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11 Aug 2008 @ 10:51, by erlefrayne. Economics, Financing, Banking
A bridge has fallen, the Mississipi river flooded Orleans like some pathetic third world city, airports are too cramped up as they are incapable of containing the surge in passenger & cargo levels, the East Coast experienced the emergency shut down due to grid overload (causing massive blackout), railway tracks are thinning out and overall capacity is on downward trend, and more.
They seem to be unrelated, but for economists and sociologists the trends all tell the same story. Pieced up together, they indicate crumbling infrastructures. Not because the structural engineers of America are sloppy, and definitely not that the heavy equipment sector couldn’t provide quality machines to reinforce the burgeoning infrastructure need of the juggernaut US economy. More >
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 10 Aug 2008 @ 18:52, by skookum. Visual Arts, Graphics
What greatness inspires great art!!!
check this site out
[link] More >
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6 Aug 2008 @ 07:40, by shreepal. Social System Design
Summary of what the author has said so far in these pages and going ahead in quest of a new civilization:
1. The subject matter of articles posted on these pages is not haphazard in its organization but follows a certain logical sequence.
2. We had commenced by promising to talk about human beings, their society and their evolutionary course.
3. We have dealt with these subjects in the following sequence.
4. Our curiosity to know is the engine of our progress and evolution. The conclusion is that we should advance the cause of this curiosity by liberating our search from all corrupting influences.
5. The frontiers of modern science bring us to a point where we are able to see the vast span of yet-undiscovered things of bizarre nature. The scientific theories of relativity and probability offer inkling into this bizarre nature of things in nature.
6. The scientific mechanism of hypothesis, experiment, theory and law for understanding the truth of things is not sensitive enough for knowing the truth of those things (phenomena) that are not amenable to the scientific process of ‘controlled and repetitive experiments.’ There is a leaking hole in the ‘scientific mechanism’ in the form of ‘the effect of the remainder of the universe.’ The conclusion is that we should not be arrogant in pronouncing our judgments about things. Things are still mysterious and we should respect this mystery of nature.
7. The greatest mystery of all mysteries of nature is life. While studying life the fundamental question is not how it works but why it works. Life has a wonderful mechanism to function. But still more wonderful is the fact that it has a direction to go ahead, to grow from simple to complex and to evolve from lower to higher.
8. The highest evolved form of life on earth is the ‘intelligent Mind’ of humans. It reasons and the reason is equivalent of inter-relations of things present out there in nature, which relations are always harmonious (if they do not look so to a person, he or she is of defective Mind, that is, insane or fool).
9. Mind is a trans-receiver of thoughts. Thoughts in the form of inter-relations of objective things already exist in nature. We may receive them or not receive them, they are always there. What has been thought and what could be thought, both already have their existence.
10. It is not this inter-relation of things alone that consumes the entire picture of nature. There are not thoughts alone that exist in nature. There are other things also having their existence. The creative energy, the urge to unfold, the desire calling for attention also has its own place and relevance in nature. The whole creation is the expression of a grand desire. Like in the earlier case, we humans are trans-receivers of desires. Desires have their own beauty but still it is lower than thought in its rhythm (only from humans’ point of view and not absolutely). Desires have a very wide spectrum, which includes all sorts of cravings, attachments, hate and revenge, urges etc.
11. The lowest rung of life is the gross body’s instinctive mechanism. It is the first sign of life, the life that has just emerged out of the dark matter. This lower rung of life is represented in trees, insects and animals but it is not exclusively confined to them. Human beings also carry almost all the elements of this lower rung in their evolved self; the difference is that in the case of humans these elements are subordinated to their desires and, during the period of last 10-15 thousand years, to their mind. We are concerned in these articles with human beings and their problems, and not with animals etc. and therefore things should be taken in that context only.
12. Human self is composed of the physical body, desires and mind and these are processing instruments of data. These instruments are all the time connected to their respective outside worlds of these things (the worlds of matter, of desires and of mind) and receiving and transmitting information from and to those worlds. How these elements of human-self are connected to their respective outside worlds? There is a bridging medium between these personal elements and outside worlds. There is a subtle physical body behind our gross physical body, which connects us to outside subtle physical world; and it is so with our body – or bundle – of desires and mind. The subtle physical-body, the subtle desire-body and the subtle-mental body of person do not die immediately with the physical death of that person. They get anchored out of this physical world and remain for their assigned periods in their respective subtle worlds (and therein lay the explanation of sometimes appearing these bodies as ghosts in our physical world). After their assigned period of life, these bodies too are disintegrated only to be absorbed and recycled once again.
13. We live a life composed of the interplaying of our physical body needs, our desires and our thoughts. This is all what we call our life. Ordinarily we do not go beyond these formations. But beyond these formations, there is an element of human-self, of which we are not aware. What is that element cannot be described by words of language but it can be known by experience, just like our awareness of our desires or thoughts or even our physical body. This element is a reality; it is not a mere mental imagination. It is as real as our physical body or desires or thoughts. Any effort to describe this element of our self – the sweetest, the most satisfying, and the most peaceful element of our self – has created through out the long human history the maximum confusion and the maximum antagonism among different sections of mankind. Do the ordinary people have any way of finding – or having at least a glimpse of – it? Yes, there is a way. It is something like what we call the voice of our heart. What is the voice of heart? It is a like a voice in the first place. In some people this voice is (depending upon one’s Para-psychological evolutionary stage) often a very strong one, which makes itself heard despite objection from their desires (because it contradicts the legitimacy of those desires) and their thoughts (because it goes against their logic). However, almost in all cases, this voice is suppressed by the mighty ding of our desires and our thoughts. Our desires and thoughts rule this voice out as harmful and illogical one. Thus, this voice of heart is distinctly separate from one’s desires and thoughts; it is not only separate from them but even contradicts them and prompts us to go and act against them. This voice is not respected by our civilization; it is not allowed to be cultivated by us. It is ridiculed as worthless, harmful and foolishness. But the reality is that this voice is unfailingly correct in its decisions; its advice is always in the best interest of the person concerned under the available circumstances. This voice is the Gateway to the world of secret of all secrets. We leave this subject at that.
14. Our desires and, like wise, our thoughts have real existence. What is their nature? What are their properties? These entities are not material; they are not electrical charge; they are not made up of gravitational force either. Then, of what nature are they? We have to wait for our science to catch-up with them; it will take time; we must have patience. There are many things we not know yet; this is the lesson, our science teaches us.
15. With this understanding of our self and our life, we proceed further. Our self is a complicated instrument, which has come into being on account of the forces of nature and evolved to this state. Nature is geared to move forward. All her movements seem to move towards a goal; towards the goal of more good, more perfect and always from the better to the best. It is what we call evolution.
16. This evolution of humans is not confined alone to the stream of thriving Homo sapiens on earth. This constancy of biological evolution carried from generation to generation is only one stream. The complicated self of humans follows a pattern of evolution, which is spread over countless births and deaths, on material places (like earth) and on places, which are not material from our reckoning. We must understand this evolutionary pattern and help ourselves to move forward on to the correct course, avoiding pit-falls, zigzag straying off this course or lagging behind lazily. This gives us bacon to chart our course and build our civilizations. This bacon is the pursuit of ‘truth’. Around ‘truth’ we have to craft our new civilization.
17. Now we understand that our physical body disintegrates with our death to be absorbed by nature for the second recycling. We understand that the bundle of our desires – our desire-body – like wise disintegrates with our death only to be recycled once again by nature; and, like wise, the bundle of our thoughts disintegrates with our death to be absorbed and recycled once more – in countless such happenings in the past – by nature. All these elements of our self – our instrument – are provided to us by nature in our ‘one’ life – in this present life – to help us to become aware of that one element, of which we have spoken about herein above and which we do not know yet. Why should we proceed to know it? Because it is the most satisfying, the most enjoying, the most… (All those things that humans love).
18. Therefore, a civilization that is given to pander our body demands, our desires or our dry thoughts is not suitable for enlightened mankind. Such civilization assaults the nature and mauls it (and, today, beyond repairs), foments competitive ill will and violence and, per force, brings to the fore the traits of human personality that degrade him. But this is only one reason of this civilization being third rate (today). And, this is not the chief reason for its being so. The chief reason is that it in pandering to clamor of humans’ body demands, desires and thoughts this civilization effectively pushes behind that sweet element. Therefore, we need to search for a better, a new civilization.
19. The current civilization is exclusively dedicated to this pandering of human needs and demands and there is an engine that powers this civilization. The powerhouse of this civilization is that section of humanity whose sole business of life is nothing but to make available the means – manufactured products – to satisfy those needs and demands of the balance part – a huge number – of humanity. This tiny section of humanity is smart and intelligent. These people sense and search every opportunity to pursue their business – the business of making products available and earn profits in the process. Their one point program is to make profit and nothing else. All their actions are guided this one point agenda. They need machines – machines that are the creation, the fruits, of collective human genius and labor - to produce products and therefore they get possession of those machines; they become owners of those means so that they may earn profits. They need human labor – the work of human being, the most precious thing ever created by nature – so that they may put those humans to work on ‘their’ machines and therefore they create (artificially because they are man-made in nature) conditions – economic compulsions – for those human beings so that they are left with no alternative but to flock to them to work on their machines. They call it ‘creating jobs and providing employment’. Creating jobs or providing employment is not their concern (it is necessary evil sought to be avoided) and therefore they reduce the ‘jobs and employment’ to the minimum possible. (Incidentally, with the advent of modern age of computerized automation of manufacturing process, this minimum possible is further reduced to a bare few who are technologically highly skilled and economically highly paid; therefore, an era of great unemployment of general public looms large in coming future).
20. The current civilization is patently unjust and third rate in meeting the problems of enlightened humans. Why should the humanity not go deeper into the Para-psychological make-up of humans and investigate the forming elements there? Why should the humanity not delineate those elements and put them into their respective places of comparative utility? Why should the majority of humanity allow the tiny minority of her species today to ‘own’ machines, to ‘hire’ humans to work on those machines and to make ‘profits’ out of this whole arrangement? This arrangement is nothing but a misuse of machine. Machine is a lever that minimizes the amount of labor that is needed in the struggle of Homo sapiens against the harsh nature. Why should the mankind not wean away the use of ‘machine’ from generating private profits of a tiny section of her part and instead dedicate this lever – the ‘machine’ - exclusively to lessen the common human toil in her war against nature? Humans have come of age now, not only in their science but in their enlightenment also. They must rise fearlessly and fabricate a better civilization. In this venture there is no ill will towards any body and good will towards all. All those among us – we humans – who ‘own’ this lever – the machine – are not bad people. And, not all among us who are compelled – consciously or unconsciously – by economic reasons to work for those who ‘own’ those machines are good. We all are in this earthly world like the migratory birds, knowing not our destination. We are in a ship – an earthly ship in cosmic ocean – sailing together. We have common interest and common destination.
21. But still a large part of humanity is deeply steeped in ignorance of all these considerations. Mankind can come out of this dismal situation, in comparatively lesser time (we say lesser time because mankind would certainly come out this situation later than sooner on her own account driven by the force of her forward movement, that is, her evolution), by making a combined efforts on three fronts: enlightening people by education; empowering them through technology; and enabling them to manage their own affairs in accordance with the majority wish (effective democracy). It is suggested that based on these three basic principles new civilization zones may be established. But this approach is only ‘wait and watch’, which needs to be supported by an active program. This is what we have covered so far in our articles.
22. We propose to proceed further and examine other aspects of the subject, which have not been considered so far. We propose to examine certain other efforts, which were made in the past to replace the current civilization with a new one, and point out their deficiencies in understanding human life and its evolution. After pointing out their defects, we propose to suggest a decisively effective and completely peaceful method of ending the current civilization and substituting it with a new one.
Further reading links:
Empowered people's democracy People's self-governance More >
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 5 Aug 2008 @ 23:38, by jerryvest. Spirituality
Awakening the Awe by Ron Lautenbach, Ph.D.
Below is a poem by Ron Lautenbach, Ph.D. who wrote about his experience while meeting with the soldiers at Ft. Bliss in our William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Warrior Restoration & Resilience Center. I have invited Ron to be a guest blogger for me this month and we are grateful for his presentation and his service to our soldiers from the Warrior Battalion.
Dr. Lautenbach is a remarkable human being and a world class mountain climber and adventurer. I have known Ron for the past two years during our visits to Munson Senior Center where he and I volunteered our services with the elders enrolled in the senior programs. My friend has been on the Discovery Channel and is on the Kodak Mountain Climbing Team that has successfully climbed numerous mountains throughout the world. As part of my responsibilities for our Center, I serve as Coordinator for our Health Education Program. We introduce a variety of presenters and resources every Friday morning as a means for keeping our Warriors informed about health, education and family issues. [link]
Thank you very much, Ron. I know the soldiers enjoyed and appreciated your thoughtful and respectful message related to "Creating Lifestyle Changes." We look forward to a return presentation soon and hopefully a mountain retreat with you in September.
Jerry Vest, ACSW/LISW
**************************
Awakening The Awe
I did not visit you to view values of your valiant, voguish voyages, venomous ventures of vital valor, nor the vitality of your pledges.
I did not try to teach or tempt your mind with technical talk and tempered thinking of theology’s or philosophy’s tiring theorems that are so stinking.
I came naked to an unbalanced truth with dreams and vicissitude to new goals of simple nonsense’s subtle humor and freedom’s discipline of self controls.
I encountered a warm invitation to share souls seeking real serenity - not yet found; but with a passionate hope manifested from serendipity.
I felt your vast agony and anger; and acknowledged it; but I ignored it since I sensed an awesome algorithm of wonder that inspires fresh spirits.
It was reverence for awe that grabbed me as I shared the awful with the awe-struck; and I was challenged to metamorphose reality into awesome good luck.
I felt my mind melting into my soul as my heart appealed to karma’s pleasure to experience your unique program of R & R with positive leisure.
Groriter © 2008 More >
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5 Aug 2008 @ 20:08, by vaxen. Politics
With all the hype and hyperbola surrounding the so called 'election' of the next Fed Res, Narco Profits, lackey (The US President) I thought it moot to introduce, yet again, a few salient points for those of you who don't swallow the swill of it all that you may further be emboldened to free yourself from the Oligarcho-Fascist State called America, by some, the United States Corporation, by others, and the Legislative Democracy of Washington D.C. by a few of us. Ultimately a charade and an instrument, used for bludgeoning all who resist, of the fiends calling themselves the 'global elite.' I have no hope that the 'people' per se will ever wake up to what is really going on but...maybe a few will and in time a few more till one day...who knows? In the meanwhile just walk away. Stop voting. Know your rights under commercial, international, law. I.e. "Know who YOU are!" Enjoy... More >
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 5 Aug 2008 @ 19:24, by jazzolog. Crime, Policing
Anything more than the truth would be too much.
---Robert Frost
River whispering over the stones,
Sunlight streaming through frozen pines.
In this still pool, in this falling light,
Zen conquers the dragon of delusion.
---Li Po
The merit of (the rooster's call) is in its freedom from all plaintiveness. The singer can easily move us to tears or laughter, but where is he who can excite in us a pure morning joy? When, in doleful dumps, breaking the awful stillness of our wooden sidewalk on a Sunday, or, perchance, a watcher in the house of mourning, I hear a cockerel crow far or near, I think to myself, "There is one of us well, at any rate"---and with a sudden rush return to my senses.
---Henry David Thoreau
This is Naomi Wolf, born in San Francisco in 1962. She was an undergraduate at Yale, then did graduate work at New College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. The Beauty Myth, her first book, was an international bestseller. She followed that with Fire With Fire: The New Female Power and How It Will Change The 21st Century, published by Random House in 1993, and Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood, published in 1997. Misconceptions, released in 2001, is a powerful and passionate critique of pregnancy and birth in America. In 2002, Harper Collins published a 10th anniversary commemorative edition of The Beauty Myth. She is the author, most recently of The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot and the forthcoming Give me Liberty: How to Become an American Revolutionary. Her essays have appeared in various publications including: The New Republic, Wall Street Journal, Glamour, Ms., Esquire, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. She also speaks widely to groups across the country. She's on the hit list of the usual suspects among the right wing.
I'm sure there is nothing new about women maintaining the conscience, as well as sometimes the home fires, of this nation. What is new and welcome to me, at least in the last quarter century, and particularly on the Internet, is the frequency and brilliant integrity of their verbal artistry. Is it my imagination or are female writers speaking truth to power, at least on the left, better than ever...and just where and when we need it? Thus was I stopped in my tracks this morning by a reference to an article Ms. Wolf published on Friday, in the Daily News Egypt. Where?
I had not heard of the paper, but I have neglected to become more expert in the journalism of the Middle East. First published in Cairo in 2005, The Daily (Star) News Egypt claims to be an independent, privately-owned publication, intent upon unbiased reporting. It's in English. Ms. Wolf's article is entitled "Dear World, Please Confront America," and I suspect we'll hear more about it during the remainder of the week. Naomi Wolf's endorsement of Barack Obama can be found at the website www.jews4barack.com . Let me tell you, even I was a bit shocked by the appearance of this piece. More >
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 4 Aug 2008 @ 18:17, by koravya. Music
*-_*-*-_*
Trillium
www.trilliummarimba.com
Cerrilos, New Mexico More >
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4 Aug 2008 @ 09:07, by johnjoseph. Philosophy
Why is Dialectic Important
In an article a while ago I contrasted the Taoist approach to solving problems with the Confucianist one. Taoism tries to grasp the essence of anything it analyses or any problem it is trying to solve. Confucianism, on the other hand, seems content with looking at and considering secondary, superficial, irrelevant and numerous inessential aspects of a subject or thing. Occasionally this leads to a solution, but usually this is arrived at only after years of piecemeal efforts by different people. The Taoist approach often yields a quick answer to the solitary enquirer.
The Confucianist way is analytical but reductionist, it splits things into a myriad of incoherent aspects that seem to lack a connecting thread. This is the method of traditional science. It is also very anxious to eradicate qualitative aspects of the matter in favour of purely quantitative ones. As part of this it gets rid of any analysis of the problem into complementary opposites or dialectical categories.
One can say that there is almost a phobia, as yet unnamed, which people have when dealing with qualitative and dialectical angles of the problem or idea. And I will tell you why. This fear, almost pathological, of qualities and opposites is very similar to the fear of intimacy which you find in a neurotic person, usually men. Because dialectical analysis, literally, is a way into the heart or Essence of a thing. And just as many people shun intimacy, likewise many people feel very uncomfortable with the essence of anything, preferring instead all sorts of distractions, secondary aspects and irrelevancies.
The analysis of anything in terms of its opposites and contradictions is a time-honoured method of getting to the heart or essence of it, and has been part of the Perennial Philosophy for thousands of years.
Some people think that the Taoist way of solving problems always involves an incredible “Eureka” moment, akin to a moment of mystical Enlightenment, which relies on the complete grasping in one stroke, of something’s essence. It does sometimes happen like that, but often it involves the hard work of thoroughly analysing and understanding the opposites and contradictions in the thing and their mutual connections.
More >
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2 Aug 2008 @ 17:38, by skookum. Ideas, Creativity
Are we really surprised how connected humanity really is? More >
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31 May 2008 @ 03:10, by athos. Philosophy
The essay is based on the philosophy of the I Ching and is in two parts:
The first regards the positive definition of economic value. It shows that in every considered period of time the price of the gross product’s represents the whole time of labor of the system, independently from the function of commodities - i.e. the distinction between means of production and consumer goods - and independently from how they are distributed - i.e. how prices can vary accordingly.
The second part shows how the idea of value as incorporated labor, with the consequent concept of the transfer of means of production’s value into the produced commodities - implying a coincidence between the totality of labor of the system whit the only net product’s value instead of the gross product’s - conceals the relationship between prices and quantities of labor, and the real, or absolute value of the various currencies remains unknown. More >
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