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30 Dec 2003 @ 18:55, by inanna. Spirituality
Happiness for us humans is fleeting at best. Consumed by our desire forpersonal love, success, and material wealth, we chase any and everythingOUTSIDE of us with unrelenting fervor in the face of unendingdisappointment, betrayal, and bitterness. More >
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 30 Dec 2003 @ 17:07, by ming. Sexuality
From George Dafermos' weblog:"This is a blog unlike others. some pretty nice girls pose without their clothes driving us mad. great business model too: there are a few pics available online but they're just teasers; if you wanna see the real thing, the actual hardcore stuff, you have to buy a subscription. and it seems this revenue stream keeps them afloat as they are on my radar for quite some time now. chat rooms, member pages, and the occassional event are also part of the seduction game.
I'm not sure whether i did well blogging this since i'm already involved in a project related to Suicide Girls, but what the hell...No, i'm not doing any porn sites; in our case the use of nude pics is put to the service of expanding contemporary perceptions of culture and society..basically, how the human body with all its scars, tattooos, piercing, etc. is perceived by different cults, communities and how the outer skin affects human relationships and popular culture." OK, I just needed an excuse for posting the picture of the cute colorful girls. But I'm all for expanding the contemporary perceptions of culture and society. And, yes, there actually are porn sites with integrity, done by people who enjoy what they're doing, and that actually provide an honest service to people who go there, as well as contributing something to the richness of our culture. Although I wouldn't have guessed that from the contents of my junkmail folder. More >
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29 Dec 2003 @ 03:01, by gabacho. Spirituality
All that exists is the Now
The Past and the Future
Are just Images flashing
Through the Mind
Everything is flowing
The Wind, the Seas, the
Mountains and the Stars
The only Thing that stands
Still is Consciousness
Silently viewing the Flow
Whether we choose Fear
Or Love is up to Each
What you say, goes
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 28 Dec 2003 @ 19:55, by ming. Technology
I spent the evening making my own news aggregator, and remarkably I succeeded to my satisfaction.
For any non-techies, a news aggregator is a program that sucks up data in RSS format, served by weblogs of various kinds, and presents it all in a uniform way.
I've tried a bunch of different aggregators. What I liked best was Radio Userland, because it shows the feeds together, looking like a weblog, and it seemed to be able to mainly show me a flowing stream of new stuff. Which I liked, but I'd kind of like more options. But when my paid license expired, I hesitated to renew it, because I wasn't really using it for its weblog or other functions. So I tried a variety of other programs.
FeedReader on Windows, which was nice. Except for that I don't like having to watch postings one at a time. I like the big overview. On Mac I then used Shrook for quite a while. It still had that 3-pane thing, and crashed every couple of hours, so it ended up not running most of the time. I tried installing NewsMonster, after its website made me feel kind of stupid, as it is so superior that it apparently can do everything, including a bunch of things I don't know what are. Except for that it couldn't find Java on my computer, and messed up some of the menus in Mozilla that it was supposed to integrate with. I installed Pears which runs in Python. Worked, but was a bit too simple. I installed AmphetaDesk, which required installing a whole bunch of Perl libraries first. And, now, I like the look of it. Quite a bit like Radio. But now there's again a bunch of things I'd want it to do that it doesn't do.
So, I woke up late and thought that if I could make my own aggregator, and I could finish it so it was functional today, I'd go for it. I really have other things to do, but it is Sunday and christmas, so nobody would be missing me too much.
Somewhat reluctantly I decided to look for a library that does the basic fetching of an RSS feed. My first thought was that I could just as well write that myself too, but that is the kind of arrogance that makes me often end up with projects full of features, but not quite finished, because I try to do it all myself. So I picked up the Magpie RSS library in PHP. Which seems simple enough, and I only needed some of its features.
Now, I decided to set it all up on my server, as opposed on my local machine, so I can make the functionality available for other users of my weblog program, and so the feeds can be cached amongst those users. And what I wanted was to store feeds and postings in mysql, so they can be kept indefinitely, and to be able to keep track of which ones have been read and stuff like that. So that is what I set up. A cron job picks up all channels every hour, and figures out what are new or updated postings. And then some PHP pages show which feeds one is subscribed to, which are available from the pool that is already on the server, and allows addition of new feeds. And one can see them either one at a time, or mixed together. And I borrowed somewhat the look from AmphetaDesk. But then I added the ability to keep track of which items in each feed a given user has read, and which ones they've at all seen. Then it can avoid showing what has been marked as read, and it can mark new postings with a little NEW icon. And I made it so the postings can be grouped by feed or by date. And they can be sorted in various ways. And I made a way of saving interesting postings to a separate place before they scroll away. And I added in the 50 or so feeds that I normally watch. And this already works better for me than any of the other aggregators I've used.
I'll tinker some more with it before I'll let anybody else use it. And there are a few more things I'd like to add. It should be able, of course, to pass a post on to my weblog program, if I want to quote it. I need some ways of searching through older postings. Some more options of viewing them. Like, headings only, short excerpts, with or without pictures, etc. Maybe a way of categorizing the saved postings. But this should do for today. More >
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28 Dec 2003 @ 04:20, by craiglang. Medicine, Healthcare
In the last couple of days, for many reasons, I have spent quite a bit of time re-studying the material in "The Power of Now" (PON, for short). Some events on NCN, including the recent dialog regarding "evil medical companies" (to quote a friend on this topic) has caused me a bit of spiritual grief. Grief often fosters growth, and these events have seemed to "invite" me to return to Tolle's lessons. What can we learn about human nature, human affairs, peace studies, etc...? How can we live in the Now, in the face of political, economic and moral strife?
I spent some time over Christmas and the days surrounding it, going back into PON. And in doing so, I recognized some interesting things about human nature. According to Tolle, we all want to feel better about the past. Too often we let the past and the future define us. We want to "expose the lies", "speak the truth", "fight for justice", "balance the scales", and numerous other initiatives in our relations with others. Usually, this involves "us and them", and we always want a future where "we" triumph over "them". For to fail would mean a scenario where we were in some way "defeated", "enslaved" or somehow have a negative change in our future status.
But, from PON, I discern that the "lies", "truth", "justice", etc. are all manifestations of our views of "our" relationships with "them". We create our own reality, so therefore, for those relationships to be real, they must be created by us. They are in fact, based upon our beliefs about events in the past and our anticipation of events in the future. Tolle reminds the reader that in reality, we live NOW, and unless we choose otherwise, these past/future threads need not bind us. In fact, for us, they need not even exist.
Tolle speaks of more - asking us to step back and observe our thoughts. He suggests that when we are told that we are wrong, or that we see things that annoy us, to witness the anger, to ask "what am I experiencing at this moment?" What he states is that we quickly discover that we are more than that anger, more than the need to correct this particular wrong, more than the ties to the past and future. Simply put, we ARE.
He suggests observing, then stepping back even further, to observe the observer. What is occurring? Tolle suggests that all thoughts and emotions are simply patterns - or as another author, Steven Wolinski puts it: simply "condensations in the zero-point mind-field".
Tolle suggests stepping back even further, observing the relationships between patterns, observers, and the space between them. For in that space between is the truth. In the void is where enlightenment can be found. In the gaps between thoughts is pure consciousness - the still, small voice of God.
Several PSI events I have been involved in - readings that I have recieved, and one or two perceptions that I have had myself, have involved percieving someone walking along an edge. On one side is smooth sailing, an uncomplicated table top, maybe a golden time of prosperity. On the other side is chaos and the abyss. And in between is a balancing act - as one travels along the edge, moving from past to future. That edge is the present moment, and it is a delicate balance: to be involved in the world, while not being fully identified with it. We are not the affairs of the world - they are of the past and future. In fact, as we move along the edge, we simply "ARE".
Another metaphhorical vision that kept coming to mind all of yesterday was of something detached or disconnected - like a branch separated from a tree, or a rock removed from a mountain. As part of the greater whole, the smaller thing is a functional part of that whole. It was part of the flow of energy, and the consciousness of that whole. Removed, it is simply an inert bit of "stuff".
I had earlier been considering backing off from some engagements, perhaps even including NCN. What I realized was that in a number of cases, while this might remove a little bit of pain, it also would remove a great source of joy and wisdom, because the flow of life contains both. In the flow of life - being in the now - we are like part of the river - experiencing the vitality of life. And it is something that each of us needs in order to fully experience life in the world.
With truth often comes pain - and then wisdom and light. And just for a moment we "get it" - as I realized, just a little bit, while spending time with Tolle's book. And then, as another sage (not sure who) said, we must return to chop wood and carry water. We once again look through the the glass darkly. Life goes on - one struggling breadcrumb at a time. More >
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 28 Dec 2003 @ 00:02, by nemue. Spirituality
Our world is struggling to renew and as a result many are facing tragedy on an immense scale. Safe journey, to those who are going home.
Journey Home
Seeker of truth
Seeker of light
Seeker of faith, come forth now
We are fractured
We are scarred
We seek nurturing and warmth
Our tasks have been painful
Our path has been arduous
Our spirit is fragile and we seek to go home
Seeker of truth
Seeker of light
Seeker of faith, come forth now and guide me home
Nemue December 2003 More >
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27 Dec 2003 @ 17:36, by inanna. Spirituality
Religion As A Control Mechanism:
The Kali Yuga, Ashoka, & Buddhism
Consider the entire history of every religion on this planet. We have had written history only for the past 6,000 years – a proverbial drop in the bucket of Time, even according to geologists.
Consider the arcane possibility that astral-alien entities have been controlling this planet for tens of1000s of years, and did in fact insert ‘religions’ for the purpose of controlling their human resource – us!
At the very least consider the idea that all religions emphasize obedience to an invisible god, the sacrifice of oneÂ’s own desires, and the delaying of personal fulfillment until after death in some promised heaven. More >
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 26 Dec 2003 @ 18:59, by magical_melody. Environment, Ecology
Photo taken of scene in Algeria. On the evening of the 21st of May in 2003, Algeria was stuck by its worst earthquake in 23 years. More than 2,000 people were killed and more than 9,000 injured. Many homes were destroyed in the initial quake and thousands more were damaged and made uninhabitable.
***********
--->>> Our Thursday (Christmas) evening in NZ (we are a day ahead) we were informed directly by Source within one of the most powerful channelings of my life, that a significant earth event was in process. Then a couple mornings later we were informed (our Saturday morning) there was a quake in Iran.
There have been a series of quakes - even one here on the North Island of NZ recently. There was the one in California just a few days ago, and now this one in Iran causing significant damage.
The earth is now moving into more of a profound process of release and these activities as we have been told, will be continuing throughout the world on a consistent basis now!! Please listen to your guidance daily so that you are attuned to where you need to be during these intense times of profound activity and change!!
Blessings to you, and to you a safe and abundant holiday season!
********************
Noteworthy Earthquakes of 2003: [link]
Earthquake Site - Listing of earthquakes around the world: [link] More >
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26 Dec 2003 @ 12:45, by sharie. Environment, Ecology
Toxic Factory = A Healthy Economy ... Really?
When the Equation is clearly crazy, the formula needs to be altered, the factors... re-considered.
A Toxic Factory CANNOT result in a Healthy Economy.
The consequence of a Toxic Factory is a toxic environment and a poisoned population.
A poisoned population means the people are unable to contribute to the well-being of one another... this... results in an unhealthy economy, an impoverished way of life.
An exception to this is when Industrialists and their chemists poison a community, leaving the people dependent on more chemists and their chemicals (pharmaceutical companies) in order to survive. In which case, pharmaceutical company executives, their chemists, sales executives, and the doctors will get rich while the poor poisoned people die.
(Just thought I'd mention it.)
Joy to the World.
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24 Dec 2003 @ 18:22, by mmmark. Spirituality
 More >
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