February 2011 – Page 2

the goal of universal service

In 1913 in its magazine Western Electric News, AT&T associated “universal service” with national political identity. Universal service meant one policy, one system. That system was AT&T, the Bell System.

By 1913, the U.S. had become a world leader in the prevalence of telephones. Small, non-AT&T telephone companies developed rural telephone service relatively rapidly. Universal service as a f ederal government communications policy priority developed long after AT&T’s push for universal (AT&T) service.

sexually reproducing on earth for at least 1.2 billion years

Some scholars with urgent seriousness have recently put forward the claim that men are not from Mars and women are not from Venus. Fossil remains of anatomically modern humans have been found on earth from 200,000 years ago. A recent fossilized foot bone indicates that a human-like animal was a terrestrial biped about three million years ago. With extraordinary cultural insight, scientists have recognize that another fossil from this time and biological class (Australopithecus afarensis) was a female. They called her Lucy. No reputable scholars claim that similar males did not also exist. Hence plausible ancestors of women and men have lived on this planet for more than three million years.

The evolution of sexual reproduction on earth has much deeper roots. Life forms on earth have been reproducing sexually for at least 1.2 billion years. Sex differentiation is a very well-established feature of life on earth. Only creationists of widely varying sects deny the significance of sex differences, including well-documented sex differences in communication.

Extra-terrestrial sources may have contributed to life on earth. NASA researchers recently found glycine in a comet:

“Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet,” said Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “Our discovery supports the theory that some of life’s ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts.”

While some of the ingredients of life on earth may have come from different extraterrestrial places, men and women have the same ingredients. For millions of years women and men have lived in intimate association. Human females and males are made of the same stuff and grow up together. That’s not inconsistent with significant sex differences.

Many scholarly claims about the social construction of gender — the social construction of male and female human beings — are laughable. Similarly, if some scholar argues seriously against the popular assertion that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, laugh and say, of course they are. Women and men have been socially constructed to be from Venus and Mars.

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Wednesday's flowers

purple explosion in a jungle

William James & Alice Howe Gibbens: an old-fashioned love story

In 1876, William James, an eminent philosopher and psychologist, declared his love to his future wife, Alice Howe Gibbens. Study how he did it:

My dear Miss Gibbens

It seems almost a crime to startle your unconsciousness in the manner in which I am about to do; but seven weeks of insomnia outweigh many scruples, and reflecting on the matter as conscientiously as I can, it seems as if this premature declaration were fraught with less evil than any of the other courses possible to me now.

To state abruptly the whole matter: I am in love, und zwar [it’s true] (– forgive me — ) with Yourself.

My duty in my own mind is clear. It is to win your hand, if I can. What I beg of you now is that you should let me know categorically whether any absolute irrevocable obstacle already exists to that consummation. I mean literally absolute, and shall strictly so interpret your reply….[1]

James, like many young persons today, preferred to initiate love affairs by text. Unlike many young persons today, James also had keen appreciation for bureaucratic manners, for economics, and for learned expression.

James’ love letter starts out with a vague reference (“It seems”) and proceeds with long, convoluted sentences. “I love you” is for the uneducated. The learned put the beloved in the ultimate preposition: “I am in love [obscure foreign phrase and interrupting self-reflection] with Yourself.”

Immediately after this declaration of his love, James writes passionately of his duty. In common speech, “if I can” usually indicates determination to try to the extent of one’s abilities. James’ active mind moves beyond that convention and prompts him to ask whether “any absolute irrevocable obstacle” exists. Such an obstacle would mean that exertions could not produce results. In short, they would be a waste.

No fool, James made his declaration of love only after careful cost-benefit analysis. He explained to his beloved, “it seems as if this premature declaration were fraught with less evil than any of the other courses possible to me now.” What woman wouldn’t be impressed with such a mind?

William James and Alice Howe Gibbens had long, fruitful, and intimate marriage. They had four children and endured the loss of a fifth. Alice encouraged William in his work and served as an amanuensis for him, just as Mary Shelley did for Percy Bysshe Shelley. In 1906, William wrote to Alice:

Never have you seemed as near and dear to me as in the past six months. It is a good thing, little as you think of “friendship,” to have friendship grow deeper and deeper — after 27 years of matrimony! Isn’t it?[2]

William’s love letter was a great success.

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Notes:

[1] William James, letter to Alice Howe Gibbens. Keene Valley [September 1876 ]. b MS Am 1092.9 (1165).

[2] Susan E. Gunter, Alice in Jamesland: The Story of Alice Howe Gibbens (University of Nebraska Press, 2009), p. 221, quoted in Colm Toibin, “The Admirable Mrs. James,” a review of Gunter, Alice in Jamesland in New York Review of Books, June 8, 2009.

dealing with Internet identity scams

urinal

A “Barrister Douglas Galbi” has been sending out emails seeking “assistance in repartrating [sic] the fund valued US$14.5 M, left behind by my Late client.” The emails identify the client with a specific name related to that of the person to whom the particular email is sent. These emails look to me like a classic Internet scam with a social-engineering component.

While I’m Douglas Galbi, I am not the Douglas Galbi who is the purported author of these emails. Two persons have contacted me thus far regarding these emails. One person has filed a report with Ripoff Report. I’m somewhat suspicious of these emails being a setup for a reputation-management scam. The Internet can support a scam within a scam within a scam, to unlimited depth. The possibilities are simply awe-inspiring.

Globally free Internet communication creates a whole new world in which to try to maintain a good name. Economic analysis suggests that identity theft deserves a higher priority in public spending on safety and security. But just as with cybersecurity, in new circumstances problems should be considered in new ways.

Having a lot of non-fraudulent information available can help you to recognize fraudulent information. I’ve created much work under my name on the Internet. I’m exposed on the Internet in ways that others wouldn’t want to be. Years of my volunteer work are unprofitable to me for reasons that should be apparent and that go far beyond none of it containing advertisements. You may reasonably judge that I’m crazy. I say that I’m having fun. In any case, I hope that you can recognize that I’m not “Barrister Douglas Galbi” and that I wouldn’t solicit you for a financial scam.