25 November 2016

from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: What is the importance of time? + News

Essay by Alicia and news: Los Cocidos De Encarnita

Dear Friends,

This Sunday we are discussing: What is the importance of time?

The more we become dependent on technology and hence sophisticated
civilization, the more time becomes critical. Today, not only clocks run
like clockwork, but society itself runs more or less like clockwork.

Today we know the exact time we sent an email, the exact time a message
appears on social media and the exact time someone reads one of our
smart phone messages. We start work or an appointment at a given time
and we all dread that killer of time, the rush hour.

However, time has one big advantage for us, it is regular and it is
constant. Time doesn't break down, although our watches and clocks might
break down. And although time is always short in our busy life, it is
thanks to time that we can plan anything at all.

----Alicia: WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME?

We have heard on many occasions the expression: "TIME IS GOLD" and it is
a great truth.
The present is the most important because the past will not come back
and the future will happen day by day.

We are very busy with our work and spend little time by ourselves. It is
therefore very important to make a good distribution of our time for
work and the time we dedicate for ourselves and for others.

Meditation is a good resource to stop everyday to analyze how our lives
are and to see what are the mistakes that we are making to correct them
and be more happy with ourselves and with those around us. A good
therapy to relax and enjoy in peace our time with those around us in
good harmony.

"Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. And until you
do not value your time you will not do anything with it." M. Scott Peck

The most important thing in life are our experiences and thanks to them
we have different perceptions and thoughts as the years go by. Whenever
we want to do something that is very important for us we must take time
to achieve our goal.

"Instead of waiting for things to be better, make a list of all the
things you can do until the situation improves and you do them."
Danielle Kennedy

Many people spend their lives hoping that their luck will change, but
the luck is sought by each one struggling to achieve their goals,
despite not always seeing the efforts made in achieving them. At least
you have to try it, since we all have a great heritage of successes and
failures in our lives and we are a faithful reflection of that daily
struggle.

None of us knows how many years we have left of life, but if something
unexpected come up, like a doctor diagnosing us with a terminal illness:
what would we do with those months that we have left of life?.

Alicia
-----------------

--- finally
LOS COCIDOS DE ENCARNITA
¡¡¡¡Último aviso!!!!
El último jueves de cada mes, los segovianos comemos cocido. Todavía
estáis a tiempo para disfrutar el de este mes.
Fijaos si estará bueno el cocido, que hasta le han dedicado un artículo:
http://pacopuch.blogspot.com.es/2016/10/los-cocidos-de-encarnita.html
3ª Convocatoria
Jueves 24 de noviembre a las 14:30h
Confirmaciones y reservas a Encarnita: 914457935 y 689122472.
Precio:14€


Best Lawrence



tel: 606081813
philomadrid@gmail.com <mailto:philomadrid@gmail.com>
Blog: http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/
<http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/>
PhiloMadrid Meeting
Meet 6:30pm
Centro Segoviano
Alburquerque, 14
28010 Madrid
914457935
Metro: Bilbao
-----------Ignacio------------
Open Tertulia in English every
Thursdays at Triskel in c/San Vicente Ferrer 3.
Time: from 19:30 to 21h
http://sites.google.com/site/tertuliainenglishmadrid/
<http://sites.google.com/site/tertuliainenglishmadrid/>
----------------------------




from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: What is the
importance of time? + News

17 November 2016

from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: What do we mean by values?

Dear friends,

This Sunday we are talking about: What do we mean by values?

There is a problem with values: they might help us decide what to do or
what to follow or believe in, but they don't tell us what is absolutely
good and what is absolutely evil or bad. And because of this dichotomy
even the vilest of doctrines and ideologies function on values.

This suggests, or at the very least hints at, the belief that values
cannot be objectively validated. Let us take an example that is
regularly reported in the news. Some societies hold that if a woman is
raped, the rapist is not punished but the woman (it is always a woman)
is punished for having sex outside marriage.

In other societies, even a hint of unconsented sex, let alone rape, the
accuser is protected to the point of being anonymous and the accused is
put behind bars before even the start of a trial.

Hence, values cannot have any inherent objectivity since here we have a
value, rape is bad/evil, but one group punish the victim of rape and the
other punishes the accused prior to the end of a fair trial.

From our perspective: how should we now deal with values given that
values by themselves cannot guide us to what is objectively good or
objectively bad?

One test we can employ is the harm caused by a give value. This means
will our values, when we act on them, cause harm to others? But this
means that we accept the value that doing harm to others is
unacceptable. Indeed even the vilest of ideologies accept that doing
harm to others in unacceptable, but the way they circumvent this
imperative is by designating some people as not being human. And hence
they cannot possible do harm to non human beings.

Does this mean that we sort of need a value of values, a sort of Golden
standard that everyone has no choice but to accept? And what will that
value of values be? For me it will always be a human being.

Best Lawrence



tel: 606081813
philomadrid@gmail.com <mailto:philomadrid@gmail.com>
Blog: http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/
<http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/>
PhiloMadrid Meeting
Meet 6:30pm
Centro Segoviano
Alburquerque, 14
28010 Madrid
914457935
Metro: Bilbao
-----------Ignacio------------
Open Tertulia in English every
Thursdays at Triskel in c/San Vicente Ferrer 3.
Time: from 19:30 to 21h
http://sites.google.com/site/tertuliainenglishmadrid/
<http://sites.google.com/site/tertuliainenglishmadrid/>
----------------------------




from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: What do we mean by
values?

11 November 2016

from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: The Sixth Sense

Dear Friends,

This Sunday we are discussing: The Sixth Sense.

What we know for sure is that whatever the sixth sense is, it is not
some sort of supernatural power belonging to the gods or aliens. That
sort of idea belongs to literature fiction and fancy thinking without
alcohol. This means that we are discussing some real and factual
phenomenon that can be measured and hypothesised about.

The traditional five senses –sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing-
all deal with the outside world. Whereas modern ideas on senses include
non traditional senses such as pain, balance, temperature (see Wikipedia
under: sense). And furthermore there are internal senses (Wikipedia:
interoception) that are perceptions from inside the body for example
hunger.

This means that if senses are a type of mechanism that perceives a type
of data then there should be no reason why there shouldn't, in
principle, be other senses. Sight and sound are two different data
recognised by two different types of senses. We can add eco location
such as bats, or ultra violet such as cats and other mammals (search
Google for ultra violet perception in animals).

If we are to have a sixth sense, in the meaning of the traditional five
senses, then we should be able to know about it since the five senses
function at the conscious level receiving data from the environment
around us. In other words, there is an external causal agent to activate
our relevant senses. Data from the five senses also has to be
coordinated and synchronised with the other data reaching the brain. And
all of this helps us to give meaning and understand the world around us
to help us act according to our needs.

Thus seeing a round dish with a patterned yellow glow inside it,
smelling of herbs and fish and feeling hot to the touch I know it is
likely to be freshly made home paella. If, however, I could also
incorporate infra red data to my flow of sense data to my brain I might
even tell whether the paella was evenly cooked, well cooked, or still
needs cooking. Today we can still more or less achieve such feats, but
in a very crude manner for example taking samples of rice from the dish
to check for taste and cooking, a thermometer for heat and of course,
maybe a bit late, smell the burnt base of the rice.

But we can also achieve these finer details of paella making if we can
also have infra red and ultra violet perception incorporated into the
flow of sense perceptions to the brain. And there are, I argue, no
natural or logical reasons why we shouldn't also have these extra two
sense perceptions of infra red and ultra violet perception in our body
if evolution took us in that direction. The problem is: who on Earth
would want to bother with evolution after a nice dish of paella on a
Sunday afternoon?

Best Lawrence



tel: 606081813
philomadrid@gmail.com <mailto:philomadrid@gmail.com>
Blog: http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/
<http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/>
PhiloMadrid Meeting
Meet 6:30pm
Centro Segoviano
Alburquerque, 14
28010 Madrid
914457935
Metro: Bilbao
-----------Ignacio------------
Open Tertulia in English every
Thursdays at Triskel in c/San Vicente Ferrer 3.
Time: from 19:30 to 21h
http://sites.google.com/site/tertuliainenglishmadrid/
<http://sites.google.com/site/tertuliainenglishmadrid/>
----------------------------




from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: The Sixth Sense

04 November 2016

from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: Why do we buy lottery tickets? + News for toady Friday

News for today Friday


Dear Friends,

This Sunday we are discussing: Why do we buy lottery tickets?

In Spain it is customary to buy tickets for what is known as "El Gordo"
Christmas lottery. People start buying these tickets well in advance of
Christmas and people buy them for social purposes more than winning the
prize.

Families, friends, work colleagues, neighbours and everyone else buy
these tickets because it is a tradition, great loads of fun and the
chance of winning something. Indeed this is one of the attractions of
the El Gordo, there are lots of prizes but not necessarily huge amounts
of money; although the top prizes are not an amount to be poo-pooed!

But of course, lotteries are organised to win prizes and winning is the
business end of a lottery ticket. And this is where people sort of lose
the plot. Lotteries are supposed to be based on chance and probability.
But of course we have to distinguish between unable to figure out a
given outcome and impossible to determine the outcome.

I am inclined to think that lottery outcomes are impossible to arrive
at; or rather that the equation to arrive at the result would be too
complex to work out that it will be impossible to have a lottery that we
are able to calculate the outcome before the draw. One argument against
participating in a lottery is the really non existence probability of a
set of number coming up. But then again we know that the more tickets we
have the higher the chances of winning: but by this method the more
chances we buy (tickets) the more prohibitively expensive will the
venture become.

Hence, all logic against playing lotteries or superstitions in favour of
playing lotteries are of course completely illogical. But of course
people still win lotteries. So although there is no real logic in favour
or against playing lotteries, they are too complex to determine or too
seemingly random to worth bothering, this does not mean that there are
no clearly valid rules for lotteries.

There are indeed two clearly valid rules: 1) it is absolutely necessary
to have a valid ticket to win a lottery and 2) the lottery must be a
fair bet, meaning it is not rigged or tampered with.

Lawrence

In the meantime

---Friday 4th November: Presentation on Margarita Degeneffe Sanchez
friend of Segovia
Talk on the life of Margarita Degeneffe Sanchez at the Centro Segoviano
Friday 4th November at 7:30pm
Link:
http://philomadrid.blogspot.com/2016/11/margarita-degeneffe-sanchez.html

--- "Los cocidos de Encarnita" news paper article that appeared in a
local newspaper
A write up in a local Segovian newspapers about Encarna's stews she
prepares at the Centro Segoviano.
If you want to try one of her stews send me a message or call the Centro at:
Centro Segoviano ; 91 445 79 3 (five)
for anti bot trawling please add the (five) as a digit number
http://philomadrid.blogspot.com/2016/11/los-cocidos-de-encarnita.html

----- The British Cemetery in Madrid in "Carta de España", a Spanish
foreign Ministry publication.
en inglés
The attached four pages are the hard copy of an article from Carta de
España, November issue of the monthly publication of the Ministerio de
Trabajo y Seguridad Social, which has a worldwide and national
circulation among Spanish government offices.
The article covers the history of the British Cemetery and some of the
material in it is new to me. I hope that it will interest those who read it.
en español
Las cuatro páginas adjuntas son del número correspondiente al mes de
noviembre, en soporte de papel, de Carta de España, revista del
Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social, publicación repartida
mensualmente entre las oficinas del gobierno de España tanto al ultramar
como en el territorio nacional.
El artículo trata de la historia del Cementerio Británico en Madrid y
contiene material incluso novedoso para mí y espero que les interesa.
David Butler
Link:
http://philomadrid.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-british-cemetery-in-madrid-in-carta.html


Best Lawrence


tel: 606081813
philomadrid@gmail.com <mailto:philomadrid@gmail.com>
Blog: http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/
<http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/>
PhiloMadrid Meeting
Meet 6:30pm
Centro Segoviano
Alburquerque, 14
28010 Madrid
914457935
Metro: Bilbao
-----------Ignacio------------
Open Tertulia in English every
Thursdays at Triskel in c/San Vicente Ferrer 3.
Time: from 19:30 to 21h
http://sites.google.com/site/tertuliainenglishmadrid/
<http://sites.google.com/site/tertuliainenglishmadrid/>
----------------------------




from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: Why do we buy
lottery tickets? + News for toady Friday

Margarita Degeneffe Sanchez



Talk on the life of Margarita Degeneffe Sanchez at the Centro Segoviano Friday 4th November at 7:30pm


Details here:



 

01 November 2016

"Los cocidos de Encarnita"

A write up in a local Segovian newspapers about Encarna's stews she prepares at the Centro Segoviano.

If you want to try one of her stews send me a message or call the Centro at:

Centro Segoviano ; 91 445 79 3 (five)
for anti bot trawling please add the (five) as a digit number



open image in a separate web page:


The British Cemetery in Madrid in "Carta de España"

en inglés
The attached four pages are the hard copy of an article from Carta de España, November issue of the monthly publication of the Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social, which has a worldwide and national circulation among Spanish government offices.
The article covers the history of the British Cemetery and some of the material in it is new to me. I hope that it will interest those who read it.
en español
Las cuatro páginas adjuntas son del número correspondiente al mes de noviembre, en soporte de papel, de Carta de España, revista del Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social, publicación repartida mensualmente entre las oficinas del gobierno de España tanto al ultramar como en el territorio nacional.
El artículo trata de la historia del Cementerio Británico en Madrid y contiene material incluso novedoso para mí y espero que les interesa.
David Butler


 Open image in a separate web page: