Title: Emphysema
Category: Diseases and Conditions
Created: 3/24/2008 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/25/2022 12:00:00 AM

As promised, quotations from Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations are now available. Again, both German and English versions of each are reproduced, though the task was made considerably easier than in other cases by the fact that the edition I used was a dual-language edition.

I (like, I suspect, many others) find Wittgenstein simultaneously fascinating and annoying. On the one hand, he makes interesting and insightful observations on all sorts of phenomena; on the other, he never really synthesizes those observations into a single, coherent argument. For example, when he says that “Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination” (I§6) or that “Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of our language” (I§109) or that “The fluctuation of scientific definitions: what to-day counts as an observed concomitant of a phenomenon will to-morrow be used to define it” (I§79) I find myself saying “Right on!”; but I also find myself frustrated by the fact that he can’t even decide on what, exactly, his purpose in writing this all down is. For example, at one point Wittgenstein claims that his “aim in philosophy” is “To shew the fly the way out of the fly-bottle” (I§309), while elsewhere he says: “My aim is: to teach you to pass from a piece of disguised nonsense to something that is patent nonsense” (I§464) and still elsewhere he suggests that he’s merely making obvious remarks that presumably everybody already knows:

What we are supplying are really remarks on the natural history of human beings; we are not contributing curiosities, however, but observations which no one has doubted, but which have escaped remark only because they are always before our eyes. (I§415)

As I say, this can be frustrating, but, in a way, is also understandable. In one sense, Wittgenstein isn’t trying to provide answers, but rather to show that there aren’t really any problems (as he says in Philosophical Grammar: “While thinking philosophically we see problems in places where there are none. It is for philosophy to show that there are no problems.”). And why aren’t there any problems? Because “philosophical problems arise when language goes on holiday” (I§38); our problems derive from an inability to properly express ourselves.

(INTERPOLATION: This isn’t stated very well, so I want to expand just a bit. The idea, as I understand it, is that we ask too much of language; that is, we ignore the fact that “Explanations come to an end somewhere” (I§1), that, as quoted below, “language itself cannot be explained”, but, rather, that it can only be understood by its use. In failing to recognize this, we find ourselves unable to express the explanations we seek.)

Within this context, I think Wittgenstein’s thesis (to the extent that he even has one) boils down to the following:

What we have rather to do is to accept the everyday language-game, and to note false accounts of the matter as false. The primitive language-game which children are taught needs no justification; attempts at justification need to be rejected. (II.xi)

Or, from a different direction:

“So you are saying that human agreement decides what is true and what is false?”—It is what human beings say that is true and false; and they agree in the language they use. That is not agreement in opinions but in form of life. (I§241)

Viewed from this perspective, then, it is, perhaps, not so surprising that Wittgenstein has a tendency to be frustratingly vague at times; after all, as he himself says, “What is most difficult here is to put this indefiniteness, correctly and unfalsified, into words” (II.xi). Personally, I find his perspective compelling, but I can understand why some might find it rather superficial, especially since it can lead to seemingly-trivial statements like: “One wants to say: a significant sentence is one which one can not merely say, but also think” (I§511).

All this aside, though, there are two other things I really like about Wittgenstein. First, the fact that he has a real sense of humor and isn’t afraid to deploy it. For example, I couldn’t help laughing aloud at reading this:

Think of a picture of a landscape, an imaginary landscape with a house in it.—Someone asks “Whose house is that?”—The answer, by the way, might be “It belongs to the farmer who is sitting on the bench in front of it”. But then he cannot for example enter his house. (I§398)

Of course, it probably helps that his sense of humor has that bone-dry, literalistic bent that is characteristic of mathematicians (if you don’t see the humor in the above, re-read the last two sentences like a died-in-the-wool literalist). Which brings me to the second appeal Wittgenstein has for me: he has at least some understanding and awareness of mathematics. And, of course, I can’t help but be excited when someone seems to agree with my own quasi-Intuitionist perspective:

Of course, in one sense mathematics is a branch of knowledge,—but still it is also an activity. And ‘false moves’ can only exist as the exception. For if what we now call by that name became the rule, the game in which they were false moves would have been abrogated. (II.xi)

And, though it doesn’t explicitly refer to mathematics, Wittgenstein’s initial (or final, depending on how you look at it) conclusion has a distinctly mathematical feel to it (especially within the context of Russell’s paradox):

What is spoken can only be explained in language, and so in this sense language itself cannot be explained.

Language must speak for itself.

(Actually from Philosophical Grammar, but echoed throughout Philosophical Investigations)

Okay, enough book-reviewing; check out the quotations.

I might deduce one final consequence of a skepticism in regards to temporality and causality. If our only experience of the world is of an existent reality, such that something uncreated or destroyed is literally unimaginable, the superfluity of religion becomes very evident. Since it is on the basis of a parallel between finite objects, which are presumed to be necessarily created, and the universe in its totality, which in turn therefore needs its Creator, that modern religions ultimately justify themselves, if creation, rather than lack of creation, is taken to be the phenomenon unjustified by experience then the concept of God is unwarranted.

The settings for Tools > Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids > Options > Minimal number of characters for hyphenation. These settings are over-ridden by any formatting in the document itself.

The line divisions can be improved by running Tools > Language > Hyphenation as a final touch on the document. This tool not only works interactively, giving you more control, but also generally does a better job than the on-the-fly hyphenation, if run when the document is complete.

The Characters at line end and Characters at line begin fields can sometimes be manipulated to improve hyphenation by playing one off against the other. Working by itself, the Maximum consecutive hyphenated lines field can also make a difference. adjusting the settings on the Text Flow tab. The number of letters at the end and start of the line should be 1–4. The typographical convention is not to allow more than two lines in a row to end with a hyphen.

Settings > Digital Wellbeing and parental controls. Tap your preferred Focus Mode or create your own by selecting Add. Select Start to start using that Focus Mode.

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As my two-year old goes from infant to toddler and is more of a sponge soaking up data and information I try to keep his media above board with things on education, and having Sesame Street as your driver in the club bag is a clutch one I have to say. He can watch Elmo, or Kermit or Bert and Ernie with content while I get his meals ready, and he gets the chance to learn something in the process. So yeah, damn right I grabbed Awesome Alphabet Collection as a surrogate parent!

The disc is less a series of show episodes and more focused on segments, all of which surround a particular letter of the alphabet, that the Sesame Street puppets and humans talk through in a means of education and illustration. Occasionally a celebrity will pop by, whether its singers like Norah Jones, Pharrell Williams or Smokey Robinson, or actors like Ricky Gervais (Read the entire review

Join us for Part 34 of 'The Holy Spirit' as we continue looking at the gifts of the Spirit. We come now to the final gift of the Spirit, 'Prophecy'. This is the first of a two-part final study which concludes this series and our lessons on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In this episode, David Legge considers the questions of who can prophesy and what prophecy actually is. Come with us to see what God’s word actually teaches about this vital gift that the church needs to be built up as Christ intended. This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format and in HD video on our YouTube Channel (https://youtube.com/PreachTheWord)...

In our final study in 'The Holy Spirit' series and our mini-series on the gifts of the Spirit, we conclude our consideration of the gift of 'Prophecy'. One of the great concerns around this gift is: how can we know false prophecy from true prophecy? How do we discern the true from the counterfeit? Also, we look at the practical dimension of how we exercise this spiritual gift of prophecy. This series has been so enjoyable to deliver and we do hope you have gleaned a lot of help from it. If so, why not spread it around and share it with those you believe will also be edified? Thank you so much for journeying with us! This final episode is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format and in HD video on our YouTube Channel (https://youtube.com/PreachTheWord)...

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Happy and Snappy get their Christmas lists ready and head out to the mall to meet Santa but to their surprise, things are not always as they appear to be.

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Happy and Snappy get their Christmas lists ready and head out to the mall to meet Santa but to their surprise, things are not always as they appear to be.

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Implementing performance monitors in your app is very helpful for profiling, debugging and general satisfaction of the more qualified endusers. It's also a non-trivial excercise, to put it mildly. Microsoft have done their part in making it obscure and hard to use, so naturally, we can't leave it alone, can we? This particular implementation only implements raw and delta counters, but that covers almost anything you'll ever need. The basis is there for other types of counters, though, such as instance based counters and high-precision. Both precompiled and full project source is available.

The Ultimate (well, sortof) in long-distance multithreaded debugging. Have the customer's computer sing to you over the phone line.

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The Best of Me Symphony is now up hosted by none other than the infamous Friedrich Nietszche. Do yourself a favor and check out all the fun and frivolity.

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(Un)equal Opportunity Bloggers

Jessica Guynn poses the question:

Why is this supposedly democratic medium recreating real-world inequality? A blogarchy has emerged from the Internet equivalent of an "American Idol" popularity contest. This elite clique of bloggers -- the so-called A-listers who get checked out more often than Lindsay Lohan -- attract the largest online audience. All those eyeballs can deliver cachet, cash and the coveted contract for a blook (a book based on a blog).

Jessica goes on to discuss inequality in the blogosphere where it seems that 1% is getting 99% of the traffic. But she goes too far when she whines that most of the A-listers are men.

She seems to have forgotten that the Huffington Post, Ann Althouse, the Wonkette et al are blogs run by women A-listers. So I don't want to turn this into a pissing match between the sexes.

Trust me when I say there are a whole lot of male bloggers that are in the same boat. No matter how hard they try and tweak their sites they just can't seem to crack the barrier.

But the truth of the matter is there is a disproportionate amount of traffic going to only a privileged few that have eked out there own network hierarchy within the blogosphere.

And so, a complex social phenomenon becomes purely mathematical: The more links pointing to you -- especially from big-time bloggers -- the more readers you will have (according to the method of judging blog popularity by number of links)... talk about creating a powerful, self-reinforcing and very exclusive network.

The Blogosphere is Rigged

Unfortunately this sort of BS becomes self-perpetuating when blog search sites such as the Truth Laid Bear, Technorati, and Sphere et al reinforce the A-list mentality with their stupid juvenile ratings. Even Google's Blog Search has a "Sort by relevance" filter which is the default setting.

The A-listers bank on the gullibility of blogging newbies who don't know any better. After all, we just want to belong don't we? So we hang around the A-lister's like a pack of stray dogs at the corner store hoping they will throw us a bone or two (i.e. links).

Search Filters:

We can't even install a news reader today without a ready-made A-list, and a perusal of the search engines (I call them search filters) will quickly point us in their direction.

So where does that leave the rest of the 99%? On the outside looking in that's where. Like I said before, the Blogosphere has turned into one big frat party. And here I thought I left jerks like that back in school. What a crock. Feh!

More Signal, Less Noise:

These blogarchy types subscribe to the theory of "More Signal, Less Noise". Meaning -- YOU are the noise.

Sure, some of the blogarchy deserve to be there. There's no questioning that. BUT I can find better blog writers any day of the week than most of these so-called A-listers.

So here is a dirty little secret for all of you not yet in the know. The blogosphere has been rigged. The majority of the A-listers only got where they are because they have high profile jobs, are members of elite blog networks they have created, or were linked to by other A-listers that they sucked up to. It is a self-serving megalomaniac gang of social climbers that there ever was.

So what can you do about it?

Well for one thing you can stop blogrolling these A-list nincompoops. Don't give them any of your link love. If you still have a morbid curiosity and want them within easy reach then just bookmark them. But whatever you do DO NOT give them a pagerank boost by linking to them in your blog.

Start your own blogroll with bloggers who have a similar focus. Visit them often and link to their posts. Comment on their posts and create your own cosmos support group. That's a good start.

Or better still, just suck up to them and hope you get linked. Just kidding (I think). Show me love. ;-)

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That was the scathing headline by Hitch over at Slate magazine about the anti-war protests last Saturday. Has anybody had anything good to say about the protests? I'm still looking.

"The protests were largely sponsored by two groups, the Answer Coalition, which embodies a wide range of progressive political objectives, and United for Peace and Justice, which has a more narrow, antiwar focus.

"International ANSWER," the group run by the "Worker's World" party and fronted by Ramsey Clark, which openly supports Kim Jong-il, Fidel Castro, Slobodan Milosevic, and the "resistance" in Afghanistan and Iraq, with Clark himself finding extra time to volunteer as attorney for the genocidaires in Rwanda.

Quite a "wide range of progressive political objectives" indeed, if that's the sort of thing you like. However, a dip into any database could have furnished Janofsky with well-researched and well-written articles by David Corn and Marc Cooper - to mention only two radical left journalists who have exposed "International ANSWER" as a front for (depending on the day of the week) fascism, Stalinism, and jihadism."

Eigentlich kaum zu glauben, wie lange ich hier nichts mehr geschrieben habe. Doch jetzt hat es mich wieder gepackt. Der alte Mann ist zurück an der Stelle, an der er sich früher über Seo und Gott und die Welt ausgetobt hat. Und es ist nicht so, dass ich nicht an anderer Stelle als Blogger oder ...

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Der Beitrag Return of an SEO – Phönix aus der Asche 2.0 erschien zuerst auf SOS Seo Blog.

No he doesn't does he?

I'd laugh if I ever turned on the TV and stumbled
across a day time talk show where the host was
sitting there on the phone trying to coax people into
being a guest of their show using hard sell cold
call techniques.

But why?

Is Dr. Phil the best psychologist around?

I'm sure if you asked other psychologist they would
roll their eyes at you and go into 20-minute
discussion about why he's a hack.

Well if he's not the best then why do people line up
to be guests on his show?

The answer is simple. It's Marketing . . .

He has a show that allows him to access the entire
world each and every single weekday.

Massive exposure is his game.

All he has to do is at the end of one of his shows
flash a 20 second message about the type of person
he'd like to have on his show in the future along
with a number for those people to call in for more
details and the phone lines light up.

Getting people to call you is drop dead easy when you
have exposure and that's the secret. Get your
offer in front of as many people as you can and odds
are some of them are going to be interested in
it.

And you don't even have to be the best or have the
best product. If you can learn the game of massive
exposure you can be second best and still win way
more than the best.

So as a network marketer your first job is to get
your offer in front of as many people as you can and
you win.

Important to note though . . .

Although Dr. Phil is NOT the best psychologist going,
because of his exposure he DOES do more good for
the world overall than even the best psychologists.
His messages reach millions where a psychologist
with less exposure, his or her, message only reaches
as many people as he can see in a day.

You do more good in the world if you master the art
of marketing but you're only an ok network
marketer than you do if you're the best network
marketer out there working the phone lines or
approaching people one on one.

Be a master marketer if you want to make the most
positive change possible with your business.



Leverage the awesome power of the Internet and open
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Photo of OKC's Continental Theatre (a duplicate of Tulsa's) in GroupBlog 325.

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Tulsa Historical Society opened a new exhibit yesterday: "The Big 97: Tulsa's KAKC Radio". See KAKC personalities in 3 photos linked in GroupBlog 328.

I had this one on my wall.

Found this in a high altitude aerial photograph over section 23 of Township 22N and Range 13E, courtesy of the Tulsa City-County Library.

Found this in a high altitude aerial photograph over over section 4 of Township 19N and 13E, courtesy of the Tulsa City-County Library.

Found this in a high altitude aerial photograph over sections 11, 12, 13, and 14 of Township 20N and Range 12E, courtesy of the Tulsa City-County Library.

From the TTM Flickr page.

Found in a high altitude aerial photograph, courtesy of the Tulsa City-County Library.

Found in a high altitude aerial photograph, courtesy of the Tulsa City-County Library.

Mike Miller sent a clipping from the Tulsa Tribune. It includes a photo he shot of KTUL photog Bob Gregory under attack by Carol Jean Baker, one of the parking meter-emptying 'Kissing Burglars'. Mike tells the story.

Phil Lassiter sent this promo photo of himself and Carter Brown, both around 12, playing and sining in this early live KOTV kiddie show.

To play RealAudio clips from this site, use the excellent and free VLC player. Works great on smartphones, too.

Treatment of Alzheimer's disease using foods, supplements and other natural cures, including alpha lipoic acid.

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