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 21 Sep 2004 @ 00:42, by scotty. Environment, Ecology
It's SO WRONG !
As most of you know I live in the West Indies and as you've probably seen in the news several of the Islands have been hit particularly hard by the spate of recent hurricanes and tropical storms.
The poorest of the West Indian Islands is Haiti and the people there live mostly in shacks which can't withstand the onslaught of the cyclones. Reports are still coming in about the many deaths that the tropical storm Jean has caused - more than 250 dead with many people unacounted for!
Haiti isn't the only island that's been hit - in fact few of the island have escaped unhurt!
The Guadeloupians like many of the Islands here are going all out to try and send as much aid as they can - so what's wrong with that you might ask !
Well - we're just finding out that some of the aid that's being sent out to Grenadad is only reaching a selected part of the islands population !!
Only the people who belong to the Grenadians political party are recieving any aid - the rest of the population are going without food water clothing .... this is so WRONG !
Quite a lot of people here are so disgusted that they are begining to have second thoughts about contributing anything at all to the islands in need !
Once again 'solidarity' looks as though it's going to die because of nepotism and corruption !
I can't personally do anything about it - except to register here that I PROTEST ! IT IS WRONG ! More >
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 20 Sep 2004 @ 23:59, by ming. Systems Thinking
Strange, there's only two pages of matches right now in Google on the term "Evolutionary Triggers". I didn't think it was such a well-kept secret. Anyway, it is a term that appears in evolutionary biology, like here talking about the surprising explosion in complex lifeforms in the Cambrian era, a little more than 500 million years ago: The appearance of such a large range of body plans and life strategies at the base of the Cambrian in an apparently short space of geological time has intrigued palaeontologists for many years. There is still a great deal of speculation as to what caused or triggered the metazoan 'explosion', and why it happened when it did after 3 billion years of potential evolutionary time. It seems obvious that something must have changed or reached a critical level favorable for the building of large, complex bodies and the construction of hard skeletal material. The theories of what such evolutionary triggers may have been can be split into extrinsic or external environment factors, and intrinsic or internal biotic factors. So, something happens which maybe breaks a previous equilibrium, and suddenly it becomes advantageous for new things to develop. Of course something needs to be present in the first place which is capable of evolving. But then a trigger event or circumstance might inspire or influence it into suddenly evolving a whole lot.
I'm not sure if it is an idea that is necessarily popular with the kind of evolutionary biologists who believe that evolution is blind and random. But I don't really care. What I find most fascinating is the use of the meme in systems in general, including human systems.
I've noticed it time and again with people. If we're stuck in the same familiar routine, in the same familiar circumstances, in the same self-consistent worldview, we have a hard time changing. But if we're pulled out of those circumstances, or something drastically changes around us, or something goes over a threshold, change is suddenly much easier. And that is often what at first glance seems unpleasant circumstances that facilitate it. We get thrown out on deep water, or our world falls apart, and suddenly we might discover that we can change quickly, and sometimes for the much better. But we wouldn't have chosen it consciously from within our familiar old frame of reference. It takes a trigger. Sometimes that's somebody yelling at us. Sometimes it is a wise person who doesn't buy into our worldview who knows exactly where to put their finger. Sometimes it is something unexpectedly wonderful that happens that shakes us out of our skull.
Some systems thinking stuff from a page by Paul Herbig:Systems evolve when they reach a sufficient level of complexity, have flexible feedbacks between their components, are exposed to a sufficiently rich and constant energy flow, and when their normal functioning is disturbed. ( Laszlo 1985)
It is this factor of disturbance that is the evolutionary trigger for systems. If it is below the critical level, the systems normal feedback buffers it out and a return to stability with no evolutionary change occurring. If it surpasses the critical level, the feedback cycles are disrupted and the previous system vanishes and decomposes to more strongly bound components to another stable level. But just at that critical level, it is moved out of normal flow to another level. When that critical level is reached, a freedom of choice occurs, a bifurcation, and a new system diverges from the old. The evolutionary change I'd be most interested in would be some rapid positive changes in the collective consciousness of humankind. You know, the kind of changes that might make us suddenly realize we can live in peace and work together and have a great time at it. The kind of change that would henceforth make it impossible for a few misguided wackos to mess things up globally. Because the rest of us would actually be working together. Doing what is needed, what we're inspired to do, what is fun to do, and what works.
Could happen. Not terribly utopian either. Incremental change isn't going very well. The world, however off kilter it is, is trying hard to continue on the course it is on, and will tend to resist reasonable gradual attempts of changing it. There's just too much invested in the status quo, and so many reasons why it can't be any different. What is needed is a whack that is hard enough that it knocks us into a different space, where we actually notice we have the freedom to choose something different. Hopefully it can be a whack that isn't too devastating. It could very well be something obviously wonderful. No reason it shouldn't be. But it has to be a trigger that tips a lot of scales, and makes it impossible to remain the same. More >
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20 Sep 2004 @ 18:24, by craiglang. Shared Purpose
As I sit at a computer workstation in the lab at my day job, waiting for another experiment to complete, my mind begins to wonder. I ask myself what is it that I question about the daily routine? I notice that I enjoy what I do from day to day.. But as I'm sure many have observed, what is missing from the corporate-American job is the long term psychic fulfillment that comes from serving the higher calling. More >
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20 Sep 2004 @ 01:39, by othomas. Social System Design
This is an attempt to re-frame the opposition to alien immigrantion. More >
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20 Sep 2004 @ 01:14, by raypows. Music
I've recently uploaded some new music I've been working on.
It's on the Broadjam site at This Address. There's three songs underneath my pic but click on more... and guess what, there's more. My favorites are It's A Matter of Space, Oudles of Noodles and Gong Along The Watch Tower. Let me know what you think.
There are some new styles emerging from me that I'm really enjoying vocally. Yesterday I had the chance to sing on a CD of Hebrew Kirtans, call and response. Susan Diekman is the artist and she brought together some great musicians on tabla, bansuri, oud, bass, dumbek etc. I was part of the response choir but also had several solos throughout the recording. More >
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19 Sep 2004 @ 22:33, by wambatron. Communities
The Rainbow Way-station is deep in the Hawaiian rainforest. It is a combination Eco-campground and stewardship community. [link] The intent is to maintain a small core group, having space left over for visitors and travelers. We are the support division of the Human / Nature Foundation. More >
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 19 Sep 2004 @ 20:34, by quinty. Violence, War
We recently had a beautiful day here in Providence, Rhode Island, and Ellen and I thought it would be nice to take the ferry out to Newport. The sky was blue and clear and as we waited for the ferry to start we saw a large brown military helicopter circling above the nearby rooftops. As it slowly turned its repetitive circles it had that familiar determined aspect of seeking something or someone out below. But everything seemed peaceful and the only disturbance nearby was caused by some seagulls fighting over a fisherman’s scraps on the edge of the dock. More >
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19 Sep 2004 @ 19:39, by ov. Shared Purpose
Earth Dance was on Saturday Sept 18th and it was expected that more than a million people from 120 different cities, in 30 countries would simultaneosly join together in a spiral dance to pray for peace and unite the whole world through the universal platform of music and dance. Sounded like a good idea.
Here in Vancouver it rained hard the night before, and when I woke up it was overcast and the radio was saying that we could expect rain all day long. This made me think it would be a good day to hunker down inside with a good book and take a rest from the run around week I had just been through. But then when I went to the bookcase to get a book, I discovered the Sept edition of Shared Vision magazine which was a bit of a surprise since I had been looking for it the night before. I opened it up and there was a big advertisement for the Earth Dance and I changed my mind once again, got the rain gear on and walked down to Stanley Park.
It was a nice walk, and the rain wasn't that hard, and I held a positive attitude and kept thinking of the concept of composure. I had just finished reading how there was an experiment, world wide once again, to measure the universal energy and see if it was possible for collective intention to affect matter. This was organized by the Light Workers. So this was foremost on my mind as I walked down there along with good intent, and making my choice and visualizing the type of world that I wanted and the changes that I would have to make within myself to realize this. It brought back memories of the Equinox drumming event that was here in 2001 when there were 1500 drummers using conscious intention to create a second singularity, to counter the singularity of the 9/11, and to turn it from a black hole that sucked us all in, to a pair of chaotic attractors that would enable the change into the future. On that day we laid down a spiritual grid, opened the Mayan gate of the North, and had an incredibly great day in the process. So now it was the fourth equinox coming up and although it occurs at 9:30 AM on Sept 22nd the events here in Vancouver seem to be stretched over a week long period that straddle that date. As I walked down to the Earth Dance I thought this was the start of the equinox week.
Stanley Park is a very pretty place and the rain was making everything nice shades of green, and the air smelled fresh. I was getting close to the event location around about 3:00 and the closer I got the better I was feeling. Then there was a bit of break in the clouds and I was in sunshine even though it was still raining, it was a very nice effect. Joy is taking over now and I'm slipping into that goofy smile, tears running down my cheeks state. The hole in the clouds continued to grow and soon it was blue sky overhead so now it was sunny and without rain. There were clouds on the horizon for 360 degrees but the sun shone on us. The hip hop DJs were riffing off on how we had pushed back the clouds and stopped the rain and brought out the sun, and we all could see that it was indeed the case. I was so glad that I had come down afterall.
More people started to come down. Perhaps they planned to be there for the 4:00 start and not the earlier start, but there were more coming. I think that many changed their mind when they saw that there was blue sky over Stanely Park. Just before the 4:00 start we gathered in an open field just off to the side of where we were all dancing. I don't know how many people were there but we formed a circle about 80 metres in diameter and standing fairly close together so that we could hold hands and still have them raised high in the air, that would have been a few hundred. Plus there were a couple dozen drummers that weren't in the spiral dance circle. We all heard the connect signal on the PA and the peace prayer and it was good, there were smiles everywhere and we felt like we had made a connection to a greater good.
It was a good day. On the walk home I had renewed hope and knew that we were going to make it through this and the story of what we did here on Earth would be a best seller on planets throughout the universe. Publishing house Earth had a best seller on their hands. Hang on tight, it's gonna be a wild ride and we ain't seen nothing yet, but you know it will be the greatest story ever told.
Yup, I feel like Vancouver is where I am supposed to be and the grand plan is unfolding all according to plan. Love and joy to you all.
Ov
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A More >
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18 Sep 2004 @ 04:21, by skookum. Ideas, Creativity
Precarious Perch
My morning walk was a bit brief today. I had not put on the proper shoes; nonetheless, I walked into the courtyard behind my work. The stream was still foaming here and there and bubbling appropriately. I stepped along the path over the bridge and to the tall oaks lining the walkway. I stopped abruptly, struck by the sight before me. More >
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 16 Sep 2004 @ 05:15, by magical_melody. Communities
Big Light coming in today, as I have myself experienced such love opening. I am aware of the nurturing energy that is ever present. I have worked with wonderful people today and the love that came to support them in embracing more of their own Essence was beautiful and magical. So loved, supported, nurtured and happy, we are when we open to the love. I had the thought to share this experience of immense love opening. Then the urge passed and I moved onto other lovely happenings. Well then I opened this email and behold the message of Light was right there wishing to be shared. Yes indeed! The work and play that is ready to be more expressed through each of us is being opened and supported more strongly now. May we rise from the ashes of our human limitations and pain, and be as the Phoenix rising! More >
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