Action Figure Daniel

Category: Notes

  • “Poverty for Profit” by Anne Kim

    • Most renal services in America are performed by two companies
    • Dialysis is guaranteed under law
    • Earned Income Tax Credit encourages many tax preparers to focus on supporting low-income people because they can charge good money
    • Tax loans with interest are huge!
    • Preparers don’t generally need to have any certifications or courses
    • Maximus (corporation) offers turn-key welfare admin systems
    • Welfare programs today focus on dispelling people from the program rather than actual work training
    • Bail bonds don’t require refunds or cancellations for dismissed or acquitted cases
    • States often charge for correctional stays
    • Private prison labor can lower local economies by pushing down labor costs
    • The government funds the war on poverty but has outsourced much of it to corporations

  • “Off White” by Rachel Shabi

    • Modern European Jews have been absorbed into general whiteness
      • This makes the label tenuous
    • William the Conqueror brought Jews to England after the Normad conquest
      • They were the property of the King
      • They were not permitted to own land
      • They were permitted to lend money for interest
      • Interest was “evil” in the Christian church, so no one else did it
      • The King collected taxes on the money earned, so encouraged the practice
    • “Racism” does not translate pigment-by-pigment but adapts as needed
    • Jewish communities (“People of the Book”) in Arabic nations did not face racism like in Europe and North America
    • In the colonial era, “Jews were white Africans”
    • “Race is the child or racism, not the other way around”
    • The West has been driving for a “Eastern” colony; Israel can be that
    • Judeo-Christian narratives were created to make it seem like we are all related

  • “A Mind of Your Own” by Kelly Brogan, M. D.

    • Food is an information source for the body
    • Much of current medical practice is based on theory, not reliable evidence
    • Inflammation is a key correlate
    • Depression is a symptom of problems
    • Short-term stress is okay but long-term is deadly
    • Depression shares a lot in common with inflammation
    • There is probably not “good” and “bad” bacteria but relative levels
    • Cholesterol is needed for a healthy brain
    • “If you need an antacid daily, maybe you should consider a dietary changes”
    • Acetaminophen blunts emotions
    • No indigenous diet is strictly vegetarian
    • Cellular starches are okay
    • Beans, beans, beans
    • Most cholesterol in your body is produced by your body
    • Scents come alter moods and hormones

  • “Our Kids” by Robert Putnam

    • ‘If the kids you are with can only afford a Coke, that is all you order.’
    • In the 1950’s, lower classes could more easily excel than today
    • “We were poor and we didn’t know it”
    • Gender had little effect in High School but a powerful effect in College
    • Generally, Americans agree in equality of opportunity

  • “NOTES ON COMPLEXITY” by Neil Theise

      • Chaos theory led to Complexity theory
      • Complexity requires
        • Numbers matter
          • Fewer than 20 ants and no one follows order
        • Everything is local
          • There is no mastermind
        • Quenched disorder (low-level disorder)
          • Something to explore with possible alternative
        • Negative feedback loops are critical
          • Otherwise you get runaway growth
      • Thinking of the body as a fluid may help explain how acupuncture works
      • Body heat is crucial to allow mechanical processes
      • Something smooth can be subdivided
      • Until very recently, metaphysics was basically worthless to the scientific community
      • The brain does not create consciousness but transduces it