Photo Analysis

AI can now analyse photographs. I put this photograph through DeepSeek Vision (I am the boy in the middle). Here is what it observed:

• A tropical setting (correct)

• Possibly an atoll (correct)

• The South Pacific (correct)

• Perhaps Kiribati (correct)

• A colonial setting (correct)

• A village setting (correct)

• About 1950 (no, about 1965)

• Perhaps missionaries (correct)

In summary, "It is a formal, yet friendly, candid snapshot typical of family albums kept by expatriates working for colonial governments or missions during that era." OBSERVATION: A stunning analysis, beyond anything I could produce myself -- and I just reveal a small part of it here in this post.

POSTSCRIPT: DeepSeek comments: "The boy in the foreground is holding a piece of carved wood, possibly a small club, a digging stick, or a piece of a canoe." I think it may be an air gun.

Cultural Differences

I find that the differences between Black and White culture are enormous. We have, after all, thousands of years of separate development behind us. One sees it in some of the details -- bearing in mind that these will not be universal. A few examples:

• Ask a Black chemist to renew your prescription too soon -- for the Black chemist this is no problem -- the White chemist will balk at it

• Sit down in a room with a clear glass door while people pass in the street -- a White person will close the curtains -- a Black person will open them

• Buy a Black child a toy -- even an "unbreakable" one -- and it will be broken within a day -- in a White household, it will still be there a year later 

• Sit in a Church pew -- White congregants will leave a large gap between their shoulders and the next -- Black congregants will sit shoulder to shoulder 

• See a friend in the street -- a Black person will shout from the other side of the street -- a White person will speak quietly on the same side of the street 

• When having a bath -- the White person will lock the bathroom door -- the Black person will bring a bath into the family lounge 
• When leaving for an appointment -- the Black person will hear the car engine starting -- the White person will look at their clock 

• When it comes to bereavement -- the White person will lose a family member every ten years -- the Black person will lose a family member every year  

OBSERVATION: There are many more examples besides. Again, this will differ -- sometimes very much so. There are differences in particular between Blacks who are still close to their ancestral roots -- of whom there are many -- and those more distant from them.

Years of Human Effort

I was in this seminary library today. It occurred to me how many hundreds, if not thousands of years of human effort went into the books contained in it -- and how many of them are now basically obsolete. Most of this library's influence lies in the past. OBSERVATION: AI informs me that it might take 3,000 years to write this library.

This Town

An editor in Malta sent me this photo, from a street café: He had just received my book This Town: A Complete Metaphysics. It is a grand tour of the Gedankengut of metaphysics, illustrated, and written at the level of Grade 7. The book is available here: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1666783412?lv

Future Evil

I spent some time today refining a lecture on suffering and evil in the context of an all-powerful (omniscient) and all-good (omnibenevolent) God. I found very interesting the fact that all the material I could find dealt with past or present evil and suffering -- not possible or future evil and suffering. In other words, it said nothing about how I should think about future evil and suffering in my life. OBSERVATION: To put it very simply, for what reason may I hope? Why may I have any confidence in the future? And what if I may not?

Self-Deception

I was talking to a psychologist friend today about self-deception. Here is an example from my counselling. I had a session with a man who got ABC Computers into XYZ Schools. He took a large payment from ABC Computers, and split it 50-50 with a Member of the Executive Council (an MEC, a provincial Minister), to connect ABC with the MEC, who got ABC into the schools. ABC Computers also gave them a whiz-bang computer each, as gifts. Then ABC told him that they wanted to gift him with an upgrade. He took the computer for an upgrade, and ABC confiscated it. He told me all this without any understanding that he was involved in corruption -- a striking example of blindness to one's own self. OBSERVATION: What he was worried about -- and why he came to see me -- was that ABC had confiscated his computer, which had all his data on it. This badly impacted his business.

NASA Fire Information Map

I wonder how many people are paying attention to the NASA Fire Information map. At the top, one sees the map 25 years ago. At the bottom, today's data (you may click or right-click on the image to enlarge). OBSERVATION: I am teaching ecotheology this semester. My lecture notes say that we have a problem with the environment. It's a catastrophe.

Book Reviews

How times have changed. Ten years ago, reviewers would offer to review one's book for the love of it. It was one book, one reviewer, and it was personal. The reward that the reviewer got was appreciation for their reviews, or for their website. Now, one receives tens of e-mails per day from anonymous people, who offer, say, fifty reviews of one's book, to push up one's ratings -- if one will just lay down the money. Sometimes it sounds like a military operation, and the old-fashioned reviewers are nowhere to be found. OBSERVATION: One can do a review in seconds now, using AI. There doesn't really need to be a human behind it.

How I Write a Book

Someone asked me about my process today, in creating a book. How do I start with nothing, and turn out a manuscript? I'll describe how I have been writing my current book. It begins with one big, though not simple idea. Then I immerse myself in a style I like (in this case, Jaspers). Then I sketch the big idea (shown -- this is an arc from the beginning to the end of the world). Then I turn this into a synopsis (a mini book). Then I take the synopsis, and expand on it -- and I expand on the expansion.

1¾ Million

I missed that. My blog passed 1.75 million views. Here's wife E's opinion on why it is popular: It offers an alternative to what one reads everywhere else. At the moment, my blog is most popular in the USA, Singapore, Brazil, France, and Bangladesh -- four continents. Readers' most popular operating systems (OSes) are Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Android, and Unix. OBSERVATION: But the last four of these are really all in one basket. They are similar, if not the same -- Android uses the Linux core, and Macintoshs use a Unix OS. I use Linux mostly.

Death Threats

I received death threats this week, via e-mail. These were brutal, and explicit. I contacted the e-mail service concerned. They replied that they would stop routing e-mails to me. Which means that I may receive death threats, but I won't get to see them? OBSERVATION: The first step is ordinarily to report to police. I can imagine their reaction: "Death threats? They obviously didn't mean anything. Here you are, standing in front of us!"

Suuranys Pass

This one's just a pretty picture. It is the Suuranys Pass, above Kareedouw in South Africa's Eastern Cape. Travel writer Thomas Bulpin called this pass "spectacular". However, it will rough up your car -- and it is a dangerous pass, too. Some have lost their lives traversing this pass. 

Pseudonymous Publication

I am pleased to report that I had a new book published this week. However, it was published pseudonymously. It is not my real name on the cover -- as, for example George Eliot (who wrote Middlemarch) was in fact Marian Evans. One also calls this a "pen name". There are two reasons for the pen name: 

1. The book does not fit with the larger body of my work, and 

2. It could be provocative. 

OBSERVATION: Publication was therefore a two-step process: First set up a pseudonymous identity, to separate the pseudonym from myself -- then publish. It is estimated that at least 10% of books "out there" are pseudonymous, maybe much more. 

Capuchin Monk

Here's someone who will be familiar to many of my readers: Father Kees, of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Cape Town. So what do a Catholic monk and a Congregational minister talk about? Church news, theology, food, mood, people, writing, past times, the dynamics and the blessings of ministry ...

Teaching Off Notes

Something interesting about teaching off notes is that it is said to be far more effective than using PowerPoint. It promotes active listening, boosts engagement, and builds rapport -- and increases retention about 15%. The same could be said of sermons, which are generally preached off notes. When you see a preacher preaching off notes, he or she is using a method that works. In the academic context, 15% is very significant. It means that, instead of students obtaining 60% in an exam, they could obtain nearly 70% -- simply through the method of teaching. OBSERVATION: Here's an example paper on the subject: Information Retention.