Category: interesting

Dear Authorities,
Have I got a deal for you? I promise to stop worrying about you if you promise to stop worrying about me.

Yes really.

I do.

Honest.

I know I’m writing very short paragraphs and banging the space bar a lot but this is a radical proposal and I want it to sink in.

The nub of it is that I’m going to accept responsibility for my own well-being. And if it all goes wrong, I promise I won’t come bleating. I’ll just take misfortune on the chin.

I know you may find that hard to believe but it will all be laid out in the contract in black and white.

Read the rest of Joe Bennet’s letter here.

From 37Days, she said, “Light goes on flying” with this superb illustration.

If profitable, war against evildoers.
If profitable, protect evildoers.

Here’s what a British newspaper says about this convenient Bush Doctrine:

How are the mighty fallen!

President George Bush, the crusader king who would draw the sword against the forces of Darkness and Evil, he who said there was only “them or us”, who would carry on, he claimed, an eternal conflict against “world terror” on our behalf; he turns out, well, to be a wimp.

A clutch of Turkish generals and a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign on behalf of Turkish Holocaust deniers have transformed the lion into a lamb.

No, not even a lamb – for this animal is, by its nature, a symbol of innocence – but into a household mouse, a little diminutive creature which, seen from afar, can even be confused with a rat. Am I going too far? I think not.

The “story so far” is familiar enough.

In 1915, the Ottoman Turkish authorities carried out the systematic genocide of one and a half million Christian Armenians.

There are photographs, diplomatic reports, original Ottoman documentation, the process of an entire post-First World War Ottoman trial, Winston Churchill and Lloyd George and a massive report by the British Foreign Office in 1915 and 1916 to prove that it is all true.

Even movie film is now emerging – real archive footage taken by Western military cameramen in the First World War – to show that the first Holocaust of the 20th century, perpetrated in front of German officers who would later perfect its methods in their extermination of six million Jews, was as real as its pitifully few Armenian survivors still claim.

But the Turks won’t let us say this.

They have blackmailed the Western powers – including our own British Government, and now even the US – to kowtow to their shameless denials.

Link to a war crimes analysis:

Armenian Genocide – 1915-1918 – 1,500,000 deaths.

No Allied power came to the aid of the Armenian Republic and it collapsed.

After the successful obliteration of the people of historic Armenia during the Armenian Genocide, the Turks demolished any remnants of Armenian cultural heritage including priceless masterpieces of ancient architecture, old libraries and archives. The Turks even leveled entire cities such as the once thriving Kharpert, Van and the ancient capital at Ani, to remove all traces of the three thousand year old civilization.

Adolf Hitler noted the half-hearted reaction of the world’s great powers to the plight of the Armenians giving orders to “kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks nowadays about the Armenians?”

It’s not said enough, where the money goes. We know very little about wealth, about the rich, about where our dollars sink. We investigate too little. We are blind about our prosperity.

We forget that even ideas and beliefs are funded.

I can’t find an update for 2007. But I bet you didn’t know the Bush administration spent at least $1.6 billion on public relations and advertising campaigns in just over 30 months.

I just found that I rank #1 for the term ‘optimusing‘ – musing with optimism. Somebody is hitting on the term over and over and I grew curious. I suppose it’s a new blog author! Wouldn’t it be nice to say, go ahead, no need to be reluctant, use the word if you want. Maybe I’ll repost. But I had fun remembering and optimusing.

There is a task for humanity methinks.

Humanity must have a great want of a superb future.

This is necessary. We fail too easily unless we are deeply invigorated by our path ahead. We must ask this of ourselves.

When I wrote these verses quite awhile ago, I was feeling the gift of hopefulness – an easy step for any child, but an an adult must preserve this ‘grand forwardness’, if this is a correct way to put it.

Where is the rich magnificence
That tender children sense
To drift our atmospheric thought
Over stony vision lost in social knot?

Where is the gifted deep intelligence
That leaps beyond the timid fence,
That piercing probe of quickest wit
Lance the gripping past, be done of it?

Where is the blanket of community
That o’er the womb of opportunity
Orphan’d deeds do sprout and climb
To strengthen hearts that brave through time?

Where are these coasts of future’s rhyme
That soothe the dusts that fall in time,
That pound remembrance to the heart,
To build our peace, our poise, in every part?

Sometimes I say to myself “Give me the wisdom to be a fool!” if foolishness is what’s needed for us to believe in ourselves and bring ourselves a world that excites and pleases us.

American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk – a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.

By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.

According to senior Nato officials the incident caused consternation in the U.S. Navy.

The Americans had no idea China’s fast-growing submarine fleet had reached such a level of sophistication, or that it posed such a threat.

One Nato figure said the effect was “as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik” – a reference to the Soviet Union’s first orbiting satellite in 1957 which marked the start of the space age.

The incident, which took place in the ocean between southern Japan and Taiwan, is a major embarrassment for the Pentagon. [story]

5-alpha-reductase type I is reduced nearly 50 percent in lonesome mice.

In lonely humans too?

The decrease of 5-alpha-reductase type I may impair the function of circuits leading to the amygdala and explain the anxiety and aggression that result from social isolation….

“Humans respond to similar stress in very similar ways.”

“I know how it is.”, Mark Morford begins, “You’ve had it up to here. There are only so many stories about blood and death and pain you can take….”

“Your nerves are raw and your heart is tired and the media will just not shut the hell up already….”

“It is outrage fatigue, and it is epidemic.

“It’s that feeling that we are being hammered unlike any time in recent history with so many appalling and disgusting and violently un-American incidents and scandals and manipulations that our b.s.-detectors are smoking like an old V-8 engine on a hot summer’s day and it’s all we can do to get up every day without screaming.

“What’s more, it’s not the mere quantity of moral insults, either. It’s the bizarre absurdity of the subject matter, the things we are being forced to consider, or reconsider, that seem to make it all so horrific.

Go ahead, click here, nourish your rant.

“Smart, informed outrage engages you and fires your heart, your mind. It is fuel.”

We are, we are molecules
We are, we are molecules

Violence can be predicted.

The New England Complex Systems Institute reveals that the distribution of ethnic groups can predict where violence will occur.

“This reflects a universal process that is also seen in chemical and biological systems.” [emphasis mine]

The research did not consider social and economic factors that trigger violence, but only distribution patterns [emphasis mine] where violence will be more likely.

Additional links at BPS blog

Lucky and I would stop several times a day while traveling, wherever I’d find an open field, a trail, a river bank. One of my favorites was an almond orchard of 1000s of trees where he saw his first jackrabbit.

In a millisecond pause of sincere surprise, he postured his springy body as if the ideal photograph and launched into a speed-bullet run with a type of happiness only the least self-conscious human could show.

He ran and ran as the rabbit leaped high and twirled almost right-angles, always 50 feet ahead. I don’t know how long. Maybe two or four minutes before Lucky powered down, not disgusted, but a bit forlorn.

I do not yell encouragements as a hunter would during training. He has no intention except to get close, to play, to display, to see what’s what. We enjoy birds and animals we find along the way or I reveal my disinterest.

In several orchards and fields since, he’ll gladly chase a rabbit with nearly the identical enthusiasm, but only for a few seconds, returning to nonchalant exploring and being wise. He grew wise after three or four rabbits, each chased a little less.

Sometimes dogs are lured into a chase. Over centuries, victims gain tricks and a few enjoy the chase. Limber squirrels will willingly tease a dog into a chase. A short twist upward to safety and a squirrel will scream in glee, settling into a self-satisfied taunt of squawks and clicks while it prepares to tease again. A band of gophers are a witty team of revelers in the way they can lure from hole to hole. It’s a grand sight.

A brown seal was more serious. Close to the surf, the seal would raise his head and show eager brown eyes until Lucky grew curious and threw himself over a few waves to meet his new friend. The seal would instantly disappear. Several minutes later as we walked along the beach, the seal appeared close to shore again. Lucky repeated his futile chase. Over a half mile, the seal returned again and again, each drawing Lucky further out to sea before he submerged. Finally, I realized that Lucky was being teased toward exhaustion and drowning, a smart but deadly feral game.

Short news article at Physorg about our readiness to deflect an asteroid.

And a truly alarming illustration.

We don’t have an electoral system to find a gem in the gravel. Candidates for office are polished. But there are outsiders that have qualified to run for President.

Cort, a psychiatrist, wants 100,000 more troops to destroy the 10,000 ammo dumps Saddam set up.

Gene is a Non-Communist Third Party Slave Freedom Alliance candidate.

Cap Fendig will represent the ‘little guy’ of America.

As President, Daniel will encourage all conservatives to run for office.

Bob says we should not be stifled due to disagreement.

Dr. Mark, another psychiatrist, wants affordability for the middle class.

Dave and Ken are running as a team, but Ken is “far more liberal”.

Still selling top ranked tweezers, Dal believes a new paradigm will restore America.

Frank wants to restore America too.

Robert just wants course correction for America.

Arthur says returning to the Founding Fathers will restore America.

Average Joe seeks to heal everyone in America.

Richard will negate special interest groups for the privileged.

Lanakila seeks a bloodless humanistic development of the spirit and of the soul.

John is white and has a heavy compassion for his own Race.

An updated listing of “the other candidates” is here.

Al Fin types a lot of words every day, quoting Wired or The Economist and others:

“Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are not just for the battlefield anymore.

“They are being used to watch public spaces like open air rock concerts, and other large assemblies that may turn rowdy.

“They are flying above the US-Mexico border, looking for smugglers of drugs and people.

“A small “dragonfly” UAV may be looking through your window right now, listening to your phone conversation or monitoring the emissions of your computer.

“Because–I hate to tell you this–UAV’s are small enough and cheap enough for most cities and mid-sized corporations to be able to afford them.”

Riders say they have no power and want to unionize.

Part of the reason transit agencies seem so monolithic and all-powerful is that they have all the knowledge: where the buses are; which routes work and which ones don’t, and why; which trains and buses are most in need of repair, and which routes they’re on. Riders by contrast, have almost none.

I cannot believe these are obstacles. Who owns our rights of way?

Civilians are more powerful than Militians.

While headlines scream conflict and war, too much because publishers pay for headlines of conflict and war, there are two journalists finding friendship and peace from the arid east of Europe and traveling west across old Russia. It must be a cheap ticket for their editor to authorize, but the important thing is they are finding what we know: There is more friendship and peace in the world than there is conflict and war.

They stopped in the oldest territory colonized by the Soviet and listened to the crooning of old love ballads as two hefty middle aged women are dancing with a Turk.

“It was a charming scene of the sort that is probably played out most nights across Russia’s provincial towns and cities…”

Where’s the poster? We can sell it to Kurds. And give the Turk a medal.

Sometimes there’s an education in one sentence.

Advertising will get more and more targeted until it disappears, because perfectly targeted advertising is just information.

Sometimes not.

I’m admittedly not a supporter of the Bush Administration. In an era where top notch statesmanship and credible leadership is required, I believe we are not served by people that are merely risen by their collection of sale-able axiom and crowd-pleasing belief. This is not an educated nor sophisticated crew!

And I cannot find a program since the 2000 campaign that has been successful, to wit another failure: Associated Press reports another failed spree of the Bush presidency:

Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of millions of dollars in federal grants.

Certainly, this is understated.

This failure is another wound driven by untested belief that children can be helped by a parade of simplistic morality sold by ambitious programs traded among the nation’s pulpits and favorite Washingtonians tipping funds.

We have given our nation to fools.

Ignacio Ramonet

While critics of the economic horrors of globalisation argue, a new and even more brutal form of capitalism is in action.

The new vultures are private equity companies, predatory investment funds with vast amounts of capital at their disposal and an enormous appetite for more.

Their names, among them the Carlyle Group, KKR, the Blackstone Group, Colony Capital, Apollo Management, Cerberus Partners, Starwood Capital, Texas Pacific Group, Wendel, Euraze, are still not widely known.

And while still a secret they are getting their hands on the global economy. Between 2002 and 2006 the capital raised by these funds from banks, insurance companies, pension funds and the assets of the super-rich rose from $135bn to $515bn.

Their financial power is phenomenal, more than $1,600bn, and they cannot be stopped.

via wood s lot

At the last battle, we’ll fuse desire for peace and will to war. The valor will join.

Bud Day, Prison, North Vietnam, 1967-1973.

They laid him on the floor to beat him with a fan belt. He started counting. When he reached 300 he stopped.

And survived.

Accumulating the hoodwinking of the George W. Bush administration has tired most of us. Smaller lies capture the news. Peddled children. Golden votes. Putin’s taunting. Obama’s mask, or is he presidential? … Any of Bush’s novel theory of the law of war or penetration of privacy or stomping our rights or bringing brutal breathing shadows Britney’s pubesce billboards…

Here’s a more important link. May we fill our lungs again.

An earlier poem:

Hate me for abridging ordinary loyalty with foolish impatience.

ordinary loyalty / foolish impatience

There have been Administrations.

Equity, the distillation of conflict.
Referendum, the secession of fear.

There have been Administrations.

Treaty, the victory of the militian.
Service, the summit of the State.

There have been Administrations.

Sustenance, the face of peace.
Freedom, the finance of calm.

see history / know tomorrow

I sent this Arnold Schwarzenegger video to a friend overseas about 15 years who replied, “Young Arnold. I’ve always admired his enthusiasm and dynamism.”

OK. Why argue with that methinks, Then I thought, “ Ahnold, yeh, ya gotta have entoosiasm. But a dynamo? Leonardo. Leonardo da Vinci should be popular. He can calibrate our dial. And we need to start at zero again.“

Comprez vous?

Charles Knight at altSearchEngines ponders the weight of information we consume and wonders how we establish our priorities. He’s made an important suggestion to help clear the air and filter unneeded tasks.

“To start your own conversation, just pose this question to another person or persons:

“What the world really needs is_______________”

and see where it goes…”

To follow up on the BBC story I posted below about the ‘Prince of Death’, an obit to the world’s #1 heroin dealer, Afghanistan’s 2007 record harvest of poppies is 93 per cent of the world’s opium, according to the UN Office On Drugs and Crime.

The Tyee reports, “A token amount of Afghanistan’s harvest is confiscated (no high level trafficker has yet been caught) and a fraction stays in the country to supply a relatively small but growing number of addicts. The rest feeds heroin habits around the world, destroying millions of lives and enriching others with drug money.”

Yes heroin destroys, but it’s not entirely true that Afghanistan’s opium paste is converted to heroin. It seems “by far the bulk of Afghani poppy sap has always been shipped to Pakistan where the primary products have been Codeine and its kin, and NOT Heroin.

Pakistan has long been the primary world supplier of medicinal Codeine, and among the major consumers have been Third World countries, who have depended upon Codeine as a cheap analgesic.”