...What is great and eternal
Does not want to be bent
By us...
-- Rilke

As you engage this new year, set your sights on those goals that stretch your capabilities.

But first:
Get your day to day organized.

Wrap up the loose ends.

Clear the mind so you can focus.

Then set your sight on the tough problems.

This is all we've got, so muster the courage and make it worthwhile.

A Chuck-e-Cheese full of kids and mothers with the fire raging just outside
https://twitter.com/SoFarFletched/status/1476664863980077057
#coloradowildfire

Colorado is experiencing one of its worst wildfires RIGHT NOW:

The James Webb Space Telescope is currently well past the moon's orbit and traveling faster than a bullet. It's about 1/3rd of the way to its destination.
https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

This is a really BFD!

$Billions were spent to move mankind forward via this device.

In 12 hours it will be put on top of a controlled bomb and pushed way past the moon where it will be our eyes on the new wonders of the Universe!

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2021/12/22/nasa-partners-confirm-webb-launch-on-dec-25/

I just accomplished a complex refresh process of my future COVID dashboard for San Francisco.
I love it when a complex set of logic comes together and an unbelievable quantity of transactions are executed according to my plan.

Hopefully this will be useful for my neighborhood and city very soon.

Both Progressives and Conservatives can exhibit a lack of empathy and moral bearing.

Neither have exclusivity on this emotional handicap.

Both can be very intelligent.

In those cases, though, their actions are often misguided and can damage those surrounding them, and their rhetoric can sway the vulnerable.

This describes many of the incorrigible politicians we see.

One reason why certain people prioritize "Law and Order" above empathetic solutions (i.e. child support, after-school programs, etc.) is that they are not guided by a moral bearing.

They don't understand that they can be self-motivated to not to bad things to others.

They are only motivated by the potential retribution of their local community
Or, ultimately, motivated by Law and Order.

They cannot empathize.

They cannot understand that others can empathize.

Therefore, "lock 'em up!"

The first line of defense against people doing bad things is their own personal moral bearing.

The second is their fear of being punished by the people close to them.

The last line of defense is the law.

Why bother writing fiction anymore?

https://twitter.com/FrankyPelvis/status/1470516779793408007

Can most petty criminals be restored to net-positive members of society?

Is it too late once they are comfortable with executing crime?

My latest interest is how to inform an immoral person that they are immoral in such a way that they do not become defensive.

One solution: Storytelling. aka: Myths.

We need more myths that influence the young citizens to strive to be morally-minded adults. These have to be new myths. New aspirational characters. Hard decisions, but ones that show the positive trajectory of a life.

@th3j35t3r
Now shows a steady uptick rate after recycling the page:

@th3j35t3r
CoSo seems to be drawing a lot of CPUs now.
The red arrows show where I turned it off:

No argument should proceed until you have assessed your moral position.
If there is none to consider (i.e. which software to implement), then move along.
If you are uncertain, then take stock of your current position and ask:
- Have I fully empathized with the person, animal, country, race, group, planet,...etc.., and incorporated that into my position?
- Has my opponent done the same?

Discussing the morality of a position might be the only common ground available.

@th3j35t3r
This is an interesting group that often hosts virtual, group movies. Scientist discuss topics before and after. Maybe this could be streamed to the virtual movie room?

Collaboration opportunity

One of the characteristics of successful people is a belief in free will. Basically, that you are in control of your destiny.
A characteristic of all of the people I've met that never seem to get their shit together is a very strong belief in a spiritual being/force or "Universal Energy" that has great influence on their lives.
I now understand that they have been unsuccessful because they believe this other-worldly power needs to be placated, and they believe they are failing to do so.

When you have no moral bearing, logic will take you into many dark places.
If you know that you have no moral bearing, recognize that you may also lack discernment about the information you are using in your logic.

Are there any free, online relational databases out there that I can trust?
I'm about to re-architect my COVID dashboard for San Francisco off of Google docs. This isn't a commercial venture, just a labor of love. It's going to be pretty small, with very little utilization as I'll be caching the results elsewhere.

If the 3.8B years that life existed on Earth were compressed to 24 hours, flowers would only have appeared at 11:10pm.