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Saturday morning, slept in a bit, that usually means 7 AM, and was contemplating taking a walk before the heat struck. Laurie texted me – “there’s a yard sale at the Free Columbia House!” As I’ve been looking for a few specific things (that’s a different story) I thought, what the heck, I might as well take a gander, and that’s a good motivation to get out of lingering mode and into walking exercise mode.
But first, cats need breakfast. Hanging plants need watering. Might as well do the dishes too. Hmmm, litterbox needs cleaning. All the while, I’m wondering what things someone else is acquiring, and I’m becoming more and more conscious of the effect of how a small delay can have far reaching consequences. None-the-less, it felt right to not rush out the door. Even when I did finally exit the house, I stopped to take some pictures of some flowers on my walk up the hill to the center of Philmont where the Free Columbia House yard sale awaited.
I arrived at the intersection of Main St and Maple, and there a tenth of a mile down Maple I could see a throng of people hovering over various and sundry cast away objects which were obscured from view, somewhat reminiscent of vultures circling the decaying carcasses of dead animals.
So, decision time – do I turn left now or do I complete my loop by going up two more blocks, hanging a right up another small hill to the Philmont Reservoir, another right to walk along the reservoir, then a final right onto Summit St that, when it intersects Main St, turns in Maple Ave., and to which my walk always takes me past Freedom Chiropractic and the Carriage House where I used to live – many untold stories of my adventures in the Carriage House!
This was another inflection point in the process – if I turn left right now, I know what awaits – the yard sale. If I stay the normal course, the walk is the usual walk and nothing particularly odd happens, unless you count gazing at the turtles sunning on a log in the middle of the reservoir, or the goslings, now almost grown, still following their mother, Canadian, goose. What effect will my turning left vs. continuing straight have? I did not know, but as the question was very conscious, I decided to continue intuitively forward - the yard sale could wait some more.
As I walked, just before the second block where I turn right, there was a yellow swallowtail butterfly in the middle of the road. It appeared to have a damaged wing from the way it was flapping and flailing furiously but could never get more than a few inches off the ground. A sad sight, perhaps it had an encounter with a car that left it injured but not dead. Leaving it there to meet its final doom by the next passing car, no, that felt so very wrong.
Traffic is pretty light on Main St., even without the COVID effect of reduced business and people still staying at home because frankly, there isn’t much to do anyways. So I ambled into the right side of the road and tried to catch the butterfly. Not an easy task with a flittering, fluttering, distressed winged insect! I was a bit dismayed when a car whizzed by me, avoiding me, but not really slowing down.
There it was, I realized, the first effect – that car, if I hadn’t been in the middle of the right hand lane, would have been the end of the butterfly. The loop of causality and doom had just been altered. At that moment, I caught the butterfly. It stopped its wild flapping and just, well, paused, in the semi-open fist of my hand, closed enough so it couldn’t escape, open enough so as not to crush it.
There’s a lovely garden, a big garden, that a young couple has been nurturing, including building a raised platform for the various large leafy green things they are growing. Their property is edged with these lovely rose bushes (or something similar to rose bushes) and I decided I would carry the butterfly up to their garden and leave it to live out its final hours among something beautiful. As I approached the property, it started twitching in my hand, I assumed that was approval and not panic.
I found a candidate rose-like bush, and bending over, opened my hand, placing the butterfly on a leaf. It sat there for a while, seeming to take in its new bearings, like a blindfolded person that is led somewhere and then the blindfold is removed – what, where am I? It sat there long enough that I thought, hmm, maybe it’ll stay there long enough for me to take a picture of this microscopic essence of sunlight – yellow wings gleaming, edged with the black of night.
But the swallowtail had other ideas. It suddenly launched itself into the air, nary a sign of injury, and with full, powerful, beating of its wings, lofted itself some 200 feet into the air to come to rest far above on a tree branch. It seemed miraculously healed of whatever was ailing it on the road!
What effect did I have on the life of that butterfly? What effect will it have on the little village of Philmont, or even further? What was it that led me to do several small chores, delaying my departure? What was it that asked of myself the question, do I want to turn left to the yard sale or continue my walk? Listening, I took a course of action that affected something, I know not what.
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Marc Clifton wrote: What effect did I have on the life of that butterfly? What effect will it have on the little village of Philmont, or even further? What was it that led me to do several small chores, delaying my departure? What was it that asked of myself the question, do I want to turn left to the yard sale or continue my walk? Listening, I took a course of action that affected something, I know not what.
If you believe in free will, the question is unanswerable. If you don't believe in free will, the answer is incomprehensible.
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I think you just changed something in Beijing. I'm not sure what it was, but surely it was something.
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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Marc Clifton wrote: What effect did I have on the life of that butterfly?
There are two possible answers:
1. It was the butterfly's karma that you should rescue it, so it was predestined. OR
2. You were just repaying what favor the butterfly had done to you in a previous life.
These are answers based on thoughts in my belief, so please feel free to accept or reject these.
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So you're the one who started all these storms!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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A nice little tale about a swallowtail. Perhaps you missed your true vocation.
You've probably caused a major typhoon in East Asia at some time in the future, leading to untold destruction, misery, and loss of life. I hope you're satisfied.  
Seriously, unless you do something that is both extremely rare and influential, I doubt that any single action of yours is likely to have much of a net effect. Those who save butterflies are balanced by those who crush them. This does not mean that one should abandon the attempt to be on the side of the angels, but it does mean that one should have a realistic expectation of the results.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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So, decision time – do I turn left now or do I complete my loop by going up two more blocks, hanging a right up another small hill to the Philmont Reservoir as an Englishman I always have to read driving directions from an American in the Californians[^] accent from SNL, but in all seriousness you made a difference to that butterfly.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Alas - don't overlook the ripples!
Perhaps that passing driver - the one that swerved a bit but didn't slow down - had been a bit of a daydreamer before the sudden apparition of your paused vehicle and yourself. He was just attentive enough to swerve but too close to slow down.
And the effect of this, then? The newly alerted driver - perhaps he avoided a more serious confrontation with he/she and his vehicle down the road? A tree - or perhaps an innocent jogger? A life spared.
Could that have not been the butterfly effect of which you muse? Indeed - and it is perfectly normal - your attention is centered around the strange happenings with the one of nature's countless fleeting instances of beauty and yet, the real change you accomplished was reflected elsewhere.
Yet, we are left with naught else but our musings.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I just had a call from a number I don't recognize. The caller said he was raising money for some police charity. I just hung up immediately. Looking up his number in the White Pages, revealed that he had 39 entries in his criminal record! 
It's getting so that I treat all strangers that approach me with suspicion. 
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Cp-Coder wrote: revealed that he had 39 entries in his criminal record!
Amateur.
Cp-Coder wrote: It's getting so that I treat all strangers that approach me with suspicion.
Hahahaha; that is the default. We compete.
Even if we nice; evolution is still a thing, and it is a competition.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Cp-Coder wrote: It's getting so that I treat all strangers that approach me with suspicion.
Whenever someone approaches with the intention of doing you harm - run for your life!
The same applies if they intend to do you good.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I don't recall if I posted this here last week here or not, but perhaps this explains your thoughts:
It is a rare thing that a fanatic doesn't see themselves as in the right.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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A post “Why I don’t talk to strangers”.........posted to a global group of 14.6m members,
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I don't consider Lounge member to be strangers!
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Well then, would you be interested in donating money to a police charity I'm running?
Kidding, of course.
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Yes, I am ready to donate a million or so, provided you pay a few thousand upfront to cover taxes, etc. 
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Cp-Coder wrote: I don't consider Lounge member to be strangers!
Some of us are strange and some of us are even stranger
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I got A LOT of calls from telemarketers.
Like, daily calls.
Nine out of ten times it's for gas and electricity.
It's crazy over here in the Netherlands.
I should note that these are (probably) legitimate businesses and all they want to do is make you switch provider, which should be cheaper for me (according to them).
I once did that because the guy on the other end said I'd only get a cheaper business account with the company, so I agreed.
A week later I got a letter that I switched providers
Some calls later and everything was back to old and the new provider told me they'd never do business with the telemarketing company again because I wasn't the only one that was lied to.
Despite GDPR, telemarketers somehow have full insight into my gas and electricity details and they can switch my provider just like that (it's crazy!) 
Anyway, at some point I just started blocking all phone numbers from telemarketers.
It wasn't very effective as most call using a private number and the ones that don't somehow have unlimited phone numbers.
I recently started asking them how they got my data and if they could please remove it from their system, as is mandatory by GDPR.
The amount of calls I get are down to one every few weeks 
How they got my phone number in the first place?
I have a strong suspicion that the Dutch Chamber of Commerce is to blame.
On the one hand I'm obligated to enlist my company with them with all my data and then they make that data public and sell it
Luckily, the government did something about tat because it's downright criminal.
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I don't do phones. I smash/break/lose them accidentally on purpose.
Apparently it's a thing among people with my particular flavor of crazy.
I'm probably one of the only people in the world that can write software for a smartphone but won't use one.
Phones are disruptive, invasive instruments of torture, and the very existence of telemarketers is evil and tells me there either is no God, or God gave up on us long ago and moved on.
Phone calls are an evil medium where evil practices are stock in trade.
Real programmers use butterflies
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Not quite, but closely so, kindred spirits.
The point of the telephone is for you to be it's owner and not the other way around.
At my wife's insistence, I have a cell phone - a flip phone. No "Apps", or if any cam per-installed I've not looked for (let alone come across) them. Most importantly, I will not text nor will I accept/read texts. Quite a peaceful existence. Perhaps half a dozen people in the world have my cell number, all family, and if they call their name pops up. Otherwise, I just don't hear it. Actually, that's also true because it only rings a few times a week.
Sadly, we have already fallen under its shadow and you, too, will face this approaching darkness: it is now taken as a "given" that every biped is born with a "smart phone". More and more often, the way to do something requires one be texted or, at the least, have the appropriate "app" for contact. As of yesterday "my bank" informed via email that entry is now possible - but it has a queue. Entry can most easily be scanning the 2D bar code on their door (one is enqueued), uses their app (installed by scanning that bar code - 'gotcha') or calling them via a number on the door.
Or - in other words - no way into the bank (at this time) without the phone. I left a brokerage (ETrade) because they insisted that to change bank information I not only needed a smart phone but it had to be in my name.
Sack cloth. Ashes. The world has taken us by the hand and wrenched our arm.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I'm finally having to retire my Nokia 1110 - the network are 'upgrading' their service and the new SIM that they have sent doesn't work on ancient phones. So I'm now on another cheap Pay-As-You-Go with no internet access or apps.
Hint for any who don't know ... if you get a telemarketer, never reply to any questions with 'Yes' or 'No'. e.g. if they ask "is that Mr XXXX?", reply 'It is' or 'Why do you want to know?'. Apparently, some want a record of your voice saying 'Yes' or 'No' so they can use it with automated banking services so it sounds like it is you confirming money transfers etc. [If I got that info from a CPer, I apologise for not giving you the credit]
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jsc42 wrote: if you get a telemarketer, never reply to any questions with 'Yes' or 'No'.
Why do you even answer?
I have two possibilities:
1 - it's someone I know and I'll answer (caller ID)
2 - it's someone I don't know, more often than not a spoofed ID these days. I let it ring.
In the case of 2, the answering machine doesn't give my name, just the phone number without an area code: "This is 555-1212. Please leave a message". They either will or they won't (Duh !).
3 - a relatively new option (which literally happened as I started this line in the post): I enabled my VOP plan to use their free phone-spam filter. If a number is on their list it only rings once (you can answer) but not twice.
So saying Yes or No to a telemarketer is not even an option anymore.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Quote: I got A LOT of calls from telemarketers
Same here. They are a real nuisance.
Quote: How they got my phone number in the first place?
Here in our area, whenever you have any dealings with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) they ask for your phone number. I could never understand why, but recently I read that they actually sell the numbers to whoever is willing to pay for it.
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Wow, your privacy laws are so great - the greatest in the world, probably.
I guess once a total stranger can look up a phone number and get criminal record data, there's really no point going straight. No wonder the EU decided that no, the US doesn't have equivalence to GDPR.
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Their are online sources that can connect to public records - what you can find out is public records. The sleazy part is that even though they are public records you cannot access them unless you pay - either directly by somehow setting up an account, or indirectly, through those online services.
The DMV does sell phone numbers/emails - but you can check a box to opt-out (at least in NY). You need to know to look for it - nearby, but only if you pay attention.
Most telemarketers, however, are spamming you with autodidacts that are just simply sequencing numbers. Even unlisted nos. aren't hidden from a sequencer since there is no list.
Unless, of course, you answer. Then, if there's the machine beep they know the numbers real but it's being screened - or if you answer directly, they know they got a live one . . . and you're toast. Like email spam - "if you opt-out you've really just opted in!" Also, see if you can set your email to not download images (i.e., pixel beacons so you don't tell them your email was received and opened).
It take a bit of time, but we've managed to cut down on the amount just because we're not worth it.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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