It's possible that Leo was exhibiting a desire to share, which is a common trait in young children. At 18 months old, children are still learning about social interactions and may be trying to mimic the behaviors they see from their caregivers. It's also possible that Leo was simply returning the toy because he was done playing with it and wanted to move on to something else. Either way, it's clear that Leo is developing his social skills and learning about sharing and reciprocity. This is a natural and important part of child development, and it's great that you were able to support and encourage these behaviors in your interactions with Leo.
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Little Leo's Urge to Share
When my 18-month-old grandson, Leo, came to visit me
yesterday, I gave him a little rubber squeeze toy, some kind of dinosaur, which
he evidently liked and played with a bit. An hour later, when that and other
diversions had paled, his father suggested my penlight would appeal to Leo, as
it had when he was home.
I lent Leo my penlight,
pleasing him. He walked away and quickly returned to hand me the toy I had
given him when he arrived. This is fair, he seemed to think. I agreed.
A skeptic might argue that Leo
felt he was trading, trading up, as both his parents are in commerce, but I
interpreted it as a lovable urge to share.
Saturday, December 24, 2022
chatgpt Paragraph on Writing Better
This AI program is impressive.
I used https://chat.openai.com/chat
I asked for a paragraph on writing better, and I received:
Saturday, December 3, 2022
How Twitter Treated Trump Voters
Just fot he record:
https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2022/12/02/elon-musk-explains-what-really-happened-with-the-hunter-biden-story-suppression-wow/
Thursday, December 1, 2022
Coffee Gives Sprinters a Head Start
The Think Drink can shorten your time in the 100-yard dash:
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11-caffeine-finish-line-faster-reveals.html
"As measures of performance, the researchers measured the sprint velocity and calculated the sprint time. On discounting the effects of environmental factors, the corrected sprint time was used to examine the effects of caffeine supplementation.
"The results revealed that the corrected 100-m sprint time was shortened significantly for athletes who received caffeine, with a decrease of 0.14 seconds compared to the controls. This decrease in the time was largely associated with a decrease in sprint time for the first 60 meters of the sprint."
Interesting, though I am rarely in such a hurry.
How Many Stars? How Many Molecules?
Not sure how many stars there are in the universe, I asked Dr. Google, and found a wide range of estimates, but this site seemed relatively reliable:
https://www.worldatlas.com/space/how-many-stars-are-there.html
A second source on the trillions of galaxies averaging 0.1
trillion = 100 billion stars each:
https://www.space.com/26078-how-many-stars-are-there.html
How many stars in the universe?
Two trillion (2 x 10^12) galaxies and an average of 100 billion (1 x 10^11) stars per galaxy gives about 2 x 10^23 stars, give or take a few powers of ten:
200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars
How many molecules in 1/5 ounce of water?
6 x 10^23 is Avogadro's number, the number of molecules in a mole of a substance. A mole of water is H2O = 18 g, so 1/3 of a mole would match the star count, and that is 6 cubic cm of water, about 1/5 of an ounce!
This makes me think: our ideas about the origins of the universe, 14 billion years ago, via the Big Bang, have a lot yet to explain. A lot.
Wednesday, September 21, 2022
Track: Correlating Running Times versus Distance
Dear Long-Distance-Runner Nephew, William:
Thinking about how to model expected running times (T, sec) versus distance (D, m),
I figured the relationship might be:
T sec = (10 sec) (D / 100 m)^b
Where b would be b=1.0 if you could run the entire distance at the same speed you ran the 100 m.
I expected fatigue would make b>1.0, but I did not know
how much greater.
I consulted the internet:
The best world-record coefficient (e.g., 10 s) might be Bolt’s 9.6 s for the 100 m, but
I was most interested in the exponent, the dependence of time on
distance.
In high school, I ran the mile in about 5 minutes = 300 sec.
My pitiful 100-yard dash time was about 12 sec.
The ratio of these times was about (300/12) = 25.0.
The ratio of the distances was mile/dash = (5280/300) = 17.6
Which predicts a time ratio of (17.6)^1.1 = 23.4
not too different from 25.0, assuming my approximate
12 s estimate.
(T/To) = (D/Do)^1.1.
So, as you go from 6 k to 8 k, for example, you would expect
a ratio of the times of about
(8/6)^1.1 = 1.37.
A 6k time of 21 minutes would be about
21.0 x 1.37 = 28.8 minutes, rather than simply (8/6)(21.0)=28.0. The extra 0.8 of a minute is 48 seconds.
Doubling the distance would tend to increase the time by the multiplier (2)^1.1=2.14, which is 7% longer than 2.0.
To some degree, goals like these target times can be
helpful.
At other times, they might be unrealistic, too easy, or too
hard.
They are interesting, though. (I was sort of a theoretical miler.)
I view this as a way to judge the likely impact of distance
on your time,
rather than a way to compare oneself against world record
holders.
Saturday, September 17, 2022
WRITING BETTER ENGLISH, WEEK 11
WRITING BETTER ENGLISH, WEEK 11
Persuasion:
ETHOS – AUTHORITY, REPUTATION, ACHIEVEMENT, INSIGHT
LOGOS - REASON
PATHOS – EMOTION
- STRUNK AND WHITE, from THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE
- EMERSON, from “SELF-RELIANCE”
-FROST, POETRY, ”The Oven Bird”
LAST WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT, 150-250 WORDS ON BROWNING’S “MY
LAST DUCHESS’
NEXT WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT, 150-250 W0RDS
FROST’S ‘The Oven Bird” or on a quote from Emerson, 150-250
words
https://www.moralapologetics.com/wordpress/what-to-make-of-a-diminished-thing-poeticizing-the-fall-part-1-of-2
In his poem
“The Oven Bird,” Frost uses the theological tropes of the Fall along with
natural revelation to give new meaning to the natural world of the poem while
also continuing to develop metaphorical poetics in which meaning itself must be
both natural and supernatural. Frost displays remarkable poetic dexterity by
both theologizing and naturalizing the act of this common bird’s call.
There is a singer everyone has
heard,
Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood
bird,
Who makes the solid tree trunks
sound again.
He says that leaves are old and
that for flowers
Mid-summer is to spring as one to
ten.
He says the early petal-fall is
past
When pear and cherry bloom went
down in showers
On sunny days a moment overcast;
And comes that other fall we name
the fall.
He says the highway dust is over
all.
The bird would cease and be as
other birds
But that he knows in singing not to
sing.
The question that he frames in all
but words
Is what to make of a diminished
thing.
THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE, CONTINUED
IV. WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS COMMONLY
MISUSED
“any body” means “any corpse. ”Use “anybody.”
“as good or better than.” Use “as good as, if not better.
“As yet.” Use “yet.”.”
“no” doubt but that” use “no doubt that
“Certainly” often over-used.
“Comprise” means embrace or include.
“Currently” is often reeundant.
“Data” is a plural noun. “Datum” is singular.
“disinterested” is impartial. “Uninterested” bored.
ESSAY, "SELF-RELIANCE," RALPH WALDO
EMERSON
FIFTEENTH PARAGRAPH
Ending
We pass for what we are.
Character teaches above our wills.
Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by
overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.
SIXTEENTH PARAGRAPH (BROKEN INTO SENTENCES)
Fear never but you shall be consistent in whatever variety of actions,
so they be each honest and natural in their hour.
For of one will, the actions will be harmonious, however unlike
they seem.
These varieties are lost sight of when seen at a little
distance, at a little height of thought. One tendency unites them all.
The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks.
This is only microscopic criticism. See the line from a sufficient distance,
and it straightens itself to the average tendency.
Your genuine action will explain itself and will explain your
other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing.
Act singly, and what you have already done singly will justify
you now.
Greatness always appeals to the future. If I can be great enough
now to do right and scorn eyes, I must have done so much right before as to
defend me now.
Be it how it will, do right now. Always scorn appearances and
you always may. The force of character is cumulative. All the foregone days of
virtue work their health into this.
What makes the majesty of the heroes of the senate and the
field, which so fills the imagination? The consciousness of a train of great
days and victories behind.
There they all stand and shed an united light on the advancing
actor. He is attended as by a visible escort of angels to every man’s eye.
That is it which throws thunder into Chatham’s voice, and
dignity into Washington’s port, and America into Adams’s eye.
Honor is venerable to us because it is no ephemeris. It is
always ancient virtue.
We worship it to-day because it is not of to-day. We love it and
pay it homage because it is not a trap for our love and homage, but is
self-dependent, selfderived, and therefore of an old immaculate pedigree, even
if shown in a young person.
REMINDER
/ REVIEW
Chapter Titles from THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY
EFFECTIVE PEOPLE
Habit 1: Be
Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be
Understood
Habit 6: Synergize Habit
7: Sharpen the
Saw
WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
150-250
WORDS ON AN EMERSON QUOTE OR ON FROST’S “THE OVEN BIRD”
My other coaching site is WRITE YOUR BOOK WITH ME
Sunday, September 11, 2022
WRITING BETTER ENGLISH, WEEK 10
Persuasion:
ETHOS – AUTHORITY, REPUTATION, ACHIEVEMENT, INSIGHT
LOGOS - REASON
PATHOS – EMOTION
- STRUNK AND WHITE, from THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE
- EMERSON, from “SELF-RELIANCE”
-BROWNING, POETRY, ”My Last Duchess”
LAST WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT, 150-250 WORDS ON FROST’S “A TIME TO
TALK” OR ON A PARAGRAPH FROM EMERSON:
NEXT WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT, 150-250 W0RDS ON BROWNING’S “My
Last Duchess”
My Last Duchess
FERRARA
That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said
“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps
Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps
Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace—all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked
Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech—which I have not—to make your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—
E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master’s known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretense
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!
THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE, CONTINUED
IV. WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS COMMONLY
MISUSED
“The truth is…,” “The fact is…, “Honestly…” Just state it!
“They” Not with “each” “every” nor when it should be
singular, “He” or “she.”
“This” often obscures what the reference is.
“Try and mend it” should be “Try to mend it.”
“Unique” does not have degrees of being unique.
“Utilize” is grandiose “use.”
ESSAY, "SELF-RELIANCE," RALPH WALDO
EMERSON
FOURTEENTH PARAGRAPH
Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and
Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit
that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
FIFTEENTH PARAGRAPH
I suppose no man can violate his nature.
All the sallies of his will are rounded in by the law of his
being, as the inequalities of Andes and Himmaleh are insignificant in the curve
of the sphere.
Nor does it matter how you gauge and try him.
A character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza;—read it
forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing.
In this pleasing contrite wood-life which God allows me, let me
record day by day my honest thought without prospect or retrospect, and I
cannot doubt, it will be found symmetrical, though I mean it not and see it
not.
My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of
insects.
The swallow over my window should interweave that thread or
straw he carries in his bill into my web also.
We pass for what we are.
Character teaches above our wills.
Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by
overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.
REMINDER
/ REVIEW
Chapter Titles from THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be
Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
150-250
W0RDS ON BROWNING’S “My Last Duchess”
Queen or King – As sovereign, the King or Queen outranks
everyone
Queen Consort – The Queen Consort is the wife of the King
Apart from the monarch and their spouse, the titles are:
·
Duke or Duchess
·
Marquess or Marchioness
·
Earl or Countess
·
Viscount or Viscountess
·
Baron or Baroness
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