Owl & Ibis - A Confluence Of Minds

  The Stoic Emblem From The  Humanist Contemplative What the Stoics Did For Us Massimo Pigliucci November 28, 2017 New Humanist When my thinking and behavior fail   me in my estimation and what I infer to be the estimation of others I care about, as well as those for whom I don't give a fig, Stoicism has not failed me nor have I failed Stoicism. The Stoic lifeway does not promise perfect thinking or consistent happiness for attempting the thoughts and acts it guides us toward. Nor does it offer eternal life or reincarnation as a 'higher' life form upon our death as rewards for our Earthly efforts, as some large and small religions do. It is my self evaluator, my conscience, that has failed me due to my misapplication of it or its miscalibration of focus or tolerance. The miscalibration of one's conscience is a problem both long-standing and something inherently human - a tendency to go out of calibration from time to time from any number of causes. As for my estimation

Kudos to Ed Outlaw for his superb November 28, 2020 Owl and Ibis presentation, "Confirmation Bias/My Side Bias." A PDF copy of Ed's PowerPoint presentation is available here . Ed's points of argumentation were: 1a: Confirmation Bias is common and significant in the way people think about political issues on both sides in our current politically polarized environment. 1b:This is both a cause and an effect of political polarization, leading to a cycle that perpetuates a politically divided community. 2a: Understanding one’s own Confirmation Bias can make a person’s political beliefs stronger, better-founded, and more convicted (counterintuitively). 2b: While at the same time working against political polarization.   The discussion that followed explored a number of areas. Here are a few: - Ed's points of argumentation were unopposed. - When one is objectively on the "right" side (moral high ground) of a moral, political or social issue, is one a victim of

Kudos to Doug Nichols on his Saturday, October 31, 2020, Owl & Ibis – A Confluence of Minds presentation, “Our Responsibility for Climate Change Induced Migration.” In his multi-media presentation Doug began by focusing on human population growth and the increase of harmful climate change since the Industrial Revolution. He then informed the Confluence of the unintended consequences of these two major demographic and ecological transformations on human migration; and the ensuing impact of migration on the world’s political, economic, and existential present and future. A stimulating discussion followed where many facets of migration and climate change were explored. Notable was unanimous agreement that what was most urgently needed, of all options most likely to succeed, were cooperative global responses versus the now trending competitive nationalistic approaches. In closing, Doug presented his point of argumentation as follows: We should demand that the United States:      1. Rej

~  The British Museum ~ On September 26, 2020, Ramona Leiter gave an outstanding multimedia presentation at Owl & Ibis titled "The Role of Museums in the 21st Century." Mona expertly informed us and presented the various facets and difficulties attendant to museums, past, present, and future. Here is Mona to discuss her presentation and provide links to key elements of her talk: Hello everyone! Thank you very much to all that participated in the discussion last Saturday. I was thrilled to have a project to use my editing software, Movavi, on. Seeing things come together with the different transitions, effects etc... and how quickly I could edit it all into something that was how I envisioned it in my head was thrilling. This gives me the confidence to move on to more challenging things. As I said in the presentation I am very passionate about museums and loved working on this presentation and talking about museums with other museum lovers. It was hard to research some of

  Here are two new documentaries on the back stories of US history and current affairs most of us were not taught in school. Master researcher, social critic, author, and documentary producer, Pamela Starr Dewey, calls them DocuCommentaries though they are longer on documentary than on commentary. By that I mean Pam Dewey insists on presenting the unvarnished lesser-known facts of US history and society, then letting her audience draw their own conclusions. I recommend both her new productions very highly. Here’s Pam:   My latest DocuCommentary is now available on my  Meet MythAmerica  YouTube channel. I am starting a new "miniseries" that is called The 2020 Twilight Zone. The 2020 Twilight Zone, Episode 1: Down the Rabbit Hole In early 2020 the Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans who were totally disillusioned with the presidency of Donald Trump and wanted to prevent him from being elected to a second term, began producing and airing a series of very creative and edgy br

After an eight-month break, Owl & Ibis - A Confluence of Minds resumed holding meetings on August 29, 2020. This internationally attended meeting was held via Zoom. A PDF of the slideshow accompanying the meeting’s presentation may be viewed here . The recorded narration accompanying the slideshow is below. Also, readers may find links to the slideshow and narrative located in the upper left drop down menu.  The next meeting of Owl & Ibis will be held on September 26, 2020 from 4-6PM Eastern US Time. Mona Leiter will chair and present “The Role of Museums in the 21st Century.” Send me an email if you would like to join future meetings. JEL }:> & ~:) Cultural Appropriation Narration*   An Owl & Ibis – Confluence of Minds Presentation (33 minutes) Jim Lassiter August 29, 2020 SLIDE 1   In 1727, Philadelphia newspaper printer Benjamin Franklin, then 21, formed the Junto, also known as the Leather Apron Club, a group of "like minded aspiring artisans and t

I Can't Breathe George Floyd’s final words May 25, 2020 AVAAZ – The World in Action https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/george_floyd_loc/?slideshow "It's my face man I didn't do nothing serious man please please please I can't breathe please man please somebody please man I can't breathe I can't breathe please (inaudible) man can't breathe, my face just get up I can't breathe please (inaudible) I can't breathe sh*t I will I can't move mama mama I can't my knee my nuts I'm through I'm through I'm claustrophobic my stomach hurt my neck hurts everything hurts some water or something please please I can't breathe officer don't kill me they gon' kill me man come on man I cannot breathe I cannot breathe they gon' kill me they gon kill me I can't breathe I can't breathe please sir please please please I can't breathe."

A Review of The Overstory by Richard Powers James E. Lassiter The Overstory Richard Powers 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Buy and read this book. Within you will find yourself as you presently are. That is, your understanding of Life and humankind’s place within it. From reading it you might also find and become a better person. Who are you now? Here are two reviews of The Overstory that reveal some of you, standing above and separate from nature: The Atlantic  called the novel "darkly optimistic" for taking the long view that humanity was doomed while trees are not. The Guardian  was mixed on the novel, claiming that Powers mostly succeeded in conjuring "narrative momentum out of thin air, again and again." (Wikipedia) Others of you stand here, within, a part of nature: Library Journal * called the book "a deep meditation on the irreparable psychic damage that manifests in our unmitigated separation from nature.” Ron Ch

In Charts: Oil A Collection of Charts, Graphs and Maps Exploring the Global Oil Industry The Globalist April 28, 2020 Just how big is the oil industry? Much bigger and more invasive in our lives than I thought. It is tied to almost every product and service we consider modern necessities and desirables. See the above link for eleven graphics providing facts on the global oil industry. The last chart from  The Globalist  (see above, top) shows a selection of consumer products that can be produced from one barrel of oil. Along with our technological efforts at fixing, ameliorating, and redirecting oil dependency we need a radical reset of our values and beliefs, especially those about our relationships with each other, and with Earth. Regrettably, this involves efforts in politics and economics, areas where the vast majority of humankind have little to no control. I say regrettably because of the deep dysfunctional and economic cronyism of cur