Howlin' Wolf & Eric Clapton ~ ''Goin' Down Slow''&''I Want To Have A Wor...

Howlin Wolf - Shake for Me, I'll Be Back Someday, Love Me Darlin (Live)

Howlin' Wolf ~ ''Back Door Man''& ''Down In The Bottom''(Electric Psyche...

Muddy Waters - Mannish Boy (Live)

Muddy Waters - Got My Mojo Workin' (Newport 1960) stereo

Muddy Waters Newport Jazz Festival 1960

Muddy Waters & Jimmy Rushing - Mean Mistreater/Going to Chicago

George Thorogood & The Destroyers - Bad To The Bone

George Thorogood - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer - 7/5/1984 - Capito...

russell scepticism politics and religion...

 "Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken ... Nevertheless the opinion of experts, when it is unanimous, must be accepted by non-experts as more likely to be right than the opposite opinion.”

[ FULL CITATION ]

"Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. Einstein’s view as to the magnitude of the deflection of light by gravitation would have been rejected by all experts not many years ago, yet it proved to be right. Nevertheless the opinion of experts, when it is unanimous, must be accepted by non-experts as more likely to be right than the opposite opinion.

The scepticism that I advocate amounts only to this: (1) that when the experts are agreed, the opposite opinion cannot be held to be certain; (2) that when they are agreed, no opinion can be regarded as certain by a non-expert; and (3) that when they all hold that no sufficient grounds for a positive opinion exist, the ordinary man would do well to suspend his judgment.

These propositions may seem mild, yet, if accepted, they would absolutely revolutionize human life.

The opinions for which people are willing to fight and persecute all belong to one of the three classes which this scepticism condemns. When there are rational grounds for an opinion, people are content to set them forth and wait for them to operate. In such cases, people do not hold their opinions with passion; they hold them calmly, and set forth their reasons quietly. The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder’s lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.”

― Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), Introduction: On the Value of Scepticism, p. 12

"These propositions may seem mild and unadorned, yet, if accepted, they would absolutely revolutionize human life."

With these words Bertrand Russell introduces what many have found a revolutionary book (Sceptical Essays 1928). Taking as his starting-point the irrationality of the world, Russell offers by contrast something 'wildly paradoxical and subversive' - the position that reason should determine human actions instead of the dogma and superstition often found in religious and political beliefs. In his clear, engaging prose, Russell guides the reader through the many key philosophical issues that affect our daily lives - freedom, happiness, emotions, ethics and beliefs - and offers his characteristic no-nonsense advice.

“The universe is what it is, not what I choose that it should be."

— Bertrand Russell, The Freethinker’s Universe (1951)

[ FULL CITATION]

“The universe is what it is, not what I choose that it should be. If it is indifferent to human desires, as it seems to be; if human life is a passing episode, hardly noticeable in the vastness of cosmic processes; if there is no superhuman and supernatural purpose, and no hope of ultimate salvation, it is far better to understand and acknowledge this truth than to endeavor, in futile self-assertion, to order the universe to be what we may find comfortable.

The universe is neither hostile nor friendly; it neither favors our ideals nor refutes them. Our individual life is brief, and perhaps the whole life of humankind will be brief if measured on an astronomical scale. But that is no reason for not living it as seems best to us. The things that seem to us good are none the less good for not being eternal, and we should not ask of the universe an external approval of our own ethical standards.

The freethinker’s universe may seem bleak and cold to those who have been accustomed to the comfortable indoor warmth of the various religious cosmologies. But to those who have grown accustomed to it, it has its own sublimity, and confers its own joys. In learning to think freely we have hopefully learnt to thrust fear out of our thoughts, and this lesson, once learnt, brings a kind of peace which is impossible to the slave of hesitant and uncertain credulity.”

— Bertrand Russell, The Value of Free Thought: How to Become a Truth-Seeker and Break the Chains of Mental Slavery (1944), pp. 40-41

Bertrand Russell's The Value of Free Thought: How to Become a Truth-Seeker and Break the Chains of Mental Slavery (1944) was published as a booklet by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (July 30, 1889 – July 31, 1951). Haldeman-Julius was a Jewish-American socialist writer, atheist thinker, social reformer and publisher. He is best remembered as the head of Haldeman-Julius Publications, the creator of a series of pamphlets known as "Little Blue Books," total sales of which ran into the hundreds of millions of copies.

Image: Bertrand Russell 1951.

russell on darwin

"Whoever wishes to become a philosopher will do well to pay attention to the history of science, and particularly to its warfare with theology. With the exception of pure mathematics, every science has had to begin by fighting to establish its right to exist. Astronomy was condemned in the person of Galileo, geology in the person of Buffon. Scientific medicine was, for a long time, made almost impossible by the opposition of the Church to the dissection of dead bodies. Darwin came too late to suffer penalties, but Catholics and the Legislature of Tennessee still regard evolution with abhorrence. Each step has been won with difficulty, and each new step is still opposed, as if nothing were to be learnt from past defeats."

— Bertrand Russell, How to become a Philosopher - The Art of Rational Conjecture (1942), p. 18

━━

Image: Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist and geologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors. Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the educated public had accepted evolution as a fact. Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.

Darwin considered it "absurd to doubt that a man might be an ardent theist and an evolutionist" and, though reticent about his religious views, in 1879 he wrote "I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. I think that generally an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind". The "Lady Hope Story", published in 1915, claimed that Darwin had reverted to Christianity on his deathbed. The claims were repudiated by Darwin's children and have been dismissed as false by historians.

Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and he was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey.

eric cantona says...

Eric Cantona says:
"I won't watch even one game of this World Cup. It's difficult for me, because it's an event I love and have always loved since I was young, that I look forward to and watch with passion! Let's be honest: this World Cup makes no sense! Even worse, it’s an abomination!
Qatar is not a football country! There is no fever, there is no taste. An ecological aberration, with all air-conditioned stadiums. This is madness, this is stupidity!
But above all a human horror, with thousands of deaths to build these stadiums that will only be needed to entertain the public present for two months.
The only meaning of this event and everyone knows it is money.
Whether France wins or loses doesn't matter, there are more important things than football. Instead I'll watch all the episodes of "Colombo" that I haven't seen for a long time.
Eric Cantona 

 

back in the day

 

Mary Hopkin - Those Were The Days (HQ)

Billy 4

Linda Ronstadt - Tracks Of My Tears (Official Music Video)

Marching Thru Madrid

Arthur

Birmingham (Remastered)

The Incredible String Band - First Girl I Loved

The Hedgehog's Song (2010 Remaster)

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Live At The Gaslight 1962

Just Like A Woman (Paris Bob Dylan) Funny Audience Interaction

Just Like A Woman (Paris Bob Dylan) Funny Audience Interaction

The Animals - It's My Life

We Gotta Get Out Of This Place-The Animals-(Live)-1965

It's My Life - The Animals

Eric Burdon & The Animals - See See Rider

Crazy Arms

Freight Train Blues

Acadian Driftwood

Ophelia

The Rolling Stones - Wild Horses (Live)

It Doesn't Matter Anymore

Faithless Love

The Byrds - Chimes Of Freedom (Audio)

Engine Engine #9

Talking Heads - And She Was (Official Video) [HD]

Dead Flowers (2009 Mix)

Do Wah Diddy Diddy

Charlie Brown (Remastered)

The Coasters "Charlie Brown"

memo to andrew geddiss university professor...

 

the principle of a 60% vote should be required of all government sales.

grumman panther

 On this day 21 November 1947: Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation engineering test pilot Corwin Henry (“Corky”) Meyer took off from the company’s airfield at Bethpage, Long Island, New York, in the first prototype XF9F-2 Panther, Bu. No. 122475. After the preliminary flight evaluation, Meyer landed the new jet fighter on a longer runway at Idlewild Airport. The Bethpage runway was only 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) long. As the first jet aircraft built by Grumman, it wasn’t known if the XF9F-2 could land on that short a runway.

Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine quoted Meyer as saying that the weather was “the foulest of any first flight in my experience.” He described the prototype’s handling qualities: “It handled like a J-3 Cub.” In an article for Flight Journal, Corky Meyer wrote: “I conducted a very satisfactory first flight of the 5,000-pound-thrust Rolls-Royce Nene-powered fighter on November 21, 1947.”

The XF9F-2 Panther was the first jet-powered aircraft to be built by Grumman, a major supplier of aircraft for the United States Navy. It was a single-seat, single-engine, day fighter, designed for operation on the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carriers. It was developed from a proposed four-engine XF9F-1 night fighter. Grumman planned to use the Rolls-Royce RB.41 Nene centrifugal-flow turbojet engine. With 5,000 pounds rated thrust at 12,400 r.p.m., the Nene was more powerful (and more reliable) than any engine manufactured by an American company.

Thr Panther was a very successful air-to-air and air-to-ground fighter during the Korean War. On 18 November 1952, Lieutenant Elmer Royce Williams, USN, flying an F9F-5 Panther, Bu. No. 125459, of VF-781 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA-34), shot down four of seven Soviet Air Force MiG 15 fighters which had launched from Vladivostok toward Task Force 77. His Panther sustained significant damage from enemy cannon shells. Though he safely returned to his carrier, the fighter, Number 106, was so badly damaged that it was pushed over the side. Lieutenant Williams was awarded the Silver Star for this action. No other pilot has ever shot down four MiG fighters during a single combat action. - This Day in Aviation.

Silver Threads And Golden Needles

The Beatles - Don't Let Me Down

AMAZING C-17 GLOBEMASTER III CLOSE-UP TAKEOFF with AMAZING ENGINE SOUND!

Yakety Yak (2007 Remaster)

Gordon Lightfoot - "If You Could Read My Mind" (Live TV performance)

The Brothers & Sisters - The Times They Are A Changing (from the album, ...

I Can't Be Satisfied

Confessin' The Blues

Little Red Rooster (Mono Version)

We Love You ((Original Single Mono Version))

the carter family - my clinch mountain home

What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes At Me for

Red-Haired Boy

Three Coins In The Fountain

He Thinks I Still Care

He Thinks I Still Care

She Thinks I Still Care

I'm A Believer

Tower Of Strength

When I Paint My Masterpiece (Remastered)

Old gospel music - The Carter Family

I'm a Drifter

the yokels have won...

 Sometimes this place really stinks of shit but you get used to it after a while.

Next door have just installed a new 6 bed wing.

hmmmm.

now even  6 more beds is a lot of waste include the human product and the associated high tech disposable nappies.

 a shit load.

now every time it breaks down the intrepid rustic savant pictured above calls in the service people to reset it. 

I bet that costs a shitload for every call out

but every time it is reset the guy tells him how to do it for himself but no he either cannot understand any instructions whatsoever.

and I heard him say distinctly that the place needed a couple of handy young blokes to knock it into shape and keep the place running smoothly. 

or maybe he just likes using up the budget.

both I suspect.

so it is shit for brtains or dementia?

anyway the present management are a bunch of amateurs who have secured a "position" to take them through to retirement.

Boulder to Birmingham

Honky Tonk Heroes

Honky Tonk Heroes

Omaha

Ride Me Down Easy

Sing This All Together (Remastered 2017 / Stereo)

The Rolling Stones - Waiting On A Friend - OFFICIAL PROMO

Grateful Dead - Uncle John's Band (Winterland 10/19/74)

Grateful Dead - Uncle John's Band (Studio Version)...

The Seekers (Rare) - The Leaving of Liverpool, Live Orchestrated version...

The Rolling Stones - I'm Free (Official Lyric Video)

The Shoals of Herring - Oscar Isaac [Inside Llewyn Davis OST]

Duncan and Brady

Hang Me, Oh Hang Me

Grateful Dead - Rain - 3/18/95

Prairie Ramblers - Beaver Creek 1940

Dust My Broom

Dear Mr. Fantasy

Season of the Witch

Down in Mexico (2007 Remaster) (Remastered)

Poison Ivy (2007 Remaster) (Remastered)

Sweet Nothin's

On The Rock Where Moses Stood - Flatt & Scruggs

The Carter Family - On The Rock Where Moses Stood

You Was Born To Die

You Got To Walk That Lonesome Valley

Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out

It's A Sin To Be Rich, It's A Low-Down Shame To Be Poor

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Red House (Live at Los Angeles Forum, 4/26...

L.A. Woman

Grateful Dead - Smokestack Lightning/I'm a King Bee (11/19/66 in San Fra...

Dr. John: Right Place Wrong Time

Tired of Waiting for You (Mono Version)

Farther Along - Willie Nelson

Hank Williams - I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)

The Wild Mountain Thyme

Cumberland Blues (2013 Remaster)

Intro / Sweet Jane (Live [1973 Version])

Powderfinger (2016 Remaster)

Like a Hurricane (2016 Remaster)

Like a Hurricane (2016 Remaster)

Pretty Maids All in a Row (2013 Remaster)

Way over Yonder

Talking Heads - Road to Nowhere (Official Video)

Daniel And The Sacred Harp (Remastered 2000)

jurgen habermas...

 “For the normative self-understanding of modernity, Christianity has functioned as more than just a precursor or catalyst. Universalistic egalitarianism, from which sprang the ideals of freedom and a collective life in solidarity, the autonomous conduct of life and emancipation, the individual morality of conscience, human rights and democracy, is the direct legacy of the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love. This legacy, substantially unchanged, has been the object of a continual critical reappropriation and reinterpretation. Up to this very day there is no alternative to it. And in light of the current challenges of a post-national constellation, we must draw sustenance now, as in the past, from this substance. Everything else is idle postmodern talk.”

― Jürgen Habermas

Ruby Tuesday

Little Games (Original Stereo)

Little Games (Original Stereo)

It's Only Make Believe

I'm Leaving It All Up To You

I'm A Survivor

Turn To The One

Rednecks (Remastered)

Stanley Brothers, The Rank Stranger

LAURA NYRO stoney end

My Clinch Mountain Home

Omaha

Old Five and Dimers (Like Me)

Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me

Ain't No God In Mexico

You Ask Me To

Ride Me Down Easy

The Byrds - Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man (vinyl)

Seeds And Stems (Again)

The Commander Cody Band - Down To Seeds And Stems Again Blues - 8/5/1977...

Allman Brothers / Stormy Monday

The Allman Brothers Band - Statesboro Blues

Two Trains Running blues project...

big larfffffffsss**...

 

Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Hard times come again no more

Now Thank We All Our God - Classic Christian Hymns Choir / Lyrics

Stoney End (Different Drum Version; Feat. Linda Ronstadt)

City of New Orleans

Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)

Midnight Flyer (2013 Remaster)

Miss The Mississippi And You by Jimmie Rodgers (1932)

Let the Little Girl Dance

Tower Of Strength

Tower Of Strength

Kisses Sweeter Than Wine

Kisses Sweeter Than Wine

Jimmie Rodgers - Honeycomb ( 1957 )

Dave Dudley - Cowboy Boots (1963)

Six Days On the Road

Work Song (Remastered)

Ugly Blues

Bob Dylan - Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands (Official Audio)

The Kinks - Apeman (Official Audio)

FREDDIE KING (Gilmer , Texas , U.S.A) - Me And My Guitar

Mike Bloomfield - Between The Hard Place & The Ground Full Album

FREDDIE KING (Gilmer , Texas , U.S.A) - Me And My Guitar

I'm A Lonesome Fugitive- Merle Haggard

I'm A Lonesome Fugitive- Merle Haggard

The Sky Is Crying

Lowdown In Lodi (Remastered)

Dusty Springfield - My Lagan Love

Trio - To Know Him Is To Love Him (Official Music Video)

Neil Young with Crazy Horse - Chevrolet (Official Music Video)

The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon (music video)

The Who - Magic Bus - Live At Leeds HQ

Tishomingo Blues - Clancy Hayes live 1966 with the Turk Murphy Jazz Band

Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)

Eve Of Destruction

Secret Love

Willie Nelson - Me and Paul

Mama Hated Diesels

Family Bible

Mama Tried (Live at Fillmore East, New York, NY, April 26, 1971)

The Band, "Long Black Veil"

Bury Me Beneath The Weeping Willow

When The Cactus Is In Bloom

Bob Dylan and The Band - Like A Rolling Stone (rare live footage)

Paul Butterfield & Mike Bloomfield - Walking by Myself

Bob Dylan - Desolation Row (Official Audio)

Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Live at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, PA, July 7...

Shangri-La (2019 Remaster)

Arthur

Mike Bloomfield ► Blues On The Westside ✤ Live at the Fillmore West 1969...

Linda Ronstadt - Willin' - Live 1976

the kinks See My Friends

wwf living planet report...

 In one lifetime, there has been a devastating 69% drop on average of monitored wildlife populations* - mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish - since 1970, according to WWF’s Living Planet Report (LPR) 2022. The report highlights the stark outlook of the state of nature and urgently warns governments, businesses, and the public to take transformative action to reverse the destruction of biodiversity.

action is needed now.

How I Got Over (Live)

Gene Pitney & George Jones - Mockin' Bird Hill

Confessin' The Blues ((Original Single Mono Version))

The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp

Black Rose

Down From Dover

Same Old Tale the Crow Told Me, The (1960)

When I Paint My Masterpiece (Remastered)

We Had It All

Send Me the Pillow That You Dream On

Walkin' Back to Happiness (1997 Remaster)

The Rolling Stones - Salt Of The Earth (Official Lyric Video)

Paul Butterfield Blues Band "DRIFTIN & DRIFTIN" LIVE 1966

Shake Your Money-Maker

Death Don't Have No Mercy

piccy fun...

 

the hole in the donut...

 

I have got blisters on my fingers...

 I was approaching middle age when I started to learn the guitar.

Foolish boy.

I thought I could do it from a book! the one above. The Blues Bag by Happy Traum which btw is still available with the tyext in German but the music and lyrics in English. Relatively cheap too.

I never really got it as I tried the hardest songs first (!) and when one didn't work I tried committing another one to memory.  derrrrr. a whole lot of notes looking for a tune.

After a while I found  could learn the songs I like by ear and/or getting the chords off the net without having to learn complex fingerpicking and then memorising it.

Now I find that 30 years later those songs are  imprinted  in my brain and I have the skill to get them down which I do every now and then but my fingers on the right hand are soft as I usually pick with a plectrum.  this morning after a nifty little workout on "SEE SEE RIDER" I have a big blister on the right hand middle finger. yodellay eee o dee o layee o dee o layee. hehehehehehe.

this white boy has the john lennon sore finger blues.

karl popper suck it up...

 The physicist Paul Dirac was right when he said, "Philosophy will never lead to important discoveries. It is just a way of talking about discoveries which have already been made.” Actual scientific history reveals that scientists break all the rules all the time, including falsification. 

By Mano Singham on September 7, 2020

Howlin' Wolf - Goin' Down Slow

Sand Mountain Blues The Louvin Brothers with Lyrics

last weeks harvest...

 

I Shall Be Released

Going To Chicago Jimmy Rushing

The Easybeats - Friday On My Mind (French TV, 1967) 1080p HD...

HOLE IN MY SHOE (1967) by Traffic (incredible stereo mix)

The Move - Blackberry Way the move...

funkadelic dudes...