2010-02-23T16:27:01Z User 112 kamakandala@msn.com http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v112/ OrgSpace NewsLog

Interesting stuff. . . . . "What Babies Know and We Don’t" The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life by Alison Gopnik Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 288 pp., Reviewed by By Michael Greenberg http://librarykvpattom.wordpress.com/201...

Interesting stuff. . . . .

"What Babies Know and We Don’t"
The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life
by Alison Gopnik
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 288 pp.,
Reviewed by By Michael Greenberg

http://librarykvpattom.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/what-babies-know-and-we-dont/

"The most elusive period of our lives occurs from birth to about the age of five. Mysterious and otherworldly, infancy and early childhood are surrounded later in life by a curious amnesia, broken by flashes of memory that come upon us unbidden, for the most part, with no coherent or reliable context. With their sensorial, almost cellular evocations, these memories seem to reside more in the body than the mind; yet they are central to our sense of who we are to ourselves.. . . . . .
]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v112/__show_article/_a000112-000247.htm 2010-02-23T16:27:01Z 2010-02-23T16:27:01Z

Think Government Is Corrupt? You May Face 10 Years In Jail South Carolina forces "subversives" to register with the authorities or do hard time http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/february2010/020810_government_corrupt.htm Paul Joseph Watson Propaganda Matrix Monday, February 8, 2010

Subversives who think government is corrupt and should be controlled by the people face 10 years in prison and a $25,000 dollar fine if they fail to register with authorities in South Carolina, in another chilling example of how free speech and dissent is being criminalized in America.
The state's "Subversive Activities Registration Act" is now officially on the books and mandates that "Every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States ... shall register with the Secretary of State."
Of course, the right to overthrow a government that has become corrupt, abusive and completely unrepresentative of its electorate is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence - that's how America came to be a Republic in the first place - advocating or teaching that the people should "control" the government via their elected representatives is a basic function of a democratic society, but this law effectively makes it a terrorist offense.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness," states the Declaration of Independence.
Under the sweeping terms of the law, members of tax protest organizations, the Tea Party movement and the States' Rights movement based in South Carolina are all domestic terrorists if they fail to register their dissent with the authorities.
It is important to stress that the notion this law somehow only applies to "Islamic terrorists" is completely at odds with the fact that federal and state authorities now consider the main terror threat to be from informed American citizens exercising their constitutional rights in opposition to the big government agenda they are being subjected to.
As we saw with the MIAC report and a plethora of similar training manuals which were leaked over the last decade, police are being trained that libertarians, gun owners, Ron Paul supporters and anyone who is mildly political is a domestic extremist and a potential terrorist - these people are the real target of the subversives list in South Carolina.
The infamous Phoenix Federal Bureau of Investigation manual (page one, page two) produced in association with the Joint Terrorism Task Force listed "defenders of the U.S. constitution" and "lone individuals" as terrorists. Will anyone in South Carolina who defends the Constitution, the very bedrock of what America stands for, have to register with the authorities unless they want to be locked up for a decade?
Of course, since nobody is going to register as a "subversive" with South Carolina authorities, their failure to "comply" with the regulation will later be used against them as a means of eliciting criminal charges, in what represents a clear end run around the First Amendment.
The government isn't going to just come out all guns blazing and ban free speech, they are simply going to make anyone who refuses to register for permission a criminal for failing to adhere to a separate mandate.
Just like people in places such as New York and Chicago were told that they had to get a license to purchase a gun - at first the process was a mere inconvenience but now the licensing process means they have to jump through 200 flaming hoops and the second amendment has effectively been outlawed in these cities.
They won't hesitate to pull the same tricks with the First Amendment, and it's already happening with calls to license Internet users and force them to get government permission to run a website.
]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v112/__show_article/_a000112-000246.htm 2010-02-10T03:39:33Z 2010-02-10T03:39:33Z

Homo Sapiens c. 21st century A.D. Thinks that we (he and she, such as we are) are pretty hot stuff. We're all here, in this little site, are we not, in the belief that the best is yet to come. Perhaps, just perhaps, we've got a little ways to go, just to get back to where we (such as we a...

Homo Sapiens c. 21st century A.D.
Thinks that we (he and she, such as we are)
are pretty hot stuff.
We're all here, in this little site,
are we not, in the belief that the best is yet to come.
Perhaps,
just perhaps,
we've got a little ways to go,
just to get back to where we (such as we are)
have already been.
Kinda got derailed back there some time ago.
Maybe the best IS still yet to come.
It is, however, gonna be maybe a kinda rough ride
gettin' there.
Only thing is, there is no other way to go.
Keep the vision crankin',
and make it become.
Just a thought.
Dissident opinions notwithstanding.
One thing we know for sure, is that Nobody Knows.
JA

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/the-brain-2/28-what-happened-to-hominids-who-were-smarter-than-us/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C

***-_-***__-***]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v112/__show_article/_a000112-000245.htm 2010-01-19T04:57:36Z 2010-01-19T05:08:58Z

Saturn in the Kennel of Virgo. Venus an hour ahead of the Rising Sun.

The spinning Sapphire in Blue light revolves in synchronicity with her sister gems around their bright star. The urban civilizations of the bipedal ape have chewed the forest of the planet up into near oblivion. The mania for black gold, yellow gold, and white gold drives the dynamic of population relocation. Many things are being written and many movies are being made, all presenting variations on the theme, the meltdown, not only of glaciers and icecaps, but of human populations. Shall a new civilization emerge in the Arctic lands that evolve from the tundra? Shall technological and creative capabilities cope in an effective manner with the needs of the populations who make it and take root in those areas? Shall there be great wars between migrating populations, or shall they all recognize one another as the last sailors on the only ship we got?
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/could-methane-t/
Very Best Wishes,
J.A.
]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v112/__show_article/_a000112-000244.htm 2009-12-12T04:21:39Z 2009-12-12T04:21:39Z

I see in various headlines that there are various arguments going on

in global real-time internet sessions about whether or not
this phenomenon commonly referred to as global warming,
is actually occurring, and if it so, what is causing it,
and if it has been ascertained
that the madness within humans has brought this about,
what if anything can or should be done about it?
Let us simplify the debate.
We are fried.
The only question then becomes one of how long this shall take.
Let us propose one human lifetime. Say seventy or eighty years.
Or if one might like to reckon time
according to the contemporary counting system,
pose the question as,
What do you think the Earth will look like in 2100?
Parenthetically, if you think there is going to be anyone left around
who will still be functioning within that calendrical system?

What will be the progressions and realignments
of dry desert areas to moist rainy portions of the evolving landscapes?
Where will the plants grow and what kinds of plants will they be?
Ocean currents will change placement, and direction and intensity.
As much as is likely so for prevailing wind patterns.
No one can now really tell
what the overall number for the planetary population will be,
or how, actually, they will live.
A new technologically superior civilization
may comprise some number of the perhaps half a billion people
who occupy the planet.
Indigenous peoples in many places are already well equipped,
mentally and practically, to keep their traditions alive.
None of the current publicity stunt climate conferences
are going to affect one Iota of anything
that is contributing to the currently evolving methane hydrate catastrophe.
Might want to build those windmill farms in territories
near and around the Arctic circle.
Ever notice that big swath of desert
cutting across all of northern Africa through the Arabian peninsula
and across the Middle East and into the Gobi?
Now let’s just suppose that that whole ribbon of sand and rocks
nudged north some ten degrees latitude,
some twenty degrees latitude, or thirty, or what?
That’s on the Eurasian side.
No telling what might come around on the once lush continent of North America.
All lines in the dirt formerly known as boundaries will no longer exist.
The great California breadbasket might dry up like a canyon on Mars.
The Mississippi would become like the Rio Grande,
a thin ribbon of water winding through a desert.
From the Rockies, to the Great Lakes, to the shores of the Potomac,
tumbleweed territory.
The Amazon, sub-Saharan African, southeast Asian,
and Indonesian rainforest belt,
with the richness of wind currents and moisture
that have nurtured its profuseness until now,
will adjust in some unforeseeable way
to the overall set of changing weather patterns.
Moisture and humidity should be readily available
in this transitional phase of planetary evolution.
Where the rain will fall, no one yet does know.
**^-_-^**
J.A.]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v112/__show_article/_a000112-000243.htm 2009-11-27T20:42:32Z 2009-11-27T20:49:19Z

On this November twenty-second some forty-six years ago, I was nineteen years old and working on the third floor of the AT&T building on the corner of Olive and twenty-sixth just beyond the downtown area of St. Louis.

I was living with my mom and dad and younger brothers and sisters. I’d been at AT&T for a little over a year now. Started right out of high school, and they taught me a whole lot of electronics, enough to pass the test for the FCC second-class radio operator’s license. Most of what I wound up doing had almost nothing to do with analyzing circuits at the component level, but at least I was familiar with the principles and fundamentals of the underlying foundations of the corporate enterprise. The plans for going to college were already in motion. I was sure I wanted to go to some university in some other state, and I was browsing catalogs. I was looking for a school with Aeronautical engineering. I was fascinated with the emerging space program of the early sixties, and I had been good with math and science, so this seemed like a logical direction. I was making plans for my future, methodical and measurable plans.
As a communication hub in the AT&T network, covering all kinds of cable and radio transmitted telecommunications media including national and local TV networks, and with the TV monitoring equipment just a few steps away on the third floor where I worked at the Restoration Center, we were all aware and on-alert from the get-go. The afternoon passed by, and our president passed on; the sun set and deep dusk filled the cityscape streets that we crossed after we left the building when our shift was over. Street light signals lite the way and tell us where to go, for our sense of nationhood has been rendered leaderless, and the darkness hovers heavily.
*-__-*
JA]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v112/__show_article/_a000112-000242.htm 2009-11-23T05:15:05Z 2009-11-23T05:16:45Z

It’s been cloudy and cold these last couple of days,

and early this afternoon, the clouds dispersed
and light came through.
I notice that the methane-hydrates
are bubbling up from the Arctic ocean floor
at a rate faster than had been anticipated.
Seems like I been hearing that phrase
rather frequently these last few years;
at a rate faster than had been anticipated.
Also noteworthy in the news: water
has been discovered on the moon.
Meanwhile,
aquifers dwindle in our back yards.
Migration patterns are changing.
Battlegrounds reach into places long thought sacred.
The Earth, our planet, is about to be cooked,
and we are witness to it,
We Who Live into Tomorrow
on the other side of Night.
*--_--*]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v112/__show_article/_a000112-000241.htm 2009-11-16T22:52:15Z 2009-11-16T22:52:15Z

Utah Drivearound First day out, three-hundred and seventeen miles from Los Jardines de Hawley to Goosenecks state park, Utah, where the meandering river has cut a deep gorge. Start off with a stopover at the San Ysidro roadside Quik Stop. Park to the side near the fence and the grass.

Along comes a young Indian fella, maybe late teens early twenties, walks briskly over to the back corner of the building and sets down a small black canvas backpack, turns to go into the store, and looks over at me, smiling as he says, “Can’t take that into the store with me. Watch that for me, will you?” “Sure,” I say, “but just for a couple of minutes.” So we got some kind of a deal. What does, “a couple of minutes,” mean?
So I’m standing out there, and more than a couple of minutes goes by, but that’s ok. I’m in no hurry. Just standing outside on the first steps of the first leg of this excursion. So he comes out the store and goes back to the corner where he had put that old back pack, retrieved it and brought it back to where I was standing. Actually, I had been taking photos of the buildings and trees across the road and was out by the driveway, so we both came back to my car, and he started telling me his story of how he needed a ride back to Jemez.
So I take him home, and on the way, he explains to me about what is in his backpack. A twelve-pack of beer. His mama don’t want him to have it, so even though he’s already twenty-four, he’s gotta sneak it into his part of the house behind her back. Juan teaches me the pueblo language word for beer, “dirty water,” and the pronunciations I cannot repeat. I tried, and had an especially hard time with the first syllable, while the last three went pretty good, so says Juan.
I meet his Aunt and his baby toddler daughter. Juan shows me the picture of his grandparents on the wall, and several of the gems of pottery his mother crafts. Outside, he gives me some grapes to take with me, grapes from the vine at the side of the house.
Riding into late afternoon sunlight through haze effects and back –lit silhouettes, all I can do to keep from stopping is my sense for tonight’s destination, a spot on the map with a tent in the middle of nowhere. There, I’ve got a spot on the rocky terrain over the meandering chasm of the San Juan river going through the Goosenecks. Little bit of a crowd, maybe ten people, but there’s plenty of open space. Couple of old stone fire circles for orientation towards the chasm. Kind of south-southeasterly. Moon is clear, three-quarters waxing, and the sky is clear with occasional cloudlets. Up at dawn as the sun rises through a notch in the rock. Ushas and Surya come to say Hi.
Some little thought for the day just to get myself started. Second night campground on the Colorado river just a few miles north and east from Moab. At a bend in the river, surrounded by Red cliffs breaking into light from sunlight breaking through. Meandered over here round late afternoon lookin’ for a site. Yesterday was east from Goosenecks to Bluff, then north to Blanding, where I found Lynne in the visitor’s center very helpful in directing me to the ins and outs of all roads north. Took the turnoff at Monticello west on a rising road to an overlook, then went down to Newspaper Rock, a densely composed array of petroglyphs. Then on up to Moab for a gas-up, and queries into a Dollar General, and a Gearhead store, and Watkin’s General Store for a reasonably priced old fashioned coffee pot , and the only one I can think about is $32.99 and I don’t need that morning cup of coffee that much. Campsite eleven at the Hal Canyon grounds. Waves churning in the night under the becoming full moon. Big enough rocks just far enough below to create a white-capped disturbance in the water rushing by. Just a few yards long in the middle of the channel, and only for a short distance. Each disturbance is a punctuated note or group of notes, droplets of water on the clefs of a musical score. Churning Water, tumbling across the invisible rocks in an endless musical score of spontaneous composition.
]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v112/__show_article/_a000112-000240.htm 2009-09-19T22:42:42Z 2009-09-19T22:42:42Z

Monday, June 22nd. Took a drive on Sunday the fourteenth to the Santa Fe National Forest east of Cuba. Rainbow Gathering Time. Good parking spot on the side of the road next to the path leading to the meadow.

There was of course the Welcome Home tent. First greeting in the meadow is with Casey, an older dude like myself. These are the days of the earliest beginnings. These are the long-haul people, the foundation people, the providers, the bedrock. Casey is with the Peace Kitchen, and he is on his way across the meadow to pick up a rock for the Peace Kitchen fire circle. I walk on across the meadow in another direction. I am still in exploratory mode. In the far corner is a white teepee with a crowd of what looks like mostly guys sitting in a close group in front of the tent.
I keep to the outskirts, and meet a young fellow who gives me a little geography lesson about the terrain in the forest beyond the meadow. I take a nice long walk down there and it is very nice. Return to the meadow and walk the length on the other side. Pick up two rocks and walk over to Little Bear’s camp. Place those two stones on the fireplace where his young son is trying to start a fire with tinder and sparks. Walk with Little Bear over to Kids’ Village, under construction. A blue roof tarp is up. Get into meeting Douglas, who cooks and spices up his Raman noodles, and neither one of us has any rolling papers. Nice long talk with Douglas. Seems to be in his thirties. Says he was raised in Kids’ Village. Now it’s his turn to help make it happen. Nice long talk with Douglas. Walk back up the trail to the road where my car is parked and meet Ticket and Whirly. Ticket needs a light for his cigarette, and the three of us carry some groceries down to the Capeezi Kitchen. Get a free bowl of recently cooked noodles, and the lady who tends the fire is Mama Mac. Return to the meadow and sit on a rock. Bob comes by from the Magic Bull kitchen and he tells me to go to that kitchen for a great bowl of fresh rice and veggies. This I do, and there meet a group of folks whom I can relate to very well. Billy and Nikki and John Sixty-Five, and Jason, and several others. Time around the large community campfire. Bob has returned. Clearly the main in-charge guy for this kitchen. Billy is the fire tender and daylight is still strong. Butterfly comes by from out of the woods, and our paths cross, and we look for one of his lost butterflies and finally he makes one for me out of thin copper wire. Finally got to be leaving around dusk. Image of my niece follows me. Slow moving man near the top of the path from the meadow to the road. Walk a ways with him. Give a ride to one of the old hands.
JA
]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v112/__show_article/_a000112-000239.htm 2009-06-25T07:05:56Z 2009-06-25T07:08:50Z

On the 19th of the first month was celebrated the fete of Thoth,

from which that month took its name.
It was usual for those who attended
“to eat honey and eggs, saying to each other,
‘How sweet a thing is truth!’”
And a similar allegorical custom was observed in Merore,
the last month of the Egyptian year, when,
on “offering the first fruits of their lentils, they exclaimed,
‘The tongue is fortune, the tongue is God!’”

Wilkinson, Sir J. Gardner. (1854). A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians.
New York: Harper and Brothers. (p. 299).
]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v112/__show_article/_a000112-000238.htm 2009-05-13T04:43:42Z 2009-05-13T04:43:42Z