Even in absurdity, sacrament. Even in hardship, holiness. Even in doubt, faith. Even in chaos, realization. Even in paradox, blessedness
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"Life expands or shrinks in proportion to one's courage." ~Anain Nin
Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam jaybird found this for you @ 22:49 in Environment, Ecology & Nature | | permalink
Eye of the Storm  Suddenly, a calm moment. The world stops spinning, the sun resumes its normal descent, an egg of light dropping from a womb of clouds. The road still pulses, but out of sight, out of mind. The barista interrupts, I can't sit here, I need to move on, whether I bought anything on not. Just when I was feeling at home again, a stranger in my town. In twenty-four hours, my mind became soaked with sensations of a new place, a far cry from my idiom. When I arrived there, I became immediately sick, the alien town became more so, and the delightfully peculiar sensations of newness took on a grayer tone. I struggled to keep my head as it tried to float off in curiosity and for refuge from a body ruled temporarily insane. A peal of sirens. A crumpled map. A man paralyzed with drink on a city bench. Beautiful people and an acidic skyline. Hare Krishnas feeding free dinners, talk of God and Consciousness. The smell of work. The tremble of leaves in the trill music of autumn. Fatigue. Friends once distant now in embrace. Strange dreams and coincidences. Forgetting about tomorrow. Ancient cats scaling high walls with magic. Tuning out the news. I am in wonder at the distances we traverse in such little relative time, while we sill grumble over the miles. I am in wonder how a day can never seem to end. I anticipate the eye of the storm to wink, and show laugh-lines in the cooling clouds. I am tired, and within reach of home, and my muscles have already succumbed to sleep. Where I went or why isn't important, it's that my here and there that are perplexed and dizzy. The sights that have colonized the short-term memory, the overheard conversations, the dispensing of duty, so much fancy in the passing sky. What remains is love... the warmth of a friend long unseen and the unparalleled smile through the bare window at the moment of recognition, these supersede any detail. And to that bright curve of lip, I blow a kiss of veneration and thanks. This tea tastes of the whole orchard. The tree across the way thrives as the whole forest. And these slight weary words, spelled out in a place less foreign yet just as impenetrable, speak for my whole language right now as they say, without a trace of definition, that its good to be here, in the eye of that storm fearful storm called time and place. jaybird found this for you @ 19:22 in Somewhere in the WiFi Wilderness | | permalink
This is a moblog* post: Remind me to tell you about my dreams. *Moblogging is posting from a cellphone or other wireless device- if a picture, it's taken from the phone. jaybird found this for you @ 16:26 in Live from the road... | | permalink
This is a moblog* post: I am 250 miles away from home for work and it has been a hell of a morning. Lost, confused, and allergic to Raleigh. *Moblogging is posting from a cellphone or other wireless device- if a picture, it's taken from the phone. jaybird found this for you @ 09:28 in Live from the road... | | permalink
This is a moblog* post: I am about 1/4 way across the universe now *Moblogging is posting from a cellphone or other wireless device- if a picture, it's taken from the phone. jaybird found this for you @ 16:45 in Live from the road... | | permalink
Traveling I'm about to drive halfway across the Universe on a work related extravaganza on minutia. I'll be WiFi-ing later tonight and tomorrow morn with my impressions of the place... Enjoy yourselves liberally. jaybird found this for you @ 13:36 in Misc. Babble | | permalink
Human/Machine Anomalies In these experiments In these experiments human operators attempt to influence the behavior of a variety of mechanical, electronic, optical, acoustical, and fluid devices to conform to pre-stated intentions, without recourse to any known physical processes. In unattended calibrations these sophisticated machines all produce strictly random outputs, yet the experimental results display increases in information content that can only be attributed to the influence of the consciousness of the human operator. jaybird found this for you @ 11:53 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | The deafening sound of the seas The world's oceans are now so saturated with noise that whales and other marine mammals are dying, biologists say. The UK's Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society is launching a campaign, Oceans of Noise, to tackle what it says is the increasing problem of noise pollution. jaybird found this for you @ 06:51 in Environment, Ecology & Nature | | permalink
The Promises of Monsters Nature Nature is... a topos, a place, in the sense of a rhetorician's place or topic for consideration of common themes; nature is, strictly, a commonplace. We turn to this topic to order our discourse, to compose our memory. As a topic in this sense, nature also reminds us that in seventeenth-century English the "topick gods" were the local gods, the gods specific to places and peoples. We need these spirits, rhetorically if we can't have them any other way. We need them in order to reinhabit, precisely, common places-locations that are widely shared, inescapably local, worldly, enspirited; i.e., topical. In this sense, nature is the place to rebuild public culture.5 Nature is also a tropos, a trope. It is figure, construction, artifact, movement, displacement. Nature cannot pre-exist its construction. This construction is based on a particular kind of move- a tropos or "turn." Faithful to the Greek, as tro'pos nature is about turning. Troping, we turn to nature as if to the earth, to the primal stuff-geotropic, physiotropic. Topically, we travel toward the earth, a commonplace. In discoursing on nature, we turn from Plato and his heliotropic son's blinding star to see something else, another kind of figure. I do not turn from vision, but I do seek something other than enlightenment in these sightings of science studies as cultural studies. Nature is a topic of public discourse on which much turns, even the earth. jaybird found this for you @ 21:42 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink
Long Trip for Psychedelic Drugs Long Trip for Psychedelic Drugs Psychedelic drugs are inching their way slowly but surely toward prescription status in the United States, thanks to a group of persistent scientists who believe drugs like ecstasy and psilocybin can help people with terminal cancer, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, to name just a few. The Heffter Research Institute, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and others have managed to persuade the Food and Drug Administration to approve a handful of clinical trials using psychedelics. The movement seems to be gaining ground in recent years. Since 2001, the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration have given the go-ahead to three clinical trials testing psychedelics on symptomatic patients, and several more are on deck. jaybird found this for you @ 07:32 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink
Living goddess makes rare 
A seven-year-old girl revered by Hindus and Buddhists as a living goddess has had a rare festive excursion from the house where she is usually confined in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu. Crowds roar and young men yell as they tug an ancient wooden chariot through the lanes of the old city... jaybird found this for you @ 07:30 in Spirituality, Religion & Mythos | | permalink
This is one hell of This is one hell of an October surprise, albeit a few days early. Here i was expecting some staged terror spectacular, and it's just plain and simple disefranchisement and dirty tricks, the Occam's Razor of political skulldudgery. jaybird found this for you @ 00:35 in News, Opinion & Politique | | permalink
The Many Worlds FAQ, based The Many Worlds FAQ, based on the Everett interpretation of parallel universus and an infinite number of worlds created by chance and variation. jaybird found this for you @ 20:11 in Science, Quantum & Space | | permalink
Burroughs, Gysin, and Ginsburg on Burroughs, Gysin, and Ginsburg on the 'Cut Up' method of automatic literature. (flash, 10mb) jaybird found this for you @ 17:14 in Authors, Books & Words | | permalink
Carter fears Florida vote trouble Carter fears Florida vote trouble Voting arrangements in Florida do not meet "basic international requirements" and could undermine the US election, former US President Jimmy Carter says. He said a repeat of the irregularities of the much-disputed 2000 election - which gave President George W Bush the narrowest of wins - "seems likely". jaybird found this for you @ 16:12 in News, Opinion & Politique | | permalink
Spiritual Dimensionality of Artistic Creation: Spiritual Dimensionality of Artistic Creation: Albert Einstein and Sensory Experience of Art Art can help a person apply cognitive processes, occurring within prefrontal lobe brain cells and tissue mass, to learn how to better use a larger area of the cerebral cortex. Art is about teaching the brain to engage in a greater degree, depth, and level of parietal, temporal, and occipital lobe sensory processing. A constant process of rapid assembly and disassembly of temporary sensory neuron electrical chemical sequences occurs in parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes. Rapid assembly and disassembly of temporary sensory neuron electrical chemical sequences allow new patterns of energy to be processed. jaybird found this for you @ 10:04 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink
The young put their faith The young put their faith in mysticism Young people have more faith in mysticism than in the Church and the Bible, according to research which suggests a revival of the "Age of Aquarius" Nearly two thirds of 18- to 24-year-olds believe in the power of horoscopes, compared to just over a third who swear by the Bible, a survey of 3,000 people has found. Horoscopes? jaybird found this for you @ 07:01 in Spirituality, Religion & Mythos | | permalink
Leafy Sea Dragon ('discovered' 
Leafy Sea Dragon jaybird found this for you @ 19:22 in Creature of the Week | | permalink
Amazing graphic: Massive merger of Amazing graphic: Massive merger of galaxies is the most powerful on record The event details what the scientists are calling the perfect cosmic storm: galaxy clusters that collided like two high-pressure weather fronts and created hurricane-like conditions, tossing galaxies far from their paths and churning shock waves of 100-million-degree gas through intergalactic space. jaybird found this for you @ 18:18 in Science, Quantum & Space | | permalink
Gathering It's a peace rally; a man is talking about his experiences in surviving homelessness, pigeons are playing in the fountain, and the audience listens in rapt attention to his story. He couldn't stay at the mission, but he held down a construction job for $10 an hour. This is a man who changed his life out of despair. As he speaks, a mockingbird trills atop a lamppost, not singing for spare change. There are homeless men listening, as he talks about the social injustice of crack addiction. It's hot, but people are sitting patient, as another racing of pigeons flocks by. He's talking about hope. It looks like we all could use that. Guitars, ready for anthemic strumming, glisten in the sun. A leaf falls and lands on my head, that a few minutes ago had mock polar bear ears on them... one had to be there. It's a lot to explain, but the man speaking is talking about plain truth, and passion, and letting your consciousness take over. Even though the story is jumping all over, nobody's perfect, but some moments, some scenes can be, under a bright blue sky, the clarity of gathering. jaybird found this for you @ 14:02 in Somewhere in the WiFi Wilderness | | permalink
I'm experiencing this bizarre thing I'm experiencing this bizarre thing of being online and wireless from a busy Sunday morning coffeeshop... this is too cool! Overheard: "Give me two reasons we should do this now, and she said, I'll give you three." "I asked God for forgiveness and I think She was on vacation." "That man looks like a fire engine!" This is the beginning of something weird. jaybird found this for you @ 11:03 in Somewhere in the WiFi Wilderness | | permalink
I'm playing the part of I'm playing the part of an escaping polar bear at church this morning. You've gotta love liberal theology... jaybird found this for you @ 10:14 in Misc. Babble | | permalink
Ultra deep field redux: Hubble's Ultra deep field redux: Hubble's deepest shot is a puzzle Scientists studying the deepest picture of the Universe, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, have been left with a big poser: where are all the stars? jaybird found this for you @ 07:23 in Science, Quantum & Space | | permalink
Bomb Disabled Near N.C. Elections Bomb Disabled Near N.C. Elections Office, and not just any office in NC, but the one where I go to register and early-vote! Terrorists, why do you hate Asheville so much? jaybird found this for you @ 17:44 in Local- Western North Carolina | | permalink
Future Hi: Breaking the Veil Future Hi: Breaking the Veil Ever since I was a small child I’ve had the most amazing dream life. Although I’ve also had my share of nightmares and even off periods, most of the time my dreams are always deeply satisfying and beautiful. Like most children I lacked the capacity to clearly distinguish between the dream world and reality. However, if you ask the Aborigini’s, such a distinction is meaningless anyway, with the dreamworld being the more "real" of the two. For me this is a belief I share with them and have carried into adulthood. My dreams have offered so many profound insights, and the lucidity of them has been so intense and real to the depths of my being, that to deny the veracity of these experiences would be to deny my very soul – the deepest meanings that guide my life. And it is here that people start to make value judgments that although the inner life of dreams might be significant, the external world is more important, because without it we die. In the West particularly this emphasis has been valued almost exclusively to the detriment to our inner lives. As Ghandi once said when asked what he thought of Western Civilization, he said, "I think it’s a good idea." jaybird found this for you @ 16:29 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink
Clifford Pickover: We are in Clifford Pickover: We are in the Digits of Pi and Live Forever Somewhere inside the digits of pi is a representation for all of us -- the atomic coordinates of all our atoms, our genetic code, all our thoughts, all our memories. Given this fact, all of us are alive, and hopefully happy, in pi. Pi makes us live forever. We all lead virtual lives in pi. We are immortal. jaybird found this for you @ 07:41 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink
This is entirely too cool This is entirely too cool (via MeFi, QT .mov) jaybird found this for you @ 21:49 in Art, Music, Theater & Film | | permalink
Juan Cole: If America were Juan Cole: If America were Iraq, What would it be Like? What would America look like if it were in Iraq's current situation? The population of the US is over 11 times that of Iraq, so a lot of statistics would have to be multiplied by that number. Thus, violence killed 300 Iraqis last week, the equivalent proportionately of 3,300 Americans. What if 3,300 Americans had died in car bombings, grenade and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment in the last week? That is a number greater than the deaths on September 11, and if America were Iraq, it would be an ongoing, weekly or monthly toll. And what if those deaths occurred all over the country, including in the capital of Washington, DC, but mainly above the Mason Dixon line, in Boston, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco? jaybird found this for you @ 17:26 in News, Opinion & Politique | | permalink
Bush by the numbers by Bush by the numbers by 'A Wolf Who Sends Flowers.' 0 Number of times Bush mentioned Osama bin Laden in his three State of the Union addresses. 73 Number of times that Bush mentioned terrorism or terrorists in his three State of the Union addresses. 83 Number of times Bush mentioned Saddam, Iraq, or regime (as in change) in his three State of the Union addresses. jaybird found this for you @ 15:16 in News, Opinion & Politique | | permalink
Michael Moore: Enough of the Michael Moore: Enough of the handwringing! Enough of the doomsaying! Do I have to come there and personally calm you down? Stop with all the defeatism, OK? Bush IS a goner -- IF we all just quit our whining and bellyaching and stop shaking like a bunch of nervous ninnies... It's never over for them until the last ballot is shredded. They are never finished -- they just keeping moving forward like sharks that never sleep, always pushing, pulling, kicking, blocking, lying. jaybird found this for you @ 12:14 in News, Opinion & Politique | | permalink
Demonstration of 5 voting system Demonstration of 5 voting system hacks using real software, including a monkey. Yes, a monkey. (via MeFi) In Washington DC on Wed. Sept 22, five experts will demonstrate various manipulations of the actual Sequoia and Diebold software to be used in the Nov. 2 election. Experts range in skill level from Dr. Herbert Thompson, a security expert and the author/editor of 12 books, to Baxter, a chimpanzee. jaybird found this for you @ 07:11 in News, Opinion & Politique | | permalink
Bill Moyers: Journalism Under Fire Bill Moyers: Journalism Under Fire Our job remains essentially the same: to gather, weigh, organize, analyze and present information people need to know in order to make sense of the world. You will hear it said this is not a professional task—John Carroll of the Los Angeles Times recently reminded us there are “no qualification tests, no boards to censure misconduct, no universally accepted set of standards.” Maybe so. But I think that what makes journalism a profession is the deep ethical imperative of which the public is aware only when we violate it—think Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass, Jack Kelley. Ed Wasserman, once an editor himself and now teaching at Washington and Lee University, says that journalism “is an ethical practice because it tells people what matters and helps them determine what they should do about it.” So good newsrooms “are marinated in ethical conversations…What should this lead say? What I should I tell that source?” We practice this craft inside “concentric rings of duty and obligations: Obligations to sources, our colleagues, our bosses, our readers, our profession, and our community”—and we function under a system of values “in which we try to understand and reconcile strong competing claims.” Our obligation is to sift patiently and fairly through untidy realities, measure the claims of affected people, and present honestly the best available approximation of the truth—and this, says Ed Wasserman, is an ethical practice. jaybird found this for you @ 20:28 in News, Opinion & Politique | | permalink
Thw Twisted Films of PES... Thw Twisted Films of PES... very Svankmajeresque... jaybird found this for you @ 17:30 in Art, Music, Theater & Film | | permalink
A Shoggoth on the Roof There are some things that man was not meant to adapt to musical theatre, and A Shoggoth on the Roof has long been regarded as a musical that cannot and must not be produced. Since 1979, every attempt to produce this monster of a musical has ended in disaster, horror, agony and madness. Yet in spite of this hellish track record, seldom does a month pass when the HPLHS doesn't hear from some intrepid band of thespians who think they have what it takes to put A Shoggoth on the Roof. Most are never heard from again. jaybird found this for you @ 12:28 in Art, Music, Theater & Film | | permalink
No longer speaking for rest No longer speaking for rest of us, Joni Mitchell got herself back to the garden Her two arts, painting and songwriting, happen in almost opposite ways for her. "In painting, your brain empties out and there's not a word in it; it's like a deep meditation, like a trance," she says. "I could step on a tack and probably wouldn't know it when I'm painting. In writing, it's kind of the opposite. That's why some people take stimulants. "You stir up chaotic thoughts, then you pluck from this overactive mind. It's part of my process as a writer, being emotionally disturbed by something exterior someone said or something that is happening in society. It's on your mind, and it won't go away until you deal with it." jaybird found this for you @ 07:25 in Art, Music, Theater & Film | | permalink
"Mabon" In your waning light, send a ray through the heart of your parting fire, May this night of your passing be a long kiss that ends only when you awaken again." ~Isadore Upinsky, "Collected Nothingness." And there it went, did you see? The last flicker of a descending star in a washed out sky? No clouds bade farewell, no great ode was sung as she slipped into her long goodbye, but the crickets intoned solemn and the window would not let me leave, like kneeling before an altar, a ritual that required my attention. Summer, I'm at a loss to eulogize you. We never fully got to know each other this year. I did make way through the vivid brambles, questing to find a silent second or even a remnant of self. I did blaze through previously unknown quadrants of your map of days, I did laugh heartily and spill the wine. Yet circumstances, those dreaded things, did often seize me with t |
