I cannot say they give me problems (in Russian what we know as mathematical problem is said Zadach, which doesn’t mean problem, for if math is a game, no problems it should give).”

“It´s the top of binarity that real life is considered binary but virtual realm is also binary.”

“Those who have the spirit of ideas and have them clear are perseverant and don’t say what they know unlike those who claim to have the ideas but have a mind as white as a white paper and so pale being really stubborn, hence thanks to the stubborn people the world sets back for they don’t know what they say and thanks to the perseverant the world goes ahead for they at times don’t say what they know.”

“For those whose pale ideas on freedom and change have are too blind to see the spirit and to feel it of liberty and to have it all clear, the darker is their book in black with all white papers in all and are blinder towards the future that is right before all of us.”

“A draft is a twin blade sword: either we are humble to realize we ignore more OR we are poor excuses to progress and too coward to face the future that is right before us though we don’t see it.” (Knowledge, progress and being a draft are twin-blade swords.)

“It’s essential to fight violence by first using the brain and head for we know that from our hearts fights are wrong, so first use the heart.”

“If math studies give me more than I may give them, and it’s food for the brain, I consider it rather imperative to wonder also whether if I shouldn’t take a good food just because I have no idea about how digestion works, as an example, a general one, specially to consider generalizations in order to understand.”

“Sometimes putting parts of logical mathematical ideas or quotes in this case exemplifies that math unites the subtle of several faces of human knowledge.”

“If it’s essential to fight violence by first using the brain and head for we know that from our hearts fights are wrong, so first use the heart, especially for also generating new ideas together, and fight with proposals the given previous ideas as generalizations and make great own examples combined. Ramanujan was a great example to it, that the latter is the best weapon “

“I think, I live, thereafter I am, I learn and I live again……thus I celebrate myself and the world, and I celebrate the world, I think, I live, thereafter I am…. Existence.”

“Surprised that when being surprised and one discloses such face that conveys such emotion, either that face is for being too smart or too dumb and people who are too clever treat dumb people like dumbs in their faces and the fools don’t even realize that, whilst the wise ones say what they know subtly and the stubborns do not know what they are talking about?”

“From Alice in Wonderland: “Since it’s a mathematical novel, the more we find out the more math gives us and math gives us more than we may give to her, hence we are freer without being slaves to what we say but about what we ignore we are free and slaves….”

“Logics represents the mirror between the deep and high and metalogics stand for the whole scope.”

“Love cannot be defined, that’s a fact, because love is truth.”

“If love knows reasons that reason knows nothing of, then we partly know why love cannot be defined, that’s a fact, because love is truth.”

“It’s interesting that in math one should fight back with own examples, in war one shouldn’t take anything for granted, mathematically speaking with Differential equations one should have special care about strategies, but in music, math takes a different tonality.”

“I must also confess I chose math in part because in math, no matter how many surgeries, “autopsies.”, dissections and operations you make on theorems, lemmas, etc., they don’t suffer, on the contrary, the more they give you the more you enjoy it for you realize they may give you more than what you may give them, unlike biology.”
Me

“It’s funny that an artist´s job is in part to search for the truth but the art she/her produces may tell more about the truths and plain facts about her/him.

“I may tell the lady I love I love her more than she can imagine and I love her just the say she is.”

“The art of love is what defies our imagination even more than time and time itself.”

“The art of love is what defies our imagination even more than time and time itself, would love defy us? and most of all inspire us?”

“It’s interesting that humans are the beings that question themselves but commit the same mistake twice or more, many of those times on purpose, and in part is because humans as species consider themselves the center of the world, is it love???????.”

“I would tell my loved lady that I love her more than she can imagine, just the way she is, for I don’t abuse my imagination.”

“I love the woman I love beyond imagination because I don’t abuse my imagination.”

“Lovely that time but even more love defy our imagination for we are able to love someone without abusing our imagination just the way that person is.”

“By not abusing our imagination when we love somebody we feel more joy than we can imagine.”

“Our senses may feel and sense more than we can imagine despite our imagination being restricted to our senses biologically, naturally! and that’s what give sense to our lives, more than we can imagine.”

“To love with insanity is to love by not abusing one’s imagination which gives the best sense to our lives, more than we can imagine.”

“Because I would love her more than she can imagine for I love her more than my own imagination for she just the way she is way beyond anything I could possibly have imagined.”

“Because I would love her more than she can imagine for I love her more than my own imagination for she just the way she is way beyond anything I could possibly have imagined and the best, I would be dazzled very day more and more and more beyond my imagination for I would be falling in love for her every day anew.”

“The most beautiful woman I have ever seen, by looking at her the worst food would not matter and the most savoury food would not be sweet enough and not even comparable to her sight.”

“If thinking of sex all the time diminishes and shaves IQ, but thinking of war, fight, strategies, etc. doesn’t. It’s curious then that if I’m curious about how sex feels, in love that diminishes intelligence but thinking of a need like strategies in war, or a fight, etc., helps intelligence, being that most breakthroughs are made out from curiosity mainly.”

“Interesting that from my prior love quotes all can be reduced in a symbolic drawing with a triangle and a circle that unites her, me, God, our environment.”

“Romantically meaningful yet funny but since human imagination is limited to our senses, such that all we imagine comes from what our senses have perceived, and if our imagination were that great we would be able to imagine things that our senses haven’t sensed, such the beauty of the woman I love, beyond anyone’s imagination such that it would be really dumb not to even imagine that with such beauty I would fall in love again for, especially day after day.”

“It’s astounding for REAL how enslaved we are to what we say, even more about what we imagine and far more about amazement which makes us freer.”

“Words, math expressions and numbers cannot give a hint to define how beautiful the most beautiful woman I have ever seen is like.”

“If love knows reasons that reasons knows nothing of, for it brings happiness, then reasonably joy is to be found because of the clarity or lack to if when it comes to improve oneself and help the beloved one grow as well.”

“One cannot be in love with love let alone in love with the idea of being in love with love, for I love the part of love, which I not only search for the truth but I feel the truth and I find the truth better.”

“Enigmatic it is how we have imagination limited to our senses, but our analysis and ability of abstraction are in many imaginable ways, more than we imagine, whilst in our imagination we are able to conceive things that do not exist and not things that do exist that are beyond our understanding.”

“I could write quite a book with a huge abstract about how with a lot of abstraction and imagination one may be able to see something in an object and/or circumstance that goes way away from it and abstraction despite being far from imagination many times actually is the other side of the coin with imagination, for being so united and thus far away, yet abstraction defies imagination more than imagination defies abstraction but imagination is more important for the most.”

“Curious also that creativity to speak about abstraction and imagination is not as required as the right words in right place is, for imagination tends to be more important, more than we mostly imagine.”

“It’s such an artwork that the truth in part of an artist´s work is to find the truth but also to conceal the truth, improve it and even be able to tell lies in lots of camo.”

“Since it’s such an artwork that the truth in part of an artist´s work is to find the truth but also to conceal the truth, improve it and even be able to tell lies in lots of camo, one cannot make things up when it comes to write them down and render plain honesty, ironically now with creativity.”

“Funny but when I write down quotes and thoughts creativity may not be the most important thing but I do express my feelings.”

“Curious it is that abstraction inspires imagination and imagination inspires both intuition and abstraction, but memory inspires imagination from the lower level.”

“Is it too obvious that the too obvious makes the subtleness of obvious and obvious itself look overshadowed? How about reverse?”

“Funny that the pale overshadowed by light of knowledge and else…”

“Love is so obvious and so elusive, but not so obviously elusive.”

“This may be quite elusive but love is the most obvious of everything that makes us feel alive yet the most elusive because of that in part.”

“I had never imagined on its own, let alone how much imagination is defied by love and abstraction, which I love so much and makes me feel and think more.”

“It’s hard to imagine something that defies imagination more than love and abstraction, despite both being apparently two sides of a coin.”

“it’s not easy to find the creativity to account for it for imagination is basis to the top, and for this top? it would be the top not to find it.”

“I’m a slave to what I keep quite but when it comes to show love makes me free.”

“Quotes, the best way to be plain honest by talking to oneself, searching for the truth, the subtle form of art, with or without makeups and the maker must be able to tell for both.”

“I love math books more which have applications into finance, physics, etc., for this is something tangible and I love math books that have no applications on them because they show the pure math and fine part of the art of mathematics, same as I love books that are so complete that make me think and those that are inaccurate/incomplete that make me think.”

“Math count on us to be discovered for we can count on them, beyond what we may account for.”

“Mathematicians and own thinkers are amongst the freest people for everyone may COUNT on them and they may count on their own skills.”

“More than we imagine math defies our imagination, which is limited to our senses, that fact on its own (that our imagination is limited) makes us think about how limited our perception is, and how limited our understanding of the reality is, and about our deeds and actions, even our thoughts! I love Math because it’s the most graphic yet abstract way to show us all of that.”

“Blessed be more than they can imagine who give love and love doesn’t love them (about giving more and one may give or not) and those who do study math for real, for math gives them more than they can imagine.”

“I don’t fear fear itself so since it takes bravery to find out more and more about anything, I flee ignorance which I fear but I admit I have a lot the more I find out and I am brave to face the unknown.”

You may have faith, more than we may imagine in that:

“Everything is faith, more than we able to imagine.”

“Should people ask me why I study Math I reply: Why NOT? I study math because it shows me How everything works, and how is made from whys, so this takes me to: by what.”

“Some would have the faintest idea for others would have it very clear, and the first ones so clear that is so faint! Clearly faint!”

“Whilst some would have the faintest idea for others would have it very clear, and the first ones so clear that is so faint! Clearly faint! So blessed be those who faint out of surprise.”

“It may be quirky that we don´t actually chose who we fancy and love but we do chose to suffer.”

“It may seem really dumb to venture into something we don´t know where it may be taking us, but a lot dumber is not to dig into such venture.”

“The good thing about mountains is that in order to hike them we may dig more and more in order to realize what a distance we have from it to the sky and universe in terms of our ignorance)

“It’s easier to define Life with God than without God, paradoxically, if we had to put them both in a balance God is way more complex than ‘life.’”

“Allow the depths of knowledge sink you NOT out of vanity AND superficiality and the highness of wisdom belittle the importance of spirit.”

“Allow the depths of knowledge sink you NOT because of how belittled may seem the spirit out of superficiality and arrogance because of the highness of wisdom.”

“When I had problems in life I went into math deeper, for they gave me the most problems.”
(This cannot be said as such in Russian language.)

Addendum II: Jaime’s Favourite Personal Points on Love

Jacobsen: What are your couple or few hundred points on love?

Navas: 0. Be a match in love with best intentions.

1. Learn from others, especially good references.
2. I’m not a cheater.
3. One should know what one wants.
4. It’s fine if one does not know right way what one wants, but then one should get to meet people as friends and realize who one most likes or what traits one likes most.
5. Gender equality.
6. No machismo.
7. I would not raise my voice at her.
8. Would not point my finger.
9. Would never say she is wrong before anyone, especially children.
10. Would never call her rude words.
11. Will be there always whenever she needs me.
12. Would never hire prostitutes.
13. I never think of sex when being with any woman.
14. I never get into sex when a lady shows sexual interest in me.
15. One should get to think about where one is going when being into a relationship.
16. When having sexual intercourse, should be in love, not just mere casual sex.
17. Lovemaking is pouring out the soul; sex is just pouring the body.
18. What I don’t want for her, I don’t want for myself.
19. Personally, I never go to bars, pubs, night clubs, strip clubs.
20. I am not into porn.
21. Not into beauty contests.
22. No misogynous words.
23. No old ways of ladies staying home.
24. No misogynous slurs.
25. One should be OK with oneself before engaging into a relationship.
26. One should not be in love with love.
27. One should try to picture what the person in question would be and look like when being old.
28. One should never tell a person one loves her/him if one does not.
29. One should think well and feel well prior to engage into a relationship.
30. One should pay enough attention to the loved one’s interests as much as to oneself.
31. It’s important to make every day like the first one.
32. Good lovemaking is essential to a good relationship.
33. One should ask oneself: Would I date/marry someone whose just like me?
34. Anniversaries are important.
35. Zeal as such are not good for a healthy relationship.
36. It’s great to thank the partner for correcting politely if seen as fit, with strong points.
37. It’s okay to play, healthily, in the relationship.
38. Dating and marriage are not for the weak, selfish or insecure, or those who tend to contradict themselves for the most.
39. Never take the partner or anyone for granted.
40. Honesty is essential.
41. A daily based communication is essential as well, unless otherwise specified.
42. It’s great to express one’s feelings with the match.
43. Creativity is essential for everything.
44. A good sense of fun is essential.
45. Both partners should help make one another better people.
46. It’s great to acknowledge when one was wrong.
47. Forgiveness is essential.
48. Both partners should help one another grow in body, mind and spirit.
49. It’s essential to be open minded.
50. Being not brash is key.
51. Both should engage into cultural activities.
52. Serving breakfast at bed is essential.
53. Not being tetchy is essential.
54. Being empathetic is essential.
55. It’s essential not to idealize the partner, meaning one should get to know the match.
56. Optimism is essential.
57. Chivalry is always great.
58. Remember that most arguments are out from illogical arguments.
59. It’s important to live with the partner away from any relatives.
60. Both should help each other enhance into new activities, healthy for both.
61. No competitions between the partners should be in any way, mostly about economic ones.
62. After long working days, partners should stimulate one another at home.
63. While having conversations, one should agree, debate, tell stories, make plans.
64. Would not even dance with any other lady in a party, individually.
65. Not being monogamist is rather irresponsible.
66. Not being monogamous is cynical towards the parents of the partner.
67. Chores are equal responsibility.
68. Taking care of children and educating them are equal share.
69. Would never disrespect her by laughing at her, ignoring her.
70. Both should protect each other against all odds, including family.
71. It’s essential to love one another without possessing each other.
72. Both become one.
73. Both should bear in mind that they are like Yin and Yang.
74. Commitment, dedication and passion are key.
75. Marriage is 100%/100%.
76. Both should arm jigsaws and puzzles, as well as building something together.
77. One should let one talk, mostly gentlemen.
78. Both should be equally able to think, say, solve, do things, to the measure of their abilities.
79. Both should have the ability to be amazed.
80. In dating/marriage, both partners should help one another make stronger for if it falls through, at least both have grown stronger, and be thankful for it.
81. It’s good to give space and time when needed.
82. It’s good to massage the partner’s feet and give a good dessert after a long work journey from time to time.
83. Thankfulness to the match for being who the partner is crucial.
84. It takes bravery to deal with life.
85. It is important to make agreements and to know.
86. Becoming adapted is essential as long as there is no abuse or one does not change one’s essence.
87. Thankfulness for being my lady always.
88. To share important values is key and to be congruent.
89. The guy who mistreats his wife and kids or lady is NOT a man.
90. Tidiness and being clean is important.
91. Trying to have a good health is key.
92. It may be good to request for STD examinations early on.
93. It’s important to have a life plan.
94. Having realistic plans, it’s essential to support one another in plans, dreams, ambitions.
95. Always date and marry out of love.
96. Don’t compare one’s conduct with that of the match.
97. Reciprocity is key.
98. Being best friends within dating and marriage is key.
99. Establishing dos and don’ts early on is key.
100. Non-codependence is key, for it leads to toxic relationships.
101. One should negotiate things.
102. One should recall great moments.
103. It’s great to ask the partner what the partner thinks and/or feels one should improve at.
104. It’s important to recall that what one does not do for oneself others don’t do. Sure, others can help, but you get the point.
105. One should respect whether or not the partner wants sex yet not feel offended and talk.
106. Manners are essential.
107. Being punctual is key.
108. Love is not predictable.
109. Love cannot be defined.
110. Order is key.
111. Not imposing anything on the partner is key.
112. Not trying to control the partner is key.
113. Indifference is the worst of evils.
114. It’s important to know a fair share of the match before getting married.
115. It’s important not to fantasize.
116. Face troubles but most of all, focus on solutions.
117. Get someone you would be proud of.
118. Learn to see the virtues of the match and extoll them.
119. Being humble is essential.
120. Live every moment with the match as though if it were the last one.
121. Keep promises as possible.
122. It’s important to tell right from wrong.
123. Before having children, one should discuss and debate with the match about how to raise them.
124. Being affectionate and caring without overwhelming is key.
125. Healthy arguments and discussions can be helpful, as long as not to often.
126. It’s good to prevent things.
127. Take the easiest path and long lengths to get into trouble.
128. Don’t overreact.
129. It’s good to have pride in the good sense.
130. It’s so important to have faith in both, as a relationship.
131. My lady is to have priority.
132. Give every situation a good purpose.
133. If you really love someone, let that person go.
134. Understand that in life people support us, and challenge us, in a match, it’s essential to understand love.
135. It’s so silly to try to change someone.
136. It’s good to have mysteries but one should try to be straight talking.
137. Don’t procrastinate.
138. Find out as much as possible about the partner’s likes and dislikes before saying something bad or good.
139. Be a good listener.
140. If you’re not a good friend, you will hardly be a good partner.
141. Think well before engaging into relationships and marriage.
142. I you have two very similar loving candidates, be sure to know as much as possible about both.
143. Try not to complain.
144. It’s good to be mistaken, that way we learn. They are not mistakes if we learn from them
145. Try to avoid saying never.
146. Your feelings should not depend on them.
147. One has to be Ok with oneself before engaging into a relationship yet one should say: with you ‘m better, we are better.
148. What is the best for us?
149. Ask yourself: Who is the best person for US?
150. Do not revenge on the match.
151. I don’t have the modes near me so I for example, show I’m not a controller, etc.
152. It’s good to be sensitive and cry.
153. If my lady cries, I cry with her.
154. See life as a journey.
155. Personally, I don’t fart at bed.
156. I love stable relationships.
157. If a relationship falls through, see what you learn and may it helped you get stronger.
158. If when searching for a partner, you find it really hard, keep trying, and get more zest at that.
159. Love is smart, but most of all, love is wise.
160. All points cohere each other.
161. Let things flow, don’t force them.
162. Pain is there, not a choice, but suffering is a choice.
163. Worst thing is to play victim role.
164. Congratulate the partner for her achievements.
165. Thank the partner for her support.
166. Having tolerance to frustration helps a lot.
167. Being patient is key.
168. Learn about self help and improvement so both may help grow better as people.
169. Bear on mind that relationships and marriage entail a lot of responsibility, responsibility that gives privileges and privileges that give responsibilities.
170. May heart and brain win over hormone.
171. It’s great that both love mother nature.
172. Do not keep anything unresolved for long but be opportune, polite.
173. Personally if I see a woman’s body I don’t get any interested or excited, not that it’s wrong, just irrelevant.
174. If a lady shows sexual interest I don’t get turned on just like it (has happened many times).
175. It’s important to bear on mind he sexual part mostly when being married and having mutual properties and belongings, especially if something wrong happens.
176. If a very close friend asks me to keep a secret I would be honest with my friend and I would tell my lady for if the secret is discovered, my lady would know I knew and she would think I am keeping secrets from her.
177. Always search for compensation, especially in promises or change of plans.
178. We don’t choose who we like o fancy but we do choose how to show affection and to whom.
179. A couple should live on their own, without parents of either side.
180. Ideally, a couple should take measure of how much they have changed and improved for the better.
181. There is such a great sensibility and vastness in the depths of life, it shall keep one’s mind and heart busy, and share it with he loved one.
182. There is no rush about getting a match, having sex and getting married.
183. Understand better the concept of competing with oneself, especially now that two have become one.
184. Too much tenderness and affection-showing to the match could destroy the relationship eventually, as someone who is really quiet can terminate it as well.
185. There is a subtle difference between negotiating and agreeing. Agreeing is important about key things.
186. Discuss and agree about expenses, especially over 200 USD.
187. Good to question our education.
188. Watch TV shows on psychology.
189. Bear on mind that the both are responsible for their actions, despite negotiations, etc.
190. Consider that not being congruent for the most is to mistreat oneself, beyond just being not respectful to oneself.
191. Ever get into a relationship if you love somebody else actually and that other one may love you.
192. Never had a 3D relationship in Mexico because I had planned to move to the U.S.A. Don’t like the idea of getting into a relationship with a lady who was once my favorite, don’t want to leave anyone behind, like me not using her, nor to impose anything to her.
193. If your partner does not respect her/himself, how will such partner respect you? that leads to codependent relationships and toxic ones.
194. Never get into a relationship if you have not let the former significant other go in full, understand such is over utterly.
195. Don’t take it out on your partner or anyone if you’re angry.
196. Never do anything important without consulting the significant other once being engaged or married.
197. Respect if your significant other wants to make love not in a certain time or day, for some reason, though that should be spoken about.
198. Only idiots dream of what they can’t have or happen to.
199. Porn for the most is degrading.
200. Love is a dance, not a race. (This one, you gave me, Scott.)
201. Love is like music, one has to go with tunes, good rhythm.
202. It’s good to know if a relationship is over, face it.
203. Not good to date someone or start dating when one or someone just broke up, mostly when such person or one just break up with someone one loved.
204. Don’t answer phone or else when in a romantic date or else.
205. Both partners should face life together, without thinking life is a burden and one should have a company.
206. Never make assumptions, always be clear about anything in the relationship, with no ambiguities, no ambivalence.
207. It’s in marriage when one should go deeper in treasuring every moment with the loved one by thinking and mostly feeling: Time is not important, life is.
208. Lovely relationships take time and effort yet they flow best.
209. Making so much simple applies when it comes also in a daily life committed relationship.
210. Great points are those that can be go deeper at, without ambivalence
211. In dating/marriage, both partners should help one another grow better as people by all accounts.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/12/01

Leonardo Da Vinci made distinctions in writings between that which is natural and that which is mathematical. He considered the sensory or experience in general as primary in terms of coming to truths about the world.

Where, when he tends to reference the mathematical, he leans to speaking of the nothing, as compared to the something, which, presumably, would comprise the sensory or that given by sensory experience. His mathematics reflected the productions in nature.

His science reflected the direct construction of the experience, where the mathematical and the scientific meet one another is in the mind of Da Vinci. To be born or birthed here is neither science nor mathematics, but a form and relation of general knowledge; something of looking for the self-consistencies in nature and in mind with the mind as part of the whole, as in everything connected as one, including the human being and its mind.

That which is in mind constrained by those limits set forth from experience or if the rules and contents of the in mind are broken in some manner; then, these enter into the realm of the impossible, as the natural becomes constrained by the existent and the mathematical by nothing. Yet, both function by principles.

When looking at self-consistency in nature, this amounts to a search for the logical in nature to an extent; while, in search of the self-consistencies of nature at the same time, we come to search for the processes of nature.

In mind, too, one, as in the mathematical principles of reasoning in the mind of Da Vinci, looks for the principles of self-consistency in the mind’s eye, as in the examination of the contents of the mind with the contents of the mind itself.

In this, we find recursion, fractionation of content fit for ease of problem-solving, fit into the mind as a means of self-knowledge, as in knowing that one exists or knowing that one knows through knowing oneself as capable of knowing in the first place.

The knowledge comes simultaneously with the knowledge of knowing; it’s as if the knowledge of knowing one can know is the first form of knowledge with the knowledge of self-existence, of one’s soul in the world.

Either in the state of nature or in the status of the mind, the contents of both bring about self-consistency as a consistent reflection one upon the other, and the mirror of one to the other as showing the truths garnered from this relationship of the nothing of that which is in the mind and the something of that which is gathered from the world.

To Da Vinci, experience was primary and reflected the real, while the mind merely existed as a canvas reflecting the unreal — the something in contrast to the nothing. A nothing capable of representation of something only because a something exists in the first place and comes to mind with the senses for representation in the mind.

These reflections of self-consistency in either reflects a larger consistency in the nature of Nature of the nature of human nature via-a-vis the human mind, as in both contained in one and the same world, Nature, by Necessity.

The coterminous existence in Nature reflects individuated principles of self-consistency differentiable while part of the same self-consistency structure and dynamic components of the same processes.

These processes reflected in the necessary; the necessary exhibited in Nature, and seen so far as to exist in the mind as part of human nature. Functional or operational truths about the world and the mind, as in an Operationalism with self-consistency.

The ways in which things work in nature as derived from the senses, from experience, and the ways in which the mind represents, and so functions, to provide different facets of the self-consistent and the operational.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/10/09

Canadian Christianity in the 2020/2021 period will lose its simple majority status in Canadian society, which demarcates the end of an era in which Canadian Christians will not recover from either in the short-term future or medium-term future if at all. In an examination of the StatsCan National Household Survey conducted in 2011, the number of Canadians who adhered to the Christian faith came to a little over two-thirds at 67.3% of the total population of the country.

That comes to 22,100,000 Canadian Christians circa 2011. When we break that down a bit more, the most significant population for Canadians were the Catholics coming to 12,800,000 people. In sum, the number of Canadians who identified or affiliated with the identity “Christian” was overwhelming in Canada. Now, we can witness a rapid shift in the demographics of the Canadian landscape. Something never seen at the inception of the bounded legal and cultural geography called “Canada,” or to the recent past.

According to Pew Research’s Michael Lipka in an article from 2019, Pew Research conducted a survey in 2018 referenced in the Lipka article from 2019, in which the numbers of self-identified Christians in Canada, in contrast to 2011 from StatsCan, was surprising. In 2018, only 55% of Canadians identified as Christian. 33,476,700 Canadians existed in 2011; 34,714,200 existed in 2012; 35,083,000 existed in 2013; 35,437,400 existed in 2014; 35,702,900 existed in 2015; 35,151,700 existed in 2016; 36,543,300 existed in 2017; and, 37,057,800 existed in 2018 — Google derived source.

Tabulating year by year, we see a stark difference. If we simply take 67.3%-55%, we come to 12.3% difference between 2011 and 2018 in the number of self-identified Christians. This is, simply and straightly, a massive difference — almost 1 out of 8 Christians who were Christians in the pie of the country aren’t now. Counting the inclusive years — 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, thus, if years divided by 12.3%, this comes to 1.75714285714% per annum decrease, if a straight line or trend line, in the number of affiliated Christians as a proportion of the country.

When we look at the numbers given above for the total Canadian population, we can calculate, if making a convenience factor calculation (so not absolutely precise) of the number of Christians per year if as a straight line, the number of Christians in Canada as a whole in each year. Some with exceptions for an illusionary decrease in the total number of Canadians in exclusion of some Indian reserves or Aboriginal reserves/settlements. Anyhow, the calculations of percent of the pie of Canadians who are Christian each year:

· 2011: 67.3% (StatsCan).

· 2012: 65.5428571429% (Derived), or 65.54%.

· 2013: 63.7857142858% (Derived), or 63.76%.

· 2014: 62.0285714287% (Derived), or 62.03%.

· 2015: 60.2714285716% (Derived), or 60.27%.

· 2016: 58.5142857145% (Derived), or 58.51%.

· 2017: 56.7571428574% (Derived), or 56.76%.

· 2018: 55% (Pew Research).

This is the trajectory for the country if given two reliable sources, StatsCan and Pew Research. Following from this, we can extrapolate based on a nearly decade trajectory of the timeline of Christianity in the nation. The statistics on the country’s total population year by year can be seen here:

· 33,476,700 in 2011

· 34,714,200 in 2012

· 35,083,000 in 2013

· 35,437,400 in 2014

· 35,702,900 in 2015

· 35,151,700 in 2016

· 36,543,300 in 2017

· 37,057,800 in 2018

Furthermore, we can attach those calculated percentages onto the total population to come to a reasonably accurate assessment of the number of Christians in the country outside of the generic and important findings about the rapid decline of the Christian faith in the country, as follows:

· 67.3%*33,476,700=22,529,819

· 65.54%*34,714,200=22,751,686

· 63.76%*35,083,000=22,368,920

· 62.03%*35,437,400=21,981,819

· 60.27%*35,702,900=21,518,137

· 58.51%*35,151,700=20,567,259

· 56.76%*36,543,300=20,741,977

· 55% *37,057,800=20,381,790

Within this manner of examination of the statistics of Christians in Canada, the decline is palpable no matter the ways in which one cuts it, whether in raw numbers or in the percentages; Christianity is collapsing in the country in real-time, before our eyes, as the simple majority faith of the nation as well as more moderately declining in total numbers averaging (22,529,819–20,381,790=2,148,029 and then 2,148,029/7=306,861) 306,861 per year. We’ve moved from an era of monopolar religio-cultural demographics to a multipolar one. Extrapolated by 5 years, we come to 2023 from 2018:

306,861*5=1,534,305

This from 2018 to 2023 means fewer total Christians, as follows:

20,381,790–1,534,305=18,847,485

So, 18,847,485 Christians in Canada circa 2023. With the 1.75714285714%% per annum decrease, it becomes the following:

1.75714285714%*5=8.7857142857, so 8.7857142857%

This is a decline from 55%:

55–8.7857142857=46.2142857143, so 46.2142857143% or 46.21%

In 2023, one possibility given the trendline is a mere 18,847,485 Christians in Canada comprising 46.21% of the total population. With 2021 as the year in which the 55% of 2018 moves to below 50%, demarcating the era of non-simple majority Canadian Christianity and, therefore, changing the religio-cultural landscaping and self-understanding of Canadians in, at least, the short term and the medium term (Q.E.D.).

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/11/27

Copywriting is an art and an algorithm. I think of it as an art insofar as it provides room for creativity. A creativity in a wide variety of media. Also, it’s like an algorithm because the processes are learnable.

Web copywriter is simply a title narrowed to online content copywriting process(es). Someone who makes effective website text, works within content marketing strategies, and who is worth copying seen in social proof.

The nature of good copy versus bad copy isn’t about good versus bad. It’s about suitable versus unsuitable. The ways in which the copy suits the audience most appropriately. To have suitable copy, it should be suitable to both the audience and intended message.

What is copywriting?

Literally, it is the creation of copy, or words. Words on a physical page by hand or on an electronic screen by typing. In all, the creation of copy is a profound process of honing language. Language neither better nor worse. You write generally, as a content write; you are writing copy.

When committing to website copywriting, or website copy, the copywriting will be specified within the domains of the website. The organization or the outlet will have a style and a defined theme. This will inform the web copy, whether a product page or a service page, or otherwise.

You will want to focus on making the copy friendly to Google search engine analytics, SEO copywriting. As a copywriter, you will need to discern the target audience for the content to be suitable to them, whether website content or social media SEO copy.

Your copywriting service as a freelance copywriter or a website copywriter could be used for a blog post, web copywriting services (e.g., a landing page), or simply a Facebook post or a Twitter tweet. Copywriting is a general purpose form of writing, primarily for web content.

Your job is to make great copy as a skilled copywriter for a business owner to attract a reader demographic or a potential customer base. Over time, if successful, you will be considered a professional copywriter or an expert copywriter. So, what are 6 great website copywriting examples?

The following examples show content creation with functional keyword search, compelling copy/compelling content, effective copy, representing the brand voice to provide a value proposition reflecting the business. All this to attract website visitors, readers, and so possible customers for effective marketing purposes.

1. Apple

When you look at places like Apple, they have become one of the largest corporations in the world. Of course, part of this comes from the fantastic technology sold by them. A sense of a human or user-friendly device.

Another strength of the technology comes from the power of their use of language. They, typically, have a language reflecting their campaigns. For example, the campaign of “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC.” These are iconic in the marketing world now. Clean and clear as the devices they make.

2. Coca-Cola

This is another company with great copy and excellent copywriters. They know how to market. Part of the mark of their greatness comes from the quality of their marketing itself. They know their audience.

They speak to their particular brand. In turn, they speak to their audience, which is a general audience. So, their copy, their slogans, come in broad terms. The current sloganeering: “Refresh the World. Make a Difference.”

3. Walmart

You can see the trend towards more prominent companies and entities. This is for good reason. Because these organizations have extensive networks and finances to create some of the best copy or text on the market.

Indeed, they have the ability to hire some of the best copywriters known to date. Something like a tincture form of the desired experience for customers. They really know their base. If we take the examples of Walmart, it’s obvious in their slogan, “Everyday low prices.” It’s a store for everyone.

4. Amazon

Another massive international corporation with lots of money coming in and plenty of money to burn. This is the type of company with the extra cash to make their text is sharp, focused. They know how to stay in the game.

Even during a pandemic, they are not only maintaining themselves. They are growing to some degree. Furthermore, they have another sweet, killer slogan, which is a great example of succinct copy: “Work Hard. Have Fun.”

5. Facebook

At one time, Facebook’s copy for a slogan was “Be Connected. Be Discovered. Be on Facebook.” It’s another punctuated series of messages devoted to attracting their target audience. They know how to best tap into this audience as a matter of course.

Facebook is one of the dominant social media platforms on the market today. Part of its pervasive successive is due to its filling a need of the general population. Another component is the ways in which it can reach a wide audience with copywriters tapping into the nascent ideas of its audience.

6. Google

The final one for today comes from the famous and most used search engine on the market today, Google. Its slogan is “Don’t be evil.” As a corporation, its internal culture and external image, in turn, should reflect this.

With their hired crack squad of copywriters, their copywriting should exhibit, and often does, represent this simplified, to the point, and powerful values message. It’s great. It’s one of those integral pieces text to the entire image of the company. One which does not do evil.

Questions to ask yourself

What are the ways in which excellent copy is a backbone of both marketing and a companies message to its consumers?

How is being a copywriter, prospective or expert, important for providing an essential service in the marketing and advertising world?

What are some tips and tricks to take from some of the examples of great copy given by these companies?

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/11/15

When I sit at work on break, if I get them, I wonder as to the manner in which to conduct myself. There’s a sense in which the time spent sitting, pondering the time, is both a huge waste of utility and a point of rest and relaxation. I sit in this tension, wondering.

I think about the individuals who come and go, who flutter in and out of the doorways of the restaurant during a pandemic. In British Columbia, we’re set as a province. We have good healthcare. We have a culture of moderate care and concern. People are here for one another.

In this sense, whether a pandemic season or not, people have one another’s backs. British Columbians are good like that. When push comes to shove, even the less well off, they have an ability to show general care and concern for another person.

So, this culture of care is part and parcel with the relatively robust healthcare system. Even in the instances of restaurants struggling to make their way, I sincerely don’t sense resentment for having to shut down. A livelihood is lost. A source of community wealth generation goes away. However, people have one another’s backs.

Similarly, sitting here at the restaurant, we’re in the middle of a two-week lockdown. While, simultaneously, there’s not much of a change in the general culture. People come to eat out less. There’s a sense of greater safety precautions on the periphery.

However, sitting here, I can’t help but think of the Americans who are dealing with a far greater number of cases in total, per day, and with fewer healthcare provisions for poorer Americans. How are their businesses doing? How are those community suffering? How is rural white America handling the pandemic? It’s an aging population acquiring a highly contagious dis-ease in psychology and disease in a virus-based pandemic. The most cases, for now, are in the United States. That will likely become India later with some tight competitors in Brazil and elsewhere.

But even in spite of this, Canada feels well. It feels safe. It feels as if the correct measures are being taken to mediate the virus and help keep Canadians both safe and calm. Calm is important because many Canadians lack the correct knowledge to understand the deeper principles behind evolution and viruses. However, they understand hygiene and the maintenance of good, quality health.

On a break at the restaurant, I get to watch some of the dynamics of the population play out. Some things become obvious such as the dress and look of people who are caught in the pandemic. But they want to get out.

They have to travel out with the family if at all, in a sense. So, they will look alike, dress in a similar way, and look more or less common to the area. These are strangely the markers of a pandemic as played out in the rural regions of Canadian society.

And sooner or later, the break ends.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/11/13

I plan to take a walk to the cemetery this evening. One of the joys in taking time to oneself is the silence. A relationship with others, to some, such as myself, only becomes possible with the moments of silence.

Those times way from the crowd, apart from others. There’s a sense in which aloneness provides time for being. The time to refresh, relax, and regain some sense of self in a busy world of work and obligations.

It may seem counterintuitive to some degree. However, the idea of the modern world is constant movement. Something is in flux. In reality, it’s a world of half-truths and half-falsehoods.

We’re a global population of stationary butts and moving minds. Our fingers type away at the keyboard while the glutes stick to the proverbial cushion. In a time to walk away, into nature, late in the night, I find peace.

I find this as a time to relate to myself, to think, to ponder, to conceptualize, to imagine, even to dream. I take the time. I travel. I walk and take transit only. I live a simple, modest life.

I wouldn’t have it any other way. Alone with myself to take some time away from the world of the rushing digital landscape. When I head out, deliberately, I walk along the stride of others no more.

A cemetery, a graveyard, a tombstone here, a marking there, a stack of moss on stone over the beaten path, truly, they’re the piles of the forgotten. Those deemed in the past.

I walk by them going to work. It’s in the day. It’s not the same. It feels as if just a bunch more grass. There’s people around. They have things to do; hell, I have things needing doing.

When I go at night, there’s a sense of intimacy in relations with myself. The descriptor coming to mind is a “communion” of sorts. The sense of unity with the self in time, in silence, with the dead.

It can sound morbid. I understand, completely. However, I would propose or embark on a different interpretation of the sense of relationships and events. People play golf, knit, fish, hike, bike, walk, and so on, alone, sometimes.

This helps them get away from some of the stress of the day, make a mark on their psychological wellbeing. Rather than, the continuous integration in social life with others.

It is building a firmer sense of self and building a sense of self-understanding, or taking time away for personal development and/or wellbeing. When I take these walks to or through the cemetery, it is a time to reflect.

All those who had gone before. Everyone with a story as deeply tragic and hopeful as my own. A life full of the ups and downs of the ordinary. My sense of relationships is both interpersonal and intrapersonal.

You know others and yourself through others. Also, you understand yourself through yourself. In that, for the latter, time away is not exactly time of play. It’s a serious time for deep reflection, consideration, contemplation.

A moment in a day without the demands of social life or the rigorous requirements of work. I take this time for building personal peace, reflecting on the day, and to center my inner voice.

If you’re ever wondering about a cornerstone of mental health, then I consider one of the more critical parts as the knowledge of oneself. Part of this comes from self-reflection.

One of the only times to have time for this is in self-reflection. Because when in the company of others, your self can be diminished in some respects. You’re paying attention to the social cues and emotional needs of others.

While, at the same time, you’re having to gauge internal feelings and calibrate to the social situation and act emotionally appropriately. In this, you’re sense of self merges with the environment.

Which is fine, but for self-insight, you need to optimize internal resources. One manner in which to do this is to take time for yourself, in silence. For myself, this occurs amongst the dead and in the night, whether cold or cool.

I find this a way to sit, in quietude, as if as silent as moonlight on a gravestone.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/11/08

Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation… What I meant by ‘we would know the mind of God’ is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God, which there isn’t. I’m an atheist.

-Stephen Hawking

A world without ethics or morality comes only in the set of realities without conscious agents or in the set of null universes. A world comprised of matter and energy, or information, and potential, with conscious agents. One with implied pasts and potential futures.

No light, no ought, agency births ethics. Thus, the tale of the tribe: theology failed; no magic. A discipline of primitive eras and peoples — “primitive” meaning original — best set in the field of anthropology and archaeology now.

A verisimilitude to knowledge without the authenticity of actuality. A propinquity to materiality without substantive veracity. A claim to truth for a species in its youth. A “more convincing explanation” exists in the present situation.

Some approximation to the principles of ‘the mind of God’ without a god, as such. The set of possible universes remains larger than the set of null universes. Therefore, existence becomes statistically favoured more than non-existence.

With this, the statistical existence argument to a set of realities including time because more universes with a large finite number of moments exist than a set of realities with only one moment. Hence, a statistical argument for temporality on top of the statistical argument for existence.

Time as manifest in the Arrow of Time. ‘Old archaeological digs’ find arguments for a transcendent and immanent object. A source of The Good, an assertion of an extranatural atemporal and natural immanent entity as the source of ethics or morality. Theology failed to deliver.

One traditional partition in ethics comes from the Humean formulation of is/ought. Facts of the world versus actions in the world. A possible way forward of the is/ought solution sits in temporal statistical unavoidability or the inevitability of time in statistical considerations. Time implies sequences. Thus, the inescapable fact of consequences in a reality with time.

Another possible solutions comes from the bifurcation of realities. Consider for the moment, two sets of realities exist. One without conscious information processors. Another with them. In the first, no ethics because no conscious action. In the second, morality exists because of conscious action.

Morality may define principles governing behaviour or the conducting of an activity. If morality/ethics define as “principles governing behaviour or the conducting of an activity,” then ethics/morality become inevitable in the second set of realities. Because actions occur through conscious information processors.

Both sets of realities inevitably include time. Only one incorporates conscious information processors. In the only set incorporative of conscious information processors, time and morality become inevitable, statistically, as with existence. We come to the stream of statistical inevitabilities with statistical arguments for existence, temporality, agency, and morality.

If the set of possible universes remains larger than the set of null universes, then existence becomes statistically more probable. If existence becomes statistically more probable, then realities with more than one moment of time become statistically more probable than realities with only one moment of time.

If realities with more than one moment become statistically more probable than realities with only one moment of time, then one set will evolve conscious information processors and one set will not.

If conscious information processors evolve in one set of universes, and if morality/ethics define as “principles governing behaviour or conducting of an activity,” then evolving conscious information processors creates morality/ethics, because conscious information processors move or conduct activities.

If evolving conscious information processors creates morality/ethics, then ethics/morality become statistically inevitable in one set of universes. Thus, if the set of possible universes remains larger than the set of null universes, then ethics/morality becomes statistically inevitable in one set of universes.

The statistically probable occurrence of existence, of time, of agency, of ethics. If negated at any stage, the argument fails. If no existence, then no time, no agency, and no ethics; if existence and no time, then no agency and no ethics; if existence, time, and no agency, then no ethics; if existence, time, and agency, then ethics.

Ethics comes from agency. Agency comes from time. Time comes from existence. Existence separates from non-existence more likely than not. Is/ought remains preserved as separate ideas, but become coupled together.

Any act contains moral content without morality as an extranatural occurrence or with an implied metaphysical content. Natural informational processes evolve the organism with the structures generating both the interior landscape, the mind, and the exterior framework, the body.

Nothing extranatural invoked as, for example, brains produce valuations of entities, objects, abstractions, and relations between them. An error comes from the claim of ethical values or moral claims as metaphysical or supernatural. In fact, this adds nothing.

It posits more than necessitated and ignores the obvious. Evolved organisms exist in time processing information while giving value to things in reality. Where, an act in the world becomes something of factual content, as in contained in reality.

While, the factual content implies moral content because ethics/morality defines as “principles governing behaviour or conducting of an activity.” These acts come coupled with ethical content because of agency.

If a conscious information processor exists in a reality, then morality/ethics becomes unavoidable because the “conscious information processor” must deal with itself and its environment (if only one entity in the universe), or must deal with itself, others, and its environment (if more than one entity in the universe).

The distinction between is/ought comes with the preservation of the separation in one sense, where the individual ideas exist as substantive and legitimate in their own right. They, in fact, must give one from the other.

Thus, we can communicate meaning in terms of factual morality, not moral facts. Because, as above, ethics/morals are unavoidable for any reality with at least one conscious information processor, and time, at our scales, appears completely unavoidable, so consequences of “behaviour” in an environment seem inevitable.

A reality exists first with facts as pieces of the real world, then an agent, whether knowing or not, enacts mentation and action with moral content. Those two together make ethics unavoidable, so any facts must inform our ethics or morality.

Because ethics amounts to the conducting of an activity with activities relevant to conscious information processing systems and time implied in both the known physics of the universe at the scales of the conscious information processing agents, and in the sense of the agents existing and “processing.”

A macro world with the Arrow of Time means statistically linked moments with directionality. A world of conscious information processors (with physical exteriors, frames) creates actions in the world, even mentation can mean action in the world.

Both mean a time sense with moments providing a range of possible moments while harbouring a set of implied pasts based on each instantiation of moments. The only issue seems as if whether the conscious information processor becomes aware of the enactment of the ethic, or not, but there exists a moral value set enacted regardless, unavoidably.

Ethics requires the conscious information processing system, while without the necessity for sufficient awareness within the conscious information processing system for a systematic comprehension of the morality/ethics of the mentation and actions in the world.

Therefore, if ethics (actions in the world) are unavoidable with a conscious information processor (or conscious information processors), and if a conscious information processor exists on a magnitude in which the arrow of time exists inevitably, then any facts about reality impinging on a conscious information processor (or conscious information processors) and its environment (their environment and one another) have ethical consequences; everything factual implies the moral, but the “everything” is statistical, because existence statistically exists.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/10/05

Effective outreach into the public and private spheres for increased brand awareness on the part of the current customer base and the prospective customer requires more sophisticated and thoughtful approaches than in the past. However, many consistent guidelines exist in 2020 compared to other years as to the best manner in which to appropriately brand one’s company to the needs of a 2020 digital environment. Let’s cover 3 keys to online branding, in brief.

Gauge Brand Awareness

The importance of the knowledge of the general public about the brand cannot be understated. The other salient demographic are consistent and devoted customers to the particular brand. Think of the most popular and prominent companies in the world today, for example, Apple, Amazon, Walmart, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and the like, most people in most contexts have some awareness about these companies, these brands. This didn’t happen by accident.

They focused in a dual-demographic market strategy with a consistency of their brand via their products, what they’re selling, to the home base of people. Then they gave some outreach in their work to the demographic who are not buying their products or not buying their products as much. This dual-demographic strategy works to keep the customers as customers and to make non-customers become customers: simple.

No doubt, these international companies understand the level and the degree to which they have penetrated various markets, age demographics, ethnic demographics, sex and gender demographics, and so on. This awareness is fundamental to provide a pressure gauge or temperature reading about the areas of coverage and areas lacking it in regard to the company brand.

To your particular enterprise, whether a solo venture or a larger company, you will want to work within the skill and knowledge sets of the team to find and utilize analytics tools and techniques available, even simple social media metrics, to gauge brand awareness in the general non-customer public and in the public who already purchase from you.

Craft Brand Messages

Quite naturally, once a reasonable reading of the factual state of affairs about the individuals who do have an interest in the brand and those may have an interest in it is established, the next steps are the crafting of messages depending on the form of outreach. Some forms of outreach that will work for some mediums will not work in others. Similarly, some demographics cue in to different channels, e.g., Facebook versus Instagram, more often than others.

With the brand awareness gauged, the crafting of brand messages to specific demographics will be important on two levels related to the dual-demographic analysis. On the one hand, the customers will expect a particular kind of consistency in the messaging and in the things deemed attractive to them. Think about the style and ergonomic appeal of the iPhone year-after-year or the slight modifications to the Coca-Cola pops, their branding is consistent to meet the (reasonable) expectations of customers.

If they didn’t please their base, then they’d begin to lose their base who would expect to find their needs met elsewhere, of course. Why wouldn’t they? On the other hand, there are the individuals who have never know about the brand or haven’t fully bought into it. This can be extremely widespread, as in some of the cases with the Chinese tea traditions and the attempts at penetration via the pop industry.

In fact, this was a battle. How would one brand a pop message to a culture bound in many ways to a long perennial tradition of tea drinking? That’s partly on the branding in terms of the outreach along the lines mentioned before regarding age demographics, ethnic demographics, sex and gender demographics, and so on.

Measure Message Efficacy

Let’s say your team has built a killer brand awareness program and a series of drop-dead gorgeous and genius-level on-the-point crafted brand messages, the next questions revolve around the efficacy of the efforts in the same framework. All of this moving forward becomes part of the easier parts of the process.

Basically, in intervals or stages, depending on the required or desired timelines of the company, the ranges of the checkups can be initiated. These checkups would be seeing the effects of various brand messages on the intended audiences, good and bad. This further data can help inform the future forms of targeted, or crafted, branding for the relevant demographics of one’s company.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/10/04

Some short thoughts on the contexts for religion in Canada. Something of a gentle and friendly call for consideration of some aspects of theology in practical terms. My local context in Langley, British Columbia, Canada, is steeped in Christian theology and religion with the good and bad coming from adherence and lack of adherence to the Gospel, whether proper interpretation or not. People bring much individual conceptual baggage to the reading of their Scriptures. It’s a culture engulfed by some of the sub-culture of fundamentalist Evangelical Christianity with Trinity Western University. It’s a community, as with many others in the country, somewhat engulfed in the ideas of Creationism and Intelligent Design with particular orientations of focused eyes on purported holy scripture and the suggestion, nay assertion, of an Almighty Creator & Sustainer Father God of the Heavens and the Earth.

An individual who rises from death after a capital punishment in crucifixion. People believe this transcendent creature has plans for us, for individual human beings. In short, a community of faith, of belief in supernatural acts, with effects on individual choices of the shoulds or oughts for one’s entire life. The question: What if one denies this assertion, as increasingly millions of Americans and millions of Canadians reject it?

The expectations of choices for life become more open, less constrained, and, to those individual rejectors, probably less prone to magical thinking and errors in judgment about important questions in life. Apply this famous statement of Epicurus to the case of the torment and torture of a newborn infant or of a young child by a sadistic human, Epicurus said, “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

He directed attention to contradictions in supposed attributes of God. I direct your attention to the real world in which the tortures and torments happen regularly to the infants and children, wholly innocent, around the globe, by the millions. Meanwhile, God, or the gods, sit silent over the prayers and tears of the parents, or wails of agony and murders of the sinless young. Either indifference or absence seems like the conclusion to the assertion of the gods as defined. Without that particular God of the Bible, for example, what happens to the plans one placed one’s highest hopes? A trust in the self-contradictory or non-existent seems not much of a worthwhile trust in the end, again, to millions.

This leads into thoughts on personal choice and the future.

People with the aforementioned assertion act as told, or thought to be told, as written in the Bible and interpreted by, typically, a local pastor, preacher, or minister on Sundays, even an academic theologian (an ordinary, fallible human being, often a man). People without the assertion act as guided by contingencies of biology, individual psychological dynamics, and the cultural milieu of upbringing, as we both speak and write in English here, and make choices more independently and apart from supernatural or magical acts.

One doesn’t pray one’s way out of a problem, as prayer doesn’t or isn’t assumed to work in this view. Similarly, one isn’t divinely commanded top-down what to do in life. They choose without higher orders, bottom-up, and face the consequences positive and negative, as they come.

There is no governor anywhere; that’s a trust more fit for the world.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/10/03

“Does one need to believe in a god to live a fulfilling, meaningful, morally correct and upright human life?”

One of the more tentative conclusions, the question seems poorly formulated and quintessentially a North American one. I suspect influenced more by Judeo-Christian evaluations of the important items on the dossier of life. As America and Canada remain Christian dominant, or Christian majority population, nations while not Christian nations per se, whether in founding documents or in Founding Fathers (can be shown in either case), the narratives of the Old Testament and the New Testament and the life of Jesus Christ — no doubt — provide a guide to life and living from womb to tomb (Thanks, Cornell), often in select interpretations, for Christians. Duly note, I am not Christian in the sense accepted by my compatriots if I took on the garb, the title, though some interpretations of Christianity, e.g., Christian Humanism, seem palatable, even laudable, sophisticated, and intriguing.

The formulation of the question leads to two things.

A famous non-sense question in linguistics is, “Do colorless green ideas sleep furiously?” A non-sense question compared to sensible questions including “Does Mars orbit closer to the Sun in the Solar System than Uranus or Haumea?”, “Does Euclidean Geometry and its derivative in the Pythagorean Theorem map onto the real world?”, “Does cheating on a Winter examination violate university academic standards and practices as well as internal, personal ethical principles of honesty?”

For example, does one live life choreographed, i.e., pre-planned though boring, or discovered, i.e., exciting though risky, or something in between, or a combination, or something else entirely? So, I would answer the question after thinking about it, with another question, “Is there another formulation of the question, more general, more practical, and more concrete?”

Because life seems far more open-ended than that, and life seems more akin to wrestling than dance. More things, to the point, seem out of personal, individual control than inside of it. However, as someone who studies psychology can tell you, either a friend or a student (or former student), they will note the concept of the Internal Locus of Control and the External Locus of Control.

When we look at the types and degrees of control, and then the individual sensibility and evaluation of the control, some things seem within individual plans and choices while others cannot exist within personal control. There, we have two senses of control — Internal Locus of Control and External Locus of Control — and then the physical reality of personal choices and the wide array of external imposition on the personal choices, in spite of the external or internal sensibility of control, or the individual decisions in any given moment.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/10/02

The National Center for Science Education, as usual, has been doing a spectacular job in the United States in reportage and work on the advancement of proper science and science curricula and informational reportage on what matters in th long view for the health of global society with science, and the United States as a key player in the world’s scientific and technological advancement to date.

The NCSE was published in the national magazine of the Sierra Club in a feature entitled “Climate Curricula Hit US Schools.” In the article, the Deputy Director of the NCSE talked about the public schools as one of the last places in which most of the population of the United States will receive a formal instruction in science inclusive of anthropogenic climate change education.

Chance Duncan, NCSE Teacher Ambassador, was reported as helping in ‘defusing a legislator’s trying to block new state science standards in Arkansas in 2015.’ Duncan stated, “[If students] can leave high school understanding how they impact the environment and can make better choices about transportation or energy usage … I think that makes them better adults.”

With files from the NCSE.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/10/02

If you want to murder someone with an illegitimate excuse seemingly untouchable, then a decent manner in which to do so is the excuse of the State, as such, whether secular-authoritarian or theocratic.

Navid Afkari was executed. Afkari was a wrestler accused of murder who had “international appeals for him to be spared” (BBC). In the midst of anti-government protests in 2018, he was accused of killing a security guard. Amnesty International considered the ‘secret’ execution a “travesty of justice.”

Amnesty International reported, “Before his secret execution Navid Afkari, 27, was subjected to a shocking catalogue of human rights violations and crimes, including enforced disappearance; torture and other ill-treatment, leading to forced “confessions”; and denial of access to a lawyer and other fair trial guarantees.”

Afkari was searching for an opportunity to have a “fair trial” to “prove his innocence,” according to Diana Eltahawy. Afkari argued that he was tortured into making a confession. Afkari said, “If I am executed, I want you to know that an innocent person, even though he tried and fought with all his strength to be heard, was executed.”

He was hung in the southern city of Shiraz. Afkari was prevented from seeing family before death. The World Players Association (WPA), which represents 85,000 athletes around the globe, called for a stop to the execution, deeming Afkari “unjustly targeted.” The WPA argues the targeting was based on anti-government protest participation. They further argued, prior to the execution of Afkari on September 12th, that Iran should be expulsed from world sport.

“Given the impunity which prevails in Iran, we urge the international community, including UN human rights bodies and EU member states, to take strong action through public and private interventions,” Diana Eltahaway stated, “We deplore the Iranian authorities’ repeated use of the death penalty, which has earned it the shameful status of consistently being among the world’s most prolific executioners. There is no justification for the death penalty, which is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, and we urge the Iranian authorities to abolish it.”

There were calls in support of the late wrestler before and after the execution from American President Donald Trump and the International Olympic Committee, and others on social media. The punishments by the Iranian regime extended to Navid’s brothers, Vahid and Habib, with 57 years in prison and 27 years in prison, respectively, “in the same case.” This is according to various human rights activists in the country, as reported by the BBC.

Thusly, this mid-September, Iran lost a national wrestling champion due to an execution by state authorities.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/10/01

Women around the world have been increasingly vocal, alongside many men, and rightfully so, about the injustices facing their gender. Often, it comes tied to some theocratic leader or political ideology bent on suppression of the equal rights implementation for women. All the while giving airy, arid, and empty statements about the equality of women while lacking practical substance, pragmatic empirics, to show for all the bluster (and blunder).

#WhiteWednesday or White Wednesday is one such manner of public protest started by Masih Alinejad, who is also the founder of My Stealthy Freedom, which started as a form of protest as in May of 2017. My Stealthy Freedom began on May 5 of 2014. In this, #WhiteWednesday is a campaign and connected to My Stealthy Freedom as one of its outgrowths.

Its surface manifestation is in the presentation of white headscarves or white pieces of cloth as symbols of protest. The focus is international while originating within Iranian women’s culture because before the 1979 Islamic revolution; many Iranian women, in Iran so not necessarily in the wider diaspora, wore clothing in the Western style of the time.

However, with the imposition of Ayatollah Khomeini, as reported by the BBC in 2017, “Women were not only forced to cover their hair in line with a strict interpretation of Islamic law on modesty, but also to stop using make-up and to start wearing knee-length manteaus. More than 100,000 women and men took to the streets to protest against the law in 1979, and opposition to it has never gone away.”

Since May of 2014, women have been submitting photos and videos of defiance against the theocratic and rather patriarchal structures in Iran without the head coverings, women taking control of their individual lives, expressing solidarity in media to one another, and, in turn, inspiring other women too. Thus, #WhiteWednesday becomes a component of the overarching protest and spirit of My Stealthy Freedom. Both the brainchildren of Alinejad.

In 2017, Alinejad said, “When I expressed my concern about [one contributor’s] safety, she replied that she would rather jeopardise her job than continue living under this oppression that the Iranian women have endured for the last 38 years.”

It has affected the cultures of other countries too. Even in Afghanistan or other countries where it is not mandatory in accordance with the law to wear a headscarf, many women and girls can be forced to wear one within the family. As you can see, the main point is about the individual freedom of choice of the woman to wear the headscarf, or not, rather than the headscarf itself, which becomes an imposition either by law (theocratic, as far as I can tell) or by familial bond(age) bound to custom.

As the White Wednesday campaign continues as an extension of My Stealthy Freedom, we can support those efforts in solidarity, as the rights for some already won are merely starting to be won by others.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/09/30

As nationalism without inter-nationalism continues to mark down the discourse of the globe, some marked moments of science show the true beauty of inter-national collaboration through looking upward to the sky and outward from ourselves, especially in empirical evidence showing things previously only imagined. Recently, there was some news as to the nature of the most powerful gravitational wells in the universe: black holes. In a distant galaxy, at its center, there sits a gigantic black hole 40,000,000,000 kilometres across. It was photographed with a “network of eight telescopes across the world.” The details of the photography were published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The network of telescopes is called the Event Horizon Telescope or EHT. The original experiment was proposed by Professor Heino Falcke of Radbout University (Netherlands). The galaxy for this monstrous black hole is M87. Falcke said, “What we see is larger than the size of our entire Solar System… It has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. And it is one of the heaviest black holes that we think exists. It is an absolute monster, the heavyweight champion of black holes in the Universe.”

There is a “ring of fire” surrounding the circularity of the black hole. This halo surrounding the black hole is caused by gas becoming superheated and falling into M87’s black hole. The light from the bright halo surrounding the central galactic black hole of M87 is “brighter than all the billions of other stars in the galaxy combined.” This brightness permits ease of visibility to the EHT.

When the inner edge of the bright halo becomes dark, this is when the superheated gas enters the black hole. “Although they are relatively simple objects, black holes raise some of the most complex questions about the nature of space and time, and ultimately of our existence… It is remarkable that the image we observe is so similar to that which we obtain from our theoretical calculations. So far, it looks like Einstein is correct once again,” Dr. Ziri Younsi of University College London stated.

The reason for the darkness on the outer circular edge of the halo comes from the lack of light emitted for sufficient brightness to be picked up by the EHT. The inner edge becomes dark because the light from the superheated gas cannot escape the M87 black hole, or any black hole for that matter, because a “black hole is a region of space[-time] from which nothing, not even light, can escape.” The immense density of the matter compactified into the narrow region of space creates the basis for which the darkness because the black hole is present, though unseen because the photons emitted by the superheated gas become trapped in the gravitational well of M87’s central galactic black hole.

As stated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, “Learning about mysterious structures in the universe provides insight into physics and allows us to test observation methods and theories, such as Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Massive objects deform spacetime in their vicinity, and although the theory of general relativity has directly been proven accurate for smaller-mass objects, such as Earth and the Sun, the theory has not yet been directly proven for black holes and other regions containing dense matter.”

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/09/29

“Life as an atheist liberal feminist in the American South” by Caroline Shelton is a lovely self-reflection on the nature of identifying as an atheist and a feminist woman in the South of the United States. She talks about being put down, naysaid, in attempts to crunch her confidence while ‘expressing herself,’ honestly. Often, I come across stories like this.

She notes the more common reaction, “Not everyone is motivated by the rude words of others, and I understand why. It hurts when people expect you to fall into line at the cost of expressing yourself. Sometimes, it can be easier to keep the peace. Most people choose not to rock the boat with family. That’s where I have to disagree.”

Shelton recalls a 2010 era in which a post on a Facebook account critical of the Bible, as in a Bible printed without literal print on the page is better than one with ink of scripture present. She recounted some of the standard family responses these “radical beliefs.”

Coming from a Roman Catholic family, for her, became an obvious issue, the idea being: Shelton shall go to “Hell for a sense of humor.” Some of the commentary from family were more lukewarm, as a primer to the more extreme reactions to the “atypical beliefs.” In fact, when we look at the United States, it’s more non-atypical now, more typical of the American than not, especially in the last decade.

At present, she identifies as an “atheist socialist liberal feminist,” see as, by her account of “any southern Republican,” “the most dangerous combination.” The 2016 election was an inflection point for her.

“I was five days shy of being able to cast a vote, but nothing at the time was more important to me than electing our first female President, who could have been Hillary Clinton,” Shelton stated, “I was informed on policy, current events, and what I wanted for our country: Inclusion, tolerance, racial justice, and female representation in government. But none of that mattered.”

She asserts that, according to the family, the family — her family — viewed her as “a teenager unqualified to vote and therefore unqualified to have such opinions.” In other words, she was not seen as an adult for being deviant in the community. This is the experience for many freethinkers, in many communities, especially the virulently anti-freethought, i.e., the more religious sectors of the population.

As is expected, or on social reprisal cue, she was ‘told to move to Canada if she felt so unhappy.’ As it turns out, Shelton did move to Canada, probably to enjoy some better company. She has been in Montreal for three years now. However, she feels the same “dilemma” in regards to ‘holding her tongue’ “for the sake of family.”

“Coming to McGill has helped me find my voice, without being afraid to use it out of fear of familial strife. It took me 18 years and immigration to Canada, but I am now finally able to surround myself with like-minded people. McGill and Montreal’s international and diverse community has taught me that I need to speak up not only for myself, but also for our futures, whether on a local, national, or global level,” Shelton said, “I will take whatever comes my way; I can handle it. That’s because the current issues of racial justice, climate change, sexual harassment, misogyny, and unequal pay, to name a few, are no longer issues we can watch from the sidelines. So from here on out, I’ll be at every march, every rally, and every demonstration.”

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/09/28

“I was a religious zealot that hurt people. People said they attempted suicide over me and the things I said to them. People, I know, are in therapy because of me. Why would I want that to continue?” — McKrae Game

When irony strikes in life, it can strike while the metal is hot, for the betterment of the rights of the accused, so called accusations, and to the advancement of a culture of critical thinking. Mahita Gajanan in Time described the story of McKrae Game who is a former conversion therapy advocate.

Game founded a South Carolina conversion therapy program. He is its former leader. “Former” because he came out of the closet; he’s gay. Now 51, Game came out two years after being fired by the Hope for Wholeness program, which was founded in 1999. The explicit and sole purpose of the conversion therapy program founded by Game was to rid non-heterosexual people of their sexual orientation identity, which comes with the hidden premise of this as a lifestyle or not something innate to the human being.

This can be all fun and games to popular freethought groups. However, as noted by Game, these institutions, religious orientation and ideological backings, individual biases, and practices & practitioners, and the like, lead to people ‘attempting suicide’ based on “things… said to them” or enter into “therapy” because of it. People die because of this garbage. That’s why it matters to speak frankly and to act forcefully against it. I’m certain many people reading this are sick of hearing about it, maybe even know individuals in their lives impacted by it.

Game, in an article by the Post and Courier, said, “Conversion therapy is not just a lie, but it’s very harmful… Because it’s false advertising.” In the course of the career for Hope for Wholeness, he talked about sexual attraction to men while struggling with gay pornography. In November, 2017, he was fired. Game argues the pornography was the reason for the firing. He spoke to be “devastated” and “humiliated.”

The American Medical Association and American Psychological Association discredit conversion therapy; therefore, “conversion therapy” is not, by definitional status of two legitimate organizations, a “therapy,” but, rather, a ‘therapy’ and does not, in fact, “convert.” Its title does nothing of the former part of it and fails legitimacy tests of the latter point within the relevant professions.

Mental health trauma and thoughts of suicide are linked to “attempts at changing a sexual orientation or gender identity.” Approximately 700,000 “LGBTQ” adults in the United States have received the discredited ‘therapies’ seen in conversion therapy based on the Williams Institute published in 2018. Only 18 states and Washington, D.C., currently ban conversion therapy.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/09/27

GAMAAN — The Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in IRAN conducted a survey on the attitudes of Iranians towards religion. It was done between June 6th and 21st of this year. 50,000+ respondents took part in the survey, where about 90% of them lived in Iran.

The biases of the respondents to the surveys are being based out of Iran mostly, being literate and above the age of 19, while having “95% credibility level and credibility intervals of 5%” for the survey. Looking at religion also taps into some associated political concepts, too, one of the more presumptuous ideas about Iran is a nation of people who believe in a supernatural, governing, designing, and maintaining, entity: God.

78% of Iranians believe in God with less than half of that believing in an after life (37%), heaven and hell (30%), jinns (26%), and a coming saviour (26%). 1/5 believe do not believe in a God, an afterlife, heaven and hell, jinns, and a coming saviour. 60% of Iranians reported not praying and 40% varied in their frequency (devotion) to the level of praying, “among whom over 27% reported praying five times a day.”

GAMAAN reported, “While 32% of the population identifies as Shi’ite Muslim, around 9% identify as atheist, 8% as Zoroastrian, 7% as spiritual, 6% as agnostic, and 5% as Sunni Muslim. Others stated that they identify with or follow Sufi mysticism, humanism, Christianity, the Baha’i faith, or Judaism, among other worldviews. Around 22% identified with none of the above.”

Indeed, half of Iranians, based on the survey, report losing religion from personal life. 41% were stable while 6% changed “from one religious orientation to another.” About 6/10 Iranians came from a family who were religious believers in God and approximately 3/10 had a believing and not religious family — not sure as to the precise interpretive lens here. Less than 3/100 (not a typo) grew up or were raised in an anti-religious home. 68% believe the religious prescriptions should separate from state legislation; secularism appears as a fundamental desire to most Iranians. Only 14% think the laws of the country should be governing religious prescriptions, in “accord” with one another.

“71% hold the opinion that religious institutions should be responsible for their own funding. On the other hand, 10% thinks that all religious organizations, irrespective of their faith, should receive government support, while over 3% say only Islamic institutions are entitled to such benefits,” GAMAAN stated.

4 in 10 Iranians believe religions should have the right to proselytize their religion with only 4% believing in the exclusive right for Muslims. Another 4 in 10 believed in a blank ban on religious proselytizing across the board. 56% want secular education or not wanting their children to have religious education

GAMAAN said, “58% said they do not believe in the hijab (Islamic veil covering the hair) altogether. Around 72% opposed the compulsory hijab, while 15% insist on the legal obligation to wear the hijab in public.”

To the nightlife and drinking culture of Iran, there is “legally enforced alcohol temperance.” However, 35% of Iranians drink “occasionally or regularly” and 56% do not drink alcohol at all. For the full report, please kindly see here.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/09/26

There have been some recent reports as to the possibility of life on Venus. Is this an empirically verified or confirmed assertion from some recent news reportage? First things first, definitions, not necessarily, what is life? Instead, who studies that which has been defined as “life” on planets other than Earth? Those smarty pants are called astro-biologists with “astro-” meaning “constellation” or “star” and “-biology” meaning “study of life,” rooted in “biology” or “bio-” meaning “life” and “logy” meaning “branch of study.” Other prefixes used in place of “astro-” have been “exo-” and “xeno-” meaning “external” and “other”/“different in origin,” respectively. In this sense, astrobiology, exobiology, and xenobiology can be loosely interchangeable with astrobiology as, probably, the most used term.

So, to the question in some of the popular or mainstream reportage about Venus harbouring life, astrobiologists have looked for Earth-like planets as obvious candidates for planets harbouring life because the form of “life” known abundantly comes from Earth. As scientific skeptics, the obvious orientation on much of the popular media is, and should be, concerned skepticism and due critical thinking about the claims coming from the reportage because of the outlandish belief structures, individual beliefs, practices, and styles or processes of thinking throughout the culture, pervasive or ubiquitous. Nothing original in this orientation to the readership here.

When seeing such claims, it does seem “outlandish,” as if David Icke crawled out of the shadows and took over several news teams to froth at the mouth about aliens in the print of respectable publications, in spite of the decline in monetary funding of, professional and institutional support for, and socio-cultural trust in, media and journalism, understandably. However, astrobiologists have been working for some time on hypothetical scenarios outside of the N of 1 seen in the carbon-based life on Earth.

The key points of the reports, including Scientific American, come from the detection of phosphine. Mike Wall stated, “On Monday (Sept. 14), researchers announced that they’d spotted the fingerprint of phosphine in Venus’ atmosphere, at an altitude where temperatures and pressures are similar to those here on Earth at sea level.” If a detection of phosphine, then this means a “biosignature,” literally “signature of life.”

The preliminary discussion appears to revolve around the biosignature as truly a biosignature or as an indication of an “exotic” chemical reaction mimicking the signifiers of life without, in fact, originating from the processes of some form of microbes.

Pete Worden, executive director of the nonprofit Breakthrough Initiatives, said, “We have what could be a biosignature, and a plausible story about how it got there… The next step is to do the basic science needed to thoroughly investigate the evidence and consider how best to confirm and expand on the possibility of life.”

These developments, and public statements, can show the development of basic science initiatives and the advancement of science from discovery to channelization of resources towards further research in hopes of greater ‘bounty,’ scientific discoveries.

Jane Greaves, an astronomer at the University of Cardiff in the U.K., and lead researcher on some of the new research into phosphine on Venus as a potential biosignature. After some preliminary research, Greaves and colleagues managed to use the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) in March of 2019. The preliminary research was not a blip. Greaves was set for disappointment, but came to an amazing finding. She, and her colleagues, found more phosphine than expected or predicted. Not a conclusion, here, as to whether this is the true sign of life, but, rather, an indication as to increasingly supportive empirical evidence of unusual amounts of phosphine at unusual pressures and altitudes for both phosphine and the amount of phosphine.

Is this “life on Venus”? No, if it is simply an anomalistic finding, however, it could be, “Yes,” if further empirical support with the preponderance of evidence pointing to life rather than an “exotic” chemical reaction. Thus, maybe, but definitely, an unusual amount of phosphine raising intriguing questions about the possibilities of “life on Venus,” so “possibilities” and not conclusions.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/09/25

“If you believe there is a God, a God that made your body, and yet you think that you can do anything with that body that’s dirty, then the fault lies with the manufacturer.” — Lenny Bruce

Emerald Bensadoun in Global News published an article entitled “Canada just tabled legislation to ban conversion therapy. Why is it necessary in 2020?“ It’s a good query. The more fundamental question, “Was it ever necessary?” As it is not a scientific construct, as such, but, more akin, to the idea of sexual addict or sex addiction, by analogy, this comes to the idea in an extensive discussion with Dr. Darrel Ray of the Secular Therapy Project and Recovering From Religion.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-5 or the DSM-5 is the standard by which mental disorders are catalogued and given proper psychological reference at this time. Its last update was in 2013. The sexual addiction label was rejected in 2013 in spite of the proposal for inclusion seven years ago. The DSM-5/DSM-V does not incorporate “sex addict” or “sexual addiction” in itself. Thus, as Dr. Ray noted, to me, the idea of the psychological construct of sexual addiction is false or pseudoscience with the idea, in fact, extant as a theological construct within Christian counselling presented as if a psychological construct.

“There’s tons of evidence that the most religious people self-identify the most as ‘sex addicts.’ Not to mind, there is no such thing as sex addiction. There’s no way to define it. I have argued with atheists that have been atheists for 20 years who say that they are sex addicts. Help me understand, how did you get that diagnosis?… I do not care if you look at porn once or twice an hour. You are still not a sex addict. So, get over that,” Dr. Ray stated, “You may have other issues. You may have some compulsions. You may have some fear of driving the issue. But it almost always comes down to early childhood religious training… Sometimes, you can go an entire lifetime with a guilt, a shame, a fear, rooted in religion.”

When I reflect on the literal non-sense, lack of sense or empirical-based evidence, for conversion therapy, it breaks my heart. Why should non-heterosexual peoples have to be subjected to the non-scientific whims of the popular religious culture or the sub-culture of the religious devoted to the immoral practice of conversion therapy? The Government of Canada introduced legislation for the amendment of the Criminal Code in order to ban conversion therapy, which becomes a victory for the LGBTI [Ed. Terminology based on the LGBTI Core Group from the United Nations.] community in Canada, in part.

In fact, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, David Lametti, stated, “Conversion therapy is a cruel practice that can lead to life-long trauma, particularly for young people… It sends a demeaning and degrading message… [and] is premised on a lie.” This is important in its being candid. This is a point of unification of purpose for both the scientific skeptic and the humanist communities based on their core values because of the violation of proper science in therapeutic practice and the violation of fundamental human rights, respectively.

Five new offences would be added to the Criminal Code, including “causing a minor to undergo conversion therapy, removing a minor from Canada to undergo conversion therapy abroad, causing a person to undergo conversion therapy against their will, profiting from providing conversion therapy and advertising an offer to provide conversion therapy.”

Bensadoun reported that the legislation would permit courts to seize advertisements of conversion therapy or to “order those who placed the advertisements to remove them.” This lattermost point may be a point of contention more than the others with freedom of expression and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Now, if the bill becomes a law, Lametti stipulated that the law — with the five incorporative offences — would become the singular comprehensive and progressive legislation in the world on the banishment and punishment of the practice of an immoral and non-scientific practice. Indeed, this has been a Liberal campaign promise. Their website states:

Conversion therapy is a scientifically discredited practice that targets vulnerable LGBTQ2 Canadians in an attempt to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. There is international consensus in the medical community that conversion therapy is not founded in science and does not work.

To ensure that no one is subjected to this practice, we will move forward on our promise to work with provinces and territories to end conversion therapy in Canada, including making amendments to the Criminal Code that will prohibit this harmful and scientifically disproven practice, especially against minors.

Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, as provinces, have banned conversion therapy; Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary, as cities, have as well. Manitoba made a statement against the practices. Thusly, this is the tide of national history with much inertia, where the vector is more towards this federal ban rather than not.

The whole point or purpose of conversion therapy is to make a non-heterosexual person homosexual. Without empirical support for these therapies en masse, we come to the basic premise of a faith-based practice, which comes down to a religious orientation or perspective, thusly measured alongside “sexual addiction” a la Dr. Darrel Ray. In that, this pretends to premise itself, as a ‘therapeutic’ practice upon a psychological construct; whereas, in truth, this comes from a theological seeming or faith-based ideological idea of non-heterosexuality as a “lifestyle,” as something non-nativist or innate in which the sexual orientation of the person is a choice.

It seems like no accident that one of the communities’ victims reported comes from Langley, British Columbia, Canada, in the article by Bensadoun, where the infamous fundamentalist Evangelical Christian Trinity Western University is hosted; the largest private university in Canada. Apparently, The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) released a report arguing for conversion therapy as more prevalent in Canada than thought before. One of the “harrowing accounts” is of “Canadian Harper Perrin, who staved off efforts to change their social [sic] orientation at a church in Langely [sic], B.C.” Perrin reported on the attempts to change the ways in which they “walked and talked, making them very mindful of their body and making sure they lived a ‘masculine expression.’”

All this is perfectly clownish and silly, and degrading, except for the fact that this is truly happening rather than in some comic book or piece of fiction. People who I know and love — and I’m sure for most of you reading this it’s the same context — suffering or being unduly discriminated based on false notions and quack practitioners of faith-driven non-science. Bensadoun stated, “Faith-based organizations like the Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity (formerly known as NARTH) still exist in Canada, and a majority of them have offices that operate in multiple provinces. It provides ‘Sexual Attraction Fluidity Exploration in Therapy,’ ironically abbreviated ‘SAFE-T.’”

In some other previous interviews, I have come across the stories of suffering, sometimes of triumph. Take, for example, the case of Peter Gajdics who is an award-winning writer. He published The Inheritance of Shame: A Memoir in May of 2017. His “triumph” came from speaking a truth in public deemed uncomfortable. It probably saved his life. He was subdued and subjected to a 6-year ordeal of conversion therapy in one of the provinces unlisted within the conversion therapy ban provinces (“Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island”), which, in context, is one of the unusual ones. Vancouver City banned it; British Columbia did not. Although, the far West coast of Canada, to some, is seen as a highly progressive portion of the country in spite of some of its Bible Belt.

Gajdics, in an interview with him entitled “Author Peter Gajdics on Conversion Therapy,” provided a succinct statement as to the ideational constructs undergirding “conversion therapy” and its associated falsities:

“Conversion therapy,” also known as “reparative therapy” or even “sexual orientation change efforts” (SOCE), really took hold in direct response to the burgeoning gay rights movement of the early 1970’s, particularly after the American Psychiatric Association’s 1973 decision to declassify homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. As gay liberation exploded over the next several years and gay people carved out their own place in history, taking great strides toward visibility and self-worth, in some cases legal vindication, the religious right advanced its own ideology of being “ex-gay” — that it was possible to sort of “pray away the gay.” Personally, I don’t really like this term, “pray away the gay,” since I think it reduces what is actually a traumatic experience to the sound of a joke, and the process of attempting to strip away a person’s core self and “convert” them into something that they’re not is anything but humorous: lives have been destroyed and even lost in the name of this kind of ignorance and outright hatred. Ultimately, there was nothing new to any of this; what we call “homosexuals” or even “gay” people today have been victims to all sorts of strange methods and ideologies to help “change” them, or at least to help conceal them, over the centuries. In the 20th century alone we’ve seen aversion therapy, castrations and lobotomies, inhumane use of psychotropics, and of course forced psychoanalysis as a common “cure.”

“Inhumane” seems like the coda to this long, long history of injustices carried forward by faith-based standards of thoughts and cultural thrust. Bensadoun’s article covers some more cases and organizations relevant to this subject matter for those interested.

Canada, if it moves forward with the transition of the bill into a law, can become a comprehensive and progressive core global leader in these efforts of the advancement of empirically-informed public policy and the protection of the fundamental human rights of LGBTI people in our society.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/09/23

As of the time of writing this article — September 17 (2020), 6,400,000+ Canadians have been tested for the coronavirus with over 140,000 cases, 8,500 active cases, 123,000 recovered cases, and 9,200 deaths or mortality cases based on data from the Government of Canada. Everyone knows the general recommendations coming from the Canadian Government, from their health authorities, and… from their grandmothers, i.e., wear a mask, wash your hands, physically distance at least 6 feet or more, etc.

This will focus less on the obvious and more on the interesting myths, which have arisen in the time of the coronavirus. These resources come more comprehensively from the World Health Organization. Only a select few covered here. There was misinformation about the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine for helping clinically with COVID-19. It does not. It helps with “malaria, lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis.” Current evidence suggests the drug does not reduce deaths of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

COVID-19, the disease, is caused by a virus and not by a bacteria, as it is part of the Coronaviridae family of viruses. This means, antibiotics do not work for COVID-19, because antibiotics do not work against viruses. Antibiotics can be recommended by a provider of healthcare if some complications involve a bacterial infection alongside COVID-19. No current drugs have been licensed as effective in prevention of treatment of COVID-19.

The World Health Organization stated, “The prolonged use of medical masks can be uncomfortable. However, it does not lead to CO2 intoxication nor oxygen deficiency. While wearing a medical mask, make sure it fits properly and that it is tight enough to allow you to breathe normally. Do not re-use a disposable mask and always change it as soon as it gets damp.”

An important fact about COVID-19, as indicated by the above-mentioned statistics from the Government of Canada: Most patients of COVID-19 recover, many die, but most recover from COVID-19. Here’s a fact, too: Drinking alcohol does not, in any way, protect from COVID-19. It, in fact, “can be dangerous.”

This one was simply too odd when I came across it. Some think COVID-19 can be spread via houseflies. There is no evidence to suggest this, at this time. So, a fear of houseflies spreading COVID-19 is not something to fear. It cannot be spread by mosquito bites either. Cold weather and snow don’t kill it; hot baths don’t prevent it; hot and humid climates can spread COVID-19. Exposure to the sun or 25-degree Celsius weather will not protect from COVID-19. Bleach taken orally — and, presumably, rectally/anally — will not cure COVID-19. It is “extremely dangerous.” (Only attempt if you wish for candidacy for a Darwin Award. See: “Mortality Statistics at the Top of the Article.”)

“Do not under any circumstance spray or introduce bleach or any other disinfectant into your body. These substances can be poisonous if ingested and cause irritation and damage to your skin and eyes,” the World Health Organization warned, “Bleach and disinfectant should be used carefully to disinfect surfaces only. Remember to keep chlorine (bleach) and other disinfectants out of reach of children.”

Mainly, as the fact of the matter, it spreads from touching surfaces that are contaminated in which someone then touches their eyes, nose, or mouth, after touching the infected surface. Also, the droplets from coughing, sneezing, and speaking, are another means by which COVID-19 is spread.

Lastly, 5G mobile networks do not spread COVID-19.

Thank you for your patient attention.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/06/21

Christian is a Philosopher that comes from Belgium. What identifies him the most and above all is simplicity, for everything is better with “vanilla flavour.” Perhaps, for this reason, his intellectual passion is criticism and irony, in the sense of trying to reveal what “hides behind the mask,” and give birth to the true. For him, ignorance and knowledge never “cross paths.” What he likes the most in his leisure time, is to go for a walk with his wife.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: When I reflect on journalism as an enterprise, in many ways, I view the work as something akin to a relinquishing of the formalities of Communication Theory and Information Theory and brought down to the ordinary level, even ordinary interviews and data-collection can be a source of insight into the human condition at a profound level. Without the formalities of Communication Theory and Information Theory, we have the basic idea of the transmission of non-general information in the sense of human-to-human communication as the emitter and the receiver, and vice versa, for a conversation or a dialogue: a human brain, a human diaphragm, and a human vocal system, and another human brain, another human diaphragm, and another human vocal system. All with variations in the quality of transmission plus the ‘noise’ in between all of this. Journalism, in popular culture, seems almost akin to art, like painting or poetry, but its operations seem much more precise and non-general, and general, in a number of ways. Precise in working within the narrow band of human communication; non-general in the information transmitted is not understood much by non-human animals and in various qualities by human animals; and, general, when taken in the context of its intended emitters and receivers, in its capacity to speak of a large string of things about and within the universe — far beyond the contexts of ancestral environments. What is the purpose of journalism to you?

Christian Sorensen: I consider that “journalism’s artistic character” is one of its “fundamental values,” since through this it achieves “an effective and meaningful communication,” both by being able to “read events from within,” and by interpreting them from “a unique angle,” while simultaneously “empathizing” with the “audience needs and sensitivities,” and this last in turn claims its “right” to be “adequately and timely informed,” in order to feel through this way “correctly interpreted” in its most profound desire.

Jacobsen: What are some other appropriate analyses of journalism to you?

Sorensen: A “journalism,” that together with having the ability to “visualize deeply” the “facts from within,” is besides “rigorously descriptive” in such a way, that “its history” conforms “as objectively” as possible “to reality” of what actually has occurred.

Jacobsen: How is journalism failing in some of the modern societies now?

Sorensen: Through “rhetorical sensationalism fixation” with “forms,” to “fund detriment,” and through “journalistic prostitution” or said in a subtler way, by kneeling down towards “exchanging favours,” for leaving aside all “kinds of ethics” and the “commitment” to “truth search,” in compensation for some sort of “economic and political” benefits.

Jacobsen: How is journalism succeeding in some of the modern societies now?

Sorensen: Insofar as it has been “independent journalism,” and has committed to defending “human rights.”

Jacobsen: Should there be any limits on journalism? If so, what? If not, why not?

Sorensen: I consider that “its limits” are related to the duty of “respecting and promoting human dignity” in all possible ways, and likewise with “freedom,” in the sense of protecting “people’s rights” regarding their “individual intimacy” and access to “reliable information.”

Jacobsen: How will journalism function after this onslaught against the truth, veracity, and empiricism over the 2010s?

Sorensen: I hope that “journalism” works with “greater reality sense,” and a “truer awareness” regarding “inalienable needs,” such as those concerning to the “search for truth,” so as to achieve in that way superior “reliability degrees,” and the attachment with “empiricism” in order to arrive at “successful objectivizations” regarding phenomena.

Jacobsen: Who are some admirable journalists to you?

Sorensen: Raymond Aron and Laurent Joffrin.

Jacobsen: Why do autocratic governments kill journalists, murder them?

Sorensen: Because “autocratic governments,” deep down “don’t tolerate” the “search for truth,” nor the “defence of human rights,” or “critical judgments” which are proper to “contestatory” speeches.

Jacobsen: Why should we respect or disrespect journalism as a field for democratic societies?

Sorensen: We “do not have” any duty “for respecting journalism,” since it’s rather they themselves who are the ones who first of all “must learn how to respect themselves,” and therefore the former would be “consequence” of the aforementioned, and not the other way round as is commonly believed, due to the fact that by “being loyal” towards their “proper role,” then they will “self-enable” to “fully comply” in democratic societies, their “mediating function” so that “communication” may exist within them.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/05/08

Atheists United organized a run to raise funds. Well, if you’re a walker or a runner, or something else, like a biker or a (rock n’) roller, then you were going to be in (virtual) company, as they organized this virtually for a Black Skeptics Los Angeles (BSLA) COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund. This is a great initiative for a community or a bunch of communities in dire need.

Sikivu Hutchinson and others have continually been at the forefront of focus on secular communities who are LGBTQIA+ affirming, and who are predominantly people of colour. If you left the Black Church, the Nation of Islam, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, or some other religious group, where would, or could, you go at that point? One of the answers is the secular communities of colour who Mandisa Thomas, Sikivu Hutchinson, Bridgett Crutchfield, and a number of others have been at the forefront.

The May 7th 5k (not in miles!) was planned for the same day as the National Day of Prayer of the Christians who consider America a Christian nation, i.e., Christian Nationalists. With the coronavirus pandemic, particularly in America, raging onward, a virtual 5k fundraiser seems like a delightful way to have done some good for secular communities who don’t get as much attention or as good a treatment as one would necessarily hope.

Kudos to all who took part!

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/05/08

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f you haven’t had the time and would have an interest in some of the great audio content produced by the secular communities around the world, and if your time has opened more with the coronavirus, then you may want to check out some of the great content produced by the National Secular Society or the NSS.

They have released a podcast with conversations with leading secular personalities around the world including, recently, in Episode 25, Andrew L. Seidel from the Freedom From Religion Foundation who is a U.S. constitutional and civil rights lawyer.

Alastair Lichten and Andrew talk about some of the important issues of the day for the separation of church and state. One of these is the idea of religious exceptionalism and the warped idea of religious liberty in a society in which it, like others, remains embroiled in a fight against a pandemic. How does a concept of religious exceptionalism and religious liberty fit into this picture?

When a religious permits exceptions for itself, then, in a manner of (faux) rights speaking, then it provides for itself the exception to the rules for everyone else based on the fact fo it being a God-given right to enter a place of worship or to pray in public spaces, etc., while in a pandemic, when the most prudent actions have been recommended by medical (scientific) authorities, including lockdown, physical distancing, and wearing of masks, etc.

With one case being the lack of access to places of worship of holy days, these restrictions apply to all. Some religious institutions, leaders, and individuals propose to be exceptions to the rules for everyone else. This may be mild privileges for oneself in the past. Now, in the midst of a pandemic, it is that and more because it puts others’ lives at risk.

Humanism teaches social responsibility and personal responsibility. So if an individual wants to harm themselves, then we can socially work to prevent this; while, at the same time, if the individual blatantly forgoes those health recommendations and demands on the part of the health authorities for the health of everyone else, then this individual becomes a health threat to themselves and others based on a psychological state of denial of the facts before them. That’s only one case.

Seidel and Lichten unpack some of these thornier issues of individuals preaching religion as a means by which to acquire unusual and exceptional privileges apart from others, including other religions and those without religion. Thus, the term “religious exceptionalism” may, in fact, best be stated as “particular religious exceptionalism” as, typically, one religion gets the benefit over other religions and over no religion.

Their episodes are available on our website, with videos on YouTube and post-session transcripts available.

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/05/05

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — May 5, 2020 — PRLog — Canadian Humanists are supporting calls from Humanists International to have Mubarak Bala released from a Nigerian jail. Bala, who is president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was arrested by Nigerian police April 28 following a complaint the had insulted the prophet Mohammed in a social media post. Bala, who is a former Muslim, has been arrested without formal charges. Bala’s lawyer has not been allowed access to his client.

“The right to be charged within 24 hours of arrest and the right to legal counsel are enshrined in Nigerian law. In addition, we would request: if Mr. Bala is charged with a crime, then the charge is, or those charges are, heard in a secular as opposed to a Islamic court, as he is a humanist, atheist, and former Muslim,” said Scott Jacobsen, international rights spokesman for Humanist Canada. Humanist Canada Vice-President, Lloyd Robertson, said Canadians can support Mr Bala’s defence campaign organized by Humanists International by visiting:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/free-mubarak-bala

He added that international support is important for the protection of minorities.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/04/28

“The two previous productions by Dr. Silverman and I were Short Reflections on Secularism (2019) and Short Reflections on American Secularism’s History and Philosophy (2020). The third production began on January 1, 2020 and completed and April 1, 2020. The focus for this particular series of conversations was the nature of the phrase, “If youth knew, if age could,” and, in fact, remained the title of the series throughout the publication. The origin of the phrase is Sigmund Freud, which comes with a semi-colon in place of a comma. Nonetheless, this reflects the nature of the partition between the things one can do and the things one can know, and the things one can’t do and the things one can’t know, depending on the time in life for the person. The intended audience for this publication is the youth Humanism crowd. The main publication devoted to this community is Humanist Voices within relevant networks for me. This became the basis for the inclusion of this series in Humanist Voices. As per usual, the subject matter ranged a significant amount with a thematic exploration of the things of one can know with more age and can’t do with more age, or things one can’t know with less age and can do with less age. Mother Nature and Father Time are significantly in charge of the human condition and the impacts of both on human nature and human dissolution cannot be ignored. While with this reflection, at the same time, the deep, generative ties between generations over long periods of time can lessen the truth of the statement as an isolation of the young and the old, and being together a respect for the knowledge and experience of the old who became wise and the young with the foresight to listen and the conscientiousness to carry out the knowledge and experience to fruition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Scott Douglas Jacobsen
1HUMANIST VOICES
aIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 1 — Freethought for the 21st Century
bIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 2 — Freethought for a Multipolar World
cIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 3 — Coming of Age in an Ever, Ever-Irrational World
dIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 4 — Bridges are the Rainbows
eIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 5 — We Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, No-Time Soon: Supernaturalistic Traditions and Naturalistic Philosophies in the Future
fIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 6 — Age is Numbers, Youth is Attitude
gIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 7 — The Nature of Nature in the Nature of Time
hIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 8 — Serendipity, Luck, and Love
iIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 9 — Guidance Without Expectation of Reward: or, Thus Saith the Landlord
jIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 10 — Nature’s on a Roll, or a Rigamarole, or Somethin’: Plural Processes, Dynamic Dynamos, and Good Enough
kIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 11 — Morrow’s Fantasia: My Tomorrow’s ‘Tomorrow’
lIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 12 — By ‘Soul,’ We Mean Psyche: The Complete Human Being
mIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 13 — Sifting Sense and Nonsense: B.S. Detector, the Baloney Detection Kit
nIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 14 — A Rational Life Includes Non-Rational Parts
oIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 15 — All Things Bright and Wonderful, and Unknown: What Do We Know, Really?
pIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 16 — Take Some Time: Virtues and Virtuous Habits
qIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 17 — Family: The United Nations and Conservatism
rIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 18 — Plato’s Demon and Platonic Friends: or, A Mathematician Who Can Reason and Friends With (Other) Benefits
sIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 19 — Archimedean Pivot: To Take a Stand and to Move the Earth
tIf Youth Knew, If Age Could 20 — Newton’s Sight Came From the Hind: A Send-Off
License and Copyright

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/04/28

“Des personnalités exceptionnelles viennent du plus large éventail de considérations pour moi. En cela, les plus grands paramètres d’inclusion possibles dans la catégorie rare et raréfiée pour les critères d’une «personnalité exceptionnelle» ou d’une personne exceptionnelle créent les bases d’une véritable représentation de l’éventail de l’excellence humaine. Un tel critère émerge dans l’endurance. Un autre vu dans le leadership. Imaginez, un instant, si vous voulez, la vie d’un écrivain qui travaille dans l’un des endroits les plus pauvres et les plus compliqués — en termes économiques, géographiques, politiques, etc. — du monde entier, du territoire palestinien occupé ou du Le TPO comprend Gaza / la bande de Gaza, Jérusalem-Est et la Cisjordanie. En outre, considérez la vie d’un gribouilleur qui gribouille ou, plutôt, tape sur la religion dans une culture dans laquelle la religion reste au sol au sens de soi et de la connexion à quelque chose de plus grand que soi pour un large contingent de la population locale. Pour le crime de mots, soit sur un écran ou sur du papier imprimé, l’individu devient vilipendé avec la meilleure option disponible comme fuyant le pays de la persécution et fondant ensuite une organisation nationale consacrée aux anciens religieux, ex-musulmans.

Waleed Al-Husseini, né le 25 juin 1989, semble être une personne aussi exceptionnelle. Il a écrit de Qalqilya, une ville palestinienne de plus de 40 000 habitants, en Cisjordanie, en tant qu’ancien musulman ou ex-musulman sur les questions de laïcité et d’athéisme. Il a mis fin aux pratiques islamiques et a rejeté la proposition de l’existence d’Allah et de Mohammed en tant que messager final présumé d’Allah. Al-Husseini a satirisé la religion sur Internet. Pour le crime d’humour contre une religion protégée, Al-Husseini a été arrêté en octobre 2010 par l’Autorité palestinienne ou l’Autorité palestinienne pour blasphème. Apparemment, le Theity sait tout, peut tout faire, ne peut toujours pas gérer une blague. Ses représentants sur Terre proposent de le savoir. De nombreux pays, basés sur les campagnes de diverses organisations humanistes, ont œuvré pour éliminer les lois nationales sur le blasphème avec un certain succès, y compris au Canada et dans d’autres pays. Les questions demeurent quant à la raison de l’existence de lois sur le blasphème en premier lieu. Pourquoi un acte blasphématoire, sur l’affirmation de la réalité de cet acte comme substantiel, crée-t-il la base pour la considération d’un crime dans les sociétés?

Un blasphème équivaut à la prétendue insulte ou au manque de respect pour une divinité ou un objet sacré. Ces êtres hypothétiques ou objets matériels considérés comme inviolables et sacrés d’une manière extra-matérielle, surnaturelle ou métaphysique. Si l’on considère ces accusations comme des faits ayant une valeur juridique et morale, alors l’affirmation devient la vérité ou l’actualité du système de jurisprudence et d’éthique derrière l’idée de blasphème. En cela, il faut croire en l’existence de la Divinité ayant la capacité d’insulte personnelle pour étayer les allégations d’actes blasphématoires, de violations légales ou morales, contre elle. Alors que les sociétés laïques existent censément, si elles continuent à fonctionner avec une loi sur le blasphème dans les livres juridiques, alors ces sociétés laïques, en partie, courtisent une profonde contradiction interne aux propositions laïques nationales en tant qu’État avec l’instanciation d’une loi explicitement non laïque sur la base de la croyance requise susmentionnée en un ou plusieurs dieux. Ce n’est pas une affaire compliquée, la motivation constante de la peur et de la terreur de la part des chefs religieux et de certaines communautés rend difficile le suivi du raisonnement clair et des preuves en raison des représailles apparentes contre les individus qui affichent les allégations de contrecoup et déclarent l’évidence, la logique, le sens.”
— –
“Exceptional personalities come from the widest range of considerations to me. In that, the largest possible inclusion parameters in the rare and rarefied category for the criteria of an “exceptional personality” or an outstanding person creates the foundation for a real representation of the range of human excellence. One such criterion emerges in endurance. Another seen in leadership. Imagine, for a moment, if you will, the life of a writer who works in one of the most impoverished and complicated — in terms of economics, geography, politics, and the like — places in the entire world, occupied Palestinian territory or the oPt comprised of Gaza/the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank. Further, consider, the life of a scribbler who scrawls, or, rather, types, on religion in a culture in which religion remains ground zero to the sense of self and connection to something larger than oneself for a large contingent of the local population. For the crime of words, either on a screen or on printed paper, the individual becomes vilified with the best option available as fleeing the country from persecution and then founding a national organization devoted to the former religious, ex-Muslims.

Waleed Al-Husseini, born June 25, 1989, seems like such an exceptional person. He wrote from Qalqilya, a Palestinian city with a population over 40,000, in the West Bank as a former Muslim or an ex-Muslim on issues of secularism and atheism. He stopped Islamic practices and rejected the proposal for the existence of Allah and Mohammed as the final purported messenger of Allah. Al-Husseini satirized religion on the internet. For the crime of humour against a protected religion, Al-Husseini was arrested in October, 2010 by the PA or the Palestinian Authority on the charge of blasphemy. Apparently, the Theity knows everything, can do everything, still can’t handle a joke. His representatives on Earth propose to know this. Many countries based on campaigns of various humanist organizations have worked to remove national blasphemy laws with some success, including in Canada and other nations. The questions remain about the reason for the existence of blasphemy laws in the first place. Why does a blasphemous act, on the assertion of the reality of this act as substantive, create the basis for the consideration of a crime in societies?

A blasphemy amounts to the purported insulting or lack of reverence for a deity or sacred object. Those hypothetical beings or material objects considered inviolable and sacred in some extra-material, supernatural, or metaphysical manner. If one takes these charges as factual ones with legal and moral standing, then the assertion becomes the truth or actuality of the system of jurisprudence and ethics behind the idea of blasphemy. In that, one needs to believe in the existence of the Deity with the capacity for personal insult to substantiate the claims of blasphemous acts, legal or moral violations, against it. While secular societies supposedly exist, if they continue to operate with a blasphemy law in the legal books, then these secular societies, in part, court a deep internal contradiction to national secularist propositions as a state with the instantiation of a law explicitly non-secular based on the aforementioned requisite belief in a God or gods. Not a complicated affair, the constant drive of fear and terror by religious leaders and some communities makes following the clear reasoning and evidence difficult because of the apparent reprisals against individuals who flaunt the claims of backlash and state the obvious, the logical, the sensible.”

TABLE DES MATIÈRES
Crépuscule des idoles: Conversations avec un Franco-palestinien sur le sécularisme
Remerciements
Préface de Scott Douglas Jacobsen
1CANADIAN ATHEIST (Français)
aInquiétudes pour la sécurité de la communauté française ex-musulmane
bEx-musulmans masculins et féminins — Interprétation narrative et évasion
cMises à jour sur les ex-musulmans en France et ailleurs
dWaleed Al-Husseini sur le fondamentalisme et la réforme en islam
eL’état de l’Etat et de la mosquée avec Waleed Al-Husseini
fL’ex-Blasphémère musulman en France: Waleed Al-Husseini
gLois sur le blasphème, peur et hostilité et ex-musulmans français: Waleed Al-Husseini
2CONATUS NEWS/UNCOMMON GROUND MEDIA LTD. (Français)
aEntretien avec Waleed Al-Husseini — Fondateur du Conseil des ex-musulmans de France
bQuestions-réponses sur les ex-musulmans avec Waleed Al-Husseini — Séance 1
cQuestions-réponses sur les ex-musulmans avec Waleed Al-Husseini — Séance 2
3THE GOOD MEN PROJECT (Français)
aCritiquer l’islam, devenir un «criminel», être torturé et quitter l’islam
bWaleed Al-Husseini 2019 pour le Conseil des ex-musulmans de France
4NEWS INTERVENTION (Français)
aHistoire française laïque récente
bWaleed Al-Husseini sur les restrictions de la parole, la laïcité et plus
5MEDIUM (Français)
aLibertés pour les ex-musulmans français
bWaleed Al-Husseini sur les femmes et l’islam
cWaleed Al-Husseini 2019 pour les ex-musulmans français
dLe sort des ex-musulmans avec Waleed Al-Husseini
eWaleed Al-Husseini sur le soutien et le sanctuaire pour les ex-musulmans
Twilight of the Idols: Conversations with a French-Palestinian on Secularism
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Scott Douglas Jacobsen
6CANADIAN ATHEIST (English)
aConcerns for Safety Among the French Ex-Muslim Community
bMale and Female Ex-Muslims — Narrative Interpretation and Escape
cUpdates on Ex-Muslims in France and Elsewhere
dWaleed Al-Husseini on Fundamentalism and Reform in Islam
eThe State of the State and Mosque with Waleed Al-Husseini
fThe Ex-Muslim Blasphemer in France: Waleed Al-Husseini
gBlasphemy Laws, Fear and Hostility, and French Ex-Muslims: Waleed Al-Husseini
7CONATUS NEWS/UNCOMMON GROUND MEDIA LTD. (English)
aAn Interview with Waleed Al-Husseini — Founder of Council of Ex-Muslims of France
bQ&A on Ex-Muslims with Waleed Al-Husseini — Session 1
cQ&A on Ex-Muslims with Waleed Al-Husseini — Session 2
8THE GOOD MEN PROJECT (English)
aCriticizing Islam, Becoming a ‘Criminal’, Being Tortured, and Leaving Islam
bWaleed Al-Husseini on 2019 for the Council of Ex-Muslims of France
9NEWS INTERVENTION (English)
aRecent Secular French History
bWaleed Al-Husseini on the Restrictions of Speech, Secularism, and More
10MEDIUM (English)
aFreedoms for French Ex-Muslims
bWaleed Al-Husseini on Women and Islam
cWaleed Al-Husseini on 2019 for French Ex-Muslims
dThe Plight of Ex-Muslims with Waleed Al-Husseini
eWaleed Al-Husseini on Support and Sanctuary for Ex-Muslims
License and Copyright

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/03/14

1. Canada is the 22nd-highest infected nation. Top 5 are China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, and Spain. SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 (“SARS” means “Severe Acute Respiratory Disease”) is in 149 nations and territories now. There is no prevention, at this time, only mitigation, as the virus spread too fast with too little in the way of serious protocol and reaction on the part of the international community.
2. Canada has a total of 225 cases. 70 or more in B.C. We are a potential pandemic-vector province now.
3. Canada had 27 new cases since yesterday. We are a “low risk” country. That’s a growth rate of 13.6% *in one day.* That means a potential doubling rate of the cases every 5 to 6 days. That’s why this is taken extremely seriously as a) a rapid contagion spread rate and b) with its high lethality rate. *This is not the common flu or comparable to the common flu based on expert testimony on the subject matter.* It’s more comparable to the Spanish Flu from 1918, as noted.
4. Canada has 1 death, 1 serious/critical case, and 11 recovery cases. A caveat, Japan found the first *re-infection* case. This may make the virus far more lethal than previously expected.
5. SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19, potentially, mutated into an aggressive and a mild form with the older S-type deriving the new L-type. S-type is the mild form. S-type jumped from non-human animals to human animals. L-type evolved within human animals. L-type is the aggressive form. L-type and S-type SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 are *both involved* in the global infections. If new forms evolve, then all vaccines in-development become potentially virtually useless to these new forms.
7. Symptoms: fever, followed by a dry cough. After a week, shortness of breath with ~20% of patients requiring hospital treatment, rarely seems to cause a runny nose, sneezing, or sore throat. 80.9% of infections are mild, can recover at home. 13.8% are severe, including pneumonia and shortness of breath. 4.7% are critical, include respiratory failure, septic shock, and multi-organ failure. 2% of reported cases: death. The risk of death increases the older you are; relatively few cases are seen among children.
8. Timelines: mild cases: approximately 2 weeks; severe or critical disease: 3–6 weeks.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/02/04

TORONTO, ON — (February 4, 2020) Canada will open the first dedicated shelter for abused fathers and children thanks to a philanthropic gift from digital technology powerhouse Grindstone Capital. Grindstone’s contribution of $80,000, the largest gift from a corporate partner, brings the fundraising campaign to a successful conclusion by triggering a consortium of eleven additional donors and surpassing the goal of raising half a million dollars.

Grindstone Capital president Philip Keezer said: “Grindstone Capital is proud to support the Canadian Centre for Men and Families. Equal access to shelters such as this one is a small first step in a broader effort to achieve gender equality. Grindstone values knowledge and awareness, and by knowing the facts we can all create a better world.”

“Imagine you and your child live each day in fear of violence, but no one believes you,” said Canadian Centre for Men and Families Executive Director Justin Trottier, who is leading the initiative. “That is the situation for thousands of fathers every year.” Single father families are the fastest growing family form in Canada. Yet while the caregiving role of dads quickly expands, fathers who are suffering violence in the home still have no safe place designed for them and their children.

But now a global paradigm shift is underway. In March 2019, the UK government earmarked one million pounds to victim services for men and boys. In Canada, women’s shelters have started accepting boys and men, while senior staff from social service agencies across the country have joined an Advisory Board to support the current project.

The initiative shown by Grindstone Capital is opening new doors by catalyzing corporate sponsorships and philanthropic gifts which pushed the campaign over the finish line.

“We are so grateful to Grindstone for their courageous leadership in bringing corporate social responsibility to bear on a unique cause that will transform so many lives,” said Trottier. “We are excited to be working in partnership with Grindstone to pioneer a movement toward a gender-inclusive approach to domestic abuse that guarantees no family suffers in silence.”

CONTACT

Grindstone Capital
www.grindstonecapital.ca

Justin Trottier
Executive Director
Canadian Centre for Men and Families
jtrottier@menandfamilies.org
416–402–8856

Grindstone Capital is an international holding company, based in Montreal, that supports entrepreneurs in achieving their online business dreams. From website creation and payment processing, to marketing and advertising, Grindstone’s portfolio companies work in synergy to remove all technical barriers faced by the modern business owner.

The Canadian Centre for Men and Families is a health and social service agency that responds to boys and men in crisis; reducing suicide among men at high-risk, strengthening the father-child relationship following separation or divorce; supporting men and children who are victims of family violence.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/01/23

VANCOUVER, BC — (January 23, 2020) At Vancouver’s University of British Columbia, the International Council on Shared Parenting is hosting the 5th gathering of leading scholars, researchers and advocates to present new ideas and discuss issues of best practices on shared parenting. A first for this conference is a focus on the intersection of shared parenting and family violence. A recent article in Psychology Today by the event Co‐Chair Dr. Edward Kruk, outlines the conference.

The conference’s initial line up includes an eminent list of presenters with more speakers being added:

* Malin Bergström, Ph.D. of Sweden

* Denise Hines, Ph.D. of USA
* Emily Douglas, Ph.D. of USA and conference Co‐Chair

* Edward Kruk, Ph.D. of Canada and conference Co‐Chair
* William Fabricius, Ph.D. of USA

* Alexandra Lysova, Ph.D. of Canada
* Chantal Clot‐Grangeat, Ph.D. of France

* Alexander Masardo, Ph.D. of United Kingdom
* Michel Grangeat, Ph.D. of France

* Tonia Nicolls, Ph.D. of Canada
* Jennifer Harman, Ph.D. of USA

* Hildegund Sünderhauf, Ph.D. of Germany

Mark your calendar for May 29 ‐ June 1, 2020 for a unique opportunity to meet and engage the leading experts on the issues of shared parenting, domestic violence and best practices for both. What sets this conference apart is a variety of themes such as differentiating between high conflict and family violence, and implications for shared parenting arrangements; evaluating the impact of shared parenting in the prevention of family violence; developing guidelines for family violence education and training of divorce practitioners helping families develop parenting plans after separation; developing screening procedures for family violence; establishing safety and specialized procedures when family violence has been or has the potential to be an issue of concern; the logistics of a rebuttable legal presumption against shared parenting in situations of family violence; and developing alternatives to shared parenting in the context of family violence.

Registration begins in January of 2020. Sponsorship opportunities and media partnerships are welcome.

For more conference information visit: www.vancouver2020.org

For First Call for Papers visit: https://vancouver2020.org/about‐the‐conference/

Pre‐Registration is possible at: https://vancouver2020.org/pre‐registration/

CONTACT

Edward Kruk

edward.kruk@ubc.ca

The International Council on Shared Parenting (ICSP) is an association founded in 2014 with members drawn from scientific, family professions and civil society sectors. The purpose of the association is first, the dissemination and advancement of scientific knowledge on the needs and rights (“best interests”) of children whose parents are living apart, and second, to formulate evidence‐based recommendations about the legal, judicial and practical implementation of shared parenting. Website: www.twohomes.org

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/12/02

Men Are 75% of All Canadian Suicides: Toronto Billboard Ad Aims to Reduce Male Suicide, Empower Loved Ones

TORONTO, ON — (December 2, 2019) Men comprise 75% of all completed suicides in Canada, declares a new billboard advertisement appearing this week in downtown Toronto. The unique Campaign from the Canadian Centre for Men and Families is targeted at family and friends, and urges us to intervene in support of male loved ones at risk.

The visual, reproduced below, features a distressed young man hiding his face with a falsely happy mask. The text reads “Appearances can be deceiving. Men often suffer in silence. Help the men you love get the help they need.”

“This campaign is a call to action to each of us to look behind the mask at the hidden signs that the men we love are suffering,” said CCMF Executive Director Justin Trottier. “We are grateful to the crisis centres and mental health agencies who advised us on the creation of a billboard that would be effective at communicating this urgent message.”

The Campaign will integrate discussion at public events and online on facebook and twitter using #LetsTalkMen.

A press release and public launch will take place this Wednesday, December 4th at 7:15PM EST at the University of Toronto at the Bahen Centre for Information Technology, the location of two suicide deaths earlier this year.

Campaign spokespeople Prof Dan Bilsker and Prof Rob Whitley, Canadian experts in the prevention of male suicide, are available for media interviews.

Visit https://LookBehindTheMask.com for Campaign research, updates and events.

CONTACT

Justin Trottier
Executive Director
Canadian Centre for Men and Families
jtrottier@menandfamilies.org
416–402–8856–30-

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

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Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/11/02

According to the National Center for Science Education, there has been the death, unfortunately, of a distinguished anthropologist named C. Loring Brace IV on September 7, 2019, at the age of 89. Brace was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on September 19, 1930.

Brace was seen as an integral figure in the history of ideas related to biological anthropology with work on Neanderthals as an ancestral group to humans with collected works on craniofacial and dental measurements.

In fact, and surprisingly to some, he rejected typological labels for human groups. He wanted to “attempt to introduce a Darwinian outlook into biological anthropology.”

High school remains an important and influential part of life. With some of the salient experiences for the development of scientific interests at this time, for example, Brace began to read On the Origin of Species in this period of life.

Brace had confrontations with creationists, as can happen on a subject matter touching on the important issues of the origins of the human species as simply one in a long line of organisms and part of a common family tree of life.

As NCSE reported, “It is perhaps not surprising that he periodically grappled with creationists, contributing ‘Humans in Time and Space’ to Scientists Confront Creationism in 1983, “Creationists and the Pithecanthropines” to Creation/Evolution in 1986, and ‘Human Emergence: Natural Process or Divine Creation’ to Scientists Confront Creationism: Intelligent Design and Beyond in 2007.”

Brace considered the basic evidence for evolutionary theory as substantial and uncontroversial with a comfortable fit of the evidence to the theoretical underpinnings of evolution via natural selection.

Brace and his efforts are appreciated; he will be missed by loved ones and friends, and the community of scientists.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

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Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/07/08

According to the World Economic Forum, some research indicates general intelligence differences can lead to differences in the preference of social interaction or, rather, the lack thereof.

Smart people tend to want to be alone. A published study described the modern feelings and the needs evolved in ancestral environments. Among the minority, the highly intelligent, there is a statistical trend of the smarter being happier without a lot of people around them; whereas, for the normal person, friends and interaction with individuals make them happier.

Satoshi Kanazawa, a researcher from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Norman P. Li, a researcher from the Singapore Management University, proposed the “mismatch hypothesis” or the evolutionary legacy hypothesis.”

That is to say, the hypothesized or loosely extrapolated ways in which the conditions of the savannah for early human beings and the requirements for survival at that time.

As reported, “The study analyzed data from interviews conducted by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) in 2001–2002 with 15,197 individuals aged 18–28. The researchers looked for a correlation between where an interviewee lived — in a rural or urban area — and his or her life satisfaction. They were interested in assessing how population density and friendships affect happiness.”

Indeed, the happiness seems inversely related to the density of the population of one’s locale or local population. If we look at the report within the savannah theory of the two aforementioned researchers, the average human pack size was probably about 150.

Thus, our “neocortex” and “hunter-gatherer-societies” reflect people-groups of about 150, even 200, people as a computational capacity in the former category and the social organizational complexity in the latter category.

That is to say, individuals do not need much more computational capacity and social awareness than the 150 other primates right around the corner from them.

As reported, “The study discovered, though, that the negative effect of the presence of lots of people is more pronounced among people of average intelligence. They propose that our smartest ancestors were better able to adapt to larger groups on the savannah due to a greater strategic flexibility and innate ingenuity, and so their descendants feel less stressed by urban environments today.”

A self-evident assumption in our cultures are that good friendships increase life satisfaction; however, this may not, apparently, always be the case, according to the research.

Indeed, our cognitive heights appear to invert with the friendship numbers, where a small tight circle and then a bigger and expanded circle provide a basis for a loose agglomeration of them.

“Li and Kanazawa feel that we need look no further than the savannah. They say that friendships/alliances were vital for survival, in that they facilitated group hunting and food sharing, reproduction, and even group child-rearing,” the World Economic Forum stated.

The trend then reverses for those individuals with higher general intelligence. Smarter people, on average, feel happier with fewer people around to bother them, which means a healthier social life for more highly intelligent people than not highly intelligent people means being alone than with others.

The article concluded, “However… the study also found that spending more time socializing with friends is actually an indicator of higher intelligence! This baffling contradiction is counter-intuitive, at least. Unless these smart people are not so much social as they are masochistic.”

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/07/08

According to the NCSE, the Rhode Island’s House Resolution 5563 did not pass or “died” on March 27, 2019.

This specific resolution, 5563, was asking the department of education to develop a set of climate and environment principles, and concepts. Those would be incorporated in the curricula.

This would assist to “ensure that teacher professional development on the Next Generation Science Standards” utilize the climate as an important “exemplary anchor phenomenon” or a point of import regarding education.

There would be online materials online alongside this. The point, of course, is for the improved educational standards around climate and environmental literacy.

At the same time, there is a concomitant call for the necessity of students t know the derivative effects, down the stream problems created from the climate crises facing us, in their lifetimes.

As noted in the resolution, only 30% of middle school students and 45% of high school science teachers are adequately informed on these other issues surrounding and positively correlated with the climate problems ongoing and further upcoming.

“The resolution was sponsored by Terri-Denise Cortvriend (D-District 72), Kathleen A. Fogarty (D-District 35), Lauren H. Carson (D-District 75), Teresa A. Tanzi (D-District 34), and Justine A. Caldwell (D-District 30).”

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/07/03

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What is new with the books being put into the public space and translated now?

Faisal Saeed Al Mutar: Our audience, and our supporters, should be expecting the release of our books by middle of 2019. It is not all at the same time. But it make sure to release even some of them in chapters, for some of our target audience who have slow internets.

They will be able to download a book and be able to consume it slowly while the other part of the book is being downloaded. We, definitely, are trying to make sure that our content is consumed.

So far, Bayt Al-Hikma 2.0 has tens of thousands of likes. With the current version, the reach is in the hundreds of thousands on a weekly basis. That is, technically, a great beginning for this program.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/06/06

Those without formal religious affiliation in Canada may have an easier time than those who identify as such in the United States based on the report entitled “None of the Above: Having No Religion in Canada and the U.S.”

Professor of Sociology at the University of Waterloo, Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, and Professor of Sociology at Ambrose University, Joel Thiessen, reported on the research.

“Canadians are more inclined to say they are not affiliated to any religion. The country harbors a more accepting environment when it comes to exiting religion. The social stigma of leaving a belief system is much less,” the reportage stated.

Within the research, most of the data sets come from the United States, which can skew the research into this population of the secular. The bigger difference, according to Wilkins-Laflamme and Thiessen, is the earlier decline in the level of religiosity in Canadian society compared to American culture.

“Only four percent of Canadians claimed to have no religious affiliation in 1971. This number went up to 12 percent in 1991 and 17 percent in 2001. In the United States, the number of nones began to increase only later in 1972. It was five percent in that year and jumped to eight percent in 1990. In 2000, 14 percent of the U.S. population identified themselves as nones,” the article stated.

The religiously unaffiliated gained more rapid traction in Canada and, thus, were see earlier in Canadian culture compared to the U.S. Indeed, the U.S. saw a rise in the number of self-identified evangelicals within their civilization at the time of the decline in the religious in Canada.

In other words, the countries went, in part, on opposing religious-secular trajectories — more secular for Canada and more religious for America in some ways.

“Blended with a strong sense of Americans thinking of their nation as a Christian nation made it harder for nones Americans to come out. The researchers noted some parts of the United States continue to stigmatize people identifying themselves as nones,” the reportage said, “Since religion plays an insignificant role in the public life of Canada, the people of that country do not consider themselves to be living in a Christian nation.”

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/06/06

The Governor of Alabama signed a bill that bans almost all abortions within the state. These can include cases of incest and rape. In those instances, this amounts to a “latest challenge by conservatives to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy.”

Abortion activists within the U.S. have been working to block the enforcement of the state-based measure to prevent abortion measures in Alabama, along the lines of the high levels of restrictiveness seen in the bill. Some may see these as state level attempts to circumnavigate or circumvent the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling.

It is an emotionally turbulent subject matter for many American citizens, men and women. But this measure in Alabama would amount to amongst the most restrictive measures in the United States as a whole, if not the most restrictive in regards to abortion laws, etc.

Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed the measure into law, which is in a Republican controlled state Senate.

“To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God,” Ivey stated.

Some see this as a duty of God. Others see this as a “war on women, to quote California Governor Gavin Newsom.

In 16 states in the United States, there have been the introduction of legislation intended to restrict the rights of women in terms of abortion rights or, more generally, reproductive rights.

As reported, “Planned Parenthood joined the American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday in filing a legal challenge to Ohio’s recent ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.”

The bill in Alabama goes much farther and would ban abortion any time; only excluding if the mother’s life is in danger at the time.

The physicians who conduct abortions would be given a 99-year prison sentence (up to that long) and the women receive the abortion would be criminally liable.

Some see these as extreme. They are part and parcel of a fundamentalist religious effort ongoing in 2019, and prior to it, to restrict the abortion rights of women and the right to bodily autonomy of women.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/05/20

JAMA reported on the improvement in the levels of weight loss in those patients with some depressive symptoms. Those individuals with depression and obesity.

How can integrated collaborative care interventions help with the symptoms of both depressive and obesity? This simply means losing weight and not so perpetually sad as individuals.

These become important considerations for the general public, as care and concern for the obese and the depressed become issues of generalized health and wellness.

The findings from the report on 409 patients, so a large sample size, is that the integrated behavioural weight loss treatment with as-needed anti-depressant medication provisions improved the outcomes of the patients.

These resulted in, as reported, “statistically significant reductions in body mass index compared with usual care (−0.7 vs −0.1, respectively) and depressive symptoms (−0.3 vs −0.1 on the 20-item Depression Symptom Checklist; score range, 0–4) at 12 months.”

There was a significant, apart from statistical variations, improvements in the health and wellness as seen in the Body Mass Index or BMI and the depressive symptoms — as in a reduction of the severity of depression — for those who went through the integrated collaborative care interventions directed at obesity and depression.

With regards to the degree of the changes, the effect sizes, or the scale of the differences before the treatments and after the treatments, were “modest and of uncertain clinical importance,” which does not negate the statistically significant results found in the aforementioned statements about the report

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/06/06

Fareed Khan in the Ottawa Citizen made the argument that Bill 21 in Quebec, Canada’s, legislature is not about secularism, but, is, rather, about atheism as a way of looking at the relationship between the state, the province, and individual citizens in Quebec.

Khan stated, “… the manner in which the CAQ government of Premier François Legault is implementing its interpretation of secularism, and the anti-religious fervour apparent in the debate around the bill, demonstrates that the de facto state religion of Quebec is radical atheism, shrouded in the language of extremist secularism.”

With the separation of church and state, or place of worship and government, of religion and nation-state, within much of the western tradition, this becomes a premise or a part of the central arguments seen in the surrounding debate of Bill 21, insofar as Khan can see it.

“The intent of the principle is for the state to be neutral in matters of faith, not elevate the status of one faith over others, and allow citizens to practise their faith without fear of state coercion or persecution, particularly if their faith is different from that of the majority population,” Khan stated.

He does not see Bill 21 necessarily doing this. With the power of the Roman Catholic Church in the history of the Quebecois citizenry and the province of Quebec, this can create some interesting dynamics within the country. Indeed, there can be a shunning of religion, but only those not represented by the Catholic Church.

“Combined this with the historical racism that has been directed at minority communities in Quebec — particularly visible minority communities which are the targets of this bill — and you create a recipe for conflict,” Khan argues, “societal divisions and possible violence by radical, racist elements in Quebec who see these minority faith communities as threats to the “pur laine” nature of Quebec society.”

Khan makes comparisons with Nazi Germany in the 1930s and in China with the Falun Gong movement, into the present with the Uyghur Muslim minority population with mosques destroyed, Muslims imprisoned, and bonfires of Qu’rans in play.

Khan is careful to opine, “No one is saying that what is happening in China will happen in Quebec if Bill 21 becomes law. But history shows that the targeting and ‘’other-ing’ of minority communities leads to persecution, violence and ultimately atrocities.”

Others in commentary have differed on the association of secularism with atheism, and vice versa, and the notions of cultural religious displays, and so on.

Khan concluded, “The actions of Legault’s government make it clear that not only is it against public sector workers showing visible expressions of their faith, but it is also in favour of those same workers presenting atheism as the official faith of the Quebec government to the public as part of their jobs.”

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/06/06

Some of the more prominent case of women’s rights activism comes in the form of women and girls turning the tables on those who would objectify them through utilization of this in a variety of protest tactics. One of which is to go naked or in bras, and so on, in protest of the differential or double standard faced by women and girls compared to men and girls.

Recently, this came to the fore in Jerusalem when police officers rode in, on horses, and attempted to disperse a street protest being held by ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jews, which was on March 18.

As reported, “…a few women stripped the upper part of their bodies, and wore only bras- making protesters go away as they are forbidden as per dictates of their faith to look at the partially undressed women. This was a welcome relief for the police in Jerusalem as hundreds of protestors have earlier clashed with law enforcement on the issue of holding Eurovision Song Contest final during the day of Shabbat.”

Tel Aviv, Israel, was the place of hosting for the 2019 Eurovision event. Haneviim Street was blocked during the protest of the ultra-Orthodox Haredi. Many protestors attacked the police. “Shabbes” was shouted in Yiddish. The religious protestors asserted that the Eurovision 2019 event was desecrating.

“In retaliation a small women group counter-protested by taking off their respective shirts, revealing bras. The ultra-Orthodox Jews were forced to exit the venue. The protests were ignited after work permits for Eurovision was issued in the morning,” the article stated, “The permits incensed an ultra-Orthodox political party so much that they temporarily suspended all coalition negotiations and began their Jerusalem protest march.”

Those Jewish peoples who follow in the teachings and the practices of the ultra-Orthodox of Judaism have no work on Shabbat, which is a day of rest every week. It starts sundown in Fridays and then runs until the night falls on Saturday.

“One of the chief rabbis of Israel was not happy with the Eurovision schedule. He asked those who follow Shabbat to extend the observance of the custom in the holy day by about 20 minutes to mark their protest against the ‘great desecration,’” reportage said.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/06/06

A former priest, James Carroll, has prescribed that given the ongoing and rather perpetual failings of the hierarchs in the Roman Catholic Christian church; that there should be a move towards a dismantlement, at least on the issues of the abuse of children, for example, of the priesthood with the Church.

“In his article appropriately named Abolish the Priesthood, the American identifies the concentration of power in a celibate and an all-male clergy as one of the significant sources of the problem,” the reportage stated.

Carroll wrote about the secrecy or lack of transparency around the priesthood, the hierarchical concentration of massive amounts of authority and power, the sexual repression in the priesthood as a whole, and the general anti-woman or misogynistic elements of the hierarchical elements of the faith exhibited by it.

The report said, “Carroll, who was a priest for five years advocates the dismantling of the clerical hierarchy. Only by doing this, he opined, can the church end the almost permanent scandals and move into the modern age. It can also preserve the faith cherished by its believers. Carroll makes a compelling case for his prescribed action. The reader is logically presented with facts, as to how ending priests’ celibacy and allowing women to enter the church administration will benefit the Catholic church.”

The main point of the article was heavy critique from the point of view of a former priest but also for the maintenance of that which is genuinely good within the hierarchy and structure of the priesthood within the church.

“He stressed the church should import lay individuals into positions carrying real power. It must also foster complete equality for women officeholders in the Vatican power structure. Carroll went even further,” the article emphasized, “pushing for female sexual autonomy and a yes for pleasure and love and not only to reproduce when it comes to aim of sex.”

Some of his pragmatics included a call for the possibility of contraception and marital rights and privileges to the priesthood to change the current trajectory and prior history of the culture of the priesthood in addition to acceptance of homosexuals within the institutional Church.

Carroll called an end to the double standards including the dominance, in general, of the women over the men and believes that these changes are reasonable and enforceable within the institutional Church seen in the priesthood, as he noted with the changes brought about after Vatican III and a change to the Roman Catholic Church with “radically revised” teachings on the Jews after the Holocaust.

As reported, “former American priest recollected the “Christ Killer” slander being renounced by the church council which later affirmed Judaism’s integrity. He said that developments had made a more profound impact into Catholic tradition and doctrine when compared to clericalism being overthrown, involving the ordination of women or married priests.”

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/06/06

Anonymous political analyst and commentator on the recent semi-democratic/semi-fascist developments in India (“India is now a semi-democratic semi-fascist country”).

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Indian elections have ended with a victory for the BJP. What kind political part is the BJP?

Anonymous Political Analyst and Commentator: BJP is not a normal political party, it is political party inspired by fascism and extreme populist Nationalism. It has clearly tried to destroy democratic institutions in India, and in the process has damaged Indian economy. It has also become clear that no matter how much the BJP mess up the economy, no matter how much corrupt they get, no matter what they do, they will come back. To have any hope of replacing BJP in future, it is important is to understand, why they have won. At this point of time, it is clear that the conventional strategies to stop BJP in India have not worked, and sadly it seems that fascism is gaining roots in India.

Jacobsen: Why did the BJP win in India?

Anonymous Political Analyst and Commentator: The main reason why they have won is a very organized campaigning.

Many different sections of Indian society have voted for Modi and BJP.

They have projected many images of Modi, and different image suited for

different people. If you want to see Modi as a secular inclusive leader, you can do it, after all he stopped giving his speech, when Muslim call to prayers were made. If you want to see Modi as a right winged Hindu leader you can even do it, after the Hindu terrorist (suspect) Pragya Thakur, who had bombed mosques, is now a MP in his party. If you want to see him as a man of peace, you can do it, and if you want to see him as a man of war you can also do it. These muti-faces of Modi are shown to different audiences, and this makes them vote for him. He also has also purchased all the major news channels, and they make his wrongs also seem as rights, and any of his mistakes are never projected. In this situation, it is impossible to defeat him using the conventional methods.

Jacobsen: Is it possible to stop BJP in future elections, and save Indian liberalism and secularism?

Anonymous Political Analyst and Commentator: In those multi-faces there are two very different faces, which are usually mixed up as a single face. One is that of right winged Indian Nationalism and other is of Hindu extremisms. Both of them are seen as one, but actually they are not, and it seems as if this division, and this division alone can stop BJP and Modi. The Indian Nationalism might be flavored by Hinduism, but it is just the flavoring. The key features in Indian Nationalism is an exaggerated glorification of army, and deep hated for Pakistan, and even Muslims who do this are accepted as equally Nationalistic. The key features of Hindu extremisms is just deep hatred of Muslims, which can be extended to Christians too. As Indian Nationalism is flavored by Hinduism, this division is not easily seen, but it exists and needs to be strengthened, deepened and developed, if Modi is ever to be defeated. It has to be made so obvious, that Modi is forced to choose between one of these two positions, and when he does that that will mark the end of Modi.

Jacobsen: How can this be done by the opposition?

Anonymous Political Analyst and Commentator: This can be easily done at this time. Now that the opposition is totally finished, and the parliament is dominated by BJP, it is high time to promote such a division. What the Congress needs to do, is not for Rahul Ghandi to visit temples, which looks artificial, but for it to fund and raise a brand of Hindu ISIS, which will make extreme demands. These demands can be for Manusmrti to replace Indian constitution, for Muslims and Christians to be removed from army, for Muslims and Christians to not have a right to vote, for the construction of Mosques and Churches to be stopped, even sterilization of Muslims to stop their population growth. Congress can fund this real extremist Hindu organization from back door, like BJP funded the moment by Anna Hazare. When this organization takes this stand, the Hindu extremists (and terror suspects) in the parliament like Pragya Thakur will be drawn to it, and this will make them clash with right winded Nationalists. This can also cause a potential rift in BJP, and at this time, there is a hope for a split in BJP, or the rise of an extremist Hindu political party, which will be opposite to BJP for not being Hindu enough. This would also give a nice tune to Congress and the opposition, as they can then start speaking for Indian Nationalism as opposite to Hindu extremism.

Jacobsen: Can the opposition also destroy the Nationalistic image of BJP?

Anonymous Political Analyst and Commentator: The opposition can also make exaggerated demands for army, and against Pakistan, and try making Modi look as some one who is not so ring winded and not so Nationalist. They can start demanding a five fold increase in the salaries of army personals, and even ask demand India have a war with Pakistan. Now it is clear that neither Modi, nor any government can effort to have a war with Pakistan, but this rhetoric will put Modi in defensive position. It is also clear that in the present India, emotions work more than logic, so being seen as a mad war monger can actually benefit the opposition. They should try to make demands of a direct war against Pakistan, and this will destroy Modi Nationalist image. Then when the opposition actually comes to power in the next elections, they can improve relations with Pakistan.

Jacobsen: What are the other things that the opposition needs to do?

Anonymous Political Analyst and Commentator: Another thing that the opposition needs to do is to jointly invest in an anti-BJP IT cell. The media is totally corrupted and pro BJP, and the BJP has a very strong IT cell. A joint anti-BJP IT cell is the only thing that can stop the influence of BJP IT cell, and this has to be a joint venture by all anti-BJP political parties. This IT cell can be made up of many different unites. Some of them can be supporting extremist Hinduism, and attacking BJP and Modi for not being Hindu enough and not supporting Manusmriti. They can bring his pro Muslim image, when he stops during Muslim call to prayers, as an example of him not being Hindu enough. Others can attack him for being anti-National for not staring a war with Pakistan. It can even turn the tide, if the opposition demands a war with Pakistan. Then others can blame him for the economic problems in India. If this is done, then Modi can be defeated in future, and secularism and democracy saved in India, otherwise India will soon a replica of Nazi Germany.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/05/23

One of the board members, according to Humanists International, of the mothership of humanists at an international level of representation is facing sedition charges within the anti-terrorism act of Pakistan.

Sedition amounts to a charge against the state or a monarch. Gulalai Ismail is known as a defender of human rights and someone who devoted a significant amount of effort and time to the rights of girls and women.

The reason or the instigation for the charge of sedition comes from Ismail campaigning for the rights and justice for a girl who “was raped and murdered.”

As reported, “It was reported in Pakistani media today that an FIR (First Information Report) was raised against Gulalai Ismail in relation to a speech she gave at a rally earlier in the week. The accusation falls under the anti-terrorism act for ‘delivering seditious speeches and instigating masses against the state institutions.’”

Her — Gulalai’s — speech went viral on social media and, consequently, brought attention to an individual case of a girl who has her rights violated and, in turn, the general issue of violence against women and girls.

“Gulalai’s speech earlier in the week was widely circulated on social media. The rally and the speech were held to protest the rape and murder of a minor girl known as Farishta,” the article stated.

Farishta’s corpse was found in the Shahzad Town area. The order of the crimes was rape and then murder, not vice versa. Farishta’s family attempted to file a missing person report for her on May 15.

However, the police office took until the 19th — half of a week later — to register the FIR, so a proper search was not initiated there.

“Protesters at the rally his week were objecting to the perceived lack of interest or progress in the case up to that point. Subsequent to the protests,” the reportage said, “the government and state authorities have pledged to take action on the case and investigate the apparent inaction of police services. The accusation in the FIR is that this speech was ‘anti-state’ or ‘seditious.”

Such is the life of an individual who defends the rights of women and girls, apparently, this is common for activists who argue for the rights, freedoms, and responsibilities of women and girls.

In prior news reportage, as some reading this may know, the stipulations were that Ismail was committing blasphemy or a religious — not a secular — crime, in the promotion of the rights of women to equal treatment in legal and social life with the men.

“It is particularly concerning that Gulalai Ismail faces the prospect of arrest and detention again, having faced similar accusations several times in the past few years,” Humanists International said.

Now, a “significant” amount of social media activity has been devoted to this case. In short, Ismail may have a charge of sedition, purported. However, she won. The positive (and, granted, the negative) attention has been drawn to the case of the violations of the rights and ending of the life of a girl, Farishta.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/05/18

Deji Yesufu is a 42-years-old man from Ibadan, Nigeria. He earned an Electrical Engineering degree from Ahmadiyya Bello University and a Master’s Degree in Physics from the University of Ibadan.

He attended ABU Staff School for Primary School and Demonstration Secondary School. He wrote the historical account of a Nigerian officer killed during the Nigerian civil 50 years ago entitled Victor Banjo.

He also authored a theological work telling the history of the 16th Century Protestant Reformation called Half a Millennium — An Introductory Text to Protestant History and Reformed Theology. Other written works can be found here: www.mouthpiece.com.

He works at the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan, Nigeria, where he is a Senior Electrical/Electronic Engineer with the Department of Radiation Oncology. Yesufu has worked at the UCH for nine years now. He sees a necessity in the development of progressive leaders in Nigeria to set a different and positive political course for the citizenry of Nigeria.

Here we talk about his life, work, and views.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: If we look at the family background, what was it for you?

Deji Yesufu: I was born into a nuclear family — one man and one wife — this is against a prevailing culture of polygamy here in Nigeria.

Mother raised us up Roman Catholics, while father always practised Islam. I am the second of three brothers and two sisters.

Jacobsen: How did this background provide a context in early life for you — a grounding?

Yesufu: Living in a family where mother was Roman Catholic and the father was Muslim, I would eventually branch out to become Protestant, which offered me my first perception of religious pluralism and tolerance. My reading of Church History reveals the deep rancour that this created amongst people in the past, but, for us, it was never the case.

I should credit my dad for his non-insistence on a single religion for the family to follow. Although, I do not necessarily recommend this model to families. I think it worked out providentially for me, particularly in coming to grasp with Evangelical Christianity and being able to practise it with a certain freedom in my younger years.

Jacobsen: When you think about early religious upbringing, how did this influence you?

Yesufu: As I said, because there was a plurality of religion in my home, religion was not a major issue in my home while growing up.

I, however, must be thankful to some neighbours who introduced my siblings and me to more fervent religion. Nigeria is a nation that has suffered greatly as far as resources are concerned, so religion is opium indeed for us here. So, in my younger years, I encountered religion through the rising Pentecostalism in the 1980/90s. It formed my earliest perception of gospel realities.

During these, my Roman Catholic mother pointed out the hypocrisy of religion in men like Archbishop Benson Idahosa, so that even when I practised Pentecostalism I natural eschewed the Prosperity excesses that his brand of Christianity portrayed. I am thankful to God and my late mum for giving me that foundation in faith.

Jacobsen: What were some heartwarming experiences from the time?

Yesufu: I would not necessarily say there were “heartwarming” experiences that I had with religion in my younger days. I did, however, come away with a high sense of morality.

I always felt that I should live right; even though, I was not a Christian. I am grateful that I had such exposure to religion that constrained me through the path such that one did not make mistakes that were lasting.

Jacobsen: Who were pivotal and influential people for you?

Yesufu: I was “awakened” in faith in my teenage years by a certain Ghanaian man living in our neighbourhood in Zaria. He taught me the basic tenets of the Christian faith and created in me a hunger for God. I used to call that my “born-again” experience but today I call it my awakening experience.

Subsequently, when I was in 300 level, a roommate ministered God’s word to me. I said the sinner’s prayer. I felt that I had come to faith in Christ. This was March, 1998. I had some peculiar experiences in that encounter; but even when I look back on that experience, I cannot say for sure if I was converted at those times.

My conversion, I would owe first to God, and then to a book written by Dr. R. T. Kendall. It is called “Worshipping God”. The book explains worship and all its tenets as a Christian. It encouraged a life of worship. My conversion came when I read chapter titles like “The Joy of Doing Nothing”.

In this chapter, Kendall explained that some of God’s greatest works in our lives are things we could never thank him enough for. In that chapter, he introduced me to the doctrine of justification by faith. That book led me to investigate the writings of Paul in Romans and the lives and writings of the Protestant Reformers in the 16th century.

Somewhere along the line of that study, God opened my heart to believe the gospel and see Christ as my substitute. Christ gave me a love for his word and his truth, and since then I have been in pursuit of God and his ways.

You asked who were pivotal and influential in faith for me. I will look on all these as it but even more, Jesus Christ, is the greatest of influence for me.

Jacobsen: As a Christian, what most testifies to the faith for you?

Yesufu: The Bible. I regard the Bible as inspired: meaning everything written in it are the very words of God; inerrant: the Bible has no errors; sufficient: the Word of God is contained in the Bible; I do not need extra-biblical claims for faith in Christ.

Jacobsen: As an individual reader of the Bible, what specific books and narratives, and lessons, in the Bible speak the most to you?

Yesufu: The whole Bible speaks to me.

I am, however, thankful for the Epistles of Paul, particularly Romans.

The words of our Lord, Jesus, are especially sacrosanct and, for me, Paul does not contradict Christ’s words.

Jacobsen: What are some of the more important lessons for atheists, agnostics, and theists to learn from one another?

Yesufu: In these days of differing religious views, I believe we all can increase in tolerance for each other and in the ability to listen to one another. Our views may not change, but the freedom to hear the other person out is important.

In recent times, I have been intrigued by the ministry Dr. James R. White who debates various religions. I see how he listens to opposing views and very well represents their position, while respectfully showing where such views or positions contradict the Scriptures.

Andrew Kirk in the book “Loosing the Bonds” said that Christians particularly need to hear atheists out. That their criticism of our religion can help us live better as Christians.

By the way, I regard atheism and agnosticism as another kind of religion — a profession of faith without religion.

Jacobsen: How can interfaith and interbelief panels provide a context for dialogue and social acceptance & understanding of one another?

Yesufu: I think well-moderated debates will do this. The life and ministry of Dr. James White have proven this.

Jacobsen: Who are respected and important voices in the Christian world, in your denomination, who make solid arguments for the faith?

Yesufu: Many of them are dead! Lol. But the living ones would include but are not limited to:

John MacArthur Jnr.

James R. White

Ravi Zechariah

Conrad Mbewe

John Piper

and others.

Jacobsen: Any recommended books or authors?

Yesufu: Books by far are a must read for those who wish to know and practise historic orthodox Christianity.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Deji.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/05/14

According to the Toronto Star, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has taken a position on a comprehensive nondiscrimination bill stated to protect LGBT rights

It gives broad protections. This became the crux of the issue for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the LDS. The representatives of the LDS church stated that the bill, or the Equality Act, will be a direct threat to religion.

In the following senses, it will post a threat to religious employment standards, to religious education, and to the funding of religious charities.

As reported, “The church pointed out the importance of religions and religious schools having the right to create faith-based employment and admissions standards.”

The other religious groups who have stood in solidarity with the LDS in opposition to this have been the Southern Baptist Convention and the Roman Catholic Church.

This legislation adds gender identity and sexual orientation to the current federal nondiscrimination laws in “employment, housing, education, and public spaces and services.”

The Equality Act simply protects vulnerable individuals in society who, as of recently, have begun to have some modicum of respect, dignity, and representation within the society.

“The bill has widespread Democratic backing and seems certain to pass the House, but the chances appear slim in the Republican-controlled Senate,” the Toronto Star stated, “The Utah-based faith, widely known as the Mormon church, said it favours ‘reasonable’ measures to protect LGBT people’s access to housing, employment and public accommodations, but that such efforts shouldn’t erode the right for people to live and speak freely about their religious beliefs.”

The LDS church has been progressing in ways not seen, in terms of rapidity, in other faiths, which took much longer while other have not moved at all (or much).

The LDS church lives with the difficult context of wanting to affirm the rights of the LGBTQ community while also sticking within the boundaries of the faith on homosexual marriage and intimacy of same-sex couples.

This is difficult to straddle this line.

The article informed, “The church points to a 2015 Utah anti-discrimination law it backed. That measure made it illegal to base employment and housing decisions on sexual orientation or gender identity, while also creating exemptions for religious organizations and protecting religious speech in the workplace. The faith said the federal Equality Act doesn’t strike the right balance.”

In the minds of the officials of the LDS church, the difficulty lies between religious liberty and the rights of the LGBT community. They see the proposal in the Equality Act as something that is eroding the free practice of religion while also “preventing diverse Americans of good will from living together in respect and peace.”

U.S. Sens. Mitt Romney and Mike Lee have opposed the legislation.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/05/14

According to JAMA, in some recent research published on the life expectancies of the Norwegians between 2005 and 2015, there has been some interesting or intriguing general findings in the decades-long study on life expectancy amongst the general population in accordance with a slice of the economic and social strata of the society.

If an individual is amongst the more wealthy in the country, even in a “largely tax-financed universal health care system and moderate income differences” nation-state, we can see the question asked, “does life expectancy vary with income, and are differences comparable to differences in the United States?”

It becomes an important question too. If we look at some of the issues surrounding the context of Norway, the country should seem healthy and functional in regards to income inequality.

By many metrics, this country appears to be reported as a healthy society on the levels of income inequality within the society and on the provision of a functional healthcare system to its citizenry.

One of the issues seen here is the way in which income differences or social strata differentials can lead to alterations in the life outcomes of individuals within society.

3,041,828 persons at age 40 were studied for the ten year period.

As reported, “…the difference in life expectancy between the richest and poorest 1% was 8.4 years for women and 13.8 years for men. The differences widened between 2005 and 2015 and were comparable to those in the United States… Inequalities in life expectancy by income in Norway were substantial and increased between 2005 and 2015.”

This may have an application to other advanced industrial economies and Western, socially and culturally speaking, societies.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/05/14

The Toronto Star reported on statements by a Canadian politician from a pro-life perspective, which created some stir and a tad of controversy.

The Progressive Conservative MPPs, according to Ford, will have the opportunities to speak as they deem fit. But the government of the province of Ontario will not touch the issue of abortion anymore.

Ford said, “I don’t dictate to anyone what their beliefs are.” This was following statements of Sam Oosterhoff of Niagara West. He spoke at a pro-life or anti-abortion rally. Those who wish deny the right of abortion to women through some measures including illegality in many, most, or all respects.

Ford continued, “Can any of my members speak their mind? Yes, they can speak their mind, because not everyone in this legislature thinks the same… We have a big tent there.”

However, Ford was clear on the orientation of the provincial government not taking part in the opening of the abortion debate any longer. Oosterhoff and others stood to applaud the statements by Ford.

The article stated, “The MPP, who was also in the news last week after his constituency office called Niagara region police on a senior citizen’s book club that was protesting library budget cuts, told the crowd of hundreds of protesters last week he will work to make abortion ‘unthinkable’ and later quoted a children’s author to explain his position.”

The children’s book author was Dr. Seuss mentioning the mattering of someone no matter their size or “how small.” Oosterhoff has been an outspoken pro-life or anti-abortion politician in his early career to date.

One concern amongst the New Democrats is that the funding for the abortion services funded by the province could be cut to some degree in the midst of budgetary cuts by the government of Ontario under the premiership of Doug Ford.

“In the PC leadership race last year, Ford raised concerns he was cosying up to social conservatives by questioning why teens need parental consent notes to go on school trips but not to get abortions,” the Toronto Star stated.

MPP Suze Morrison stated that women have taken a long fight for bodily autonomy; with the cuts to the budget, this becomes a major concern for the women who rely on the health care system in Ontario for some of the services regarding reproductive health rights, including abortion services. All remain fundamental human rights.

The denial of the rights to abortion, for one, becomes a human rights violation as this would deny the fundamental right to abortion for women. Thus, this would become a violation of the right stipulated for decades by the United Nations.

“Ford referred the question to Children and Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod, who noted she supported legislation passed by the previous Liberal government to have 50-metre safety zone outside abortion clinics so women can enter free of harassment,” the article concluded, “‘This government will continue to stand up for women’s rights across this province, despite the rhetoric from the members opposite,’ said MacLeod, adding, ‘We respect debate internally within our caucus.’”

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/05/10

Newsweek reported on a massive dossier, at 1,200 pages, listing several priests and seminarians who are labelled as “actively gay” in Italy alone.

This was sent to the Vatican via the archdiocese of Naples. Francesco Mangicapra created the document. He is a gay male escort and did not like the hypocrisy of the priests and decided to do something about it.

He said, “The aim is not to hurt the people mentioned, but to help them understand that their double life, however seemingly convenient, is not useful to them or to all the people for whom they should be a guide and an example to follow.”

Now, an Italian Cardinal and the Archbishop of Naples, Crescenzio Sepe, stated that none of the named priests are currently stationed in Naples. Note, this does not deny the veracity of the claims in the large dossier.

Now, this is simply adding to the pile of accusations against members of the Catholic hierarchs around the world but, this time, focused on Italy in particular.

As reported, “Last month, an Italian court issued a 14-month suspended sentence to a Vatican tribunal judge for sexual molestation and possessing child pornography. Monsignor Pietro Amenta, a judge on the Rota (a court that hears mostly family cases), was arrested last March for publicly fondling an 18-year-old man in Rome.”

With the examination of the computer, the authorities found pornographic images of the young on the person computer. Then there was a plea bargain accepted by Paloma Garcia Ovejero, Vice Director of the Vatican Press Office. In an email from the Catholic News Service, it stated that he had “resigned as the prelate auditor of the Roman Rota.”

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/05/10

Md. Sazzadul Hoque is an exiled Bangladeshi secularist blogger, human rights activist, and atheist activist. His writing covers a wide range of issues, including religious superstition, critical thinking, feminism, gender equality, homosexuality, and female empowerment. He’s protested against blogger killings and past/present atrocities against Bangladeshi minorities by the dominant Muslim political establishment. He’s also written about government-sponsored abductions and the squashing of free speech; the systematic corruption in everyday life of Bangladeshis; and the denial of the pursuit of happiness.

In 2017, after receiving numerous threats, he was forced to leave Bangladesh out of safety concerns.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Are women treated differently than men in the Bangladeshi version of Islam?

Md. Sazzadul Hoque: Definitely, they are treated just as the holy hateful book Quran suggest them to do. Very selective few women were wearing hijab 20 years ago now it is widespread.

Jacobsen: How are they treated worse if so? What are the ways in which men are given special privileges?

Hoque: Injustice to women to a certain degree less than the other parts of the Muslim world but it is there. Oppression, brutality, rape, is an omnipresent fear in the women population.

Jacobsen: How will the Council of Ex-Muslims of Bangladesh provide a counter to this narrative?

Hoque: Proper information, the majority of these women do not know what that hateful book represents form them. They know how to recite but do not know the meaning. Council intent is to get this information accessible to this demography and show them an example of how women are treated differently in other parts of the world or another country where Islam is not prevalent.

Jacobsen: Who are some prominent Islamically-based bigots and misogynist leaders, thinkers, and writers in Bangladesh?

Hoque: There are countless of these kinds, to be precise the prime minister of Bangladesh herself (bigot) and her party. However, another party leader and parties such as BNP (Bangladesh national party). Although we have several women leaders in Bangladesh, but these are not by qualification rather hereditary leadership that does not mean there is not a misogynist member within these parties. Prominent Islamic bigot is, Ahmed Sharif.

Jacobsen: What can be effective means by which to combat them?

Hoque: International attention and criticism of the government and its policies regardless of who is in power. Bangladesh receives a lot of foreign remittance from the Middle East and a lot of these vile trickles down from there to Bangladesh. Because of their influence a lot of people and prominent Bangladeshi actor and actress are turning to hijab and religious extremism.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Sazza.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/05/03

The Ex-Muslims of India have a new Patreon account and could use the support. Within those calls for support, they can as a simple as a repost, a sharing, or a liking of this article through social media.

It could also be financial in some manner. The monetary support would be greatly encouraged by not only the ex-Muslims of India, but also, potentially, other ex-Muslim groupings and the collectives of the ex-religious who can be inspired by the efforts to form coalitions apart from a choice to not take part in the traditional religions on offer in the current period.

The Patreon account, in its current manifestation, states:

We are committed to bring out the truth of Islam and let people know that its not a peaceful religion but something we human don’t need it right now. We are also approaching innocent people who are in trap on Islam so they can live the life beyond the bubble of Islamic ideology.

This is a brand new account. Therefore, there are no supporters online at the moment for their account. However, the hope is to have this online support become more robust over time to provide some modicum of finances for the operations of Ex-Muslims of India. Please find the link here:

https://www.patreon.com/exmuslimsofindia?fbclid=IwAR2mSKTaYCMJYfOAYGTCzEWzG9VXO43AQSUoxli4WABj2eBoN3Yxrlddi1A

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/05/03

According to a recent report by the British Medical Journal, there is an often unethical misrepresentation of the work of corporations in the work for “social responsibility” or in their “social responsibility activities,” as these present a “sanitized and soft public image.”

This can be detrimental if not devastating to the work of corporations within the context of health and wellness, so wellbeing, of the general public.

Kamran Siddiqi, Professor in Global Public Health at the University of York, in the editorial, stated, “Among its many tactics, the tobacco industry has long been using corporate social responsibility activities to present a sanitized and soft public image while they continue to produce and promote their lethal products.”

This clean representation of that which is not clean creates a cloaked representation to the public compared to the complete reality of the situation. This could lead to “substantial damage to public health” based on the manipulation of public policy for corporate benefit without regard for the health of the general public.

A prime example is given with the Prime Minister (of Pakistan) Imran Khan offered a purported donation to fund a new dam for solving the energy and water crisis of the country.

Siddiqi said, “This happened a few days after the administration took a U-turn on their flagship policy of introducing ‘health levy’ on cigarettes as a way to increase public revenue and expenditure on health.”

About 20% of Pakistani adults consume tobacco on a regular basis. The definition or rate and extent of “regular” is not provided within the article. Nonetheless, this reported as leading to 160,000 deaths every year in Pakistan.

As a signatory of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention to Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), Pakistan put in place some measures in order to reduce the level of harm associated with tobacco.

“…including smoking ban in public places, restricting cigarette sale in packs of 20 only and increasing the size of pictorial health warning on cigarette packs,” Siddiqi explained, “However, the country has taken regressive steps on tobacco taxation, which is generally considered to be the most effective policy tool to curb tobacco use.”

Two years ago, the government of Pakistan implemented a three-level system of taxation. This permitted tobacco companies to alter the popular products from the higher tax to the lower tax, or the second tier to the third tier.

This is correlated with an increase in tobacco consumption by the general Pakistani public linked to more profits, by implication of increased sales, for the tobacco industry relative to Pakistan.

Siddiqi said, “Recently, the government has also allowed companies to start re-manufacturing cigarettes in packs of 10 for ‘export’ purposes, which might be brought back into the internal Pakistani markets, as many anti-tobacco campaigners fear.”

Thus, we come to the rather messy and not-so-clean image of the tobacco industry, in fact, compared to the one in the image. Now, the industry, the tobacco industry, is working to expand the “corporate social responsibility activities” into the Pakistani media, even further.

“These include offering cigarette gift packs to Pakistan Naval Forces and Prime Minister’s house, building a cigar lounge for members of parliament inside the Parliament House, setting up mobile hospitals and computer centers, launching tree plantation campaigns and sponsoring conferences and sign boards for public bodies,” Siddiqi stated.

The article concludes that the slowing progress on control of tobacco and its harmful effects on the public have begun to slow down. The recent legislation is working to increase the warning about the harms of tobacco.

There was a health levy, but this was regressed substantially. Leading to a response by the Federal Board of Revenue, it said the tobacco tax increases may increase the illicit tobacco trade.

More in the article listed in the reference.

Reference

Siddiqi, K. (2019, January 9). The hidden power of corporations. Retrieved from https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l4/rr-4.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/05/03

According to Ran Ukashi, National Director of the League for Human Rights or on behalf of B’nai Brith Canada, there was a purported antisemitic attack on the BerMax Caffé in Winnipeg, which turned out to staged.

As with the Jussie Smollett staged attacks and the African-American community, and as with the apparently staged attacks here, there should be, as per the note by Ukashi, a condemnation of the fabrication of a hate crime, especially in a period of a rise in hate crimes based on religion, ethnicity, and so on.

Ukashi stated, “Making false allegations of antisemitism does nothing to quell the rise of racism and discrimination in Winnipeg and across Canada and will embolden the conspiracy theorists and purveyors of anti-Jewish hatred who blame the entirety of society’s ills on the Jewish community.”

False attacks should not detract from the seriousness with which hate crimes on Jewish peoples, Muslims, African-Americans, and so on, are taken in the public discourse, as hate should never be tolerated against the general citizenry or individual citizens in this manner.

These false allegations make human rights work difficult for all human rights organizations, including B’nai Brith Canada and others. There is a unified effort to combat hate and bigotry in all its forms, as it arises, whether in anti-Muslim sentiment, in antisemitism, and others.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/05/02

Nature reported on a pressing and prescient warning of the dangers of a neutral tool: artificial intelligence. What is the threat of a neutral tool?

Of course, the threat comes in the form of the uses or utility functions provided to the AI by human beings, either as individuals or collectives.Nonetheless, Benkler reported on the ways in which private industry or industry in general continues to shape the ethic and, thus, the utility functions of a powerful and sophisticated hammer, artificial intelligence.May 10, 2019, is the due date for letters of intent to the National Science Foundation of the United States constructed for a new funding program entitled Fairness in Artificial Intelligence.This follows from the European Commission “Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI.” It was described, byan academic member of the commission, as “ethics washing” with the utter industry domination of the content.Google formed an AI ethics board in March, which fell apart in a week based on controversy. Even earlier, in January, Facebook invested 7.5 million USD into an ethics and AI centre at the Technical University of Munich, Germany.What does this mean for the direction of the future of AI and its ethic schemata? It means the blueprints are being laid by the chickens of industry.The input from industry, according to Benkley, remains crucial for the development of the future of AI. However, there should not be a monopolization of the power and the ethics.Both governments and industry should be transparent and publicly accountable in the development of the ethical frameworks developed for AI.Benkley stated, “Algorithmic-decision systems touch every corner of our lives: medical treatments and insurance; mortgages and transportation; policing, bail and parole; newsfeeds and political and commercial advertising. Because algorithms are trained on existing data that reflect social inequalities, they risk perpetuating systemic injustice unless people consciously design countervailing measures.”He provided an example of artificially intelligent systems capable of predicting recidivism. Those who differentially affect black and white, or European and African heritage communities.In addition, or similarly, this could impact policing and job candidacy of applicants. With the black box of the inclusion of algorithms and systems into an artificial intelligence, these could simply reflect the societal biases, which would be “invisible and unaccountable.”“When designed for profit-making alone, algorithms necessarily diverge from the public interest — information asymmetries, bargaining power and externalities pervade these markets,” Benkley stated, “For example, Facebook and YouTube profit from people staying on their sites and by offering advertisers technology to deliver precisely targeted messages. That could turn out to be illegal or dangerous.”More in the reference…ReferencesBenkler, Y. (2019, May 1). Don’t let industry write the rules for AI. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01413-1?utm_source=twt_nnc&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=naturenews&sf211946232=1.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/03/31

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What years did you run? What parties did you run for? When did you run federally and provincially?

Don McKinnon: In 1983, I ran provincially. In 1984, I ran federally and for the Liberal Party both times. In 1983, I ran because a school principal I knew closely wanted me to run. So, I ran.

In 1984, I ran because one of the school trustees wanted me to run. I ran for the federal Liberal Party. I won the nomination getting the majority with 14 votes.

Jacobsen: How have you seen the political landscape change and stay the same since the 1980s?

McKinnon: I don’t think the Liberal Party has changed much. I got mad at the Liberal Party in 1984. I got into an argument during a presentation. One politician got into an argument with me.

They said, “Even if you get elected, you won’t run the country. The Cabinet and the Prime Minister will run the country.” I decided that was the end of the Liberal Party for me.

So then, I joined the NDP. I have been active. But I haven’t run.

Jacobsen: You, at an early age, became an atheist. Why? Did this influence the political perspective?

McKinnon: I became an atheist when my mother sent me to Bible school. An old guy read the Book of Genesis and said that this is what it is all about. I realized that it all didn’t make sense. I left The UCC and never went back.

Jacobsen: What was the influence of religion in the country in the 1980s? Looking at it now, how is it different?

McKinnon: It probably differs. I don’t think a lot of people have changed very much. A lot of people are inactive in the churches. If you look at the churches, a lot of them are suffering from not having enough attendance.

The UCC in our area, for example. My cousin goes there. They used to have 5 churches 30 years ago. Now, they can’t have enough congregations to run 1.

Jacobsen: Do you think Canada is heading the way of Europe with the number of religious as a total as well as religiosity as a level? Fewer people in the polls, in the pews, fewer praying, and so on, fewer believing in it. The number of non-religious going up and the number of the religious going down.

McKinnon: If you look at the Catholic Church, for example, and The UCC, the traditional churches have struggled to maintain ground. There are a number of left-wing and right-wing evangelical churches doing okay.

But even then, they are struggling. The number of people attending is down. The people who do believe may simply not take much part in the Sunday gatherings.

The number of people who don’t go has probably declined.

Jacobsen: How has the Christian faith generally treated the Indigenous population? In other words, First Nations, Inuit, and Metis, in this country.

McKinnon: I spent 5 years doing adult education for the Department of Indian Affairs. I think that a scandal involving the use of Indian kids was more the responsibility of the church than the federal government.

I think the federal government closed its eyes. I don’t think people realized how much sexual abuse was going on in the Indian schools. I think the church knew and tried to cover it up.

That is, in a sense, the opinion of somebody who was right there. For example, my story about Ray Hall who was in charge of Indian Affairs. I had coffee with him.

He said Cooper Island and four Indian kids had committed suicide. He didn’t know why. He would not have known if he knew about the sexual abuse. He was replaced by a guy. A fine Mennonite guy, I am sure he didn’t know the extent of the sexual abuse.

You know, there has been sexual abuse in the normal school system too. I have worked there. It is not an entirely baseless thing.

Jacobsen: You spent your career in the Department of Indian Affairs. What did you learn, general heuristics for understanding?

McKinnon: [Laughing] I learned what it was like to live in a big bureaucracy in the Department of Indian Affairs, which was useful when working in a school office.

You learn to make do, be nice, get things done, and get by. Does that make sense?

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/03/31

Vidita Priyadarshini is a graduate student in political science at Central European University. Here we talk about current events at Central European University.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: There are land rights and acquisition claims in India in general. You have graduate research in this area. I ask because there are a lot of Indian people in India and a lot of sectors in India. It becomes a complex question.

However, you are doing general research. What does that imply?

Vidita Priyadarshini: Until 2013, we were operating with the Land Acquisition Act 1894. It was made by the British when we were a colony. Basically, we adopted 75% of its provisions after independence in 1947. This was a federal law.

But we had many state legislations as well. As you know, it is a federal country. So, they must make all sorts of legislation that compete. This federal law had a lot of amendments over time.

Any state institution has eminence domain over all land of the country. So, it can be acquired for anything deemed a profit purpose. There were amendments where the eminence domain claim was dropped. They had to talk about justice, compensation, rehabilitation, etc.

Because there were a lot of debates. You could not simply shirk off the expense claims after independence. Eventually, when we liberalized in the 1990s, we opened our economies. It became a bigger question.

They wanted to ease out more land for privatization. They wanted money for infrastructure. Any kind of mining projects for petrochemicals. When these claims became more important for some national governments, we traditionally have the mandate over land governments, but they used the federal law to get this thing out of the way.

So, people started making claims about these things. “You have to give us compensation.” You cannot simply arbitrarily price compensation. You have evaluate things and our standard of living.

In some cases, there were large-scale displacements. There was no way to relocate them somewhere. My research is about how the government institutions mediate between these competing claims.

I find this is mostly doing acquisition-style stuff, but there is no way that the communities who lose their rights collectively because we do not have the concept of community rights. They cannot go and ask for their rights back.

Because they are doing this through ways that has legislation with these elements of compensation, rehabilitation, etc. When they do find their problem has become extensive, these conflicts become very exclusive and are quite long-lasting.

In general, we have our problem. They do not have harmonization of land rights councils. Because state governments can do whatever the hell they want based on their own conventions.

The state has more national resources and more space for mining. They were trying to convert as much land as possible. If someone doesn’t, they will try through other means like developing development hubs for IT or something like this.

They are not harmonizing these methods. So, they can get their land and money back and not cause so much precariousness.

Jacobsen: One underlying premise here in the conversation. What defines Indigenous in India, an Indigenous person?

Priyadarshini: We have some historically recognized tribal groups put in this list called Schedule Tribe Lists. These are the Indigenous peoples. They are usually concentrated in the eastern parts of the country. Of course, they are everywhere else.

Most of the contestations that we know of with Indigenous peoples with respect to land acquisitions happen in the eastern part. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a big problem of the Maoist conflicts.

That is what we know of. It is problematic. [Note from Vidita: write down different line.] There is a definition in the constitution. I do not know how the classification actually works, but it is distinct from the past identity in the country.

Jacobsen: What is the percent of the population?

Priyadarshini: These conflict cases are mostly centered in the eastern part with the mining. They are resource-rich regions. From the 1990s onwards, a lot of mining projects happened.

That is where land conversion for these purposes actually became volatile because people were dependent on these resources as communities.

Jacobsen: What percent would be official tribes — apart from the conversation about conflict cases?

Priyadarshini: 9%, approximately, that is 104 million people.

Jacobsen: [Laughing] That is three times the population of Canada. How does this relate to larger conversations around land rights claims in other areas of the world? Because this is a general analysis.

I would assume this general analysis would apply to other areas given the generality.

Priyadarshini: I think one issue is India hasn’t modernized its land record system. After a lot of acquisitions, for example, you have governments taking up things like land redistribution.

Then they give compensation, market trading, and other land trying to give it back. Any claims of land or any property claims, for example from lands taken from the British after independence and after land redistribution.

They cannot be executed properly because we o not have a systematic land record system. The other thing, there is no political will to allow for this to happen because then they would have to start talking about community ownership of land.

Even if you systematize the individual land holding system properly, there might be claims with Indigenous communities without concepts of individual ownership, but may have the idea of collective land ownership and then may want to make a claim to land.

We have recognition of community use and community ownership. Anything about property rights; any discussion on property rights is systematically avoided by these two things because they are not even trying to work out the already existing land holdings and then any transferability concerns will not be met with.

They inquired with this invocation for the general public’s purpose. They say that they will give some money and then this will be fine. In some cases, money is quite okay. In other cases, not just about the money, it is about whether a particular community uses it in a way that cannot be unsafe.

This is where these things become more exclusive. I think one way to relate to this would be a discussion on the underdeveloped property rights issue in this country. In the 1970s — I am not a lawyer, but as far as I understand it, the issue is problematic.

Property as a right used to be a fundamental right. Then there was a huge change and then it only became a constitutional right. In some ways, it still can be superseded by these public purpose things.

Because it is not a fundamental right anymore. The government says that we can acquire land for a good purpose. Then it is fine. You can make claims against it because it is still a constitutional right, but it does not trump anything else.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Vidita.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.