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 26 Jul 2006 @ 16:17, by jhs. Personal Development
When tracking back goals (versus the super-goals) in Skywork (groups sessions) and individual research, we find consistently the same supergoal at the end of the chains: sharing joy.
More than coincidentially, this super-goal is also the LAST stage of emotional contemplation of the famous sequence of Gotamo Buddho which goes as follos:
- sharing friendship
- sharing (emotional) distress
- sharing joy
- equanimity, void of sensations of any kind
(the last four stages (or states of superconsciousness are equally beyond human emotions).
It should come as no surprise that this ultimate super-goal, when inverted, becomes the most aberrative and destructive of all human emotions: jealousy.
Quite fittingly, the Torah/Old Testament describes the jealousy of Kain versus Abel as the first story after the expulsion from Eden... More >
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26 Jul 2006 @ 14:21, by shreepal. Philosophy
A well- known revolutionary philosopher of nineteenth century (Karl Marx) claimed to have found the underlying principles of revolutionary change having universal application. He, however, admitted that he borrowed these principles from an earlier philosopher (G.W.F. Hegel) who had propounded them under a term "dialectics". Dialectics of Hegel was a process that consisted of three parts: Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis. Thesis is the starting point and can be considered to take place at any point and every point in every thing or object under study in the whole process. By virtue of its very nature Thesis always contains a contradictory element, that is, its antithesis. The existence of Antithesis along with Thesis is the very condition of the existence of Thesis. The conflict and contradiction between Thesis and Antithesis bring changes and give birth to conditions and things that are incompatible with Thesis and can not be reconciled within its legitimate confines. Over a period of time these irreconcilable contradictions go on accumulating and at a certain point of time a drastic change takes place resulting into a new harmonious Synthesis that reconciles the contradiction of Thesis and Antithesis.
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Hegel in his understanding of universality of Existence, to the extent it is possible to understand it by Mind, is very close to Divine Lord, Supreme Master Sachchiddananda. He puts his understanding of the matter in his Philosophy of Law and Right, # 21 in these words:
The truth, however, of this formal universality which is by itself indeterminate and receives its determination from each material to which it is applied consists in a universality which determines itself, which is the will, is freedom. Since this will has the universality, has it itself as the infinite form, as its content, its object and its end, it is not only the will which is free in itself, but also the will which is free for itself- the true Idea.
Idea- that we may refer to as Divine Lord, operating through history has been put beautifully by C.F. Friedrich thus:
History is seen as the march of freedom through the world. This march of freedom is interpreted as what the world spirit wants, as it seeks to realize itself. And in its effort to realize itself, it employs peoples, world-historical peoples to do its work.
According to Hegel the movement of universal Idea in its effort to realize itself through the history follows this pattern of Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis. Karl Marx borrowed these Dialectical principles from Hegel to explain change in human history and thus to prove the inevitability and justification of impending economic, political and social change.
However, he claimed that Dialectics of Hegel, where Idea is made supreme and universal, was standing on its head and he had turned it upside down where the matter- and not the idea-was supreme and universal out of which ideas, thoughts and mind originated.
Marxian concept of dialectics in its abstract form may be summed up thus:
• There is nothing in Nature that may be called an absolute truth; all human concepts about natural phenomena are relative in their contents.
• Whole Nature is in motion; no part of it is static.
• This motion is generated by a mechanism that is brought about by the inherent irreconcilable contradictions inherently present in every entity, or constituent, of Nature.
• These contradictions give birth to conflicts that distort the harmonious structure of that entity. These conflicts accumulate in the quantitative form in that entity up to a certain limit. This limit is the critical point up to which these conflicts can be accommodated by that entity without changing its nature or quality. The moment these conflicts cross this critical limit, the quality of that entity changes or an upheaval takes place and the old entity becomes qualitatively different thing.
• This process of change never stops in Nature, whether one likes it or not. This process is termed by Marx, and his friend F. Engles, 'Negation of Negation' . Here, a thing comes into being or takes its birth by negating a thing that was having a well-established place and this new thing, after enjoying a well- established place for certain time, is itself negated by a new thing. Over a period of time this pattern of change appears to human mind as spiral evolution.
• This dialectical process is an integral part of Nature's function. Though the general principles of dialectics operate with mathematical accuracy, in their detailed applications they operate in very flexible manner, depending on so many factors; nonetheless, in overall contours they always operate with mathematical accuracy. This faithful accuracy of its basic principles and their universality in operation make it possible for dialectics to forecast and predict. These two philosopher revolutionaries devoted their entire life in applying these dialectical principles to physics , anthropology , society , economics and, even, military science . They created a brilliant philosophical edifice called Scientific Socialism or, better known as, Communism. More >
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 26 Jul 2006 @ 00:51, by ming. Broadcasting, Media
Wow, very cool! The Democracy Player from the Participatory Culture Foundation. It's a desktop application for watching free, open source TV. Kind of like iTunes, but for free stuff only. And better, really. Lots of channels, which essentially are PodCast channels. I.e. often amateurs that produce a weekly, daily, or occasional video show, which is freely available. Or some public broadcasting shows, and various other sources. All free, and all stuff that you wouldn't necessarily see on TV. Quality varies, but there's lots of choice.
The application does most of the work for you to make it really simple. You can subscribe for channels to be automatically downloaded, or you can browse around and pick things to watch. The content gets downloaded by BitTorrent. It gets played by the open source VLC media player, or other media players you might have installed. All of which means you can watch pretty much any format without worrying about it. The video just shows up within the Democracy Player, and you can blow it up to fullscreen if you want.
This is close to being able to change the broadcasting world altogether. I mean, if there were enough content here, I might not feel like watching normal TV at all. There isn't quite, but there's lots, and great stuff there. Diggnation, a regular show for computer nerds, similar to Screen Savers. Democracy Now, great regular PBS show with news. Popular podcast shows like RocketBoom. Etc, etc.
If it is this easy, all we need is enough variety to emerge and enough natural selection to take place in order to no longer need traditional media. Well, some distance to go. No traditional sitcoms, feature length movies worth watching, and real current news reports is still not very easy for a bunch of scattered amateurs to come up with. More >
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25 Jul 2006 @ 13:41, by shreepal. Philosophy
Commodity is the sum product of five human elements and one element of Nature’s gift. The cost of commodity is determined by the interaction of these six quanta. These elements are: firstly, the knowledge of the technology that enables the manufacturing of the concerned commodity, secondly, the human labor that makes it possible to transform the raw material into commodity by the application of the enabling technology, thirdly, the management that puts these elements of labor and technology in the required productive order, fourthly, the motive on the part of the initiator to go ahead and start the process of manufacturing as result of which commodity is manufactured and comes into being, fifthly, the enabling environment provided by the established government of the time which guarantees that the elements of motive, labor and technology would be permitted to put themselves in the required productive mode and lastly and sixthly, the raw material provided by Nature on which these five human elements work and turn the raw material into the finished commodity.
Commodity may be considered a recipe of five ingredients – knowledge, labor, management, motive and enabling environment encased in the eggshell of nature’s gift. The recipe of these five elements sometimes even without the eggshell of nature’s raw material is capable of acquiring the properties of commodity and in that case these precious human elements are called service. The service is a commodity.
Each of these five human elements plays equally crucial role in the production of commodity. We may visualize, with regard to the first element, that every commodity bears within it an essential constituent element of knowledge. Production of a commodity requires an inherent element, without which that commodity can never be produced, that is contributed by Mind. This element adds to the cumulative cost of this commodity. For producing any commodity we need the required technology without which its production is not possible. For example, for producing an airplane we need the knowledge of a large number of concerned branches of science – aerodynamics, electronics, propulsion, metallurgy etc. – and of their associated sophisticated engineering. In the case of simple commodity, say potato, we need the knowledge of agriculture – putting seeds in the soil, irrigation, providing fertilizer, tending the crop etc. – without which it is not possible to grow potatoes.
Let us take another example from the life of primitive human beings, a stone dart. The primitive man needs to have the knowledge of the utility of a pointed stone in hunting an animal, he needs to know the technique of stone-chiseling, he needs to possess the knowledge of correct scrapping of the raw material – the unwieldy crude stone piece – that must be not too less and not too much scrapping of the raw material etc.
This knowledge of science is the product of Mind and in the process of production of commodity this element of Mind is deposited as an element of value in commodity. No commodity can be conceived of without this element being present in it. The contribution made by Mind in making the production of commodity possible is an inherent constituent element of commodity. This element of Mind or knowledge may be made possible by a single individual, by collective and common knowledge of society or by borrowing it from others. This element of Mind interacts with Nature through the human agency and gets embedded there in the product or commodity. In the finished goods or commodity the element contributed by Nature in the form of raw material on which other necessary elements related to human beings act turning this Natural – raw – element into finished commodity works like an eggshell wherein human elements get themselves deposited. Likewise, commodity also bears within it labor and remaining three essential elements.
It is possible to arrange these six elements in different interrelations. We may take the case of motive and put it in two different relations with the rest of the elements to find out the difference it brings in the resultant economic system. If we allow the human desires to fuel the motive, that put the remaining elements in the required order to produce commodity, then the resultant economy would be profit oriented capitalist one. On the other hand, if in the place of desires mind is allowed to fuel the whole productive process and put the remaining elements in the required order for producing commodity, the resultant economy would be planned socialist or communist one. It is the motive that determines the character of an economy. Also, seen from the point of view of the chosen motive, the ingredients of the concerned economy acquire different meaning and contents. There is universal misconception about capital. It is assumed that capital is one the ingredients that is always necessary for producing commodity. While capital is necessary ingredient in an economy whose motive element is desire fuelled, it is not necessary in an economy whose motive is dominated by planning by mind. More >
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 25 Jul 2006 @ 00:53, by i2i. Visual Arts, Graphics
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24 Jul 2006 @ 17:46, by craiglang. Extraterrestrials
This weekend, I finished up corrections to the final proof of my book, The Cosmic Bridge, Close Encounters and Human Destiny - about the evolving relationship between humanity and the Visitors. As I was busy writing, I found something weighing on my mind. It was a bit of a surprise, as I usually ignore such things - but in this case, it was a talk I attended at the MUFON conference last weekend.
I had a great time at the conference, in spite of the fact that I had been battling a sinus infection for the last week or so. I went to a large number of talks on various aspects of the UFO phenomenon. They covered topics such as sighting trends, UFO physics, the coverup and the alien agenda. But the talk that gave me the most pause for thought was the one on the Ethics of Contact and The Alien Agenda. This talk really got the gears turning in my mind... More >
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 24 Jul 2006 @ 12:23, by jazzolog. Music
What you see with your eyes closed is what counts.
---Lame Deer, Lakota sage
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest human battle ever and to never stop fighting.
---E.E. Cummings
What do you want to get enlightened for? You may not like it.
---Shunryu Suzuki
Once upon a time four guys decided to start a singing group, just for the fun of it, as any four folks have done since time began. Creation likes to sing and harmony is one of those things humans stumbled on. It's a gift from God. This story starts in Milwaukee where 2 fellows found themselves singing in the same choir and became buddies. It was the 1940s. Bob Strasen went off to Japan with the Army and led a male chorus there, but Gene Puerling got a job as a disc jockey back home and formed a couple singing groups on the side. In 1951 he moved to Los Angeles, as did lots of musicians from all over the place. There was work there: TV now, as well as movies and record companies. He needed to share an apartment with somebody, and along came Clark Burroughs, a guy with a sky-high voice, impeccable intonation, and a knack for hilarity that got him a few acting jobs too. Clark was from LA, was schooled and even had sung with the Roger Wagner Chorale. Now he was in a sort of novelty quartet called the Encores that sang on Billy May records. Billy was from Pittsburgh, had been in the bands of and arranged the jazz tunes for Glenn Miller and Charlie Barnet, but now had been doing children's records at Capitol and only lately had been convinced to start a dance band and take it on the road. In the Encores was Bob Morse from Pasadena, who came from a wildly musical family, with brothers who played and arranged for Stan Kenton and Johnny Richards. Morse sang baritone in the Bob Eberle crooner style and could solo well. In 1952 Clark and Puerling, who'd been working in a record store, got the idea to start their own group with Bob Morse. Gene would sing bass and he called Milwaukee, since Strasen was back, and talked him into coming to LA to sing tenor. Clark would handle all the notes above that, which was not yet a sound you'd hear out of a man who wasn't in the Ink Spots. Vocal quartets everywhere have a tradition of choosing catchy silly names for themselves and our guys were no different. These were The Hi-Lo's. More >
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24 Jul 2006 @ 00:09, by scotty. Violence, War
I recieved this in an email today ..
Robert Fisk: A gripping diary of one week in the life and death of Beirut
Published: 23 July 2006
Sunday 16 July
It is the first time I have actually seen a missile in this war. They fly too fast - or you are too busy trying to run away to look for them - but this morning, Abed and I actually see one pierce the smoke above us. "Habibi (my friend)!" he cries, and I start screaming "Turn the car round, turn it round" and we drive away for our lives from the southern suburbs. As we turn the corner there is a shattering explosion and a mountain of grey smoke blossoming from the road we have just left. What happened to the men and women we saw running for their lives from that Israeli rocket? We do not know. In air raids, all you see is the few square yards around you. You get out and you survive and that is enough.
I go home to my apartment on the Corniche and find that the electricity is cut. Soon, no doubt, the water will be cut. But I sit on my balcony and reflect that I am not crammed into a filthy hotel in Kandahar or Basra but living in my own home and waking each morning in my own bed. Power cuts and fear and the lack of petrol now that Israel is bombing gas stations mean that the canyon of traffic which honks and roars outside my home until two in the morning has gone. When I wake in the night, I hear the birds and the wash of the Mediterranean and the gentle brushing of palm leaves.
I went to buy groceries this evening. There is no more milk but plenty of water and bread and cheese and fish. When Abed pulls up to let me out of the car, the man in the 4x4 behind us puts his hand permanently on the horn, and when I get out of Abed's car, he mouths the words "Kess uchtak" at me. "Fuck your sister." It is the first time I have been cursed in this war. The Lebanese do not normally swear at foreigners. They are a polite people. I hold my hand out, palm down and twist it palm upwards in the Lebanese manner, meaning "what's the problem?". But he drives away. Anyway, I don't have a sister.
Monday 17 July
The phones are still working and my mobile chirrups like a budgerigar. Too many of the calls are from friends who want to know if they should flee Beirut or flee Lebanon or from Lebanese who are outside Lebanon and want to know if they should return. I can hear the bombs rumbling across Hizbollah's area of the southern suburbs but I cannot answer these questions. If I advise friends to stay and they are killed, I am responsible. If I tell them to leave and they are killed in their cars, I am responsible. If I tell them to come back and they die, I am responsible. So I tell them how dangerous Lebanon has become and tell them it is their decision. But I feel great sorrow for them. Many have been refugees four times in 24 years. Today I am called by a Lebanese woman with Lebanese and Iranian citizenship and one child with a US passport and another with only a Lebanese passport. Her situation is hopeless. I suggest she travels to the Christian mountains around Faraya and try to find a chalet. It will be safe there. I hope.
I come back from Kfar Chim where part of an Israeli missile or an aircraft wing has just partially decapitated the driver of a car. He looked so tragic, his head lolling forward in the driver's seat, just looking at all the blood splashing down his body on to the floor. Abed was getting spooked because I spent too long at the scene. The Israelis always come back. "Habibi, you took too long. Never stay that long again!" He is right. The Israelis did come back and bombed the Lebanese army.
Now my housemaid Fidele is spooked. She thinks it is too dangerous to travel from the Christian district of Beirut to my home since the Israelis blew the top off the local lighthouse 400 metres from my front door. Fidele is from Togo and makes fantastic pizzas (I recommend her Pizza Togolaisi to anyone) so I send Abed off to pick up her up and bring her to my home for one hour. She puts my dirty clothes in the washing machine, and after five minutes the power goes off and we have to take them all out and try again tomorrow.
Tuesday 18 July
At 3.45am, I wake to the sound of tank tracks and a big military motor heaving away in the darkness. I go downstairs to find that the Lebanese army has positioned an American-made armoured personnel carrier in the car park opposite my home. It has been placed strategically under some palm trees, as if this will stop Israeli aircraft from spotting it. I don't like this at all and nor does my landlord, Mustafa, who lives downstairs. The Lebanese army is now an occasional target for the Israelis and this little behemoth looks like a palm tree disguised as a tank. Later in the morning, I call a general in the army who is a friend of mine and army operations calls me back to check the location. It takes an hour before they find the car park on their maps. Then I receive another call telling me that the APC is next to my home to prevent the Hizbollah from using the car park to launch another missile at an Israeli ship. The empty American Community School is just up my road. The Lebanese army is defending us.
The first French warship arrives to pick up French citizens fleeing Lebanon. It steams proudly past my balcony. Many French naval vessels are named after great military leaders, and this particular anti-submarine frigate is called the Jean-de-Vienne. I pad off to consult my little library of French history books. Jean de Vienne, it turns out, was a 14th-century French admiral who raided the Sussex town of Rye and the Isle of Wight and who was killed - oh lordy, lordy - fighting in the Crusades against the Muslim Turks. A suitable ship to start France's evacuation of the ancient Crusader port of Beirut.
Wednesday 19 July
Now that the Israelis are destroying whole apartment blocks in the Shia southern suburbs - there is a permanent umbrella of smoke over the seafront, stretching far out into the Mediterranean - tens of thousands of Shia Muslims have come to seek sanctuary in the undamaged part of Beirut, in the parks and schools and beside the sea. They walk back and forth outside my home, the women in chadors, their bearded husbands and brothers silently looking at the sea, their children playing happily around the palm trees. They speak to me with anger about Israel but choose not to discuss the depth of cynicism of the Shia Hizbollah who provoked Israel's brutality by capturing two of its soldiers. As well as the Hizbollah, the Israelis are now targeting food factories and trucks and buses - not to mention 46 bridges - and the bin men are now reluctant to pick up the rubbish skips each night for fear their innocent rubbish truck is mistaken for a missile launcher. So no rubbish collection this morning.
The local Beirut papers are filled with photographs that would never be seen in the pages of a British paper: of decapitated babies and women with no legs or arms or of old men in bits. Israel's air raids are promiscuous and - when you see the results as we now do with our own eyes - obscene. No doubt Hizbollah's equally innocent civilian victims in Israel look like this but the slaughter in Lebanon is on an infinitely more terrible scale. The Lebanese look at these pictures and see them on television - as does the rest of the Arab world - and I wonder how many of them are provoked to think of another 9/11 or 7/7 or whatever the next date will be.
What does war do to people? Later, I am talking to an Austrian journalist and idly ask what her father does. "He drinks," she says. Why? "Because his father was killed at Stalingrad."
I walk across with tea for the soldiers on the APC in the car park. They are all from Baalbek, Shia Muslims. They would never open fire on a Hizbollah missile crew. Then I return home from another visit to the southern suburbs and find they have gone, along with their behemoth. The first good news of the day.
The minister of finance holds a press conference to talk of the billions of dollars of damage being done to Lebanon by Israel's air raids. "We have had pledges of aid from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar," he proudly announces. "And from Syria and Iran?" the man from Irish radio asks, naming Hizbollah's two principal supporters in the Muslim world. "Nothing," the minister replies dismissively.
Thursday 20 July
A bad day for messages. Phone calls from the States to tell me I am an anti-Semite for criticising Israel. Here we go again. To call decent folk anti-Semites is soon going to make anti-Semitism respectable, I tell the callers before asking them to tell the Israeli air force to stop killing civilians. Then a fax from a Jewish friend in California to tell me that a man called Lee Kaplan - "a columnist for the Israel National News", whatever that is - has condemned me in print for developing a "high-paid speaking career among anti-Semites". Unlike Benjamin Netanyahu and many others I can think of, I never take money for lecturing - ever - but to smear the thousands of ordinary Americans who listen to me as anti-Semites is outrageous.
Another fax from the editor of the forthcoming paperback edition of my book, apologising for bothering me at a "very difficult (sic) time" but promising to send me page proofs by DHL which is still operating to Beirut. I go downtown to check this with DHL. Yes, the man says, parcels for Lebanon are sent to Jordan and then in a truck via Damascus to Beirut. A truck, I say to myself. Ouch.
Friday 21 July
The Israelis have just bombed Khiam prison. An interesting target since this was the jail in which Israel's former proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army, used to torture male prisoners by attaching electrodes to their penises and female prisoners by electrocuting their breasts. When the Israeli army retreated in 2000, the Hizbollah turned the prison into a museum. Now the evidence of the SLA's cruelty has been erased. Another "terrorist" target.
The power comes back at home at 11pm and I watch Israel's consul general, Arye Mekel, telling the BBC that Israel is "doing the Lebanese a favour" by bombing Hizbollah, insisting that "most Lebanese appreciate what we are doing". So now I understand. The Lebanese must thank the Israelis for destroying their lives and infrastructure. They must be grateful for all the air strikes and the dead children. It's as if the Hizbollah claimed that Israelis should be grateful to them for attacking Zionism. How far can self-delusion reach?
Saturday 22 July
I have coffee in my landlord's garden and he climbs an old wooden ladder into his fig tree and brings me a plate of fruit. "Every day it gives us our figs," he tells me. "We sit under our tree in the afternoon and with the breeze off the sea, it is like air conditioning." I look at his little paradise of pot plants and sip my Arabic coffee from a little blue mug. We watch the warships sliding into Beirut port. "What will happen when all the foreigners have gone?" he asks. That's what we are all asking. We shall find out this week.
************************************************************************************
I don't know what the hell is going on over there in the middle east - I do know that somehow this madness has to end ..... it must end !!
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22 Jul 2006 @ 16:34, by poetsong. Ideas, Creativity
In your shadow
He grew into a shade tree set by a beautiful hill. His limbs filled with flittering birds and squirrels nested in his trunk. A giver of life was he until the hill grew ever bigger, exploding into a mountain. His thoughts grew less important as her needs and agendas enlarged, eclipsing his own. He became small, a withered seedling that finally crumpled and crawled back into the earth to remain unseen.
Sons
Awakened from fertile womb, you both crawled into my life. Before you walked, I slipped into your rooms at night to listen to you breathe, pressing my ear to your hearts, saying a swift prayer. Your perpetual-motion-bodies stilled by exhaustion, I could finally hold you and whisper my dreams in your ears.
You both sprouted wheels for legs and wings for imaginations, zooming in and out of the forests to climb, find, and build your precious forts. From a nearby hill I looked down on your play, listening to your banter, forever watchful for your safety. I enjoyed the madness of your youthful bounding.
Then your friends grew up and got cars, whisking you away to this or that magical place, exploring the world with renewed wonderment. I watched from the window curtain, curious if this or that young woman would be “the one”. Your mother and I would laugh, wondering who would gather at the Thanksgiving table.
Soon your diapers turned to diplomas, and you both walked the isles to receive your licenses to work, to become adults, and you disappeared without warning. I miss you both, but I’ve got a workroom now.
Abiding in Stale Air
Exhaust fumes, sweltering heat cause asthmatics to gasp for air. Fragrant flowers are gone, replaced by many concrete overpasses, crumbling mortar, and rusting steel roadways lined with graffiti. Still a butterfly alights on a flowerpot by the intersection, seemingly content to be alive.
Life
Disrespectful looks and terse commentaries crush these brittle bones. Wagging fingers swung by malicious gossipers pronounce my premature eulogy. Some days I lick my wounds and walk away. Other days I become a contentious beast that replies to their accusations with words of fury. Still, life goes on within and without; and the backyard still needs mowing.
Love
If I pour out my life for you, will that elevate me in your sight or make me seem a pathetic fool, weak and stupid? If I lay down my body as your bridge to elevation, so that you can reach your pinnacle, will you respect me as being kind; or will you wonder if I’ve grown impotent, becoming a passé conversation piece? Love as I express it and as you see it may not align. Communication is the most difficult art; and I have no idea how to fashion my feelings into words and actions that translate. I can only try and hope my heart’s attempt will become an arrow that finds its target. Perhaps God alone sees and the rest of the world misunderstands me or thinks I’m a dimwitted loser. Or are they right and I’m wrong? More >
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22 Jul 2006 @ 16:10, by swanny. Environment, Ecology
July 22, 2006
Canada
Saturday
Sunny
To Hot
The Bird Report (Animal Democracy?)
Ho....
Well every year, about this time, it seems about 100-200 crows get together for a few conventions on one of the taller buildings in downtown and seem to debate or vote a "new" leadership? The racket and commotion is reminisant of the debates and votes in the House of Commons in Ottawa.
Then there are the magpies. They it would seem are the thugs and ruffians of the kingdom. The raven, very few, are here but not to sure how they fit in. They are sort of a lone wolf around here, causing extreme concernations of the crows.
Back to the crows. It seems crow "office fitness" is determined not by words but actions, as a fly around the assembly of these conventions and a vote is had, perhaps in a determinination of health or fitness or such ? Whether this leadership is hereditary or democratic is unclear. It almost seems a combo of both off hand.
The pigeons here seem like your average everyday citizen being harassed at times by both the crows and magpies.
The sparrows are the cute urchens or street children of the senario avoiding both the crows and the magpies but at times annoying the "without a clue" pigeons. Now the robins are a magnificent addition to this kingdom. A noble breed gracing the community affairs with a sense of honor and dignity.
Further out from the downtown, the pelicans, mallards, seagulls and canada geese can be found mostly hanging around the river, although the seagulls tend to frequent the landfills and fast food places. Ocassionally a troop or family of ducks will make an attempt to cross a major street in an effort to get to the river. Successful mostly if drivers give them the right of way.
Other smaller "foreign" birds like, blue birds and blue jays, and wrens and finches tend to frequent the parks and river areas.
Crows and magpies again, have met their demise when getting to friendly with the local cannies. A lesson to late for the learning it seems.
I've seen a few hawks and such around the river or near the large field, hunting for mice no doubt and maybe there's an odd eagle about but they tend to favour the high and wilderness areas.
I haven't as yet had the honor to see a hummingbird although I'm told they are around gracing the various floral arrangements. I have though seen a white parakeet in a tree that most likely must have escapet the bondage of some local home.
Back to reality though, I hear that many of our bird species are or will soon be in danger because of environmental degradation. A disquieting commentary on the human families impact on some of its neighbouring fellows.
I haven't seen any peasants or partriges around, except at Christmas and in a pear tree and in my ten years here I have yet to hear a peep of mention of the dodo bird which causes me to concur with its reputed extinction.
At any rate this has been a update of the bird report from Central Alberta Canada.
Ed Jonas More >
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