Throwback Thursday: Random Observations

"He saw what he did not see."

My dreams seemed exceptionally vivid upon waking this morning. There were a whole series of images and scenes which varied in their degree of bizarreness, many involving people I know. In some scenes I was part of the action, in others just a spectator. One scene was somewhat shocking, and some exceedingly involved. The very last featured John Malkovich. I was watching him as he boarded a train. He was dressed in somewhat loose fitting Oriental attire and there was a side door onto the traincar which was low to the ground (much like a subway platform) and in a childlike, goofy way he would step into the compartment and sit himself onto the floor. As he did so, some brightly colored object of enormous size like a multi-colored cash register would fall out from under his shirt or even come out of the sleeve. It would make a clatter on the platform and he would giggle and the authorities would take it away. He would be standing outside the train again, and would then go through this act again. Four or five times in a row, as Malkovich sat down inside the compartment, a large object would tumble out onto the platform. Each time, he would smirk or laugh, trying to conceal his merriment. I got the impression he was a holy prankster of sorts.

Like many dreams, it all seemed so real as I was watching. But when I woke, it no longer mattered that I didn't understand what was going on.

So, for a few minutes, I will make a list of random observations from my desk, from about my walls, the floor. Today is a good day for randomness. And like my dreams, it doesn't have to make sense, yet it will be -- to some extent -- revealing.

501 Great Writers, a book I received for Christmas. Published by Barron's, Julian Patrick general editor.

A Medica card, UnitedHealthare.

A Sony MagicGate Memory Stick for my camera, purchased on EBay. It doesn't work for some reason. Let the buyer beware.

An Olympus Digital Voice Recorder, model WS-110. Made in China, I recently recorded and interview of George Barris, of Batmobile and Mokeemobile fame, using this device which has a USB plug-in so you can download recorded files onto your computer and play them with Windows Media Player or iTunes.

A couple packages of Post-it brand page markers for marking pages in a book or magazine. I have a pink one marking the page of Geoffrey Chaucer in the book 501 Great Writers, and an orange one marking the page of Arthur Rimbaud.

Two flash drives, one with the letters HIN on it. HIN stands for Hot Import Nights.

A Post-it note with my cousin Gary's phone number on it. Gary was my favorite cousin growing up and we used to talk about living on the same block when we grew up. He became a fireman, and later fire chief I believe, in Oklahoma. I became an advertising and PR guy in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Sometimes things don't go the way you expect.

A Verizon cell phone, slim black, always on vibrate.

A 2.5 gig Mobile Hard Drive. My Sony Vaio laptop crashed about six weeks ago and a computer wizard extracted all its contents onto this little silver box about the size of a 3 x 5 card. 2.5 gigs seems fairly incomprehensible to me. My first Mac, a 512Ke, had no memory for storage at all, just a disk drive slot where your pushed in the 512K disk. It had about 1000 K of "working memory" I believe. My next Mac, the SE, had a 20MB hard drive. I enlarged its capacity with a program called Disk Doubler.

An envelope with Wilmer A. Wagner's Advance Directive, or living will. I pulled it from my file cabinet because it's about time I make one for myself, just in case. Two friends of mine who are my age have had heart attacks recently.

A Seagate backup drive. It holds 100 or 200 gigabytes, I think.

An AMSOIL G-1406. This is a piece of literature which I wrote and designed back in 1997 when our company introduced the Quick Lube program and XL-7500 synthetic motor oils. AMSOIL was the first synthetic motor oil to satisfy API certification standards in 1972. The founder had been a jet fighter pilot in the Air National Guard, and was determined to use jet engine oil technology in cars. And he did it. Because of the extended drain intervals and cleaner operation, these oils have genuine environmental benefits. This literature item was designed for use as a point-of-sale piece for a counter top display which I also had a hand in designing.

An off-white plastic wall outlet with two slots.

An empty beer bottle, Full Moon.

A couple nickels, one here and one there.

A list of things I have to do today. But first, I'd better walk out and get the paper and feed the animals. We're down to a cat, three ducks and two dogs.

Four harmonicas, one of them a Hohner Marine Band in the key of C. One is a Hohner Golden Melody, D, and two are Blues Harps, in C and G. I also have a complete set of Johnson Blues King harps which I purchased on eBay and keep in a satchel. The four cited are my favorites. The two Blues Harps were purchased when I was a freshman at Ohio University.

What kind of random things do you see from where you're sitting as you read this blog entry today?

Goin' Nuclear: Current and Recent Stories

Many experts believe that energy will become the biggest issue of the coming century. I believe the case can easliy be made that this is so. Hence, since last year I have begun collecting books and articles to study and share. Here are some interesting stories on this urgent and timeless topic.

* * * 

The Owner of Three Mile Island Is Turning the Nuclear Power Plant Back on to Fuel Microsoft's AI Operations
In this latest skirmish between the future and its enemies, the future won.
CHRISTIAN BRITSCHGI | 9.20.2024
https://reason.com/2024/09/20/the-owner-of-three-mile-island-is-turning-the-nuclear-power-plant-back-on-to-fuel-microsofts-ai-operations/?utm_medium=reason_email&utm_source=new_at_reason&utm_campaign=reason_brand&utm_content=Kamala%20Harris%20Is%20Not%20an%20Ideas%20Candidate&utm_term=&time=September%2020th,%202024&mpid=46710&mpweb=2534-4502-46710

Is nuclear power safe?
Yes. The safety record of generating electricity from nuclear power is the same as that of wind turbines and solar panels globally. We understand that anything involving nuclear technologies can evoke public concern. However, most modern technologies have inherent risks, be it flying in airplanes, undergoing surgery, or simply having electricity in our homes - all of these have the potential to cause both great harm and provide tremendous benefit. As a society we make these benefits available safely to the public by considering the risks, developing safety regulations, and learning from our mistakes. Nuclear power is no different.                                 

Modern nuclear plants are safe because we build robust containment structures and automated fail-safe systems ensure safe operation. Strict safety regulations and oversight have enabled the industry to operate for over 70 years with negligible impact on public health and safety. As with other industries like aviation, lessons learned from prior incidents continue to the already remarkable safety record.

*

Energy Bad Boys

Enjoy the blackouts, Jack

The Biden administration’s reckless EPA regulations endanger us all
https://energybadboys.substack.com/p/enjoy-the-blackouts-jack?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Nuclear Energy Progress and Regress: A Comparative Status Report

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2024/02/nuclear-energy-progress-and-regress.html

Grid Fragility and a Book by Meredith Angwin

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2021/09/grid-fragility-and-book-by-meredith.html

Is Our Energy Grid at Risk?  

http://www.businessnorth.com/businessnorth_exclusives/is-our-energy-grid-at-risk/article_8c762ece-c44b-11ee-a7e0-4f412ac3356d.html
Business North

Joe Miller Discusses the Power Grid: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going?

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2024/01/joe-miller-discusses-power-grid-where.html

The Biggest Drawbacks of Solar Panels

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-biggest-drawbacks-of-solar-panels.html

 
Power to Keep the Lights On, That's All I Ask 

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2024/02/power-to-keep-lights-on-thats-all-i-ask.html

US falling far behind China in nuclear power, report says

The United States is between 10 and 15 years behind China in rolling out next-generation reactors, research institute says.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/6/17/us-falling-far-behind-china-in-nuclear-power-report-says

Censorship as First Step to Totalitarianism

Last night I finished reading Thomas Mann's Diaries for the second time. The Nobel Prize winner was considered one of the giants of the first half of the 20th century. This volume covers the years 1918-1921 and 1933-1939. The former is post-WWI and the latter highlights the rise of Hitler and the years leading up to WWII.

There are a number of recurring themes that make an appearance in his diaries. I was surprised at how often he took a med to sleep, and how often he mentions being uneasy and anxious. He continually mentions what he's reading (Tolstoy, Cervantes, Proust, etc.) and many of the names of people he is corresponding with.

His concerns regarding the restrictions on speech and free thought get increasingly highlighted in the late 30s. What's discouraging is seeing many of his observations playing out yet again in our own time. Here is the opening to one of Michael Shellenberger's emails from thesubstack Public News:

A little over a year ago, I participated in a public event in London with Russell Brand and Matt Taibbi. While there, I expressed my bewilderment at the censorship we had uncovered. It wasn’t the first time. When Matt and I testified before Congress in February, I also described being disoriented. After all, growing up progressive in the 1980s and 1990s, free speech was a foundational value, both for radical Leftists like myself at the time and for more moderate liberals. To watch liberal and Leftist Democrats demand censorship right in front of me was jarring, to say the least. I wondered aloud, “What is going on?” And I kept wondering until I found some answers.

I believe that my colleagues and I are now much closer to having a unified field theory of contemporary totalitarianism. We have published hundreds of articles so far on the censorship and other totalitarian tactics, including the weaponization of the FBI and CIA and the lawfare aimed at incarcerating Donald Trump, that we’ve been documenting. If I had to sum it up, I would say that there are at least four core drivers, all of which I described in a conversation I had yesterday with Russell...

--Michael Shellenberger

Are Shellenberger and friends being alarmist? How ironic that Gallup polls show that left-leaning Democrats are the ones most in favor of censoring free speech, while simultaneously declaring that Republicans are the ones determined to destroy democracy. Are the former leaders of the Sixties "Free Speech Movement" now its adversaries?

"Say it ain't so, Joe."

How Much Land Does It Take? Wndmills and Solar Farms

PUTTING THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE DEPT. 

click to enlarge

Population of Minnesota: 5.7 million

Amount of land needed to power Minnesota with Wind: 4,223.7 km sq.*

Problem: Sometimes the wind doesn't blow. Check out this story from Business Insider.

Wind Energy's Summer Slump Bolsters Natural Gas Dominance

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/wind-energys-summer-slump-bolsters-natural-gas-dominance-1033614255

Last week, U.S. wind power output slumped to the lowest in almost three years, and generators ramped up natural gas use to keep the lights on. This is not a glitch or a one-time occurrence. It is simply the reality and highlights the difference between reliability and climate ambitions. And the former will always trump the latter.

—Business Insider

* * * * * 

* I doubt this is entirely accurate once you factor in the amount of energy required to operate the mines. A friend told me 25 years ago (if I remember correctly) that Minnesota Power had six power plants. Each of the five mines had a dedicated plant and the sixth provided electricity to all the homes in Northern Minnesota. If we factor in the mines and industral needs, the amount of area for wind farms might be double the above.

** FWIW: The typical life span of a wind turbine is 20 years, with routine maintenance required every six months. Wind turbine power output is variable due to the fluctuation in wind speed.

Wordless Wednesday: Creepy Crawlers

"There was another life that I might have had,
but I am having this one."
--Kashuo Ishiguro

To create the images here I used the app Dream by WOMBO.

For a prompt I used my original painting above and

the words "Creepy Crawlers." Those below are AI generated.

Observations on Music from an Uncommon Man

While organizing books near the top shelf in my office this weekend I discovered that I had a copy of Aaron Copland's Music and Imagination. Those familiar with the myriad books about Bob Dylan will recall that Sean Wilenz's Bob Dylan In America opens with a whole chapter devoted to this composer who has been referred to as the "Dean of American Music." 

As I read the opening chapter of Copland's book I was impressed with how much his ideas resonated with me. We don't listen to music to pass tests or properly understand musical notation. We listen to enjoy. Music lifts us, comforts us, releases us, takes us places and sweeps us away in the swirl of our imaginations. 

Here is the opening page of Copland's rich little volume.

THE MORE I LIVE the life of music the more I am convinced that it is the freely imaginative mind that is at the core of all vital music making and music listening. When Coleridge put down his famous phrase, "the sense of musical delight, with the power of producing it, is a gift of the imagination," he was referring, of course, to the musical delights of poetry. But it seems to me even more true when applied to the musical delights of music. 

An imaginative mind is essential to the creation of art in any medium, but it is even more essential in music precisely because music provides the broadest possible vista for the imagination since it is the freest, the most abstract, the least fettered of all the arts: no story content, no pictorial representation, no regularity of meter, no strict limitation of frame need hamper the intuitive functioning of the imaginative mind. 

In saying this I am not forgetting that it has its disciplines: its strict forms and regular rhythms, and even in some cases its programmatic content. Music as mathematics, music as architecture or as image, music in any static, seizable form has always held fascination for the lay mind. But as a musician, what fascinates me is the thought that by its very nature music invites imaginative treatment, and that the facts of music, so called, are only meaningful insofar as the imagination is given free play. It is for this reason that I wish to consider especially those facets of music that are open to the creative influences of the imagination.

* * * 

Four Aaron Copland quotes

So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it.
--Aaron Copland, Music as an Aspect of the Human Spirit (1954).

The composer who is frightened of losing his artistic integrity through contact with a mass audience is no longer aware of the meaning of the word art.

--Aaron Copland

If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.

—Aaron Copland

For me, the most important thing is the element of chance that is built into a live performance. The very great drawback of recorded sound is the fact that it is always the same. No matter how wonderful a recording is, I know that I couldn't live with it--even of my own music--with the same nuances forever.

--Aaron Copland, Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music

This latter quote brings to mind Bob Dylan's approach to performance art.

 

A Bushel and a Peck: Seven Blog Posts About Advertising

If you're getting close to retirement and have been paying attention, you've probably learned many lessons that may be helpful to younger peers. Whether helping them learn new hacks, or ways to avoid getting caught in traps, it feels good to make a difference in another's life or career. 

This is not to suggest that we old-timers don't have new things to learn. After all, we were taught at an early age the importance of making a commitment to lifelong learning.

Over the course of 30 years in advertising, I've learned a thing or two about all facets of marketing, thanks to good mentors and good books. As a writer I like to share what I have learned. Or perhaps it's just something in my nature. Either way, what follows are seven blog posts about advertising, many of which were first published in Business North in my Marketing Matters column. 

If you find something useful here, please share it in the comments. Thanks for exploring.

1.    5 Insights from Claude Hopkins: Godfather of Scientific Advertising

https://medium.com/swlh/5-insights-from-claude-hopkins-godfather-of-scientific-advertising-9e3f60aa7078?sk=1cf52b4f931db28e692061862c926c37

 

2.   I Know I Need to Advertise, But Where? And How Much Should I Spend?

https://medium.com/swlh/i-know-i-need-to-advertise-but-where-and-how-much-should-i-spend-4ef4e65debbe?sk=0cf6f66c4c73376fa50440bc7c121801

 

3.   10 Insights from David Ogilvy, On Advertising

https://ennyman.medium.com/10-insights-from-david-ogilvy-on-advertising-e0c3209f2b84?sk=dbe02359a9ece733bae9daf8f7cafaa7

 

4.   Five Reasons People Hate Advertising*

https://medium.com/swlh/five-reasons-people-hate-advertising-4f20a5bc4ed4?sk=769317e0c2aa4447fe1645b0718e68f6

5.    An Attempt to Correct a Few Misconceptions About Advertising

https://ennyman.medium.com/an-attempt-to-correct-a-few-misconceptions-about-advertising-64a868a52874?sk=a79f921486d89988fd9ee24bff652648

 

6.   Ethics and Advertising

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2008/11/ethics-and-advertising.html

7.    “Let Us March Against Philip.” 

https://ennyman.medium.com/let-us-march-against-philip-c51ed458a675?sk=1bccbd5d07555f0b1ab95dbd8192ac59

 

*Also published in The Startup

George Orwell's "How the Poor Die": Exploring Themes of Inequality, Neglect and Other Grim Realities

Though George Orwell is most famous today for his novels 1984 and Animal Farm, his prolific pen delivered to the world hundreds of essays, articles and book reviews along with several books of non-fiction. One of his essays that made an impression on me when I first read it was his painful and acutely insightful "Shooting an Elephant," which appears in a collection titled Facing Unpleasant Facts.

The essay “How the Poor Die,” written in 1946, appears near the end of this particular collection of essays. In it, Orwell reflects on his personal experience in a French charity hospital during the 1920s, offering a scathing critique of the medical treatment given to the impoverished. Hospitals have a special variety of indignities anyways, though nothing like the dehumanizing conditions in hospitals at that time, especially for the poor. The essay explores themes of inequality, neglect, and the grim reality of death in such institutions.

The descriptions brought to mind Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward, which took place in the Soviet Union. Just as some have described Solzhenitsyn's novel as a metaphor for the cancer at the heart of the Communist empire, so Orwell's essay could be a seen as a microscosm of the injustice and "cancer" wrenching the heart of Western civilization. His experience in the hospital serves as a larger metaphor for societal neglect of the poor, where their suffering is seen as inevitable or unimportant.

Orwell describes his time in the public hospital as deeply disturbing, recounting the neglect and lack of compassion that patients endured. He provides vivid details about the hospital ward, which was overcrowded, poorly sanitized, and severely lacking in resources. The poor, unable to afford private care, were treated with indifference, often subjected to experimental treatments or outright neglect. Orwell highlights the stark contrast between how the wealthy and the impoverished experience healthcare, emphasizing that for the poor, death in such hospitals is often undignified, almost mechanical. At one point he states that "the fear of death was the only thing keeping them alive."

A key theme in the essay is the depersonalization of the sick poor, an atitude that continues to this day. Orwell recalls how patients were stripped of their identities, treated not as individuals but as mere cases. Doctors performed medical procedures in a detached, clinical manner, often without explaining what was happening to the patients. This cold, distant approach created an atmosphere where the poor were treated as if their suffering or well-being was of little consequence.  

Orwell also explores the psychological impact of such treatment, noting the fear and hopelessness felt by patients. He contrasts this with the expectation that the sick should be comforted and treated with dignity, regardless of their financial status. 

After reading this essay I had a deeper appreciation for the authority with which Orwell writes. He lived with the miners in Manchester. He lived in a Burmese outpost of the British Empire. He was shot in the neck during the Spanish Civil War. He spent time in a hospital ward amongst the poorest of the poor in France. He experienced suffering and watched people die.

By using his own experience in “How the Poor Die,” Orwell exposes the grim reality of healthcare for the poor, drawing attention to the inequalities that persist in how society treats its most vulnerable members. As a critique of medical institutions it is unsentimentally frank, but it's also more than that. It's a broader commentary on social injustice and the lack of empathy for the suffering of the poor.

Related Links

Homage to Catalonia
George Orwell on Wells, Hitler and "Patriotism vs. the World State"

Why Do We See Faces In Abstract Designs?

From a very early age I've been fascinated by faces. When I look at clouds, or the swirls on a ceramic tile floor, it is not uncommon for faces to emerge. With the advent of the internet, and now AI, one can easily research this phenomenon that many of us have experience throughout our lives. Here's some of what I found.

Many people see faces in abstract images due to a psychological phenomenon known as pareidolia. This is the tendency of the human brain to perceive familiar patterns, especially faces, in random or ambiguous stimuli. Here’s some of why this happens:

Pattern Recognition

The human brain is a pattern-seeking organ, constantly trying to make sense of the world around us. When confronted with abstract shapes or random images, the brain automatically tries to organize the visual information into something recognizable. Faces are among the most familiar and easily recognized patterns, so we often "fill in the blanks" and perceive a face, even in the absence of one.

Facial Feature Sensitivity

Our brains are especially sensitive to certain key features that suggest a face, such as two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, positioned in a roughly triangular formation. Even if these features are represented vaguely or in abstract forms, the brain may interpret them as a face.

Emotional Connection to Faces

Faces also carry emotional significance, as they are tied to social interaction, communication, and empathy. Seeing a face in an abstract image can trigger an emotional response, which makes the image more engaging and meaningful. This emotional connection increases the likelihood that we’ll "see" faces even when none are intended.

Art and Imagination

In abstract art, there’s often no specific subject, leaving interpretation open to the viewer’s imagination. This freedom encourages the brain to impose familiar patterns, like faces, onto the image. Abstract art invites viewers to project their thoughts and perceptions onto the piece, and pareidolia is one way the brain makes sense of the ambiguity.

Not everyone enjoys abstract art, preferring clearly defined imagery that they understand. I myself enjoy the multitude of ways in which faces emerge when laying paint on a surface. It's often like being an audience to one's own performance in which you really don't know what will happen next. Sometimes it's trash and sometimes it's magic. And who doesn't enjoy watching a good magic show?