kennethfinton

[kennethfinton]

MATA HARI

Mata Hari was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I. She was executed by firing squad in France. The idea of a beautiful exotic dancer using her powers of seduction as a spy made her name synonymous with the femme fatale. Her story has served as an inspiration for many books, films, and other works.It has been said that she was…

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QUESTIONS

Questions by Joseph Mills 

On the Interstate, my daughter tells me she only has two questions. I’m relieved because she usually has two hundred. I say, Okay, let’s have them, and she asks, What was there before there was anything? Stupidly, I think I can answer this: There was grass, forests, fields, meadows, rivers. She stops me. No, Daddy. I mean before there was anything at all, what was there? I…

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RUMORS

      Rumors

by Kenneth Harper Finton ©2014

  Who started that rumor

a man shouldn’t cry?

When he’s done all he can,

tried all he can try?

Who started that rumor

a man shouldn’t cry?

Tears grease the passage

while endings pass by.

[kennethfinton]

MY RAPE-COLORED SKIN

By Caroline Randall Williams June 26, 2020

A true daughter of the confederacy has written what should be the last words on the monuments:

Dr. Caroline Randall Williams

  I have rape-colored skin. My light-brown-blackness is a living testament to the rules, the practices, the causes of the Old South.

If there are those who want to remember the legacy of…

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THE GOREE GIRLS

The Goree Girls: The Story Behind the Best Prison Band in Texas History

BY BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER 6 MONTHS

Photobucket/Blulyzrd

In the 1940s, the Goree All Girl String Band was one of the most popular all-female country and western groups in America. The eight-piece band was flooded with fan letters filled with breathless admiration and marriage proposals. Local judges and business titans…

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Does my algorithm have a mental-health problem?

Does my algorithm have a mental-health problem?

https://aeon.co/ideas/made-in-our-own-image-why-algorithms-have-mental-health-problems

Thomas T Hills is professor of psychology at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK.

  Is my car hallucinating? Is the algorithm that runs the police surveillance system in my city paranoid? Marvin the android in Douglas Adams’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxyhad a pain in all the diodes down his left-hand…

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This ancient thought exercise will have you questioning your identity

This ancient thought exercise will have you questioning your identity

May 6, 2018

by PHILIP PERRY

  It’s a myth that you get a new body every 7-10 years. The reason is, different cells last different lengths of time. Colon cells last only about four days, skin cells two to three weeks, and neurons a lifetime. In that, the body you are in now is not the same as it was last week, last month, or last year, although it feels the same. So are you truly the same person?

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7 THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS

http://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/seven-thought-experiments-thatll-make-you-question  APRIL 19, 2018

by SCOTTY HENDRICKS

The Veil of Ignorance

This experiment was devised by John Rawls in 1971 to explore notions of justice in his book A Theory of Justice.

Suppose that you and a group of people had to decide on the principles that would establish a new society. However, none of you know…

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Elon Musk’s Boring Company wants to sell you its excavated rock in ‘LEGO-like’ kits

Elon Musk’s Boring Company wants to sell you its excavated rock in ‘LEGO-like’ kits

http://bigthink.com/news/elon-musks-boring-company-plans-to-sell-excavated-rock-in-lego-like-kits

March 27, 2018

by STEPHEN JOHNSON

The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s venture that aims to solve traffic congestion with underground tunnels that would transport cars on “electric skates” at high speeds, excavates tons of rock in the process of digging tunnels.

What’s the company to do with all that…

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JOHN BOLTON

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Bolton

                                                                                                                                                                         John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948) is an American lawyer and diplomat who served in various positions under Republican administrations.

A conservative,[1][2][3]Bolton served as…

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GREEN BURIALS

Here is what Americans put in the ground each year through traditional burials: 20 million feet of wood, 4.3 million gallons of embalming fluids, 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete, 17,000 tons of copper and bronze, and 64,500 tons of steel, according to the Green Burial Council.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/smarter-living/green-funeral-burial-environment.html?recid=12BmyDMAp7mQvohLucT…

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At Current Rates Of Use World Could Run Out Of Thoughts And Prayers By As Early As 2019

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Physicists Aim to Classify All Possible Phases of Matter

https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-aim-to-classify-all-possible-phases-of-matter-20180103/   Article by Natalie Wolchover

Many scientists are beginning to realize that we live in an information universe where information about the physical makeup of reality resides in an ocean entangled bits of quantum information called ‘qubits’. How this information collects determines the state of…

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A Physicist’s Physicist Ponders the Nature of Reality

  https://www.quantamagazine.org/edward-witten-ponders-the-nature-of-reality-20171128/

Edward Witten reflects on the meaning of dualities in physics and math, emergent space-time, and the pursuit of a complete description of nature. Jean Sweep for Quanta Magazine

Edward Witten in his office at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

Jean Sweep

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A Guide To Aging Bald Eagles And How To Distinguish Immature Bald Eagles From Golden Eagles

By Ron Dudley, on November 22nd, 2017 http://www.featheredphotography.com/blog/2017/11/22/a-guide-to-aging-bald-eagles-and-how-to-distinguish-immature-bald-eagles-from-golden-eagles/

Almost five years ago (1/27/13) I published a post entitled “A Guide To Aging Bald Eagles”. With over 71,000 views to date that post has been my most popular so I decided it was overdue for an update and…

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PROCESSES

by Bill Yarrow ©2014     How to Boil Water   Get a pot. Fill it with water. Place it on the stove. Turn on the flame. When tiny bubbles appear and grow wild Voilà! It is done. How to Cook an Egg Read my poem “How to Boil Water.” Drop an egg in it. How to Eat Press your food into the hole just below your nose. How to Think Pick one thing one thing you’ve been told Pick this one thing you’ve been…

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GIVING THANKS TO TURKEYS