Abe no Seimei (安倍 晴明, Abe no Seimei?) (921?-1005?) was an onmyōji, a leading specialist of onmyōdō during the middle of the Heian Period in Japan. In addition to his prominence in history, he is a legendary figure in Japanese folklore and has been portrayed in a number of stories and films.
Seimei worked as an onmyōji for emperors and the Heian government, making calendars and advising on the spiritually correct way to deal with issues. He prayed for the well-being of emperors and the government as well as advising on various issues. He was also an astrologist and predicted astrological events. He enjoyed an extremely long life, free from any major illness, which contributed to the popular belief that he had mystical powers.
The Seimei Shrine, located in Kyoto, is a popular shrine dedicated to him. The Abeno train station and district, in Osaka, are sometimes said to be named after him, as it is one of the locations where legends place his birth.

Reverse engineering a game for it to captivate the most jaded of minds is quite a task.

I am tapping into my own understanding of the Universe, my Cosmos, attempting to show some of the wonders I have learned.
Reality is stranger than fiction.


This film is quite a beautiful example of what I am envisioning for the 1936 Noir Storytelling RPG, Noem.




. *- Mentor Anonymous.

The Cosmic Serpent
DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
Q&A with Jeremy Narby by Todd Stewart

Could you sum up your book "The Cosmic Serpent, DNA and the Origins of Knowledge"?

Research indicates that shamans access an intelligence, which they say is nature's, and which gives them information that has stunning correspondences with molecular biology.

Your hypothesis of a hidden intelligence contained within the DNA of all living things is interesting. What is this intelligence?

Intelligence comes from the Latin inter-legere, to choose between. There seems to be a capacity to make choices operating inside each cell in our body, down to the level of individual proteins and enzymes. DNA itself is a kind of "text" that functions through a coding system called "genetic code," which is strikingly similar to codes used by human beings. Some enzymes edit the RNA transcript of the DNA text and add new letters to it; any error made during this editing can be fatal to the entire organism; so these enzymes are consistently making the right choices; if they don't, something often goes wrong leading to cancer and other diseases. Cells send one another signals, in the form of proteins and molecules. These signals mean: divide, or don't divide, move, or don't move, kill yourself, or stay alive. Any one cell is listening to hundreds of signals at the same time, and has to integrate them and decide what to do. How this intelligence operates is the question.

DNA has essentially maintained its structure for 3.5 billion years. What role does DNA play in our evolution?

DNA is a single molecule with a double helix structure; it is two complementary versions of the same "text" wrapped around each other; this allows it to unwind and make copies of itself: twins! This twinning mechanism is at the heart of life since it began. Without it, one cell could not become two, and life would not exist. And, from one generation to the next, the DNA text can also be modified, so it allows both constancy and transformation. This means that beings can be the same and not the same. One of the mysteries is what drives the changes in the DNA text in evolution. DNA has apparently been around for billions of years in its current form in virtually all forms of life. The old theory—random accumulation of errors combined with natural selection—does not fully explain the data currently generated by genome sequencing. The question is wide open.

The structure of DNA as we know it is made up of letters and thus has a specific text and language. You could say our bodies are made up of language, yet we assume that speech arises from the mind. How do we access this hidden language?

By studying it. There are several roads to knowledge, including science and shamanism.

The symbol of the Cosmic Serpent, the snake, is a central theme in your story, and in your research you discover that the snake forms a major part of the symbology across most of the world’s traditions and religions. Why is there such a consistent system of natural symbols in the world? Is the world inherently symbolic?

This is the observation that led me to investigate the cosmic serpent. I found the symbol in shamanism all over the world. Why? That's a good question. My hypothesis is that it is connected to the double helix of DNA inside virtually all living beings. And DNA itself is a symbolic Saussurian code. So, yes, in at least one important way, the living world is inherently symbolic. We are made of living language.

You write of how the ideology of "rational" science, deterministic thought, is and has been quite limiting in its approach to new and alternative scientific theories; it is assumed that "mystery is the enemy." In your book you describe how you had to suspend your judgement, to "defocalize," and in this way gain a deeper insight. Why do you think we are often limited in our rational, linear thought and why are so few willing and able to cross these boundaries?

I don't believe we are. People spend hours each day thinking non-rationally. Our emotional brain treats all the information we receive before our neo-cortex does. Scientists are forever making discoveries as they daydream, take a bath, go for a run, lay in bed, and so on.

Vision of the Snakes By Pablo Amaringo Gallery of Usko-Ayar Art

What are the correspondences between the Peruvian shamans’ findings and microbiology?

Both shamans and molecular biologists agree that there is a hidden unity under the surface of life's diversity; both associate this unity with the double helix shape (or two entwined serpents, a twisted ladder, a spiral staircase, two vines wrapped around each other); both consider that one must deal with this level of reality in order to heal. One can fill a book with correspondences between shamanism and molecular biology.

Do you think there is not only an intelligence based in our DNA but a consciousness as well?

I think we should attend to the words we use. "Consciousness" carries different baggage than "intelligence." Many would define human consciousness as different from, say, animal consciousness, because humans are conscious of being conscious. But how do we know that dolphins don't think about being dolphins? I do not know whether there is a "consciousness" inside our cells; for now, the question seems out of reach; we have a hard enough time understanding our own consciousness—though we use it most of the time. I propose the concept of "intelligence" to describe what proteins and cells do, simply because it makes the data more comprehensible. This concept will require at least a decade or two for biologists to consider and test. Then, we might be able to move along and consider the idea of a "cellular consciousness."

The implications of some of your findings in The Cosmic Serpent could be quite large. How do you feel about the book and what it says? Why did you write the book?

I wrote the book because I felt that certain things needed saying. Writing a book is like sending out a message in a bottle: sometimes one gets replies. Judging from the responses, a surprising number of people have got the message loud and clear.

How can shamanism complement modern science?

Most definitions of "science" revolve around the testing of hypotheses. Claude Levi-Strauss showed in his book The Savage Mind that human beings have been carefully observing nature and endlessly testing hypotheses for at least ten thousand years. This is how animals and plants were domesticated. Civilization rests on millennia of Neolithic science. I think the science of shamans can complement modern science by helping make sense of the data it generates. Shamanism is like a reverse camera relative to modern science.

The shamans were very spiritual people. Has any of this affected you? What is spiritual in your life?

I don't use the word "spiritual" to think about my life. I spend my time promoting land titling projects and bilingual education for indigenous people, and thinking about how to move knowledge forward and how to open up understanding between people; I also spend time with my children, and with children in my community (as a soccer coach); and I look after the plants in my garden, without using pesticides and so on. But I do this because I think it needs doing, and because it's all I can do, but not because it's "spiritual." The message I got from shamans was: do what you can for those around you (including plants and animals), but don't make a big deal of it.

Tags: ayahuasca, dna, sentient dna, shamanism
Current Location: SEATTLE, WA
Current Music: http://deoxy.org/audio/dreams.mp3

Actor David Carradine found dead in Bangkok

38 minutes ago

BANGKOK (AP) — David Carradine, star of the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu" whose career roared back to life when he played the assassin-turned-victim in Quentin Tarentino's "Kill Bill," was found dead Thursday in Thailand. A published report said he committed suicide.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Michael Turner, confirmed the death of the 72-year-old actor. He said the embassy was informed by Thai authorities that Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday, but he could not provide further details out of consideration for his family.

The Web site of the Thai newspaper The Nation cited unidentified police sources as saying Carradine was found Thursday hanged in his luxury hotel room.

It said Carradine was in Bangkok to shoot a movie and had been staying at the hotel since Tuesday.

The newspaper said Carradine could not be contacted after he failed to appear for a meal with the rest of the film crew on Wednesday, and that his body was found by a hotel maid at 10 a.m. Thursday morning. The name of the movie was not immediately available.

It said a preliminary police investigation found that he had hanged himself with a cord used with the room's curtains. It cited police as saying he had been dead at least 12 hours and there was no sign that he had been assaulted.

A police officer at Bangkok's Lumpini precinct station would not confirm the identity of the dead man, but said the luxury Swissotel Nai Lert Park hotel had reported that a male guest killed himself there.

Carradine was a leading member of a venerable Hollywood acting family that included his father, character actor John Carradine, and brother Keith.

In all, he appeared in more than 100 feature films with such directors as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby. One of his prominent early film roles was as singer Woody Guthrie in Ashby's 1976 biopic "Bound for Glory."

But he was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest traveling the 1800s American frontier West in the TV series "Kung Fu," which aired in 1972-75.

He reprised the role in a mid-1980s TV movie and played Caine's grandson in the 1990s syndicated series "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues."

He returned to the top in recent years as the title character in Quentin Tarantino's two-part saga "Kill Bill."

The character, the worldly father figure of a pack of crack assassins, was a shadowy presence in 2003's "Kill Bill — Vol. 1." In that film, one of Bill's former assassins (Uma Thurman) begins a vengeful rampage against her old associates.

In "Kill Bill — Vol. 2," released in 2004, Thurman's character comes face to face again with Bill himself. The role brought Carradine a Golden Globe nomination as best supporting actor.

Bill was a complete contrast to his TV character Kwai Chang Caine, the soft-spoken refugee from a Shaolin monastery, serenely spreading wisdom and battling bad guys in the Old West. He left after three seasons, saying the show had started to repeat itself.

After "Kung Fu," Carradine starred in the 1975 cult flick "Death Race 2000." He starred with Liv Ullmann in Bergman's "The Serpent's Egg" in 1977 and with his brothers in the 1980 Western "The Long Riders."

But after the early 1980s, he spent two decades doing mostly low-budget films. Tarantino's films changed that.

"All I've ever needed since I more or less retired from studio films a couple of decades ago ... is just to be in one," Carradine told The Associated Press in 2004.

"There isn't anything that Anthony Hopkins or Clint Eastwood or Sean Connery or any of those old guys are doing that I couldn't do," he said. "All that was ever required was somebody with Quentin's courage to take and put me in the spotlight."

One thing remained a constant after "Kung Fu": Carradine's interest in Oriental herbs, exercise and philosophy. He wrote a personal memoir called "Spirit of Shaolin" and continued to make instructional videos on tai chi and other martial arts.

In the 2004 interview, Carradine talked candidly about his past boozing and narcotics use, but said he had put all that behind him and stuck to coffee and cigarettes.

"I didn't like the way I looked, for one thing. You're kind of out of control emotionally when you drink that much. I was quicker to anger."

"You're probably witnessing the last time I will ever answer those questions," Carradine said. "Because this is a regeneration. It is a renaissance. It is the start of a new career for me.

"It's time to do nothing but look forward."

Associated Press writer Polly Anderson in New York contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

Lone protester

Penned in Downing Street

The British cabinet met on Tuesday before voting in local and European Parliament elections that are forecast to show a major decline in support for the ruling Labour Government led by PM Gordon Brown

At approximately 8.45 BST a woman called Maria walked along Whitehall and presented herself at the gates of Downing Street. Placard in hand protesting the civil war in Sri Lanka. She was greeted by a policeman who shook her hand and led her to a pen as the cabinet started to arrive. Some on foot some in splendid chauffeur driven limousines. There was little sign that any minister took her in

The police though stood and chatted about war and politics and stuff. This much was over heard as I took these pictures of the great and the good some of whom will be looking for other work after the 4th of June

It was later reported by the BBC that the home secretary is to resign

Uploaded by Steve Punter on 2 Jun 09, 11.35PM PDT.

Until she herself...As she grew olderBecame just as fatalWhat you know is wrongTo cut down
Never did I mean to imprison youNever did I mean to imprison you
Like I am imprisonedBecame the deadliest poisonUntil she herselfAs the garden
What you know is wrongTo cut downNever did I mean to imprison youNever did I mean to imprison youLike I am imprisoned

Never did I mean to imprison youIn my gardenStraight toward...There are too many flowers to cut down

Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

Anyone who is above a treat such as this, perhaps leads a very charmed existance. I hope it is as inspiring for you as it was for me.
Namaste.
-Dan


Oh... Sidenote. My Noem players will dream this video on their first rest downtime.

1

Those who assume (often unconsciously) that it is impossible to achieve their life's desires-and, thus, that it is futile to fight for themselves--usually end up fighting for an ideal or cause instead. They may appear to engage in self-directed activity, but in reality they have accepted alienation from their desires as a way of life. All subjugations of personal desires to the dictates of a cause or ideology are reactionary no matter how "revolutionary" the actions arising from such subjugations may appear.

      Yet, one of the great secrets of our miserable, yet potentially marvelous time, is that thinking can be a pleasure. Despite the suffocating effect of the dominant religious and political ideologies, many individuals do learn to think for themselves; and by doing so--by actively, critically thinking for themselves, rather than by passively accepting pre-digested opinions--they reclaim their minds as their own.

      This is a manual for those who wish to think for themselves, a manual for creation of a personally (rather than ideologically) constructed body of critical thought for your own use, a body of thought which will help you to understand why your life is the way it is and why the world is the way it is. More importantly, as you construct your own theory, you will also develop a practice: a method to get what you want for your own life. Theory, then, must be either practical--a guide to action--or it will be nothing, nothing but an aquarium of ideas, a contemplative interpretation of the world. The realm of ideas divorced from actions is the eternal waiting room of unrealized desires. Forming your own practical theory, what could be called "self-theory," is intimately connected to achieving the realization of your desires.

      Therefore, constructing your self-theory is a revolutionary pleasure. It is both a destructive and constructive pleasure, because you are creating a practical theory--one tied to action--for the destruction and reconstruction of this society. It is a theory of adventure, because it is based on what you want from life and on devising the means necessary to achieve it. It is as erotic and humorous as an authentic revolution.

( Read more... )

Tags: humanities, humor, thinking, thought
Current Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Current Mood: working
Current Music: Carmina Burana - In Taverna

A groundbreaking study suggests people with autism-spectrum disorders such as Asperger's do not lack empathy – rather, they feel others' emotions too intensely to cope.

People with Asperger's syndrome, a high functioning form of autism, are often stereotyped as distant loners or robotic geeks. But what if what looks like coldness to the outside world is a response to being overwhelmed by emotion – an excess of empathy, not a lack of it?

This idea resonates with many people suffering from autism-spectrum disorders and their families. It also jibes with the "intense world" theory, a new way of thinking about the nature of autism.

As posited by Henry and Kamila Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, the theory suggests that the fundamental problem in autism-spectrum disorders is not a social deficiency but, rather, a hypersensitivity to experience, which includes an overwhelming fear response.

"I can walk into a room and feel what everyone is feeling," Kamila Markram says. "The problem is that it all comes in faster than I can process it. There are those who say autistic people don't feel enough. We're saying exactly the opposite: They feel too much."

Virtually all people with autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, report various types of over-sensitivity and intense fear. The Markrams argue that social difficulties of those with autism spectrum disorders stem from trying to cope with a world where someone has turned the volume on all the senses and feelings up past 10.

If hearing your parents' voices while sitting in your crib felt like listening to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music on acid, you, too, might prefer to curl in a corner and rock.

But, of course, this sort of withdrawal and self-soothing behaviour – repetitive movements; echoing words or actions; failing to make eye contact – interferes with social development. Without the experience other kids get through ordinary social interactions, children on the spectrum never learn to understand subtle signals.

Phil Schwarz, a software developer, is vice-president of the Asperger's Association of New England and has a child with the condition. He notes that autism is not a unitary condition – "if you've seen one Aspie, you've seen one Aspie," he says, using the colloquial term.

But, he adds, "I think most people with ASD feel emotional empathy and care about the welfare of others very deeply."

So, why do so many people see a lack of empathy as a defining characteristic of autism spectrum disorder?

The problem starts with the complexity of empathy itself. One aspect is simply the ability to see the world from the perspective of another. Another is more emotional – the ability to imagine what the other is feeling and care about their pain as a result.

Autistic children tend to develop the first part of empathy – which is called "theory of mind" – later than other kids. This was established in a classic experiment. Children are asked to watch two puppets, Sally and Anne. Sally takes a marble and places it in a basket, then leaves the stage. While she's gone, Anne takes the marble out and puts it in a box. The children are then asked: Where will Sally look first for her marble when she returns?

Most 4-year-olds know Sally didn't see Anne move the marble, so they get it right. By 10 or 11, children with developmental disabilities who have verbal IQs equivalent to 3-year-olds also get it right. But 80 per cent of autistic children age 10 to 11 guess that Sally will look in the box, because they know that's where the marble is and they don't realize other people don't share all of their knowledge.

Of course, if you don't realize others are seeing and feeling different things, you might well act less caring toward them.

It takes autistic children far longer than children without autism to realize other people have different experiences and perspectives – and the timing of this development varies greatly. But that doesn't mean, once people with autism spectrum disorder do become aware of other people's experience, that they don't care or want to connect.

Schwarz, of the New England Asperger's association, says all the autistic adults he knows over the age of 18 have a better sense of what others know than the Sally/Anne test suggests.

When it comes to not understanding the inner state of minds too different from our own, most people also do a lousy job, Schwarz says. "But the non-autistic majority gets a free pass because, if they assume that the other person's mind works like their own, they have a much better chance of being right."

Thus, when, for example, a child with Asperger's talks incessantly about his intense interests, he isn't deliberately dominating the conversation so much as simply failing to consider that there may be a difference between his interests and those of his peers.

In terms of the caring aspect of empathy, a lively discussion that would seem to support the Markrams' theory appeared on the website for people with autism spectrum disorder called WrongPlanet.net, after a mother wrote to ask whether her empathetic but socially immature daughter could possibly have Asperger's.

"If anything, I struggle with having too much empathy," one person says. "If someone else is upset, I am upset. There were times during school when other people were misbehaving and, if the teacher scolded them, I felt like they were scolding me."

Said another, "I am clueless when it comes to reading subtle cues but I am very empathic. I can walk into a room and feel what everyone is feeling and I think this is actually quite common in AS/autism. The problem is that it all comes in faster than I can process it."

Studies have found that when people are overwhelmed by empathetic feelings, they tend to pull back. When someone else's pain affects you deeply, it can be hard to reach out rather than turn away.

For people with autism spectrum disorder, these empathetic feelings might be so intense that they withdraw in a way that appears cold or uncaring.

"These children are really not unemotional. They do want to interact – it's just difficult for them," Markram says. "It's quite sad, because these are quite capable people. But the world is just too intense, so they have to withdraw."

Source:

The Star
Maia Szalavitz writes about the intersection of mind, brain and society for publications like Time online, The New York Times, Elle and MSN Health. She is co-author, most recently of Lost Boy, the memoir of Brent Jeffs, a young man raised in Mormon fundamentalist polygamy. She is also senior fellow at the media watchdog organization stats.org.

Tags: asperger, autism, neurology, theory
Current Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Current Mood: working

Soon college students will come home and present parents with their grades. To avoid delusion, parents should do some serious discounting because of rampant grade inflation. If grade inflation continues, a college bachelor's degree will have just as much credibility as a high school diploma.

Writing for the National Association of Scholars, Professor Thomas C. Reeves documents what is no less than academic fraud in his article "The Happy Classroom: Grade Inflation Works." From 1991 to 2007, in public institutions, the average grade point average (GPA) rose, on a four-point scale, from 2.93 to 3.11. In private schools, the average GPA climbed from 3.09 to 3.30. Put within a historical perspective, in the 1930s, the average GPA was 2.35 (about a C-plus); whereby now it's a B-plus.

Academic fraud is rife at many of the nation's most prestigious and costliest universities. At Brown University, two-thirds of all letter grades given are A's. At Harvard, 50 percent of all grades were either A or A- (up from 22 percent in 1966); 91 percent of seniors graduated with honors. The Boston Globe called Harvard's grading practices "the laughing stock of the Ivy League." Eighty percent of the grades given at the University of Illinois are A's and B's. Fifty percent of students at Columbia University are on the Dean's list. At Stanford University, where F grades used to be banned, only 6 percent of student grades were as low as a C.

Some college administrators will tell us that the higher grades merely reflect higher-quality students. Balderdash! SAT scores have been in decline for four decades and at least a third of entering freshmen must enroll in a remedial course either in math, writing or reading, which indicates academic fraud at the high school level. A recent survey of more than 30,000 first-year students revealed that nearly half spent more hours drinking than study. Another survey found that a third of students expected B's just for attending class, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the assigned reading.

Last year, the Delaware-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) published results of their national survey titled "Our Fading Heritage: Americans Fail a Basic Test on Their History and Institutions." The survey questions were not rocket science. Only 21 percent of survey respondents knew that the phrase "government of the people, by the people, for the people" comes from President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Almost 40 percent incorrectly believe the Constitution gives the president the power to declare war. Only 27 percent knew that the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits establishing an official religion for the United States. Remarkably, close to 25 percent of Americans believe that Congress shares its foreign policy powers with the United Nations. Other questions asked included: "Who is the commander-in-chief of the U S. military?" "Name two countries that were our enemies during World War II." "Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government?" Of the 2,508 nationwide sample of Americans taking ISI's civic literacy test, 71 percent failed; the average score on the test was 49 percent.

Possessing a college degree often does not mean much in terms of basic skills. According to a 2006 Pew Charitable Trusts study, 50 percent of college seniors failed a test that required them to interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, and compare credit card offers. About 20 percent of college seniors did not have the quantitative skills to estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the gas station. According a recent National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the percentage of college graduates proficient in prose literacy has declined from 40 percent to 31 percent within the past decade. Employers report that many college graduates lack the basic skills of critical thinking, writing and problem-solving.

The bottom line: To approach truth in grading, parents and employers should lower the average student's grade by one letter, and interpret a C grade as an F.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

Source:

A MINORITY VIEW
BY WALTER WILLIAMS
RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2009
COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

Tags: education, learning, progress
Current Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Current Music: The Pied Pipers - Dream

 

Only by conceiving of evolution as acting upon entire populations rather than individual organisms can we understand eusociality — the mysterious, seemingly "altruistic" behaviors exhibited by insects who forego reproduction in order to care for a colony’s young.
So says Edward O. Wilson, the legendary sociobiologist, environmentalist and entomologist, in an article published in the January issue of Bioscience. Wilson doesn’t extrapolate from bugs to people, but his conclusions raise fascinating questions about the evolutionary aspects of non-reproducing humans.
Observed in some species of ants, bees and wasps, eusociality has perplexed researchers unable to explain — in traditionally evolutionary terms, at least — how entire insect castes could have evolved not merely to refrain from reproducing, but to care for genetically distant larva.Wilson discussed eusociality in his 1975 book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, which jumpstarted the field of modern sociobiology by connecting complex behaviors to evolutionary trends. He explained the phenomenon as one of kin selection: evolution didn’t act on individuals, but groups of closely related individuals.
However, says Wilson, new findings make kin selection an incomplete explanation. He points to the emergence of eusociality in insect species that don’t possess haplodiploidy, a mechanism of sex selection that makes females more genetically similar to their sisters than their offspring. If kin selection drove eusociality, then it should have emerged primarily in these species. Moreover, most haplodiploid species are not eusocial.
Wilson thinks eusociality evolved as a group-level adaptation for out-competing other insect colonies for food: with some colony members devoted to protecting eggs and larva, others could forage farther abroad. All that’s needed to take this evolutionary step is the rise of a gene — or system of genes — that makes workers want to stay home and help rather than leave the colony and reproduce elsewhere.
The theory is far from settled. No such allele has been identified, and theoretical biologists haven’t been able to model it. Bert Hoelldobler, an Arizona State University entomologist and co-author with Wilson of a recent book on ants, said in an email that his friend "is mistaken when he uses low degree of relatedness in highly advanced eusocial systems as evidence for the insignificance of relatedness for the evolution of eusociality."
All this debate might seem like an academic diversion, but for the incredible success of eusocial species. "While only 2% of known insect species are eusocial," writes Wilson, "these species comprise most of the insect biomass." While one has to be careful in drawing early conclusions and then applying them to people, it’s clear that in some ways this cooperative system, so much more subtle than the classically self-centered Darwinian ideal, is extraordinarily successful.
So with all necessary caveats against reductionism and misappropriation, we can ask: should human societies conceive of themselves in terms of  group-level selection? Have we already developed aspects of eusociality? And — just to make matters really interesting — could non-reproducing humans, such as (most) gays and lesbians, as well as heterosexuals who choose not to have kids, actually be a manifestation of this emergent eusociality?
Citing eusociality in defense of any lifestyle choice, even theoretically, could backfire: it implies a subservience of individual well-being to the greater good. But at least it suggests that certain unorthodox lifestyles might not be so "unnatural" after all.
( Read more... )

 

Tags: bioscience, eusociality, genetics, homosexuality, humanity, wired
Current Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Trascendental Anarchists - Epiphany

Congratulations on being the creator of a new Evil Plan (tm)!
Your objective is simple: Soul Accumulation.
Your motive is a little bit more complex: Power


----------------
Now playing: Billie Holiday - I Loves You Porgy
via FoxyTunes   

Tags: humor
Current Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Billie Holiday - I Loves You Porgy

With travel experience and skills acquired abroad becoming increasingly valued by schools, employers and governments, why not spend your summer on a trip that you can add to your resume? Position: Private Language Tutor. References: Global. Geovisions’ Conversation Corps is a unique way to live in a foreign country for a fraction of the normal cost. Offering the opportunity for participants to travel abroad while teaching English, Conversation Corps has reintroduced the concept of the homestay and in doing so is encouraging more cultural interaction between tourists and the local culture. Basically, in exchange for room and board, travelers teach English 15 hours a week leaving plenty of time to explore the country.

To participate in the Conversation Corps, you need to have earned a high school (secondary school) diploma or certificate, be in good health and abide by the family’s rules and habits. Participants must devote up to 15 hours per week, Monday - Friday, for lessons and conversation. Lesson plans and family activities are provided by GeoVisions as part of the pre-departure information. Travelers do not need a teaching degree to participate in the program. Programs range in duration from one to three months and the destinations include: Jordan, Germany, France, Spain, Thailand, Italy, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and Turkey. Room and board includes accommodation and most include meals. GeoVisions also includes airport pick-up, project training, in-country support, extensive medical and accident insurance, extensive pre-departure information and on-site project orientation.

For example, the teach English on the Galapagos Islands program is a great way for travelers to experience, in-depth, life on the Galapagos Islands and the Ecuadorian culture. Find out first-hand how an Ecuadorian family lives day-to-day in the Galapagos. Participants will live either on the islands of Isabela or San Cristobal. The host families are not only excited to learn English, but also love to share the characteristics of their country, culture and cuisine. Sometimes there are opportunities to take part in family activities and to meet extended family. Plus, they can show you landmarks and the hidden gems of the Galapagos Islands. Conversation Corps volunteers receive instruction on how to teach English, with specific activities for teaching English in a home to a family. Airfare from Quito to the Galapagos is also included in the program fee along with local boat transfers.

Duties and Responsibilities include:
• Teaching the host family English up to 15 hours a week, Monday to Friday
• Coming up with creative, fun and informative lesson plans
• Helping children with their English homework
• Playing games in English with the children
• Creating and teaching educational games and activities

For a complete list of destinations currently offered by the Conversation Corps, click here. To request more information from GeoVisions about how you can participate in the Conversation Corps, click here.

Tags: conversation corps, geovisions, helping, learning, meaningful opportunities., teaching, travel
Current Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Current Music: Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill

 

Tags: air pollution, beauty, contaminated water, hdr, high dynamic range, mt. renier, seattle, smog, spring, wa
Current Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Current Music: The Pied Pipers - Dream

Caught in the rain storm
I am standing alone
So many miles from you
I was thinking about our life together
Knowing it must be now or never
To get back to you
Now I just got to
Get out of this rain

I can feel it washing my life away
And I know that I must get out
Of this rain and listen to my heart again
I ran away thinking it could be done
That it could be done
But I didn't realize
That two hearts are better
Than one

I was thinking about all the times
We were losing
Living together can be so confusing
But we always were
Now I just got to get
Out of this rain
I can feel it squeezing my life
Away and I know that I need
To get out of this rain
And listen to my heart again

Rain Rain Rain
Get out of this rain
Rain Rain Rain
Get out of this rain
Rain Rain Rain

And listen to my heart again
Now I understand exactly what I must do
Cast off these shackles of time
And make my way back to you
Now I can't deny my free occupation
Is leading me back to the sweetest obligation
I am in love with you
Now I just got to
Get out of this rain
I can feel it squeezing my life away
And I know that I need to get out of this rain
And listen to my hear again

Rain Rain Rain
Yes I am standing alone
Listening to my heart again

At the end of the day
The end of the light
She keeps the remains of all of her foes
Miranda is dying with all of her might
She never comes
She always goes

She sticks the camera right into her arm
Anything to forget what the trouble's about
It causes her pain
That's part of the charm
She's down for the count
And finally out

Miranda is taking the stars down
A little something to call her own
By the light there still goes Miranda
And Miranda is always alone

She sees her face in another magazine
And the walls all close in
As the fancy takes flight
Can't stand to be loved
But she loves to be seen
She slips down headlong into the night

Miranda is taking the stars down
A little something to call her own
By the light there still goes Miranda
And Miranda is always alone

And then all at once
The sun starts to rise
She sees her father holding her down
All the daylight is poison to her eyes
She slips down the shade
And lets herself drown

Miranda is taking the stars down
A little something to call her own
By the light there still goes Miranda
And Miranda is always alone

The lights shot down in the arena
All across the safety zone
But loneliness follows Miranda
And Miranda is always alone
Miranda is always alone
Miranda is always alone

Human Fighter, originally uploaded by Euro Kouro.

Characters for EarthDawn.
[details pending]

 

Dwarven Nethermancer

Characters for EarthDawn.
"A noble Dwarf Nethermancer (aka Warlock), son of a southern Marquise, who traveled the world trading in fine art while His uncle ran the families air cargo concerns. He never know his father who passed away in his early childhood. Three times he was sent to live with allies of the family, usually to be safe during times of turmoil. Each time the result was ruin for the patron. Running from his own fate (and the law after his last patron was declared outlaw for vile magical practices) he was captured trying to escape into Thera, even so his talents quickly led him to be an overseer above his fellow slaves."" -karolusb

T’skrang Rogue

Characters for EarthDawn.
"A T’skrang Duelist (aka rogue), daughter of a noted engineer who never knew her mother. She was fostered out to a fencing academy at a relatively young age. After a romantic entanglement gone awry she left the school and joined the crew of a viscous pirate, and was somehow spared to be a slave while the rest of the crew was hanged. She is skilled with her hands, but filled with self doubt as she constantly compares herself to her father." - karolusb

Troll Warlord

Characters for EarthDawn.
"A Troll wannabe Sky-raider (aka Warlord), born on the stroke of midnight, and beset by a curse that leaves him vulnerable to sorcery around the hour of noon, and similarly resistant around the hour of midnight. His mother a slave, he spent his entire life in bondage but hearing the stories of his Father a noble Sky-raider captain." -karolusb

Heavy eyelids the curtain to one of the many ways
Many days, many lives I must say
Many me's, one like that, one like this
Staircase uninterrupted but by the mere phantom glimpse
The wink of an eye, the first of slumber's sighs.

As the windows close to a pace
Both lethargic and morose
Myriad doors open as I wake
Many times at once
Many places over

Life to dream to die to be
To cease to be
To desire, now to love and then to hate
To be king, to be slave, to be the father or the mother
To be your significant other, your closest of friends
Your killer, your lover, your son or you brother
All or none of these
Every slumber a waking
Every waking another moment lived

My other life is this one you and I share
My other life beyond the morose curtains
That now close again.

 

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Tags: concurrent, death, dream, life, parallel lifetimes, perception, reality, via iphone, via ljapp, waking
Current Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Enya - Wild Child

Who are the most influential people in your life? Your personal heroes? Mom? Dad? The usual suspects? Show me. Tell me.

Tags: albrecht durer, allen ginsberg, dali, eugenio salvador dali, giordano bruno, gustavo adolfo becquer, herbert von karajan, hero, heroes, leni riefenstahl, paul stamets, personal heroes, rafael hernandez marin
Current Location: Seattle, Washington, United States of America
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Wagner - Twilight of the Gods

The most influential mind in my life.
 

Julio Caro Baroja
1914-1995
    Julio Caro Baroja was one of Spain's foremost anthropologists, historians, linguists and essayists. He was born November 13, 1914 in Madrid, Spain, of Basque descent on his mother's side. As a child, he moved to the Navarrese town of Vera de Bidasoa, where he spent much time with his uncle, Pio Baroja. His uncle had a very important influence on Julio's education. From 1921-1931, Julio got his early education at the "Instituto Escuela de Madrid". He was later attending university in Madrid when civil war broke out. He was a refugee in Vera de Bidasoa until the war was over. After the conflict ended, he returned to Madrid and finished his university studies, receiving the Extraordinary Doctorate Prize in the History section. Julio Baroja was an assistant in the department's of Ancient History and Dialectology until he became Director of the Museum of the Spanish People. He held that post from 1942-1953. He also worked with the Institute of Humanities and The Centre for Peninsular Ethnology.

    In 1947, Baroja was elected to be a corresponding member of Academy of the Basque Language and the "Academia de las Buenas Letras" of Barcelona. He received a Wennergreen Foundation grant in 1951 to go to the United States to carry out research related to ethnology. From 1952-1957, Baroja was in charge of an official Spanish exploration mission in the Spanish Sahara.  Baroja later said,  "I have strange images of what I have done... There are things which I have done in a  moment of total change, such as when I went to the Sahara and wrote a book about the nomads...but I get the feeling that it was not even me that wrote it."

      As a child, Julio Caro Baroja had been interested in witchcraft. He had grown up in an isolated community where people still believed in magic and witchcraft. Before Julio turned twenty, he had spoken to elderly people who were convinced that there were "men and women who could change themselves into animals, fly, and do other things", that we generally refer to as witchcraft. His early surroundings were not the only things which stimulated his interest in this subject. He also read numerous books on witchcraft, among them  the works of Pierre de Lancre.

    During a trip to London, his interest  in the magical arts, that had waned during the Spanish Civil War, was renewed when he bought several more books on witchcraft.  He blended his early findings with his later findings and brought a  more modern view to the subject. He wrote a book on witchcraft entitled, The World of the Witches, which examined specific groups of people in relation to the world around them. His believed that "The Witches" world, like that of any other social group, changes considerably from one generation to the next. He explained that this book tied social history in with anthropology. 

    Baroja's work was as important to history as it was to anthropology.  He gained a great appreciation of African lineage systems after he recognized the importance of Evans-Pritchard's work on the subject. Baroja used Evans-Pritchard's work to see if it could be applied to the lineage system of the Oasis of El Ayun, which he studied for one year. He didn't always agree with other anthropologists, as is evidenced in his publication in which he was very critical of Malinowski's functionalism. Baroja was critical of functionalism even before British anthropologists were surprised by Evans-Pritchard's rebellion against it in 1952.

    In 1952, placed at the University of Oxford by the British Council, ,Baroja was in charge of the guidance of graduates studying anthropology there. He also taught Ethnology at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. In 1961, Baroja was in Paris, at the "Ecole Practique de Hautes-Etudes", where he was Director of Studies of Social and Economic History.

    Baroja had been a disciple of Telesforo de Aranzadi, of Hugo Obermaier, of Jose Miguel de Barandiaran, and Manuel Gomez Moreno. On May 12, 1963, Baroja entered the Royal Academy of History and was received by Ramon Carende y Thovar. In 1986, Baroja entered the Royal Spanish Academy. His intense research efforts and the very important studies he produced of themes in Spanish Ethnology were rewarded in June of 1989 when he was awarded the "Menendez Pelayo" International Prize.

    Julio Caro Baroja, a world-renowned anthropologist, was especially known for his special interest in Basque culture, history and society, and his dedication to the study of the cultural and social anthropology of the peoples of Spain. He belonged to many cultural and scholarly foreign societies, including the Hispanic Society of America, the German Archaeological Institute, and the Society of Portuguese Archaeologists. Baroja was a guest lecturer at many universities, including the Universities of Berkeley, Munich, Bonn, Oxford, Rome, Cologne, plus ones in various other countries in Spanish America and Europe. He was said to be unorthodox, critical and always independent, with opinions that were often very controversial. Baroja described himself as "a man with an orderly life, subject to reason, not to passion" and as " an old man who does not have much hope of anything". Baroja greatly understated his many accomplishments and contributions to the fields of anthropology and history. He died at the age of eighty, on August 18, 1995.

    Some of his publications include:

 

The World of the Witches  (1964)

Las Formas Complejas de la Vida Religiosa (1978)

Estudios Saharianos (1990)

El Carnaval (1992)

 

 

Gustavo Adolfo Domínguez Bastida, better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, (Seville February 17, 1836; Madrid (December 22, 1870) was a Spanish post-romanticist writer of poetry and short stories, now considered one of the most important figures in Spanish literature. He adopted the alias of Bécquer as his brother Valeriano Bécquer, a painter, had done earlier. He was associated with the post-romanticism movement and wrote while realism was enjoying success in Spain. He was moderately well known during his life, but it was after his death that most of his works were published.

His best known works are the Rhymes and the Legends, usually published together as Rimas y leyendas. These poems and tales are essential to the study of Spanish literature and common reading for high-school students in Spanish-speaking countries.

His work approached the traditional poetry and themes in a modern way, and is considered the founder of modern Spanish lyricism. Bécquer's influence on 20th century poets of the Spanish language can be felt in the works of Octavio Paz and Giannina Braschi.

 

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Americans visiting violence-wracked Mexico this month for annual "spring break" vacations should be safe as long as they don't stray from tourist resorts, a Republican lawmaker from Texas said Monday.

Mexico's escalating drug feuds and mounting murders have worried some American students considering spending the customary spring exodus south of the border.

"Many places in Mexico are basically self-contained resort areas, where, frankly, you are not going to have a lot of interaction with people from the outside," Senator John Cornyn told Fox News.

"My guess is, (the resorts) are probably a safer bet than some of the other areas," he added.

As students prepare their annual spring break from studies, concerns have grown about the safety of popular Mexican getaways such as Cancun and Acapulco, which traditionally swarm with hedonistic students each March.

Senator Cornyn said he would warn prospective US tourists to be guided by US government advice on travel conditions.

The violence, which claimed the lives of 5,300 last year alone, "could be a real threat to stability in (Mexico), and that would have grave consequences for the United States," he added.

The US State Department reassured on Friday that despite previous warnings of Mexico's spiraling murder rates, much of the country remains unscathed by running battles between security forces and rival drug cartels.

In February, the State Department warned travelers of the risk posed by increased violence particularly along the US-Mexico border. But Friday spokesman Gordon Duguid said violent activities are relatively confined.

"We notice that many of the violent activities are localized in several different places. They are not general across the north of Mexico, let alone through ... the entire country," he said.

Violence is "not systematic throughout the country," Duguid added.

Current Mood: pensive

WASHINGTON – Chinese ships surrounded and harassed a Navy mapping ship in international waters off China, at one point coming within 25 feet of the American boat and strewing debris in its path, the Defense Department said Monday. The Obama administration said it would continue naval operations in the South China Sea, most of which China considers its territory, and protested to China about what it called reckless behavior that endangered lives.

At one point during the incident Sunday the unarmed USNS Impeccable turned fire hoses on an approaching Chinese ship in self defense, the Pentagon said. At another point a Chinese ship played chicken with the Americans, stopping dead in front of the Impeccable as it tried to sail away, forcing the civilian mariners to slam on the brakes.

"We view these as unprofessional maneuvers" and a violation of international law, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: pensive

The mamoncillo (Melicoccus bijugatus), also known as mamón (although the word is considered obscene in some Spanish speaking countries), chenet (in Trinidad and Tobago), guaya, gnep, ginep, skinnip (in Jamaica, St. Kitts) genip, guinep, ginnip, kenèp (in Haiti), quenepa (in Puerto Rico), ackee (in Barbados) and Spanish lime, limoncillo (in Dominican Republic), is a fruit-bearing tree in the soapberry family Sapindaceae, native or naturalised over a wide area of the American tropics including Central America, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Suriname and the Caribbean. It is a large tree growing up to 30 m high. The leaves are alternate, 8–5 cm long, pinnate with 4 or 6 opposite leaflets (no terminal leaflet), each leaflet 5–10 cm long.

It is grown and cultivated for its ovoid, green fruit, which grow in bunches. The fruit ripen during the summer. The fruit, similar to that of the related lychee, is classified as a drupe. A mamoncillo fruit has a tight and thin but rigid layer of skin, traditionally cracked by the teeth. Inside the skin is the tart, tangy, cream pulp of the fruit, which is sucked by putting the whole fruit inside the mouth (the seed takes most of the volume of what is inside the skin). Despite the light color of the fruit's flesh, the juice stains a dark brown color, and was often used by indigenous Arawak natives to dye cloth.

Each mamoncillo fruit has a large seed inside, the same ovoid shape as the fruit itself. Mamoncillo seeds can be roasted and eaten just like sunflower seeds or chestnuts.

The mamoncillo has small, greenish-white, fragrant flowers in panicles. They begin to blossom from the branch tips when the rainy season begins. The mamoncillo is an example of a polygamous plant, producing bisexual flowers as well as flowers that are exclusively male or exclusively female. Occasionally, a bisexual flower will have a "dud" (sterile) anther, which limits the number of fruits produced from self-pollination when cross-pollination is possible.

Being tropical, the mamoncillo prefers warmer temperatures. Its leaves can be damaged if the temperature hits freezing point, with serious damage occurring below -4°C. Gardeners of mamoncillos should occasionally give their plants heavy watering during the summer and propagate via seeds; grafting is also used to propagate cultivars.

The mamoncillo is also commonly planted along roadsides as an ornamental tree.

According to Caribbean folk wisdom (especially in Jamaica), girls learn the art of kissing by eating the sweet flesh of this fruit, also it is said that if a girl finds two seeds then she'll have twins^{[citation needed]}.

Renowned personalities attended the conference. From the left: archaeologist Juan Ortiz Aguiló, and doctors Jalil Sued Badillo, from the Social Sciences Department at UPR Río Piedras Campus; Robert L. Carneiro, from the American Museum of Natural History in New York; Edward Kurjack, from Western Illinois University; and Juan C. Martínez Cruzado, from the Biology Department at UPRM.

The Second Symposium of Historical Studies took place in Room A of the Main Library. In front, doctor Fernando Gilbes Santaella, at an intervention.

The exposition Archaeological Sample of the Pre-Columbian Cultures of Puerto Rico is a collection of whole and restored pieces like this vessel.

The collection includes hatchets, vessels, bottles, necklaces and amulets.

Photographs by Carlos Díaz / UPRM Press.

The Second Symposium of Historical Studies
By Marta Yazmín García
marta.garcia@uprm.edu
Translated by Tia Gilson
PRENSA RUM

Tags: anthropology, archaeology, caribbean, history, precolumbian
Current Location: Seattle,WA USA
Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Matchbox 20 - Unwell

According to the Prose Edda, Odin, the first and most powerful of the Æsir, was a son of Bestla and Borr and brother of Ve and Vili. With these brothers, he cast down the frost giant Ymir and made Earth from Ymir's body. The three brothers are often mentioned together. "Wille" is the German word for "will" (English), "Weh" is the German word (Gothic wai) for "woe" (English: great sorrow, grief, misery) but is more likely related to the archaic German "Wei" meaning 'sacred'.

Odin has fathered numerous children. With his wife, Frigg, he fathered his doomed son Baldr and fathered the blind god Höðr. By the personification of earth, Fjörgyn, Odin was the father of his most famous son, Thor. By the giantess Gríðr, Odin was the father of Vídar, and by Rinda he was father of Váli. Also, many royal families claimed descent from Odin through other sons. For traditions about Odin's offspring, see Sons of Odin.

Odin and his brothers, Vili and Ve, are attributed with slaying Ymir, the Ancient Giant, to form Midgard. From Ymir's flesh, the brothers made the earth, and from his shattered bones and teeth they made the rocks and stones. From Ymir's blood, they made the rivers and lakes. Ymir's skull was made into the sky, secured at four points by four dwarfs named East, West, North, and South. From Ymir's brains, the three Gods shaped the clouds, whereas Ymir's eye-brows became a barrier between Jotunheim (giant's home) and Midgard, the place where men now dwell. Odin and his brothers are also attributed with making humans.

After having made earth from Ymir's flesh, the three brothers came across two logs (or an ash and an elm tree). Odin gave them breath and life; Vili gave them brains and feelings; and Ve gave them hearing and sight. The first man was Ask and the first woman was Embla.

Odin was said to have learned the mysteries of seid from the Vanic goddess and völva Freyja, despite the unwarriorly connotations of using magic.

Ghost U-Boat (U-2666):

It was the end of World War Two and the Nazis were desperate. They had been unable to stop the flow of supplies from North America to England and the Germans were quite clearly losing the war. Losses of German U-Boats had been horrible and a huge number of German sailors had dies in the steel coffins, as many called them. Still, the hopeless crews were sent out again and again with less coming back each time. A number of new submarine designs were developed in an attempt to redress the balance in the Atlantic with new technology. One of these new submarines was the class XXI. The submarine used a snorkel to stay submerged, had a more streamlined hull and could travel faster underwater than any previous class, and could dive deeper. It was a whole new level of development in submarines. Even so, it was too late and the war ended before any of the new submarines could enter the fight.

At the same time which large numbers of submarines were being lost, large numbers of Waffen S.S. units were replacing normal army units in the fighting. Himmler, chief of the Waffen S.S. thought that his men would make more brave crews for submarines than the sailors of Karl Dornitz's Navy. He was able to persuade Adolf Hitler to support a program where submarines would be crewed by S.S. Volunteers. The program was developed in secret with not even the Chief of the Navy knowing about the program. The crew was to be the most loyal men in the S.S. and dedicated to the defeat of the enemies of the Nazis. It was rumored around Nazis who knew about the program that the captain was a practicing occultist who specialized in the dead and the undead. So was born the submarine which did not exist. The boat, U-2666 sailed out for its maiden voyage only weeks before Germany surrendered. When the Nazis realized that they would lose the war, all of the workers who built the boat were executed so that it would be kept secret so the submarine could continue the war in secret. All of the Nazi leaders who knew directly about the boat committed suicide. Around Nazi circles, there was rumors of a secret base on a remote island. The U-Boat was never heard from again. It is possible that it was sunk in the final days of the war and it is also possible that the crew decided to scuttle the submarine themselves after Germany surrendered.

Something happened after the coming of the Rifts. Things that were long dead and buried woke up. In the case of U-2666, something extremely evil woke up. There is not explanation for why this occurred, maybe it was the extreme evil and hatred of the crew which did not allow them to rest, maybe it was something related to the occult practices of the captain. The ocean became a very dangerous place with the coming of the Rifts with sea monsters, pirates, and other deadly magical storms. The first few sighting of U-2666 was considered to be the sighting of a submarine crewed by pirates and there was little concern over it. This changed over time and there was just something eerie about it. Eventually it was learned that it was something beyond that of simple pirates and it was a ghost which had returned and not returned for benevolent purposes.

The submarine appears to be covered in deep rust but otherwise looks to be intact. When seen, it is usually surrounded with some kind of witch fire and a malevolent aura can be felt coming from the submarine. The U-Boat seems to attack everything, merchant ships, warships, sea monsters, and even other haunted ships. It also does not appear to differentiate between good and evil. Against larger targets, the submarine usually rises to periscope depth ad launches a volley of torpedoes. The torpedoes follow their targets as if they are possessed by demons and there are scholars who speculate that this is the actual case. On smaller targets, the submarine will rise and use its guns on it. As well, if a ship is able to launch life boats, the U-Boat will rise to the surface and use its guns to murder any survivors. Occasionally, a few of the crew will exit the inside of the U-Boat and grab a few living survivors which are hanging off the submarine itself and drag them back inside their steel coffin. None have ever returns. Some scholars have speculated that the prisoners power the ship as sacrifices while others believe that the prisoners are consumed by an undead crew. When seen, the crew will appear as half rotted corpses which are dressed in the tattered remains of S.S. uniforms. They are a horrifying sight and some have fainted in fear just being near the undead crew. The smell is also appalling. When a hatch in the submarine opens, a bright yet sickly green glow comes from the opening. The same occurs when holes are blown in the side of the U-Boat. A psychic sailor once attempted to get a vision of the inside of the ghost submarine and have horrible visions of dripping blood. She had to be sedated afterwards and it was a long time before she could talk about. She shudders to this day when asked about the U-Boat although she will reluctantly answer questions if asked. If it seems that the submarine is about to be destroyed, it dives deep and escapes. It appears to have the ability to dive far deeper than it could originally and some speculate that it can dive to the bottom of the ocean. The New Navy has encountered it several times and there is a standing order to attempt to sink the ghost submarine. Even though it is slower than their submarines, they have been unable to follow it as it has dove beyond their maximum depth. About the only thing the ancient submarine does not appear to attack are vessels of the Coalition Navy. Scholars have been unable to find any records on the submarine but some who have researched ancient history and the Nazi party believe that the prominent Coalition symbol with its skull motif on the ships makes the submarine crew consider it to be one of their own. It is likely that it would not attack vessels displaying the Nazi flag or symbol or the old World War Two German Navy flag. It also would likely attack any vessel displaying the Star of David before any others. While some scholars discount the stories, there are stories of bodies which had just been previously killed by the U-Boat rising up as if alive and climbing onboard intact vessels and attempting to murder anything living. It has also been told that these corpse will attempt to drown remaining survivors. Other stories tell of the ship suddenly summoning a Demon Maggot which fights off attackers on the deck of the submarine. Some think that the evil magic comes from the submarine while others consider it to be the work of the crew of the vessel which it is likely that one is a necromancer. It is further speculated that this necromancer is the captain of the submarine.

What does the beauty mean? A dictionary says that beauty is group of features such as proportion of shapes, harmony of colors, sounds which cause that we like something; it’s also a high morality value. People need it, they are in want of having some beauty near to them, so that they can look at it, hear or touch it. Beauty can give them real happiness.

But let’s think is that right? When someone see a beautiful woman or a handsome man he thinks that he or she is great. People estimate someone’s value looking only on his exterior, but it sometimes happens that after short conversation someone realizes that it was a mistake, that beautiful person isn’t a man of sterling worth and he’s disappointed. The second time short chat prove that ugly person is really better than the beautiful one.

So we distinguish two kinds of beauty – “material” and “spiritual”. The first one is transitory, impermanent and easy of access. We feel it instinctively but to perceive the second kind of beauty we need not only senses but also intelligence. It’s beauty of soul, emotions, feelings, personality. It’s timeless, rare, private against to the material beauty – it depends on time and actual images. Many people experienced that sometimes the best beauty is hidden really deep and we need time to find it. Sometimes it can take months, other times years, but it’s worth spending a lot of time looking for it.

I think that moral beauty is most important. It should be the main criterion for estimating someone’s value and the main base of love. People should quickly realize that if they don’t want to be disappointed anymore. Beauty is something inside us, not the way how we look.It makes us unique. It’s situated in our hearts, souls and minds.

Tags: 2009, best actor, harvey milk, milk, oscars
Current Location: Seattle,WA USA
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: U2 - One

Tags: bsg
Current Location: Seattle,WA USA
Current Music: Bear McCreary - All Along The Watchtower

Tags: banality, bhardo thodol, book of the dead, death, dying, psychopomp, shamaninsm, the tibetan book of the dead, tibetan buddhism
Current Location: Seattle,WA USA
Current Music: Decoding The Past - Tibetan Book of the Dead

It can't be helped. It is perhaps the best day to end something that is meant not to last. Perhaps the worst day to have something romantic started. It is the day that reeks of happy facades, weak wills, broken hearts, cold sharp truths and massive amounts of hopefulness, hopelessness, delusions, and a hint of enlightenment, and perhaps even realization.
It is the generic day of Valentine. I prefer to see it as the holiday of friendship, which is perhaps the right amount of conceptual Novocaine for the heart.

My valentine's day was a common, average day. Being single, its commercial significance was not enough to sting my concern. I took the day to do a few chores and otherwise be lazy. Nevertheless, others not so fortunate found themselves with the need of a shoulder to lean on, cry and let it all out. So I was there for five people  that otherwise would not have bothered to send me a greeting me or  a brief  salutation, unlike my closest of friends.No one is above suffering, specially when one is sought out to just listen.

And listen I did. I listened to five different stories that ended up with heartache. I listened and kept myself from giving advice. I just listened.

I ate a sinful amount of ice cream afterwards and slowly digested the experiences of the day.

The words of Mario Quintana came to me and I realized that Valentine's had been a lucky day for me and for my heartbroken friends.
The best council for a broken heart is not of words but of heartfelt gestures.
The best medicine for heartache is to let its fever run its course, until the body purges itself of the poison of 'what ifs' that slowly rot and decay, stinging the heart and psyche with pains often compared to drug addict's withdrawal symptoms..


If you ask me, I am not sure why I wrote this journal entry.
I do not know if it has anything of value for anyone.


My blessings to all our relations.

Namaste.

-Dan

Tags: brokenhearted, friends, listening, love, st. valentine's
Current Location: Seattle, WA
Current Music: Fleetwood Mac - Miranda

Hollywood had adapted many stories of Marvel superheroes in the last few years. But till then one was definitely missing: The Mighty Thor.
Seems like the son of Odin, the Norse warrior, is going to have his own movie quite soon.

Indeed screenwriter Mark Protosevich has been writing a script for a live-action Thor film. According to him: "It's going to be like a superhero origin story, but not one about a human gaining super powers, but of a God realizing his true potential. [...] It will be mythic, but also bear the unmistakable qualities of a Marvel movie, an epic fantasy adventure."

The movie will be directed by Matthew Vaughn who brought us Stardust. He said he's envisioning a Thor movie influenced by the film Gladiator.

Filming should start in late 2008. For now director Matthew Vaughn and screenwriter Mark Protosevich are streamlining the inital Thor script in order to bring down the budget from a first astronomic $300 million to a more manageable $150 million.

Here what has leaked from the plot:
"Partially disabled medical student Dr. Donald Blake discovers his heretofore unknown alter ego, the Norse warrior, Thor." (Source: IMDb)

I'm glad they adapt this Marvel comics superhero. I hope they will stick enough to the orginal story of the mighty Thor.

Title: Thor
Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy/Superhero
Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Written by:
Mark Protosevich (Screenplay),
Jack Kirby (Characters),
Stan lee (Chraracters)
Starring:
Kevin McKidd as Thor
Statust: Pre-Production
Release Date: July 16, 2010

Source: Thor Blogspot

Tags: asgard, dr. donald blake, jack kirby, kevin mckidd, loki, mark prorosevich, marvel, marvel entertainment, matthew vaughn, mighty thor, mjolnir, norse, odin, stan lee, thor