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..............................Coming Soon To A Theater Near You..................

Update: 04/02/2020

Just slightly over a year later and here we are. I see the Covid-19 Virus seems to be the topic dominating this pathetic Blog section that so many incessantly cling to for whatever reasons they choose to do so on a daily, if not hourly or minutely basis. I refer you back to the title.

Limericks by sound, and by spelling -

There once was an old man from York
who took a fat pig for a walk,
when asked "why this was,
he said "it's because
I'd rather eat veggies than pork.

There was an old woman from Slough*
Who developed a terrible cough
So she drank half a pint
Of warm honey and mint
But sadly she didn’t pull through

(*rhymes with plough)


Waiting for a visitor who is LATE I will disappear (I hope) any minute now. You better hope too or I will be adding more weird English examples

There their they're, it won't be that bad.

Yes a cut and paste

2001: Bernd Brandes, a German engineer from Berlin, was willingly slaughtered so that he could be butchered and eaten by aspiring cannibal Armin Meiwes. Brandes had responded to an internet advertisement which Meiwes had placed for this purpose. In prison, Meiwes became a vegetarian

2003: Brian Douglas Wells, a pizza delivery man from Erie, Pennsylvania, was killed by an explosive collar around his neck, as part of a bank-robbery scheme

2004: Phillip Quinn, 24, from Kent, Washington, was killed when a lava lamp he was heating on a stove exploded, with a shard piercing his heart

2005: Kenneth Pinyan died from injuries caused by an*l s*x with a stallion

2007: Humberto Hernandez, a 24-year-old Oakland, California resident, was killed after being struck in the face by an airborne fire hydrant while walking. A passing car had struck the fire hydrant and the water pressure shot the hydrant at Hernandez with enough force to kill him

2008: Judy Kay Zagorski was killed when a 75-pound (34 kg) spotted eagle ray leapt out of the water and knocked her over. The ray also died

2008: David Phyall, 50, the last resident in a block of flats due to be demolished in Bishopstoke, near Southampton, Hampshire, England, decapitated himself with a chainsaw to highlight the injustice of being forced to move out

2008: A 43-year-old Irish mother of four died of an allergic reaction after having sex with a German Shepherd dog

2009: Taylor Mitchell, a 19-year-old Canadian folk singer, was killed by a pair of coyotes while hiking in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, in the only known fatal coyote attack on an adult

2010: Mike Edwards, 62, cellist and a founding member of the band Electric Light Orchestra, died when a large round bale of hay rolled down a hill and collided with the van he was driving

2010: Jimi Heselden, 62, owner of Segway Inc., died after apparently riding a Segway Personal Transport System, his own product, off a cliff

2011: Jose Luis Ochoa, 35, died after being stabbed in the leg at an illegal cockfight in Tulare County, California, by a bird with a knife-like spur strapped to its leg

2012: Edward Archbold, 32, of West Palm Beach, Florida, choked on "arthropod body parts" during a cockroach-eating contest

2012: Erica Marshall, a 28-year-old British veterinarian in Ocala, Florida, died when the horse she was treating in a hyperbaric chamber kicked the wall, released a spark from its horseshoes and triggered an explosion

2013: Elisa Lam, from Vancouver, British Columbia, was missing for several weeks before being found dead in a large water tank on the roof of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, after guests complained about the taste of the water

2013: Takuya Nagaya, 23, from Japan, started to slither on the floor and claimed he had become a snake. Takuya died after his father spent the next two days head-butting and biting him "to drive out the snake that had possessed him

2013: Roger Mirro was crushed by a trash compactor while looking through a dumpster for his phone

2013: An unnamed Belarusian fisherman, 60, bled to death after being bitten by a beaver which he had tried to grab in order to have his picture taken with it

2013: João Maria de Souza, 45, was crushed in his bed by a cow falling through the roof of his home in Caratinga, Brazil. The cow had climbed on top of the house from a steep hillside behind it

2013: Denver Lee St. Clair was asphyxiated by a wedgie administered by his stepson during a fight. After St. Clair had been knocked unconscious, the elastic band from his torn underwear was pulled over his head and stretched around his neck, strangling him.

Just a few years back, you would never have heard the term “drone” with a very positive connotation. Whenever there was any talk of drones, you thought of wars, attacks on terrorists, and spying of certain areas using pilot-less planes.

Live Events
One of the coolest uses of drones in recent years has been for the capturing of live events. Drones are being commonly used these days to capture addresses by politicians, concerts, and live sports events. They can provide a perspective to the audience that no other technology can provide.
Surveying Dangerous Areas
Drones have opened up such possibilities for humans that exploring the world’s deepest darkest corners has now become a much easier job.
Delivery of Small Items
Drones are being used by many big companies for the delivery of products to customers. Think about pizza chains sending pizzas to their customers using drones.
Law Enforcement
This is one of the best uses of drones, despite the many fears that people have associated with drones being used by the police.
Shooting Great Commercials and Movies
Most sci-fi and action movies require aerial shots.
Drones are used in situations where manned flight is considered too risky or difficult. They provide troops with a 24-hour "eye in the sky", seven days a week.
Sea Rescue,
The list goes on and on.

Recently. I posted a series of blogs on the topic: "What Is Reality?".
It was a particular experience that I had, which I have attempted to describe below, that motivated me to write the same:

In my early thirties, I was reading two books alternately: “Existentialism” by John McQuarrie, and “Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis” by Erich Fromm, D.T. Suzuki and Richard De Martino. At that time, I knew nothing about Zen Buddhism. I was familiar with Psychoanalysis, having read a bit of Sigmund Freud's work; in fact, that is the reason I bought the book.
One evening, I was sitting outside in a shaded area reading one of the books. I think it was “Existentialism” (although I am not certain since it happened so long ago; besides, both books were playing in my mind as I was reading them alternately). I was trying to get an understanding of “existentialism” based on the following quote by the author from the work of Jean Paul Sartre:

“Man's existence precedes his essence. Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and then defines himself afterwards.
If man is not definable, it is to begin with, he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes of himself.”
Jean Paul Sartre

At the same time, the following quotes from the lectures on Zen Buddhism by D.T. Suzuki in the book, Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis, came to me:

“Flower in the crannied wall
I pluck you out of the crannies:-
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower – but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.”
Tennyson

“When I look carefully
I see the nazuna blooming
by the hedge!”
– Basho

Suzuki was trying to point out a difference in the “Western” and the “Eastern” ways of seeing.

(cont'd in comments section)

I was listening to a Sermon on the Biblical Book of the Hebrews. The speaker was saying that the author was unknown. But again he reiterated that Biblical scholars by careful examination of the language, the use of figurative devices, and the eloquence of language all attribute the book of Hebrews to ST. Paul. I would like to use to my literary critical terms to the entire theology of ST. Paul and they are Semantic Massacre and Semanticide. Let’s examine the scripture of ST. Paul: “It’s not the eloquence of language but it’s by the grace of God that we are sustained. The semantic meaning of language is obliterated and magnified to a spiritual plane of existence. In the Philosophy of Post Modernism this would be a structural oblivion as the presence of Being God in the meaning of thought would be a semantic absence. Please refer to the Philosophy of Derrida’s Deconstruction for more clarification. By massacring the semantics of meaning, the killing of the literal meaning for a spiritual one, the great Philosopher and Saint Paul is indulging in the ritual of Semanticide. Semanticide comes from two words Semantics (meaning) and cide (Killing).

Repeat radio program on US public radio today, about a liberal social psychologist professor who actually is studying this issue. Claims he's become more open minded by doing so. His research shows almost universal left wing leanings of faculty and students in most disciplines, except engineering and some hard sciences. Worse at elite Northern and west coast schools, and not so bad where kids live at home and work to put themselves through colleges. He is most concerned about how such biases can compromise the validity of some research, and warns of how violent student protest against visiting speakers to campus will only get worse. Also, he wonders how graduates who go into government service can possibly work with all sorts of people, especially on policy matters. Few solutions to this were presented. I think it's simple. Universities should be for peaceful and tolerant exchange of views. Students and faculty (yes, even some teachers) who are disruptive and violent should be identified, and expelled. His biggest concern is how some want to consider speech they disagree with as "violent". How shocking. A-V.

In this article I would like to focus on how we try to discern a metaphor. I would like to focus on the cognitional faculty associated with metaphors. Discerning a metaphor can be aesthetic, religious, secular, cultural-historical and philosophical.
A metaphor in common day language is an adornment of words where there occurs a comparison between things. For example: His thoughts are a flying saucer. It means that his thoughts are fanciful and unrealistic. This metaphor has only one effect on the reader which is a pure aesthetic one, one of pleasure.

Let’s look at another example: He is a shady night. Here the metaphor embodies a semantic concept, meaning that he is not a straight forward person. This semantic attribute is related to a particular emotional quality and there by casting its roots into the soil of judging human qualities.
But some metaphors go beyond the aesthetic. Let’s take a Biblical metaphor which is also simile: ‘You should have faith as a mustard seed’. A simile is also related to the metaphor and uses like or as. Here mustard seed takes a meaning of the supra-sensible realm, beyond the aesthetic. Faith becomes dichotomized into smallness and reliance on the super-natural. We can utilize its meaning in the secular sense as the tininess of faith for obtainment of a thing or with a religious tinge, having faith as small as a mustard seed and relying faith on a transcendental power. The hermeneutic meaning is left to the discernment of the reader.
Next I would like to take an example of a metaphor having political and historical connotations. For example: Fascism and Nazism have become religious entities of fanatic Islam in the contemporary geo-political world. Here the meaning becomes a thesis (far- right dictatorships), an antithesis (unfair barbarism and cruelty and the holocaust) and synthesis (the aim of fanatic Islam to create terrorism and also dominate the world). I am using Hegelian Philosophy here. The meaning of this metaphor bifurcates into cultural, political and historic roots and brings up a daunting similarity with the contemporary comparison.
Next I would like to analyze a metaphor from feminist philosophy. For example: We or they are gender twins. This refers to woman who does not like to be labeled as she or he. Being gender neutral and the same time having a gender is an accepted norm of conceptual democratic post-modern philosophy.

Thus in my readings of the metaphor, I have left its discernment as aesthetics, as the religious, as the semantic, as the secular, as the historical, cultural and the political and also the philosophical.

I have read Camus’ book ‘Myth of the Sisyphus’. And I started my introspection on Nihilism. The senseless, the absurd, the chaotic, have to be transformed by living a life of creative authentication. One way of overcoming Nihilism is through language. I adopt Nietzsche’s dictum: the will to power. Everyday experiences are transformed into metaphoric nuances. Nihilism for Nietzsche is the affirmation of the Dionysian. Ecstasy and rhythms are vibratory metaphors to transform life to a higher plane of existence. A nihilist would also like to experience altered states of consciousness. What are emotive characteristics of Nihilism? Affirmation, Negation, Possession, are various states where the individual exerts through creative anarchy. For a Nihilist democratic dialogism is a process through which inter-personal harmony is experienced. A nihilist has to transform life by overcoming suicide. What is affirmation? Affirmation is a cathartic-yes-ness of experience. Negation is an existential mantra, a nihiliation whereby an individual exorcises an intentional object or emotion from the core to the periphery of existence. The very root of possession is passion. The human body is built on the roots to appropriate. A nihilist does not believe in after life. He or she has to live the life to fullest while inhabiting the earth.

Sartre starts his philosophy by assuming states of consciousness. He starts his discourse by contradicting Descartes Philosophy of thought: Cogito Ergo Sum: I think therefore I exist. Sartre says that the consciousness of Descartes which thinks is a secondary consciousness or in Sartre’s Words: the consciousness of the for-Itself. For Sartre there’s a consciousness, a primary one which is an empty one called in-Itself. This Sartre calls as Pre-reflective Cogito. Now here lies the problem: the consciousness that Sartre posits as the in-itself is not really an empty vehicle, when we consider it in Freudian terms.
Now let’s take the theories of Freud relating to the mind. Freud is famous for his derivation of the Unconscious, ID, EGO and the Super Ego. The ID composes of primeval energies which according to Freud are libidinal. The Ego develops through the social environment and culture which an individual experiences. The Super Ego or in psychoanalyst Lacan’s words: in the name of the Father are the laws of the society which prohibits and restrains the individual from committing unlawful acts. Transgressing these laws would entail punishment. The unconscious according to Freud is a realm where the repressed exists.
In this article, I would like to synthesize the Consciousness of Sartre with theories of Freud. The consciousness which Sartre names as the primary consciousness or the in-itself is not really empty. It consists of the Freudian unconscious and also the Freudian Id or the libidinal energies. The unconscious manifests in Sartre’s for-itself consciousness as tongue slips and dreams. The libidinal energies too are experienced in the for-itself as s*xual acts, as art. But when they are expressed they become subject to the democratic norms of the society. Art can be a medium through which the repressed can be given free reign. However the Super Ego present in the consciousness of the for-itself has certain taboos attached to it. Some taboos may be broken without punishment; for example adultery is not punishable by law and democracy allows consensual sex. But there are other taboos which cannot be violated. They are incest and murder. During times of their violation the Super Ego intervenes to punish the accused.
Sartre goes to an incredible extent with his existential philosophy to say that there are no inherent values or morals and it’s permissive for the individual to direct the consciousness of the for-itself permissively. Sartre claims that all acts of the for-itself are authentic responsibilities for the individual. Yes Sartre is right when he says we are condemned to be free. The Freudian Super Ego controls our Ego and the ID by imposing norms which are conducive for democracy. Unethical behavior can be democratically expressed through art. Violence, murder, incest all these are universal taboos which are not to be violated in an ethical democracy. There are exceptional individuals who have attained philosophical notoriety by their writings and life. For example let’s take Marquis De Sade who was fascinated with murder and eroticism. But his writings and life violate the democratic norm but can be discussed philosophically.
For Sartre, Ego was a state, but for Freud it’s an inbuilt mechanism housing the unconscious, ID, Ego and the Super Ego.
In conclusion I reiterate that the primary consciousness of Sartre, the in-itself comprises of the Freudian unconscious and the ID and Sartre’s consciousness of the for-itself is not entirely free but socially conditioned by the Ego and lawfully controlled by the Super Ego. The self has to balance the consciousness the in-itself with the for-itself. An imbalance would give rise to psychosis or neurosis.