Author: MAÔ

Wandering around, exploring the Divine, figuring life out. No guarantees, no promises. Just day by day, an inner and outer journey.

Hello Sunshine

by MAÔ, posted in Film

The media company Hello Sunshine, founded by Reese Witherspoon, has an interest in telling stories that are focused on women. Not only for women but that have women at the center of every story. Her purpose to tell, and share, female-driven stories.

You may not consider the need for someone pushing for telling women’s stories, but according to USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report, published in late last year:

This year’s study also went beyond the top 100 to look at film slates distributed by major companies over the last 5 years, with results revealing the overall percentage of female directors was 9.8 percent, with 2019 the year in which the highest percentage of female directors worked (15 percent). Still, of the 40 slates studied, 26 of them did not feature a single woman of color as a director.

When stories are told, there is obviously a slant to what message is coming across. So when you omit the stories of women, or of people of color, you’re missing out on voluminous perspectives.

Hitchen’s Razor

by MAÔ, posted in Thoughts

Hitchen’s Razor

“Hitchens’ razor is an epistemological razor expressed by writer Christopher Hitchens. It says that the burden of proof regarding the truthfulness of a claim lies with the one who makes the claim; if this burden is not met, then the claim is unfounded, and its opponents need not argue further in order to dismiss it.”

Hitchens has phrased the razor in writing as “What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.”

An empty page

by MAÔ, posted in Inspiration

“I saw that my life was a vast glowing empty page and I could do anything I wanted.”
– Jack Kerouac

Life is painted on empty canvas by our own hands. The image or words you leave behind are all that matter, in the end.

What we expect

by MAÔ, posted in Thoughts

Expectations are funny things. They’re little predictions, and may or may not be accurate for any number of reasons.

When we predict correctly, we get to assert just how smart we are. An incorrect guess may cause as little as temporary denial, or full-blown depression.

When you let go of expectations, you free yourself up to live in the moment. To be honest and understanding, and not dependent on your rightness or wrongness, alleviates that moment when the expectation is either realized or proved incorrect.

Digital tolerance

by MAÔ, posted in Technology

Oh, internet. The bastion of great thoughts and petty skirmishes. An open forum of unique ideas and rehashed biases.

How we interact with each other online, if only viewed through that lens, would indicate we aren’t a very hospitable race. Twitter, Facebook, and even the ‘gram can sometimes reveal the vilest and despicable thoughts that we, the engaged, can express.

People say, or type, things online that they would never say in person. Others express opinions that they may have shared with like-minded individuals, maybe two or three in their community, but now they enjoy a world-spanning platform. The like-minded respond to their opinions, reinforcing behavior that, again, would not be socially acceptable in person.

At the same time, we actively engage in digital fisticuffs, trying our best to pivot and outmaneuver our networked opponents. Because they have become our opponents. No opinion but ours is valid online, and we defend our little nook with extreme prejudice, with failure never an option.

And thus we devolve into warlike attitudes with those who would otherwise be someone we could actually connect with.

The internet was, and remains, a great idea. It is its execution that has been stymied somewhat by us, the users.

Trying to remain tolerant of others with different opinions is usually a difficult task. At the best of times, it makes us somewhat uncomfortable to have our opinions challenged. At the worst… Well, wars have been fought for less.

Remember that behind each screen is a living person, little different from you or me. Attacking with verbal violence and vitriol shouldn’t be your go-to response. And rather than a preemptive trolling, why not engage in preemptive understanding?

A sensitive issue

by MAÔ, posted in Thoughts

Another week that just didn’t seem to make sense. 2020 will be the year of incongruities. Pandemic sweeping the world, forcing the US to shut businesses down. Some scared to leave their homes, others adamantly arguing everything should open.

Race relations once again coming to a head, with the question of fairness, inequality, and ethical behaviors at the forefront. How do we respond to our countrymen?

Derisiveness and partisan-pandering; vehemence and bile; hurt, pain, and agony. And with protests, riots, disease, and race, everyone has an opinion, but there is no consensus.

Holding out hope is the best we can do. Saying what we believe is important, but listening is even more so. If all we do is puff our chests until they collide with someone else’s, then the resolution never comes. Just more suffering.

 

Recent Items 5

by MAÔ, posted in Social

If you like camping, The Dyrt is trying to provide updated information on open and closed campsites around the nation.

Or maybe looking for a new podcast?

If you like to journal, and you’re female, the National Women’s History Museum is interested in your CORONAVIRUS journals.

Saying “No” more, from a 2014 article in the Huffington Post.

Paris, books, c’est l’amour. Used book shopping along the Seine.

And, to soothe the weary soul, the orchestral stylings of composer John Williams, streaming for free until the end of June.

To infinity, and beyond

by MAÔ, posted in Science

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine suggested on Saturday that the SpaceX launch carrying astronauts to the International Space Station, from US soil no less, would encourage kids to want to become ‘the next Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Richard Branson’. Jenny List, writing on Hackaday, felt something was amiss.

“I was slightly shocked and saddened to hear this from the NASA administrator, because to my mind the careers of Musk, Bezos, or Branson should not be the ones first brought to mind by a space launch. This isn’t a comment on those three in themselves; although they have many critics it is undeniable that they have each through their respective space companies brought much to the world of space flight. Instead it’s a comment on what a NASA administrator should be trying to inspire in kids.

Ask yourself how many billionaire masters-of-the-universe it takes for a successful space race compared to the number of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, technicians, physicists, et al. From the anecdote of the NASA administrator it takes about three, but if he is to make good on his goal of returning to the Moon in 2024 and then eventually taking humanity to Mars it will take a generation packed full of those other roles.”

I wasn’t born when Armstrong first stepped on the moon. But I’ve seen the video. I’d wager that the majority of humankind has seen that footage. And behind that walk was a technological feat like no other before it. In the July 21st, 1969 edition of the New York Times, Glenn Seaborg, then Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, is quoted:

“Even as a scientist who has spent a good deal of his life involved in large-scale technological projects, I find the moon landing an amazing scientific and engineering feat. It personally reinforces my feeling about the great power and potential of science and technology and my belief that through cooperation and concerted efforts man is capable of solving almost any problem, of meeting almost any challenge. I hope the moon landing will have such an uplifting effect on people all over the world and help united us toward meeting some of our goals here on earth.”

Actively seeking disruption

by MAÔ, posted in Thoughts

I’ve spent the past four years seeking a disruptive way of doing things. That includes biohacking, career shifts, travel, focusing on writing, among other things. We live in an age of disruptive technology, and there’s no telling where the next paradigm shift will come from.

Being prepared for it doesn’t mean knowing what it is. Rather, it is expecting it to happen, and merely being prepared.

I think it’s telling that the pandemic sent us into a panic spiral in the way that it did. As a nation, and maybe as a global community, we weren’t prepared for the response required in such a situation.

Anticipation is key for the positive, and negative, adjustments to come.

Ephemeral Internet

by MAÔ, posted in Thoughts

The internet gives us an unrivaled tool for accessing information. It has no equivalent. It is a library, forum, school, and community. However, its prevalence is also its disadvantage.

How easy is it to become distracted while browsing the internet. To let our minds, inclined to wander through a biological imperative, just flit from item to item. The vastness of what can be found through mere keystrokes is boundless.

We rely on those who cultivate the internet for us. Give our attention to the screen through which we access this information.

But at the end of the day, it’s still a screen. It’s nothing more a windowpane through which we’re choosing to experience the world. Its content is ephemeral, not tangible.

Sure, getting outside is hard right now. We’ve all been cooped up. But it’s important to still try and have meaningful, real-world interactions. Not just the online ones.