Looking into the Book of the Future sends shocks through my system every so often.
First, there was the revelation that Japan, Great Britain, Spain and France owned large stretches of North America (the Book of the Future shows the past, too, because present time is irrelevant).
Next, I saw that countries do not exist because people control governments through cooperation and/or coercion.
Then, I saw my old body decomposing after death. [Should that shock me? Not normally, but today it did.]
I flipped page after page and watched the rise and fall of piles of money as negotiations went back and forth. I lost count of the countries, businesses, individuals and groups who faced each other from atop equally-high stacks of cash and then faded away.
And then I saw the whole Book of the Future the way it really exists - devoid of people, absent of their temporary self-importance and others' idols to worship.
I saw us as we really are - background.
Right now, I'm numb.
To say I don't exist is an exercise in symbol arrangement. To see none of us exists, which makes me and all that is around me while I type this nonexistent, has caught me off-guard/offguard/off guard.
Am I off my rocker? Am I touched? Do I really think I exist to say I don't exist when I really don't exist to think I exist?
We cannot imagine life without life, a universe without some beings from Earth around. We believe we have this slight comfort in knowing that a few metallic objects drifting away from Earth will represent us should we destroy ourselves here. We cannot see a supernova wiping out our solar system along with all evidence of our civilised existence.
I don't know what to tell you. The Book of the Future told me today that we're all in the past and what I'm typing now no longer exists.
I am stunned.
Between now and then, we accomplish much. As a species, we keep advancing the state-of-the-art, but in one timeline we don't figure out how to move enough of us thousands of light-years away to save any type of Earthlings, people or otherwise, from total annihilation.
The future is not guaranteed. It's only probabilistic trajectories in all directions from all points of space and time.
I'm stepping away from the computer and the Book of the Future for a few days. Today, seeing that all that is around me will not exist in living form in one probable future has made me dizzy from spinning in a loop of unbelievable improbability.
You keep playing games with one another - I'm too dazed and confused to play along. I'm going to enjoy the sunshine at the regular speed of light, about eight minutes and nineteen seconds "old." Why do I feel so much older all of a sudden? Almost 48 and I think and feel like I'm 98. Words have lost their significance in this 24-hour period. Think I'll spend some time drifting in and out of crowds, enjoying people in all their wonderful shapes and sizes who are happily ignorant of the future, barely aware of governments interpreting modern-day Enigma machines and knowingly letting their enemies kill government citizens so the governments don't give away what they know.
I miss the innocence of ignorance. Some say they get sad watching their family members succumb to memory loss. I'm not so sure. Tasting the freedom of absolute power, invincibility and immortality - sort of like Icarus touching the sun - is wished by many and survived by few. Omnipotence and omniscience - be careful what you ask for - if you know what you're doing, you'll drive yourself insane trying to run day-to-day operations while completely aware of the permanence of the future's impact on the present.
I'm taking a break. See you in a new timeline where I hope we figure out how to meld our hundreds of sovereignties together like one big brain and solve the problem of how to create a self-sufficient planetlike transportation device to get some of us (in new semihuman form) and many of our non-people Earthlings on a trajectory where we're not at the mercy of our neighbours in this part of the galaxy. If only I'd live to see the solution! Some of you will (I hope) - I envy you, when (or if) you do (if I read enough of the Book of the Future before I pass it on, I'm sure I'll see the future where you absolutely will; I'll just have to depend on faith and belief for now, eh?).
31 March 2010
30 March 2010
Knowing Is Doing?
Education makes us better-informed which makes us still only thousands of years away from nomadic tribal/clan lifestyles. How long does it take a whole population to figure out how to maintain indefinite prosperity?
Maybe this will help:
Maybe this won't help:
Integrals
Do you treasure the existence of every living thing, avoiding stepping on ants, giving clothes to the poor and feeding the hungry, valuing family above all else, while at the same time knowing that for the greater good you have to snuff out the snuffable?
That's why I don't worry about comma placement as much as I should,..,;.,,';/.
Have you ever heard of ASCII art?
How many sleeper cells do you operate? Can you manage seven billion dots on a page? Sure you can. Think laser/inkjet printer or modern pocket camera phone.
Every one of us is a dot on a page. Microdots and macrodots.
I sit here while the sun warms both the atmosphere and the things sticking up from Earth's surface and wonder why I place typing above fishing today.
Besides, what is a sleeper cell? You think it's some clandestine operation out to take down government, don't you? Wrong! You're a sleeper cell. You have a set of wants, desires, social training and body parts that can be activated in a moment's notice without you knowing when or why.
Don't believe me, as usual? Well, try not to respond to anyone or anything you see today. Don't eat food, don't wear clothes, don't stay indoors and don't stay outside. You can't not exist, can you? Thus, you're a sleeper cell.
Simple facts for simple lives. We're all simple. Believe me.
While there are more Chinese online users than there are Americans and soon more than Americans and Europeans combined, you go on with what you're doing and ignore whatever doesn't matter to you. Don't pay attention to the desert flies or the biting insects in Iraq. Don't look at the ingredients of the processed food you're eating.
After all, we're all going to die, aren't we all? Are we all?
Do you know how many entities around you are nearly immortal?
Go ahead and admit you have a tendency to anthropomorphise immortal beings. You will guess that nearly immortal beings are people, members of Homo sapiens X.
Ah, grasshopper, you have much to learn.
Are you Hispanic or Latino/Latina? Are you white or Caucasian? Are you black or African-American? Are you native, red or American Indian? Are you Indian and not red? Are you Oriental or Asian? And if you're none of the above, are you None of the Above?
How far into the future do you want to look? Do you see that mobility makes not only political borders antiquated and soon to be extinct but also makes ethnicity part of antiquity, too? Thus, are you focused on global citizenry or backwards-looking insular behaviour? As always, you always have a choice.
The freedom to be. When you learn to celebrate your heritage but hug your global citizens equally, then you know freedom. When you see you/we are nothing, then you embrace everything at once.
Simple, isn't it, letting go of fear?
All these words and not one planet can understand what I'm saying. Why do we have words like aether, ectoplasm, dark matter and such? Do you know how antiquated we already look?
Ten years into this millennium - are you already all ready for the next one? A tenth of a century gone by. Ten centuries seems like such a short time to those who live thousands of years at a time.
You will never live long enough to see everything that's ever been discovered. How long do you want to live if you can't live forever?
Would you trade mortality for anonymity?
Would you accept the fact that being a dot on a fading photograph is what life is all about?
Current technology defines the words I use and the meanings you bring to the table. Can you see what you haven't yet heard?
Before you can trade your self - your current vessel - for something that lives longer, you have to show you willingly give up your self to the aether, the ectoplasm or the dark matter/energy.
Do you understand that you do not exist? Do you see that a mirror is just an illusion of reflections? Do you see the self that is just a temporary amalgam of this moment's definition of tautology?
Can you walk away from you?
Everything to know is there in front of your body or the instruments that are extensions of your body. Do you have the integrals, the slices of time, to interpret everything in people terms while maintaining everything's non-people meaning/existence?
People will keep inventing because that's what people do. We will live long enough to see more than one invention that never gets out of the momentary need for necessity.
Separate inventions from discoveries, however much you want to see the two as the same or similar.
A new motorbike exhaust system that improves fuel-burning efficiency and lowers lost heat is not the same as saying we've proven the existence of another subatomic particle.
However, in both cases our knowledge set increases and makes us more firmly believe in the existence of us as individual entities.
Stop right there! In fact, stop your beating heart, stop your breathing, stop your neuroelectrochemical processes, stop everything about you altogether.
You are not you. You do not exist. You are the combination of everything that is not you that is the combination of everything that is not them that includes the combination that makes up what you/they/we want to call you.
Now that you are not you, are you ready to be a different not you you can't imagine because that not you has never existed before and will never exist in that form ever again?
The transition is as easy or as hard as you want to make the transition. At some point, you are you and then at the next adjacent point, you are not you, and then at some future point (adjacent or not, it doesn't matter), you are the other not you that doesn't exist, is nearly immortal and anonymous.
And to answer one person's question, yes, death is an example of the transition but not the only one.
We are imitators. We are repeating parrots. We mimic. And through curiosity, we combine our imitations to create new imitations for others.
Can you be you as not you without repetition and curiosity? I can't tell you. Just as much as politics is the game of compromise where nothing is as it seems, so, too, is the situation of you becoming not you, ad infinitum.
And to answer one person's question, yes, having children is an example of the transition but not the only one.
Why can't I tell you if repetition and curiosity is a part of the not you you will become? Because I am not you. You decide how you will become not you that is part of everything that is not you, including/excluding the you you were before.
After the transition happens, you no longer exist in any shape, form or fashion but others will carry memories of you that keep you you in virtual form. If you never existed, how can there be a virtual you left over from your previous non-existence?
The paradox of semantics. These words! How do you explain state machines and moments and the absence of time and the existence of impartial partiality to show that the training that turned nervous system echoes into personalities proves that what you see is real but doesn't exist?
The happenchance of genetics. The appearance of order out of chaos. Intelligence is an anomaly of planetary changes - useful, mind you (I like being here as a wellfed, relatively happy "me," even if I don't exist) - but intelligence is not everything. Being unique is simply being unique - everything is unique.
Our species in its current form is very young. So very, very, very young. We just cannot imagine being around a thousand or a million years, let alone a few measly billion years. We're accustomed to hearing our body functions, watching the planet spin "daily" and "yearly."
I was a happy baby and I am a happy man. I see the world through young eyes with old thoughts. I look back at us from a few thousand years from now and laugh at our seriousness, so attached to our current body forms as we're wont to do.
Start teaching ourselves and our offspring that our bodies truly are temporary vessels and our personalities as we know them do not exist.
Trust me. These words are insufficient to show I know what I'm talking about so assume I don't know what I'm talking about and you'll know what I'm saying to the you that is really not you at some future moment.
The eddies and whirlwinds that spin off of us are just as much us as the organisms that live in our pores and our guts that keep us alive and healthy.
In other words, there is no you. There is only the semipermeable, semipermanent, membranous vessel that the echoes of a nervous system that moves the vessel along thinks that it's you.
In other words, you are already not you so it should be easy to make the transition to a whole other not you that doesn't exist, which may or may not recognise these words or the evidence of the existence of a you that didn't exist.
Or you can skip these words, go outside, enjoy the day and catch some fish which don't know they don't exist.
Life is one simple integral, a tiny slice, a moment at a time. That's all this blog entry is saying.
That's why I don't worry about comma placement as much as I should,..,;.,,';/.
Have you ever heard of ASCII art?
How many sleeper cells do you operate? Can you manage seven billion dots on a page? Sure you can. Think laser/inkjet printer or modern pocket camera phone.
Every one of us is a dot on a page. Microdots and macrodots.
I sit here while the sun warms both the atmosphere and the things sticking up from Earth's surface and wonder why I place typing above fishing today.
Besides, what is a sleeper cell? You think it's some clandestine operation out to take down government, don't you? Wrong! You're a sleeper cell. You have a set of wants, desires, social training and body parts that can be activated in a moment's notice without you knowing when or why.
Don't believe me, as usual? Well, try not to respond to anyone or anything you see today. Don't eat food, don't wear clothes, don't stay indoors and don't stay outside. You can't not exist, can you? Thus, you're a sleeper cell.
Simple facts for simple lives. We're all simple. Believe me.
While there are more Chinese online users than there are Americans and soon more than Americans and Europeans combined, you go on with what you're doing and ignore whatever doesn't matter to you. Don't pay attention to the desert flies or the biting insects in Iraq. Don't look at the ingredients of the processed food you're eating.
After all, we're all going to die, aren't we all? Are we all?
Do you know how many entities around you are nearly immortal?
Go ahead and admit you have a tendency to anthropomorphise immortal beings. You will guess that nearly immortal beings are people, members of Homo sapiens X.
Ah, grasshopper, you have much to learn.
Are you Hispanic or Latino/Latina? Are you white or Caucasian? Are you black or African-American? Are you native, red or American Indian? Are you Indian and not red? Are you Oriental or Asian? And if you're none of the above, are you None of the Above?
How far into the future do you want to look? Do you see that mobility makes not only political borders antiquated and soon to be extinct but also makes ethnicity part of antiquity, too? Thus, are you focused on global citizenry or backwards-looking insular behaviour? As always, you always have a choice.
The freedom to be. When you learn to celebrate your heritage but hug your global citizens equally, then you know freedom. When you see you/we are nothing, then you embrace everything at once.
Simple, isn't it, letting go of fear?
All these words and not one planet can understand what I'm saying. Why do we have words like aether, ectoplasm, dark matter and such? Do you know how antiquated we already look?
Ten years into this millennium - are you already all ready for the next one? A tenth of a century gone by. Ten centuries seems like such a short time to those who live thousands of years at a time.
You will never live long enough to see everything that's ever been discovered. How long do you want to live if you can't live forever?
Would you trade mortality for anonymity?
Would you accept the fact that being a dot on a fading photograph is what life is all about?
Current technology defines the words I use and the meanings you bring to the table. Can you see what you haven't yet heard?
Before you can trade your self - your current vessel - for something that lives longer, you have to show you willingly give up your self to the aether, the ectoplasm or the dark matter/energy.
Do you understand that you do not exist? Do you see that a mirror is just an illusion of reflections? Do you see the self that is just a temporary amalgam of this moment's definition of tautology?
Can you walk away from you?
Everything to know is there in front of your body or the instruments that are extensions of your body. Do you have the integrals, the slices of time, to interpret everything in people terms while maintaining everything's non-people meaning/existence?
People will keep inventing because that's what people do. We will live long enough to see more than one invention that never gets out of the momentary need for necessity.
Separate inventions from discoveries, however much you want to see the two as the same or similar.
A new motorbike exhaust system that improves fuel-burning efficiency and lowers lost heat is not the same as saying we've proven the existence of another subatomic particle.
However, in both cases our knowledge set increases and makes us more firmly believe in the existence of us as individual entities.
Stop right there! In fact, stop your beating heart, stop your breathing, stop your neuroelectrochemical processes, stop everything about you altogether.
You are not you. You do not exist. You are the combination of everything that is not you that is the combination of everything that is not them that includes the combination that makes up what you/they/we want to call you.
Now that you are not you, are you ready to be a different not you you can't imagine because that not you has never existed before and will never exist in that form ever again?
The transition is as easy or as hard as you want to make the transition. At some point, you are you and then at the next adjacent point, you are not you, and then at some future point (adjacent or not, it doesn't matter), you are the other not you that doesn't exist, is nearly immortal and anonymous.
And to answer one person's question, yes, death is an example of the transition but not the only one.
We are imitators. We are repeating parrots. We mimic. And through curiosity, we combine our imitations to create new imitations for others.
Can you be you as not you without repetition and curiosity? I can't tell you. Just as much as politics is the game of compromise where nothing is as it seems, so, too, is the situation of you becoming not you, ad infinitum.
And to answer one person's question, yes, having children is an example of the transition but not the only one.
Why can't I tell you if repetition and curiosity is a part of the not you you will become? Because I am not you. You decide how you will become not you that is part of everything that is not you, including/excluding the you you were before.
After the transition happens, you no longer exist in any shape, form or fashion but others will carry memories of you that keep you you in virtual form. If you never existed, how can there be a virtual you left over from your previous non-existence?
The paradox of semantics. These words! How do you explain state machines and moments and the absence of time and the existence of impartial partiality to show that the training that turned nervous system echoes into personalities proves that what you see is real but doesn't exist?
The happenchance of genetics. The appearance of order out of chaos. Intelligence is an anomaly of planetary changes - useful, mind you (I like being here as a wellfed, relatively happy "me," even if I don't exist) - but intelligence is not everything. Being unique is simply being unique - everything is unique.
Our species in its current form is very young. So very, very, very young. We just cannot imagine being around a thousand or a million years, let alone a few measly billion years. We're accustomed to hearing our body functions, watching the planet spin "daily" and "yearly."
I was a happy baby and I am a happy man. I see the world through young eyes with old thoughts. I look back at us from a few thousand years from now and laugh at our seriousness, so attached to our current body forms as we're wont to do.
Start teaching ourselves and our offspring that our bodies truly are temporary vessels and our personalities as we know them do not exist.
Trust me. These words are insufficient to show I know what I'm talking about so assume I don't know what I'm talking about and you'll know what I'm saying to the you that is really not you at some future moment.
The eddies and whirlwinds that spin off of us are just as much us as the organisms that live in our pores and our guts that keep us alive and healthy.
In other words, there is no you. There is only the semipermeable, semipermanent, membranous vessel that the echoes of a nervous system that moves the vessel along thinks that it's you.
In other words, you are already not you so it should be easy to make the transition to a whole other not you that doesn't exist, which may or may not recognise these words or the evidence of the existence of a you that didn't exist.
Or you can skip these words, go outside, enjoy the day and catch some fish which don't know they don't exist.
Life is one simple integral, a tiny slice, a moment at a time. That's all this blog entry is saying.
29 March 2010
In Defence of Jane
Are you keeping track of the ASBM? Are you a regular reader of Jane's news?
I'm sad about the actions in Moscow but more worried about bigger dirty problems not as easy to clean up, coming up through radioactive rocky hotels of the Kajik metal-toothed poor and Phillipines' pine-forested potbellied birds. How many of ADM's foodgrade rolling barrels are tasty addictive HFCS button poppers and how many are filling station containers? Are Cancer and Capricorn tropical or topical? Why all these words from the wordless one? Latitudes and longitudes and chocolate orange slices make winter freezes turn out refreshingly tasty tomatoes. One tasty tomato you won't find in Grainger County this year - she says she's this century's Tokyo Rose. Another bitter pill to swallow? No she won't!
The bliss of ignorance, where are you?
Are you signing petitions at petrol stations asking for the reduction of debit/credit card fees?
I love my brewskis, micro and macro, but if there's any one thing to put in prayer, thank God for Dunkin' Donuts and Krispy Kreme! Don't go well with Bushmills or Redbreast but there's a time and a place for every taste. Some like Jack and Coke. Some don't know Jack. Can you play Dark Castle on an iPad? How does Duke Nukem like his doughnuts - Old Style, White Castle or Sears Tower?
What to do with aviation blue news? Have the Russians learned not to fly over Scottish territory again or do I have to tell another tale worth splashing some single malt whiskey that tastes like pure charcoal? Push buttons and buttons pop. Pop goes the weasel!
This afternoon's worth sipping some expensive, rare whiskey in your honour, your Honour. Then another readin' o' the Book o' the Future about ya. Are you ready for another round? Wink-wink, nod-nod, nudge-nudge - how about a Blackmail sketch replay? Pop culture references are past-present-future participative. Can you take a joke over a cup of java, Joe?
Who's driving the digital motor home? Who's selling access to the secret network that's darpafree and internetlike and exafast? Who doesn't have to pay? What do Indian medical mall entrepreneurs have to say?
Who was in that white van going past? Did that get the info that was sent to them on radio wave signal pathways?
I'm sad about the actions in Moscow but more worried about bigger dirty problems not as easy to clean up, coming up through radioactive rocky hotels of the Kajik metal-toothed poor and Phillipines' pine-forested potbellied birds. How many of ADM's foodgrade rolling barrels are tasty addictive HFCS button poppers and how many are filling station containers? Are Cancer and Capricorn tropical or topical? Why all these words from the wordless one? Latitudes and longitudes and chocolate orange slices make winter freezes turn out refreshingly tasty tomatoes. One tasty tomato you won't find in Grainger County this year - she says she's this century's Tokyo Rose. Another bitter pill to swallow? No she won't!
The bliss of ignorance, where are you?
Are you signing petitions at petrol stations asking for the reduction of debit/credit card fees?
I love my brewskis, micro and macro, but if there's any one thing to put in prayer, thank God for Dunkin' Donuts and Krispy Kreme! Don't go well with Bushmills or Redbreast but there's a time and a place for every taste. Some like Jack and Coke. Some don't know Jack. Can you play Dark Castle on an iPad? How does Duke Nukem like his doughnuts - Old Style, White Castle or Sears Tower?
What to do with aviation blue news? Have the Russians learned not to fly over Scottish territory again or do I have to tell another tale worth splashing some single malt whiskey that tastes like pure charcoal? Push buttons and buttons pop. Pop goes the weasel!
This afternoon's worth sipping some expensive, rare whiskey in your honour, your Honour. Then another readin' o' the Book o' the Future about ya. Are you ready for another round? Wink-wink, nod-nod, nudge-nudge - how about a Blackmail sketch replay? Pop culture references are past-present-future participative. Can you take a joke over a cup of java, Joe?
Who's driving the digital motor home? Who's selling access to the secret network that's darpafree and internetlike and exafast? Who doesn't have to pay? What do Indian medical mall entrepreneurs have to say?
Who was in that white van going past? Did that get the info that was sent to them on radio wave signal pathways?
The Accidental Deity
Toilet. Water closet. Salle de bain. Bathroom.
I was taking care of business, washing my hands after emptying my urine bladder, when a fellow walked up and asked me if I was who he was told to think I was supposed to be.
Now how'n'th' brown cow am I supposed to answer who I'm supposed to be? I can barely remember the difference between the use of who and whom and who the hell cares about symbols and hieroglyphics and semantics and smells.
Evergreen. Old Spice. Desert spice. Stetson. Sandalwood vanilla bean. Brut.
Close calls make life worth living.
Am I awake?
You see you see, you see?
I didn't ask to be born but I love my parents anyway.
The gods must be crazy about soda bottles on freeze frames.
You don't always get what you want.
Yesterday, during the memorial service for the dead grandfather of my sister's children, I watched the solemn faces of the three men who would stand up and speak.
We know death. We know life. We know happiness and we know suffering.
Yesterday, during the memorial service for the dead grandfather of my sister's children, I watched the solemn faces of the three men who eventually stood up to speak.
Who, who, who cooks for you. Is it the whippoorwill or the bob-o-link? What about the wren or the mourning dove?
Yesterday, during the memorial service for the dead grandfather of my sister's children, I watched the silent faces of the three men who spoke.
Yes, yesterday.
Today is not yesterday.
Do you know your god(s)? Do they (does s/he) know you?
Do you know the numbers racket very well? Do you bet against the spread or do you pick the win/place/showdown?
After I dried my hands - slowly, slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y - I turned around in the slate-tiled washroom, threw the paper towel over the head of the man next to me and into a trash receptacle behind him. Bottom! Nothing but plastic trash bag!
Do you have children? Do you remember the first time you let them fly alone with a pilot? Do you remember the first time you let them ride the bus or train? Do you remember the first time you handed them the keys to your favorite internal combustion engined sportsmobile and said, "Don't forget to brake into the curve and accelerate like a bat out of hell like your Pa"?
I pointed a finger at my image in the mirror. Do I know who I am? Yes, I do.
I looked at the man standing next to me and told him he doesn't know who I am and no, I'm not supposed to be anyone.
He told me that was too bad. He had been authorised to give me one billion dollars to do with as I wished.
I remember when one billion dollars was a lot of money. These days, billionaires are a dime a dozen. How many trillionaires do you know? Yeah, too many to count, right?
Thing is, there's a level of existence where money means absolutely nothing. I mean zero. Squat (no, I don't mean to crouch down). Nada.
All this talk about the solemnity and seriousness of eternity. Do you know the gods have a cruel sense of humour? Do you know that time is more valuable than money and the gods trade time like we trade fishing lures?
Eternity? Pshaw! Infinity does not exist. Everything is a slice of everything else. A woven seatback. A Möbius strip. The conservation of matter and energy is one big joke among the gods, especially the Conjurer and the Jester.
The loss of a family member hurts more than I want to remember right now. But pain and seriousness are not the same thing. All of us still exist but we lose track of those who've transformed from living creatures in our realm of existence to the separate parts and particles all around us.
Who am I? In this virtual world called the Internet, I am the imaginary child, the "accident," the "oops," of the conjugal love between two imaginary gods, the Conjurer and the Jester. I am the accidental deity called the Practical Joker. I slip in and out of royal courts with ease. I see when I'm not listening and hear when I'm not watching.
Who am I? I am the least among you because I am unimportant. I stand before you but I am invisible. My visage is not my lineage. My name is but a temporary label assigned to my body for tax purposes.
Can your beliefs. Put them up on a shelf. Use the can opener to unseal the symbology tied to the emotional brainwashing when you think it's time to think with your glandular thoughts.
Who am I? The more important question answers who you are. You do not exist but rarely can you split your thoughts into seeing the great superiourity of existence to see the even greater nonexistence at the same time.
I do not exist and because I do not exist I know what others who do not exist also know: nothing exists. Only when you know nothing exists can you see every pattern in this place where we say we exist.
Time is your cup of tea, coffee, beer or booze - all tied to water. You're what, 70% water and 60% foreign organisms? If you know that measuring sticks measure something which does not exist, then you know why you're a temporary measuring stick.
I didn't ask to be born but I love life anyway. After all, I don't exist and love doesn't exist so what's there not to love?
Practical jokers are neutral. They work the audience for a laugh, the dupe, duped and duper trading places all the time. I didn't ask for this assignment - I was born into it and trained to take the reins when the last god lost her mind and went on the dole. The dolt!
Okay, who's next? Give me someone fun to work with. I don't want dull, corny or clichéd. Then again, I've been around so long it all looks the same.
Perhaps the power of persuasion. Nothing like getting into someone's daydreams and dropping a few subtle hints. You're thinking about an important task ... you're getting sleepy ... sleepy ... tired ... just a few winks and now you're nodding off ... here's what I want you to do next ... hehe ...
I was taking care of business, washing my hands after emptying my urine bladder, when a fellow walked up and asked me if I was who he was told to think I was supposed to be.
Now how'n'th' brown cow am I supposed to answer who I'm supposed to be? I can barely remember the difference between the use of who and whom and who the hell cares about symbols and hieroglyphics and semantics and smells.
Evergreen. Old Spice. Desert spice. Stetson. Sandalwood vanilla bean. Brut.
Close calls make life worth living.
Am I awake?
You see you see, you see?
I didn't ask to be born but I love my parents anyway.
The gods must be crazy about soda bottles on freeze frames.
You don't always get what you want.
Yesterday, during the memorial service for the dead grandfather of my sister's children, I watched the solemn faces of the three men who would stand up and speak.
We know death. We know life. We know happiness and we know suffering.
Yesterday, during the memorial service for the dead grandfather of my sister's children, I watched the solemn faces of the three men who eventually stood up to speak.
Who, who, who cooks for you. Is it the whippoorwill or the bob-o-link? What about the wren or the mourning dove?
Yesterday, during the memorial service for the dead grandfather of my sister's children, I watched the silent faces of the three men who spoke.
Yes, yesterday.
Today is not yesterday.
Do you know your god(s)? Do they (does s/he) know you?
Do you know the numbers racket very well? Do you bet against the spread or do you pick the win/place/showdown?
After I dried my hands - slowly, slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y - I turned around in the slate-tiled washroom, threw the paper towel over the head of the man next to me and into a trash receptacle behind him. Bottom! Nothing but plastic trash bag!
Do you have children? Do you remember the first time you let them fly alone with a pilot? Do you remember the first time you let them ride the bus or train? Do you remember the first time you handed them the keys to your favorite internal combustion engined sportsmobile and said, "Don't forget to brake into the curve and accelerate like a bat out of hell like your Pa"?
I pointed a finger at my image in the mirror. Do I know who I am? Yes, I do.
I looked at the man standing next to me and told him he doesn't know who I am and no, I'm not supposed to be anyone.
He told me that was too bad. He had been authorised to give me one billion dollars to do with as I wished.
I remember when one billion dollars was a lot of money. These days, billionaires are a dime a dozen. How many trillionaires do you know? Yeah, too many to count, right?
Thing is, there's a level of existence where money means absolutely nothing. I mean zero. Squat (no, I don't mean to crouch down). Nada.
All this talk about the solemnity and seriousness of eternity. Do you know the gods have a cruel sense of humour? Do you know that time is more valuable than money and the gods trade time like we trade fishing lures?
Eternity? Pshaw! Infinity does not exist. Everything is a slice of everything else. A woven seatback. A Möbius strip. The conservation of matter and energy is one big joke among the gods, especially the Conjurer and the Jester.
The loss of a family member hurts more than I want to remember right now. But pain and seriousness are not the same thing. All of us still exist but we lose track of those who've transformed from living creatures in our realm of existence to the separate parts and particles all around us.
Who am I? In this virtual world called the Internet, I am the imaginary child, the "accident," the "oops," of the conjugal love between two imaginary gods, the Conjurer and the Jester. I am the accidental deity called the Practical Joker. I slip in and out of royal courts with ease. I see when I'm not listening and hear when I'm not watching.
Who am I? I am the least among you because I am unimportant. I stand before you but I am invisible. My visage is not my lineage. My name is but a temporary label assigned to my body for tax purposes.
Can your beliefs. Put them up on a shelf. Use the can opener to unseal the symbology tied to the emotional brainwashing when you think it's time to think with your glandular thoughts.
Who am I? The more important question answers who you are. You do not exist but rarely can you split your thoughts into seeing the great superiourity of existence to see the even greater nonexistence at the same time.
I do not exist and because I do not exist I know what others who do not exist also know: nothing exists. Only when you know nothing exists can you see every pattern in this place where we say we exist.
Time is your cup of tea, coffee, beer or booze - all tied to water. You're what, 70% water and 60% foreign organisms? If you know that measuring sticks measure something which does not exist, then you know why you're a temporary measuring stick.
I didn't ask to be born but I love life anyway. After all, I don't exist and love doesn't exist so what's there not to love?
Practical jokers are neutral. They work the audience for a laugh, the dupe, duped and duper trading places all the time. I didn't ask for this assignment - I was born into it and trained to take the reins when the last god lost her mind and went on the dole. The dolt!
Okay, who's next? Give me someone fun to work with. I don't want dull, corny or clichéd. Then again, I've been around so long it all looks the same.
Perhaps the power of persuasion. Nothing like getting into someone's daydreams and dropping a few subtle hints. You're thinking about an important task ... you're getting sleepy ... sleepy ... tired ... just a few winks and now you're nodding off ... here's what I want you to do next ... hehe ...
27 March 2010
Served by Sydney
First, Morgan at Beauregard's, having a laugh about too many chips with the fish tacos. Then the quiet Sydney serving Starbucks at Unclaimed Baggage, followed by Dana's declaration that the 8th of May is just as important as the 21st, then interestingly enough (but never enough) blocks of Sweetwater Valley (not Philadelphia cream) cheese and Mayfield ice cream served by Sally Anna, and lastly Kayla kangaroo (or kale or cabbage or koala, but not Banana Anna) at Crazy Tomato's with chocolate cake (but not tiramisu).
Who is Saint Anthony and why does his image appear on the medal hanging off the neck of an electronics salesperson who sold us a Canon SD1200? Where did the French-speaking salesperson go and has she been practicing?
Time for time to read another short stack of pancaked pages:
Today, for instance. I had received a message to sort through some used cameras at UBC (thanks, Patti!), looking for tiny marks that to sensitive fingers were instructions written in Braille.
While looking for the right camera with the right writing, I bumped into some lovely ladies - what is it about women my age that makes life so darn ... well, worth living? Is it knowing their wisdom makes them wise up to wiseguys? Why's that? Today wasn't one of those days. When I'm occupied looking for the clues that give us clueless clutzes the information we don't know we're looking for, we tend to ignore the body language and "Hey, I'm having a party at my lakehouse" kind of simple invitation any other day of the week I'd nod my head and say, "Why not?"
Instead, I was told I had to look at the front page of a few books (those listed above) for more Braille superimposed over prologues, introductions and praises.
Many snowbirds flying north for the summer today.
Many DoD stickers in the UBC carpark, too.
A leatherclad fellow buying for Flag Day.
What have geoengineering and the UK space program got in common?
When was the last time I played with a geehaw whimmy diddle? 'Bout time I picked up my grandfather's craft and carve a few for my family, is it not?
Family's all I've got. I watch the family struggles on our planet and ask you what you're doing to clear up family troubles. A colloquial question: why ain't you putting family first? You think you're so uppity and special you can ignore family what mightn't've treated you the way you think you should've been treated? Life ain't a smooth patch of pavement, my friends. You ride your chopper without helmet or seatbelt and take your chances from birth. There aren't enough parachutes to go around for those of you who fly, and no guarantee of a safe landing, neither.
I don't have time to read the Book of the Future today because I'm putting immediate family needs ahead of the rest of you. But I've got time to say this:
We can squeeze and squeeze this planet for all it's worth. No one will stop us - in fact, some will enjoy the show. With that knowledge (we're the only ones responsible for ourselves), let's have fun turning ourselves around. The planet is one big factory or playground. We bipeds can count the resources available to us as one species among many. Let us see our worth in relation to what we use as if we're one big family sharing the same bathtub, sink, kitchen and bed. Take turns without using up all the hot water. Do our chores - washing dishes and clothes, tending the food supply, changing the bed linen - with ingenuity and thankfulness. We depend on one another, period.
That's all for now. Time for meditative silence to appreciate the living while remembering the dead. We grow too soon old and too late smart, becoming fodder for the early bird's earthworm by the time our mourning gives way to morning, catchphrases unimportant in the light of day. Leaders, followers, opponents, observers, apathetics, up top or Down Under - we're all the same in/to the end ... family. Surely, you're used to it by now.
Should Apple be punished for supporting inhumane working conditions, no matter their claim to innocence - a surcharge for using suppliers who exploit their workers? Was it Nike or Kathy Lee Gifford who already answered that question once before? Should a country like China or the U.S. have to answer their part in that question?
Maybe a South Korean sinking ship will help us remember the Maine? A main cause often rises long after the "facts" raise a cause. One fact is overdue. Do you have a clue?
What about real estate prices in Oman? Should you abandon your debts in Dubai and if so, can someone extradite you to face the executioner ... I mean, the executor?
A family is not an anomaly when you feel the bumps beneath your fingers properly.
Who is Saint Anthony and why does his image appear on the medal hanging off the neck of an electronics salesperson who sold us a Canon SD1200? Where did the French-speaking salesperson go and has she been practicing?
Time for time to read another short stack of pancaked pages:
- "The Age of Spiritual Machines" by Ray Kurzweil
- "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin
- "Cotton's Renaissance" by Jacobson Smith
- "A Place on the Water: An Angler's Reflections on Home" by Jerry Dennis
- "for Entrepreneurs who considered Suicide when business Got TOUGH!" by Dr. Robert S. Shumake
Today, for instance. I had received a message to sort through some used cameras at UBC (thanks, Patti!), looking for tiny marks that to sensitive fingers were instructions written in Braille.
While looking for the right camera with the right writing, I bumped into some lovely ladies - what is it about women my age that makes life so darn ... well, worth living? Is it knowing their wisdom makes them wise up to wiseguys? Why's that? Today wasn't one of those days. When I'm occupied looking for the clues that give us clueless clutzes the information we don't know we're looking for, we tend to ignore the body language and "Hey, I'm having a party at my lakehouse" kind of simple invitation any other day of the week I'd nod my head and say, "Why not?"
Instead, I was told I had to look at the front page of a few books (those listed above) for more Braille superimposed over prologues, introductions and praises.
Many snowbirds flying north for the summer today.
Many DoD stickers in the UBC carpark, too.
A leatherclad fellow buying for Flag Day.
What have geoengineering and the UK space program got in common?
When was the last time I played with a geehaw whimmy diddle? 'Bout time I picked up my grandfather's craft and carve a few for my family, is it not?
Family's all I've got. I watch the family struggles on our planet and ask you what you're doing to clear up family troubles. A colloquial question: why ain't you putting family first? You think you're so uppity and special you can ignore family what mightn't've treated you the way you think you should've been treated? Life ain't a smooth patch of pavement, my friends. You ride your chopper without helmet or seatbelt and take your chances from birth. There aren't enough parachutes to go around for those of you who fly, and no guarantee of a safe landing, neither.
I don't have time to read the Book of the Future today because I'm putting immediate family needs ahead of the rest of you. But I've got time to say this:
We can squeeze and squeeze this planet for all it's worth. No one will stop us - in fact, some will enjoy the show. With that knowledge (we're the only ones responsible for ourselves), let's have fun turning ourselves around. The planet is one big factory or playground. We bipeds can count the resources available to us as one species among many. Let us see our worth in relation to what we use as if we're one big family sharing the same bathtub, sink, kitchen and bed. Take turns without using up all the hot water. Do our chores - washing dishes and clothes, tending the food supply, changing the bed linen - with ingenuity and thankfulness. We depend on one another, period.
That's all for now. Time for meditative silence to appreciate the living while remembering the dead. We grow too soon old and too late smart, becoming fodder for the early bird's earthworm by the time our mourning gives way to morning, catchphrases unimportant in the light of day. Leaders, followers, opponents, observers, apathetics, up top or Down Under - we're all the same in/to the end ... family. Surely, you're used to it by now.
Should Apple be punished for supporting inhumane working conditions, no matter their claim to innocence - a surcharge for using suppliers who exploit their workers? Was it Nike or Kathy Lee Gifford who already answered that question once before? Should a country like China or the U.S. have to answer their part in that question?
Maybe a South Korean sinking ship will help us remember the Maine? A main cause often rises long after the "facts" raise a cause. One fact is overdue. Do you have a clue?
What about real estate prices in Oman? Should you abandon your debts in Dubai and if so, can someone extradite you to face the executioner ... I mean, the executor?
A family is not an anomaly when you feel the bumps beneath your fingers properly.
26 March 2010
L'élite huit
How do you measure a person's resolve? By the person's teamwork. Case in point: the men in orange by three in sixteen going to eight. A Chism in a chasm, a Prince on the prowl and more than one Pearl.
Up next tomorrow - the showdown for the ladies in Memphis, home of Beale Street and Elvis Presley.
Then back up the mighty Mississipp' to see if eight goes down to four, finally.
Un jeu à la fois? Absolument!
Up next tomorrow - the showdown for the ladies in Memphis, home of Beale Street and Elvis Presley.
Then back up the mighty Mississipp' to see if eight goes down to four, finally.
Un jeu à la fois? Absolument!
Temperate Zone Rooftop Horticulturalism
Not, as some would hope, sclerophyllous woody vegetation habitat regeneration.
Earlier today, based on the crows circling around a hawk (dark wings, dark-banded tail and light-coloured chest), I assume the meal in the talons of a hawk would have grown into an adult crow.
Do you know the "lively red-haired man" behind the Oatmeal Creme Pie, O. D. McKee? To him, I give thanks for Little Debbie snack cakes and a favorite after-lunch dessert of two soft oatmeal cookies sandwiched together with a fluffy creme feeling ("creme" being a word that can designate a special formula that is not exactly cream but a sweet concocted confection). I've enjoyed the pies for 40 years.
While giving myself time to investigate the vegetation growing on the limestone hill behind my house, surveying the sedum, prickly pear and other potential rooftop crops for northern Alabama heat islands (and perhaps other areas of this temperate zone type), I saw the first flowers of late-blooming trout lilies and the first leaves of a large field of shooting stars, along with deer trails, freshly-broken snail shells, and a short-tailed lizard (perhaps a juvenile broad-headed skink).
Storms passed by last night. Then, in clear skies, the reflection of Mars and the Moon directly overhead.
So now, while mourning the loss of a good man who died of cardiac arrest yesterday, grandfather of my niece and nephew, I think about his family's legacy and wonder what he did to teach his kids How to Be Brilliant.
Long before the last couple of generations of us arrived, our species helped usher in the dawn of a new epoch - in the past few thousand years we have demonstrated our ability to alter the landscape, exaggerating the effects of natural climate change. Now, we have the smarts to ask ourselves, "Are we facing another silent spring?"
I met a young woman who asked me if I was more entertained by Holmes older brother or by the 8 femmes. I asked her if a state is a state or a state and what state the state was in. Based on her mood, she stated that recalling one's state troops from overseas missions is one state one state could state stately when pressed to recall what is the state of states on one's slate of state issues.
Exactimundo.
When pressed, a shirt starches. Did I mean scorches or lurches? Lunchboxes carry their own waist. Wait, I meant weight. Or did I mean waste? Being mean with the mean of what one means.
That's not it, eye-thur. Who's the author? Who's authoritarian? Can you be authoritarian and not a disciplinarian?
The cajones to legalise illegalities legally. Does plastic-sealed paper money smell like money? Where's your paperwork to paper the place with papier? Or paper-mâché? Or macheted spaghetti?
Noodling around again.
I cannot see the future. I am a translator. My power is not in me. You are the only power I've got. You are the future, are you not? You are the tree rings ringing 'round the divining rod called a preshaven pencil.
We don't need the religion of global warming to make smart business decisions to reduce, reuse and recycle for higher profit margins. You've proven that point pointedly. We estimate our cultural industrial workplace effectiveness by the costliness of extracting metals from rock and from landfills. When you know, you know junkpiles are money piles.
How do you pile your junk from one cycle of learning to the next determines your certitude. Is it better to burn trash or turn it into goo? Do you hook cows up to methane collectors?
What is manure?
Do you take away smugness if you tell the second party that the first party gets to enjoy its smugness in turn? If we're just taking turns, where's the feeling of victory? Ah, history. Those who don't/can't read, don't understand, so why tell them?
Did I tell you about O. D. McKee, who drove to a salvage yard and retrieved a gear from an old washing machine to replace a hand crank at his factory, added a small motor, and "began the automation process which turned his small bakery into one of the nation's largest producers of snack cakes"? [all references to O.D. McKee taken from the back of a snack cake box purchased in 2010 - one way to think outside the box?]
Waste not, want to be knotted.
Ever watched a microwave radiation battle between two satellites orbitting Earth? The silence of glowing things. Space jams in space jams.
While your electronic clothes pass the electricity your body movement generates, what do you pass? Do you pass gas? Do you see yourself as a microwave oven? Can you process all the waveforms passing through you? Are you an electricity and magnetism guru, equating equations to waiting e-friends?
Are you a rooftop gardener, growing veggies and raising goats? Do you share your chickens with the hawks, you being a ecosystem hawk yourself? Can you extract water from the air? Where do you store your collected carbon dioxide? Do you sell carbon credits for batteries to store your wind generation?
If you were trapped all alone on a heat island, what would you want with you?
Sometimes you have to ask the same sets of sets of question sets to set your thought in a new subset you'd intersected more than once before.
I met a young woman who asked me a question, "What's it like to be alone?" I told her it's not lonely if you're a lone wolf. She's asked what it's like to be lonely. I asked her if she was her own god. She nodded. I told her gods are never lonely - they have a universe of gods and servants to fill their thoughts. She agreed. We laughed, we gods. Yegads! Thankfully, we know we aren't important - two gods in the same place, one or both of them knowing a sense of importance ... you don't want that, do you? This planet's too small.
The morning after a woodland walk I found a dead tick attached to my hip. Damn bloodsuckers - don't they know better than to taste the power of the gods?
Time to taste time - this sluggish computer tastes funny.
Time to test the sky. We don't own the world - we just pass the beach ball on to the next player in the next game set. Are you ready? Get set. Go!
Earlier today, based on the crows circling around a hawk (dark wings, dark-banded tail and light-coloured chest), I assume the meal in the talons of a hawk would have grown into an adult crow.
Do you know the "lively red-haired man" behind the Oatmeal Creme Pie, O. D. McKee? To him, I give thanks for Little Debbie snack cakes and a favorite after-lunch dessert of two soft oatmeal cookies sandwiched together with a fluffy creme feeling ("creme" being a word that can designate a special formula that is not exactly cream but a sweet concocted confection). I've enjoyed the pies for 40 years.
While giving myself time to investigate the vegetation growing on the limestone hill behind my house, surveying the sedum, prickly pear and other potential rooftop crops for northern Alabama heat islands (and perhaps other areas of this temperate zone type), I saw the first flowers of late-blooming trout lilies and the first leaves of a large field of shooting stars, along with deer trails, freshly-broken snail shells, and a short-tailed lizard (perhaps a juvenile broad-headed skink).
Storms passed by last night. Then, in clear skies, the reflection of Mars and the Moon directly overhead.
So now, while mourning the loss of a good man who died of cardiac arrest yesterday, grandfather of my niece and nephew, I think about his family's legacy and wonder what he did to teach his kids How to Be Brilliant.
Long before the last couple of generations of us arrived, our species helped usher in the dawn of a new epoch - in the past few thousand years we have demonstrated our ability to alter the landscape, exaggerating the effects of natural climate change. Now, we have the smarts to ask ourselves, "Are we facing another silent spring?"
I met a young woman who asked me if I was more entertained by Holmes older brother or by the 8 femmes. I asked her if a state is a state or a state and what state the state was in. Based on her mood, she stated that recalling one's state troops from overseas missions is one state one state could state stately when pressed to recall what is the state of states on one's slate of state issues.
Exactimundo.
When pressed, a shirt starches. Did I mean scorches or lurches? Lunchboxes carry their own waist. Wait, I meant weight. Or did I mean waste? Being mean with the mean of what one means.
That's not it, eye-thur. Who's the author? Who's authoritarian? Can you be authoritarian and not a disciplinarian?
The cajones to legalise illegalities legally. Does plastic-sealed paper money smell like money? Where's your paperwork to paper the place with papier? Or paper-mâché? Or macheted spaghetti?
Noodling around again.
I cannot see the future. I am a translator. My power is not in me. You are the only power I've got. You are the future, are you not? You are the tree rings ringing 'round the divining rod called a preshaven pencil.
We don't need the religion of global warming to make smart business decisions to reduce, reuse and recycle for higher profit margins. You've proven that point pointedly. We estimate our cultural industrial workplace effectiveness by the costliness of extracting metals from rock and from landfills. When you know, you know junkpiles are money piles.
How do you pile your junk from one cycle of learning to the next determines your certitude. Is it better to burn trash or turn it into goo? Do you hook cows up to methane collectors?
What is manure?
Do you take away smugness if you tell the second party that the first party gets to enjoy its smugness in turn? If we're just taking turns, where's the feeling of victory? Ah, history. Those who don't/can't read, don't understand, so why tell them?
Did I tell you about O. D. McKee, who drove to a salvage yard and retrieved a gear from an old washing machine to replace a hand crank at his factory, added a small motor, and "began the automation process which turned his small bakery into one of the nation's largest producers of snack cakes"? [all references to O.D. McKee taken from the back of a snack cake box purchased in 2010 - one way to think outside the box?]
Waste not, want to be knotted.
Ever watched a microwave radiation battle between two satellites orbitting Earth? The silence of glowing things. Space jams in space jams.
While your electronic clothes pass the electricity your body movement generates, what do you pass? Do you pass gas? Do you see yourself as a microwave oven? Can you process all the waveforms passing through you? Are you an electricity and magnetism guru, equating equations to waiting e-friends?
Are you a rooftop gardener, growing veggies and raising goats? Do you share your chickens with the hawks, you being a ecosystem hawk yourself? Can you extract water from the air? Where do you store your collected carbon dioxide? Do you sell carbon credits for batteries to store your wind generation?
If you were trapped all alone on a heat island, what would you want with you?
Sometimes you have to ask the same sets of sets of question sets to set your thought in a new subset you'd intersected more than once before.
I met a young woman who asked me a question, "What's it like to be alone?" I told her it's not lonely if you're a lone wolf. She's asked what it's like to be lonely. I asked her if she was her own god. She nodded. I told her gods are never lonely - they have a universe of gods and servants to fill their thoughts. She agreed. We laughed, we gods. Yegads! Thankfully, we know we aren't important - two gods in the same place, one or both of them knowing a sense of importance ... you don't want that, do you? This planet's too small.
The morning after a woodland walk I found a dead tick attached to my hip. Damn bloodsuckers - don't they know better than to taste the power of the gods?
Time to taste time - this sluggish computer tastes funny.
Time to test the sky. We don't own the world - we just pass the beach ball on to the next player in the next game set. Are you ready? Get set. Go!
24 March 2010
The Experiment Called Your Life
How often do you convince yourself that an external force keeps you from being you?
Well, this blog entry has nothing to do with the previous sentence.
Well, this blog entry has nothing to do with the previous sentence.
Well, this blog entry has sentences to do with the previous nothing.
Is there anything logical about the observed universe?
Is there anything universal about the observed logic?
Is anything there?
Can you observe anything?
How do you push yourself along when you're squatting like a stubborn donkey?
Are you a mule?
Are you a stool pigeon?
If the pursuit of wealth makes you happy, will you be happy when you stop pursuing and spend time simply enjoying your wealth?
Financial wizards keep upping the size of the retirement carrot in front of the donkey. Isn't it time you figured out that standards of living are imaginary and you can live any life you choose (or don't choose), given the amount of money available to you?
Happiness is a number of atoms. Happiness is being alive. We never know the happiness of being alive until we get that temporary reprieve some have received in momentary deathlike states.
Find the happiness in being alive and nothing else will matter. No need for second homes, second automobiles, secondhand automobiles, the latest disposable gadget, or even the necessities of life you thought were so essential to you yesterday.
Happiness is the image you want to look at everyday - the image of you reflected back to you. I found that image when I was in the crib, lost it again, found it again, lost it again, found it again, and wonder why I spend time here when my happiness makes me want to sit still and listen to the sounds of the forest today.
Excellent observation, Rick. I'm going to stop blogging for a few days and enjoy life at its simplest happiness. I don't need complex interactions to justify my existence to you just because I actually enjoy being me in the moment. You enjoyed your life before I came along - why don't you and I enjoy life away from this blog and other electronic devices for a while?
See what life was like before we developed language! The happiness of a newborn baby, satisfactorily warm and full of food.
Well, this blog entry has nothing to do with the previous sentence.
Well, this blog entry has nothing to do with the previous sentence.
Well, this blog entry has sentences to do with the previous nothing.
Is there anything logical about the observed universe?
Is there anything universal about the observed logic?
Is anything there?
Can you observe anything?
How do you push yourself along when you're squatting like a stubborn donkey?
Are you a mule?
Are you a stool pigeon?
If the pursuit of wealth makes you happy, will you be happy when you stop pursuing and spend time simply enjoying your wealth?
Financial wizards keep upping the size of the retirement carrot in front of the donkey. Isn't it time you figured out that standards of living are imaginary and you can live any life you choose (or don't choose), given the amount of money available to you?
Happiness is a number of atoms. Happiness is being alive. We never know the happiness of being alive until we get that temporary reprieve some have received in momentary deathlike states.
Find the happiness in being alive and nothing else will matter. No need for second homes, second automobiles, secondhand automobiles, the latest disposable gadget, or even the necessities of life you thought were so essential to you yesterday.
Happiness is the image you want to look at everyday - the image of you reflected back to you. I found that image when I was in the crib, lost it again, found it again, lost it again, found it again, and wonder why I spend time here when my happiness makes me want to sit still and listen to the sounds of the forest today.
Excellent observation, Rick. I'm going to stop blogging for a few days and enjoy life at its simplest happiness. I don't need complex interactions to justify my existence to you just because I actually enjoy being me in the moment. You enjoyed your life before I came along - why don't you and I enjoy life away from this blog and other electronic devices for a while?
See what life was like before we developed language! The happiness of a newborn baby, satisfactorily warm and full of food.
23 March 2010
What Is Humour?
Outside, blue skies and a contractor crew pulling cable through the neighbourhood.
Inside, contemplating the news that some associates are pulling together a gathering called the "Unemployed Millions March" on Washington after they figured out which demographic represents 48% of unemployed Americans. Either that, or organise a bunch of flash mobs and one-day strikes on all the state capitols and the U.S. capitol on 15th April.
I want to rule a well-oiled machine but instead I get a pile of spaghetti noodles covered with olive oil. Such is my fate, is it not, being a food fiend and not a regular fiend?
What do I do next? The pressure cooker's getting a little hot and there are some folks who are boiling mad and want action.
At the same time, there are entrepreneurial friends of mine who want to take advantage of this moment and push for more anger action activity in media - bigger and badder fights on TV, more than cream pies being thrown at celebrities, that sort of thing.
And all I want to do is live a quiet, peaceful, retired life, making a pile of dough that I can't spend while I'm alive 'cause it's too hot to handle.
Do I give the go-ahead for the nationwide strike and popup crowds? Can I be assured these will ease the violent tendencies so we can move on to more constructive maneuvers?
In my hand I have a few tens of thousands of ultra-motivated social beings standing on top of hundreds of thousands of motivated social beings sitting on top of millions of partially-motivated social beings lying on top of billions of unmotivated social beings.
Point made. We are social beings.
So let's socialise.
How do we constructively dismantle a broken system? How do we eliminate public and private debt without creating more destitution when eliminating the creditors' credit along with the debtors' debt?
How do we motivate the unmotivated? Can they be reanimated? Rejuvenated?
If life if a set of pyramid schemes, some of them declared legal, then how do we resolidify the insolvent foundations?
I am both full and devoid of morals and ethics. I practice what I've been taught but believe not a word of the teaching. It is just as easy for me to imagine erasing this planet of all living things as it is to imagine that every living thing is sacred, from harmless minutia to hardened militia.
In other words, every solution to what we call problems is perceivable.
However, I don't believe we want nuclear winter - total, mutual annihilation of life via thermonuclear war.
We obsess about theater-based nuclear war just as much as we obsess about everyone having the "right" to a life of safe, growing standards of living. Just ask Israel and Iran. Do either one of them care about North Korea as much as Japan? What about China and Taiwan?
We are creatures who have developed strong emotional thought sets - avenge a wrong, fall in love, happiness of a new birth, sadness of death.
Therefore, every answer for a problem in society requires thoughtful consideration of our emotional states. We are primates with nearly hairless faces for a reason, so they say.
So they say! [I enjoy making fun of people who repeat phrases sardonically]
Every country worries that the Internet will give a new set of virtual leaders the power to call a global strike or demonstrate some other means of taking control from national political/corporate leaders. Global companies worry that no nation could provide the security services necessary to keep local entropy from growing into worldwide anarchic chaos.
Every system is neutral, providing friends and foes the same tools, with pluses and minuses, positive and negative pathways to the future.
Can a quark think? Can a quark laugh? What is intelligence? What is humour?
You can think. You can laugh. You have intelligence and humour in you.
No matter how much I control the virtual world in this blog, Earth spins and its shadow passes over the treetops at sunset when clouds don't cover the sky and Sarkozy watches his reign spin out of control.
I am unimportant which makes you the most important person in the world (since there's only you and me in this universe). I love every one of you and want you to discover within yourself what it is that makes you important to yourself and others. I also want you to see why those around you are important and worthwhile to you.
Your opinions are also important, just as much as your laughter. Express your opinions by screaming at the top of your lungs, if you wish, but give time to listen to the responses of those around you, including those who share your opinions and those who don't.
Make 15th April a day to gather with friends and share your opinions. As for me, I want to hear what Obama has to say about the American space exploration program when he plans to visit Florida that day. You may have other important places to gather with your friends and express your opinions.
This Internet thing is a fun tool to use. For years, I filled up journals with my observations about the environment around me and always wondered what would happen to them since no one besides me read them unless I turned journal entries into poems, short stories or books. Now I have this thing called a blog, a catalogue of my thoughts recorded on the World Wide Web, that anyone with a computer connection can read. And all I keep doing is writing about you, like I always have.
The Internet, with its virtual worlds, and the real world in which the Internet resides, all belong to you. Empower yourself to use this tool to improve your life and those around you rather than spend time tearing down the lives of others to make you feel better.
We don't have to like each other but we can find a way to put our mutual dislike to both our favours. You'll figure out how if you use your intelligence and sense of humour to enhance your emotional states.
See you in the real world soon, if not sooner. On a schooner. Rooting for or against the Sooners, depending on the opponents they plan to route real soon. All while peaceably listening to Claire Lynch's new tunes and appreciating good, local talent who's just as comfortable singing in front of one as she is when singing with her band in front of tens of thousands.
We live and then we die. Everything else is up to us, from rooftop living in Cairo to living on the mesa in New Mexico.
Inside, contemplating the news that some associates are pulling together a gathering called the "Unemployed Millions March" on Washington after they figured out which demographic represents 48% of unemployed Americans. Either that, or organise a bunch of flash mobs and one-day strikes on all the state capitols and the U.S. capitol on 15th April.
I want to rule a well-oiled machine but instead I get a pile of spaghetti noodles covered with olive oil. Such is my fate, is it not, being a food fiend and not a regular fiend?
What do I do next? The pressure cooker's getting a little hot and there are some folks who are boiling mad and want action.
At the same time, there are entrepreneurial friends of mine who want to take advantage of this moment and push for more anger action activity in media - bigger and badder fights on TV, more than cream pies being thrown at celebrities, that sort of thing.
And all I want to do is live a quiet, peaceful, retired life, making a pile of dough that I can't spend while I'm alive 'cause it's too hot to handle.
Do I give the go-ahead for the nationwide strike and popup crowds? Can I be assured these will ease the violent tendencies so we can move on to more constructive maneuvers?
In my hand I have a few tens of thousands of ultra-motivated social beings standing on top of hundreds of thousands of motivated social beings sitting on top of millions of partially-motivated social beings lying on top of billions of unmotivated social beings.
Point made. We are social beings.
So let's socialise.
How do we constructively dismantle a broken system? How do we eliminate public and private debt without creating more destitution when eliminating the creditors' credit along with the debtors' debt?
How do we motivate the unmotivated? Can they be reanimated? Rejuvenated?
If life if a set of pyramid schemes, some of them declared legal, then how do we resolidify the insolvent foundations?
I am both full and devoid of morals and ethics. I practice what I've been taught but believe not a word of the teaching. It is just as easy for me to imagine erasing this planet of all living things as it is to imagine that every living thing is sacred, from harmless minutia to hardened militia.
In other words, every solution to what we call problems is perceivable.
However, I don't believe we want nuclear winter - total, mutual annihilation of life via thermonuclear war.
We obsess about theater-based nuclear war just as much as we obsess about everyone having the "right" to a life of safe, growing standards of living. Just ask Israel and Iran. Do either one of them care about North Korea as much as Japan? What about China and Taiwan?
We are creatures who have developed strong emotional thought sets - avenge a wrong, fall in love, happiness of a new birth, sadness of death.
Therefore, every answer for a problem in society requires thoughtful consideration of our emotional states. We are primates with nearly hairless faces for a reason, so they say.
So they say! [I enjoy making fun of people who repeat phrases sardonically]
Every country worries that the Internet will give a new set of virtual leaders the power to call a global strike or demonstrate some other means of taking control from national political/corporate leaders. Global companies worry that no nation could provide the security services necessary to keep local entropy from growing into worldwide anarchic chaos.
Every system is neutral, providing friends and foes the same tools, with pluses and minuses, positive and negative pathways to the future.
Can a quark think? Can a quark laugh? What is intelligence? What is humour?
You can think. You can laugh. You have intelligence and humour in you.
No matter how much I control the virtual world in this blog, Earth spins and its shadow passes over the treetops at sunset when clouds don't cover the sky and Sarkozy watches his reign spin out of control.
I am unimportant which makes you the most important person in the world (since there's only you and me in this universe). I love every one of you and want you to discover within yourself what it is that makes you important to yourself and others. I also want you to see why those around you are important and worthwhile to you.
Your opinions are also important, just as much as your laughter. Express your opinions by screaming at the top of your lungs, if you wish, but give time to listen to the responses of those around you, including those who share your opinions and those who don't.
Make 15th April a day to gather with friends and share your opinions. As for me, I want to hear what Obama has to say about the American space exploration program when he plans to visit Florida that day. You may have other important places to gather with your friends and express your opinions.
This Internet thing is a fun tool to use. For years, I filled up journals with my observations about the environment around me and always wondered what would happen to them since no one besides me read them unless I turned journal entries into poems, short stories or books. Now I have this thing called a blog, a catalogue of my thoughts recorded on the World Wide Web, that anyone with a computer connection can read. And all I keep doing is writing about you, like I always have.
The Internet, with its virtual worlds, and the real world in which the Internet resides, all belong to you. Empower yourself to use this tool to improve your life and those around you rather than spend time tearing down the lives of others to make you feel better.
We don't have to like each other but we can find a way to put our mutual dislike to both our favours. You'll figure out how if you use your intelligence and sense of humour to enhance your emotional states.
See you in the real world soon, if not sooner. On a schooner. Rooting for or against the Sooners, depending on the opponents they plan to route real soon. All while peaceably listening to Claire Lynch's new tunes and appreciating good, local talent who's just as comfortable singing in front of one as she is when singing with her band in front of tens of thousands.
We live and then we die. Everything else is up to us, from rooftop living in Cairo to living on the mesa in New Mexico.
22 March 2010
The World Did Not End Today ... Now What?
Kudos to Pelosi and Merkel for keeping their positions relevant in today's economy.
[ And now, a word from our sponsor ]
Do you feel lonely and tired? Have you found yourself in your life? Do you feel happy and satisfied? Do you have no idea who or what you should be or are?
We know how you feel.
In these times of all times, isn't it time you gave a thought to why you have that nagging feeling you know what's going to happen before it happens?
You see, you do already know what's going to happen. After all, people are people everywhere. That's why we're here to remind you you have developed a brand-new system for taking control of your life and the lives of people around you who haven't yet developed their own system of infinite power and mind control.
Normally, we would charge weekly consulting fees to tell you what you already know. But, for a limited time only, we're not going to charge you perpetually. In fact, we're not going to submit a bill for any amount at all. Instead, we're giving away, totally free, the information you already have in your head.
That's right! If you don't call within the next 48 hours, you will receive absolutely nothing from us for nothing at all.
You heard that right, folks! We're offering this package to you with the special added bonus of you discovering your own lifetime benefit of unlimited wealth and happiness without spending any money or investing any time in listening to us or our expert panel of expert experts.
So hurry! This offer is only good for your lifetime. Should you fail to take advantage of this deal, you have no one to blame, not even yourself, because you made a decision, consciously or subconsciously, to do something else entirely. And guess what! It's okay! You'll live a wonderful life either way!
[ Now back to your regularly scheduled blog entry ]
Some colleagues of mine have sent me their setups on several game boards - Monopoly, Risk, Life, Go, chess, D&D, Stratego, Chutes & Ladders, Operation - and asked me to guess the outcome. Every colleague stressed the seriousness of the game, comparing it to Jumanji or Zathura in the influence the game's moves have on real life. My colleagues want me to prove to them that the Book of the Future predicts not only the final outcome but the changes to this part of the universe every game piece movement makes.
As you know, the universe operates according to my wishes but not my demands. Being a retired individual, not actively involved in swaying public opinion or stock market manipulation, I view this universe of mine with a sly twinkle in my eye, allowing humourous diversions to cause occasional irregularity in the form of temporary layoffs, good times, and micro-anarchic chaos.
Disposable credit card numbers, fake caller ID, disposable phone numbers, counterfeit passports, lack of a real home address - all these add up to shuffling game pieces around the globe invisibly. What you see on the game board, as we've seen, is never what the game is all about. We've been here before, haven't we?
But colleagues still want to know the answers I've already given them. They're caught in a loop of unbelievability. They cannot accept the fact that their game-changing shots are statistically insignificant when the future is already known.
That's why I tell you I'm neutral when it comes to seeing and telling you what the Book of the Future has laid out for us.
For instance, I support my buddies who say they don't believe in government handouts. At the same time, I've built my financial portfolio on paychecks tied to government contracts and investments in government-backed securities which exist to support those who receive government handouts and use them in the marketplace to churn the value of labor units over and over. I know that government bureaucracies rarely shrink in size but then again they feed a lot of people on this planet, keeping them happily employed and willing to buy products developed/built in part by many people who received free primary/secondary public education and postsecondary education subsidised by the government.
We live in a complex society that's not easily represented by any single board game. Who are the pawns? Where is Boardwalk? Can you really pass Go when you play Go with Play-doh? D'oh!
I'm not a liberal. I'm not a neocon. I'm not a conservative. I'm neutral and independent. My only focus is our species in total, which represents life on this planet that can spread out into the universe regardless of moral, ethical or environmental concerns, because most everything comes out of the wash looking clean.
Did I not tell you that the Book of the Future said that Obama would come out smelling like a winner? I did not vote for him or his predecessor. I do not care, but others do, who holds the office of the U.S. presidency. I understand the political hierarchy necessary to keep any government system running so I vote for independents to allow myself the freedom to observe our political-industrial complex in action without any personal vested interests.
Tomorrow, the chief executive representing one of the three branches of government established by U.S. constitutional law will sign into law a set of financial constraints tied to the institution of medical health care. The Book of the Future indicates this is only one of several goals that must be met to prevent debt-crushing blows to another world power.
Politicians and mass media criers who want to represent the emotional buildup of opposition to the political party in power will play up the failings sensed in any change to the status quo. So be it. The larger the perceived change, the louder the opposition yells. Let us celebrate our pendulum-swinging political process with joy. After all, it works well, both historically into the past and historically into the future!
While elected public officials hit the campaign fund trail to shore up support for upcoming elections, let's pause a moment and look at other issues that will make government policies lose their immediacy and become another historic moment for schoolchildren to memorise later on.
Let's consider the role of the individual: YOU.
Are you willing to insert/embed electronic equipment in your body to vastly improve your ability to communicate with others? Are you willing to have a disposable identity that does away with any worries about identity theft because we're all temporary placeholders for personal identification information, including fingerprints and other genetic anomalies?
Can you imagine a scenario where you have no social goals tied to a name or group because, although you may experience and apply intense social-climbing skills, you have been trained to believe your ascendancy is for the benefit of our species and not for individually-named glory? In this scenario, you still have your independence, including guaranteed freedoms like uncensored speech, but in this particular freedom case your speech would be crowdsourced with the voices of others and blended with the rest of our species' freedoms quasi-anonymously.
The Book of the Future long ago told us about these scenarios that predicted the species-wide broadband initiative we're slowly implementing to tie our thoughts and actions together 24-hours a day.
The Power of You. I told you this blog is only about you. Every single one of you/me/us.
When our lives are transparent, what is a "community standard" we expect others to follow? That's the main issue we have to address that will make all other government decisions fade in importance - the hierarchy of family, community and species' standards. Do e-citizens have community standards separate from digital illiterates? Can a tribe be allowed to maintain its traditional ways and slaughter the last remaining specimens of a species, even if it means the end of the tribe members' traditions/livelihood?
We have reached the point where groups like the United Nations no longer represent our species well. We must look to something more meaningful - a world council made of all of us - the complete expansion of the Internet, where tribes, corporations, nations, civic groups and independent thinkers have equal say in our mixed-mode hierarchy of daily living.
Your Voice Rules. We know the future laid out for us. We know we will raise the standards of living for all of us, not just socioeconomically, but also in respect to respect for one another's existence/opinion.
For instance, Apple, Dell, HP, IBM and others have the power to empower unemployed Americans using government-backed retraining/retooling to replace the supply chain stranglehold in China and build high-tech manufacturing expertise on this continent while China builds its domestic market and stops complaining about its currency pricefixing. Tata Motors can compete globally. Ireland can rebuild, one website at a time. Baidu and Google can become partners rather than competitors. And I can rest assured that our species has plans to train a new generation of space explorers.
After all, those of us with a view of the future already know what's going to happen - how we choose to freely participate in the moment is up to us because we know life takes first priority and everything else gets seconds.
See you at the spaceport soon!
[ And now, a word from our sponsor ]
Do you feel lonely and tired? Have you found yourself in your life? Do you feel happy and satisfied? Do you have no idea who or what you should be or are?
We know how you feel.
In these times of all times, isn't it time you gave a thought to why you have that nagging feeling you know what's going to happen before it happens?
You see, you do already know what's going to happen. After all, people are people everywhere. That's why we're here to remind you you have developed a brand-new system for taking control of your life and the lives of people around you who haven't yet developed their own system of infinite power and mind control.
Normally, we would charge weekly consulting fees to tell you what you already know. But, for a limited time only, we're not going to charge you perpetually. In fact, we're not going to submit a bill for any amount at all. Instead, we're giving away, totally free, the information you already have in your head.
That's right! If you don't call within the next 48 hours, you will receive absolutely nothing from us for nothing at all.
You heard that right, folks! We're offering this package to you with the special added bonus of you discovering your own lifetime benefit of unlimited wealth and happiness without spending any money or investing any time in listening to us or our expert panel of expert experts.
So hurry! This offer is only good for your lifetime. Should you fail to take advantage of this deal, you have no one to blame, not even yourself, because you made a decision, consciously or subconsciously, to do something else entirely. And guess what! It's okay! You'll live a wonderful life either way!
[ Now back to your regularly scheduled blog entry ]
Some colleagues of mine have sent me their setups on several game boards - Monopoly, Risk, Life, Go, chess, D&D, Stratego, Chutes & Ladders, Operation - and asked me to guess the outcome. Every colleague stressed the seriousness of the game, comparing it to Jumanji or Zathura in the influence the game's moves have on real life. My colleagues want me to prove to them that the Book of the Future predicts not only the final outcome but the changes to this part of the universe every game piece movement makes.
As you know, the universe operates according to my wishes but not my demands. Being a retired individual, not actively involved in swaying public opinion or stock market manipulation, I view this universe of mine with a sly twinkle in my eye, allowing humourous diversions to cause occasional irregularity in the form of temporary layoffs, good times, and micro-anarchic chaos.
Disposable credit card numbers, fake caller ID, disposable phone numbers, counterfeit passports, lack of a real home address - all these add up to shuffling game pieces around the globe invisibly. What you see on the game board, as we've seen, is never what the game is all about. We've been here before, haven't we?
But colleagues still want to know the answers I've already given them. They're caught in a loop of unbelievability. They cannot accept the fact that their game-changing shots are statistically insignificant when the future is already known.
That's why I tell you I'm neutral when it comes to seeing and telling you what the Book of the Future has laid out for us.
For instance, I support my buddies who say they don't believe in government handouts. At the same time, I've built my financial portfolio on paychecks tied to government contracts and investments in government-backed securities which exist to support those who receive government handouts and use them in the marketplace to churn the value of labor units over and over. I know that government bureaucracies rarely shrink in size but then again they feed a lot of people on this planet, keeping them happily employed and willing to buy products developed/built in part by many people who received free primary/secondary public education and postsecondary education subsidised by the government.
We live in a complex society that's not easily represented by any single board game. Who are the pawns? Where is Boardwalk? Can you really pass Go when you play Go with Play-doh? D'oh!
I'm not a liberal. I'm not a neocon. I'm not a conservative. I'm neutral and independent. My only focus is our species in total, which represents life on this planet that can spread out into the universe regardless of moral, ethical or environmental concerns, because most everything comes out of the wash looking clean.
Did I not tell you that the Book of the Future said that Obama would come out smelling like a winner? I did not vote for him or his predecessor. I do not care, but others do, who holds the office of the U.S. presidency. I understand the political hierarchy necessary to keep any government system running so I vote for independents to allow myself the freedom to observe our political-industrial complex in action without any personal vested interests.
Tomorrow, the chief executive representing one of the three branches of government established by U.S. constitutional law will sign into law a set of financial constraints tied to the institution of medical health care. The Book of the Future indicates this is only one of several goals that must be met to prevent debt-crushing blows to another world power.
Politicians and mass media criers who want to represent the emotional buildup of opposition to the political party in power will play up the failings sensed in any change to the status quo. So be it. The larger the perceived change, the louder the opposition yells. Let us celebrate our pendulum-swinging political process with joy. After all, it works well, both historically into the past and historically into the future!
While elected public officials hit the campaign fund trail to shore up support for upcoming elections, let's pause a moment and look at other issues that will make government policies lose their immediacy and become another historic moment for schoolchildren to memorise later on.
Let's consider the role of the individual: YOU.
Are you willing to insert/embed electronic equipment in your body to vastly improve your ability to communicate with others? Are you willing to have a disposable identity that does away with any worries about identity theft because we're all temporary placeholders for personal identification information, including fingerprints and other genetic anomalies?
Can you imagine a scenario where you have no social goals tied to a name or group because, although you may experience and apply intense social-climbing skills, you have been trained to believe your ascendancy is for the benefit of our species and not for individually-named glory? In this scenario, you still have your independence, including guaranteed freedoms like uncensored speech, but in this particular freedom case your speech would be crowdsourced with the voices of others and blended with the rest of our species' freedoms quasi-anonymously.
The Book of the Future long ago told us about these scenarios that predicted the species-wide broadband initiative we're slowly implementing to tie our thoughts and actions together 24-hours a day.
The Power of You. I told you this blog is only about you. Every single one of you/me/us.
When our lives are transparent, what is a "community standard" we expect others to follow? That's the main issue we have to address that will make all other government decisions fade in importance - the hierarchy of family, community and species' standards. Do e-citizens have community standards separate from digital illiterates? Can a tribe be allowed to maintain its traditional ways and slaughter the last remaining specimens of a species, even if it means the end of the tribe members' traditions/livelihood?
We have reached the point where groups like the United Nations no longer represent our species well. We must look to something more meaningful - a world council made of all of us - the complete expansion of the Internet, where tribes, corporations, nations, civic groups and independent thinkers have equal say in our mixed-mode hierarchy of daily living.
Your Voice Rules. We know the future laid out for us. We know we will raise the standards of living for all of us, not just socioeconomically, but also in respect to respect for one another's existence/opinion.
For instance, Apple, Dell, HP, IBM and others have the power to empower unemployed Americans using government-backed retraining/retooling to replace the supply chain stranglehold in China and build high-tech manufacturing expertise on this continent while China builds its domestic market and stops complaining about its currency pricefixing. Tata Motors can compete globally. Ireland can rebuild, one website at a time. Baidu and Google can become partners rather than competitors. And I can rest assured that our species has plans to train a new generation of space explorers.
After all, those of us with a view of the future already know what's going to happen - how we choose to freely participate in the moment is up to us because we know life takes first priority and everything else gets seconds.
See you at the spaceport soon!
Holy Elementary!
Makes sense to me:
АМЕРИКАНСКИЕ ФИЗИКИ ПРИШЛИ К СЕНСАЦИОННОМУ ЗАКЛЮЧЕНИЮ
Now, how do we go about using this information for business/technology innovation? Find out where these microscopic black holes are leading us? Is dark matter involved? Are we slipping in and out of multiple universes and somewhere deep down in our thoughts we know we are quickly evaporating and reappearing constantly?
Let's ask Steve Hsu to shed light on the matter: Backreaction, black holes and monsters
АМЕРИКАНСКИЕ ФИЗИКИ ПРИШЛИ К СЕНСАЦИОННОМУ ЗАКЛЮЧЕНИЮ
Now, how do we go about using this information for business/technology innovation? Find out where these microscopic black holes are leading us? Is dark matter involved? Are we slipping in and out of multiple universes and somewhere deep down in our thoughts we know we are quickly evaporating and reappearing constantly?
Let's ask Steve Hsu to shed light on the matter: Backreaction, black holes and monsters
Who Are Your Suppliers?
Exactly where in the supply chain process do you have control? Innovation occurs at all steps of the process - do you empower your suppliers or dictate your demands to them?:
21 March 2010
Let Level Heads Prevail
While secret organisations prepare to call their troops to actions, I hope we have our national guard on duty in this country, focused on keeping us focused on the big picture and not on local slices of time that are always full of change and thus full of strong emotional pull. Don't get trapped into getting provoked. Folks hold flint and steel and cotton balls, ready to set the spark of chaotic controversy for their personal gain, not yours.
I want the ability to shop for fresh fruit and vegetables without worrying about if I'm carrying the politically-correct paperwork while passing through armoured checkpoints. I have friends who have lived in such situations and are lucky to be alive to tell me about them.
We choose our futures in the thoughts and actions of this moment. Consider your next move carefully. Our future depends on what you say or do right now.
Some people have already revealed what they're going to do next and their leaders are telling them to hold off until the sign is given to everyone in their groups to proceed in a coordinated maneuver.
I'm neutral about what's going to happen next. The Book of the Future has already prepared me for the best and the worst that can happen. Either way, I made my peace with the world the day my brother in-law died in 2006. I am not him but I'm prepared by my Eagle Boy Scout training to do the right thing by him.
I will not let this country fail or falter in the face of global competition. This country represents hope for the world in the realm of free speech and freedom of religious practice - immigrants keep pouring in who know what other countries' leaders and their organisations do not represent well: government of the people, by the people and for the people. It's not just about money, although money helps us pay for those who protect the freedoms we love dearly.
Have mercy on your neighbour - you do not know what s/he has gone through to get where s/he is in life right now.
If you start a class war, be prepared to face the consequences of your actions. Heroes and enemies are just words. The pen is mightier than a sword and deadlier than a bullet in the heat of battle. Have you considered the counter-counter-counter-counter-counter attacks already prepared against you?
Unemployment is high and unrest is growing. GDP and gross domestic emotional stability are not directly proportional. Do you want to be the one who helped social scientists develop the correct formula?
I close this blog entry in order to enjoy domestic tranquility with my wife and our two cats - my ultimate moment of meditation no one interrupts without consequence.
This blog is about you and your future. I am unimportant. If you read these words, consider their meaning carefully. Your life is in your hands, not mine. This moment's all I've got and I choose to spend it with my life partner. Maybe you should, too. There's always a chance it's the last moment any of us have together but I sure hope not. I've got a moon cruise to catch one day soon - who else but my wife to spend it with!
I want the ability to shop for fresh fruit and vegetables without worrying about if I'm carrying the politically-correct paperwork while passing through armoured checkpoints. I have friends who have lived in such situations and are lucky to be alive to tell me about them.
We choose our futures in the thoughts and actions of this moment. Consider your next move carefully. Our future depends on what you say or do right now.
Some people have already revealed what they're going to do next and their leaders are telling them to hold off until the sign is given to everyone in their groups to proceed in a coordinated maneuver.
I'm neutral about what's going to happen next. The Book of the Future has already prepared me for the best and the worst that can happen. Either way, I made my peace with the world the day my brother in-law died in 2006. I am not him but I'm prepared by my Eagle Boy Scout training to do the right thing by him.
I will not let this country fail or falter in the face of global competition. This country represents hope for the world in the realm of free speech and freedom of religious practice - immigrants keep pouring in who know what other countries' leaders and their organisations do not represent well: government of the people, by the people and for the people. It's not just about money, although money helps us pay for those who protect the freedoms we love dearly.
Have mercy on your neighbour - you do not know what s/he has gone through to get where s/he is in life right now.
If you start a class war, be prepared to face the consequences of your actions. Heroes and enemies are just words. The pen is mightier than a sword and deadlier than a bullet in the heat of battle. Have you considered the counter-counter-counter-counter-counter attacks already prepared against you?
Unemployment is high and unrest is growing. GDP and gross domestic emotional stability are not directly proportional. Do you want to be the one who helped social scientists develop the correct formula?
I close this blog entry in order to enjoy domestic tranquility with my wife and our two cats - my ultimate moment of meditation no one interrupts without consequence.
This blog is about you and your future. I am unimportant. If you read these words, consider their meaning carefully. Your life is in your hands, not mine. This moment's all I've got and I choose to spend it with my life partner. Maybe you should, too. There's always a chance it's the last moment any of us have together but I sure hope not. I've got a moon cruise to catch one day soon - who else but my wife to spend it with!
Roaches and Cyclones
With my house openly tethered to the underground and secretly connected to the world's largest computing system, I gain access to more accessless data than I can possibly use.
Possibly.
Instead, I've employed the natural environment, including the ants, spiders, roaches, and varmints that hang out in my home. In exchange for food, including dust (including my skin (including skin parasites))), the organisms crunch the data for me, creating information and knowledge. From that, I extract and create wisdom.
Then, and only then, do I compare the processed data to the Book of the Future.
They say you should never buy a house in good weather. Buy the house when rain is falling and the yard is full of poodles swimming in puddles. That's why shoppers are flooding to North Dakota right now - whatever is not under water will keep you safe, dry and fully employed, statistically-speaking.
So here I have a handful of pencils, ready to read the Book of the Future to make sure the wood roach on the ceiling is doing its job. Otherwise, I won't be crunching data in my next round of data reduction.
Are the cyclones spinning over land masses and large bodies of water larger or smaller, faster or slower, more or less intense, taller or shorter than average, than the past few years, than the next few years, ever, or never?
I had unplugged myself from the local environment in order to feel the effect of the total universe on my person. But now, it's now to feel the power. Here goes ...
Trench warfare in a new form. Bacterial factorials. Mr. Trousdale in a dale wearing trousers fishing for trout. Training the nouveau riche to live frugally, enjoying the power of giving empowerment. Iran becoming a protectorate of the east Asian bloc, India and Russia holding the balance beam on blocks.
Popularity no longer posh. Relative obscurity the new strength in Roman numerals.
Trading Patagonia clothes for Patagonia clothes.
NASCAR 100-lap demolition derbies, complete with teams trying to wreck others teams to the hard beat of music and dancing beauty queen acrobatic cheerleader squads during "halftime" of NASCAR 500-lap snoozer races.
Professional golf tournaments will turn into judged events, with golfers' scores based on twitter buzz built on sex-crazed versus family-friendly advertising campaigns.
Twitter will fund the development of a device that connects directly to the brain stem, bypassing the upper brain functionality and passing messages via basic instincts.
The rest of the world will weigh an us-vs-them attitude that restricts trade with east Asia until the renminbi is destroyed. In retaliation, east Asian countries will no longer process raw materials for companies within countries outside east Asia.
A submarine will "accidentally" sink a ship belonging to a neutral nation instead of launching another stealth sickness bomb on unsuspecting cruise ships.
Cuba and Haiti will unite, becoming the immigration destination for many Americans seeking a safe tax shelter haven without extradition treaties with other countries.
Guyana and Guyane will declare Suriname a jointly-owned subset of their countries, leading to Brazil completely taking over South America to preserve peace and get Venezuela out of the publicly-owned/state enterprise business so that tourism will increase. In turn, the Falkland Islands declare war on América do Sul. Great Britain tells the Falklanders they're on their own this time - Gordon Brown is no Margaret Thatcher.
Icelanders decide to change their country's name to Volcanoland, freeing up Greenland to change its name to Iceland and set the record straight on who has the most ice and thus the strongest influence on the fate of the civilised world.
Russia annexes Mongolia. While its back is turned focused on keeping China at bay, Russia misses the fact that Finland had annexed Saint Petersburg.
A set of scientifically-minded dairy farmers prove that molded moon dust really does makes some good-tasting green cheese, finally showing that the flat-Earth people are wrong and our moon is a separate sphere floating in the Sky Ocean above us next to the tiny dots of light that are actually glowing globs of bioluminescent bacteria, not stars, setting back astronomical physics 2000 years. Astrologists declare their charts are still accurate.
What looks to us like a strange shadow will, in fact, represent an infinitely-large roach that will step on our universe 500 years from now and crush all our theories and postulations about science, creation and anything that we used to justify our belief the oil drop we live in is the only thing that exists. The roach will lick its leg and swallow the portion of the drop in which we live. What's left of us and our universe will lodge in the stomach lining of the roach for the next 20,000 years of our existence, leading us to develop new civilisations based on revamped theories of the megauniverse we see from inside an insect's body.
Oh, one last observation from the Book of the Future. Healthcare costs will keep rising. Corporations will purposefully bankrupt every country, one by one, and turn all of us into happy servants of the system who eat get-well pills while making money off one another gladly. We will joyously watch the Earth Company, Conglomerated, come into existence and tell us what to do with our lives.
Wait. What am I saying? That's the prediction 200 years ago about today. Sorry, wrong page.
'ere we go. The rise of the global citizen will empower us to take control of our lives, crowdsourcing our decisions with our fellow connected e-citizens and creating a permanent underclass of non-e campesinos relegated to working the farms, factories and soft/support/retail jobs without healthcare or financial security support. Black market sales will overtake legitimate sales as more and more people develop the habit of bartering rather than paying the overhead of retail shopping, further driving down high-tech profit margins, forcing more and more companies to move their manufacturing to unregulated labor markets. "B-market shopping therapy" becomes the phrase du jour while Africa overtakes China and India as the next great manufacturing/tech center.
Possibly.
Instead, I've employed the natural environment, including the ants, spiders, roaches, and varmints that hang out in my home. In exchange for food, including dust (including my skin (including skin parasites))), the organisms crunch the data for me, creating information and knowledge. From that, I extract and create wisdom.
Then, and only then, do I compare the processed data to the Book of the Future.
They say you should never buy a house in good weather. Buy the house when rain is falling and the yard is full of poodles swimming in puddles. That's why shoppers are flooding to North Dakota right now - whatever is not under water will keep you safe, dry and fully employed, statistically-speaking.
So here I have a handful of pencils, ready to read the Book of the Future to make sure the wood roach on the ceiling is doing its job. Otherwise, I won't be crunching data in my next round of data reduction.
Are the cyclones spinning over land masses and large bodies of water larger or smaller, faster or slower, more or less intense, taller or shorter than average, than the past few years, than the next few years, ever, or never?
I had unplugged myself from the local environment in order to feel the effect of the total universe on my person. But now, it's now to feel the power. Here goes ...
Trench warfare in a new form. Bacterial factorials. Mr. Trousdale in a dale wearing trousers fishing for trout. Training the nouveau riche to live frugally, enjoying the power of giving empowerment. Iran becoming a protectorate of the east Asian bloc, India and Russia holding the balance beam on blocks.
Popularity no longer posh. Relative obscurity the new strength in Roman numerals.
Trading Patagonia clothes for Patagonia clothes.
NASCAR 100-lap demolition derbies, complete with teams trying to wreck others teams to the hard beat of music and dancing beauty queen acrobatic cheerleader squads during "halftime" of NASCAR 500-lap snoozer races.
Professional golf tournaments will turn into judged events, with golfers' scores based on twitter buzz built on sex-crazed versus family-friendly advertising campaigns.
Twitter will fund the development of a device that connects directly to the brain stem, bypassing the upper brain functionality and passing messages via basic instincts.
The rest of the world will weigh an us-vs-them attitude that restricts trade with east Asia until the renminbi is destroyed. In retaliation, east Asian countries will no longer process raw materials for companies within countries outside east Asia.
A submarine will "accidentally" sink a ship belonging to a neutral nation instead of launching another stealth sickness bomb on unsuspecting cruise ships.
Cuba and Haiti will unite, becoming the immigration destination for many Americans seeking a safe tax shelter haven without extradition treaties with other countries.
Guyana and Guyane will declare Suriname a jointly-owned subset of their countries, leading to Brazil completely taking over South America to preserve peace and get Venezuela out of the publicly-owned/state enterprise business so that tourism will increase. In turn, the Falkland Islands declare war on América do Sul. Great Britain tells the Falklanders they're on their own this time - Gordon Brown is no Margaret Thatcher.
Icelanders decide to change their country's name to Volcanoland, freeing up Greenland to change its name to Iceland and set the record straight on who has the most ice and thus the strongest influence on the fate of the civilised world.
Russia annexes Mongolia. While its back is turned focused on keeping China at bay, Russia misses the fact that Finland had annexed Saint Petersburg.
A set of scientifically-minded dairy farmers prove that molded moon dust really does makes some good-tasting green cheese, finally showing that the flat-Earth people are wrong and our moon is a separate sphere floating in the Sky Ocean above us next to the tiny dots of light that are actually glowing globs of bioluminescent bacteria, not stars, setting back astronomical physics 2000 years. Astrologists declare their charts are still accurate.
What looks to us like a strange shadow will, in fact, represent an infinitely-large roach that will step on our universe 500 years from now and crush all our theories and postulations about science, creation and anything that we used to justify our belief the oil drop we live in is the only thing that exists. The roach will lick its leg and swallow the portion of the drop in which we live. What's left of us and our universe will lodge in the stomach lining of the roach for the next 20,000 years of our existence, leading us to develop new civilisations based on revamped theories of the megauniverse we see from inside an insect's body.
Oh, one last observation from the Book of the Future. Healthcare costs will keep rising. Corporations will purposefully bankrupt every country, one by one, and turn all of us into happy servants of the system who eat get-well pills while making money off one another gladly. We will joyously watch the Earth Company, Conglomerated, come into existence and tell us what to do with our lives.
Wait. What am I saying? That's the prediction 200 years ago about today. Sorry, wrong page.
'ere we go. The rise of the global citizen will empower us to take control of our lives, crowdsourcing our decisions with our fellow connected e-citizens and creating a permanent underclass of non-e campesinos relegated to working the farms, factories and soft/support/retail jobs without healthcare or financial security support. Black market sales will overtake legitimate sales as more and more people develop the habit of bartering rather than paying the overhead of retail shopping, further driving down high-tech profit margins, forcing more and more companies to move their manufacturing to unregulated labor markets. "B-market shopping therapy" becomes the phrase du jour while Africa overtakes China and India as the next great manufacturing/tech center.
20 March 2010
If A State Is Bankrupted By A Nation, Can The State Secede To Protect Its Sovereignty?
With Greece about to take down the EU and California sinking into a sea of debt, when do states/munipalities sever their ties to the mother/father land to protect their future? Some stories ask me that question:
By then, we may have reached the plurality stage where no majority exists in the realm of genetic designation on this continent. What of the rest of the world?
Basketball's on - will have to check the Book of the Future tomorrow. Tennessee won the hoops contest and Ireland lost to Scotland - what a day!
- States’ Rights Is Rallying Cry for Lawmakers
- State budget issues, 2009-2010
- Evolution of Fairness Driven by Culture, Not Genes
- Pennsylvania Capital Harrisburg Has Bankruptcy Option
By then, we may have reached the plurality stage where no majority exists in the realm of genetic designation on this continent. What of the rest of the world?
Basketball's on - will have to check the Book of the Future tomorrow. Tennessee won the hoops contest and Ireland lost to Scotland - what a day!
Updated my website
I updated the website, http://www.treetrunkproductions.org/. Today is too beautiful to spend much more time in front of the computer. The Spring Equinox is here and outside is the place to be. See you soon!
Many important issues this weekend, including basketball scores and government legislation to consider. Tomorrow's the day to devote writing time to them.
Many important issues this weekend, including basketball scores and government legislation to consider. Tomorrow's the day to devote writing time to them.
Living In A Stranger's House
I woke up a few minutes ago and looked around me.
The house seemed familiar, like I was staying at the home of a family relation - my grandparents, my great-uncle and great-aunt - the smells were new but old. The sweet, musty scent of urine, like the aroma that hangs in the air of a rest home or nursing home from long ago. Cedar tree from a linen trunk. Body odour of a person who no longer uses deodourant daily.
Where was I?
I lifted the covers on the bed, making sure not to disturb my wife or the cats. I walked to the cedar chest, put on a pair of sweat pants, slipped my feet into a pair of moccasins and listened to the creaking of the floorboards while I made my way across the house to the study so I could sit and write about this moment, all the while wondering whose house I'd entered.
Is this my home?
All these years I've been a stranger in my own house. After 22+ years in this same domicile as one of the two original occupants (the dog that slept here during construction doesn't count), can I say I am the owner?
Do I own anything?
Who am I?
Is this another dream?
We are all dreamers within dreams within dreams. Is this the dream from which one never wakes up? Is this the dream that provides a brief view of reality before the clouds move in and the window shades close?
For a moment tonight, I saw myself as I really am and now I don't know which person I'm supposed to be.
Levels upon levels of labels from which to choose.
In all levels, on all labels, a happy person for whom the universe lives according to his wishes and desires. No beginning and no end to time; thus, time does not exist for me; thus, I don't exist; thus, you don't exist; thus, we are all one.
These words do not exist. The smells of a middle-aged man in his 22+-year old house do not exist. This house does not exist. The reflection of the desk lamp light from all the objects around me does not exist.
To see I don't exist and to see I exist to say I don't exist takes waking up within a dream outside a dream within a dream in and out of reality.
A brief moment of insight.
The world's problems do not exist but they won't go away. Thus, a world of solutions waits to be found in waves of brief moments of insight to all of us at different times and at the same time, IF we're prepared to be unprepared for the moment the insight arrives unexpectedly.
Years of preparation for the moment(s) you never can anticipate.
Flashes of insight that tell you when to deal harshly with some and patiently with others (patiently and harshly with yourself, especially).
Pace yourself. The race is long although our lives are short - we are relay runners all too happy to carry the baton for an instant of time.
We may be Maya in Uruguay or Wen in Beijing or Warren channeling Axl but we're all the same here, representing ourselves as examples of ourselves to ourselves and others.
Patience, my friends - we'll always be here tomorrow, in one form or another. Look at life as if you'll be here another ten thousand years from now after having lived ten thousand years before. What's the hurry? Life is long.
I am a stranger in this house because in this dream I don't exist. I will wake up in another dream in which I am familiar with this house. The whispers bouncing off the walls are mine from the ghost of me who no longer exists. The shadows passing by are from the me who hasn't yet fully entered this world from the future. We pass one another in the hall and smile, out of sequence and in tune with the fact none of us exists all at the same time.
The perspective of middle age - seeing the baby you once were and the old person you may become, all at once, while your body reminds you that sleep is still a useful tool to get ready for the next day.
G'night and good morning! May this day find the solutions you seek for yesterday's problems!
The house seemed familiar, like I was staying at the home of a family relation - my grandparents, my great-uncle and great-aunt - the smells were new but old. The sweet, musty scent of urine, like the aroma that hangs in the air of a rest home or nursing home from long ago. Cedar tree from a linen trunk. Body odour of a person who no longer uses deodourant daily.
Where was I?
I lifted the covers on the bed, making sure not to disturb my wife or the cats. I walked to the cedar chest, put on a pair of sweat pants, slipped my feet into a pair of moccasins and listened to the creaking of the floorboards while I made my way across the house to the study so I could sit and write about this moment, all the while wondering whose house I'd entered.
Is this my home?
All these years I've been a stranger in my own house. After 22+ years in this same domicile as one of the two original occupants (the dog that slept here during construction doesn't count), can I say I am the owner?
Do I own anything?
Who am I?
Is this another dream?
We are all dreamers within dreams within dreams. Is this the dream from which one never wakes up? Is this the dream that provides a brief view of reality before the clouds move in and the window shades close?
For a moment tonight, I saw myself as I really am and now I don't know which person I'm supposed to be.
Levels upon levels of labels from which to choose.
In all levels, on all labels, a happy person for whom the universe lives according to his wishes and desires. No beginning and no end to time; thus, time does not exist for me; thus, I don't exist; thus, you don't exist; thus, we are all one.
These words do not exist. The smells of a middle-aged man in his 22+-year old house do not exist. This house does not exist. The reflection of the desk lamp light from all the objects around me does not exist.
To see I don't exist and to see I exist to say I don't exist takes waking up within a dream outside a dream within a dream in and out of reality.
A brief moment of insight.
The world's problems do not exist but they won't go away. Thus, a world of solutions waits to be found in waves of brief moments of insight to all of us at different times and at the same time, IF we're prepared to be unprepared for the moment the insight arrives unexpectedly.
Years of preparation for the moment(s) you never can anticipate.
Flashes of insight that tell you when to deal harshly with some and patiently with others (patiently and harshly with yourself, especially).
Pace yourself. The race is long although our lives are short - we are relay runners all too happy to carry the baton for an instant of time.
We may be Maya in Uruguay or Wen in Beijing or Warren channeling Axl but we're all the same here, representing ourselves as examples of ourselves to ourselves and others.
Patience, my friends - we'll always be here tomorrow, in one form or another. Look at life as if you'll be here another ten thousand years from now after having lived ten thousand years before. What's the hurry? Life is long.
I am a stranger in this house because in this dream I don't exist. I will wake up in another dream in which I am familiar with this house. The whispers bouncing off the walls are mine from the ghost of me who no longer exists. The shadows passing by are from the me who hasn't yet fully entered this world from the future. We pass one another in the hall and smile, out of sequence and in tune with the fact none of us exists all at the same time.
The perspective of middle age - seeing the baby you once were and the old person you may become, all at once, while your body reminds you that sleep is still a useful tool to get ready for the next day.
G'night and good morning! May this day find the solutions you seek for yesterday's problems!
19 March 2010
Q: How Does A Retiree Go On Holiday?
A: By taking a fun temp job - http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs/a-job-for-you/retirees.php:
Census Taking Is a Great Opportunity for Retirees!
Perhaps you are interested in earning some additional income. Maybe you would like to take advantage of the spare time that you have available. Possibly you would just like to make a difference, do something new, meet your neighbors, or perform valuable community service. Whatever your situation may be, consider becoming a census taker.
As a census taker, you receive good pay on a weekly basis. Additionally, you gain the satisfaction of knowing that you are performing an important service for your community and the nation.
Become a census taker by contacting your Local Census Office or by calling toll-free 1-866-861-2010.
Exciting Times Ahead
Large Hadron Collider Triples Its Own Record
•By Alexis Madrigal, March 19, 2010, 2:54 pm
"The Large Hadron Collider set a new record for the creation of energetic particle beams this morning. The particle accelerator, which surpassed Fermilab’s Tevatron* in December as the baddest atom smasher of them all, smashed its own record, charging particles to 3.48 trillion electron volts.
* "So, while the Tevatron, the last great American particle accelerator, may be chugging along at just under a trillion electron-volts, it’s still got an outside shot at finding the Higgs-Boson particle before the LHC can find or exclude it. And that could be a fitting final act before the high-energy physics torch passes wholly from Batavia to Geneva."
•By Alexis Madrigal, March 19, 2010, 2:54 pm
"The Large Hadron Collider set a new record for the creation of energetic particle beams this morning. The particle accelerator, which surpassed Fermilab’s Tevatron* in December as the baddest atom smasher of them all, smashed its own record, charging particles to 3.48 trillion electron volts.
* "So, while the Tevatron, the last great American particle accelerator, may be chugging along at just under a trillion electron-volts, it’s still got an outside shot at finding the Higgs-Boson particle before the LHC can find or exclude it. And that could be a fitting final act before the high-energy physics torch passes wholly from Batavia to Geneva."
News You Can Use: Inferred or Implied
Inferring Signaling Pathway Topologies from Multiple Perturbation Measurements of Specific Biochemical Species
Abstract: The specification of biological decisions by signaling pathways is encoded by the interplay between activation dynamics and network topologies. Although we can describe complex networks, we cannot easily determine which topology the cell actually uses to transduce a specific signal. Experimental testing of all plausible topologies is infeasible because of the combinatorially large number of experiments required to explore the complete hypothesis space. Here, we demonstrate that Bayesian inference–based modeling provides an approach to explore and constrain this hypothesis space, permitting the rational ranking of pathway models. Our approach can use measurements of a limited number of biochemical species when combined with multiple perturbations. As proof of concept, we examined the activation of the extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK) pathway by epidermal growth factor. The predicted and experimentally validated model shows that both Raf-1 and, unexpectedly, B-Raf are needed to fully activate ERK in two different cell lines. Thus, our formal methodology rationally infers evidentially supported pathway topologies even when a limited number of biochemical and kinetic measurements are available.
Abstract: The specification of biological decisions by signaling pathways is encoded by the interplay between activation dynamics and network topologies. Although we can describe complex networks, we cannot easily determine which topology the cell actually uses to transduce a specific signal. Experimental testing of all plausible topologies is infeasible because of the combinatorially large number of experiments required to explore the complete hypothesis space. Here, we demonstrate that Bayesian inference–based modeling provides an approach to explore and constrain this hypothesis space, permitting the rational ranking of pathway models. Our approach can use measurements of a limited number of biochemical species when combined with multiple perturbations. As proof of concept, we examined the activation of the extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK) pathway by epidermal growth factor. The predicted and experimentally validated model shows that both Raf-1 and, unexpectedly, B-Raf are needed to fully activate ERK in two different cell lines. Thus, our formal methodology rationally infers evidentially supported pathway topologies even when a limited number of biochemical and kinetic measurements are available.
Comic Book Adverts
Do people still subscribe to magazines? I don't know. My wife and I gave up magazine subscriptions many years ago in order to conserve paper and cut down our discretionary monthly expenses (one of the secrets to becoming a quiet millionaire next-door).
Without those folded, stapled and glued stacks of paper to review, I have lost contact with an old way of life - reading the adverts/marketplace section in the back of a magazine.
Do people still try to sell you secrets the medical industry is hiding from you? Can you start your own moneymaking metalcutting shop at home? Have you built an experimental helicopter in your backyard from plans you bought?
When I was a kid, I received a personalised letter that told me if I could solve a "word find" puzzle and send in the completed puzzle along with $1, I would receive a special prize and qualify for a more difficult puzzle. I asked my parents and they warned me it was a scam but for one dollar it was worth my finding out.
Sure enough, I sent in the dollar and the puzzle and received a newer puzzle and a packet of seeds with a request for $5 to qualify for the grand prize. My parents discouraged me from sending in $5 so I never found out if I qualified for the grand prize.
Instead, I planted the packet of seeds in a backyard flowerbed. I think a few of the seeds turned into plants but I can't remember if they were supposed to grow into vegetables or flowers. Spring had arrived by then so I was more interested in shooting hoops on the backyard cement patio or wading creeks with friends and looking for crawdads.
As an aquarist, I've read my share of aquarium magazines and once sent a few dollars to receive a hand-drawn set of plans for a DIY wet/dry aquarium filter system.
In the case of the prize seed packet and the hand-drawn filter system, I feel like I got my money's worth.
What is the price of information?
Looking out the window, seeing insects flying past on this sunny spring day and the neighbour's dogs barking happily as kids on spring break bicycle by, I think about all the information we receive freely and the information for which we insist on paying cash.
Because we can't remember all the complex interactions that took place to get us from embryo to adult, we tend to simplify what it takes to be a person. Thus, we easily accept as "truth" someone selling us a secret about the miraculous curative effects of a plant. We believe that soaking in special salts will make us wealthy (well, maybe the salt seller gets rich, right?).
We don't take the time to think about the massive construction projects and agricultural techniques on one side of the planet that affect the health of our species all across the planet. We'd rather believe our poor health is tied to being a bad person who needs exorcism or dietary tricks "as seen on TV" or cheap exercise equipment we'll never use.
I learned long ago the secret to being me - there is no secret. I can be fat, skinny, happy, sad, rich or poor or any other condition I choose. I have chosen to live several conditions simultaneously, at odds or in harmony with each other at the same time.
Don't let others tell you what you have to do to be you. Take time to know yourself first. Understand why you walk or laugh a certain way - do you reflect your parents, your siblings, your friends or strangers you've never met (e.g., celebrities)? If there's something about yourself in those reflections that you don't like, tell yourself it's okay to not like that one aspect and change or eliminate it, if you want. Or keep disliking that part of you and don't change, if you like.
No matter whether there's seven billion of us or seven hundred billion of us, every one of us is a unique bundle of states of energy. We have the ability to actively change our states of energy without paying for information someone else says will make us wealthier, prettier, wiser or stronger.
You control your own future. Get to know and appreciate yourself in this moment so you can see the next moment belongs to you and those with whom you choose to spend your valuable time. Don't wait for someone else to tell you you're the most special person in the world - you already know you are. You don't need me or anyone else to tell you - that information is already in your head, if you take the time to see yourself as you are and not as others think or say they want you to be.
I appreciate your uniqueness. In fact, I know my life depends on you. I hope you take the time to know why your unique qualities make you the most important person in the world.
In our one big family, all of us are interconnected. Let's act like we know we're a family instead of attacking one another as if we're predator and prey species. We own our emotions - let's spend them wisely.
Without those folded, stapled and glued stacks of paper to review, I have lost contact with an old way of life - reading the adverts/marketplace section in the back of a magazine.
Do people still try to sell you secrets the medical industry is hiding from you? Can you start your own moneymaking metalcutting shop at home? Have you built an experimental helicopter in your backyard from plans you bought?
When I was a kid, I received a personalised letter that told me if I could solve a "word find" puzzle and send in the completed puzzle along with $1, I would receive a special prize and qualify for a more difficult puzzle. I asked my parents and they warned me it was a scam but for one dollar it was worth my finding out.
Sure enough, I sent in the dollar and the puzzle and received a newer puzzle and a packet of seeds with a request for $5 to qualify for the grand prize. My parents discouraged me from sending in $5 so I never found out if I qualified for the grand prize.
Instead, I planted the packet of seeds in a backyard flowerbed. I think a few of the seeds turned into plants but I can't remember if they were supposed to grow into vegetables or flowers. Spring had arrived by then so I was more interested in shooting hoops on the backyard cement patio or wading creeks with friends and looking for crawdads.
As an aquarist, I've read my share of aquarium magazines and once sent a few dollars to receive a hand-drawn set of plans for a DIY wet/dry aquarium filter system.
In the case of the prize seed packet and the hand-drawn filter system, I feel like I got my money's worth.
What is the price of information?
Looking out the window, seeing insects flying past on this sunny spring day and the neighbour's dogs barking happily as kids on spring break bicycle by, I think about all the information we receive freely and the information for which we insist on paying cash.
Because we can't remember all the complex interactions that took place to get us from embryo to adult, we tend to simplify what it takes to be a person. Thus, we easily accept as "truth" someone selling us a secret about the miraculous curative effects of a plant. We believe that soaking in special salts will make us wealthy (well, maybe the salt seller gets rich, right?).
We don't take the time to think about the massive construction projects and agricultural techniques on one side of the planet that affect the health of our species all across the planet. We'd rather believe our poor health is tied to being a bad person who needs exorcism or dietary tricks "as seen on TV" or cheap exercise equipment we'll never use.
I learned long ago the secret to being me - there is no secret. I can be fat, skinny, happy, sad, rich or poor or any other condition I choose. I have chosen to live several conditions simultaneously, at odds or in harmony with each other at the same time.
Don't let others tell you what you have to do to be you. Take time to know yourself first. Understand why you walk or laugh a certain way - do you reflect your parents, your siblings, your friends or strangers you've never met (e.g., celebrities)? If there's something about yourself in those reflections that you don't like, tell yourself it's okay to not like that one aspect and change or eliminate it, if you want. Or keep disliking that part of you and don't change, if you like.
No matter whether there's seven billion of us or seven hundred billion of us, every one of us is a unique bundle of states of energy. We have the ability to actively change our states of energy without paying for information someone else says will make us wealthier, prettier, wiser or stronger.
You control your own future. Get to know and appreciate yourself in this moment so you can see the next moment belongs to you and those with whom you choose to spend your valuable time. Don't wait for someone else to tell you you're the most special person in the world - you already know you are. You don't need me or anyone else to tell you - that information is already in your head, if you take the time to see yourself as you are and not as others think or say they want you to be.
I appreciate your uniqueness. In fact, I know my life depends on you. I hope you take the time to know why your unique qualities make you the most important person in the world.
In our one big family, all of us are interconnected. Let's act like we know we're a family instead of attacking one another as if we're predator and prey species. We own our emotions - let's spend them wisely.
18 March 2010
A Marine's view of being an artist (in this case, a writer)
Excerpt from "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield:
"The Marine Corps teaches you to be miserable.
"This is invaluable for an artist.
"Marines love to be miserable. Marines derive a perverse satisfaction in having colder chow, crappier equipment, and higher casualty rates than any outfit of dogfaces, swab jockeys, or flyboys, all of whom they despise. Why? Because these candy-asses don't know how to be miserable.
"The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation.
"The artist must be like that Marine. He has to know how to be miserable. He has to love being miserable. He has to take pride in being more miserable than any soldier or swabbie or jet jockey. Because this is war, baby. And war is hell."
17 March 2010
Foggy, Foggy Night
What is the fun in having fun if you can't remember all the details? The answer lies in the forgetfulness.
So here it is at 21:43, with me trying to sort out what I did between 16:15 and 21:30, a mere short time of the night on St. Patty's Day, don't you think?
A few names stand out: John, Ryan from ???, Elizabeth from Huntsville, Kristan from Anniston, the Spoetzl Brewery, an Irish car bomb or two or three or four or ???, A.D. J. Security and a shirt that read, "I'm not lucky, I'm good." Rosalyn stopping by our table at Mason's Pub. Many a lad and lass wearin' or not wearin' green while waltzin' past our table.
A bunch of flat panel TVs playing ESPN games. Receiving some Jameson's hats, T-shirts and drinking glasses. Eating shepherd's pie and corned beef & cabbage and warm cookies and cold ice cream. Drinking Guinness, Murphy's, Smithwick's and Left Hand Porter. Seeing servers who remind us of Nair adverts of the 1970s and "who wears short shorts." Who was the marketing assistant from Avocent who we once saw at Finnegan's and tonight saw at Mason's? Why did we stay there and not go to Lowe's Mill to hear an Irish jig band?
Watching people watching us to see if we were about to leave our two-person two-topper table. Watching people watching people. Swapping ciggies/fags for bracelets. Swapping bracelets and hats for smiles. Sharing drinks. Drinking Olde Towne and drinking in old town. HYP (Huntsville Young Professionals) and us, HMAR (Huntsville Middle-Aged Retirees) recently intermixed in the town where Moody's elevates Huntsville to No. 1 city for job growth prospects.
A city known as a great place to raise children but also a quiet place to have a good time, from Cafe Michael with Russ D. and wife to downtown with the single scene and in-between.
Central to the South, where Chinese and Russian spies listen carefully. Not far from Bristol Motor Speedway and Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, where cost of living doesn't knock you out, just keeps you on your toes.
Sober up and you'll hear the blues, the news and a few patrons at Blue Plate Cafe. Neal, Tricia and Ginger. The ever-present Will and Kasey.
If you're paying close attention.
Have you ever eaten colcannon after sending a text via mobile phone. Do you know a smart, good-lookin' gal when you see one? Or, like me, would you rather be proudly married to one for 24+ years and everyone else, good-lookin' and smart, pale by comparison?
Drink Saranac or be Irish, you take your pick. I made my choice when I was 12 and haven't looked back. Can you say the same?
Breakfast, blog and read - that's all it takes to know one. Can you be one?
So here it is at 21:43, with me trying to sort out what I did between 16:15 and 21:30, a mere short time of the night on St. Patty's Day, don't you think?
A few names stand out: John, Ryan from ???, Elizabeth from Huntsville, Kristan from Anniston, the Spoetzl Brewery, an Irish car bomb or two or three or four or ???, A.D. J. Security and a shirt that read, "I'm not lucky, I'm good." Rosalyn stopping by our table at Mason's Pub. Many a lad and lass wearin' or not wearin' green while waltzin' past our table.
A bunch of flat panel TVs playing ESPN games. Receiving some Jameson's hats, T-shirts and drinking glasses. Eating shepherd's pie and corned beef & cabbage and warm cookies and cold ice cream. Drinking Guinness, Murphy's, Smithwick's and Left Hand Porter. Seeing servers who remind us of Nair adverts of the 1970s and "who wears short shorts." Who was the marketing assistant from Avocent who we once saw at Finnegan's and tonight saw at Mason's? Why did we stay there and not go to Lowe's Mill to hear an Irish jig band?
Watching people watching us to see if we were about to leave our two-person two-topper table. Watching people watching people. Swapping ciggies/fags for bracelets. Swapping bracelets and hats for smiles. Sharing drinks. Drinking Olde Towne and drinking in old town. HYP (Huntsville Young Professionals) and us, HMAR (Huntsville Middle-Aged Retirees) recently intermixed in the town where Moody's elevates Huntsville to No. 1 city for job growth prospects.
A city known as a great place to raise children but also a quiet place to have a good time, from Cafe Michael with Russ D. and wife to downtown with the single scene and in-between.
Central to the South, where Chinese and Russian spies listen carefully. Not far from Bristol Motor Speedway and Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, where cost of living doesn't knock you out, just keeps you on your toes.
Sober up and you'll hear the blues, the news and a few patrons at Blue Plate Cafe. Neal, Tricia and Ginger. The ever-present Will and Kasey.
If you're paying close attention.
Have you ever eaten colcannon after sending a text via mobile phone. Do you know a smart, good-lookin' gal when you see one? Or, like me, would you rather be proudly married to one for 24+ years and everyone else, good-lookin' and smart, pale by comparison?
Drink Saranac or be Irish, you take your pick. I made my choice when I was 12 and haven't looked back. Can you say the same?
Breakfast, blog and read - that's all it takes to know one. Can you be one?
REACH ISO14000 RoHS WEEE J-MOSS EWRA
Welcome to Acronym City, Knowledge Edition D - WACKED, for short.
Unless you know what the business community communicates via cryptic initial caps, you may miss the benefits you receive unknowingly. For instance, is there any validity to the Erdős–Bacon number? Is China RoHS better than EU RoHS? When can you throw away batteries and when do you pay a fine for disposing of harmful chemicals? Does IBM or HP have a better environmental standard?
I live inside and outside this moment. I see the future as clearly as if I've lived in moments that haven't existed. Time is like an XYZ/three-dimensional component of time, is it not? We step forward, we mountaineers, and hike up onto steppes and plateaus, looking back in time to now in order to understand, to gain a perspective that takes away the wowness of the moment and tells us if our current discovery was significant or simply amazing.
I have ignored the Book of the Future lately because I've enjoyed surfing the bumps, curves and refreshing ocean spray of the moment. But every surfer knows you can't ride the waves forever. Eventually, the surf or the shore comes crashing up toward you at breakneck speed. As a middle-aged man, I take longer to recover from crashes than when I was younger. Muscle memory and joint pain make me lazy, all too glad to pause a little while at the keyboard before I wrap a strap around my ankle and paddle out for another look at life from atop a mini-tsunami.
Back to the Book of the Future.
Do you know what defines you? Is it your genetic code? Is it the constant birth and death of the cells in your body? Is it the total environment, including other living beings in and around you? Do you have any idea of the organisms with which you carry on a quasi-symbiotic relationship? Do you know the organisms that are needed to exist to produce and share the organisms that live in and on you?
Do you know what you don't need to still be able to define you? Is it your skin? Your other sensory organs? Your skeletal structure? Your gastrointestinal system? Your central nervous system? Your cultural history?
If, instead of sensing heat, cold and nervous system "pain," you could sense cosmic radiation levels and ion drive propulsion efficiency, would you?
If, instead of planetary-based gravity as the focus for your movement, you had no "center" on which to comfortably lay down at night, would you continue to explore your "world" (which is now the complete universe, using gravitational fields like roller coaster rides)?
Could you see yourself completely retrained and rewired to concentrate on decades-long goals that meant your sense of time would stretch the definition of a "moment" to months or years, your thoughts no longer subconsciously tied to heartbeats and lung expansion/contraction? Communication with others of your kind, instead of getting closer and closer via Internet time, would take place occasionally, with every one of you having to store "conversations" for weeks or months until you found another "person" with whom you could exchange new information?
Would you carry with you a set of raw material that you would use decades or thousands of years from now to construct new images of yourself that could reproduce themselves using material native to a newly-explored region of space?
If you can imagine yourself as such a "person," then can you put aside those regular, three-dimensional, mechanistic futures and see yourself in a whole new way that hasn't been imagined yet? Can you see a self-aware version of yourself traveling through another dimension, squeezing between the surface tensions of two bubbles into a place where you're all alone as the first "person" to enter unexplored "territory" who may or may not be able to return to the world you thought you knew?
The Book of the Future tells many wonderful stories such as these. Some of you have already written your names in these futures. Some of your offspring and inventions have, too.
I wish I could be there with you but my fate I've already seen and so I know won't be traveling with most of you there. I have something like 14,660 days left to enjoy this world as the comfortable writer I've become. So, while many of you train yourselves to live centuries long with carefully-controlled diets and wise exercise programs, I will enjoy my fatty foods and beer tankards as a descendant of pioneer Ulster Scots on this day I choose to call St. Patrick's Day, when I spend more time celebrating wearing green (although I should more appropriately wear orange), dancing to Irish jigs and drinking alcohol than I do to any religious purpose for this day.
I might see some of you on a spaceship cruising around the Moon but that's probably as far as I'll get. I envy those who have longer journeys and greater goals than my simple goal to get some of us living permanently off this globe.
I raise a toast: Here's to you until we meet again!
Unless you know what the business community communicates via cryptic initial caps, you may miss the benefits you receive unknowingly. For instance, is there any validity to the Erdős–Bacon number? Is China RoHS better than EU RoHS? When can you throw away batteries and when do you pay a fine for disposing of harmful chemicals? Does IBM or HP have a better environmental standard?
I live inside and outside this moment. I see the future as clearly as if I've lived in moments that haven't existed. Time is like an XYZ/three-dimensional component of time, is it not? We step forward, we mountaineers, and hike up onto steppes and plateaus, looking back in time to now in order to understand, to gain a perspective that takes away the wowness of the moment and tells us if our current discovery was significant or simply amazing.
I have ignored the Book of the Future lately because I've enjoyed surfing the bumps, curves and refreshing ocean spray of the moment. But every surfer knows you can't ride the waves forever. Eventually, the surf or the shore comes crashing up toward you at breakneck speed. As a middle-aged man, I take longer to recover from crashes than when I was younger. Muscle memory and joint pain make me lazy, all too glad to pause a little while at the keyboard before I wrap a strap around my ankle and paddle out for another look at life from atop a mini-tsunami.
Back to the Book of the Future.
Do you know what defines you? Is it your genetic code? Is it the constant birth and death of the cells in your body? Is it the total environment, including other living beings in and around you? Do you have any idea of the organisms with which you carry on a quasi-symbiotic relationship? Do you know the organisms that are needed to exist to produce and share the organisms that live in and on you?
Do you know what you don't need to still be able to define you? Is it your skin? Your other sensory organs? Your skeletal structure? Your gastrointestinal system? Your central nervous system? Your cultural history?
If, instead of sensing heat, cold and nervous system "pain," you could sense cosmic radiation levels and ion drive propulsion efficiency, would you?
If, instead of planetary-based gravity as the focus for your movement, you had no "center" on which to comfortably lay down at night, would you continue to explore your "world" (which is now the complete universe, using gravitational fields like roller coaster rides)?
Could you see yourself completely retrained and rewired to concentrate on decades-long goals that meant your sense of time would stretch the definition of a "moment" to months or years, your thoughts no longer subconsciously tied to heartbeats and lung expansion/contraction? Communication with others of your kind, instead of getting closer and closer via Internet time, would take place occasionally, with every one of you having to store "conversations" for weeks or months until you found another "person" with whom you could exchange new information?
Would you carry with you a set of raw material that you would use decades or thousands of years from now to construct new images of yourself that could reproduce themselves using material native to a newly-explored region of space?
If you can imagine yourself as such a "person," then can you put aside those regular, three-dimensional, mechanistic futures and see yourself in a whole new way that hasn't been imagined yet? Can you see a self-aware version of yourself traveling through another dimension, squeezing between the surface tensions of two bubbles into a place where you're all alone as the first "person" to enter unexplored "territory" who may or may not be able to return to the world you thought you knew?
The Book of the Future tells many wonderful stories such as these. Some of you have already written your names in these futures. Some of your offspring and inventions have, too.
I wish I could be there with you but my fate I've already seen and so I know won't be traveling with most of you there. I have something like 14,660 days left to enjoy this world as the comfortable writer I've become. So, while many of you train yourselves to live centuries long with carefully-controlled diets and wise exercise programs, I will enjoy my fatty foods and beer tankards as a descendant of pioneer Ulster Scots on this day I choose to call St. Patrick's Day, when I spend more time celebrating wearing green (although I should more appropriately wear orange), dancing to Irish jigs and drinking alcohol than I do to any religious purpose for this day.
I might see some of you on a spaceship cruising around the Moon but that's probably as far as I'll get. I envy those who have longer journeys and greater goals than my simple goal to get some of us living permanently off this globe.
I raise a toast: Here's to you until we meet again!
Three-thousand what?
Once a politician, always a politician? Sadly, it seems so:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/mar/17/fact-check-premiums-would-rise-under-obama-plan/
Seeking true reform is one thing but misspeaking the truth is another. Someone just confirmed he said "no" a long time ago. Oh well, who's next?
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/mar/17/fact-check-premiums-would-rise-under-obama-plan/
Seeking true reform is one thing but misspeaking the truth is another. Someone just confirmed he said "no" a long time ago. Oh well, who's next?
16 March 2010
An Opportunity To Grow Or An Example To Set?
While sorting out the "yes" members from the "no" members, I've run into some interesting data and need input from a few of my colleagues.
A woman at a company has submitted "padded" expense reports, including mileage to and from work, personal food and other items that if she were reimbursed would lower the company's profits and grossly affect employee salary increases, stockholders' value and executives' bonuses. She was caught once by a previous boss and told not to submit such expense reports. Strike one. She has a new boss now so we suspect the employee is going to try this expense report trick again. She has a husband and children who don't know about her embezzlement habit. Do we wait until the employee tries this expense report trick again or act on knowledge from her first trick in this job and our knowledge about similar actions at her previous place of employment, making an example of her by destroying her career and her family because in essence she broke her family trust at the genetic and subculture levels?
Nice person on the outside, trickster on the inside. I'm giving her the opportunity to go to her new boss and discuss her old habits so they together can look at other employees' expense reports and stop this kind of activity on a larger scale, including retraining employees about what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in the workplace. If she fails to take this opportunity to fix systemic waste, then we'll use her as a fear factor example at her office and report her to the police.
You get one chance to be a "yes" person or a "no" person. If you say "no," you may or may not get to keep living your same old "no" life. Randomness is a part of life and thus we'll randomly pick "no" people to have fun with - such is the way of the "yes" prankster.
Talked with the Fat Man today. He's a barrel of laughs, literally. We've passed information through our network over the years, looking for the day that our species would get to say "yes" all at once. Now that the day has arrived, we're joyously going about looking at the "no" people and deciding which one(s) to have fun with next.
See, while the spooks and the spies have been looking at you, we've been looking at everyone, including the spooks and the spies. Every one of you gets one chance to answer the question once.
Have you decided to say "yes" to becoming a new you? Have you agreed with yourself that the current version of you is a temporary manifestation and not real? Have you realized there is no such thing as a "you" to begin with? Can you understand a way to transform the being that is not you into another being that is not you?
Don't be fooled by the false sense of permanence that "memories" give you. A few thousand generations of one species is a small set of numbers to derive any meaningful longterm trends.
Integrity does not exist but the practice of integrity shows your intent to place trust in the bundled states of energy (people) around you. No more deceptions and lies. No more predator and prey. A global citizen in a universe of states of energy.
The real meaning of true love: understanding that states of energy have no "intent," good or bad, toward you; accepting that the interaction of states of energy is what this universe is all about; no longer being blinded by what your senses tell you.
Every one of us is beautiful, strong, smart and understanding, in the way we've been taught to react to other members of our species.
But the time has come for us to once again see we are more than one species. If you can only slightly comprehend the infinite power and wonder of what it's like to become more than your animal body, feel free to say "yes" and you will open yourself up to dimensionless possibilities, working with others to eliminate more and more ignorance everyday and reveal sculptured marvels within the marble of what we used to call space and time.
No, I'm not selling a magic elixir. No, I don't have a nature farm I want you to join. Every thing I state is fact as my colleagues have shown me both through common sense and scientific experimentation.
Release yourself from the age-old daily struggles for nothing and find those around you who will help you build a support network that takes the heavy burden of living off your shoulders.
Start with trusting yourself first. Then stop repeating the petty lies and deceit and wearing the false personality masks. Believe no one harbours ill will toward you. Become a "yes" person and you will naturally answer "yes" when your opportunity to hear the question arrives.
Some version of me or others like me will see you on the "yes" side. And when we do, occasionally let's have fun with the "no" people to exercise our healthy sense of humour.
Do you know how ignorant we are in this day and age, completely unaware of what's really going on around us? Can you map out a multiple multitude of futures with blank places along timelines that we will fill with our growing knowledge set? Can you estimate what we think we do not know but will? Can you imagine hooking yourself to new sensor organs that totally blow away the five senses our bodies make us used to, which in turn lead us to seeing the possibility for even better sensor organs and a deeper understanding of the universe we think we live in, ultimately leading to us become something completely different? If so, then you've already said "yes" and didn't know it (or don't remember saying "yes" the first time).
See you soon. Hope you said "yes."
A woman at a company has submitted "padded" expense reports, including mileage to and from work, personal food and other items that if she were reimbursed would lower the company's profits and grossly affect employee salary increases, stockholders' value and executives' bonuses. She was caught once by a previous boss and told not to submit such expense reports. Strike one. She has a new boss now so we suspect the employee is going to try this expense report trick again. She has a husband and children who don't know about her embezzlement habit. Do we wait until the employee tries this expense report trick again or act on knowledge from her first trick in this job and our knowledge about similar actions at her previous place of employment, making an example of her by destroying her career and her family because in essence she broke her family trust at the genetic and subculture levels?
Nice person on the outside, trickster on the inside. I'm giving her the opportunity to go to her new boss and discuss her old habits so they together can look at other employees' expense reports and stop this kind of activity on a larger scale, including retraining employees about what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in the workplace. If she fails to take this opportunity to fix systemic waste, then we'll use her as a fear factor example at her office and report her to the police.
You get one chance to be a "yes" person or a "no" person. If you say "no," you may or may not get to keep living your same old "no" life. Randomness is a part of life and thus we'll randomly pick "no" people to have fun with - such is the way of the "yes" prankster.
Talked with the Fat Man today. He's a barrel of laughs, literally. We've passed information through our network over the years, looking for the day that our species would get to say "yes" all at once. Now that the day has arrived, we're joyously going about looking at the "no" people and deciding which one(s) to have fun with next.
See, while the spooks and the spies have been looking at you, we've been looking at everyone, including the spooks and the spies. Every one of you gets one chance to answer the question once.
Have you decided to say "yes" to becoming a new you? Have you agreed with yourself that the current version of you is a temporary manifestation and not real? Have you realized there is no such thing as a "you" to begin with? Can you understand a way to transform the being that is not you into another being that is not you?
Don't be fooled by the false sense of permanence that "memories" give you. A few thousand generations of one species is a small set of numbers to derive any meaningful longterm trends.
Integrity does not exist but the practice of integrity shows your intent to place trust in the bundled states of energy (people) around you. No more deceptions and lies. No more predator and prey. A global citizen in a universe of states of energy.
The real meaning of true love: understanding that states of energy have no "intent," good or bad, toward you; accepting that the interaction of states of energy is what this universe is all about; no longer being blinded by what your senses tell you.
Every one of us is beautiful, strong, smart and understanding, in the way we've been taught to react to other members of our species.
But the time has come for us to once again see we are more than one species. If you can only slightly comprehend the infinite power and wonder of what it's like to become more than your animal body, feel free to say "yes" and you will open yourself up to dimensionless possibilities, working with others to eliminate more and more ignorance everyday and reveal sculptured marvels within the marble of what we used to call space and time.
No, I'm not selling a magic elixir. No, I don't have a nature farm I want you to join. Every thing I state is fact as my colleagues have shown me both through common sense and scientific experimentation.
Release yourself from the age-old daily struggles for nothing and find those around you who will help you build a support network that takes the heavy burden of living off your shoulders.
Start with trusting yourself first. Then stop repeating the petty lies and deceit and wearing the false personality masks. Believe no one harbours ill will toward you. Become a "yes" person and you will naturally answer "yes" when your opportunity to hear the question arrives.
Some version of me or others like me will see you on the "yes" side. And when we do, occasionally let's have fun with the "no" people to exercise our healthy sense of humour.
Do you know how ignorant we are in this day and age, completely unaware of what's really going on around us? Can you map out a multiple multitude of futures with blank places along timelines that we will fill with our growing knowledge set? Can you estimate what we think we do not know but will? Can you imagine hooking yourself to new sensor organs that totally blow away the five senses our bodies make us used to, which in turn lead us to seeing the possibility for even better sensor organs and a deeper understanding of the universe we think we live in, ultimately leading to us become something completely different? If so, then you've already said "yes" and didn't know it (or don't remember saying "yes" the first time).
See you soon. Hope you said "yes."
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