Truly inspiring, even for a hard bitten old cynic. Add complementary currencies and stir. Or perhaps, it is the uncounted reciprocity that makes it work. | On a typical working day, most “normal” neighborhoods are empty, their residents off working to pay for all the stuff in their fine homes. My neighborhood, on the other hand, is full of life. People are in the streets, walking and biking |
| Weeds growing up through the cracks in the pavement is a fractal assertion of life revealing itself through the cracks of civilization. |
| The blighted areas of Springfield, Illinois, are a microcosm of the ruins of cities like Detroit. The neglect and abandonment of our neighborhoods by those to whom we pay taxes is evident. |
| The people who remain here are here for the long haul. Poor people are well aware of the economy of the community |
| When you have not money to purchase the assistance and care you need, you use the time you have to assist and care for others, and they reciprocate. It’s security that life in civilization cannot buy, especially now that we are in the horribly depressed phase of our bipolar economy.Read more at energybulletin.net |
Anyone care to speculate why babies are predisposed to boogie to musical beats and not to spoken blabber? Evolutionary links…?
| Babies may be born with a predisposition to dance and find music - specifically, rhythm and tempo - more engaging than speech, according to a study of infants aged between five months and two years old. |
| While predisposition towards music may be innate, researchers are unsure why it developed in humans. |
| Infants’ rhythmic movements were assessed by multiple methods |
| Babies in the study engaged in more rhythmic movement to music than to speech and exhibited tempo flexibility to some extent. Results also revealed that “children were able to synchronize their movements with the music the more they smiled,” said Dr Marcel Zentner, from the University of York’s Department of Psychology.Read more at www.scientificblogging.com |
What Wildcat says about ‘infocologies’ applies to natural ecologies too. Perhaps, the application of these values in info-worlds will be a way towards applying them in the enveloping natural world upon which the existence of infocologies depends. | The infosphere is a bio-electronic ecosystem growing and branching simultaneously into all sorts of directions, some of which are clearly delineated others being obscure and fuzzy. |
| Hyperconnected intersubjectivity |
| the science of the future |
| the promise and potential amplification of our complex hyperconnected infocologies |
| co-dependent and hyperconnected intersubjective relationship |
| naturally ambiguous, defy hierarchy, inherently agile and adaptable |
| organic natures of infocologies permit manifold kinds of beings to co- exist and co-thrive simultaneously |
| intertwining flows, folding upon themselves |
| evolution of infocologies has no distinct direction; |
| distributed selves are reflectors of chosen micro narratives as part of an ever increasing intertwined flow. |
| not to be designed but followed |
| flows of interest and relevancy rotate on an axis self description |
| carries no loyalty of alignment |
One of the most irritating aspects of modern / post modern culture is its arrogance. It comes from the story of progress. | Oldest ‘writing’ found on 60,000-year-old eggshells
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COULD these lines etched into 60,000-year-old ostrich eggshells (see photo) be the earliest signs of humans using graphic art to communicate? |
| 270 fragments of shell at the Diepkloof Rock Shelter in the Western Cape, South Africa. |
| show the same symbols are used over and over again, and the team say there are signs that the symbols evolved over 5000 years. This long-term repetition is a hallmark of symbolic communication and a sign of modern human thinking |
| The eggshells were probably used as containers, and the markings may have indicated either the shells’ contents or their owner. |
| Written language may have evolved more than once in human history. “Judging from what we know about the evolution of art all over the world, there may have been many traditions that were born, lasted for some time and then vanished,” says Jean Clottes, former director of research at the Chauvet caves in southern France.Read more at www.newscientist.com |
There is no doubt that the inhabitants of non-human worlds need advocacy. | On Sunday, the Swiss will vote in a referendum to decide whether states should appoint special attorneys to represent animals in court. |
If enough Swiss citizens check the “yes” box in a referendum to be held this Sunday, cats, chickens and pigs across Switzerland will be entitled to state-appointed legal representation. |
| The Swiss Animal Protection (STS) league, which gathered the 100,000 signatures required for the referendum to be held, hopes that appointing attorneys to represent animals in court will lead people to take infringements upon animal rights and animal abuse more seriously.
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| Farmers, hunters and pet breeders have voiced their opposition to the idea, |
| Since 2008, it has been illegal to keep animals that usually live in groups — such as goldfish, canaries or guinea pigs — alone, dog owners have to take a training course and, beginning in 2013, horses will not be able to be tied up in their stalls. |
Just say yes to more imagination, humility and empathy. | a solid grounding in the science of Ecology would be a most useful tool in cultivating imagination – as a way to expand our awareness of complexity and subtle patterns from the narrow human sphere outward to the tangled web of interactions playing out, mostly unnoticed, all around us. The discipline of Steady-state Economics further expands this awareness to the economic sphere. |
| And how might we regain our humility? |
| We can do this by cultivating |
| an ‘ignorance-based’ worldview – one which seeks knowledge but accepts and plans for the fundamental truth that, no matter how much we know, ignorance is a basic fact of the human condition. |
| “seek the genius of the place” before carrying out any human endeavor |
| how might we regain our empathy? |
| A great place to start would be learning the names and habits of all organisms in your local area |
The conclusion is that people do not need more energy, Green or not, but that they need less, both for their own benefit and for the benefit of all the others who live here. Only energy companies need more energy. SUMMARY: What if we suddenly had access to unlimited clean energy? Would that be a good thing, or would we simply use it to complete the biocidal program of industrial civilization? This little thought experiment suggests that our problem as a civilization is not lack of energy – it is lack of imagination, humility, and empathy. The core is rotten. We must find a better way. |
| The dominant social program of industrial civilization has been the destruction of the local community, followed by atomization of individuals as isolated consumers. Participants in strong local communities are just too darn self sufficient to be good industrial consumers. |
| Surely nothing but further tragedy would result from a prolonging the industrial experiment one second longer than it would otherwise last. Another bonanza supply of cheap energy would only lead to a more rapid and more thorough destruction of the biosphere.Read more at www.energybulletin.net |
Twitter would be great medium for people to spread spiritual ‘pearls of wisdom’. I would be very interested in the odd thought from such a man. I hope he begins to use it as a serious thought-spreader tool, rather than as part of his PR effort. The Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has joined micro-blogging service Twitter, attracting over 100,000 followers in two weeks. |
The Dalai Lama’s account has sent several messages so far although they are
not pearls of wisdom from His Holiness but rather links to articles and
photos of his activities during his world travels. He has shied away from
making any strong political statements and is not yet following any other
Twitter users.
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The creation of a Twitter account by the Dalai Lama comes a year after Twitter
suspended an account set up by an imposter which attracted tens of thousands
of followers.
Read more at www.telegraph.co.uk |
Fungi collaborate and communicate over long distances, too. If only humans could understand that they are not the only beings on the planet with intelligence and consciousness. | Some researchers believe that bacteria in ocean sediments are connected by a network of microbial nanowires. These fine protein filaments could shuttle electrons back and forth, allowing communities of bacteria to act as one super-organism. |
“The discovery has been almost magic,” says Nielsen. “It goes against everything we have learned so far. Micro-organisms can live in electric symbiosis across great distances. Our understanding of what their life is like, what they can and can’t do - these are all things we have to think of in a different way now.” |
| The wires transport electrons from bacteria in deeper, oxygen-poor sediments to bacteria in oxygen-rich mud near the surface. There, they are offloaded onto the oxygen, completing the reaction (see diagram). Nielsen calls the process “electrical symbiosis”. |
| but not in natural sediment. |
Is there any use in trying to persuade the un-persuadable? Over the past few months, polls show that fewer Americans say they believe humans are making the planet dangerously warmer, despite a raft of scientific reports that say otherwise. |
This puzzles many climate scientists — but not some social scientists, whose research suggests that facts may not be as important as one’s beliefs. |
| “People tend to conform their factual beliefs to ones that are consistent with their cultural outlook, their world view,” |
| Basically the reason that people react in a close-minded way to information is that the implications of it threaten their values, |
| Then there’s the “messenger” effect |
| The participants tended to believe the message that came from the person they considered to be more like them. |
| Participants in these experiments are asked to describe their cultural beliefs. Some embrace new technology, authority and free enterprise. They are labeled the “individualistic” group. Others are suspicious of authority or of commerce and industry |
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Beyond civilisation - The Festival of Life in the Cracks (1)
