Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Life Isn't Meant to be Easy, for Any of Us

"The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life"

Jesus, Matt.7:14

"Life is Suffering"

Buddha, "Four Noble Truths" (c.500BC)

"Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage: it can be delightful"

George Bernard Shaw, "Back to Methuselah (1921)" 

"Life is Difficult"

M.Scott Peck, "The Road Less Travelled (1983)"

There are many variations on these thoughts, from 'Love', 'Happiness', 'Relationship', 'Service' or 'Faith' - all can be difficult to do/be/achieve successfully. Further, life difficulty is universal - never think you are alone in what-ever your particular difficulty is.

Like most negative declarations, there is an implied call to look at the positive behind them. The call is to transcend the difficult, to accept and take personal responsibility of over-coming. M. Scott Peck puts it this way, "It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult - then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters". "Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them, or solve them?". Peck writes about the 'Disciplines', the tools for life's problem solving.

Be prepared to get you hands dirty. You need to dig-in a lot of manure to get a good crop of vegetables, or beautiful, scented flowers.

In the 'pursuit of happiness', all too often the emphasis is placed on the 'happiness' and not on the 'pursuit'. On assuming the result (happiness, etc) is your 'right' (without the pursuit, the struggles and the hard work), you open yourself to jealousy of those that have 'more' than you, and the perennial conflict of the 'haves' vs the 'have nots'. Further, you fall into the trap of singularity (MY happiness or lack there-of) and don't recognize the universality of life's difficulties. And as has happened throughout history, there is always a megalomaniac ready to feed their own ego and tell the 'have nots' that the 'haves' are the cause of all their problems or have 'stolen' from them. 

We are social animals, and the pursuit, the struggle, the hard work, is better as a shared activity. Life, love, happiness, relationship, service, faith are not meant to be solo achievements, but are best striven for, and enjoyed, in partnership, collectively, communally.

In these struggles and pursuits, 'nature' and 'nurture' (environment) play a big part. Some people find their pursuit 'easy', some find it hard due to environment or their birth-given (dis)abilities. This is why it is so important that our pursuits, struggles and problem solving are shared activities. Get expert professional help when needed. If we focus too much on environmental things that block our growth, we are often up against the immovable object which can lead to depression, or worse, giving up. By seeking assistance and sharing, we take our focus off the blockage and we have a better chance of creatively looking, possibly collectively, for work-arounds.

Whilst it can be helpful to be able to share with someone who has experienced the same issues as yourself, it is important to have a supporter that can lift you up. Too often, a 'support' group with poor leadership, ends up dragging all the group down.

If you do find the challenge 'easy', it just means that life has more/harder challenges for you, or better yet, to help someone else in their struggles.

It is also very important to NOT compare yourself to others. It's not a competition. Your happiness will be different from someone else's happiness. Your growth rate will be different from others.

Renowned neurosurgeon and CNN chief medical correspondent Dr Sanjay Gupta has just published a new book, "Keep Sharp: Build a better brain at any age". The key points he makes are:-

  • Good nutrition is critical, both food and what you 'feed' your brain, reading, art, music, conversation, debate;

  • Exercises, both physical and mental exercises, are essential. Vary them, mix them up;

  • Be creative and contemplative, with variety;

  • Socialize, support and buildup one-another;

  • Find and use external support, a mentor, a counselor, medical advice;

(In detail, there is nothing new, but the concepts are presented in an attractive, easy readable and understandable way).

In conclusion, to quote my mother, "Stop and smell the roses"! Don't get locked into focusing on a single outcome. Enjoy the journey, the pursuit: "It can be delightful"!

Stop and Small the Roses

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Sunday, January 3, 2021

The Ladder of Love

 "All You Need Is Love!"

It's easy
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need.
(Lennon and McCartney)

---xxxxXxxxx---

If only it was easy! "Love" is such a multi-faceted concept, not helped with English having only a single word, that is it any wonder that there is so much confusion around what "Love" is! The ancient Greeks understood this all too well, and had multiple words to cover all the different aspects and nuances. Depending on which scholar you read, there are between 3 and 9 different Greek words that could be translated as "love" in English.

  • AgapeEmpathetic, universal, selfless Love - eg. Love of God. ...
  • Storge — Unconditional, familial Love. ...
  • Philia — Affectionate friendship, 'brotherly' Love. ...
  • Xenia Hospitable Love, especially of travelers and strangers. ...
  • Pragma — Committed, companionate Love. ...
  • Eros — Romantic passionate Love. ...
  • Ludus — Playful, flirtatious Love. ...
  • Mania — Obsessive 'Love'. ...
  • Philautia — Self Love, as either self-obsessed, or self-compassion. ...

Plato writes of the "Ladder of Love". "The ladder starts with carnal attraction of body for body, progressing to a love for body and soul. Eventually, in time, with consequent steps up the ladder, the idea of beauty is eventually no longer connected with a body, but entirely united with Being itself".

Traditional thinking about "falling in love" is the transition from 'ludus' playful flirtation with someone we are (sexually) attracted to, to 'eros' romantic "in love". But marriage, or any other form of commitment 'love' is volitional, a conscious decision to companionship and support of each, through thick and thin. Having climbed the ladder to 'pragma' we are in a better position for selfless love of 'xenia', philia', 'storge' and 'agape'.

For this KotW question, "Is love a kink?", we are really talking about the bottom four carnal rungs of the ladder. Kink means being bent out of 'normal' shape. But too often, 'normal' is seem simplistically as a binary condition, normal or not normal. But as any scientist will tell you, 'normal' is a statistical term meaning the most common value in the distribution of all values of some feature in a population. 

The most common area of love kink, is in 'ludus' flirtatious play. It may be pushing the boundaries toward romance. More commonly, we add variety (kink?) to spice things up, to keep the relationship alive and not drift into boredom. It can be in role-play of all sorts. Dom/Sub play could be seen as a way of testing each other out to see if/when/how we might be ready to move up the relationship ladder to 'pragma'.

So far we haven't mentioned sex. Now sexuality is at the core of our carnal being, and sexual attraction is central to 'ludus' and 'eros'. So sexual 'kink' is often part of 'love kink', but nor necessarily.

Whilst the narcissistic, self-absorbed, obsessive character is a deviation from acceptable norms, it doesn't really meet the criteria of a 'kink'.

Another dimension to 'love kink' is numerical. 'Kink' is then typically defined relative to your own position, thus a monogamist sees polygamy or polamory as kinky.

Ancient Greece had the system of temple prostitutes, to help young men (typically) progress in climbing the ladder of love, from 'philautia' to 'ludus' and to teach them the mysteries of 'eros'. Kinky today, but normal back then. Some sex workers today, also see themselves as having a sacred calling, in introducing and training young men into the wonderful world of sexual pleasures.

Back to today's world, 'kink' can also work 'down' the ladder, when a 'pragma' relationship has lost any sexual component, for any of dozens of reasons. One or both individuals might seek sexual satisfaction at an 'eros' level (an affair), or at the 'ludus' level (prostitution, Ladies Of Pleasure). There is a time and place for 'sexual independence', of separating sex from a committed relationship.

Kink? I think not. "Judge not, that ye be not judged". What ever floats your boat!

"Is love a kink?"
Click to see what kinksters are blogging!

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Freedom without Discipline is Anarchy - Lest We Forget

WW-1

Great uncle Frank was an eager 19 year-old that signed up very early in the war. He was amongst the first wave that stormed ashore at ANZAC cove on the Dardenelles under intense gun fire from the Turkish positions on the cliffs. Somehow he survived that campaign and was amongst the final withdrawal. From there he was shipped to France and battled the bombardments, mustard gas and mud and snow of a couple of winters on the western front. Just two weeks before the end of the war, after almost 4 years of constant fighting, he was in a group that had a direct hit from a grenade and died instantly.

His older brother Bill was a more cautious, serious man, and signed up a year later. After achieving the rank of Sgt. Major in a training unit, he too got posted to the French western front. Again, during the last months of the war, he was out on patrol behind enemy lines, when he was hit in the leg by sniper fire. Unable to walk, he lay there not knowing his fate. Just before dawn, four German soldiers came up to him, picked him up and started carrying him toward the allied lines - there were deserting. They reached a village just as it came under German bombardment. They dropped Bill in a ditch and took cover themselves. One of his rescuers was killed. After they reached safety, Bill was repatriated to an English hospital, where his leg had to be amputated. I can just barely remember Uncle Bill, 35 years later in the early '50s, hobbling around with his crutch and empty trouser leg pinned up, a very sad TPI veteran.

WW2

My father was a quiet, thoughtful man. On enlistment, he was assigned to a field ambulance unit. But due to some bureaucratic mess-up, he ended up as a first-aid officer at a Brisbane enlistment unit, treating sunburn and blisters. But as the war in New Guinea progressed, he was transferred to the Army Hospital in Townsville. Here he attended the severely wounded evacuated from the fetid jungles of Kokoda and Lea etc. Apart from the variety of injuries, the constant was the dengy fever, the shitty dysentery and the night sweats and delirium of malaria. All too often he told me, after patching someone up and sending them back, in a month or two, they saw the same men back again. The "lucky" ones got sent home sans leg, arm or eye.

Lest we forget, not just those that paid the ultimate price, but the broken survivors that returned. 

WW-Covid

But the world is at war again, this time against an unseen enemy, the Covid-19 virus. There is no separation of soldier and civilian, we are all conscripted. But if Covid is to be defeated, we must have the discipline of soldiers. Could you imagine the soldiers on the Western Front, refusing to put masks on when the clouds of mustard gas swept across the battlefields, claiming it was their 'human right' to do what they like and not mask-up?

In "Free at Last - Covid 2nd Wave Crushed", I wrote of how Australia has fought this virus with fantastic results. After over 3 months of severe lock-down, the city of Melbourne (pop. 5M) has reached 13 days straight of ZERO new cases and ZERO deaths. Empty Covid hospital wards are being closed down. We are carefully opening up to a new Covid-normal.

In the "Land of the free", all too many interpret this to mean "The Land of the ME!". The freedom we have due to the sacrifice of our soldiers in two world wars, is a freedom from foreign interference, a freedom to govern ourselves. But self government requires civil responsibility and the discipline to abide by the laws made by our majority-appointed governments. Like our soldiers, disciplined responsibility to each other must take precedence over personal "Rights".

lest we forget

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Free at Last - Covid 2nd Wave Crushed

Introduction

On Monday 26th October 2020, for the 1st time since July, new Covid cases in Melbourne, Australia, are ZERO, and deaths are ZERO. The rolling 7-day average of new cases is 3. And best of all, our draconian stage 4 lockdown restrictions have been significantly eased.

With the majority of my readers being from the USA and UK, I have a message of hope for you. Australia (population about 25M) and New Zealand's (population almost 5M) have excellent results in Covid control. I want to reassure my many readers now seeing skyrocketing new Covid cases as they come into their 2nd wave -  a Covid wave can be crushed, but it will require VERY strong lockdown restrictions and will take 3-4 months minimum.

Note that after both "waves", infections were got down to almost zero. The 2nd "wave" is almost entirely from Melbourne, Victoria.

Beginnings - Hit it Fast and Hard

Australia has a long history of strong quarantine controls on our international borders, mostly related to plants and animals. So when the news of Covid-19 broke, even before WHO pronounced it a 'pandemic' and recommended international travel restrictions, Australia imposed stringent international arrival controls, with cancellation of all flights from China - this was in February 2020. Initially, all international arrivals were directed to self-isolation.

A National Consensus Approach

On 13th March, Prime Minister Morrison establish a "National Cabinet". The Prime Minister and heads of all states (Premiers and Chief Ministers) and Chief Medical Officers, met virtually, initially daily, to formulate a coordinated response to Covid. In May, the New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern, joined to discuss trans-Tasman implications and responses. A national consensus agreement was reached of the steps and stages required to manage COVID, but it was the responsibility of each state to implement these to their own timetable.

Divide and Conquer

From hard lock-down of international borders, voluntary self-isolation was used, but found insufficiently effective, so a program of compulsory quarantine in government hired hotels, was instigated.

In March, the  "Ruby Princess" debacle cost almost 900 cases and 28 deaths. Many passengers flew home interstate and some overseas. As a result, all cruises in and out of Australia were banned.

After "Ruby Princess" with most of Australia's cases in the state of New South Wales, 3 states with low numbers closed their borders and setup local quarantine for approved interstate arrivals. Effectively, all interstate air travel ceased. In time, all state borders closed.

National sporting codes ended up negotiating quarantine hubs for entire teams and staff in low virus count states. With the hubs usually being tourist resorts, the only hardship was being away from family for many months.

Victoria's Quarantine Failure - 2nd Wave

Just as Australia was relaxing its 1st wave restrictions, when the Australia wide COVID levels were very low, Melbourne in the state of Victoria, started to see increasing numbers of clusters around 4th July  (Melbourne has a population of about 5M, about the size of Chicago or Manchester). Suddenly we had a 2nd wave breaking out. As new cases started to grow exponentially, peaking at 700/day at 31st July and projected to reach 1000/day within a week, the state government implemented a state-of-emergency with very hash lock-down restriction.

Around this time, genomic analysis of test samples pointed to an original source in a quarantine hotel from an international arrival. Subsequent inquiries uncovered a string of bureaucratic failures with no-one taking responsibility for hiring the quarantine staff and unskilled, unequipped, virtually unmanaged staff guarded the qurantainees.  One of those 'guards' lived in a share-house with an Aged Care nurse. The dam burst. Unfortunately quite a number of Aged Care Homes had major outbreaks, and our majority death toll was in those elderly.

Victoria's Stage 4 Lock-down

Victoria took 'containment' to another level. 'Lock-down' restrictions were tried in a couple of suburbs, but not found practical. A policed 'ring of steel' quarantined Melbourne metropolitan area from the rest of the state.

"Divide and conquer" was taken to another level. 'Stay at home' orders for non-essential workers, outside movement only for shopping, exercise (1hr/day) and essential activity, only within 5km of home

Most businesses, offices and retail were shut-down. Hotels, bars, restaurants and cafes were shut, unless a Covid-safe take-away service was implemented. Night-time curfew, restrictions on outdoor 'gatherings', initially of 2, then 5. Restrictions on in-door gatherings to 5 for weddings and funerals were enforced. All of these were backed by strong policing and fines. Working from home became widespread as well as home schooling with e-mail and zoom classes. There was a massive upswing in on-line shopping, click-and-collect etc. And of course, mask wearing was mandated, with heavy fines for non-compliance.

Despite these draconian, some say dictatorial, restrictions, there appears to have been better than 90% compliance. Consequently, by early October, daily new cases were in single figures and restrictions were eased slightly. On 26th October, we have ZERO case and deaths for the first time since early July, and only 0-2 daily cases since. New cases are now almost exclusive international arrivals and people already in isolation due to close contact to a previous case.

Protests about breach of personal freedom rights have been moderate. But the fact remains, new daily cases have fallen more than 99% over 8 weeks of stringent lock-down. So it can be done.

Other Australian states have typically had only 0-10 cases per day during Victoria's 2nd wave.

Contagion When Off-Guard

Despite all the restrictions put in place, the insidious nature of infection by this virus, takes advantage of even the simplest off-guard action. Once it is 'in the wild' in the community, its exponential contagion comes to play, with daily new cases doubling roughly every 10 days.

An aged care nurse reported that after a long shift in full PPE all day, it was a relief at the end of the day to take off her mask and have a coffee and cigarette with a colleague, then share a ride home. At an abattoirs where there had been a Covid cluster, despite masks whilst working, at the end of the shift, workers from the finishing shift and the next shift, all shared the same locker room to de-mask and change clothes. At a shopping centre, despite wearing masks at work inside, on their break, workers have been seen sitting on the curb-side outside without masks smoking together. These are the chinks in our Covid protective armour where the virus can slip through.

In the past couple of weeks, just as we were hoping for an end to restrictions, a new outbreak was identified in some northern suburbs and a couple of schools. After intensive contact tracing, the source was traced to a single nurse, working in a Covid ward. Despite wearing PPE, she still contracted the virus, took it home, then children to school, and relatives in other households. In total, 39 positive cases were found across 15 households.  Over 700 close contacts and contacts of contacts, were asked to self isolate. Popup testing centres were deployed across those suburbs and 10's of thousands of residents tested - fortunately, all negative, and no new cases have been found.

It is now recognised that one of the most common places of infection is in family groups at home around the dinner table - masks off, in close proximity for extended periods of time.

Free at Last

Compared to the lock-down, we are "free at last", but in reality there are still a lot of restrictions. Hospitality is doing it tough with limits of 10 customers per room. But easing of outside seating restrictions have brought a real al fresco mood to these warming autumn days.

But we are just entering the spring racing carnival season, and the usual large crowds were deemed too dangerous. So the "Race That Stops a Nation" on Tues. 3rd November (no, I don't mean the geriatric nags in the USA race), the 3 year-old thoroughbreds, will be raced in front of stable staff and jockies only. The magnificent display of roses at Flemington will have no public to appreciate them, so after the Melbourne Cup day, the roses will be picked and made into bouquets to be distributed to residents of hospitals and Aged Care Homes.

Innovation and Research

Australia has a long history of innovation. A distillery turns to sanitizer manufacture. The State Theatre company turns the wardrobe department and seamstresses, to mask making. Instrument makers switch to ventilators. A couple of university students design a face shield frame for 3D 'printing' then form a startup company to manufacture them.

Like most countries, medical researchers immediately started trying to understand how this virus operates, infection rates and severity of illness. But St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, setup a research project "ADAPT" from the very early stages, to investigate the long-term impact of COVID-19 - from lung, kidney, brain, heart (from stroke to Parkinson's). Early research in Wuhan discovered that 40% of Covid deaths ended with heart failure. It has been discovered that the virus invades the blood stream, attacking the 'D3' receptors that line blood vessels throughout the body. With more than 6 months data, it has been found that about 40% of Covid sufferers that recover, even if not having suffered seriously, can have long-term medical conditions. Early Covid symptoms of loss of the senses of smell and taste have been traced to the impact of nerves and blood vessels in the front of the brain, which are also often related to early onset Parkinson's Disease. Only long term tracking will discover if this is another Covid long-haul condition.

Sydney cardiac surgeons developed a colour 3D ultrasound that can be fed into the heart percutaneously. So they can now work in the Covid ward, without moving the patient to theatre, to diagnose then guide the implantation of a miniature heart pump to support a failing heart long enough for medication to aid recovery.

The CSIRO research unit in Geelong (Victoria's largest regional city just south of Melbourne) has been working closely with the Oxford vaccine study, from the beginning.

One positive to come out of Australia's pandemic recovery, is that the widespread mandating of masks and sanitization, has led to a significant drop in influenza cases and deaths in 2020. In the last 3 years, influenza deaths in Australia have ranged from 400 to 700 per year.

But one of the negatives has been the dramatic drop in people presenting to hospital for other serious and elective conditions, such as heart checks, hips, etc.

Political Aspects

The interstate border closures became quite a political football between adjacent Labour and Conservative governments. We ended up with border towns split down the middle where people living in one state were stopped from shopping or going to work or school in the other half of town across the border.

An outbreak in Queensland, was immediately classed a "Victorian Virus", akin to Trump's "China Virus".

There have been 4 elections, a New Zealand national election, a Queensland state and 2 Australian Territorial elections. All incumbent parties were returned on the basis of their minimization of Covid infections and border lock-downs. The Victorian situation is very mixed. The state government is being held responsible for the bureaucratic in-competencies that lead to this 2nd wave outbreak. On the other hand there is fairly strong support for the hard lock-down that crushed this 2nd wave.

International Comparisons

Belgium 36982 1002 427826
Israel 34194 276 501715
USA 28351 712 434750
Spain 27042 767 356924
Chile 26616 741 224754
Brazil 25981 750 102785
Argentina 25740 684 66325
France 20937 563 245866
Netherlands 20480 431 194062
Switzerland 17779 265 222848
UK 14876 685 492168
Sweden 12288 587 221580
Italy 11243 639 261195
Russia 11086 192 413825
Singapore 9891 5 627373
Poland 9588 149 124586
Denmark 7993 124 907778
Hungary 7804 181 110354
Iran 7265 413 58435
Mexico 7149 709 18576
Germany 6340 126 260903
Canada 6195 268 257661
India 5911 88 79368
Greece 3772 60 170802
Norway 3740 52 290750
Philippines 3459 66 43474
Pakistan 1502 31 20058
Indonesia 1494 51 16459
Australia 1078 35 344671
Japan 795 14 21419
S. Korea 519 9 51295
New Zealand 392 5 220121
China 60 3 111163
Thailand 54 0.8 13998
Taiwan 23 0.3 4282

(Data from 'worldometers' as at 31st Oct. 2020)

Summary

Australia is lucky being an island nation. An early, fast, hard response and quarantine of international arrivals minimized the 1st wave. Two massive bureaucratic stuff-ups lead to large out-breaks. But a 'divide and conquer' approach restricted this large 2nd wave outbreak to one city in one state. A very harsh lock-down of 'stay at home', mandatory masks, travel restrictions, curfew, closure of most shops and restaurants, and restricted gathering sizes, all brought the virus cases down from 700+/day to zero in about 3 months.

After both our 1st and 2nd waves, Australia got its case load down to single digits in most jurisdictions. The lesson here is to NOT ease off the lock-down restrictions too early. Hang in there for the last month or two of the "long tail".

Our cases and deaths might be low by international standards, but the 900+ dead are grand-parents, parents, aunts, uncles, beloved family members. And lets not forget the medical staff that put their lives on the line for the community, and despite all their protection and care, some still got sick and some did die.

Foot Note

As I watch the USA figures growing exponentially, and POTUS Trump claiming that the US is "Rounding the bend with Covid", the only "bend" I see is curving ever more steeply upwards.

"Mommy. Look! The Emperor, Caesar Trumpus has no clothsmask!". 

"Beware the Ides of November" sayeth Joe Brutus, "Caesar, You're Fired!!!". 

"Make America Sane Again" 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Scarlett o'Tara

'Scarlett o'Tara'

With this Covid isolation, I thought I might try my hand at painting. This iconic scene from 'Gone with the Wind' seemed challenging as far as colour and shading with fairly simple composition, for a first attempt. It is acrylic on 80x40cm canvas. I had to come to terms with brushes, size, stroke, dabbing vs stippling, sponging and blading.

As 'Barefoot Sub' wrote in 'Mindful Moments', it is 'Ready for Launch'. That's a bit how I felt about trying my hand at painting. For a technician with a perfectionist streak, taking on a craft that can never be 'perfect' was a mental challenge. But as I connected to the subject and the current context of Covid isolation, the importance of technique slipped into the background. Like writing, I need to focus on the story/picture I am conveying and not get too bogged down in the minutia of technique.

I felt the subject sort of appropriate. Like Scarlett and Ret escaping the fires of war with the glow of Atlanta burning filling the sky, they escape to the relative isolation of Tara. It's not unlike us escaping to the isolation of our homes as the war against Covid rages outside.

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Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Mind Expanding with a Cup of Java [Personal Growth Matters]

For me, COVID-19 Lockdown hasn't been a big change, since retirement means I have lots of free time anyway. I am very fortunate to live in a retirement village villa. I am sitting at the dining room table looking out over the golf course across our back fence - a large water trap with lots of bird life, the rushes, the fairway and the trees - ah, the serenity - too bad about the hacker golfers.

I regularly work on a book of puzzles, cross-words (straight and cryptic), 'code breakers', and of course Sudoku. Now I've never really been a Sudoku fan, preferring word puzzles. But the logic of solving a Sudoku puzzle intrigued me. My Computer Science post-graduate thesis back in the 70's involved programming a deduction 'engine' processing predicate calculus statements, so the method of solving Soduko was right up my alley.

I first learnt to program computers back in 1966, and have learned (and  forgotten) dozens of computer languages since. The later half of my career moved beyond mundane programming, into analysis, systems architecture, specification, quality assurance and management. But the mental stimulus of solving a problem in code, has never left me.

So as a personal growth project, I decided to teach myself a modern computer language, Java, and the problem I chose to was solving Sudoku puzzles.
A very hard puzzle.

Now the simplest program solution is to recursively try the digits 1..9 combinatorially in every empty cell. But I wanted to tackle the intelligent solution of how humans go about solving such puzzles.

<WARNING "descriptions of complex programming logic - skip if desired">
From the digits that exist in each row/column/sub-matrix, build lists of candidate digits that could appear in the empty cells of each row/column/sub-matrix. Then examine every empty cells' three lists of candidate digits that intersect at that cell and perform a logical AND of the three lists to get the candidate digits that satisfy all three row/column/sub-matrix constraints. If you are left with a single candidate in any of the row/column/sub-matrix, then that digit is the solution for that cell. After all empty cells have been processed, if there are still some cells that have not had a solution digit inserted, loop back and compute new lists of candidates.

I have found that puzzles of complexity up to 4 stars are soluble by the above method. A handful of ***** complexity puzzles still require a brute force method to solve the remaining empty cells after the above has finished. By using the lists of candidate digits at each empty cell, typically 2 or 3 digits, instead of trying all 1..9 digits, the size of the combination is much reduced. A classic 'block' that I have noticed that puzzle creators use, is to have a row/column/sub-matrix element with just 2 empty cells with the same 2 candidate digits, so there are only 2 combinations to test, 'x,y' and 'y,x'.
</WARNING>
Solution of above very hard puzzle.

By parameterizing the size of the puzzle, a simple 4x4 puzzle was used in initial debugging. A logical extension of the problem, would be to have a 25x25 puzzle that uses the 25 letters "A..Y" instead of the digits 1..9. Perhaps I could call it Nozeku! With a puzzle board that size, I suspect it would be too difficult to create problems by hand. Perhaps I will have to write a program to generate problems of Nozeku.

Another option I considered, is to use a phone camera to capture a picture of a puzzle and perform optical character recognition to input the puzzle into the program. At the press of a button, in a fraction of a second, the solution is displayed. But that program extension lacks intellectual stimulus for me.

So after that exercise, I feel my brain has 'grown' by a percentage point or two. Mind you, I have only just scratched the surface of the Object Oriented power of Java. I might have to look for another problem to solve.

Is programming sexy? Some programmers have reported experiencing algorisms! (that euphoric, Eureka, aha moment when you finally see an elegant solution to a difficult problem you have been mulling over for days or weeks). Do writers have such experiences when a beautiful plot inspiration blasts through a writer's block?

But in the mean time, I might go back to my landscape painting to relax for a while.

Addendum

Having programmed my 'obvious' strategy, I searched the internet literature for Sudoku solution strategies. Andrew Stuart's 'https://www.sudokuwiki.org/sudoku.htm' is probably the most comprehensive, listing 38 strategies. My program implements the first two basic strategies, 'Naked singles' and 'Hidden singles'.

Personal Growth Matters

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Give or Take, a Matter of Respect

Way back in the mid 1960's, our state government introduced a new road law to clarify the situation of two cars arriving at an uncontrolled intersection at the same time. It was colloquially known as the 'Right of Way' law (we drive on the left hand side of the road in Australia).

I was going for my driver's license in 1966 (18 years old), with a simple oral test at the local police station before the actual driving test. The policeman asked me about the 'Right of Way' rule, to which I answered, "The driver of the car on the right has right of way". He rephrased the question and asked me again, to which I gave the same answer. When he asked the same question a third time, I had to control myself, and gave the same answer. He then clarified the rule for me. The driver on the right does NOT have 'right of way' - rather the driver on the left is obliged to give way to the driver on the right. Its the difference between taking and giving.

I once read this quote, "Whats the difference between a socialist and a Christian? The socialist says "what's yours is mine", but the Christian says "what's mine is yours". The economic outcome might be similar, but it comes to down to whether one respects the other's free will.

What that policeman said to me over 50 years ago has stuck in my mind ever since. It saddens me when I read of people standing up for "their" rights, but trampling over other people's rights in the process. They seem to interpret the "land of the free" as the "land of the me".

What would society be like if the 'Bill of Rights' was redraughted as 'the Bill of Civic Responsibilities', where everyone had the civic responsibility to allow other people to have their own opinions and speak their mind, etc?

The same principles apply in marriage. It saddens me to see so many men especially, that treat their spouses as property to be owned and to be punished if their don't obey or do their bidding. Worse, the effects of family violence flow through to the children and the grandchildren - "The sins of the father will be visited on his children to the 3rd and 4th generation" (Ex.20:5, Num.14:18, Deu.5:9). I was moved to word our wedding vows as "giving" each to the other, instead of "taking" a spouse.