Images Photos

Rhinoceros

Salvador Dali & Rhinoceros

The rhino is a homely beast

For human eyes he's not a feast

Farewell, farewell you old rhinoceros

I'll stare at something less prepoceros

--Ogden Nash

Albrecht Durer's Rhino

FreakingArt.com's take on Durer's Rhino

Rhinoceros come in five different species: Black, White, Indian, Javan, Samatran. Two native to Africa and three to Southeast Asia. Indian and Javan varieties have one horn the Black, White and Samatran have two. All are herbivores and even the smallest can reach well over a ton in weight.

William Scheele

Maria Ryan

Xavier Cordata

Memorial Day 2011

Private Horace J. Keller

was killed in action

on November 16, 1944.

Saturation Saturday: Aqua

Aqua: halfway between green and blue

An African Aquamarine

aqua = water = agua (sort of)

I like the chairs, wonder if I can do clear as a color?

art

umm, well, uh

an marine aqua fish
mostly because I couldn't leave you with the image
of that football dude

Oxford English Dictionary

I don't remember when I got my OED, I think it was a gift for ordering something or joining something else, maybe a donation. I got the compact two volume set with the magnifying glass in the little drawer at the top. I had no idea what I was missing before becoming the proud owner of an OED. It's stored with my other books in Ohio these days. But even in the age of the internet, there are many times each week I wish I had it sitting on a nearby shelf, the etymology alone is worth the weight of moving those monster tomes from place to place.

Recently I discovered some of the newer additions to the OED. I admit to being a bit surprised but then I remembered just how comprehensive it was. The OED now includes: LOL, FYI and yes even OMG!

Also added: donut hole, happy camper, la-la land, muffin top.

Further new entries include the five (or two, or three, or ten) second rule for retrieving and eating food that has fallen on the floor. Apparently, jelly side up has not made the cut yet, despite being a very important corollary to the ten second rule.

Dichotomy

One might say that the definition of dichotomy presents a dichotomy. The simpliest definition says that it is the division into two parts or a subdivision into pairs or halves. But you can sense that this is not how we use the term. Looking further we find additional constraints - the division into two mutually exclusive, opposed even contradictory groups. Such as a dichotomy between motion and stillness.

One definition suggests an original whole which is cut in two; the other a divide that can never be a whole and never was. Still something is missing.

Our use of the term dichotomy is heavily influenced by the notion of a false dichotomy. Also known as black & white thinking, a false dichotomy draws a bipolar comparison that is not necessarily true. For example:

We had a lot of rain this spring. The crime rate was higher this spring. Rain is conducive to crime.

Guns and hammers are made of metal and both can be used to harm someone. It makes no sense to regulate the sale of hammers, so it makes no sense to regulate gun sales either.

There is something in the examples of the false dichotomy that creeps into our understanding and use of dichotomy. The oppositional definition seems to be dominant.

There is something to be extrapolated about separate but equal logic mixed in here somewhere, but sometimes my brain hurts and nothing will do but another cat picture.

You might have wondered at some point - where do the ideas for a blog post originate? Well this one came from a picture. No, not the kittens. The photograph below of an art work titled: Dichotomy by Eric Franklin.

I didn't say I understood it.

Constructing a Personality

"I am just a bundle of reaction formation responses."

I don't know if I love my friends because they are my friends or if they are my friends because I love them. But I do know I love the wonderful things they say. So much laughter, learning and blog fodder.

Reaction formation refers to a coping mechanism (Freudian defense mechanism) by which we replace unacceptable or anxiety producing behaviors and emotions with their direct opposite. Or at least what is perceived to be the opposite. Different flip-sides for different folks as it were.

Of course, as with all psychological theory it all gets much more diffuse and complicated as applied to various personas and personalities. For instance, if you are reacting to a parent who is often angry then you might avoid anger yourself by overly compensating, being always agreeable, never oppositional. Perhaps trading one dysfunctional behavior for another. How then does someone express an emotion like anger when reacting to a pathological use of that same emotion in parents or peers?

Well fortunately we are not just a bundle of reaction formations. We really do have free will; we actually can break free of whatever traits our childhood imposed upon us. Our maturation allows us options other than reaction formation. Still buried down deep or not buried at all lurks the remanent of all we have been and might have been. All twisty and turny (psychological terms) yet changeable, malleable and unique.

All my friends are nearly normal and I love them for exactly those qualities.