Reveal And Conceal

Education:  that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge.
—     Mark Twain
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On This Day In:
2022	The Edge Of Today
2021	Why I’m Wrinkled With Age
	Is There A Generic Available?
2020	I Feel Noblesse Oblige
2019	Live For Something
2018	My Dogs Beat ‘Em Up
	Is Your Sky Falling?
2017	Unseen Here, Too
2016	Criticized Anyway
2015	Sometimes The Truth Hurts
2014	All Agreed, Say “Aye”
2013	Two Books, Two Movies
	Just Because
2012	God’s Requirements
2011	Greater Purity

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Life’s Great Illusion

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.
—     Stephen Hawking
[To append to Sacha Guitry’s quote:  “The little I know, I owe to my ignorance.”  …And to my curiosity, if not my schooling.    —        kmab]
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On This Day In:
2022	3rd (40)
	Might Still Flicker Or Shine
2021	Keep Growing
	I Keep Looking
2020	I Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Plans
	One Earth
2019	Beautiful Rules
2018	Skepticism
2017	WWGD?
2016	Growing Greatness
2015	When It Is Darkest
2014	Knowledge And Doubt
2013	Three Thoughts
2012	Gentle Reader
2011	Leave The Light On For Me Anyway

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Time And Chance

10     Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
11     I have seen something else under the sun:
	The race is not to the swift
	or the battle to the strong,
	nor does food come to the wise
	or wealth to the brilliant
	or favor to the learned;
	but time and chance happen to them all.
12     Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:
	As fish are caught in a cruel net,
	or birds are taken in a snare,
	so people are trapped by evil times
	that fall unexpectedly upon them.
—     Ecclesiastes 9:10-12
[I recently heard these verses quoted in an episode of “Have Gun – Will Travel“.  Paladin becomes friends with a bank robber who is killed at the end of the show.  As he is passing, he asks Paladin to say a few words over him.  He says (not a direct quote):  I don’t think it’ll make much difference to where I’m going, but I’d like to hear what you’d say.  He passes before hearing Paladin recite the 12th verse…     —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2022	One Hour Per Year
2021	If You’re A Lucky 11 Year Old
	Just Got To Be
	Masked Countdown And Gratitude
2020	Democratic Aspiration
2019	Soul Before Will
2018	Small Things
2017	Clear And Warm To Me
2016	Ripple
2015	Amazing Or Full Of Wonder?
2014	Are You Confused?
2013	But The Odds Are Against It
2012	Far Better Off With Books
2011	Timid And Fainthearted

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Now And Later

What’s wrong with knowing what you know now and not knowing what you don’t know until later?
—    Winnie the Pooh
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On This Day In:
2022	Big And Bad (In A Good Way)
2021	Suggestions…
	Dichotomy
2020	Until November… Then Vote
2019	Start With Health And Friends
	Iterum Vale Tres*
2018	Tweets From The Disrupter-In-Chief
2017	Do We Still Listen To Her Silent Lips?
	Not Now, Not Ever
2016	Why Do You Write/Blog?
2015	Can Your Repeat The Question, Please?
2014	On Faith
2013	My Name Is Charles Stein
2012	Faiths And Sorcery
	Made And Kept Free
2011	Multi-Source Learning

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Keep Faith, But Also Keep Learning

Trust yourself.  You know more than you think.
—     Benjamin Spock
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On This Day In:
2021	A Tenacious Cycle
	Once Upon A Time…
2020	Kinda Like Posting To A Blog About My Day
	Just A Different Point Of View
	You Be The Judge
2019	I Think I’m Repeating Myself
	It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like X-mas!
2018	No Reason To Turn
2017	Talking Knuth
	Seeing It Through
2016	Hoping For The Best Come January
2015	Adaptive Security
2014	Wants
2013	Side Effects
2012	Just Trying To Earn A Living
2011	Productive Worry

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If Only I Could…

People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, and urge doing.  I am content with knowing, if only I could know.
—    Ralph Waldo Emerson
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On This Day In:
2021	Become Daily
	Just Pickin’
2020	So, You Think You Know The Answer?
	The One You Come Running To
2019	His Promises, OUR Hopes
2018	Where I Write
2017	At Last, An Honest Philosopher…
2016	Fake It ‘Til You Make It
2015	Hell Toupée
2014	Corrected And Amended
2013	Too Few
2012	Three Characters
2011	Universal Payment
2010	Privatizing the TSA?  (An old – and long – post, but still relevant!!)

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A Way Of Thinking, An Essential Tool

Science is much more than a body of knowledge.  It is a way of thinking.  This is central to its success.  Science invites us to let the facts in, even when they don’t conform to our preconceptions.  It counsels us to carry alternative hypotheses in our heads and see which ones best match the facts.  It urges on us a fine balance between no-holds-barred openness to new ideas, however heretical, and the most rigorous skeptical scrutiny of everything — new ideas and established wisdom.  We need wide appreciation of this kind of thinking.  It works.  It’s an essential tool for a democracy in an age of change.  Our task is not just to train more scientists but also to deepen public understanding of science.
—    Carl Sagan
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On This Day In:
2021	Experience A Simple Whatever
	A Thousand Kisses
2020	Talking Politics With Trump Republicans
	In Another Lifetime
2019	People Will Come
	Change Is Here…
2018	Be My Hero – Vote Tomorrow!
	He Was All Of Us…
2017	Black And White
	Advice For #DumbDonald
2016	Mirror, Mirror
2015	Speaking With Forked Tongue
2014	The Code
2013	Eventually Formed
2012	Remember To Vote Tomorrow
2011	It Sounds Like Chaos Theory To Me

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Just Waiting

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
—     Carl Sagan
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On This Day In:
2021	I’ll Keep Trying To Anyway
	She Knows
2020	Respond
	Still Trying To Adjust
2019	The Limits Of My Knowledge
2018	Even Tiny Progress
2017	Real Conservatism
2016	The Business Of Life
2015	Alone Again, Naturally
2014	Agreed
2013	Smile From Your Heart!
2012	Like You
2011	Got Days?
2010	K9 Humor – Has Anyone Seen My Setter?  (Must read!!)
	A Longer Blog Than You Want To Read (Probably)
2009	Back and Forth and Round Again…

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Seek Good

There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.
―     Socrates
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On This Day In:
2022	Seek Good
2021	Aging Well
	Now And Forever
2020	Always
2019	#45 Is More Of A Piddle Than A Puddle
2018	Found Out
	A Message To The “Wanna Be” Dictator On Leadership
2017	Still Waiting…
2016	Same Old, Same Old
2015	Shout!
2014	I Hear Voices
2013	Ethics And Standards
2012	Swing Higher
2011	Convicted For Life

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Under My Fingertips…

I’ve been learning how to play guitar for a little over thirteen months and this morning when I began practicing I realized I’ve already “forgotten” more about guitar than I know (remember)…
Because playing a musical instrument is so much about muscle memory, practically none of the information I’ve read / watched has been retained in a usable format.  I’m reminded of what we used to say in the Army:  “You don’t know it until you can teach it and you can’t teach it until you can do it.“
I’ve “learned” about so many music / guitar concepts without practicing them – until they are “under my fingertips” – that I am constantly experiencing “oh, that’s what that was talking about” moments.
Lately, I’ve been trying to tune the guitar by ear.  I’m actually starting to get close.  Of course, all of my guitars are already close to being “in-tune” (from frequent use), so I guess my next step will be to fully un-tune (de-tune?) one of them and see how close I can “really” get from scratch (on my own).
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On This Day In:
2022	Under My Fingertips…
	Seeking The Divine
2021	And My Sister Is Taxing
	What Did The Wise Men Say?
2020	One Phrase
2019	Why #LyingDonald Can’t Trust Any Honorable Person
2018	An Old Style Conservative
2017	John Q.
2016	In Trembling Hope Repose
2015	Let There Be Light
2014	Unless
2013	Divergent Roads To Similarity?
2012	In The Process
2011	What Do You Emphasize?

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Limited Knowledge And No Control

Thus we may have knowledge of the past but cannot control it;  we may control the future but have no knowledge of it.
—     Claude Elwood Shannon
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On This Day In:
2022	Limited Knowledge And No Control
2021	Gifts
	Look Inside Your Heart
2020	A Strength Of Science
2019	A Higher Standard
	Make Two Calls
2018	Irreplaceable Sparks
2017	Saving For April 15th
2016	First Wish
2015	Tracing Shadows
2014	One Thing
2013	More Is Less
2012	The Screw-Up Gene

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More New Year’s Exercises

The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another’s, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.
—    Dr. Leo F. Buscaglia
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On This Day In:
2021	More New Year’s Exercises
	7 Done, 12 Down
2021	Another Public Service Message
	Greetin’ The Sun
2020	From The Mountains To The Shores
2019	Watering The Trees And Seeds
	1221
2018	Take Care Of Me…
2017	Make Some Difference
2016	Still 99%
2015	Adolescent Opinion
2014	In A Big World
2013	Vacancy For God
2012	Sweat Equity
	Try It… You’ll Like It
2011	Still Incomplete
2010	Happy New Year – 2010

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And Still Don’t Understand

The real purpose of the scientific method is to make sure nature hasn’t misled you into thinking you know something you actually don’t know.
—    Robert M. Pirsig
From his book:  “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:  An Inquiry Into Values“
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On This Day In:
2021	And Still Don’t Understand
	Unconditional
2020	I Hope She Keeps Laughing
	Christmas Is Near
2019	Ruff Clean
2018	Sounds Like A Blog To Me
2017	My Fear For America
2016	Proceeding Still
2015	Seeing Rainbows
	I Am A Runner
2014	The Law Of The Perversity Of Nature
2013	One Standard Deviation
2012	High Anxiety
2011	And I’m Taking Me There
2010	1,000

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Said The Anti-Vaxxer

I would rather have my ignorance than another man’s knowledge because I have so much more of it.
—     Mark Twain
[I watched an “anti-vaxxer” getting interviewed and his excuse for not getting a shot was:  “We all gotta die of somethin’.“
This is a poor attempt (by me) at sarcastic humor.  And, no, there is no indication AT ALL that Samuel Clemens was anti-vaccination.  In any case, at the time of his (Clemens / Twain) death only five vaccines had been discovered:  Smallpox (1798), Rabies (1885), Typhoid (1896), Cholera (1896), and Plague (1897).    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021	Said The Anti-Vaxxer
	Ceiling Mash
2020	Is #45 In Good Spirits?
	Alone With My Tears
2019	Learning To…
	Day 15: Die By The Scale
2018	Just Wondering
2017	Until I Think Of Something Better
2016	Who Are You?
2015	Renaissance Reptiles
2014	Book Return
2013	Keep Writing Your Truths
	Perilous Times For The U.S. Military
2012	The Victor
2011	Forging Away At My Deadlines
2010	Try This With Your Shoes…

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Incomplete And Probably Inaccurate

Our knowledge of any past event is always incomplete, probably inaccurate, beclouded by ambivalent evidenced biased historians, and perhaps distorted by our own patriotic or religious partisanship.
—    Will and Ariel Durant
From their book:  “The Lessons Of History“
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On This Day In:
2020	One Of Your Responsibilities
	God Is Watching Us
2019	Just Asking…
2018	Or Attacks On A Free Press
	Day 26: Life
2017	Still Looking For The Key
2016	Not So Much Anymore, Boss
2015	Green Binge
2014	Overdone
2013	The Courage To Remake The World
2012	Minor Gifts
2011	I Love It When A Plan Comes Together…
2010	Eloquence
	Cleaning the Chalk Board

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