Charles Steinmetz - A Guy You Probably Don't Know

I found out about a guy named Charles Steinmetz asking AI a question once.  I believe I asked who it was that first applied imaginary numbers to electrical engineering.  Very interesting.  It sounds like he's just one of the long list of many guys who profoundly influenced society in ways that most of us will never know.  It's a byproduct of specialization and industrialization I guess.  We can't all know the intimate details of every contribution in every field.

I've seen early group pictures of electrical engineers and Mr. Steinmetz stands out the most.  Even more than Albert Einstein in those pictures in terms of appearance.  It's because he had dwarfism.  It's nice to know that he was still able to receive recognition for his contributions even in those early days where prejudices against a perceived norm were a lot more rampant.  It seems he got in trouble more for his political beliefs than his physical stature.  From the miniscule bit I've read about him, I probably would have disagreed with him on some of those beliefs too.

Lawrence of Arabia, The Land of Oz, and the Insufficiency of Ideals

One of the really fun Rifftrax episodes is The Wonderful Land of Oz directed by Barry Mahon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EgY_Tzfn8g.  It's an awful film based on a book that was the first of many sequels written by the original Wizard of Oz author to the original Wizard of Oz book.  

A major plot point in the both the book and film is a young girl named General Jinjur leads a bunch of other young girls in overthrowing the Emerald City because they're tired of tedious chores like homework and babysitting.  But after their success, they run into problems they didn't expect.  None of the girls ever learned how to cook, so they have no food to eat.

Now we go from a very badly produced film to its exact opposite in Lawrence of Arabia, which is probably the longest movie I ever watched.  It was so long it took me two nights to watch it.  And I will probably never watch it again.  But I remember one thing from it quite vividly.  I remember the faction Lawrence fought so hard for struggling to build and maintain its infrastructure on its own, and British officials coming in and being outraged at how badly things like hospitals were being run.

So we see a commonality here.  You can be mad at how things are and fight against them and win, but what about the aftermath?  Can you do a better job overall than the group you're overthrowing?  If you can't, then what's the point?  Having decent ideals is good and all, but that alone isn't sufficient to run a government.  Just like being angry isn't enough to win a fight or pick up a heavy deadlift.  You have to have some sort of knowledge or experience and be willing to develop skills in more than just what you want to fight against.  It really is a tall order.  Not for the faint of heart.

Fraud Triangle Comparison to Sin Triangle

In one of my accounting classes, we learned about something called the fraud triangle, which I thought was a great theory.  It said for someone to execute fraud, they had to have all three of the following:

1) Incentive

2) Opportunity

3) Rationalization

So if someone wanted to steal, but never had the chance to, it wouldn't happen.  Or if they had a chance to, but couldn't make their conscience accept it as a viable option, it also wouldn't happen.  And of course, if they didn't want to, they wouldn't even pursue it to begin with.

Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to put this triangle idea in Bible classes as a constructive theory behind the concept of sin.  I've always felt that Biblical doctrine was a great way to provide the rationalization necessary to protect against the act of committing a sin, even when there was both the opportunity and a desire to engage in it.

A sin triangle also works because sin looks like a trigonometric function to begin with.

New National Anthem?

If we ever get a chance to select a new national anthem, I'd vote for Hulk Hogan's Real American entrance music when he was in the WWF that was performed by Rick Derringer.  I listened to it countless times over the years watching old wrestling tapes and YouTube videos, and to this day I still feel a sense of pride in the country when I hear it, and visualize the great land that America was always intended to be, where righteousness for all is consistently pursued.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lZDgGr1PO0&list=RD9lZDgGr1PO0&start_radio=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPO5lbFnulE&list=OLAK5uy_keN9V6A6Txc98L-QGKWnCohmOTHLHkycU&index=11

Desire Idea

I had a thought this morning:

Perhaps the people that desire capitalism the most are the ones that deserve it the least, and perhaps the people that desire socialism the most are the ones that deserve it the least.

And I wouldn't be surprised if this desire idea could be generalized to other things as well.

Personally, I'd like to believe that I could accomplish whatever goals I have under either political system.

Serving in Heaven vs. Ruling in Hell

Paradise Lost brings up this debate.  Some would rather rule over chaos than serve under order, and others the opposite.  And for a while I wondered which I preferred.  Then I thought of a scenario that puts this into perspective.  

When I used to compete in lifting meets, I definitely preferred others to be weaker than me.  I'd rather be 1st place with a low combined weight total than 6th place with a much higher total.  Didn't matter if I squatted 315 pounds in the 181 pound weight class, as long as no one else exceeded me. Squatting 700 pounds and being 3rd place just wasn't as good of a prize in my eyes.

And I thought the same initially with regards to intellect.  If I was the smartest in the room, it didn't matter if everyone else WAY below me or just slightly below me.  As long as I was at the top and recognized as the best.

But years later my perspective has changed a bit.  I realized if I was the smartest person ever on earth, the quality of our daily appliances we take for granted would probably be dramatically lower.  Is it worth a lower quality of life for everyone else just to satisfy my own ego?  Can I handle having a lower ranking on the totem pole of recognition if it means a better life for everybody in general?

And it made me realize that it probably is better for me to accept a lower status of governance than to possess total authority over things of inferior quality.  Letting go of a little bit of control can make things go a long way.  And ruling over a bunch of idiots doesn't sound like such a good prize anymore.  Better for us to try to build up those underneath us and accept the benefits of them overtaking us.  

But of course, if those underneath don't want to build themselves up, they are probably better off learning to accept their place.

I Planned a Return at Age Forty - Didn't Happen

I started another blog a few months back called Zen in the Art of Being a Jerk (https://zenintheartofbeingajerk.blogspot.com/), where I talk about how much I like heel wrestling characters.  One of the typical heel characters is often referred to as the closet champion.  This is the champion that refuses to face all challengers, and ducks as many as he can in order to try to artificially increase the length of his often undeserved title reign.

In that spirit, when I was a powerlifter in college, I legitimately feared competing in the very difficult open division.  I was able to compete in the teen division, the junior division, and the collegiate division, and it was much easier to place in those specialized divisions than it was in the open division.  But after college, the number of specialized divisions is slim pickings, and lifters are pretty much forced to compete in the open division.  It isn't until age 40 that you can compete in a masters division for older lifters.  So before I graduated, I joked to my college buddies saying I would avoid competing after college and wait until I'm 40 years old to compete again.

Now at age 44, I'm just too beat up to be anything near competitive.  My digestive issues are the main thing, but my hip flexors bother me on squats too, and last time I tried heavy bicep curls my hand was numb for darn near a month.  I simply can't push myself hard when training anymore without risking injury.  Sure, I could still sign up and lift super low weights in a competition, but that's just no fun.  I guess some guys can keep going strong at that age, but not me.  My back injury in my 20's sealed the deal, and once that finally cleared up a few years later, all my muscle was gone, I had just started a family, and I simply didn't have enough incentive to return.  Then when those digestive issues set in after I hit my late 30's, it was very clear that my competition days were over, never to return.