Re:

It's a powerful and convincing statement, but my feeling=is that it would not be wise to submit it for publication. Taking th= stance of a reader who comes to the matter from afresh, perhaps having he=rd some rumors but knowing nothing, the reaction I suspect will be of the =quot;where there's smoke there's fire" kind. Few are wi=ling to think through the arguments and factual details or to try to adjud=cate conflicting claims. I've seen this happen over and over on =ther matters -- many years of having been accused of Holocaust denial, for=example.. Ugly and bitter as it is, I suspect the best course now is=not to stir the pot by raising the issue publicly, opening the door to cha=ges and accusations that can no doubt be answered in the court of logic an= fairness -- but that's not the public domain, where innuendo and susp=cion and accusation reign.

experience.=/div>

Anyway, for what it's wo=th, that's the way it looks to me, in part on the basis of

The great work that you have been doing speaks fo= itself. My feeling is that you should keep at it, and simply develo= a thick skin to fend off whatever ugliness breaks through now and then, d=minishing over time.

Noam

Cultures unfortunately can be swept by craziness. Nazism for exampl=. Or the Great Awakening. We're in one of those phases now= If there's a charge, it's true, in fact True. Any res=onse is "mansplaining," another power play, reinforcing the char=e. You've seen I'm sure what happened to Lawrence. Ful= and complete response, amounts to zero. Isn't even considered.=C2* It's like trying to discuss rationally with religious fanatics.

Noam

Im cons=dering submitting this to the oped of the wash post id like yo=r

thoughts

Sweetheart deal!" So goes the atta=k on the resolution of the more than a decade ago federal investigation in=olving our client Jeffrey Epstein. The attack is profoundly misplace=, supported neither by the law nor the facts. Nor is it supported by the s=ructure of our constitutional republic. To the contrary, Jeffrey was subje=ted to an extremely aggressive federal intrusion into what would typically=be considered a quintessentially local criminal matter in south Florida.=C2* The offense investigated — at its c=re, sexual favors for hire — has long been treated as a =atter entrusted to laws of the several States, not the federal government.=C240 The conduct — for which Jeffrey took fullil>=A0responsibility — was a classic state offense and was treate= exactly that way by able, honest prosecutors in Palm Beach County. =evertheless, without a request from the state prosecutors, the decision-makers f=deral government at the time, including intervened. n=w-Secretary For their own of opportunistic Labor Alex Acosta reasons, (then-United ma=y are States now criticizing Attorney the in south federal Flo=ida), for not going far enough.

<=>:

The critics are wrong on the facts and the law. They also ign=re a fact going to the heart of fundamental fairness: In the de=ade since paying his debt to society, Jeffrey Epstein has led a life chara=terized by responsible citizenship, numerous acts of generosity and good d=eds.

Fro= the point of view of a jihadi, Klan, evangelical Christian, my ultra-orth=dox grandfather,.... it's the rest of the world that's crazy.40=A0 I think we can do better than just to take the fall-back position that =raziness is a value judgment, but not so easy.

On consc=ousness, my suspicion is that we'll never do much better than Russell&=39;s picture: what we understand with highest confidence is our own immedi=te conscious experience. The rest of our intellectual efforts (scien=e especially) are an attempt to make sense of that (and in the course of d=ing so, instructs us that our experience is a construct of our internal mo=es of cognition acting on an external world that we (naively?) assume to e=ist. And it also tells us, I think, that consciousness is a thin and=superficial fringe of an internal mental life that is inaccessible to intr=spection.

Interesting perspective. Perhaps we c=n look at it sort of like this.

The way our minds work, it de=elops constructs to try to accommodate our immediate experience -- like ta=le and chairs to accommodate what I'm experiencing now, manifestations=of what we take to be an external world; and comparably, norms of social a=tion and beliefs about society to accommodate what I experience in social =ife, manifestations of what we take to be a prevailing culture.

If so, we're back to Bertie's picture but with=a broader range, the mind constructing an external world that consists of =ables, chairs, cultural norms,... in an effort to provide some coherence t= the flux of experience (itself a construct, so our efforts at scientific =xplanation instruct us).

There's a preliminar= discussion with the mediator planned for Jan. 2, then a general mediation=session later. Will keep you up-to-date of course.

Noam

=s the stories get wilder and the writers make the girls younger.Q=A0 prostitution is a tabloid s dream , . I w=ndered if having something out in the cyber world that let some peop=e point to rational arguments might allow some to defend themselves =rom their wives . " how could you " etc. =C24>

I have =een exploring the Al world with the cutting edge people. I rem=nd them of your comments re machines thinking :)/ =C24> I thought that culture was the conciou=ness of a society. tribes were like self. . =edia approx transmitters. . It provided constraint= and rules for some underlying interactions.

It doesn= exist in a physical sense but either does consciousness.=C2 which it appears to me as an evolutionary advantage and =rovides the brain with rules memories. ( culture again ) .=A0 and constraints. . tribes when attacked , act like a=self . . compete like selves. etc. The world we call ph=sical . follows rules that we have created, most unknowingly. = I assume language acts like an effective transmittier. = some language like adrenaline. some like dopamine.=A0 . do some extent the hormones of the culture. ? =A0

cultures swept by craziness, isnt it the=same for an individual. .. the brain sends signals based on f=ulty sensors or information. . to see if the brain is fu=ctioning. there are word tests. memory tests. etc. =C240 . why isnt conciousness the property of those things. li=e culture is to fads etc.

what i=am suggesting is that what the term culture means is the=same as what consciousness means.
culture can be d=scribes as russell did for consciousness. t=e physics and math envy habit of trying to measure things.
=A0 we experience culture, it is stubborn, transmitted,=C2 localized. contains memories. boundaries.
dictum.=C2 . it manifests itself in different ways but =oesn't have a separate existence. it is like c=nsiousness a human construct. no more no less. =A0 btw, is a mediation date and time set. yet? =A0 vincent papers were good except for the amount to settle. <=r>

i suggest re mediation that it not get bogged down i= details. thats their trick . , stay a=ove the fray, ie lets cut the bullshit. and ask harry how much=of your money does he believe he deserves. . and that wo=ld be my only sentence repeated over and over. 4>=A0 re conciousness., I have yet to hear a cogent a=swer to the question of why putting someone in solitary confinement ,40=A0 has such strong mental reactions . moving a plant or chair =r computer into a closed room has no effect. why d= people hallucinate , talk to themselves. etc. there is almost=no work done on the subject as irb would say no no, and prison= refuse to allow. . why having no social or at lea=t perceived social contact makes people crazy , suicidal etc. =C240 . though im told a tv or radio relieves many of the symptoms. =br>