GammaGlobulin

You and I must have gotten mixed up at the hospital. Your father must be my father. I am totally and utterly indifferent to news of sporting events of all kinds. I truly do dislike Pro Sports. And, as I say, rowing and sailing are the only two I like. But I very rarely watch competitions on TV. And, after the Little League Thing, I hate baseball with a passion. And, for this reason, I still don't think much about The Old Man, for sure!

Did I ever tell you about MY childhood trauma? My Dad FORCED me to play baseball when I was a child. He wanted me to be a great Little League pitcher! He bought me about 100 baseballs, and I would be out there all day, Throwing these balls as hard as I could, into a target. But that was the FUN part. On Saturdays, I would be forced to attend both practice and games. I would need to throw the balls as hard as I could. And sometimes, I would hit the batters, who were just little kids. And they would cry. This is what I hated most about baseball. But what I REALLY hated most was the ice cream after the games on Saturdays. So, if you were to ask me my thoughts on Pro Sports, I would say that Due to my experience with Little League, I hate Pro Sports. It reminds me of both pain and milling around on a hot day, Eating dripping ice cream. All sports are disgusting to me, except crew and sailing, and women's volleyball. I never watch American Soccer, or Football, or Rugby. American Football is the worst. All those guys in the center, with huge shoulder pads, bending over, Just to pass a blown-up piece of leather between their legs. It's disgusting to me. I hate my father due to all of the above.

Good Morning Folks, (and I hope you are enjoying this fine Sunday morning) This Sunday Morning’s Topic is a question I often think about. What about you? Do you spend a lot of time thinking about this question, too? This must be one of the most profound questions of our time, it seems to me. I think that we can reasonably expect that, actuarially speaking, many of our grandchildren today will live to see the turn of the century. Do you have any thoughts concerning your granddaughter's life and wellbeing twenty, fifty, and eighty years from now? Do you think she will still be living in Thailand? Or, might she leave and emigrate to a different country? And what are some of the other related questions you often ask yourself during periods of reflection throughout your day? Although I do not have a grandchild, I still, very often, and probably even on a daily basis, spend much time in contemplation considering what the lives of today’s children will be like as they reach these milestones along the way to the year 2103. Why do I concern myself with thoughts such as these? For me, it is because I see children and parents, almost every day, as they struggle to prepare for our future. Mostly, I work with Chinese kids and their parents, and I know at a fairly fundamental level just how difficult it is, and just how hard they struggle, to prepare for the years and decades ahead. For the average Chinese child, aged 10, she must look forward to endless standardized exams, and the ever-increasing pressure of attaining success, at least enough success to live up to the dreams of two sets of grandparents, her parents, and sometimes even a Tiger Mom. A Thai child, aged 10, will see the turn of the century, in all probability. What do I base this prediction on? Well, I went to the actuarial data available from the World Bank website: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.FE.IN?end=2021&locations=TH&start=2010&view=chart And I played around with this really neat actuarial computer. Here is the resulting graph for Thai females born between the years 2010 and 2021 (and feel free to go to this site and use the computer yourself by plugging in different criteria if you wish). You know…When you get to be as old as I am, 77 years does NOT seem a long time, and 77 years from now, our grandchildren will enter a new century. Please do not worry yourselves; I am nowhere near becoming 77…yet. I mean, I don’t want to freak you guys out or nothing, but…the next century is just around the corner, from my perspective. As for me, if I live to be the present-age-of-my-aunt, who is not dead yet, I will live to see the year 2055. Holy Nightmare, Batman! So therefore, I first must figure out what my life in Thailand will be like in the year 2055, even before I can begin to imagine what a granddaughter’s life will be in the year 2103. For sure, I KNOW that I will be in Asia, and, I HOPE that I will be either in Thailand or in Japan. Thailand and Japan are the only places in Asia I may be able to stomach, by the year 2055, in all likelihood. When I think about the year 2055, thirty years hence, I also think about the year 1991, 30 years ago, and that was the year I last set foot on the soil of my Home Country, the year Bill Clinton assumed the office of president. That year certainly does NOT seem so very long ago, at least to me. Will I even have my wits about me when I turn 103? I can only assume I will, judging by the fact that Noam Chomsky is still smart as a tack at 94. But still, when I consider that our grandchildren today, those now aged 10, will see the turn of the century, it’s almost as unimaginable to me as my grandfather’s daily life when he was a boy, in 1885. In his case, after returning from the war in 1918, my grandfather worked at the hospital pictured below, training to become an orthopedic surgeon. And that was only about 100 years ago. He once told me that the anesthesiologist would tape a piece of tissue paper to the patient’s upper lip in order to count respirations per minute. They don’t do that in today’s hospitals; I bet. When I view photos such as this, I am reminded that the lives of our grandchildren will, someday, become just as foreign to us as were the past daily-lives of our grandfathers when they were the age our grandchildren are now. This is freaking me out, Man! And such a convoluted sentence, too! When I think about the studious, diligent, and extremely hard working Chinese students I teach, and when I think about the significant pressure they experience, then I also think that there MUST be a better way to run our World. There must be. Or, maybe I am just about the only one in Thailand who often thinks along these lines, and dwells upon these thoughts? Now you know why I saved this OP for a Sunday. It’s just too heavy a question for a weekday. Best regards, And hoping to still be writing to you in 2055, Yours Truly Please Note: If ONLY I had a crystal ball, then I would use it now, for all it’s worth. Note2: And perhaps now is the perfect moment to listen, once again, to this old tune…

The striated-heron photo in the OP is NOT mine. I did not want to get too close, or close enough to take a photo with an old phone-camera, anyway.

Thank you for the clarifying this point. It sort of surprised me that this striated heron would just walk right up to me, almost as if I were not even there.

Well, of course you are correct in what you say, but only half way. This song seems to have meant much to the uni students around the year 2013. If you read the comments on the UTUBE comments section, some are really heart wrenching. To be so young, and in love, is always painful, since love truly IS pain, as we all know. The REASON I posted it is because, at least it is sung in Thai, and many people consider Palmy to be Thai, and anyone hearing this song would say it is a Thai song. STILL, I definitely do agree with you that other selections posted here are FAR, FAR better. So far, I would go with: ดูเธอทำ : จ๊อบ บรรจบ (Doo-Doo-Doo: Job 2 Do)....Hands Down! I could easily listen to a LOT of that!

I am sure that I am not mistaken, now that I check. I call it the CLOCK song because she seems to be singing about clocks, นาฬิกา. Great singer, nevertheless!

Yes. That's IT! 2013, maybe...playing EVERYWHERE. Such great memories of my days a decade ago. Those were the days I was working just about 24/7 on my passa Thai, reading and writing, etc. Such great times! Nothing to do but learn Thai, and listen to Palmy, too! Wait! Sorry. That's NOT it! The Clock song is the song sung by Palmy which I posted in the OP. Sorry for the confusion! (I only call it the CLOCK song because...I thought that Palmy was singing about CLOCKS. My Thai was terrible back then.)

I can relate to the story. I just cannot tolerATE the music. Still, all music is good. It's a matter of personal taste, and nothing more, that I do not prefer this particular kind of music. Too many years in Taiwan, maybe.

As I ALWAYS say, and I hope you will take it to heart, the passage I read in a Zelda Fitzgerald book when I was 14: Zelda and Scott were NEVER boring. Why don't you read, or re-read, ALL of Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald's novels and essays and short stories. That will keep you busy. But, PLEASE, do NOT read The Great Gatsby! Because you might become like the characters in the novel, which is...BORED or BORING. I do not mean that the reading of the book is boring. Just that the characters in the book had too much money, and searched in vain for meaning in life. Or, why not try to become more like Elon? Elon never seems bored. He has a decent sense of humor. I loved his touch with the kitchen sink, for example.

Sounds Like Taiwanese Karaoke. That's the very last thing I need here!

Sorry, I thought the Palmy Clock song had been referred to by the previous commenter, and I was responding accordingly.

Yes, I know! The Clock song was playing EVERYWHERE in 2013, I think, or was it early 2014...

WHY do I NOT hear great music like this more often? The garbage they play at the Musick Festivals is, by comparison...FOR THE BIRDS! Comparatively....THIS....is....Pure Bliss!!!

Amazing! Beautiful!

That's GREAT! Such an improvement to what we have here! I should really talk to the village headwoman about using this.

That would be...DYNAMITE...for our village. I could so easily accept this for my neighborhood. (A bit, Twilight-zonish, for some here, I imagine. But, I could really DIG this every day!!! No doubt!)

My Dearest Thai-Musick Lovers, Everyday in my village, it’s the same old, same old, Thai Song. Why cannot they mix things up a bit? After years of the same tune, I’m feeling a bit in a rut. Personally, I love to hear BOTH Chinese and Thai classical music performed on classical instruments such as the ERHU, or SANHU, particularly… WHY O WHY, cannot they just play this? I LOVE the erhu!!!... But, if it cannot be beautiful, what they play everyday, blasting around the village, then what might be the best change of pace for those here who lack the cultural class to understand beautiful Thai and Chinese music? Well then, my Best SINGLE Suggestion might be this song, just so that I don’t forget how important time truly is, and especially the PASSING OF TIME….THE NALIKA SONG... Still, as I say, IF I could listen to a daily dose of the erhu, as played in the first UTUBE video selection above, then I could stay here, happily, until kingdom come…. I have heard a lot of great Thai music, and I’m very curious to know what your suggestions might be… (one per customer, please). Musically yours, And, forever…. Glob Note: Please note that the Chinese erhu is my favorite Chinese instrument, and I will not tolerate even one word said against it. (I have been listening to Chinese classical music since about….well…around 1973, when I first started to learn Mandarin, and also began drinking Chinese tea, for that matter.) Note2: Just out of further curiosity, how LOUD does your village play its LOUDSPEAKER Music?

Another similarity might be that both can exhibit wave properties, and have wavelengths when in motion.

That's an easy question to answer: a. Give USD1.00 to GF b. Move back to The Main Line (Gladwyne) c. Or, better yet, move back to Old Black Point, Ct. d. Hire French maid e. Relax in oceanfront property in Old Black Point, Ct. Nothing could be finer. Oh lala!

If YOU consider Gelernter a "prominent scientists", then all meaningful discussion is OVER...Here is why...... Above image can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gelernter

In THESE Days of modern science, it is often necessary for scientists and researchers to submit their articles for publication to well-known journals using, EXCLUSIVELY, LaTeX, and no other software. Are you aware of this? And then, what say you now? Here are the guidelines for using LaTeX in order to submit a science article to the journal Science: https://www.science.org/content/page/preparing-manuscripts-using-latex This is just one of a plethora of cases where LaTeX is required for science-article publication. Science article publishing has changed since the Dark Ages, I think. And, for the better. No need to rely on others to do what one can easily do oneself. And, it can save money for the researchers and grad students, too.

And, just a helpful update for those, like me, who may live in a house which is not attached to the city water supply, one which is reliant upon ground water from a well, or for those who are having problems due to hard water coming out of their taps: I have been using the Glacier company. This is NOT an ad for Glacier. I am just reporting that I have been using Glacier for several months, and that I am still getting great service, responsive service, and friendly delivery people. I changed my drinking water supplier several months ago, and I am now very satisfied with the new company. I did not know which company to choose. But then I looked on TV and found some helpful comments which pointed me to the Glacier company. You do not need to speak a lot of passa Thai to contact this company and arrange for drinking water delivery. I buy the 20 liter water jugs in plastic (they have glass containers too maybe?). So, Glacier solved my drinking water problem. According to the company: The drinking water they supply has been treated a process of ozonation (I am still not an expert, obviously.). However, the hard water problem at my house is STILL seriously bad. Lot's of corrosion on plumbing fittings. White stains all over the drinking glasses. Gritty deposits on dishes, bowls, cutlery, you name it. I have yet to go buy vinegar (acetic acid), but I definitely will. I do not own this house, and I am unable to control the water treatment of the ground water being supplied. And so, my living situation is not ideal, just due to the hard water problem. Next time I move, i will first ask if the house is connected to the city water supply, for sure.

In THIS OP, we are concerning ourselves with FLUID Intelligence as measured on an IQ test, and Not CYSTALLIZED Intelligence. Increasing Fluid intelligence is what the FLYNN EFFECT actually refers to. Above image taken from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_and_crystallized_intelligence