Matthieu Ricard … 2004, 2020

2004 TED Talk, Monterey, CA / transcript*

see also: results of search for images, no year specified*

at 05:29 – a copy-paste from the transcript:
Now, what, then, will be happiness? And happiness, of course, is such a vague word, so let's say well-being. And so, I think the best definition, according to the Buddhist view, is that well-being is not just a mere pleasurable sensation. It is a deep sense of serenity and fulfillment. A state that actually pervades and underlies all emotional states, and all the joys and sorrows that can come one's way. For you, that might be surprising. Can we have this kind of well-being while being sad? In a way, why not? Because we are speaking of a different level.

2020-06-05 … from an FT interview, done while Ricard is in France, visiting his 97-year-old mother:
The notion that we can control external conditions is mistaken, he explains, … “We have this very arrogant idea that we have extracted ourselves from nature. We are masters of the universe, we can send people to the moon, we can manipulate genes. It seems that we are invincible.”

He is horrified, too, by the idea of transhumanism, and its adherents’ quest to prolong dramatically the human lifespan. “Imagine Donald Trump being elected for the 50th time or Lionel Messi scoring his 50,000th goal. How boring!” I laugh in agreement. He goes on: “I mean, I love my hermitage, but a thousand years? As my mother likes to say, eternity is awfully long, especially near the end.”

source archived*


*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer


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the boy in the yellow t-shirt

the boy in the yellow t-shirt*

2020-12-07 … Snopes on the boy and Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNtech:
Although the family shown in the photograph is not Sahin’s, and the boy in the yellow shirt is not him, the milieu it depicted may well have been similar to the one in which Sahin grew up. According to multiple reports, Sahin’s father — like the father of the “boy in the yellow t-shirt” — immigrated to Germany as a gastarbeiter (“guest worker”) in a Ford factory in Cologne. Both men originally arrived by themselves, before their respective families later joined them.

The purpose of the guest-worker programs was to bring an influx of skilled labor into Germany in order to revive the German economy in the 1960s and 1970s. Workers were originally intended to stay for only two years, before returning to their countries of origin, but the rules were later changed and allowed for family reunification in Germany.

So in the case of Sahin and the boy in the yellow shirt, their families’ journey in German society began under the same legal mechanisms, and in similarly modest circumstances.*


*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer

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Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life (John Gray)


from the Tim Adams book interview:
In the last sentence of Straw Dogs, Gray asked a question, almost plaintively: “Can we not think of the aim of life as being simply to see?” Has writing the current book helped him to understand what such a life of experience might look like?

“Cats live for the sensation of life, not for something they might achieve or not achieve,” he says. “If we attach ourselves too heavily to some overarching purpose we’re losing the joy of life. Leave all those ideologies and religions to one side and what’s left? What’s left is a sensation of life – which is a wonderful thing.”*

!w2 John Gray (philosopher)


*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer
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Covid-19: Acuitas, Pfizer, and BioNTech

Thomas D. Madden, PhD / bio*

Madden’s path to this moment began in the working-class neighbourhood of Clapham in London, where he lived above a pub run by his Irish immigrant parents.

He completed a BSc and a PhD in biochemistry at the University of London in 1980 and began searching for a fellowship opportunity to continue his training.

“I had always wanted to come to North America, so I applied to work with Pieter Cullis* at UBC,” he said. “I had no idea what Vancouver was like, I barely knew where it was.”

Once Madden arrived it was soon apparent he would not be going back to England anytime soon, “not once I realized what a paradise it is.”

Madden met the woman who would become his wife — family physician Dr. Linda Tai — at UBC while she was a graduate student in the same research group. They have raised twins — a boy and a girl.

Over the years, Madden has founded a number of companies based on his research successes.

At Tekmira Pharmaceuticals, he led the development of anticancer drugs, including Marqibo, Alocrest and Brakiva.

Earlier this year, Madden was made a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering for his work in the field of nucleic acid delivery.*

see also: a prescient 2017 piece on Moderna in Science* … and more from the Guardian last week*


*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer

mRNA site:theatlantic.com (!?) / added 2021-04-03

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Noam Chomsky in the 1990s, the Overton window, and the five filters

Andrew Marr (aged 27 in 1996) is today a prominent member of the media elite in the UK*
(note that the third of the five filters – see animation below – is the media elite)

seven seconds from Chomsky, at 11:08:
I’m not saying you’re self-censoring. I’m sure you believe everything you’re saying. But what I’m saying is if you believed something different, you wouldn’t be sitting where you’re sitting.
the 1945 Orwell essay Chomsky mentions earlier, at 08:23, ends with this:
If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. The common people still vaguely subscribe to that doctrine and act on it. … [I]t is the liberals who fear liberty and the intellectuals who want to do dirt on the intellect: it is to draw attention to that fact that I have written this preface. (!?)*
Caitlin Johnstone heads her 2019 post on the Overton window* with this Chomsky quote from 1998:
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum — even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.
animation narrated by Amy Goodman (!w2) of Democracy Now! (!w2)
media operate through five filters: ownership, advertising, the media elite, flak, and the common enemy*


*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer

browse tweets from selected sources on Twitter* / free, no account needed

see the article the tweet links to – archived*



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seen in the wild: instances of usage


areas where the more deadly aspects … are likely to manifest … administration … manifesting much of its murderousness* / intransitive, but see OED entry* (especially senses 6 and 7), and transitive  01-24

… to raise key questions, such as: Should we accept the revolving door that keeps spinning between the Pentagon and the weapons industry? Does an aggressive U.S. military really enhance “national security” and lead to peace?* / more than one question 12-08

For a mind free of beliefs, what is, is, whatever anyone says.* / comma, italics, 12-02

What is, is. When the Buddha, instead of speaking, remained …* / comma, no italics, 12-02

All these things raise the question (asking for a friend): How do you get someone to face reality and get out of the White House?*
/ raise, not beg; (asking for a friend); colon introduces direct question; no quotation marks; 11-15

This is what Donald’s going to do: he’s not going to concede, although who cares.* / no question mark, 11-08


*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer






Posted