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Jeremy Jackson: A Rude Awakening on the State of the Oceans
This piece was and is very very disturbing to me. I am an ocean child; born and raised and always drawn to the coastlines and islands of the world… I do not handle ‘inland’ well. It’s not that I don’t love mountains, I just prefer them in the sea. Or at least near by. Because I am in my early 50’s I am near enough to this man’s age to have borne witness to what he speaks of… I went out on a deep sea fishing boat as a child in the ’60s. my catch was not so impressive, at 22lbs, but to me it was the world. Today’s catch…
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The Case Against ‘Zero Tolerance’ Policy as Social/Political Remedy
Listening tonight, to Temple Grandin’s audio book on using the mysteries of autism to translate animal behavior, I was struck by her explanation of why zero tolerance in the meat packing industry doesn’t work. It’s the same reason, really, that it doesn’t work anywhere we apply it – from schools to courts to employers and employees to government: it is not designed to work. Quite simply, zero tolerance is designed to fail. Oh, perhaps not intentionally, but fail it will, and every time. Why? Because it is the direct application of what Grandin would call abstracted thought to real life situations. It is, indeed, the result of a non –…
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Seems to me You’d Stop and See How Beautiful They Are…
Isn’t it funny how things capture us? Well, I’ve said for years this is not the age of information, but the age of attention – it is, after all, where our attention goes that determines the probabilities of our outcomes… This line was in my head all day … the sweet little lilt of it.. the clarity. so… I had to go find it – various places, various voices and arrangements, and found myself here, loving it best of all in its most child like form… 😉 Inchworm…this etheric version won out in the end. And so – with all the information out there – it’s this, for whatever reason…
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Principles, Laws and Cognitive Process
What is a principle? I had not thought of it so directly in a long time. Principles are those observations of the process of engaging the natural laws through experience. In other words, principles are not static, immovable things – though our language may give that impression. Rather, they are the actualizing of personal interaction with basic laws of nature and of the spiritual reality behind nature which culminate in tenets, truths, or systems of comprehension in thought. “Things” which, in our individual process, we have the power to “prove” to ourselves through experience. They are different than laws – yet arise directly from them; which is perhaps why, in…
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Eva Cassidy – A Treasure & a Tragedy All in One
Eva Cassidy – Somewhere over the RainbowIrene | MySpace Video The first time I heard her voice it felt as if my heart stopped. I didn’t know if I could breathe. It was so pure, so clean and so incredibly beautiful. She was singing Over the Rainbow, on an online video – who knew? yes, that’s the one, above – live at blues alley in dc 1996… and then there’s her actually recorded for the album version here, still sweet and fine but nothing like that live sore throated real version above… It was as if I was transported to another time and place and everything I had ever thought…
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Gene Burnett – Irreverent as Hell and That’s Probably Why I Love His Work…
This one came to me through a few different sources all at the same time and I have to admit that while at first I was reluctant (or was that politically self conscious?) I cannot stop humming the song – and the refrain will be stuck in my head now forever. Gene Burnett has a great blog and web site – and he’s in the midst of a musical experiment which seems to be going quite well – he’s just putting his work out there and watching to see what happens. If this video is any indication, he is on a great path to bigger and better things and I,…
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Jeff Walker’s Moleskine Journals
As someone who has boxes and boxes of journals in storage units, closets and attics, I was actually quite surprised to discover there was an actual type of journal I had never heard of before. Jeff Walker’s “Moleskine” Journal. Hmmm. Who knew? I’ve used the typical hard cover spiral bound journal for years because they will open flat or even inside out (if you know what I mean) so I can write in pretty much any situation I find myself… but Moleskin? I mean, the first thing I thought was “ew, it’s made of animal fur? Damn must need lots of moles to make one journal. They’re not exactly large…
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Cannon Fodder
How is it that we; most sentient/conscious of beings, are willing in all our glory to exonerate and uphold a system whereby, for any of us to take anther’s life would be a crime of the highest order, and yet; we as members of Nation/States will condone such behavior among Nations such that our own offspring are the cannon fodder for our communal Nation/State aggressions? How is it that we; such peaceable and life supporting individual beings did find ourselves here, at the mercy of such a Nation/State system which would allow us to choose such sacrificed as this? Where our examples are Prince William and Charles – or whomever;…
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Parenting: Free Free Set Them Free!
By today’s modern western standards, I was a terrible parent. I was self involved. I was busy. I was one person dealing with four offspring with no partner for nearly a decade. Neglect? Normal. Forget about it. On the other hand I was a very good parent. I read to my kids every night, or as close as we could come, even well after they could read for themselves. In later years, they have read to me. The payback is quite worth it! Listening to Thomas reading Harry Potter by the fire at Lake Almanore some years back was one of the highlights of my living experience… So, yes. Some…
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Amory Lovins – I’ve Been a Fan for More Than 20 Years Now… Here’s Why
Amory Lovins, who wrote a plan for Hawaii some four decades ago now, that outlined how the state could reduce it’s energy/oil/electric generation requirements enought to offset future growth for a few decades simply by implementing conservation systems (at less cost to implement than the *(then) current price of energy production.) Ah – but did they do it? Hell no… They paid for the study and moved on. As most government bureacracies do… Roll back in tine. To before the devastating events of 2008. To before the automobile industry crisis. To before the current mess we are in, and here he is again, telling us how easy it is to…