BlogNote Dec 19, 2022 at 06:46

10:47 Wednesday, 7 December 2022
Current Wx: Temp: 41.7°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 70% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 450

BlogNote Dec 19, 2022 at 06:46

🌎 The Good of the World Depends On Unhistoric Acts.

Author: John P. Weiss

Date Retrieved: 12/19/22, 06:46

Excerpt: Fame is less important than the good we put out in the world.

Number of Words: 498

One of the delightful things about blogs is hearing the voices of others and finding their thoughts resonating with yours.

Yesterday, I linked to a post from John Weiss about habits to cultivate to "get what you want in life." They're all useful tips, albeit with a couple of tweaks that I mentioned.

Last night I read this post, the one I'm linking to today, the one that immediately followed the one I linked to yesterday.

Almost a week ago, I posted about the end of the year being a time of reflection. In that, I mentioned that I knew I wasn't here to be effective, I wasn't here to get things done. And today, I think I'll add that I don't think I'm here to get what I want.

I wrote, "I think I'm here to 'make meaning.'"

Which is what John's, The Good of the World Depends On Unhistoric Acts is about. Which is why it was such a delight to read. I learned long ago that if you pay attention, the universe gives you clues as to whether you're on the right path, doing the right things. Of course, there's the risk of self-delusion, selection bias, etc. But there is the "still, small voice," that kind of, for me at least, helps navigate those rocks and shoals.

Making meaning is a collaborative act, as meaning is a contingent thing. There may not be agreement on what the meaning is, because it doesn't exist apart from each of us and we're all different. But it can give us something to explore collaboratively. And those "unhistoric acts" may mean nothing to most people, even to the person who makes them, but may mean everything to the person receiving them, as the obituary John writes about makes clear.

I'll try something here, because I'm reminded of a Patty Griffin lyric, and this is what popped up near the top of the search (this may not work, as it's not showing up in the preview):

Anyway, better than snark, no?

✍️ Reply by email

TBPO: Apple TV

08:27 Thursday, 7 December 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 47.48°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 67% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 431

I think Apple has reached that stage in its corporate existence when it has an enormous executive staff and everyone has to justify their existence if not just their bonus. That is, they have to feel as though they're being perceived as "doing something" for the company. So the OSes and applications get changed more for the sake of the appearance of "work," than to deploy genuine improvements.

This would be a good moment for the Ghost of Apple Past (Steve Jobs) to haunt the halls of the spaceship and ask people what they're doing and if he doesn't like the answer, fire them.

We just got the new Apple TV interface, where they've gotten rid of any vestige of iTunes, and integrated the movies and tv shows into one store and one app. The result is dark, crowded, cluttered, small, busy, uninviting and unpleasant on my 65" LG OLED TV.

I hate it.

My first reaction is that I will not be buying or renting any content from Apple, just because I find the experience intolerable. I will reluctantly and grudgingly make the necessary effort to find and watch Apple TV+ streaming content. For now, anyway.

To be fair, both Prime and Netflix have changed their interfaces, for the worse, as well. I can figure out Netflix, and it's at least barely tolerable. Prime is a confusing labyrinth of other streaming platforms, "Prime" content, and Amazon purchases and rentals. I struggle to find "included with Prime" content.

I think the confusion on all the platforms is intentional, to create friction so you spend more time browsing and less time watching. Because that means you're less likely in any given evening to switch platforms because there's only so much time to watch, and any time lost to friction is time you've denied to your competitors.

I don't know if it's a classic case of enshittification, but it feels as though it is.

To that point, last night I ordered the 4k Blu-ray of Star Trek The Motion Picture (we've been watching The Center Seat on Prime). Partly because Apple sucks, and partly because of Christopher Nolan and the importance of physical media.

(Reminder: TBPO is an acronym for The Band Played On. This signifies in the post that I'm aware that there are vastly more important things going on that I should be incensed or worried about, and I am. This exhibition of denial is a defense mechanism against the crushing weight of absurdity in our existence that would otherwise leave me in an inert puddle of hopelessness and despair.)

✍️ Reply by email

Tube: BSG

08:52 Thursday, 7 December 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 47.16°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 67% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 204

Mitzi and I watched the Battlestar Galactica mini-series/pilot the other night, because it was the 20th anniversary of its first airing. I didn't see it when it originally aired on the Sci-Fi channel (I think it was pre-SyFi.) I saw it for the first time when it aired on NBC broadcast television some months later, because it did so well on cable.

I hadn't seen the mini-series in years, but I'd watched it so many times before that I still recalled nearly every line and every hiccup or error. But it was still a surprisingly good experience.

So we've started watching the series again, a couple of episodes at a time. For now we're using my AppleTV library, but I have the entire series on Blu-ray. I'm using the streamed version for now for convenience.

I do recall that the quality was uneven. It endured a writers' strike, and it was one of the earliest long-form narrative series, and they were kind of making it up as they went along. When it was good, there was nothing better on television. When it was bad, it was decent.

I hear talk of a re-boot. Because of course.

✍️ Reply by email

Shooting Star

09:48 Thursday, 7 December 2023

Current Wx: Temp: 45.84°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 66% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 114

Since I wasn't sleeping, I figured I'd set the E-M1 Mk3 up out back and look up at the sky for me. I used interval shooting, and had it create a timelapse movie at the end.

The movie is unremarkable, and I only got one meteor.

I think the LiveComposite images are more interesting. I don't do video and I don't feel as though I want to learn how. I'll probably stick with LiveComposite from now on.

There was a glitch with the image showing up at micro.blog last time. We'll see if that repeats with this one.

✍️ Reply by email

Tube: Iconic America

16:57 Thursday, 7 December 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 50.85°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 58% Wind: 17.27mph
Words: 100

Mitzi and I have been watching this PBS series, Iconic America, and it's very good. We've seen episodes 6, 7 and 8 about the bald eagle, Stone Mountain and the Golden Gate Bridge, respectively.

All were better than I expected, though I'd say the one about Stone Mountain is the best in terms of illuminating a contemporary issue, specifically Confederate monuments. The Golden Gate episode is about much more than just the bridge, and deals with the challenges of constructing new infrastructure for our changing climate. The bald eagle episode was interesting without being as troubling as the other two.

✍️ Reply by email

Duty of Care

05:11 Sunday, 7 December 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 30.06°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 97% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 1025

I have been criticizing the retired flag officer community in general, and retired ADM James Stavridis in particular, in comments on YouTube videos where he appears. Most recently, this one.

The reason for my criticism is because our country, that is to say, you and I, have a duty of care to ensure that the men and women who volunteer to serve us, our country, are not compelled to endure moral injury through the faithless exploitation of their service.

There's a lot to unpack here, it's important, and I don't happen to think that it should fall to me, a retired O-5 with only 22 years of active duty service to try and educate you about something you probably know nothing about. I never achieved high rank, I never commanded thousands of men and women, I never walked the halls of power where the decisions to deploy and exercise combat power, to "kill people and break things," as our juvenile SECDEF would say, are made.

That doesn't mean I don't know or understand the concept of "duty of care," it just means that I am perhaps not the most authoritative voice to write or speak on it.

Why should anyone listen to me? I never had stars on my shoulders.

But these flag officers are silent, and the duty of care we owe our armed forces is being ignored. This is a grievous failure, a profound breach of trust. It shames all of us.

And it's past time we began to talk about it.

Morality is a fraught concept. To the extent that it's discussed in the public sphere, it's used to divide us, rather than to find common ground in a search for "the good," in questions confronting our society.

"Moral injury," is a wound that a person suffers when they feel as though they have violated their own deeply held moral beliefs. This is part of the justification offered by intolerant people who don't wish to decorate cakes for gay wedding couples, and for health care workers who would rather withhold medical treatment from women than to offer care to women seeking to end a pregnancy.

That's quite a spectrum, from the trivial cake decorator to a doctor or a nurse confronting a patient seeking to terminate a pregnancy. It certainly extends farther than that, where you have members of the military being ordered to kill men in small boats, simply because they're carrying drugs.

Now, someone is going to get all upset about the use of the modifier "simply," there. It doesn't matter. Bear with me.

Presumably, in this country, there still remains a moral belief that it is wrong to kill. I say "presumably," because the NY Times recently interviewed some Trump voters, members of the "pro-life" party, and many of them seem pretty bloodthirsty to me. Here's a link that'll get you to the story, even if you're not a subscriber. It's not very long, but it's very troubling. Here's a taste:

“They should have done that strike regardless,” she said. “Every human being does have value, but if you’re caught up in something that’s very detrimental to society, I think that you should die.”

Let that one sink in for a while.

This is perhaps a result of the media diet they consume. In an opinion piece in the NY Times, which I strongly commend to your attention, Phil Klay writes:

The president’s supporters seem to grasp this. Fox News’s Jesse Watters responded with utter incredulity that the United States would offer quarter to an enemy. “We’re blowing up terrorists in the Caribbean,” he said on Monday, “but we’re supposed to rescue them from drowning if they survive?” Others went further. “I really do kind of not only want to see them killed in the water, whether they’re on the boat or in the water,” Megyn Kelly, the conservative podcaster, said, “but I’d really like to see them suffer. I would like Trump and Hegseth to make it last a long time so they lose a limb and bleed out.”

Seriously, read the whole thing, as we used to say back in the day.

I'm going to give you one more piece of homework, and ask you to read this piece by David French, which includes this paragraph:

Trump has put the military in an impossible situation. He’s making its most senior leaders complicit in his unlawful acts, and he’s burdening the consciences of soldiers who serve under his command. One of the great moral values of congressional declarations of war is that they provide soldiers with the assurance that the conflict has been debated and that their deployment is a matter of national will.

French alludes to moral injury when he writes of "burdening the consciences."

Moral injury is real, and it has genuine consequences.

People often regard military service as a duty, "a moral or legal obligation," to one's country. But that works both ways, and the reciprocal duty is seldom discussed apart from the seemingly ubiquitous notion that service members are owed gratitude.

"Thank you for your service."

We don't get off the hook that easy. We also have a duty of care, an obligation to uphold the trust placed in us when a person takes an oath of military service. Trust that their service will be used in honorable ways. Keeping faith with the values we supposedly share.

We have ignored our duty, and in so doing we are inflicting moral injury, wounds to the souls of our sons and daughters in uniform. We elected an immoral leader as president, appointed an incompetent person as Secretary of Defense, and surrendered the authority of the Congress to act as a check on the office of the president. We have abandoned our sons and daughters' souls to the greed and ambition of men not fit to polish their boots.

Shame on us.

And shame on the retired flag officers, who probably understand all of this as well as I do and probably better, for not speaking out. For not educating the public about our duty to safeguard the moral integrity of our soldiers and sailors.

✍️ Reply by email