03.31.08
Posted in Tibet at 4:46 pm by nemo
The recent protests in Tibet, and the Dalai Lama’s response have been compelling, and somewhat disturbing, for more than one reason. Some voices are whispering that something is awry with the Dalai Lama’s tactics, here’s one: …crowns are now turning into thorns.
I don’t wish to offend anyone, nor do I endorse anyone suddenly changing his mind on this question (changing your mind is often a thoughtless act) of non-violence. Further I support non-violence myself, and did so as a conscious objector in the Vietnam war. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in religion at 3:42 pm by nemo
James reappears
Thanks for your comment, I was worried, and also wary that someone might actually try my ‘meditation retreat’ suggestion, which was a bad one, since 1. I don’t do retreats (I am not a guru), and 2. I didn’t describe the situation referred to, which was far too severe to induce meditative states.
As to fakirs, much of the spirituality of Sufism was done among beggars, wanderers, and in situations modern surburbanites would find not to their liking (including jihadic battlefield situations of a harrowing nature). But then again difficult situations are often counterproductive to development, so who can say. I am not a sufi, nor do I have a ‘spiritual path’, so my remarks, actually, were misleading. But fakirs are fakirs, wanderers, homeless persons, and ‘idiots’ at the next to last stop.
If you can eat garbage and ride freightrains you can survive handily in a dynamic economy like the American. It can be tremendously relaxing to suddenly stand outside the economic system, outside of its pressure, it is a miniature enlightenment in itself to suddenly see your ‘robot motivator’ unhooked from the social machine.
But such liberations are brief, and there is no real ‘outside the system’, so courting the outsider’s existence is not, as such, the answer to anything. The hobo’s path tends to be downhill.
The classic buddhists, one should note, did court outsider status, and did so systematically, ritually, and quite practically, as a group exercise. Beggars bowls and world renunciation. In that form the outside path chugged uphill.
But it is better to never imitate anyone, so I will file away these autobiographical details.
Here’s a link to some photographs to the Dalai Lama’s residence: Dalai Lama’s excessively ritzy crash pad with a superficial spiritual decor.
I feel compassion for the Dalai Lama: he is the victim of events, and as a reborn boddhissattwa he starts life from scratch, like every other honest joe. Recovering the starting point you once achieved can be difficult, let alone advancing from that, and for a high lama, maybe impossible: caught up in politics. That’s the catch in Tibetan lama system, perhaps. How would I know? Just some thoughts, or worries at the Tibet disaster.
I say this because Tibetans are having a problem and they don’t seem to be able to proceed in a practical fashion towards resolving the Tibetan problem.
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Posted in Evolution at 2:55 pm by nemo
Suzan Mazur: Stuart Newman’s “High Tea”
Suzan Mazur While some scientists prefer shaping their opinions about evolution based on audience reaction while on book tour – others are actually busy looking for answers in the lab. Stuart Newman, Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy at New York Medical College, is the real deal. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Evolution at 2:51 pm by nemo
Ben in the Lions Den
By AFA Journal Staff, March 2008
CONTROVERSIAL DOCUMENTARY CHALLENGES
EVOLUTIONISTS’ CLOSED MINDS
As an economist, presidential speechwriter, author, columnist and actor (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Mask), Ben Stein has already had a full life.
So why host a controversial documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which challenges the assumptions of Darwinian evolution and asks why scientists who believe in intelligent design are being persecuted? Why invite the backlash that has already occurred, before the film has even aired? Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Evolution at 2:49 pm by nemo
Biologist Crashes Press Call for Intelligent Design Film
“The Expelled movie was made under false pretenses, and despite their claims that they did not distort my interviews or [evolutionary geneticist] Richard Dawkins’ [who also appears in the film], I think that interleaving our comments with old video clips of Nazis and Hitler and Stalin is rather egregious,” wrote Myers.
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Posted in Tibet at 2:44 pm by nemo
China publishes ‘evidence’ against Dalai Lama
BEIJING: China has published an anonymous confession from a Tibetan protester as part of a dossier of “evidence” it says proves the Dalai Lama and his allies were behind the recent deadly unrest in Tibet.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Tibet at 2:30 pm by nemo
China asks Dalai Lama to use his influence’ to stop Tibet violence
Beijing (PTI): Facing mounting international flak for the crackdown on Lhasa, China on Monday gave first signs of softening its stand by asking the Dalai Lama to use his “influence” to stop violence in Tibet and said the “channels” for dialogue with him are “always open.”
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in global warming at 2:21 pm by nemo
Climate Change Is a Wake-Up Call to Radically Reform Our Economy
By Preeti Mangala Shekar and Tram Nguyen,
The people most affected by the injustices of the polluting economy are already helping to lead the way.
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Posted in In the News at 2:16 pm by nemo
Iran in the Crosshairs
A Third American War in the Making?
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
The US Congress, the US media, the American people, and the United Nations, are looking the other way as Cheney prepares his attack on Iran.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in links, you've got mail at 1:55 pm by nemo
Our competitiveness as a nation in coming decades will be determined
not only by our financial accounts but also by our intellectual accounts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/opinion/30kristof.html
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03.30.08
Posted in Evolution at 2:29 pm by nemo
Kristof OpEd
The dumbing down of America, if real, hasn’t been helped by Darwinists (‘with a few more brains??’) who have dumbed down Darwinism. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Evolution at 1:59 pm by nemo
Evolution Of New Species Slows Down As Number Of Competitors Increases
ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2008) — The rate at which new species are formed in a group of closely related animals decreases as the total number of different species in that group goes up, according to new research.
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Posted in History at 1:57 pm by nemo
How Were The Egyptian Pyramids Built?
ScienceDaily (Mar. 29, 2008) — The Aztecs, Mayans and ancient Egyptians were three very different civilizations with one very large similarity: pyramids. However, of these three ancient cultures, the Egyptians set the standard for what most people recognize as classic pyramid design: massive monuments with a square base and four smooth-sided triangular sides, rising to a point. The Aztecs and Mayans built their pyramids with tiered steps and a flat top.
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Posted in you've got mail at 1:27 pm by nemo
From [quantum_theory]
Vortices in Brain Waves (2008)
Walter J. Freeman and Giuseppe Vitiello Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in you've got mail at 1:25 pm by nemo
From R-G
Proud of a New Gilded Age
by Louis Uchitelle
The tributes to Sanford I Weill line the walls of the carpeted hallway
that leads to his skyscraper office, with its panoramic view of Central
Park. A dozen framed magazine covers, their colors as vivid as an Andy
Warhol painting, are the most arresting. Each heralds Mr Weill’s genius
in assembling Citigroup into the most powerful financial institution
since the House of Morgan a century ago.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in you've got mail at 1:23 pm by nemo
SciftP
As Uranium Firms Eye N.M., Navajos Are Wary
By Kari Lydersen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 28, 2008; A02
AMBROSIA LAKE, N.M. — Twenty years after uranium mining ceased in New Mexico amid plummeting prices for the ore, global warming and the soaring cost of oil are renewing interest in nuclear power — and in the state’s uranium belt.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in you've got mail at 1:22 pm by nemo
From R-G
Rev. Tutu Endorses Our Nov. 2008
Anti-Apartheid Speaking & Organizing Tour
See the Video
The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is organizing a nationwide
speaking and organizing tour with high-profile South African and
Palestinian leaders in November 2008.
Read the rest of this entry »
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03.28.08
Posted in 1848+, religion, The Axial Age at 6:41 pm by nemo
Tibet is caught in an acute difficulty, a theatre of rightist and leftist collision. The previous post cites a leftist expose routine, but its point is nonetheless essential to consider: Behind the anti-anti-China Olympics campaign. The left, witness the action of the Marxist cadres, a truly braindead faction of, yes, the bourgeoisie at its most sadistic, is clearly at a dead end, culturally if not politically.
But the real threat from the right springs from lamaism itself whose history is ambiguous, and almost unknown, and never properly told (almost impossible to do). Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in In the News at 6:02 pm by nemo
Behind the anti-China Olympics campaign
By Gary Wilson
Published Mar 27, 2008 8:53 PM
http://www.workers.org/2008/world/anti-china_olympics_0403/
Exposing these rightist connections is essential for any Tibetan freedom movement, but at the same time the left’s moral indignation comes to a halt confronted with Communist abuses, vitiating their critiques, which are as untrustworthy as anything from the NED.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Evolution at 5:57 pm by nemo
John Gray’s egregious errors
In an interview that appears on the website of the Edge Foundation (www.edge.org) under the title “The Evaporation of the Powerful Mystique of Religionâ€, he [Daniel Dennett] predicts that “in about 25 years almost all religions will have evolved into very different phenomena, so much so that in most quarters religion will no longer command the awe that it does todayâ€. He is confident that this will come about, he tells us, mainly because of “the worldwide spread of information technology (not just the internet, but cell phones and portable radios and television)â€.
It doesn’t require information technology to induce dirft in the world’s religions. And the influence of such technology in the environment of media hype (the advertising mode of deception) is likely to make them worse.
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Posted in Science at 5:52 pm by nemo
Why we need academic freedom…to question Newtonism
The problem is not Newtonism, but the dinosaur Newtonians who are frozen in a state of ‘scientism’.
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Posted in Evolution at 2:43 pm by nemo
Are evolutionists only wishful thinkers?
BILL WESTCOTT
Charles Darwin’s 1859 treatise, The Origin of Species by means of natural selection, is arguably the most controversial topic among educators, scientists, theologians, philosophers and those who study religion.
Strong views still rage on both sides of the argument.
In science, a theory is a rigorously tested statement of general principles that explains observable and recorded aspects of the world. A scientific theory therefore describes a higher level of understanding that ties facts together. It stands until proven wrong – it is never proven correct. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Evolution at 2:40 pm by nemo
Richard Dawkins Gets “Conned” by Filmmakers
Ben Stein, noted author, game show host, and Clear Eyes spokesman, stars in a new documentary in which he argues that scientists who believe in so-called Intelligent Design have been systematically drummed out of academe. From the trailer, it appears to be a pretty slick production, with lots of fast-paced cuts and tracking shots, not to mention Stein’s trademark nasal whine.
Surprisingly, the anti-evolution filmmakers managed to get two prominent atheists – Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers – to sit for interviews. According to Dawkins, they were “conned†into participating. The author of The God Delusion calls the filmmakers “duplicitous†and their organization “a creationist front.â€
Dawkins and Myers also crashed the premiere of the film earlier this month. Myers was thrown out; Dawkins got to stay and see the show. He gave it an opposable thumbs-down.
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Posted in In the News at 2:38 pm by nemo
China, Tibet, Olympics: Tension, bad timing and competing versions of what it means
No, no, no, no, no. It wasn’t supposed to be like this – the run-up to the opening of the Olympic games that China will host for the first time ever, the world’s biggest sporting event that is due to open – cough, cough, choke – in the polluted Chinese capital in early August. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Critique of Evolutionary Economy at 2:06 pm by nemo
Santiago Journal
Before ’73 Coup, Chile Tried to Find the Right Software for Socialism
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
Published: March 28, 2008
SANTIAGO, Chile — When military forces loyal to Gen. Augusto Pinochet staged a coup here in September 1973, they made a surprising discovery. Salvador Allende’s Socialist government had quietly embarked on a novel experiment to manage Chile’s economy using a clunky mainframe computer and a network of telex machines.
The project, called Cybersyn, was the brainchild of A. Stafford Beer, a visionary Briton who employed his “cybernetic†concepts to help Mr. Allende find an alternative to the planned economies of Cuba and the Soviet Union. After the coup it became the subject of intense military scrutiny.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in In the News at 2:00 pm by nemo
“Was George Washington a Terrorist?”
Patriots, Refugees and Terrorists
By JOANNE MARINER
“Was George Washington a terrorist?” asked Bill Frelick, Human Rights Watch’s refugee policy director, only semi-facetiously.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Evolution, In the News at 1:57 pm by nemo
The Democrats and Their Lousy Options
Growing Dread About Iraq
By SAUL LANDAU
Now that either could win the big race, Obama and Clinton fudge and hedge about withdrawing troops immediately from Iraq. Barack “will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.” (BarackObama.com)
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in global warming at 1:56 pm by nemo
Will We Have a 100-mpg Car Soon?
By Ron Scherer and Alexandra Marks, Christian Science Monitor. Posted March 28, 2008.
A $10 million contest may get us there quicker then you think. Tools
Drivers often joke their car “is running on fumes,” when the tank gets low. Well, how about an engine that actually gets its energy from gasoline fumes?
Read the rest of this entry »
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