DAILY PHOTO: July 4th; Stone Mountain Park’s 250th Program
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PROMPT: Lesson
Daily writing prompt
What’s a lesson you’ve learned recently that shifted your perspective?
Just because a message has merit does not mean there is benefit in its delivery. For example, telling a person who is on fire and mad with itching not to scratch or telling a person to not be a jackass when their core nature is jackass. Saying such things will not nudge the state of the world and can only release the puff of hot air that creates chaos — like Edward Lorenz’s proverbial butterfly in Brazil that causes a tornado in Texas.
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DAILY PHOTO: Flame Towers & Grave Monument
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PROMPT: Sleep
Don’t know that I’m a proven authority on the subject, but I try to take the usual advice — e.g. no TV in the bedroom, keep it cool(ish,) and go to bed more or less the same time each night.
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DAILY PHOTO: Sunlight Painting Clouds, Corozal
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PROMPT: 5,000 Steps
Daily writing prompt
Hit 5,000 steps today and drop your achievement here — we’re cheering you on!
No thanks. For a standard 7 in. rise step, that’s on the order of 300 floors. During the pandemic when I couldn’t go to the park or elsewhere for exercise, I used to do the five-story stairwell of the building I was living in five times. So, up 25 floors (even with the break of the walk downs in between) was quite a fine cardio workout. Granted, I did 2 steps at a time, but I wouldn’t need to 12X the total vertical height.
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BOOK: “A Cook’s Tour” by Anthony Bourdain
A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines by Anthony BourdainMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – Bloomsbury
Anthony Bourdain’s work is a joy to read if you love gonzo writing, and food — lots of food. It’s like reading Hunter S. Thompson, if Thompson were obsessed with the meals that he ate. A Cook’s Tour is Bourdain’s second work of nonfiction, after Kitchen Confidential, the book which turned him from Executive Chef at a high-brow New York restaurant to a Personality — writer, TV star, and celebrity. Where his previous book explored life in the kitchen, this one ventured out into the world, to Portugal, Scotland, Japan, Mexico, Cambodia, San Francisco, and Vietnam — to name a few.
I must admit, if Bourdain had been the kind of foodie that was obsessed with foam reductions and $300 per head tasting menus, his writing would hold limited intrigue for me. But because this was a guy who seemed as happy with a streetside bowl of pho or a simple hunk of grilled meat on a stick as he was with fine dining, I find his work relatable. It also avoids the cognitive dissonance of reading someone who wrote like Hunter Thompson, but who only talked about escargot and wine pairings. It lent Bourdain authenticity.
I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who travels, loves food, or lives at the confluence of the two.
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BOOK: “AI for Good” by Josh Tyrangiel
AI for Good: How Real People Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Fix Things That Matter by Josh TyrangielMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – Simon & Schuster
— Out Now —
There’re a lot of books out about artificial intelligence (AI) these days. There are how-to manuals. There are books about the making of billionaires on the back of AI-centric business models. There are books that consider how AI will destroy the human economy (and possibly humanity as we know it.) Josh Tyrangiel’s book seeks to carve out a niche by taking a positive view towards AI but focusing not so much on how it produces more billionaire tech executives, but rather on how it can help fix persistent social problems in education, healthcare, governance, and human communication and connectedness. Of course, this isn’t a completely separate topic from business use of AI (e.g. healthcare is one of the biggest businesses in America [which is no doubt emblematic of America’s unrelentingly shitty healthcare;]) however, these are areas that each feature their own unique challenges, problems for which the lessons of the business sector, broadly, are often of limited value.
I found this book to be illuminating. It introduced several fascinating characters from various domains. Among the most intriguing discussions were those with a short-lived DOGE employee and one with a Hoosier high school principal. It was also interesting to learn about the evolution of AI language translators.
If you are interested in how AI is being applied beyond hardcore business uses like supply chain optimization and computer programming, you may want to give this book a look.
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BOOK: Bokuden Ryu Jujutsu by Otsuka Nobuyoshi; Trans. by Eric Shahan
Bokuden Ryu Jujutsu: A Record of Intensive Lessons in Jujutsu with Additional Secret Teachings on Resuscitation by Otsuka NobuyoshiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Translator Amazon Page
This is a manual, written in 1916, of the Bokuden Ryu school of Jujutsu. Tsukahara Bokuden was a sixteenth century samurai and is one of the most famous of Japan’s swordsmen, having been instructor to a Shogun and a Provincial Governor, and the school of Jujutsu described in this book was said to have been founded by him.
The manual mostly consists of textual and line drawn descriptions of thirty techniques of the system, mostly throws and takedowns. Each page has an English translation appended to the original manual’s text and drawings. Most techniques are explained over two or three pages (i.e. two or three drawings.) The book also includes three resuscitation techniques and a few odds and ends. There is also a nice set of atemi maps – i.e. drawings showing various vulnerable spots on the body, and a brief biography (a few pages) of Tsukahara Bokuden.
The translator points out errors in the original and corrects them in the translation (e.g. there are a couple of techniques in which attacker and defender labels are swapped.)
If you’re interested in Japanese martial arts and the evolution of Jujutsu, I’d recommend this manual. There is not a great deal of fine detail to be gleaned, but the concise descriptions do offer insights into what is unique and what is common to the system.
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DAILY PHOTO: St. Anna and Katoghike Churches, Yerevan
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Tiger Riding for Beginners 