This is some smoked salmon that we recently made for a treat. Scrumptious, if I do say so myself...
by freeacre
Things that Keep Us Going…
freeacre
It’s Superbowl Sunday, and I’ve got things to do. Now, I know it’s maybe silly, maybe banal, maybe atrocious in many ways. But, I’ve watched the progression of the teams all season, and I appreciate both teams. I think this will be a good Superbowl because no matter which team wins, I’ll be happy for them. And, I can be happy for the other team because they did, after all, make it to the Superbowl – and that ain’t just hay.
Watching the NFL on Sundays is one of my guilty pleasures, I guess. It’s not socially or intellectually redeemable, but it is such a departure from what I am usually focused on that it just feels good. Sometimes one needs a break from the doom-o-sphere. Perhaps “I can be happy” is the operative point here.
Despite the distinct possibility (or fact) that we are in the midst of economic, political, social, ecological, and cultural collapse, something keeps us getting up and putting on our shoes in the morning. A new person made a comment on the last post. McZilla. He said he was concentrating on “what he can do.” Good point. There comes a point when the litany of deterioration and threat to everything we hold dear becomes absolutely overwhelming. So, what keeps us from wrapping our lips around the muzzle of a gun? What keeps us here?
Little things, silly things, big things – I’d like some testimony. I make edible treats. Popcorn, smoked salmon, fresh bread, fruit pies. Preparing them and serving them to the Murphman and friends gives me pleasure. Murph has to put his shoes on in the morning to go out and free the chickens and feed the rabbits. It doesn’t matter if the Supreme Court just destroyed the Constitution or not. The rabbits need to eat and they need fresh water. We go to the Grange every third Tuesday evening. We are the assistant Stewards, so we need to hold up the goofy Sheppard’s staffs and bring a dish to pass. It’s a commitment. What are you doing today that lends itself to going on and finding joy or inspiration or meaning?
What are you committed to? What fills your boat? What do you turn to when the times are dark and the future looks grim? I know all of us here reach out to each other and share our thoughts. We sing our songs quietly together as we throw another log on the fire. I see Nina painting more beautiful paintings displayed on her blogsite. Rockpicker shares his incredible poems. Hot Springs Wizard sends amazing pictures of his rock decorations in the wilderness around his home.
So, I thought it might be nice to take a little time and focus at least briefly on what makes us happy or what keeps us going through these stressful times. Feel free, naturally, to keep us abreast of whatever else is going on or that you have on your mind. I do not, after all, want to be focused on peanut butter cookies, if a mile long alien ship lands with 500,000 reptilians aboard…then again, maybe I do.
Here's a little blueberry pie for you. I made it last week, and it was yummy...
74 comments:
mczilla,
From last post, the finish I put on was mentioned near the end of the post, tung oil. Some advantages and some disadvantages of it. It is harder than most of the available oil finishes, easier to repair over the harder quicker drying stuff, gives a real nice patina to the wood and buffs out easier in some ways, it also penetrates wood surface well. Disadvantages; Takes long drying times straight from the can, like 24 hrs between coats, can add dryers to it but then thins it for thinner coat. Pure tung oil doesn't completely cure for around 30 days, so most commercial stuff is blended and has dryers in it to some extent, and, it is expensive in comparison to many finishes readily available.
This is a great essay FA, very real, earthy, so close to home. Thanks you for reminding us of our humanity.
This week I am concentrating on handfeeding one of the Guinea Pigs (using a fat syringe filled with a slurry of pulverized feed) who came down with anorexia "out of the blue". "Why" just isn't going to be answered, in the NW, "why" has no answer. But while everything all around us is fubar, providing nutrition to another living being/species is a joy that can never be taken away or surpassed by anguish. Like a mother feeding her baby, right? Maybe the purest expressions of giving and participating in the joy of another's healing is our true salvation. Love Is All.
this is one i can maybe stay on topic with, : - ). at least for this one comment. i've got the colts -5 (currently). betting w/my sis. win or loose betting w/sis is one of my pleasures. we bet every div 1 college football game and every bowl. every nfl game too. every week. and we always play by the vegas lines. 705 ncaa and 265 nfl games this season at a buck a game. ncaa championship game and the super bowl are 5 bucks. keeps she and i connected and gives me a good excuse to screw off on game days.
so we've been at it since last august. after today? withdrawal. until march madness. we bet the whole tournament. then big-time withdrawal until next august. the only baseball we do is the playoffs but football's already started again by that time. over a year's time we'll bet over a thousand games and 4 championships over 3 sports. been doing it for 4 years now. who's winnin? would you believe we're only 7 bucks apart? i'm up but she can fly within 2 on the wings of the saints today.
follow the sports careers of nieces and nephews too. only one left out of 15. a niece. freshman at U of Minn. distance runner. high school 3K state champ too. its in the genes on my dad's side. high school sophmore grand niece starting roundball guard. currently 17/3 and ranked 4th in the state. so both of em get local press and sometimes i find vids on the net to watch em. especially the runner. i get all choked up and bleary eyed watching em. got somethin to do with justice. as in fullfilling greatness. not mine. the bloodline. i'm the biggest klutz of 6 sibs. back in our day sending us to catholic schools was more important than athletic programs. then we got a new high school. with a track but no girls sports and only girl sibs left by then. one day baby sis went out and ran a mile just for kicks w/the boy's track coach timing her. she beat the iowa h.s. girls outdoor record! yup, its in the genes. justice.
go colts. i need a bigger cushion. sis always kicks my ass on roundball. just flipped the coin. saints won. thats all they're winnin today! line dropped to 4+. kickoff. its official... p
Winter Sky
Winter sky drapes the land,
a canopy dropped by unseen hands
over a cage of cooing doves.
Farm ground blurs between houses
at an imprecise place, over the creek,
beyond my neighbors' spruce. Past
what we can see spreads
the topography of an uncertain age.
Fence posts pitch and lose themselves
in fog, like stick men heading off
to evening chores, or the dutiful poor
marched off to kill the poor in forgettable wars.
What I took for granted and thought I knew
when sunbeams slanted through
transparent pain, seems now
untenable and untrue. Still, rockslides
and dying forests loom, like deficits,
we must assume in this obscuring air.
The looted vault gapes it's open mouth.
Herefords steaming under willows birth
their calves. The little town rubs
its knees beside a flame. It tunes
its set for a prompted reassurance.
I kick the empty streets in muffled gloom.
I bounce solid hopeful notes off walls
of unsold homes. Kept birds balance
in unused rooms, their nights, artificial.
Isn't it clear, the honest and naive
are always tools of those who believe
in nothing but their own constructions?
Sirius fluxes, red and green,
whether occluded or seen.
Thank you for this. Likewise, I am so sad about the state of our home/country/world I can barely express my feelings with words.
But I can still laugh:
-Our cats stalk things we can't see, and fall off various perches in the process. Sometimes they just get a funny look when they're watching something.
-French art songs, which are delicious to sing. I don't know how else to describe the feeling of that language rolling off the tongue.
-Hula hooping (seriously. good exercise, and silly and sexy, all at the same time)!
-Sewing new clothes from old ones. New wardrobe and no money spent!
-Our library. Books I haven't read yet, books that I've read so many times they're like old friends, but I still manage to find something new in them every time.
I put in my Blog Profile, " Seeker Of Truth ", because this is a main theme of my life. I am in great awe of the infinite levels of complexity that represent what we think we know during our time here. So I enjoy the challenge of trying to develop my own way of understanding and interpreting it all, in such a fashion that my observations about this creation are as reasonable and consistent ( regarding patterns )as I am personaly able to achieve.
A recent photo of mine here at the Trout Clan showed a geologic feature where I hike, that I referenced as " The Rock Of Knowledge ". This rock has many layers, somewhat like that of an onion. I think of how we come to understand, know things throughout our lives and it strikes me in an abstract way like peeling back the layers of an onion ( or the layers of the rock ), but in terms of human thoughts and ideas, the layers of our various unique interpretations are endless. When we expose the next level, its just part of the journey of our awakening to a greater understanding of new things, the path to our new perceptions.
I've been to Burning Man eight times, and when I'm there I love to sit and watch all the people, and think about them. Such diversity I see, and I've thought to myself that they ( and each of us ), reside in the strictest sense, in unique landscapes of thought and feelings. There is commonality but none of us are precisely quiet the same. To go into the mind of another would be like taking a mental trip to a differant planet. Infinite orbits we all travel in. Which world in the myriad minds of people represent truth, perhaps in all accuracy, all of them.
So this is why I view my ideas and thoughts as mere observations, interpretations of what I experience, and would not define them in terms of absolutes. If time and space are infinite, then really, how could we honestly cite that we could know anything in absolute terms?
The center of my life is my family, and in consideration of the truth, I also feel it important to have a cohesive and sensible base to opperate from which I can use to help my family in this world. That is very much a main part of my purpose in seeking truth. I want to be someone they can trust, depend on, one who's guidance and help they respect, so to me, I need to strive to understand the world as best I can, to help them understand the terrain of where they are, and where they may be going.
The idea of honesty is very much related to this endeavor. Things as the old adage goes may very well in truth be " all relative ", but honesty is so important in my search for the deeper nature and relationships of what we experience. For me, endeavoring to be honest with those around me is one of the very important things that give my life purpose.
continued
There are all these daunting things, grave realties in the process of changing this world as we have known it. I have a great natural curiousity to want to know the workings of the greater world, and with this comes the knowledge of all that is going very, very wrong. I don't think it would be wise or beneficial to turn away from knowing the the ills that are beseting humanity on so many fronts, but I also feel we need to keep a place for ourselves to live out our lives trying to attain the practical good things we can, most importantly in the sharing of our time with those we love, to help them in what ways we can to cope with the growing stress of our time.
The greater transformations occurring I think are essentially wholly beyond our ability to affect. These mass changes are like the swirling winds of some gigantic storm and the currents of air rush where they will in a dynamic and uncontrollable fashion. So we are left to decipher as best we can the nature of this great storm and perhaps, to some degree, what path its taking, and then perhaps we may find various ways to take shelter from its worst consequences.
It can all add up to such a weight, but something that helps me greatly in this regard is my sense of humor. I never want to live my life without the mental lift of being able to see the funny side of things. I laugh with my family, my friends, to myself when hiking alone, its like this little bug running around in my head always cracking jokes and keeping me smiling. Life would really be dull and uninspiring without humor, so I feel our cultivation and appreciation of this quality will be a very important asset in the arsenal of what we all will be using to manage the many challenges coming our way.
As I have said here before, simplicity is something I strive for in my life. The more I am able to achieve this, the more content I have become. Like the idea I meant in the photo here at Trout Clan some time ago of me standing on a high point I call Turtle Mountain, I am very much satisfied by spending time like that. In my mind I can go anywhere I want to, be anyone I want to be, fly across myriad landscapes of ideas, and when I seek out the natural scenic places that I love, this is what I very much enjoy, traveling in my mind as I walk through the desert landscape. There is so much we can easily do without, only that we have been " taught " to need it.
So its surely important for us to have special parts of our lives which make us smile, give us purpose, make us feel worthwhile and happy to greet each passing of the sun. Without having these things in our lives, what would be the point of it all anyway :-)
It's good to hear a new voice at the campfire, SingColleen. Make yourself at home. And, you, too, mczilla.
Hearing from everyone so far is already soothing my frazzled nerves. I think your observations regarding truth, HPW, are congruent with my own. It is a big reason why I have found the sort of cyber circle that we have created to be profoundly healing and suportive. We create a safe place for people to speak their truth from their heart without fear of ridicule or rejection. It doesn't have to be "right." It only has to be true (honest). When all of our pieces of what is true for us are combined, we are all enriched, and are free to grow or change at will. The basic act of simple honesty of expression and respectful attention in return is innately healing and empowering in nature. And, it is so exquisitely simple.
I hope I am not seeming like a broken record on this subject, but I guess I am just in love with the process... and each of you.
wv" wreel (for "wreel")
I'm having nightmares again. I haven't slept well in a week. Part of it is stress, and part of it is something else. It wouldn't be so disturbing if my nightmares didn't have an even more disturbing tendency to come true.
I'm having migraines, partly from my sinuses and partly from the stress, and they've gotten so bad they've set my stomach off.
How do I keep going? I have to, of course. My doggies and my cat helps. My gf helps more. That, and the knowledge that there will be a dawn. No matter how dark the night, there will be a dawn
The following quote is what I use on a daily basis to work and enjoy the day. "Wildness is out there. The most vital beings and systems hang out at the edge of wildness. The next time you howl in delight like a wolf, howl for unstable aperiodic behavior in deterministic nonlinear dynamical systems." Jack Turner, The Abstract Wild
Also I posted the following link to the TCC comment board Sat and noticed that it was not up so here it is again. This is from Richard Gregg father of the Voluntary Simplicity movement. It is an excellent read and of coarse was written at the beginning of the 20th century. He also inspired Ghandi and Martin Luther King to non violence but that is another essay for another time. http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0304spiritpsych/030409simplicity/SimplicityFrame.html
The above is from Scrap Wood
Freeacre and everyone:
Recently, music. The young musicians around here who are resurrecting or continuing the traditions of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, the Carter family, and tradition. Here's a good example:
The Floorbirds
If you have broadband, listen to some of their plaintive music at the above link.
Yeah, me too. Football -and beer are ways I escape the BS that seems to be everwhere. Except during the Superbowl, I always "mute" the commercials. They bother the hell outta me. Especially BFT commercials.
But now the season is over.
Crap.
Oh, and stuff on PBS like "Nova" keeps me preoccupied and fools me into thinkting that the world isn't circling the drain.
I went to see "Avatar" again this past weekend. Loved it -again! But, I came home feeling totally freak'in depressed. I felt horrible that we humans have gotten to this place. A place where money and the crap we're programed to need to buy with that money is the end all, be all of all things. I'm a member of the "Sky People" but I don't want to be. I wish I could excape it all, but how in the hell to do that? I have no idea.
My artist wife is presenting a good many of her pieces at a local coop located in the city library, which will take up a good month of our weekends here soon, but I'm chomping at the bit to start planning the garden. Wish winter wasn't so freak'in long here. Wish we could move to a warmer climate.
Wish there was a place called, "Pandora" where the "Sky People" get their asses kicked.
Later-
-Randy
Randy,
LOL yeh, wish could live where the sky people got their asses kicked. I like that.
Good luck to your wife on her exhibit. A hard racket to break into according to my artist friends.
“Who you callin' alien, fool? Seen yourself in the mirror recently ?” ... huh
Note the web address on this actual photo of an alien invading another species' habitat in pursuit of fucken ore! Won't they ever learn, goddamn ignorant savages—sonsabitches! Such incredible synchronicity ... ahh
... but alas, we all know what they're really after eh!
------------------------ < + > -------------------------
wv: basess
Brain Dead Sunday
I don't do football, I could not even tell you who was playing in the "bowl" this year and I definitely do not care.
I find professional sports to be rather disgusting to be honest, overpaid actors paid to perform on demand for fawning crowds and millions of TV fans. I've no doubt that the players have talent, which isn't the issue here with me, the issue is how people worship sports stars, and how easily manipulated people have become by the puppet masters that promote them.
'Cmon, it's a bloody game, which has nothing to do with real life, and the support and fawning over this game is what I find so damned offensive (and pointless). Billions of dollars are spent each season piping this game into millions of living rooms, with corporate America beaming an endless series of messages on how great YOU can be too if you simply open up your wallet and buy their shoveled shit - everything from a new truck to rape and pillage the environment to brand B beer that will make you a superstar with a hot blond on each elbow.
They wrap this seductive music of deception around your mind like a thin layer of truth, when everything they're doing and everything they represent and everything they support is an absolute gigantic lie.
Americans revel in lies and deception, wallowing in them like stuffed pigs in mud, too stupid and too uncaring to even realize that it's not just a harmless little lie they're being fed, but a great big lie that is part of an even bigger lie.
Everyone thinks that this is normal behavior for Americans and our media programming, but I don't. I think that this is an abomination of life itself, a worship of materialism and mindless consumerized consumption, teaching us all the wrong message at an especially wrong time in human history. I find the the very idea that we have come to accept this level of brainwashing as being normal and even acceptable as an abomination too, a sure sign of how zombiefied we have really become.
There's more - what I call Brain Dead Everyday, but that's enough for now.
Yup. Like the blind men feeling different parts of an elephant and all describing it a different way. And, all true. Thanks.
This was posted last night on stevequayle.com
Military Communications Alert
February 9, 2010
Hawk
MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS OVERNIGHT WERE HOT AND HEAVY WITH MULTIPLE COMMAND UNITS UP AND OVER SIX 200+ CHARACTER MESSAGES WERE SENT TO OUT TO U.S. FORCES WORLD WIDE . ALSO, ANOTHER COMMAND SENT LONG MESSAGES TO ALL UK FORCES WORLD WIDE.
THESE ARE ORDERS OF BATTLE RELATING TO MIDEAST AND OTHER THREATS AND IT IS HIGHLY EVIDENT THAT THE U.S. MILITARY IS TAKING IRAN'S THREAT OF "A PUNCH THAT WILL STUN THE WEST" VERY SERIOUSLY AS THE 2/11 DATE FAST APPROACHES. EXACTLY WHAT THE AYATOLLAH AND "ALMOND JOY" HAVE IN MIND HAS RAISED SPECULATION THAT POSSIBLE EMP ATTACK, NUCLEAR MISSILE LAUNCH , OR EVEN A TAKEOVER OF THE BRITISH EMBASSY COULD BE POSSIBILITIES. CYBER ATTACKS ON U.S AND UK FINANCIAL CENTERS HAVE ALSO BEEN DISCUSSED. ISRAEL MIGHT JUST NOT WANT TO WAIT FOR THE BIG SURPRISE AND GO UNILATERALLY AS WELL.
ALL THE U.S. AND UK FORCES NEED IS A GREEN LIGHT ....OR TO SEE EVENTS FROM ISRAEL OR IRAN TO EXECUTE THE ORDERS.
U.S. SHADOW GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN IN SITE R AND MT WEATHER SINCE FRIDAY AS THE WEATHER WAR SNOWFALLS MADE THEM SITTING DUCKS AND PRECLUDING RELIABILITY OF AIR TRANSPORT , LET ALONE SURFACE TRAVEL BY VEHICLE, THE DEEP UNDERGROUND TUBES HAVE LIKELY BEEN IN HEAVY USEAGE.
NOTHING HAS TO HAPPEN, BUT A WATCHMAN'S WARNING HERE IS VERY NECESSARY........AS WHEN THE MIDEAST TESTOSTERONE LEVEL RISES TO ITS CURRENT LEVEL AND MEN BEGIN TO RATTLE SWORDS AND PLAY WITH LARGE CANDLES READY TO BE LIT .......YOU DESERVE TO HAVE THE HEADS UP THAT HAIR TRIGGERS ARE SET AND THE ORDERS ARE ALREADY IN THE HANDS OF THE THEATRE COMMANDERS.
THERE IS POWER IN THE BLOOD OF JESUS.
Hawk
anon @ 8:21... you're channeling my daddy. and i agree... p
M E M O R A N D U M
To: All Employees
From: Human Resources
Due to the current financial situation caused by the slowdown in the economy, Congress has decided to implement a scheme to put workers of 50 years of age and above on early retirement, thus creating jobs and reducing unemployment.
This scheme will be known as RAPE (Retire Aged People Early).
Persons selected to be RAPED can apply to Congress to be considered for the SHAFT program (Special Help After Forced Termination).
Persons who have been RAPED and SHAFTED will be reviewed under the SCREW program (System Covering Retired-Early Workers).
A person may be RAPED once, SHAFTED twice and SCREWED as many times as Congress deems appropriate.
Persons who have been RAPED could get AIDS (Additional Income for Dependants & Spouse) or HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired Personnel Early Severance).
Obviously persons who have AIDS or HERPES will not be SHAFTED or SCREWED any further by Congress.
Persons who are not RAPED and are staying on will receive as much SHIT (Special High Intensity Training) as possible. Congress has always prided
themselves on the amount of SHIT they give our citizens.
Should you feel that you do not receive enough SHIT, please bring this to the attention of your Congressman, who has been trained to give you all the SHIT you can handle.
Sincerely,
The Committee for Economic Value of Individual Lives (E.V.I.L.)
PS - - Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas and oil, as well as current market conditions, the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.
wv diest
What sustains
are sweet fragments
of days, a cracked candy
of sun, scattered on snow,
a sky so blue and still,
wings metronome
from nowhere
and fade away.
What brute state
do I owe
for priceless afternoons?
I do not hear the creek
compute my debt.
I really like Brain Dead Sunday sports pontification. Couldn't of said it better. Cant wait for brain dead everyday. I also feel the same way about hollywood, tv, soap operas and especially opbra. Look at all the money people have spent just to see the movie by that comeron fella and it's not helping anybody but him.
Work with you hands, walk around the neighborhood or in nature, read a good book or if you want to see the movie rent it your library. It is free.
Remember, sports and entertainment are the elites and status quo way of manipplating you. It is not an escape it is a trap.
Scrap Wood.
'Nuther venue, same baloney:
"... while Vancouver's Downtown East Side struggles with poverty similar to third-world countries and social programs continue to be gutted, VANOC is spending an untold amount of money helicoptering in snow to the Olympic venue of Cypress Mountain that would otherwise be a mud hill due to the warm weather."
It's not hard to deduce why the snow is melting: it's the heat on the street."
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/528319/when_snow_melts_vancouver_s_olympic_crackdown
I'd like to put my two cents (pun intended)in regarding gold, even though I am at risk for attracting much abuse from Baz. I am all about preparing with gardening, saving up food, learning practical skills, reaching out to neighbors, etc. But, I am also glad that we got a little gold when it was under $500 per oz. It has more than doubled since then, and I am hoping that it can be used to purchase big items in a pinch.
Now, we have two old cars and an even older truck. If (or when) they fail, we do not have enough money coming in to purchase a car on credit I don't think, since we live on social security. So, if things get real tight with inflation, social security woes, people needing to sell out and leave, etc. I am hoping that we could trade gold for a car that is in pretty good shape or maybe even some land that friends or family could re-locate on.
Of course, you can't eat gold. But you also can't trade vegetables or eggs for a car that runs or an acre of land for your kid to survive on. That's how I look at it.
Good luck to us all today. Just in case there is a EMP today that takes down the Net... love to all the Trout out there.
~ Larissa here:
My gosh those pics make my mouth water! Seriously!
I agree that a little distraction is healthy. I have them too! I like to play Sims 2 and have certain programs I like to watch, and certain events I like to attend (like Faeryworlds!)
You can't live in the future. You have to educate yourself and prepare yourself for it-- but you gotta live in the now. And life has so many small blessings for us if we but reach out for them.
So-- no guilt! =^)
For the past 50 years, scientists have scoured the skies for radio signals from beyond our planet, hoping for some sign of extraterrestrial life.
But one physicist says there's no reason alien life couldn't already be lurking among us - or maybe even in us.
Paul Davies, an award-winning Arizona State University physicist known for his popular science writing said Tuesday that life may have developed on Earth not once but several times.
Davies said the variant life forms - most likely tiny microbes - could still be hanging around "right under or noses - or even in our noses."
"How do we know all life on earth descended from a single origin?" he told a conference at London's prestigious Royal Society, which serves as Britain's academy of sciences. "We've just scratched the surface of the microbial world."
The idea that alien micro-organisms could be hiding out here on earth has been discussed for a while, according to Jill Tarter, the director of the US SETI project, which listens for signals from civilisations based around distant stars.
She said several of the scientists involved in the project were interested in pursuing the notion, which Davies earlier laid out in a 2007 article published in Scientific American in which he asked: "Are aliens among us?"
So far, there's no answer. And ever finding one would be fraught with difficulties, as Davies himself acknowledged.
Unusual organisms abound - including chemical-eating bacteria which hide out deep in the ocean and organisms that thrive in boiling-hot springs - but that doesn't mean they're different life forms entirely.
"How weird do they have to be suggest a second genesis as opposed to just an obscure branch of the family tree?" he said. Davies suggested that the only way to prove an organism wasn't "life as we know it" was if it were built using exotic elements which no other form of life had.
Such organisms have yet to be found. Davies also noted that less than 1 percent of all the world's bacteria had been comprehensively studied - leaving plenty of time to find unusual organisms.
"You cannot tell just by looking that a microbe has some radically different inner chemistry," he said.
Davies' call for alien-hunting scientists to look to their own backyards came as one of the pioneers of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence told the conference the job of finding proof of alien life in outer space may be more difficult than previously thought.
Frank Drake, who conducted the first organized search for alien radio signals in 1960, said that the Earth - which used to pump out a loud mess of radio waves, television signals and other radiation - has been steadily getting quieter as its communications technology improves.
Drake cited the switch from analogue to digital television - which uses a far weaker signal - and the fact that much more communications traffic is now relayed by satellites and fiber optic cables, limiting its leakage into outer space.
to be cont..
"Very soon we will become very undetectable," he said. If similar processes were taking place in other technologically advanced societies, then the search for them "will be much more difficult than we imagined." —1
But Drake said scientists at SETI were excited by the possibility of using lasers to send super-bright flashes of light into space for a tiny fraction of a second. The flashes could theoretically be seen up by an advanced civilisation up to 1,000 light years away, and Tarter said infrared versions of the devices could possibly send beams even further.
But Drake noted that the interstellar equivalent to turning a flashlight on and off only works if a prospective alien civilisation wants to get in touch to begin with.
"For this to work ... There has to be altruism in the universe," he said.
—1. and operating at the highest echelons of society, Govt, Mil--secret squirrel shit, carpet cleaners and so-forth
------------------------ [ + ] -------------------------
-50 -40 -30 -20 -10 _______ +10 +20 +30 +40 +50
Perhaps advanced civilisations from distant worlds have evolved beyond the need for such archane technologies as radio.
Telepathy emasculates deceit.
Seems like I remember reading about a form of life that lives around very deep sea volcanic vents, way hot temps, no sunlight and metabolism completely different than most other life forms, if I remember right, were not carbon dependent, but rather silicon dependent. I could be remembering wrong. Old age you know.
we have the internet now
you will be assimilated—your culture will adapt to service ours. resistance is futile
I'll see your internet, and raise you one emp.
Paul Craig Roberts has a piece on Rense today everyone should read.
http://www.rense.com/general89/pcr.htm
Between the latest treason from the supremes and Dennis Blair's stunning revelation before congress, it's way past time to begin making preparations for effective, collective resistance.
We need all local law enforcement to join Oathkeepers!
Who's to say our leaders and congress, wall street and the senate are not aliens trying to drive us.
But seriously I don't understand this Star Trek mentality. Just like the space program. We need to spend time and money in solving our problems with what we have to work with now. Forget about aliens. Life will not be like Avatar. We must work to create a more sustainable world with our own flesh and blood.
Scrap Wood
To dismiss those who think outside the box in favor of continued 'tweeking' of the status quo, either from frustration or expedience, is to disqualify the possibility of revelationary leaps of consciousness.
What we have been doing has not worked. Reformers come and go, yet the show goes on.
Who runs the show?
Shouldn't we attempt to know?
Given our weakness for delusion,
(false assurance always trumps confusion,)are we not afraid
of waking, when the dust has settled and debris is sent
away, to find our own hands
dripping with the blood
of a million innocent dead?
Bernays learned from his uncle
what makes us tick.
Elusive carrots hanging from a stick.
OK...talk about synchronicities...
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2912-Seattle-Exopolitics-Examiner~y2010m2d10-Whistleblower-Laura-Magdalene-Eisenhower-Ikes-greatgranddaughter-outs-secret-Mars-colony-project
They recruited me too for the secret Mars colony, but I told them I have a family to raise. This was back in the year 2002 though.
Scrap Wood
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Biddha
This just in from Robert Reich Blog.
Washington is paralyzed by snow and partisanship. Nothing is getting done – even as the Great Recession pulls more Americans into its maw.
In the midst of this paralysis, the President was asked about the giant pay packages of Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase & Co. ($17 mullion for 2009) and Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs ($9 million). “First of all, I know both those guys,” Obama said. “They’re very savvy businessmen. And I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That’s part of the free market system.”
Yeh we don't begrudge wealth if it's attained by hard honest work. they made money the evil way and for that they will pay.
Our leader is such a two face idiot and in the pocket of all the financial knuckleheads.
Scrap Wood
From Belgium
Talking about being paralysed by snow, if you haven’t heard this already it is a real head scratcher. Yesterday Belgium had about 4cm, 1.5” snow and 950 km (approx 600 miles of freeways were gridlocked for the whole of the day. No, I don’t know either, I thought it was better not to ask.
Scrap Wood, I'm with you on that score.
elsewhere;
"February 10, 2010
AP
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The Air Force has decertified a unit responsible for maintaining an estimated 2,000 nuclear warheads at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, but top military officials won't discuss specifics of the decision.
Decertification means members of the 898th Munitions Squadron cannot perform their usual duties with nuclear weapons.
Air Force officials declined to specify what that means.
Air Force officials also declined to disclose what concerns prompted the action, but Ron Fry, a spokesman for the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, said Wednesday the move wasn't prompted by any risk to the public.
"There is no risk to security, safety or health," he said.
The New Mexico unit will be re-inspected and could be recertified by June, Fry said. Until then, he said qualified individuals from Air Force units based elsewhere will monitor nuclear weapons stored at Kirtland, located on Albuquerque's south side..."
from: http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/10_Nukes/100201.NM.nukes.html
Humm...re: the Paul Craig Roberts picked up on the Rense site... there seems to be some discrepancies as to the story. For one, she's not an American citizen as he wrote. Here is another article about the case that I think sounds more credible, although it has more mystery than conclusions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/24/aafia-siddiqui-al-qaida
No matter what the facts of her case are though, there is no doubt that our liberties are compromised more and more each day.
Even as the Wright Bros. demonstrated their discovery, mathematicians were able to prove, with their calculations, the impossibility of heavier-than-air flight.
COP>1 is real, here and now.
Beam weapons, (H.A.A.R.P.), can be used to generate earthquakes, (Sichuan, Haiti), and to alter weather, (recently in Australia, Washington).
Check out the toasted cars on Judy Woods website. What caused that?
Newtonian physics is all well and good, but it doesn't cover quantum access.
Lots of people are working on bits and pieces of the puzzles still baffling mankind.
Tom Bearden is one.
Wallace Thornhill is another.
Maxwell Jordan and David Icke
are two more truthtellers.
The fact is, we've been lied to by the controlling elite, the priests and scribes, the financial pupetmasters and their dancing politicians, who trace their family lineages back to ancient Babylon and Sumer, and we've always been manipulated to perform as predicted.
Shit! Most of the really nasty situations poor people have been confronted with over the past ten years are the direct or indirect result of actions taken by this evil cabal and its minions.
But something new has happened. Some of us are waking. We're opening our eyes to the subterfuge, and we're saying no!
"That flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore..."
Patriotism is a ruse
and it's so easy to use.
Thanks for the levity, Belgium. 1.5 cm of snow and the whole country is gridlocked! HAHAHAHA! Sounds like Portland.
wv: sycolist
I think the obsession with aliens and space travel is part of the belief in progress that's so deeply rooted in our culture -up and out, better and better forever!
Has anyone seen the news coming out of the mid-atlantic states the past few days? The National Guard has been called out in Philly. Supplies are being air lifted and dropped into some areas because people can't get out and they are starving and/or freezing after a couple of days trapped in their house.
If things are that bad after two days being snowed in, what will happen if we ever have a complete breakdown?
It's just jaw-dropping to me that after all the emphasis on "Homeland Security" and watching people wait for a week to get water to the Super Dome during Katrina, etc., people still haven't stocked up on even the most minuscule supplies. Maybe this will wake some people up. We are evermore vulnerable to weather disasters, earthquakes, gas shortages, and solar flares now that the sunspot cycle is gearing up and set to reach a record-breaking peak in 2012. With all the dependence on computer technology in everything from GPS locators, computerized ignition systems in autos, electrical heating and cooling in homes, phone service, gas pumps, hospital services - just everything. If the grid goes down, it would be almost instantaneous chaos. "Security" what a joke. All these bazillions spent on SWAT teams and airport surveillance and outrageous cop equipment and nothing to maintain basic food, shelter, medicine, heat, etc. if the shit hits the fan. Once, again.. we are on our own.
How things work.
Most people just don't care.
At least 3 are dead at my alma mater tonight, and 3 more injured after another god d*** rampage. I need to get hold of everyone I know who works and goes to school there. Dear mother goddess. My gf works 2 minutes from there, and we live 10 minutes away.
ras... hope your close ones are okay.
atlanta snow day 2/12/10...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lizlogan/sets/72157623298371503/
The future of the U.S. Auto Industry, and Health Reform, and Food Consumption > click for larger picture
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
wv: rephan - Representative of ancient dynasty
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
Becoming a Third World Country
....Faith in progress, coupled with the tribute economy’s culture of entitlement I mentioned earlier, have made it nearly impossible for anybody in American public life to talk about the hard fact that America can no longer afford most of the social habits it adopted during its age of empire. It’s almost impossible to think of an aspect of daily life in America today that will not change drastically as a result. We will have to give up the notion, for example, that most Americans ought to go to college and get a “meaningful and fulfilling” job of the sort that can be done sitting at a desk. We will have to abandon the idea that it makes any sense to spend a quarter of a million dollars giving an elderly person with an incurable illness six more months of life. We will have to relearn the old distinction between the deserving poor – those who are willing to work and simply need the opportunity, or who have fallen into destitution through circumstances outside their control – and those who are simply trying to game the system. The great majority of us will get to find out what it’s like to make things instead of buying them, even when that means a sharp reduction in quality; to skip meals, or make do with very little, because the money to pay for anything more simply isn’t there; to treat serious illnesses at home because care from a doctor costs too much; I could go on for paragraphs, but I trust you get the idea........
Baz - that picture works for me!
re: Archdruid. I just realized that what others think of as collapse is what I have been living with since about 1980.
Hang in there, ras. People seem to be running amuck.
Cryptogon's got the story up.
http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/1507/1/
SOCIETY IGNORES OIL CRUNCH AT ITS PERIL
.......In 2009 came the recession, and a steep fall in global demand for oil. This has helped, in the narrow sense of that word. It may have bought us two more years. The new report projects production dropping in 2015, though the risks that it could be earlier remain.
The CEOs and chairmen of the taskforce companies have a simple message for government. This monster threat is very likely to descend on the next government in office, in their first term, and the nation needs to act now.
The stakes are arguably higher than with the financial crisis. The taskforce's worst-case fear is that premature peak oil will involve not just global energy crisis, but potentially energy famine for some oil importing nations – including the UK.
During the financial crash the world went within weeks from a received wisdom that investment banks had squeezed risk out of complex derivatives, to a spiralling doubt, to a tipping point of disbelief and panic. With peak oil, officials around the world, corporate and governmental, would experience exactly the same collapse of confidence in their cosy cultural assumptions. A second giant industry would have been found to have its asset assessment systemically and ruinously wrong.......
Question: Is anybody else sick? Murph is sicker than he ever remembers being. Intense vomiting every 5 or 10 minutes for about 4 hours, since 10:45 last night, and it's 2:30 p.m. now. Still vomiting every hour or so and sick as a dog. Called the paramedics. They said a bad flu of some sort (not H1N1) is going around, and to sip some Gatoraide. Interesting timing, since the Olympics just started... "paranoia strikes deep."
This from Oldensoul:
A friend of mine and her daughter both got it and had to be hospitalized and put on IV's for dehydration. Smartwater, or something similar provides the electrolites and fluid without the sugar and dye. This was probably three weeks ago, in southwestern Montana.
Our condolences, Murph. Hang in there man. Freeacre, double up on that D-3
Thanks, Oldensoul. He's doing better. Held down some Gatorade and sat up for about ten minutes and ate some jello. I'll have to look for that Smartwater. And, yes, I have doubled up on the D3 and added colloidal silver and zinc lozenges. So far, so good. What a drag.
Well I hope Murph continues to get better! I haven't had the flu in a long time but I remember how crappy I felt, really wore me out :-(
http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/1509/1/
THE ZERO POINT OF SYSTEMIC COLLAPSE
.....All traditional standards and beliefs are shattered in a severe economic crisis. The moral order is turned upside down. The honest and industrious are wiped out while the gangsters, profiteers and speculators walk away with millions. The elite will retreat, as Naomi Klein has written in The Shock Doctrine, into gated communities where they will have access to services, food, amenities and security denied to the rest of us. We will begin a period in human history when there will be only masters and serfs. The corporate forces, which will seek to make an alliance with the radical Christian right and other extremists, will use fear, chaos, the rage at the ruling elites and the specter of left-wing dissent and terrorism to impose draconian controls to ruthlessly extinguish opposition movements. And while they do it, they will be waving the American flag, chanting patriotic slogans, promising law and order and clutching the Christian cross. Totalitarianism, George Orwell pointed out, is not so much an age of faith but an age of schizophrenia. “A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial,” Orwell wrote. “That is when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud.” Our elites have used fraud. Force is all they have left......
Thanks folks,
I am finally up and moving around a bit after 24 hrs of this creeping crud, or is it galloping crud.
I have gotten hard ass sick so few times in my adult life that when it comes I tend to whimper a lot. This time around I couldn't walk at all for quite some time, crawled into the bedroom and came real close to actually passing out once. As a probable flu of some kind, it is about the worst I can remember getting, and flu was a long time ago.
Well, I didn't die from it and can fairly safely assume I'll probably not get this one again. Body memory immunity has distinct advantages.
So folks, keep up your body immunity regime and try and avoid crowds.
From Belgium
Thankfully you are feeling a bit better now Murph. I have been meaning to fire off an e mail to you since Fa told me about a week and a half ago that you had a similar experience involving the visit of paramedics but I have hardly been home this weekend. Hopefully the worst has now passed by. On the basis that the worse the medicine tastes the more it does you good here is a very simple one that works for an upset stomach, burnt black toast without the butter, ugh! It is the finely divided newly formed carbon that absorbs all the nasties and locks them away. Hopefully you are sufficiently recovered not to need this one. Speedywell.
From Belgium
I know from personal experience that when most of us guys are not feeling well we tend to sit around the heater with three pullovers on and a blanket around our shoulders sipping our fresh lemon and paracetamol drink and the words “Woe is me” tends to enter the conversation quite a bit. That is when the women strut haughtily past and in their best indignant tone say “If only you men had to have the babies……” From Freeacre’s concern it looks like you have been spared that one Murph ;-) and quite right too.
Many of you know that I have cut my blogging down quite a bit recently and when I am not here I tend to be over at Nobody’s place; there are some pretty savvy people that hang out in the comments there. The current discussion goes around whether Judy Wood is disinfo or not. That aside, the following appeared in a quote from James and I thought it was a very good point so wrt James I am going to put it up here.
“…And I'd like to add to Peter's point about the psychological warfare against the citizenry. I think we'd all be hip to the ploy of multiple theories being put forward to confuse the issue to lead away from the truth. But I think there is a deeper agenda, as Peter suggests.
One angle that occurs to me is 'free will' and 'learned helplessness'
Free will is expressed as making choices, but not just any choices. Many choices are made out of habit and they are not necessarily an expression of free will. New choices certainly are. Old choices are made from what someone already knows and most people (especially regular teevee viewers) don't make new choices. If they do it is in response to new material that is tied to the new choice such as we see in advertising. It's a package deal. No thinking and no free will needed. The average person also has a very short attention span in part thanks to teevee, again. Old choices don't need any sort of attention span but new ones do.
So these people are unused to using their frontal lobe, the part of the brain that evaluates new information and exercises new choices. It's the repository of our free will, (if you will!).
So if someone wants to look into 'this weird 9/11 shit' they quickly find a lot of new and conflicting material that they have to think about with a part of the brain they haven't used in years probably and pretty soon their 'brain hurts'. So what do they do? They go back to using the part of their brains that they are used to using, making old choices out of habit. Only trouble is they have now lost their security and they know it but don't want to look at it because it literally makes their brain hurt.
All this leads to "Learned Helplessness" which is exactly where the shitheads want them. These people are far more likely to follow orders even when they don't like them. All the arguing about planes/no planes etc helps the shitheads with their agenda of mentally torturing and conditioning the masses out there in teeveeland.
Not that I think we, in particular, here are aiding and abetting the 'enemy' because their target audience is very unlikely to hang around here for any length of time for the above reasons.”
Get better soon, murph! A friend of mine had that a few weeks ago and ended up in the ER for most of an evening. I had something Saturday and part of Sunday. Made me really nauseous and cold, but I never vomited. The gf came down with it last night but isn't as bad.
Take care of yourself and get better. Try not to catch it, FA!
Thanks for the post. I am concerned about the issues in our world. I spend time keeping informed. I think it is important to have dialogue about these issues. People seem to get the impression that THAT is all you are about. And/or that you are a pessimist. Simply not so.
I search for the bright sides of life. I am amazed and delighted to be part of this existence. Simple things like a sunrise casting a pink morning. Watching chickens. Making popcorn in a kettle and sharing it. Building things. Creating art. Seeing the changing tapestry of the surrounding land. Sharing good conversation. Building a warm fire. Cooking a wholesome meal. Thinking about my good fortunes. Watching our dogs play. Gardening. Being inspired by others. and much more. ;-)
From Belgium
Thanks for that Sandra, it took me a while to get around to that point of view. There are positive things in the world apart from the gloom and doom. Observing nature is a wonderful thing. This weekend I beat my son in law, two times on the run at chess and he is usually a stronger player than me so that gave me a bit of a good feeling. There is pleasure to be had in many simple things.
Swinging back to the gloom and doom, there was a major train wreck in Belgium today; 18 dead; 20 heavily wounded and 60 lightly wounded. It is reported that one train ran a stop light but the fail safe system for this eventuality failed to kick in but these are only initial reports. I will become clearer over the next few days.
This looks like it might tie into something we were discussing a few weeks ago. Belgium, can you add any light on this?
http://www.davidicke.com/content/view/31956
From Belgium
No rp this was previously unknown to me but it is damned interesting. This is a subject that most are not prepared to raise let alone go postal over. You can bet this is one I will be following closely .
Thanks for the link, which I have already passed on.
If God gave the soul his whole creation she would not be filled thereby but only with himself.
– Meister Eckhart
Today, even modern industrial societies are not always able to provide food and shelter for all of their people. These are very real and important needs. But there are other needs that sometimes are not so easily identified. Even when the most pressing requirements for food or clothing or shelter have been satisfied, that is not enough for the human being. There remains a hunger for something more. We want to be somebody. We want to feel secure. We want to love. Without any better way to satisfy these inner needs, we end up depending on possessions and profit – not just for our physical well-being but as a substitute for the dignity, fulfillment, and security we want so much.
Only by living for something that lasts, something real – rather than for passing pleasure and profit – can we achieve the lasting fulfillment, the limitless capacity to love, that is our birthright.
From Words to Live By by Eknath Easwaran | www.easwaran.org
Scrap Wood
something else to be aware of...
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4608
What's This About? Dept.
I got a real official form in the mail from our electric company. It says that to help me out, it is enclosing some forms for me to fill out to "protect" me from identity theft. I am supposed to put my name, address, phone number, social security number, any and all previous names that I have gone by and come into the office with two government picture ID's. If I respond by mail the government ID's will have to be notarized. Now, this is the ELECTRIC COMPANY, which is a co-op that is located a mile from my home. I've lived here and not moved for over 5 years. I've never been late with a payment, and pay by check, not on line. So what is going on here? Something tells me that these forms, with my picture and info goes right to FEMA. Anybody else getting crap like this?
The other weird thing is I went to Bi-Mart to pick up a prescription and I went to get some vanilla, as I had just run out of it. There was a note that directed anyone who wants vanilla to go to clerk #1 and get it from her. So, I went to clerk #1 and asked for vanilla. She said she had it but couldn't give it to me until I was on my way out of the store. What?? Are they making bombs out of vanilla now?
Hauling out the Weird Shit-o-Meter...
bizarre!!!!!!!!!!!!!
some bicarbonate of soda, talcum powder, gasolene, vanilla for flavoring...
Praise the humble solar panel
fa, I would say the vanilla thing is more informal rationing than anything nefarious. Vanilla stocks have been going down, down, down. I'd stock up now if I were you. Costco has huge jars for 6 or 7 bucks and vanilla beans as well.
As for the other, I got a letter from a creditor yesterday offering to 'help' me work out a payment I could afford, if only I would fill out these papers they sent listing all my income, expenses, and asses=ts, and have it notarized. Um, yeah...
wv: sporkle
lol
Gosh I disappear for a few days and there is s ton of things to catch up on, some good comments here again.
Sorry to hear that Murph has been under the weather lately, hope you are feeling better....
Strange but since I have been living down here in the South 5.5 years now,I have really only had one day that I can recall that I was feeling bad to the point of having a body ache and unable to do much...wonder if it has anything to do with the amount of sunshine...hmmm
Anyway been doing some reading and thought I would pass along some links for those who may be interested. I guess I have a weird taste in what I think is reading material...lol
Anyway happy wintry reading to all ...
Something to keep in mind if there is a food shortage….
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j7-qlRURTkFwKlanrsGD9y3M8vVQD9DT9M5O2
Is the planet finally catching on to the game…
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=118811§ionid=3510213
An interesting commentary, some of which I can agree with but some of it….hmmm well…thanks but no thanks
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=167252
and one last one regarding life and death… or possibly quality of life….
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/720360--quebec-doctors-open-door-to-euthanasia
Ciao
Ely
on robert hall's "i'm tired" rumor mills piece...
that from a 5 time senator? scary!!
to him i said...
"I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, ..."
Robert,
Nice rant. Though I agree with many of your points which emphasise the extreem points of view formed out of, amoung other things, ignorance, held by and governing far too many, the one you make on addiction demonstrates a same very extreem POV. One that appears to lack any understanding of a malady to which many are susceptable.
Let me put it this way... let's each of us drink a bottle of caster oil and then have us a discussion about control in the morning.
I know everyone got there, 'what keeps us going' testimonies and here is mine. Thought this was very interesting and wanted to join. I was just talking with a friend about this very thing. I had a few friends that totally went all out in their high school party lifestyle. My cousin got so bad he started effecting his parents family. It broke my heart to watching their parents deteriorate from his actions and later consequences. One night he calls me and say “Aleks I’m done!” I was confused but then he explained I’m done with that lifestlye and I wanna change. That night he Accepted Christ as His Savior. Now he does missons trips, preaches to the young people and is currently in college for 3 years. To see him then and now is heaven and earth! Just listening to him is amazing! Another friend was into cocaine and ecstasy for a few years, his life was going downhill fast… he started seeing what he claimes demons and just crazy things in general but one day he said “aleks I don’t want to do this anymore im done help me out!” ever since that day he Gave his heart to Christ as well and is now married preaches to the young as well and does missions trips when he can. These guys were totally lost and confused but when they found Christ their lives changed. To see this kind of transformation in my cousin and my best friends is what keeps me going! To see Christ transfore the broken and testrouyed :D
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