01 December 2022

Istijlál, 09 Qawl (Speech), 179 B.E

Seen

Now that it’s fully into the Christmas season, here’s another photo of the burning bush (Euonymus alatus) I first posted in the Daily Log on 16 November 2022.

Done

Participated in a standing Thursday Zoom session with Tony Budak this afternoon. We talked about my “obsession” with data visualization. In particular, how best to embed the data I’ve accumulated over the past 35 years in a webpage so it can be easily accessed, searched, and displayed. This led me to do more research after the call as reported in the “Sorted” below.

Noted

Astral Prospecting on Instagram | Astral Prospecting on YouTube | Astral Prospecting on Facebook

Marc Bosserman on Instagram | Marc Bosserman on Facebook | Marc Bosserman Music and Musings on YouTube

Tab’s Galaxy on YouTube

Listened

Madonna - True Blue

Notes by Discogs.com

Read

Markman, Harvey C. Fossils : A Story of the Rocks and Their Record of Prehistoric Life. Third Edition. Denver: Denver Museum of Natural History, 1954. http://archive.org/details/fossilsstoryofro00mark.

Bookmarked

Brown, Gordon. “Britain’s Poor Face the Worst Winter in Living Memory.” ThreadReader, December 1, 2022. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1598267035250659329.html.

Why It’s Rude to Suck at Warcraft, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKP1I7IocYU.

Grose, Jessica. “Give Moms the Gift of Guaranteed Income.” The New York Times, November 30, 2022, sec. Opinion. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/30/opinion/moms-holiday-giving.html.

Hedges, Chris. “The Chris Hedges Report Podcast with Richard Wolff.” Substack newsletter. The Chris Hedges Report (blog), December 1, 2022. https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-chris-hedges-report-podcast-speaks?publication_id=778851#details.

Hoeven, Nicole van der. “Getting Started with Obsidian.” YouTube. Accessed December 1, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-1Nqb2waX4Vba6QDVS5rhnSb9pZGTO4b.

Johnson, Sophie Lucido. “Here’s What Big Dinner Parties Are For.” Substack newsletter. You Are Doing A Good Enough Job (blog), November 30, 2022. https://goodenoughjob.substack.com/p/heres-what-big-dinner-parties-are.

Lat, David. “Biglaw’s Latest Cancel-Culture Controversy.” Substack newsletter. Original Jurisdiction (blog), December 1, 2022. https://davidlat.substack.com/p/biglaws-latest-cancel-culture-controversy.

LePera, Nicole. “Let’s Talk about Social Anxiety Disorder.” ThreadReader, November 30, 2022. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1597968600370884610.html.

mash tun timmy. “I’ve Noticed a Psych Trend Where Nearly Every Pop Psychologist Invites People to Transfer Blame to Their Childhood Environment.” ThreadReader, November 30, 2022. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1598055786005295106.html.

Matias, J. Nathan. “Policy on Scraping and Automation?” Social.Coop on Loomio, December 1, 2022. https://www.loomio.com/d/IYF6POHb/comment/2814963.

Steffen, Alex. “‘Being Too Far Ahead Is the Same Thing as Being Wrong.’” Medium, July 21, 2021. https://thenearlynow.com/being-too-far-ahead-is-the-same-thing-as-being-wrong-757ca567da69.

Thompson, Derek. “Your Creativity Won’t Save Your Job From AI.” The Atlantic, December 1, 2022. https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/12/why-the-rise-of-ai-is-the-most-important-story-of-the-year/672308/.

Vickers, Peter. “How to Identify a Scientific Fact.” OUPblog, November 30, 2022. https://blog.oup.com/2022/11/how-to-identify-a-scientific-fact/.

Zong, Jonathan. “Building Collective Power to Refuse Harmful Data Systems.” Citizens and Technology Lab (blog), August 12, 2020. https://citizensandtech.org/2020/08/collective-refusal/.

Zong, Jonathan, and J. Nathan Matias. “Bartleby: Procedural and Substantive Ethics in the Design of Research Ethics Systems.” Social Media + Society 8, no. 1 (January 1, 2022): 20563051221077020. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221077021.

“Coalition for Independent Technology Research.” Accessed December 1, 2022. https://independenttechresearch.org/.

Sorted

Researched the publishing features of TheBrain compared to Obsidian. I’m leaning toward TheBrain even though its user-friendliness is like many relationships — complicated

Quoted

As to the third meaning of sacrifice, it is this: If you plant a seed in the ground, a tree will become manifest from that seed. The seed sacrifices itself to the tree that will come from it. The seed is outwardly lost, destroyed; but the same seed which is sacrificed will be absorbed and embodied in the tree, its blossoms, fruit and branches. If the identity of that seed had not been sacrificed to the tree which became manifest from it, no branches, blossoms or fruits would have been forthcoming. Christ outwardly disappeared. His personal identity became hidden from the eyes, even as the identity of the seed disappeared; but the bounties, divine qualities and perfections of Christ became manifest in the Christian community which Christ founded through sacrificing Himself. When you look at the tree, you will realize that the perfections, blessings, properties and beauty of the seed have become manifest in the branches, twigs, blossoms and fruit; consequently, the seed has sacrificed itself to the tree. Had it not done so, the tree would not have come into existence. Christ, like unto the seed, sacrificed Himself for the tree of Christianity. Therefore, His perfections, bounties, favors, lights and graces became manifest in the Christian community, for the coming of which He sacrificed Himself.

As to the fourth significance of sacrifice: It is the principle that a reality sacrifices its own characteristics. Man must sever himself from the influences of the world of matter, from the world of nature and its laws; for the material world is the world of corruption and death. It is the world of evil and darkness, of animalism and ferocity, bloodthirstiness, ambition and avarice, of self-worship, egotism and passion; it is the world of nature. Man must strip himself of all these imperfections, must sacrifice these tendencies which are peculiar to the outer and material world of existence.

On the other hand, man must acquire heavenly qualities and attain divine attributes. He must become the image and likeness of God. He must seek the bounty of the eternal, become the manifestor of the love of God, the light of guidance, the tree of life and the depository of the bounties of God. That is to say, man must sacrifice the qualities and attributes of the world of nature for the qualities and attributes of the world of God. For instance, consider the substance we call iron. Observe its qualities; it is solid, black, cold. These are the characteristics of iron. When the same iron absorbs heat from the fire, it sacrifices its attribute of solidity for the attribute of fluidity. It sacrifices its attribute of darkness for the attribute of light, which is a quality of the fire. It sacrifices its attribute of coldness to the quality of heat which the fire possesses so that in the iron there remains no solidity, darkness or cold. It becomes illumined and transformed, having sacrificed its qualities to the qualities and attributes of the fire.

Likewise, man, when separated and severed from the attributes of the world of nature, sacrifices the qualities and exigencies of that mortal realm and manifests the perfections of the Kingdom, just as the qualities of the iron disappeared and the qualities of the fire appeared in their place.

Every man trained through the teachings of God and illumined by the light of His guidance, who becomes a believer in God and His signs and is enkindled with the fire of the love of God, sacrifices the imperfections of nature for the sake of divine perfections. Consequently, every perfect person, every illumined, heavenly individual stands in the station of sacrifice. It is my hope that through the assistance and providence of God and through the bounties of the Kingdom of Abhá you may be entirely severed from the imperfections of the world of nature, purified from selfish, human desires, receiving life from the Kingdom of Abhá and attaining heavenly graces. May the divine light become manifest upon your faces, the fragrances of holiness refresh your nostrils and the breath of the Holy Spirit quicken you with eternal life. ¹