Posted in Time: 2010

Sunday 19 December 2010

Ultimate travel list

Imagine traveling the cultural world and moving from one culture to the next. That is Baraka. That is blessing. That is a goal.

The following is taken directly from wikipedia:

Baraka (1992) is a non-narrative film directed by Ron Fricke.
The film is often compared to Koyaanisqatsi, the first of the Qatsi films by Godfrey Reggio of which Fricke was cinematographer. Baraka's subject matter has some similarities—including footage of various landscapes, churches, ruins, religious ceremonies, and cities thrumming with life, filmed using time-lapse photography in order to capture the great pulse of humanity as it flocks and swarms in daily activity. The film also features a number of long tracking shots through various settings, including one through former German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Tuol Sleng (in Cambodia) turned into museums honoring their victims: over photos of the people involved, past skulls stacked in a room, to a spread of bones. In addition to making comparisons between natural and technological phenomena, such as in Koyaanisqatsi, Baraka searches for a universal cultural perspective: for instance, following a shot of an elaborate tattoo on a bathing Japanese yakuza mobster with one of Native Australian tribal paint.
The movie was filmed at 152 locations in 24 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Nepal, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States. It contains no dialogue. Instead of a story or plot, the film uses themes to present new perspectives and evoke emotion purely through cinema. The film was the first in over twenty years to be photographed in the 70mm Todd-AO format.
The title Baraka is a word that means blessing in a multitude of languages. The score by Michael Stearns and featuring music by Dead Can Dance, L. Subramaniam, Ciro Hurtado, Inkuyo, Brother and David Hykes, is noticeably different from the minimalist one provided by Philip Glass for Koyaanisqatsi. The film was produced by Mark Magidson, who also produced and directed the film Toward the Within, a live concert performance by Dead Can Dance. A sequel to Baraka, Samsara, is planned to be released in 2011.

The original Baraka 65 mm negative being scanned at 8K resolution

Following previous DVD releases, in 2007 the original 65 mm negative was re-scanned at 8K (a horizontal resolution of 8192 pixels) with equipment designed specifically for Baraka at FotoKem Laboratories. The automated 8K film scanner, operating continuously, took more than three weeks to finish scanning more than 150,000 frames (taking approximately 12–13 seconds to scan each frame), producing over 30 terabytes of image data in total. After a 16-month digital intermediate process, including a 96 kHz/24 bit audio remaster by Stearns for the DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, the superior result was finally re-released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in October, 2008. Project supervisor Andrew Oran says this remastered Baraka is "arguably the highest quality DVD that's ever been made".^[1] Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert describes the Blu-ray release as "the finest video disc I have ever viewed or ever imagined."^[2]

Locations

[edit] Africa

[edit] Egypt

[edit] Kenya

Lake Magadi
Mara Kichwan Tembo Manyatta
Mara Rianta Manyatta
Masaai Mara

[edit] Tanzania

Lake Natron

[edit] Americas

[edit] USA

[edit] Arizona

[edit] California

[edit] Others

[edit] South America

[edit] Argentina

Iguazu Falls, Misiones

[edit] Brazil

[edit] Ecuador

Barrio Mapasingue, Guayaquil
Caldad Blanca Cementerio (Misspelling for Cementerio Ciudad Blanca (White City Cemetery))
Galapagos Islands
Guayaquil

[edit] Asia

[edit] Cambodia

[edit] China

[edit] India

[edit] Indonesia

Borobudur, Java
Candi Nandi, Prambanan Temple, Java
Candi Perwara, Prambanan Temple, Java
Gudang Garam Cigarette Factory, Kediri, Java
Kasunanan Palace, Surakarta, Java
Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta, Java
Kediri, Tabanan, Bali
Mancan Padi, Bali
Mt. Bromo Valley
Tampak Siring, Bali
Tegallalang, Bali
Temple Gunung Kawi, Bali
Uluwatu, Bali

[edit] Iran

[edit] Japan

Green Plaza Capsule Hotel
Hokke-Ji Temple
JVE Yokosuka Factory
Kyoto
Meiji Shrine
Nagano Springs
Nara
Nittaku
Ryōan-ji Temple, Kyoto
Sangho-ji Temple
Shinjuku Station, Tokyo
The Hachikō Exit, Shibuya Station, Tokyo
Tokyo
Tomoe Shizung & Hakutobo
Yamanouchi-Machi
Zoujou-Ji Temple

[edit] Kuwait

[edit] Nepal

[edit] Israel

[edit] Thailand

[edit] Turkey

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (European part)
Galata Mevlevi Temple, Istanbul (European part)

[edit] Saudi Arabia

Mecca

[edit] Oceania

[edit] Australia

Bathurst Island, Northern Territory
Cocinda, Northern Territory
Jim Jim Falls, Northern Territory
Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory
Kunwarde Hwarde Valley, Northern Territory

[edit] Europe

Oświęcim, Poland (Auschwitz)
Bytom, Poland
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, Eure-et-Loir, France
Notre-Dame de Reims, Reims, Marne, France
St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

Sunday 14 November 2010

Reasons to celebrate the world

(or at least keep working towards celebration)

http://www.countdown2010.net/biodiversity/the-2010-biodiversity-target
http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/
http://onedollaraday.weebly.com/index.html

Monday 13 September 2010

Stop learning and the world will pass you by.

pg 6 of A 21st Century Ethical Toolbox by Anthony Weston

I have been a great-granddaughter and I hope to be a great-grandmother. That puts me in the centre of seven full generations of ideas and practices, of the changing of the world. "Remember who you are!" as the Native decree announces and you will be aware and engaged with your world, from the clothes you wear, the soil that grew your food, the people you bump into. Seven generations. Think.

Ethics is the awakening to the complexity of the world and all its issues and the internalization of how to fit into that world. Ethics is also "a concern with the basic needs and legitimate expectations of others as well as our own." (pg 5)

Tuesday 7 September 2010

20

This is what it feels like to be twenty.
I’m happy with who I am and where I am.

Greatest accomplishments:
Getting into university
Winning NEOSEF and ISEF and going to the Nobel Prize ceremonies
Witnessing a unique fish behaviour
Running in a half-marathon
Kayaking 100 miles down the coast of Lake Superior – Pukaskwa 2009
Working at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History - 2009 - Mudpuppies
Seeing wild beluga whales
Seeing a wild polar bear
Seeing a wild black bear
Seeing wild moose
Seeing a Massasauga rattler
Seeing a wild arctic fox
Seeing wild hawks and eagles

Next ten years?
Have a picture featured in National Geographic
Publish a scientific paper
Fall under a spell
Learn German
Learn a dying language
Be fluent in Spanish
Run a marathon
Graduate with a Masters
Graduate with a PhD
Add to scientific thought
Kayak trip in the ocean
Camp in the winter
Ski a mountain out West
Write a book
Publish a poem
Sell a painting
Write until every page of a notebook is filled
Buy a new pen and write until it is empty
Line a room with books

Lifetime:
Study in the Antarctic
Study in the arctic
Study in a tropical rainforest
Study in a desert
Study in a tundra
Study in a boreal forest
Study on an isolated island in the ocean (Ascension Island?)
Study in Africa
Study at high elevation
Stand on a volcano
Visit each ecozone – Palearctic, Nearctic, Afrotropic, Neotropic, Australasia, Indo-Malaya, Oceania, Antarctic
Watch the sun rise for 24 hours continuously
Watch the sun rise on each continent

Physical
Intellectual
Emotional
Spiritual

Friday 20 August 2010

Favorite Movies

Rabbit Proof Fence

Pan’s Labyrinth

Science of Sleep

Motorcycle Diaries

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Proof

Born Free

Fly Away Home

Apocalypto

Whale Rider

Bennie and Joon

Howl’s Moving Castle

Stardust

V for Vendetta

The Fountain

Empire of the Sun

Princess Bride

Babel

The Last King of Scotland

Blood Diamond

Hotel Rwanda

Forrest Gump

The Pianist

The Prestige

The New World

The Postman

Waterworld

Big Fish

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Paper Man

Matilda

LOTR
The Last Samurai
Avatar
Star Trek 2009
WALL-E
Up
Lion King
Pocahontas
Dragon Heart
Sin City
Slumdog Millionaire
The Truman Show
Hot Fuzz
Robin Hood Men in Tights
Braveheart
Catch Me if You Can
Schindler’s List
Pleasantville
Ghostbusters

A Good Year

Dr Strangelove
Resevoir Dogs
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Inglorious Bastards
Blade Runner

Wednesday 18 August 2010

B&W on Suburban Paths

Tent to Butterfly

Spike

Droplet

Acorn

Thursday 12 August 2010

Quiescent

"Why was the secretary general quiescent in 2008? Because some UN member states – notably the United States – had openly supported Kosovo’s independence as the only practical solution after years of fruitless negotiations with Serbia. Since reconciliation within the Serbian state was impossible, recognizing secession appeared to be the lesser evil." -What does Kosovo mean for Quebec?

Quiescent:
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin quiescent-, quiescens, present participle of quiescere to become quiet, rest, from quies
Date: 1605

: marked by inactivity or repose : tranquilly at rest
: causing no trouble or symptoms

Quiescent Reflection
Willis Gray Gallery, Decatur Alabama
24"H x 36"W

— qui·es·cent·ly adverb

Within surrounding horror,
there is solitary tranquility
when the quiescent tears freeze hell
acknowledgement in grief,
peace-less, in pieces, and spent,
we shelter in restless repose
any instant, silence shatters, life initiates
horror indefinite, or annihilated,
endure, deny, or rise
to live

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Anomalous

"The climate of Hudson Bay is anomalously cold in comparison with other regions at similar latitudes because of the presence of seasonally varying ice cover (Rouse, 1991)." Gagnon and Gough, 2005a

http://antisocialrap.com/blog/?p=16

Anomalous
Function: adjective
Entomology: Late Latin anomalus, from Greek anōmalos, literally, uneven, from a- + homalos even, from homos same

: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected : irregular, unusual
a : of uncertain nature or classification
b : marked by incongruity or contradiction : paradoxical

— anom·a·lous·ly adverb
— anom·a·lous·ness noun

Of my anomalous nature, there is a contradiction because it is expected that I deviate from the expected. Therefore, if I deviate from the norm, which I believe is beneficial for my character, and if I, as I do, enjoy both of the dichotomous pairs that have been penned against each other in society, such as art and science, sensing and intuition, thinking and feeling, judgement and perception, then I am free to accept the label of anomalous. But if you expect me to be anomalous, as KI perceptions intend, thus classifying me and creating a norm for that classification, then am I no longer anomalous?

Saturday 5 June 2010

Symphony of Science

Aquatic food: brain development in early hominids

Really cool study: Discovery of site indicating that early hominids (1.95 mya) butchered and ate aquatic animals (fish, aquatic reptiles, hippos, crocs...) - this evidence seems to support the hypothesis that getting the nutrients from fish provided the nutrients that are needed to support larger brain growth. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/first-fish-diet/

So my questions/rant - I hope its coherent:

is there fossil evidence of the evolution of larger brains in areas where access to rivers and floodplains is limited (i.e. the 'brain food' diet is not present)? If so, then is there another explanation?

I wonder if there could sort of be a Lamarkian evolution here (I know, disproved, but...). If the mother has a greater ingestion of these proteins and lipids needed for a brain, it could be transferred to the fetus, right? So along with neotenic heterochrony (in this case when the stages of skull development are slowed, allowing more room for a brain to expand), there could be circumstantial (more nutrients) advantage that allows the brain to develop further (get larger)? I think the key is in the delayed fusing of the skull, which may have gotten later and later, extending into postnatal development, with the ingestion of the more enriched diet, that gave the brain space and nutrients to grow through generations. Lifestyle would have to change, need to have access to these nutrients in the infant development and early childhood, as well as during adulthood in order to feed the fetus. You would also need development of prolonged parental care of young since they would be born "earlier" in their developmental stage (bones are still soft, muscle coordination is slow, unlike say a newborn gazelle which can run within an hour of birth). But, and I'm not sure if this is circular or not, with a larger brain, adults may (I don't understand neuroscience so I'm not sure if larger really means better survival, but from the evolutionary standpoint, it probably has some correlation, otherwise it wouldn't have developed) have a better ability to think about their environment, survive in it by building better tools (need archaeological evidence for this) or using current tools in new ways (new game - such as aquatic animals!) and thus continue the nutrient flow to the next generation. I wonder how much genetics is even involved. I mean, you would need the heterochrony thing, right? But once you have that, then what? 1.95 mya, hominids were structurally very similar to modern humans, they walked upright, with the s-shaped spine, the arched, flat, inlined feet, the alterations to the pelvis and femoral head, the dexterous hands, etc. The main differences are in stature (which may have been largely environmentally induced, such as adaptations to high elevated areas - barrel chested and blood cabable of carrying more oxygen, skin colour in different areas of sun exposure, which we see today) (stature can also be affected by diet - better diet in youth leads to taller adults - from more modern observations) and of course the head. The head changed a lot. Some of it still fits within environmental influence such as the stength of the jaw muscles (eating softer foods with less need for grinding, such as fish, means that mucles of the jaw are not used as much - this is a developmental thing - experiments down with gorillas where muscles were weakened in youth so huge crest on top of the skull didn't develop and the muscle attachment for the jaw muscles was lower on the skull). Then the teeth, the size of (the molars getting smaller, the canines looking more like incisors, the incisors getting larger (actually, I can't remember if they do get larger or only in relation to the decrease in molars, should look that up)). This could be related to selective pressure of the diet (less grinding) and the use of tools to do the rough cutting. There is again that heterochrony, paedomorphosis, thing going on too, since the jaw doesn't grow as much in relation to the skull. But the main thing too look at is the change in the skull region, the height of the forehead, the rounding and vaulting. And that is why brain development is the intriguing question, the skull is the main difference between modern humans (us) and the hominids of 1.95 million years ago (along with everything that came with an enlarged brain and the ongoing cultural revolution).

I'm currently reading Panda's Thumb by Stephen J. Gould. In a couple of the essays he writes about the 19th century obsession to determine differences between races by measuring the size of the skull. This was an attempt to confirm the prejudice (one I and Gould and most people today do not hold) that European white men (specifically men) were the most intelligent, most logical, and most cultured due to larger skulls and subsequently larger brains. However, evidence (as far as I understand it, its probably a bit more complicated ) has shown that the skull size does not indicate any differences in intelligence. (So there is a lot more that you can talk about in terms of the scientists of the time and the racism, and not to belittle the issues, but I'm going to go a different way with this thought.) Gould also mentioned in this essay, if I remember correctly, that skull size and brain size does not say anything about intelligence, that these measurements were abandoned when IQ tests began to be the basic tool to measure intelligence (again some racism in this issue that I won't get into). What I wonder though, is this assumption that skull/brain size = more intelligent. From my limited understanding of nueroscience, I think that intelligence is more about the inter-connectivity of certain parts of the brain, the way the brain folds and the speed of the neurons interacting, and not necessarily size. For example, if you look at a bird, they have tiny brain to body size ratios, but some species can solve puzzles and interact with humans to portray needs and sometimes feelings (african greys are the reference here). We also have primate examples with sign language in gorillas and chimpanzees who can communicate with humans. But, goes the argument, they have smaller brains and they don't do this in nature (first, I'm not sure entirely if we, as humans and scientists, have any idea how animals communicate because many certainly have the potential to learn how to communicate with humans in human based languages, second, there is evidence of animals solving problems without being taught by humans in labs and also creatively solving things in the wild). This is especially intriguing when you look at their diets, fruits, nuts, mites for the primates with occasional meat (but not in the same amount as described is needed for larger brains). So I guess what I'm getting at is, there seems to be this impression that larger brains was the key to becoming 'intelligent' (the definition of intelligent probably needs to be more concise here, but I think using the general term still gets the idea across). Sure, this new study linking diet and possible brain development is important, but we don't even know really what's going on in the brain, because getting larger is one thing (and the only thing we have fossil evidence for), but being better insulated due to nutrients and thus faster, or being folded in new weird ways leading to new pathways, we just don't know anything about. I have heard that you can kinda get an impression of the brain on the inside of the skull. I'm sure they are already doing this, but maybe looking at the surface of the brain engraved on the bone would be a better indicator of whether the brain is developing into something more like us. (Pointing out a problem in this, fossils generally don't preserve the inside of the skull, simply due to how fossils are formed - you would need the actual bone for this, or get really lucky with a fossil, so in addition to being lucky enough to find this, you would also need to be able to interpret it...) Anyway, I don't really have a solution to the brain development delema, but I think that we should be careful about assigning enlargement with intelligence. And if you know more, please let me know, since I obviously don't know everything about brains.
So, diet probably did have a great effect, but the details are wuzzie.

"There isn't a sharp line dividing humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. It's a very wuzzie line. It's a very wuzzie line, and it's getting wuzzier all the time" - Jane Goodall (as in www.symphonyofscience.com).

Sunday 23 May 2010

Fuck You - Lilly Allen

Look inside, look inside your tiny mind
and look a bit harder
cause were so uninspired
so sick and tired
of all the hatred you harbor

so you say its not okay to be gay
well I think youre just evil
youre just some racist who cant tie my laces
youre point of view is medieval

Fuck you, fuck you very very much
cause we hate what you do
and we hate your whole crew
so please dont stay in touch

fuck you, fuck you very very much
cause your words dont translate
and its getting quite late
so please dont stay in touch

do you get, do you get a little kick out of being small-minded?
you want to be like your father
its approval youre after
well thats not how youll find it

do you, do you really enjoy living a life thats so hateful
cause theres a hole where your soul should be
youre losing control of it
and its really distasteful

Fuck you, fuck you very very much
cause we hate what you do
and we hate your whole crew
so please dont stay in touch

Fuck you, fuck you very very much
cause your words dont translate
and its getting quite late
so please dont stay in touch

Look inside, look inside your tiny mind
and look a bit harder
cause were so uninspired
so sick and tired
of all the hatred you harbor

Fuck you, fuck you very very much
cause we hate what you do
and we hate your whole crew
so please dont stay in touch

Fuck you, fuck you very very much
cause your words dont translate
and its getting quite late
so please dont stay in touch

Monday 29 March 2010

YG8: World Economics

Alex Tabarrok
"One idea, one world, one market.
Larger markets save lives.
How else can we create new ideas? That's one reason. Globalize, trade. Well, more idea creators.
Globalization is increasing the demand for ideas, the incentive to create new ideas. Investments in education are increasing the supply of new ideas.
So growth can wash away even what appears to be a great depression.
So my view is be optimistic. Spread ideas. Spread the light."

Geoff Mulgan

"I've always wondered why it is that capitalism is so amazingly efficient at some things, but so inefficient at others, why it's so innovative in some ways and so uninnovative in others.

Now, since that time, we've actually been through an extraordinary boom, the longest boom ever in the history of this country. Unprecedented wealth and prosperity, but that growth hasn't always delivered what we needed. H.L. Mencken once said that, "to every complex problem, there is a simple solution and it's wrong." But I'm not saying growth is wrong, but it's very striking throughout the years of growth, many things didn't get better.

Surely, just as we invest in in R and D, two, three, four percent, of our GDP, of our economy, what if we put, let's say, one percent of public spending into social innovation, into elder care, no kinds of education, new ways of helping the disabled?

Why boost our consumption, rather than change what we consume?"

Invest in the future. Experiment with society.

KI's, experienced in design practice, Paul McKone: Style to Substance
Discovery
Invention
Innovation: What we had worked, but there was a better way
Novelty: New, improved and more shiny than ever before

Design: Function: evolution, innovation, problem solving
Style: Form: trend, fashion, appearance

8 Es of Fixing things: Enjoyable, Empowering, Equitable, Environmental/Ecological, Economical, Engineering, Educational, Engaging

You can't value what you don't understand.

Chinchorro

          Había una noche negra y no habían estrellas en el cielo. Estaba lloviendo poco. Conduje a mi casa de la universidad, donde asistí a una clase de noche, antropología. Esa clase, el profesor nos habló de una momia de América del Sur, el Chinchorro. Mientras pensaba en la clase, ¡algo corrió por la calle! ¿Un gato? ¿Un perro? Perdí el control del carro y casi choco con un árbol pero paré el carro justo a tiempo. Tenía miedo. Estaba sola en un bosque en una carretera en el campo sin un casa a la vista.
          Cuando mi corazón se desaceleraba, comencé a conducir, pero el motor del carro no funcionaba. ¡El carro no arrancó! Utilicé el teléfono celular para llamar a mi hermano para pedir ayuda. Sonó uno, dos…
<< ¿Hola? >>
<< Hola, Justin. ¡Es urgente que me ayudes! ¿Hola? ¿Hola? >>
          Pero el celular se apagó por que la batería se agoto. Entonces, oí un sonido… Fue un sonido de miedo del baúl. De repente, la luz del coche se apagó. Entonces, sentí algo en mi brazo, algo caminó lentamente arriba mi brazo. Cuando miré en el espejo, la mano de la momia agarró mi garganta. ¡Yo grité! Pero, llevaba mi collar y tan pronto como la momia me tocó el collar, que se convirtió en polvo. La luz del coche se prendió, y el coche se arrancó como nada ocurrió. Por eso conduje a mi casa. También, por eso, siempre llevo mi collar y por eso hay una aspiradora en mi carro.

Es imposible pero es verdad, y se dice que la momia esta en el bosque todavía…

Esta foto es de http://saladehistoria.com/wp/2009/05/02/momias-chinchorro-2/

Thursday 25 March 2010

Tck Tck Tck - English

Wednesday 24 March 2010

Copenhagen update

“Tck Tck Tck Time for Climate Justice”
TEMA
“EL TIEMPO ES HOY”

Canción original: "Beds are burning" de Midnight Oil
Adaptación al español: Milagros Salazar y Cynthia Galicia

LEJOS EN LOS ANDES VES

TIERRA SECA POR DOQUIER

CAMPOS MUERTOS, SOL QUE QUEMA

YA NO HAY LLUVIA…HAY DESOLACIÓN

EL TIEMPO ES HOY

ES LA VERDAD

CORRE EL RELOJ

NO HAY MARCHA ATRÁS

EL TIEMPO ES HOY

DEFIENDE TU LUGAR

TOMA UNA ACCION

NO HAY MARCHA ATRAS

CÓMO DORMIR FRENTE A ESTE PROBLEMA

LAS CAMAS ARDEN, LA TIERRA QUEMA

CÓMO ENFRENTAR ESTA INDIFERENCIA

PAGA LO JUSTO Y TOMA CONCIENCIA

EL TIEMPO ES HOY

ES LA VERDAD

CORRE EL RELOJ

NO HAY MARCHA ATRÁS

BOSQUES DE LA AMAZONÍA

FLORA Y FAUNA EN AGONÍA

TODO EL AIRE RESPIRADO

A CUARENTA Y CINCO GRADOS

EL TIEMPO ES HOY

ES LA VERDAD

CORRE EL RELOJ

NO HAY MARCHA ATRÁS

EL TIEMPO ES HOY

DEFIENDE TU LUGAR

TOMA UNA ACCION

NO HAY MARCHA ATRAS

COMO DORMIR FRENTE A ESTE PROBLEMA

LAS CAMAS ARDEN, LA TIERRA QUEMA

COMO ENFRENTAR ESTA INDIFERENCIA

PAGA LO JUSTO Y TOMA CONCIENCIA

EL TIEMPO ES HOY

ES LA VERDAD

CORRE EL RELOJ

NO HAY MARCHA ATRÁS

EL TIEMPO ES HOY

DEFIENDE TU LUGAR

TOMA UNA ACCION

NO HAY MARCHA ATRÁS

imaynataq puñusun kay sasachakuypi

CÓMO DORMIR FRENTE A ESTE PROBLEMA

puñunapas rawurachkan, allpapas rupachkan

LAS CAMAS ARDEN, LA TIERRA QUEMA

Imaynataq kawaq rumi qunqu

CÓMO PUEDES SER DE CORAZÓN DURO

Allinta pagay, hinaspa yuyaymanakuy

PAGA LO JUSTO Y TOMA CONCIENCIA

Traducción al quechua: Igidio Naveda

http://eltiempoeshoy-justiciaclimatica.blogspot.com/

YG8 Projet Posters

Get it?

Monday 22 March 2010

Change: short story

Change

     Today I spun in 5 circles, my eyes blurred, my head swam in only the way vertigo takes over. Then I spun in 5 circles more. And each revolution, each full circle renewal, the world changed.
The world, that big blue ball always spinning, always changing. Blink once and notice all the changes, this moment will never happen again. Did you miss it? Did you let it slip by or did you reach out your gnarled fingers and claw away at the fabric that holds together your space and time? What if you lied and didn’t blink at all, but kept your eyes wide with amazement or fear or indifference or arrogance? It doesn’t matter, everything already changed. And it just did it again, and again.

     That little nugget, niche, bubble where you curled the world around your finger, the little finger, the one most powerless to show the ease at which you control that little nugget, niche, bubble of your world, you don’t have control of anything. There are forces beyond your conception that shape the environment around you, from the movement of air due to changes in pressure inside your cozy house and the outside where a storm rages, the bacteria floating on that air current, the mouse lifting his nose to sniff your dinner as the air wafts by.

     You have no control. Not even of yourself. You are a bundle of chemicals that respond to other chemicals that are responding to the bacteria that just flitted into your nasal cavity, escaped the cilia that sweeps pathogens into mucus and down your throat. Your bundle can change with the release of one hormone, or the lack of another hormone. Maybe that’s just your physical body. We humans are sentient beings, our minds are above our mere chemical bodies. Ah, and what if you were injected with heroin or a thousand other chemicals, your mind is as lost as a mouse in a maze without the sense of smell.

     So you have no control, of yourself, of your environment, of the world. You are reactionary. And so you react. And you fall into the loops, positive and negative feedback, perpetuate the stimulus or shut it off. Eventually anticipatory, shut it off before the stimulus begins or starting before there is something to start with. This is chemical, this is responsive and yet revolutionary, you’ve changed something from that chemical self through reaction to make a significant difference. One revolution, one blink, one chemical, and the whole world changed from your one little nugget, niche, bubble. Butterfly flapping its wings, hurricanes rage, pressures change, air currents form, bacteria floats, internal chemicals recognize pathogens, you either live or you die.

     Maybe I should spin more often, or not. It doesn’t matter, everything will still change.

Sunday 21 March 2010

The Song of the Dodo

Charles Darwin and Alfred R. Wallace

The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions by David Quammen

Ecosystem Decay
Natural Selection
Evolution
Biogeography
Adaptive Radiation
Niche

Inspiration

Everyone has a story.
Life isn't fair, but it's better than the alternative.
Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
Over prepare, then go with the flow.
Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
When in doubt, just take the next small step.
Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
What other people think of you is none of your business.
Believe in miracles.
The best is yet to come.
All that truly matters in the end is that you loved

Reflections

You began when you told me that you had to leave. We were too much of a twisted tree, sprung from two grasses and twined at the neck. We choked each other till our chlorophyll leaves fell from our arms.

So you began.

You’ve been transplanted and you re-sprouted your lovely roots exploring your new dark, rich soil. You’ve been trellised and been shot up on phosphorous, and now you’re strong with thick bark. I guess

I’m glad for you.

Glad that you have birds flitting through your branches, that you are able to smile and flirt. I should be glad.

Should. But my heartwood aches, with cracks to the pith.

It’s not so much you, you is an abstraction now, you can be the sense of love itself, it doesn’t have to be you, though it is you who I am addressing. And to the one I’m addressing, I don’t miss you. I miss the other you, the sense of belonging and joy, passion and growth towards the ideal light. While your leaves grew back with the spring, mine shriveled, my branches remain black etches on a grey sky. I want to find a passion again, a chance to leave the earth and fly or float down a river and

scream with life.

Saturday 20 March 2010

I lie: a short story

I lie

     Maybe its because I’m a writer. Maybe I just want the story to sound a little better. Maybe not. My life becomes sparkly when I add a word, one word for you, one for me. Sparkly like the reflection off the face of a watch when the sun shines off of it and I redirect it to form a circle just below your eye, just enough to get your attention, maybe scare you a bit, but in the end, not harmful at all. And certainly not the sparkle of a drop of shiny red, defined by the stark, swinging, overhead bulb, on the tip of a sharp and pointed knife. Such a high lying life would surely make my testimony untrustworthy. If you think I am lying, I will never discover your truths, and if I never discover your truths, I will never be able to tell your story. I have great, the greatest, respect for the truth, holding it at arms length lets me admire its beauty from afar and then examine it like a seasoned coroner examining a victim.
     Now you expect me to tell a story, and invite you to determine the truth and the lies within. Maybe you need me to tell you the true story of that little part of town where you grew up, but can no longer remember because the details have drifted away from your memory, hiding behind your present, chaotic life. Maybe you need me to lie to you about that time when you were 8 or 9, playing in that abandoned house with the neighborhood kids and how you left Milly, three whole grades below you, in the basement, all alone.
     Maybe you don’t need my stories. You wouldn’t be able to determine truth from fiction, not like this, not merely through the untrustworthy black pixels dancing on your screen, capable of changing with a simple click of your mouse and a tap of a key. And to you, the skeptical one who wouldn’t believe the truth if I etched it into the monolith of granite standing three stories high in Earth Sciences, and yet wouldn’t believe the lies either, to you, I will only lean forward and whisper in your ear the words you have been waiting your whole life to hear. And as I take a step back, you will look at me first with confusion, then anger when you will banish me from your life.
     Maybe days, maybe years later, you will be reading the news online, smiling smugly to yourself, and then you will remember my words. That is the moment you have a choice to earn redemption or forever be dammed. And in that moment, you won’t think about whether I had lied to you, shining light in your eye, or whether I had discovered the truth and shared the sparkle with you, because it doesn’t matter, my lying or not. It matters only that you believe me, and at that moment, you will believe me, and you will tell me your truths and I will tell your story and we shall see how many people believe you.

     Now come close because I will only whisper it once.

First draft: March 20, 2010
Inspiration: INTEG 221: Social Epistemology and Testimony and maybe some other ideas floating in the air

Monday 18 January 2010

Who am I as a Knower?

Assig for INTEG 221

Sunday 17 January 2010

Gummy Bear

it starts out sweet and delicious
                                               like a gummy bear
                                               fruits and sugars and hugs
aftertaste, aftermath, catastrophe
                                               the delightful movement of the
                                                          ethanol,
                                                                    glycerol,
                                                                               formalin
swirling around your tongue,                    stunned
that eddy in which your
                                               gummy bear drowned
then that fire and panic,
your own throat,
                                               gasping for the sweet bubbly air,
                 out of reach,
                                               sucking in death, laying still
at the bottom of the glass

                                                                            .Strawberry
                                                                                  Margarita.