What You Don't Know

"Sit down before fact as a little child,

be prepared to give up every preconceived notion,

follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads,

Or you shall learn nothing."

George Leonard

(click here to see what's really on the moon)

Renoir

The Large Bathers, 1887

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Any Time Now

Any time now...


you will meet Death


Any time now...


your life will end


Any time now...

Fleeting Thoughts and Justifications

You don't know what goes through my mind

I don't even know what goes through my mind

Folly of Power

Enigma

Easy peasy...lemon squeezy

the twin pillars of sunshine

are faith and patience

The Human Dilemma

The state of human civilizations has always been precarious. The nature of advanced technology especially in regards to its deleterious effect on the biosphere, the extent of dire poverty experienced by so many individuals throughout the world and the continued growth of the human populations have placed additional pressures upon the natural environment and the stability of human communities. Whether or not humanity can successfully transcend these immense issues is open to question.

The essence of human behavior lies, in fact, within the intricacy and complexity of the human brain. This fabulous organ has evolved over millions of years of evolution. On an elemental level, the predominant driving force is related to survival of the individual and the propagation of the species. This we share in common with all of life.

Layered over this are the areas in the brain relegated to complex emotions and higher-order thinking. Profound self consciousness probably sets us apart from all other creatures on the planet. This faculty brings with it the challenge that faces every individual – to find the balance between striving for individual accomplishments and contributing meaningfully to the commons. This balance is the essence of human happiness. To my thinking, humans naturally derive pleasure from both of these types of behaviors otherwise the species would not have survived over these millions of years. The advance of technologically-based culture has distorted this balance and shifted emphasis to the individual. This core belief in the supremacy of the individual has proven to be seriously flawed.

Collectively, humanity needs to reeducate itself for the sake of its own continued survival. I believe the answer lies in perfecting the art of self examination in order to truly understand what truly motivates us. A corollary to this is the practice of self discipline. Without these tools, the individual can become prey to the vagaries of experience.

Collectively, we are the masters of our own fate. Either we take hold of the future, or we allow the forces of dissolution and destruction to continue unabated.

Sorry Ain't Enough...

There is nothing left

to you

at this moment

but to have a good/big laugh.

from the Zen.

Slave To Love

Shadows and dust

I knew a man who once said...

Death smiles at us all...

all a man can do is smile back.




(shadows and dust)

New Moon

The lights are on

Mothman

On November 15, 1966, two young, married couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette, were traveling late at night in the Scarberrys' car. They were passing the West Virginia Ordnance Works, an abandoned World War II TNT factory, about seven miles north of Point Pleasant, in the 2,500 acre (10 km²) McClintic Wildlife Management Area, when they noticed two red lights in the shadows by an old generator plant near the factory gate. They stopped the car, and reportedly discovered that the lights were the glowing red eyes of a large animal, "shaped like a man, but bigger, maybe six and a half or seven feet tall, with big wings folded against its back," according to Roger Scarberry. Terrified, they drove toward Route 62, where the creature supposedly chased them at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour.

They drove to the Mason County courthouse to alert Deputy Millard Halstead, who later said, "I've known these kids all their lives. They'd never been in any trouble and they were really scared that night. I took them seriously." He then followed Roger Scarberry's car back to the secret ex-U.S. Federal bomb and missile factory, but found no trace of the strange creature. According to the book Alien Animals, by Janet and Colin Bord, a poltergeist attack on the Scarberry home occurred later that night, during which the creature was seen several times.

The following night, on November 16, several armed townspeople combed the area around the TNT plant for signs of Mothman. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wamsley, and Mrs. Marcella Bennett, with her infant daughter Teena, were in a car en-route to visit their friends, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Thomas, who lived in a small house near the TNT plant. They were heading back to their car when a figure appeared behind their parked vehicle. Mrs. Bennett said that it seemed like it had been lying down, slowly rising up from the ground, large and gray, with glowing red eyes. While Wamsley phoned the police, the creature walked onto the porch and peered in at them through the window.

On November 24, four people allegedly saw the creature flying over the TNT area.

On the morning of November 25, Thomas Ury, who was driving along Route 62 just north of the TNT, claimed to have seen the creature standing in a field, and then it spread its wings and flew away, and Thomas sped toward the Point Pleasant sheriff's office.

A Mothman sighting was again reported on January 11, 1967 hovering over the town's bridge, and several other times that same year. Fewer sightings of the Mothman were reported after the collapse of the town's bridge, the Silver Bridge, when 46 people died. The Silver Bridge, so named for its aluminium paint, was an eyebar chain suspension bridge that connected the cities of Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Gallipolis, Ohio over the Ohio River. The bridge was built in 1928, and it collapsed on December 15, 1967. Investigation of the bridge wreckage pointed to the failure of a single eye-bar in a suspension chain due to a small manufacturing flaw. There are rumors that the Mothman appears before upcoming disasters and seems to try to warn people of them. After that, mothman was never again seen in Point Pleasant. (read more)

good and evil

What is done out of love......

always takes place beyond good and evil

...Friedrich Nietzsche...

Hell Froze Over

Here in Chilpancingo almost every morning I listen to the Guerrero University radio station, it is like NPR. Now they want us to send donations to buy a new electric transformer, they need something like $3,000.

A few days ago and today, a friend of mine Captain Roel Ayala Mata, repeated something on the radio that has me worried, very worried. A few months back Tom Friedman wrote about Global Weirding in the NYT. The problem we are facing is not so much that the Earth is warming everyday, the problem is that meteorological phenomena are more and more unexpected.

My friend, the meteorologist Ayala Mata, repeated on the radio, that we abruptly entered a "La Niña" event. He told us that after a hot spell in the equatorial part of the Pacific ocean, very fast, the temperature there, went down.

From the link posted above, you can see that the water temperature  change was about 2[;^\circ;] C.

For water that is a lot, and it happened in less than 4 months.

To me that seems like "Hell Freezing Over."

Aren't there phrases like that in the millennial end of the world predictions?

plastic bag

by Ramin Bahrani - feat. Werner Herzog

Drop in the ocean

The broken BP rig is leaking about 8,820 tons of crude oil into the Gulf every day. It is sickening the ocean and killing marine life. Believe me, I grieve. However, what worries me even more is what we don’t see. A little over half that amount gets burned and released as auto emissions into the skies of Los Angeles every day. That’s somewhere in the vicinity of 4,740 tons of hydrocarbons a day. It is sickening the air we breathe and causing debilitating respiratory problems. Sustained exposure to hydrocarbons compromises the body’s defense system resulting in ailments such as chronic bronchitis and pneumonia. If you don’t believe me, check out an emergency room in L.A on a smoggy summer day. What is even more insidious is what crosses the mother’s placenta, and gets absorbed by the human fetus. Toxins related to hydrocarbons are known to impair prenatal development. This accounts for a higher incidence of developmental disorders such as autism, attention deficit, hyperactivity and dyslexia. Sometimes impairment doesn’t show up until later in life when it becomes visible as signs of depression or schizophrenia. I believe the human suffering caused by addiction to fossil fuel is immeasurable. It makes the Gulf oil spill seem like a drop in the ocean.

UFO - The Greatest Story

The Broken Column

Frida Kahlo
The Broken Column (La columna rota), 1944

Frida Kahlo de Rivera (July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954; born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón) was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán. Perhaps best known for her self-portraits, Kahlo's work is remembered for its "pain and passion", and its intense, vibrant colors. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition, and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.

Mexican culture and Amerindian cultural tradition figure prominently in her work, which has sometimes been characterized as Naïve art or folk art. Her work has also been described as "surrealist", and in 1938 one surrealist described Kahlo herself as a "ribbon around a bomb".

Kahlo had a stormy but passionate marriage with the prominent Mexican artist Diego Rivera. She suffered lifelong health problems, many of which stemmed from a traffic accident in her teenage years. These issues are reflected in her works, more than half of which are self-portraits of one sort or another. Kahlo suggested, "I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best." (read more)

Happy Birthday Frida

James H Kunstler dissects suburbia | Video on TED.com

James H Kunstler dissects suburbia | Video on TED.com

Temptation

Salvator Rosa
"Tentazione di Sant'Antonio Abate"
(Temptation of abbot Saint Anthony)
1645 ca.

Independence Day

You think you have freedom?...

You think you have a democracy?...

You think our government works for us?...

You are a slave...a prisoner of war.

Global corporate fascism is complete...

the new millennium of slavery is here.

It's "Independence Day"...are you "free"?


(from the dictionary)
independence: the quality or
state of being independent :
FREEDOM

independent 1: SELF-GOVERNING;
also : not affiliated with a
larger controlling unit 2: not
requiring or relying on something
else or somebody else 3: not
easily influenced : showing self
reliance and personal freedom
4: not commited to a political
party


What are we fighting for?...are we fighting

for freedom or are we fighting for corporate acquisition?

It's time for a revolution...a revolution for independence.

I advocate for the non-violent removal of all government

and military leaders and the elimination of all corporate

influence in the control of our world affairs...

...it's time for a real "Independence Day" !!!

We can do better...it's time to change the world.

Nation at the Crossroads Part II

How many times has civilization been at a crossroads where critical choices need to be made that determine how the future will unfold? I believe that we are at such a crossroads. There are numerous signs that are indicators that the status quo is unsustainable; that our collective failure to act responsibly to ensure a secure future for our progeny is yielding consequences that are worthy of our collective concern.

The horrendous ecological and environmental devastation that is now occurring in the Gulf of Mexico is such an indicator, but it is only one of many. The haunting and seemingly inexorable progress of climate change is clear and unmistakable; unless, the mind is clouded by denial and the pandering propaganda of those with a vested interest in the current economic paradigm. The science is clear; the data is insurmountable.

The numerous wars the nation has waged ostensibly in the name of freedom but ultimately tied to the fever of our acquisitiveness have left us morally and financially bankrupt. We seem to have a greater fondness for guns than a desire to correct the savage injustices that exist within the fabric of our social order. We appear to be indifferent to the avoidable suffering of those who are homeless or ravaged by the excesses of poverty, especially the children.

We are a nation where 40% of the wealth is hoarded by 2% of the population. It is no wonder that so many people have so little. The mythology of our absolute greatness as a nation and a people continues to dominate the public discourse and drown out meaningful dialog regarding the actual state of our nation. The corporate-controlled media has been quite successful in manipulating the public conversation.

The nation is woefully unprepared for the future of humanity on this beleaguered planet. The choice is ours to make – either we remain in exquisite denial or we move towards reasoned deliberations and arrive at intelligent solutions.

July 4, 2010

Hope Yours Is “Allowed” To Be Happy.
My 63rd Fourth, And My Most Worried-About-The-Future One So Far.



My “worried-about”?  The fact that you allowed this, and are still allowing much more than this, and you will continue to allow. . .  Without any real effort to punish anyone.  Not one person has been fired or punished in any way what-so-ever for any of the destruction of the last 10 years.

Not one - Think about it - You are a nation of cowardly allowers.

The corporatists know you better than you do.  Why do you think they don’t even attempt to hide their bored disdain of you?  Seriously - Think about it, (since obviously you haven’t so far.)

Why the fuck do you keep “allowing” your own,
(and the rest of ours,) destruction?!?

Problems Ahead

I wrote in this blog about the 1969 catastrophe in Santa Barbara; I did not understand it due to my prejudices. For me then the only problem confronting humanity was man against man, I didn't see the man against Earth, or Gaia, side of things. Even my beloved working class men and women were killing chimpanzees and bonobos in Africa. Now those cousins are about to go the way of the Neanderthals. Even worse: bees, lizards, frogs, my beloved Mexican Axolotls, all are dying in unprecedented numbers,

Now all humans have to own up to the ecological devastation we are all guilty of.

Today during the American Independence Day, I call Americans to stop this war!

More Strange Happenings

Santa Barbara 1969 Chilpancingo 2010

I went to UCSB from 1973 to 1979. Then I knew that something big had happened, the beaches were oily and the Environmental Studies Department was progressive. To me, coming from Mexico, it didn't seem like a big deal. In 1968 the government had massacred 500 + innocent people to proceed with the Olympic Games, that was a big deal. I never got fired up by the ecologists. I went to Garrett Harding lectures, and some other more "progressive" professor debated him. I forgot the name of this opponent. To my mind Harding was a conservative (in my view bad) thinker, more concerned with the welfare of rich elites, than with the suffering of the masses.

More than 40 years later things look different.

If I had only understood "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science, 162 (1243-1248), 1968, then ; now I would be better able to understand the catastrophe coming our way.

Labels, like progressive or reactionary, don't mean squat under the present condition. What we need is clear thinking men and women like Harding and the Ehlrichs, honest towards the truth. I also think that James Lovelock and James Hansen have done their share warning us.

Now it is up to us.

I live in Chilpancingo, in the State of Guerrero in Mexico now. The ecological disaster around here is like a BP catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, but caused by everybody, all the time.

Now I understand what those thinkers were telling me when I was in my twenties. I did not paid enough attention.

Now I see, I do not know if we can do something.

Those tar stains in my feet I got walking barefoot in the beaches at the UCSB campus, were the canary in the mine, I did not get it.

Progression

“The natural progression
Is the coming of your age
But they cover it with shame
And turn it into rage”

To the generation that came of age in the 1950’s, the term ‘progressive’ meant ‘socialism’. That’s because the socialist party in the 40’s and 50’s called itself the ‘progressive party’. I did not know that, which probably says something about my knowledge of history. To the generation that came of age in the 1970’s and 80’s (my generation) ..the term ‘progressive’ meant just what the dictionary says: a keen interest in new developments and fresh ideas ..with all the positive connotations I thought that implied. Since advances in science and technology were progressing at lightening speed, I thought being progressive was a healthy mental outlook. In college, I chose a field of study that allowed me to take courses in psychology, neuroscience and information science. I thought that showed signs of being forward-thinking and progressive. It wasn’t until later, when I joined a political discussion group, that I learned it was also what made me a ‘liberal’, and sometimes even a ‘socialist’, to the people of my father’s generation. I have no such political convictions. I like to consider myself an independent thinker who doesn’t lend himself to labels of a bygone era.

Intrepid Bean… | African Bean, London Queen

Intrepid Bean… | African Bean, London Queen

The Greatest Story Ever Denied

Not With A Bang...

I apologise in advance to this sort-of-a-downer of a post. I believe there are some things that need to be faced head-on, with our proverbial heads out of the proverbial sand.

This is a post I hoped I would never write. As you, my readers, know, I practice the virtue of chardi kala, translated in many different ways, but all having the meaning of eternal optimism and never giving up. I am still practicing, but it is hard.

No doubt by now you have heard about the massive oil spill by British Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico in the Caribbean Sea, truly a paradise on earth. Or at least it was until 20 April 2010. On that day the Deepwater Horizon oil rig - owned and run by British Petroleum - exploded, caught fire and began gushing massive amounts of crude oil into the pristine waters around it. Eleven were killed and 17 injured. That was tragic, but it is just the beginning.

The amount of oil gushing into the Gulf is estimated at somewhere between 1,475,000 and 4,200,000 gallons per day ( 5,583,432 and 15,828,729 liters/day). No one knows how much oil is in this well, how long it can keep gushing. Years or decades, if it is not somehow stopped. So far nothing has worked. In fact, efforts have actually made it worse.

Here's a nice little widget to help you calculate.

Those are pretty dry figures for most people, so here's a more graphic look. This is what the spill looks like right now (30 June 2010):

I realise that most of my readers really can't relate to southern Louisiana, so here is the spill in other locations where I have readers:

If I happened to miss your locale, go to Ifitwasmyhome to move the spill to wherever you live.

Perhaps you'd like to see it as it happens.

If that's not enough to bring it home to you, here are a few oil-soaked pelicans. I find this horribly painful to look at.

In addition, massive amounts of methane gas has been released into the water. This may well turn out to be even more dangerous than the oil. The methane depletes the water of oxygen, leaving all the sea life devoid of the element that is necessary to all life on earth. It is feared that the methane will cause a dead zone where nothing can live, possibly for decades. Also, scientists believe that a huge methane bubble is forming under the water. When it bursts, it could release a tsunami of 20-60 ft (6.1-18.3 m), certainly enough to engulf most of the Caribbean islands. For more information on the gas leak, go here:
Gas Leak 3000 Times Worse Than Oil.


And, by the way, with our current technology we have no way to cap or contain the methane.

I guess that's not enough bad news. It is now hurricane season. (For those of you in Asia, those are typhoons.) There will be hurricanes. In fact, the first one is blowing right now. Hurricane Alex did not move close to the spill, but there will be another hurricane and another and another.


The next thing to consider is the ocean currents. The Gulf Stream is an ocean river that runs from the Caribbean to Europe.

Eventually this oil and methane and all their problems will reach Europe. They will also travel up the Atlantic coast of North America all the way to Canada and all points north. No one knows how much of the ocean will die. Certainly a large part of the Caribbean Sea will and it will take decades to recover. In the meantime the many people who make their livings along the Gulf, either fishing or in the tourist trade, have lost their means of livelihood. It is even possible that the land they live on will become uninhabitable. Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana has been alerted that a mass evacuation may become necessary, if a hurricane again hits the state. It is likely that once gone, the people will not be allowed to return due to the toxic oil and gas along the coast.

The earth is one big ecosystem, based primarily on our oceans. If a large part of one ocean dies, that will have a cascade effect on the rest of the planet. How far could this go? Worst case scenario: Bye-bye. "Not with a bang, but a whimper." If you don't recognise those lines, they are the conclusion of T. S Eliot's poem, The Hollow Men. To hear the whimper go to Power Without Petroleum and listen hard at 0:25.

Best case scenario: the southern coast of the United States becomes uninhabitable for a period of time and much of the sea life in the Gulf of Mexico dies, with devastating consequences to the people who now live there. As it is impossible that there be no hurricanes in the season, we can be sure that the winds will carry the oil throughout the region, damaging all it touches. That damage cannot be estimated at this time, except to say it will be extensive.

This morning (1 July 2010), going through my inbox, I found this article in the daily UN bulletin:

Biologists find 'dead zones' around BP oil spill in Gulf

Methane at 100,000 times normal levels have been creating oxygen-depleted areas devoid of life near BP's Deepwater Horizon spill, according to two independent scientists

As long as I can remember, the scientists have been screaming "Wolf!" alerting us to this or that which they claim is going to wipe us out. As I child I grew up with "nuclear annihilation." That was the biggie. There have been others: the hole in the ozone layer, swine flu (twice), bird flu, global climate change and I'm sure others that I have forgotten. And it seems, life causes cancer. There is truth in all these scientific assertions, but there was also something we could do to stop or at least alleviate the disaster. As I see it, this is different because we are helpless to do anything except pray. Of course, I am not a scientist, and the only way I see out of this is divine intervention. Even if the spill can somehow be stopped, we can do nothing about the methane. This is the time more than ever before that we need to dig deep within ourselves and find the high spirits, the chardi kala, that is a part of us. It takes courage to look tragedy in the face and carry on without panic or depression.

And what caused all this? Of course it was British Petroleum cutting corners on safety to save money and increase profit. It was Pres. Clinton who authorised the deep sea drilling. It was Pres. George W. Bush who so favoured the oil interests and permitted a lack of oversight to allow BP not to follow the safety measures. It was Pres. Obama who did not immediately step in to correct this corruption from the previous administration. But it was also all of us who are dependent on petroleum, who refuse to cut back on our usage, we who demand more and more. In the end, if we had not demanded this oil, if we had lost our lust it, BP wouldn't have been able to make the profit that drove them to build this rickety structure upon the rickety structure of our economy. So what now? We have learned why greed is such an evil thing. Whither our good, green beautiful earth?

I keep thinking about the ending of Dr. Strangelove. (A great movie. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you see it while you still can.)

Remain in chardi kala, my dear brothers and sisters!

pictures:

the fire - United States Coast Guard (via Wikipedia)
dead fish - Sean Gardner (Reuters)
the pelicans - Charlie Riedel (AP)
the earth - courtesy of NASA