"Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit."
(...said Abbie Hoffman)
31 October 2009
24 October 2009
Vaclav Havel : Summer Meditations
"So anyone who claims that I am a dreamer who expects to transform hell into heaven is wrong.
I have few illusions.
But I feel a responsibility to work towards the things I consider good and right.
I don't know whether I'll be able to change certain things for the better, or not at all.
Both outcomes are possible.
There is only one thing I will not concede: that it might be meaningless to strive in a good cause."
I have few illusions.
But I feel a responsibility to work towards the things I consider good and right.
I don't know whether I'll be able to change certain things for the better, or not at all.
Both outcomes are possible.
There is only one thing I will not concede: that it might be meaningless to strive in a good cause."
Roll Up Your Sleeves
The Perception Gap
"A dangerous gap exists between our personal experience, which is mainly happy, and our view of a society in decline."
"Progressives want the world to be a better place. We bemoan its current inequities and oppression - yet if we fail to celebrate the progress that human beings have made, and if we sound as though the future is a fearful place, we belie our own philosophy. Instead, we need to address a deficit in social optimism that threatens the credibility of our core narrative."
"My starting point is the need to forge a new collectivism. It is in working with others on a shared project of social advance that we can be reconnected to the sense of collective agency so missing from modern political discourse."
It is the attitude of the spectator that induces pessimism, the experience of the participant that brings hope.
"The old collectivism is dead or dying. Its characteristics - hierarchical, bureaucratic, paternalistic - are no longer suited to the challenges or the mood of the times. The institutions of the new collectivism must be devolved, pluralistic, egalitarian and, most of all, self-actualising."
"A dangerous gap exists between our personal experience, which is mainly happy, and our view of a society in decline."
"Progressives want the world to be a better place. We bemoan its current inequities and oppression - yet if we fail to celebrate the progress that human beings have made, and if we sound as though the future is a fearful place, we belie our own philosophy. Instead, we need to address a deficit in social optimism that threatens the credibility of our core narrative."
"My starting point is the need to forge a new collectivism. It is in working with others on a shared project of social advance that we can be reconnected to the sense of collective agency so missing from modern political discourse."
It is the attitude of the spectator that induces pessimism, the experience of the participant that brings hope.
"The old collectivism is dead or dying. Its characteristics - hierarchical, bureaucratic, paternalistic - are no longer suited to the challenges or the mood of the times. The institutions of the new collectivism must be devolved, pluralistic, egalitarian and, most of all, self-actualising."
16 October 2009
Everything we do is music
"We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools ape us"
(The Medium is the Massage, 1967. side A side B)
(The Medium is the Massage, 1967. side A side B)
APE PERSONHOOD : ape protection
http://www.personhood.org/personhood/lawreview/
The core mission of Great Ape Standing & Personhood (GRASP) is to secure legal recognition of the rights of apes and all nonhuman primates to live in their own ways.
- The condition of “humanness” is not essential to becoming a “person” under the law. -
- We now know that Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Bonobos, and Human Beings are all species of African Great Apes. -
- Together with Orang-utans, we are members of a slightly larger taxonomic group known as the Great Apes, or "Hominoidea." -
- We humans understand the other great apes much more than was possible even a few years ago. -
http://www.greatapeproject.org/
It is morally unjustifiable to treat sentient animals as items of chattel property.
Great Ape Project (GAP) is an international movement that aims to defend the rights of the non-human great primates - chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom.
The main rights are: the right to life, the protection of individual liberty and the prohibition of torture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ape_personhood
The core mission of Great Ape Standing & Personhood (GRASP) is to secure legal recognition of the rights of apes and all nonhuman primates to live in their own ways.
- The condition of “humanness” is not essential to becoming a “person” under the law. -
- We now know that Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Bonobos, and Human Beings are all species of African Great Apes. -
- Together with Orang-utans, we are members of a slightly larger taxonomic group known as the Great Apes, or "Hominoidea." -
- We humans understand the other great apes much more than was possible even a few years ago. -
http://www.greatapeproject.org/
It is morally unjustifiable to treat sentient animals as items of chattel property.
Great Ape Project (GAP) is an international movement that aims to defend the rights of the non-human great primates - chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom.
The main rights are: the right to life, the protection of individual liberty and the prohibition of torture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ape_personhood
NEURODIVERSITY: how soon is now
"I am the son and heir,
Of nothing in particular,
You shut your mouth
how can you say,
I go about things the wrong way,
I am human and I need to be loved,
just like everybody else does..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity
"Neurodiversity is an idea which asserts that atypical (neurodivergent) neurological development is a normal human difference that is to be recognized and respected as any other human variation."
Of nothing in particular,
You shut your mouth
how can you say,
I go about things the wrong way,
I am human and I need to be loved,
just like everybody else does..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity
"Neurodiversity is an idea which asserts that atypical (neurodivergent) neurological development is a normal human difference that is to be recognized and respected as any other human variation."
11 October 2009
DOGS IN SPACE
The first acknowledged earth born creature to leave the planet was Laika, in Sputnik 2, 1957.
More dogs followed, between 1959 and 1961.
Before the launch, one of the scientists took Laika home to play with his children. In a book chronicling the story of Soviet space medicine, Dr. Vladimir Yazdovsky wrote, "I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_dogs
More dogs followed, between 1959 and 1961.
Before the launch, one of the scientists took Laika home to play with his children. In a book chronicling the story of Soviet space medicine, Dr. Vladimir Yazdovsky wrote, "I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_dogs
Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain
The birds have vanished down the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.
attributed to Li Bai, 8th century Chinese poet:
(zazen is a form of meditation where one just sits silently.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Bai
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.
attributed to Li Bai, 8th century Chinese poet:
(zazen is a form of meditation where one just sits silently.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Bai
Time Travel And ‘Energy Umbrellas’: Chicago Gets A Makeover For The 22nd Century
“Big. Bold. Visionary. Chicago Considers the Next Century,”
among the several “Towers” proposals, there is “Eco-Casino”... Its true innovation, if brought to fruition, is the marriage of sustainability and gambling... The roulette skyline bar, powered by wind turbines, sits beneath a bay of solar-powered slot machines by the rooftop pool, and patrons can bet on the weather.
among the several “Towers” proposals, there is “Eco-Casino”... Its true innovation, if brought to fruition, is the marriage of sustainability and gambling... The roulette skyline bar, powered by wind turbines, sits beneath a bay of solar-powered slot machines by the rooftop pool, and patrons can bet on the weather.
08 October 2009
The Evolving face of Social Networks
"Our work was the first really systematic attempt to study Darwinian evolution on arbitrary networks...."
"....the world around us is full of evolving systems with all kinds of internal structure – whether it's the networks of cells present in the human body or the social networks that occur in cyberspace."
"....the world around us is full of evolving systems with all kinds of internal structure – whether it's the networks of cells present in the human body or the social networks that occur in cyberspace."
Tree Musketeers : Hackney Citizen
"The Orchard Squad – all for trees and trees for all"
Peter Jones finds out about Hackney’s Tree Musketeers
plus
my Hackney Citizen fumetti:
Commonplace 1
Commonplace 2
Peter Jones finds out about Hackney’s Tree Musketeers
plus
my Hackney Citizen fumetti:
Commonplace 1
Commonplace 2
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