October « 2008 «

Archive for October, 2008

RICHARD DAWKINS on the queerness, as it were, of the Universe

Friday, October 31st, 2008

I joke, because Taoists and Tantrics (and the Vedantists, in some paths) sometimes suggest the Universe unfolded and unfolds from the eternal embrace of yin and yang, Shiva and Shakti, the male and female principle in ongoing sexual embrace.

Two quotes, with which I feel a warm kinship (if one can feel kinship with a quote):

The inimitable Richard Feynman:

“I think I can safely say that nobody understands Quantum Mechanics.”

And from Sir Arthur Eddington:

“Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.”

Anyway, I so enjoyed this inspired and funny talk from legendary evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.

I found his “…we are evolved denizens of middle world and that limits what we are capable of imagining…” wonderfully provocative, exciting, and begs infinite questions. In fact, using both scientific equipment, as he knows, of course (and, brace yourself, even deep contemplation from, yes, millenia past—I can provide examples!), we have imagined much beyond this middle world, but his point is well taken.

Dawkins’ talk for me, I must confess (and forgive me, ye savage non-poets), is mystical in its passion and information.

He asks:

“Could we by training and practice emancipate ourselves from middle world, and achieve some sort of intuitive—as well as mathematical—understanding of the very small and the very large? I genuinely don’t know the answer…”

The talk, another of the brilliant TED talks, is here.

Lots of love, and an old chestnut, Wide Open.

Pete xo

Posted in Creativity, Human Nature, Science, Spirituality, posted | No Comments »

BANKING ON A ONE-PARTY STATE

Friday, October 31st, 2008

I filled in some statements on my previous blog with a few stats that were very easy to find. How accurate these stats/facts are, I don’t know (I went to opensecrets.org). But assuming they are relatively accurate, I feel they might help remind us to the fact that there are no political saviors. It still seems to me, from reading history, that humans either gather in intelligent solidarity or not, and work towards a more compassionate world or not. And individuals either choose to be more loving, or not.

Oh yeah, and then of course there are kajillions of variables, but my brain’s too small to figure those out.

Nonetheless, my friends, I wrote this, and then found the following statistics—and like I’ve said, I do feel Obama is a less unpreferable choice to McCain, for a lot of potentially significant reasons, most of which I don’t know or understand.

One can hope that Obama will be, within the limited political spectrum, as pragmatically expansive, inspired and creative as possible.

Nonetheless…

In a more perfect world, it seems to me, government would be small; the head would not be The Leader, but The Representative, the best administrator of exercising the will of an ever-greater-educated population/majority (by no means perfect, either).

As for Obama and democracy, let’s consider the bailout. Please recall that the American population was solidly against bailing out the banks. Was Obama, when summoned to the capital, against it? No, he voted for the bailout—against the majority will of the population.

One down, perhaps, with many to come. Are not the people the President’s constituents? Of course not.

How funded is Obama by the banks?

According to Open Secrets, commercial banks have funded Obama to the tune of $2,938,556—more than either McCain or Hilary Clinton. Further, of the $9,573,159 contributed by commercial banks, the Democrats received 57.1% of that, the Republicans 42.9%.

They’re the same party! It’s closer to a one party state with freedom of expression, than a true republic or a democracy with a profoundly free flow of ideas. And capitalism in the big powers has been state capitalism and protectionist forever, for better and for worse. But maybe that is how the world has to work, to some degree, with all that entropy and evolution and stuff pulling us unconsciously. Look, at the very least the Big Boys are going to the same party, and folks, you’re not invited to it (although you’re paying for it).

And still, yes still, life is inconceivably beautiful. Love on!

Pete xox

Posted in Activism, Economics, History, Human Nature, Law, Politics, Social Awareness, posted | No Comments »

Further On The Great Bank Robbery of 2008 (by the Banks)

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

THIS MESSAGE IS ENDORSED BY MOI

I would tend to agree that Barack Obama would be slightly preferable over the working-class-disdaining, fiscally pathological, war-mongering, cronyistic, sustainable food-despising alternative.

I would love change, so-called, to usher in a kinder, more sustainable, more creative, safer world where words like terrorism, free-trade, democracy, conservative, liberal, Left and Right have real meaning—other than to obscure.

What is off-putting about Barack Obama to me is that, via the desperate people, he is beginning to take on that dreaded cult-of-personality thing. This is always delusional and even repugnant to anyone with a kind-libertarian/caring-anarchist/discerning-social democratic/small-c conservative/mystic-yet-scientific streak.

In other words, “hope” is found more in compassionate community and enhanced personhood than in some well-spoken politician.

Like Che “No Friend Of Mine” Guevera’s face on T-Shirts, I really don’t like it.

Then again, every four years masses of intelligent people in many different parts of the world bow down to some (generally) father figure they never really had—or so desperately crave.

THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE

Even all these so-called conservative pundits spread across the media, who claim to hate Big Government, are only able to spew their divisive talk because there is Big Government (which means Big Corporation, too).

As for Mr Obama, he may be a wonderful fella; he is intelligent, from an IQ point of view, to be sure. He is also clearly a well-groomed political animal—just watch him, listen to him, the endless use of cliches—hope, community, integrity etc—that have little practical use.

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL (for most things)

As for democracy, let’s consider the bailout. Please recall that the American population was solidly against bailing out the banks. Was Obama, when summoned to the capital, against it? No, he voted for the bailout—against the majority will of the population.

One down, perhaps, with many to come. Are not the people the President’s constituents? Of course not.

How funded is Obama by the banks?

They’re the same party! Or at least they’re going to the same party, and folks, you’re not invited to it (although you’re paying for it).

But back to Cult-of-personality. Children singing Obama’s praises in saccharin unison, while being able to neither define his terms nor repeat his ideology—is way too North Korea for me. Movements toward more realized individuality and community are always about people joined in solidarity (hopefully non-violent solidarity, although the Dalai Lama has had a helluva time getting anywhere), not some ideological divide that actually has very little bearing on reality, and still works mostly in the interests of the rich and powerful.

BI-WAY ROBBERY

If I was American, I would find out where the loudest chorus of protesting is coming from against the bailout, read what they stand for, and send my support. A quote from William Greider, but first what I mentioned from Naomi Klein two blogs ago:

…the spin is that [Henry] Paulson was really tough with the banks and forced them to sign against their will; I mean the terms of the deal are incredibly favorable to the banks; they didn’t have to negotiate, because they couldn’t have negotiated a better deal for themselves. They get the money but the government is taking no power, there’s no voting right, so they’ve just been handed free money in the midst of an economic crisis; a lot of these banks, if they are not bailed out, they’re going down. So this spin that Henry Paulson is so tough with the banks is absurd; he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to them, and he’s one of them.

From William Greider, who wrote a huge book on the Federal Reserve and its shenanigans ten or fifteen years ago. He writes:

The swindle of American taxpayers is proceeding more or less in broad daylight, as the unwitting voters are preoccupied with the national election. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson agreed to invest $125 billion in the nine largest banks, including $10 billion for Goldman Sachs, his old firm. But, if you look more closely at Paulson’s transaction, the taxpayers were taken for a ride–a very expensive ride. They paid $125 billion for bank stock that a private investor could purchase for $62.5 billion. That means half of the public’s money was a straight-out gift to Wall Street, for which taxpayers got nothing in return…

If the same rule of thumb is applied to Paulson’s grand $700 billion bailout fund, Gerard said this will constitute a gift of $350 billion from the American taxpayers “to reward the institutions that have driven our nation and it now appears the whole world into its most serious economic crisis in 75 years.”

Is anyone angry? Will anyone look into these very serious accusations? Congress is off campaigning. The financiers at Treasury probably assume any public outrage will be lost in the election returns. I hope they are mistaken.

The full article in the Nation is here.

I am definitely pro-union by emotion—for I don’t know a country without unions that ever achieved decent human rights/worker rights. That said, I am also, by emotion, not pro-Big Union monoliths, top down, hierarchical and, in a paradoxical way, not unlike their corporate opponents. Maybe necessary, but I like smaller units in general, where voices are heard, and no one ends up in a dumpster.

Check out this United Mine Workers President, WA Boyle, who in the late ’60s took Union funds to pay drifters/hitmen to kill union opponent Jock Yablonski.

Either way, never forget that one of the first thing the Bolsheviks did after their rise (coup) to power in 1917 and the beginning of the tyrannical Soviet Union, was crush the trade unions.

Anyway, from Market Watch:

An analysis prepared by the Union, which was attached to the letter, uses traditional Wall Street valuation techniques to demonstrate that the Treasury’s investment in Goldman and the other firms was worth approximately half of the price paid and that the other half was a gift to the firms’ shareholders. The analysis was done by comparing Treasury’s investment to one made just twenty days earlier by Warren Buffett.

“This behavior is simply outrageous,” said Gerard. “Half the money is invested and the other half of the public’s money is gifted to institutions after they paid out hundreds of billions in undeserved bonuses and shareholder dividends and engaged in reckless speculation.”

“This is no different than if you paid me $10,000 for a car for which no one else would pay more than $5,000,” writes Gerard. “You bought it for $5,000 and gifted me the other $5,000.”
“In my world such gifts are rarely offered to working people.”

The full letter, which I have not looked at, is here.

Here’s to more solidarity, love, local food, increased education, less TV, less torture of animals, access to health care, more freedom, less monopolies, greater creativity, rights of those not in agreement with the majority, less work, efficient work, more community, more profound and compassionate individuality, wonder, awe, gratitude, discernment, smiling and protection of the vulnerable, both at home and abroad—Iraq, Sudan, Congo, everywhere. These are our sisters and brothers, children, grandparents, moms, dads, wives, poets, dreamers and on and on…

Pete xo

Posted in Activism, Economics, Fraud, Human Nature, Politics, Social Awareness, posted | No Comments »

DOES NOT COMPUTE: SUBSIDIZED HIGH TECH and the GATES to the FUTURE

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

As luck would have it, I read this the day after writing about state capitalism being the norm (yes, state capitalism as an American and Western ’so-called free market’ ideology) long before the bailout. Noam Chomsky gives first hand anecdotal evidence from his very own MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

I wrote on yesterday’s blog:

…four (of countless) modern examples of what is rarely described as the State capitalism it is:

1) the pentagon’s tax-subsidized trillionaire child known as the computer industry.
2) the torturous stench of tax-payer subsidized factory-farm agribusiness.
3) tax-payer financed invasions and ruinations of countless countries, enriching and protecting private oil companies.
4) the bailout of the usurious banking institution.

You might find this interesting. Chomsky said in an interview in September, before the ‘crash’, with respect to the computer industry:

I came here [to MIT] in the mid-50s…The electronics lab, along with the closely connected Lincoln Labs, was just developing the basis of the modern high tech economy. In those days, the computer was the size of this set of offices and vacuum tubes were blowing all over the place [with] computer printouts, paper running everywhere.

By the time they finally got computers down to the size of a marketable mainframe, some of the directors of the project pulled out and formed DEC [Digital Equipment Corporation], the first main frame producer.

IBM was in there at government expense learning how to move from punch cards to electronic computers. By the early l960s IBM was capable of producing its own computers, but no one could buy them. They were too expensive. So they were bought by the National Security Agency…

Finally, of course, all of this gets to the point where you can market them privately. It was not until the l980s after 30 years of development essentially in the state sector that these things became marketable commodities and Bill Gates could get rich.

The Internet was the same thing. I was here when they were starting to work on the Internet. It was not until l995 that it was privatized, after 30 years. If you look at the funding at MIT, in the l950s and l960s, it was almost entirely Pentagon [re: tax-payer]. For a very simple reason, the cutting edge of the economy was electronics based.

A good cover for developing an electronics-based economy was the Pentagon. You sort of frighten people into thinking the Russians are coming, so they pay their taxes and their children and grandchildren have computers.

Anyway, a parable of sorts, of how state capitalism—public subsidy for private profit—took place in the computer industry. Pretty interesting when this was first pointed out to me. And then to be able to see slightly more clearly all the rhetoric and propaganda we get about free markets (non-protectionism) and laissez-faire capitalism.

The list of publicly subsidized manufacturing sectors—the automobile industry, textiles, computers, food etc—is endless. The full interview with Chomsky is here.

Here’s to greater discernment, and trying to hear what is really being said, and to see what is really being done.

Lots of love to you,

Pete

Posted in Activism, Economics, Fraud, History, Human Nature, Politics, Social Awareness, posted | 2 Comments »

Of Shock Doctrines and Bailouts: Have You Seen The Little Piggies?

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

The bailout. Ah, yes. My American friends, here are three things I read recently—hardly enlightening, but perhaps helpful to keep a person discerningly aware but not sucked in by the bailout media/propaganda and political hogwash. The almost criminal nature (as it would be for mere mortals, anyway) of the rip-off deepens with about as much consciousness as pigs at a trough—or, in this case, bankers and their suppliers (think addicts).

Then again, given human nature, who can blame them? This, to be sure, is no ‘one-bad-apple’ situation. This is a zeitgeist.

Something strange, yet oh so human—the ability to just keep on stealing with impunity, for those who are expert in the process—just kept on happening.

Indeed, who, after awhile, doesn’t take what is easy? Myself, with long showers, turning the heat up, extra unnecessary helpings etc.

Now take another nature, in another place, and see what happens, with glee.

As the yogis say, the senses of the human body are insatiable. Only conflicting desires, I say, balances them at all. No inward journey, and the outside will rule.

From that bastion of subversive journalism, Time Magazine, in a piece called How Washington’s [tax-payer] Bailout Will Boost Wall Street Bonuses:

““Year-end [post bailout] pay on Wall Street will be higher than it would have been had it not been for the government [tax-payers!] and mergers [at tax-payer expense],” says Alan Johnson, a leading compensation consultant. “You would expect it to be down much more.”

Johnson predicts the average managing director at an investment bank, a title typically earned around eight years on the job, will receive a bonus of $625,000. That’s down from nearly $1.1 million last year, but it is still 15 times the income of the average American household. Top bankers could receive as much as $1 million. Even a bond trader just out of business school could see his or her bank account enriched by as much as $170,000 this Christmas.”

Ah yes, state capitalism. My dear friends from the Left and Right, it’s been going on forever, by all of the world powers. Here’s the full article.

As they have been pointed out to me over the years, let me offer up four (of countless) modern examples of what is rarely described as the State capitalism it is:

1) the pentagon’s tax-subsidized trillionaire child known as the computer industry.
2) the torturous stench of tax-payer subsidized factory-farm agribusiness.
3) tax-payer financed invasions and ruinations of countless countries, enriching and protecting private oil companies.
4) the bailout of the usurious banking institution.

And in case you think that Paulson was tough on banks, with the deal he made with them for the bailout terms—ha ha ad nauseum—think again. Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Naomi Klein:

Klein: …the spin is that Paulson was really tough with the banks and forced them to sign against their will; I mean the terms of the deal are incredibly favorable to the banks; they didn’t have to negotiate, because they couldn’t have negotiated a better deal for themselves. They get the money but the government is taking no power, there’s no voting right, so they’ve just been handed free money in the midst of an economic crisis; a lot of these banks, if they are not bailed out, they’re going down. So this spin that Henry Paulson is so tough with the banks is absurd; he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to them, and he’s one of them.

Kall: Now Ben Bernake studied the Depression and during the Depression, they did something like this but the government did have control, isn’t that right?

Klein: Exactly; and even if we just compare what Paulson did to what Paul Brown did, just on the straight level of what taxpayers are going to get paid back Gordon Brown and British taxpayers are getting 12% and American taxpayers are getting 5%.

Interesting, that 5% number. Barack Obama—the saviour of the American people!—said on his 30 minute infomercial tonight that he will make sure, as President, that the American tax-payer is paid back first. Hmm. Paid back 5% is sort of different than being paid back. But what do I know? I sure haven’t read the fine print. I just can’t believe people think this man, a man also backed by the banks etc., can change anything to any significant degree. Well, perhaps he could make life a little easier on some poorer folks than others would, and that would be better than worse—statistics, evidently, show that historically Democrat Presidencies do this slightly more than Republican Presidencies.

The full, long interview is here.

And although politicians are almost by definition special-interest addicts, as a rule (self-interest through the interests of Big Business), and corporations are their own self-interest addicts to the exclusion of even things like human rights, it seems that Congressman Dennis Kucinich—who was against the bailout—is at least trying to reign in the salivating slurping from inside the walls of this economic coup.

Heck, it almost sounds like Animal Farm, yet we’re supposed to be dignified, civilized humans.

An excerpt…

Congressman Kucinich, an opponent to the bailout, has been a leader in calling for stringent oversight on money spent through the bailout program. He asked for the leadership of the Full Committee to ensure that the resources necessary to investigate are available. The Subcommittee will remain a key part of the investigation…

Today he released a letter sent to Congressman Henry Waxman, Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asking that the Full Committee move quickly to investigate how bailout funds are being spent by the financial service companies participating in Treasury’s capital purchase program.

“It would be an affront to taxpayers and shareholders alike if Wall Street executives cashed in on the bailout. We must prevent the diverted directly or indirectly of bailout funds to bonuses and exorbitant compensation packages,” he said.

Can you imagine how much water Kucinich must use just to wash the stench of politics and greed off himself everyday he returns home from work? An environmental disaster. The full article is here.

Anyway, I can’t digest any more of this news for today. Hope these are useful pieces to help not be too fooled by the rhetoric.

Lots of love and non-greediness,

Pete

Posted in posted | No Comments »

EINSTEIN and the IMPENETRABLE (yet COMPELLING) MYSTERY of BEING

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

In alignment with this blog about the plasticity (so-called) nature of the remarkable human brain, and questioning the nature of mystical experiences, I just love this quote (of many) from the inimitable Albert Einstein. At the same time, I think it’s wonderful that he could never really accept the “spooky” nature of quantum mechanics, sure it had to be incorrect (and maybe it will be!).

Albert Einstein, and he is not alone in this thought:

The most beautiful and most profound experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.

To know that “what is impenetrable to us really exists”…Aaah. That’s a sweet thought. And, alas, we too are that mystery.

Pete xoxo

Posted in posted | No Comments »

SURFING THE INNERNET FOR THE RICHER WEB OF LIFE

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Watching my insatiable senses, it occurred to me that the only sustainable way to counteract the relentless compulsion to consume external things would be by increasing the awareness of and desire for internal things. What this looks like will likely depend upon one’s individual propensity, but requires at least the simple questions: What am I? Why do I do what I do? and Why was I so unaware of bad fashion sense in the 1980s?

In truth, reality paradoxically yet unequivocally tells us that reality is not what it appears to be—our mind as a conduit makes it so. Thus, our minds create the world as we see it. So, one could ask, who then sees the true substratum of this human reality, as it really is, and does the one or many who see things as they really are—whatever that is—have a phone number?

Who is the original seer? I don’t know, but I want her as a friend, boss, lover, parent, child and favourite music group.

A poem, to my beloved sisters and brothers:

I will not be afraid of pain
I will not be afraid of death
Creature comforts also bring
A stultifying hold on breath
The time is coming, time has come
And time already came
I will stand in love and gratitude
And face them all the same

Much love and remembering,

Pete xoxo

Posted in Creativity, Human Nature, Poetry, Spirituality, posted | 2 Comments »

The Plasticity of the Brain—and the adoption of different worldviews (or their adoption of you)

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

All things by immortal power,
Near and Far
Hiddenly
To each other linked are,
That thou canst not stir a flower
Without troubling of a star.
—Francis Thompson

I’ve been reading a book called The Spiritual Brain, which interests me a great deal despite its lack of relation to Eastern spirituality/philosophy. The Spiritual Brain’s thesis is the difference between the brain and the mind, which neuroscientists as a rule consider the same entity. In Vedanta, loosely, divisions begin with the body/matter (prakriti), life force (prana), mind (manas), above mind (buddhi), and spirit/soul (atma) and Big Spirit! (paramatma). Atma and paramatma are considered transcendental.

Neuroscientist author Mario Beauregard admits he is mostly utilising Western spiritual descriptions/nomenclature while studying the brain patterns of Carmelite nuns during what is called unio mystica, self-described union with God. The results and description of said experiences are interesting to me—and immensely desirable!—and seem to resemble some of the ideas of the bhakti paths described in India.

Anyway, on pg 33, Beauregard and his co-writer Denyse O’Leary write:

For many years, neuroscientists believed that the adult human brain was essentially finished. It did not and could not change, any more than a billiard ball could…

In recent years, however, neuroscientists have discovered that the adult brain is actually very plastic [which I believe is recyclable plastic]…if neural circuits receive a great deal of traffic, they will grow.

According to Beauregard, brain activity of the Carmelite nuns during meditation and unio mystica gave results suggesting that (pg 275-276):

…mystical experiences are mediated by several brain regions and systems….

Second, when the nuns were recalling autobiographical memories, the brain activity was different than that of a mystical state. So we know for certain the mystical state is something other than an emotional state…

Do our findings prove that mystics contact a power outside themselves? No, because there is no way to prove or disprove that from one side only…What we can do, however, is determine the patterns that are consistent with certain types of experiences. Thus we can rule out some explanations [that "mystical experiences"—RSMEs—are simply a result of certain genes, a "God spot" in the temporal lobes, or neural disorders, or that they can be created through the use of certain technologies]…

To the extent that spiritual experiences are experiences in which we contact the reality of our universe [assuming, I think], we should expect them to be complex. We can certainly say that [brain] patterns of serious mystics definitely are [complex].

[These experiences are "mediated by several brain regions and systems...significant loci of activation in the right medial orbitofrontal cortex, right middle temporal cortex, right inferior and superior parietal lobules, right caudate, left medial preforontal cortex, left anterior cingulated cortex, left inferior parietal lobule, left insula, left caudate, and left brain stem. Other loci of activation were seen in the extra-striate visual cortex].”

Whether their conclusions are correct or suspect, I’m enjoying the bits of the book I’ve read, and I am perpetually awed by how much, and how little, scientists know and even can know. Unfortunately, most scientists will alway believe knowledge and understanding comes through dissection, vivisection, digging, blasting and external observation—I believe it was Francis “Eggzon” Bacon who spoke of raping nature until she releases her answers. Most true mystics (a bastardized word to be sure), on the other hand (and scientists with an inner mystic), will believe real understanding and knowledge comes through intimacy, surrender, listening, gratitude, humility, devotion, awe and internal observation.

Beauregard has an affection and wonder for his thesis—and it shows. Folks like the brilliant Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker and, say, Steven Weinberg have (in my opinion) only disdain for said thesis—thus understanding of the subject, again in my opinion, can never come to them, despite their great and vastly informed brains.

Their pointing out of the obvious problems with fundamentalist religiosity notwithstanding, this disdain is a great loss for science and humanity.

Further, (in my opinion!) because of this disdain, and an inability to hold, say, the “spooky reality (to paraphrase Einstein)” of quantum mechanics in their world view simultaneously with their self-assured classical/so-called pure materialism analysis of the world (ironically, meditation would help them do this), these great thinkers even fifty years from now will be only footnotes in scientific history, despite their impressive “advanced-Newtonian” contributions.

May you and I, and all sentient beings, be happy, loved, and loving.

For what it’s worth, and in a different direction of brain plasticity, here’s an excerpt from an article in Time magazine about the effects of the Internet on the brain. I am reminded of a most essential yogic rule that says, We become like that with which we associate (or meditate upon)—so be aware, and seek out beautiful beings for company, lovers, friends and road trips.

An excerpt:

Internet use enhances the brain’s capacity to be stimulated, and that Internet reading activates more brain regions than printed words. The research adds to previous studies that have shown that the tech-savvy among us possess greater working memory (meaning they can store and retrieve more bits of information in the short term), are more adept at perceptual learning (that is, adjusting their perception of the world in response to changing information), and have better motor skills.

Small says these differences are likely to be even more profound across generations, because younger people are exposed to more technology from an earlier age than older people. He refers to this as the brain gap. On one side, what he calls digital natives—those who have never known a world without e-mail and text messaging—use their superior cognitive abilities to make snap decisions and juggle multiple sources of sensory input. On the other side, digital immigrants—those who witnessed the advent of modern technology long after their brains had been hardwired—are better at reading facial expressions than they are at navigating cyberspace. “The typical immigrant’s brain was trained in completely different ways of socializing and learning, taking things step-by-step and addressing one task at a time,” he says. “Immigrants learn more methodically and tend to execute tasks more precisely.”

But whether natural selection will favor one skill set over the other remains to be seen. For starters, there’s no reason to believe the two behaviors are mutually exclusive.

True enough, but don’t fall in love with your hard drive, ipod or laptop—oops, too late. And, on the other hand, be careful booting up your lover. They need conversation, cuddles, and compliments. And all those other gooey, caramely sort of things.

The full article is here.

Love and love—and here’s to seeing and then seeing beyond our self-imposed conditioning and the box those conditions create,

Pete xoxo

Posted in Creativity, Human Nature, Spirituality, posted | No Comments »

A TRUTH, A DREAM, A MYSTERY

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Well, it’s been awhile, but a few poems have been flowing out lately, so here’s one. Hope you can answer all the deepest questions, with footnotes and references. Hey, don’t forget how beautiful you are, okay?

A TRUTH, A DREAM, A MYSTERY

Life always tries to stay together
While pulling apart forever and ever
Life is also individuated
Yet all the while interrelated
Take for instance air and breath
No sky for lungs is instant death
What is this push that drives formation
While also pushing disintegration?
Why individuals at all
Inside this endless, cosmic mall?
And who’s the me who’s asking this
Observing forms and seeking bliss?
Forms who feel and long for pleasure
Avoiding pain in equal measure
Yet pleasure somehow leads to pain
And pain to pleasure and back again
Often the two we do confuse
And thus, in ignorance, abuse
Take when I write, I’m quite content
Yet soon enough my body’s bent
It hurts to stretch away the pain
By definition life’s insane
A mix of subtle and oh so dense
combined and needing maintenance
The world is entropy, surmised
For so much is so well organized
Thus seeking balance plays a role
Could that place be a taste of soul?
A still point ever still yet playing
Not attached to form’s decaying
Ah, there I go, grand speculation
To settle down form’s trepidation
at being a form while rearranging
For all these forms are always changing
And so it goes eternally
So little can these two eyes see
Yet here we are, we have arose
Why individuals? God only knows!
And through it all I feel like me
A truth, a dream, a mystery

Posted in Creativity, Human Nature, Poetry, Spirituality, posted | No Comments »

RAW DEAL with RAW MILK: Big Business and Big Justice—what a surprise!

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

If you see a situation in a self-described democratic society where people want to drink raw milk (which has been drunk for millenia and is still drunk in, say, that wild undeveloped outpost called France), under seemingly safe and organic standards, and people are not allowed to drink said milk, look around for excessive corporate/government involvement.

Oh yes, hidden behind the auspices of safety and justice, you will find it. And it seems to me, almost always, the judge will back the Big Guys.

An excerpt from a news article:

Selling unpasteurized milk is illegal in Canada and a judge had found that Schmidt circumvented the laws by selling “shares” in his dairy cows to consumers.

In finding him guilty of contempt, the judge called Schmidt’s actions “not only illegal, but completely self-defeating.” Justice Cary Boswell added that Schmidt has every right to try to make the sale of raw milk legal, but he must do so in a manner that’s within the law.

What a joke. Can you imagine this fella and a few raw milk cohorts trying to go up against the Dairy Board, Big Business, Big Justice etc? And Martin Luther King should have done the same? Just abandoned the protests of “illegal” sit-ins in segregated cafeterias and so on? He should have just appealed to the legal institution?

The judge also said Monday’s ruling had nothing to do with the sale of milk, but instead focused on whether or not Schmidt knew he was defying a court order by continuing the raw milk sales.

Schmidt and his devoted consumers claim raw milk tastes better and say they have never suffered adverse health effects from drinking it.

Health officials say raw milk can carry bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes, which carry serious, and sometimes deadly, health consequences.

Schmidt has operated his co-operative organic dairy farm near Owen Sound, Ont., for more than 20 years.

I’m not even going to check, but what’s the chance that the Dairy Board or whatever it’s called is against Michael Schmidt’s selling raw milk to people who want it? That same Canadian Dairy Board that I believe fought against calcium being put into soy milk because it increased competition?

Protectionism? Subsidies to Agribusiness and the Dairy Industry? Ah, yeah.

From Agricultural Regulations and Trade Barriers, by Chris Edwards:

The federal government has subsidized and regulated the dairy industry since the 1930s. Federal marketing orders for milk were begun in 1937. A dairy price support program was added in 1949, and an income support program was added in 2002. In recent years, dairy subsidies have cost taxpayers anywhere from zero to $2.5 billion annually depending on market conditions. More important, dairy programs stifle dairy industry innovation [like, say, how to monitor the production of organic raw milk from well-treated cows?] and substantially raise milk prices for consumers.

What a farce this “free trade” is.

Okay, I couldn’t control myself and looked up the Dairy Board’s involvement. Five seconds later, an excerpt from this article called, succinctly: Got raw milk? Don’t share, Ontario dairy board warns farmer:

Jacqueline Fennell, who runs Conavista Farm near Spencerville, Ont., about 55 kilometres south of Ottawa, said she received an order Friday from the Dairy Farmers of Ontario, highlighting the sections of the Ontario Milk Act that she would allegedly violate by providing unpasteurized milk…

But Bill Mitchell, a spokesman for the Dairy Farmers of Ontario, said her shareholder scheme flouts a law designed to protect food safety, and which bans not just the sale of raw milk, but also its distribution and delivery.

“Cow rental or share ownership scams don’t make raw milk consumption legal in Ontario,” he said. “As soon as milk moves off the premises, it has to be within the auspices of the Milk Act.”

He added that even farmers cannot take raw milk off their properties because it is considered unsafe.

“It is the health issue that’s our primary motivation here.”

It’s sad but, given the sickness of factory farms, I have trouble believing health to be their primary motivation.

I’m not saying there aren’t potential health hazards—which evidently there are, which history (and bad conditions) have shown. I’m saying this is a country that allows, for some clear reasons, cigarettes to kill millions of people (big corporations/heavily taxed); terrible, animal-tortured fast-food/processed food blathered in corn syrups and on and on (massive corporations) to damage and kill millions (Type II diabetes, etc, etc, whose incidence is vastly reduced by changing one’s lifestyle to crazy things like exercise and real food); and alcohol (massive corporations/heavily taxed) kills millions, damages countless lives, is involved in so much vehicular homicide and family violence—and just think of the unintended pregnancies!

Put another way, a person can’t drink monitored, organic raw milk from well-treated animals, but can drink pasteurized milk from brutalized cows. A person can’t eat monitored, organic raw milk from well-treated cows, but Big Gulps the size of my thigh, literally sugar water, are fine for kids—for breakfast, in fact (my sister sees this relatively often in her 7th Grade classroom).

Archive for October, 2008

RICHARD DAWKINS on the queerness, as it were, of the Universe

Of Shock Doctrines and Bailouts: Have You Seen The Little Piggies?

EINSTEIN and the IMPENETRABLE (yet COMPELLING) MYSTERY of BEING

SURFING THE INNERNET FOR THE RICHER WEB OF LIFE

The Plasticity of the Brain—and the adoption of different worldviews (or their adoption of you)

A TRUTH, A DREAM, A MYSTERY

Pages

Archives

Categories

Links