welcome to the book

this is last post. finally. i have been doing other things, mostly dealing with health and balance. too much to go into here. however i intend to turn the entire blog into a book, and if you are reading it, it must have worked.

meanwhile you might want to check out modernpeasant.com to see what i've been doing since this work faded from my daily routine.

got out yesterday, the first day of something or another, air full of light, dupont state park.

fall forward

a test: i don't think this resuscitation of blog will last. too hard to type, fingers pay, image-play, better that way? yo no se, eg, forget about me trying to remember how to put mantilla over "e": maybe twitter would work better.

here's the test:

...mmm, don't know about yr side, but from mine takes a long time to upload.

the state of the nation state

"A nation-state is a state, or country, that has defined borders and territory. It is additionally a country in which a nation of principally the same type of people exists, organized by either race or cultural background. In the nation-state, generally, everyone would speak the same language, probably practice the same or similar types of religion, and share a set of cultural, “national,” values.

From this strict definition it’s easy to see that the US is not a nation-state. We have multiple ethnicities, numbers of religions practiced, and different cultural norms. Even though citizens of the US share the same borders and territory, we do not, in the sense of the nation-state, share a common nationality."

from wisegeek.comhttp://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-nation-state.htm

personal observations: national sports teams made up of many nationalities. the "failed" state. the creation and demalition of "states" during our lifetimes and continuing.

News Flash

heard a snatch on NPR about the proliferation of night time electric illumination. a recent study concludes that not only does it upset our circadian rhythms  but more specifically may be in some way responsible for the rise in breast-cancer(!), and if i remember correctly, such recent conditions as autism, depression, ADHD etc.  some of these my imagination may have added.

sometime in the past 12 years i think i may have mentioned this possibility. the immensity of this change has always made me wonder what epiphenomena may be at work in today's world.

when i was young and not so young i lived in a number of places with no street lighting, and was continually pulled towards ambling through the dark, no flashlight, and it became sort of a habit, easy and soothing. present day paradise valley, part of phoenix arizona of all places prides itself on no street illumination, and is a relief to wonder into.

the study indicates that bright nighttime light does nothing to deter crime, but much to diminish fear of it. it adds that it is largely a function to attract customers, ie is a function of biz.

crowds

having chosen not to have a TV, i spent an unusual two nights first watching a frontline special online about cruise ships, second with no forethought rented koyannasquatsi, my favorite movie 30 years ago.

the first included stunning visuals of megastructures, moving theme parks, bowling alleys, dance auditoriums, ersatz populux restaurants  escalators  exterior shots of a few thousand souls lined up on five or more stories, like a motel. i was left aghast, wondering why anyone would want to "get away" by spending time in a mall or airport, or any tourist mass.

koyanasquatsi reinforced my initial impression, that it was a new narrative structure that communicated it's message as clearly as a bell thru some of the most beautiful footage ever made, a melding of sight and sound that despite no dialogue is convincing and leaves one quite clear as to why cruise ships, the tourist eco-system and social structure are blips in a fantasy that is totally destructive.

worth and value

heard on radio ad:

"... costs 50% less".

less than what?

gas, housing, groceries are "worth" more or less from day to day, not to mention generation to generation.

"value", on the other hand varies from individual to individual, culture to culture.

pic of the day

entitlement

"entitlement": when words seemed to make sense, a dictionary definition of this one included

1) a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract
and
2) belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges.

the owner's of the nation-state have in the last 30 years gradually replaced in so-called public discourse 1) with 2).

start again

been on hiatus for a long time. several diverging and converging roads, got lost on the on ramp. but i cannot refrain from jotting down a random thought or two about the circus human existence is coming to, or going beyond. i watched an ad for surface pro - on the web natch because i threw TV out a few years ago but that is another story. the ad showed people at a conference table jerking and moving in styalized stacatto movements, all together, to some kind of dub-trance-dubstep-beef tongue muzak with images (snapshots) flitting thru the air. as a veteran of the first pc and first mac offerings, i couldn't help but be a bit sad. the mac, desktop and pro, was for creating things, expressing something in order to know what it was that was manifesting thru that manifestation. today the gadget plague, facebook, etc (WWW v.2) is for presentation and multiple choice thought (?). dig the panic facebook caused when folks had to disguise and eliminate their "persona" to withstand inspection by employers, government agencies, institutional authorities of every sort. so i'll relapse into daily short posts, probably about a word or phrase that winged it's way into my face the day before. i'll redo the chrome and eye candy to reflect this new approach when i remember how

America's Real Job Creators are Broke | NationofChange

America's Real Job Creators are Broke | NationofChange: "Since the recession technically 'ended' 18 months ago, corporate profits have zoomed, sopping up an unprecedented 88 percent of America's economic growth. Meanwhile, only one percent of the growth that we all help produce has gone to wages and salaries, the primary sources of income for 90 percent of us.

Yet, those same CEOs say they won't invest in new jobs or raise wages until consumers start buying again. That's like saying, 'The beat�ings will continue until morale improves.'"

America in Decline | NationofChange

America in Decline | NationofChange:

"Not even discussed is that the deficit would be eliminated if, as economist Dean Baker has shown, the dysfunctional privatized health care system in the U.S. were replaced by one similar to other industrial societies’, which have half the per capita costs and health outcomes that are comparable or better."

Ultimate logic: To infinity and beyond - physics-math - 01 August 2011 - New Scientist

Ultimate logic: To infinity and beyond - physics-math - 01 August 2011 - New Scientist:

"Attempts to prove or disprove the continuum hypothesis depend on analysing all possible infinite subsets of the real numbers."

War Is A Racket | NationofChange

War Is A Racket | NationofChange:

"Two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler had it right 75 years ago when he said of war: 'It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious [racket]. ... It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives ... It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many.'

As President Barack Obama and Congress claim it is Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that are breaking the budget, people should demand that they stop paying for war."

back from the triangle. here is a a friend of mine who lives there.