World Hypotheses is a 1942 book by Stephen Pepper.  It is highly recommended that you NOT read this very heavy and difficult book.  Gary Schwartz discovered Peter a while back and has been modifying his model for more modern application. This gathering of about 60 selected persons-of-interest was convened in Tucson to test the newest model (by Gary) of World Hypothesis as applied in an Evolving Wisdom Workshop organized by Bob Cook and Ernie Schloss.  The three have known each other for many years and have been working to use Sustainability as the example to test the World Hypothesis model during this and future gatherings.

  • This is not a report of the gathering, which may be posted elsewhere. The event triggered many thoughts and these are rough notes I made shortly after. The two postings prior to this on this blog were composed and posted after this was initially written. No significant edits. Posted here for the record.

I sense that everyone I interacted with today was in a different “space/place/reality”.  These were persons I have known and interacted with in depth for decades and others I only met today.  We are all in the same physical spaces and there was no problem when communication referred to these spaces.  But, whenever they talked, speaking to a group or to me in personal conversation I really didn’t feel connected.  It was if they were talking about a fictitious reality, things and processes not really there.  They may sound similar to things I am familiar hearing about – but they were not tangible. And, I senses that everything I said to others was perceived in the same way by then.  None of us seemed in real touch with the world we were talking about – that wasn’t in our direct perception at the time.

  •     This included during the more energetic exchanges in the smaller gathering after 6:30pm, a few hours after the end of the formal gathering.  There were back and forth struggles to converge on topics: “food growing systems”, “transition city”, “learning and education”, “what we can do and what we can’t do”, etc.
  •     When one person queried whether some people were truly pathological, even evil – and I mentioned that Tom and I had been concerned about sociopaths, there were exchanges that seemed to conclude with agreement.  This is the closest we came being on the same page, but the dialog frizzled out when the conversation turned to what to do with them – then the contexts shifted and became distant.
  •     These people were sitting or standing in front of me. There was no issue as to their physical presence. Yet, when they talked about governments or corporations, pollution and global warming, money or suffering, or the World Hypothesis model we were evaluating – it was as if they were ghosts somewhere else.  Is this a consequence of my new sense of conceptualizing societal reality as of a distinctly different nature than our commonly shared physical realities were we can gesture agreements?  Actually, the moment I expressed this to them I (now remember) that conversation felt real!  This was a topic of abstract symbolism (like math or logic) and not like mythological things like the presidency or terrorists.
  •     Later, I “imagined” each person standing on different platforms, at different heights and pointing in different directions; some platforms are bigger than others, some even at a slight tilt. No one sees any of the others or their platforms. [This without visual imagery.]
  •     I don’t feel we share the same world beyond our shared physical spaces.  I have this same feeling now for members of my family.  When they talk about anything I can’t actually see and confirm, it doesn’t seem they are talking about the world I live in.

So, what is nuet, my larger world like? My first reaction was to think of what I witness on TV – these are real, like my colleagues in the rooms today; but what they are talking about on TV is not real in the same sense. I am writing that I am aware of contexts, not specifics. Obama is inaugurated.  It was a gathering of people and events – much of which was recorded and I could potentially view all the recordings.  But, this is not the same as the societal phenomenon of the Obama presidency entering its second term.  That tangles with all the interactivity of all relevant persons in and connected to the administration, and then out to global players and corporations.  This is a PATTERN that is “real”, but not directly observable.  As in quantum science, what are the uncertainty factors for our eventual knowledge of this pattern? What if evidence is destroyed, never revealed, or fabricated? What if there are conflicting reports? What is the pattern of human activity leading up to and for years after the 9/11 “phenomenon”? What various “conspiracy theories” are woven, including the official conspiracy of Ben Laden and box cutter wielding Arabs in airplanes – leading to the quick passage of an already authored Patriot Act and two subsequent unimaginable wars?

The rightwing news bubble (which I examine briefly daily) talks about “Obama coming after your guns'”.  I expect many envision our black president breaking down their door – like in a TV movie.  Or, the liberal news bubble talking about voter suppression and imagine the long lines.  Individual acts of voter suppression are distinct from an intentional pattern of activity of persons whose result is long lines; as each battle in war is distinct from the pattern of battles (and decisions leading up to them) that comprise wars.

The intricate pattern of individual human actions that comprise our collective world is not the same kind of reality as the physical landscape and weather conditions everywhere on the planet.  We record and study enough satellite pictures and other records that we seldom have disagreement as what is happening on Earth at any time.  But, what is happening with human societal systems is quite another story.   Even if we had 100% surveillance, including all messages anyone sends or receives, it would be an impossible task to map out the societal phenomena in terms we use to summarize them.  We don’t attempt to observe all the gas molecules in a jar to confirm its temperature.

Now, and this is most critical – we encounter the same difficulty when we attempt to design, plan, and execute future actions for good causes, including surviving/thriving climate change.  Tonight one man was insistent that the only real thing was action, and in a sense he was right.  Food producing action is done in real physical time by persons in gardens. However, educating and organizing a sufficient number of Tucson citizens to make us self sufficient takes us into the realm of unobservable patterns of human exchanges.

I realize why my distinction between transformation and emergence falls on deaf ears.  Why it is never comprehended when I ask that we treat societal metamorphosis as a concrete model and less than a metaphor. These are no societal phenomena to be observed. My mention of an animated simulation did generate some interest.

What is Y-Worlds and the  P2P-Foundation, or Transition Colorado?  They are each of a totally different nature than the concrete and observable behaviors of persons functioning within those societal systems.  Just what ARE these societal systems other than the behavior of their participants and the physical spaces they work in and their material products?  What is nuet’s BUS and UPLIFT scenario?

In building human systems, the primary focus should be on the humans, their experiences and their doings. What they do must be secondary.  All the content, and challenges in a person’s life is in the deep context of their Personal Being. Activity that provides a person with greater “strength, coherence, understanding, etc.” of themselves in relationship with others is of prime importance and will tend to dominate attention.  How a person is treated, respected or rejected, loved or hated, noticed or dissed is the filter to all else. And yet, contemporary attempts to organize others to action re humankind/GAIA survival/thrival issues studiously avoid this essential dimension. The exception being those cults who use tweaking a persons deep emotions to attract and entrap them.

Conspiratorial gangs are realtime.  Tribal life was life in real-time, real-place. It was perceptual and gestural, physical and social – long before the advent of conceptual languages.  What I call “conspiratorial gangs” are the contemporary equivalent of tribes within societal structures, large and small. “Conspiracy” is used here with a small “c”; a smallish group of persons deliberate and decide on a course of action that specifically benefits themselves and don’t intentionally inform others about their decisions or actions.

  •     A family that plans a vacation without explicitly informing others is a “conspiratorial gang”. A small group of persons employed in governmental agencies may decide and act in a way not approved by their respective agencies.  A football team decides on the next play.
  •     Is one person deciding on an action a one person conspiratorial gang?

Is chatter on Facebook or Twitter examples of TANGIBLE WEBS as distinct from abstract nets?  I suggest that unless they comment to each other about the literal content of messages, in some specific way, it is not tangible.  It would also be tangible if persons comment specifically about each other – about concrete expressions (not vague accusations).  Now is not the time to draw boundaries; I am exploring the more obvious distinctions, that may well be useful, even if there is blurring at the boundaries.

The importance of societal structures not being tangible is that they can quickly disappear – they can be “paper tigers”.

  •     The USSR is our exemplar.  Poof it was gone.  That persons and conspiratorial gangs remained and erected new societal structures doesn’t distract from how truly mythological these societal entities can really be.
  •     If we fear our inability to make real changes in the future because we imagine these monster entities (CIA, USA, Exxon) as big and massive and resistive to change – then we are enslaving ourselves.  They ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO REFORM, but they can crumble like a house of cards.

What is real in the large scale?  Patterns.  Webs, Systems, nets, ecohols.

Think about it.  None of the categorical concepts used in discourse about large human systems have any operation for empirical detection or observation. This is truly weird when we think of it.  Where to you observe government, democracy, elections, economics, — much of our most used vocabulary.  We need to play with this a bit.  PUT IN QUERY ON TNE.  They are ONLY referenced in semiotic structures – languaging about language.

Consider an election of a class president in a high school.  That should be finite enough to observe almost all events in the phenomena – if it were only the act of voting, not designing and printing the ballots, earlier considering the rules for the election, selection of candidates, counting the votes.  Even all this might be recorded and data filed.  But, this would be different from a person’s normal view of 1) a campaign poster, 2) hearing the debate, 3) managing the voting station, 4) each person photoed casting their vote, 5) the vote count.  Even this is not equivalent to observing a tree, or the keyboard and monitor I am writing on.

Can one observe an instance of inclusion, or exclusion?  An instance of addition or multiplication? But, addition per se?  We talk about abstractions, but they cannot be observed.

Has this been discussed somewhere in philosophy?

What is the “reality nature” of bills and laws, and agencies “created by” them, such as Social Security, Medicare & Medicaide, Obamacare, IRS, Federal Reserve, etc.?

  •         A bill or law is a sem, with many associated sems. So is an agency such as Social Security and the IRS.  But, to what extent can we say they can be observed? Do we have the same epistemological difficulty observing my thumb, my brain, or my DNA? Or observing the computer I am now using.
  •         Observation doesn’t imply simultaneous detection of every aspect of a system.  How much is necessary to be considered an obseration,  more than a mere identification?
  •         To what extent do we observe the laws of physics?  We can do explicit experiments whose results are consistent with a description of a phenemon involving systems.  But, the law is not exemplified by one or even many confirming (or non refuting) experiments.

    This is getting weird.  Really, what do we actually OBSERVE?  Did I just observe the letters form to make the word ‘OBSERVE’?  How is my visual/mental observation different/same from a particle detector sending numerical data to a computer which I can look at later on a display or printout?  What am I observing when I study the printout of data?

The metaphors we employ in our perceptual world seem simple and clear – I see my coffee cup, and my hand moving on the keyboard; I hear the TV from the other room; I sense myself breathing and feel the arthritis pain in my arms.  Am I observing this house while sitting in only one room?  When I drive to my appointment am I observing the City of Tucson?

Author: nuet

Sort: Newest | Oldest


I Cantori di Carmel

By Scott MacClelland

Lehmkuhl closeupWITH TOM LEHMKUHL at the helm, it’s a whole new ballgame for I Cantori di Carmel. The Saturday debut at Carmel Mission was nothing short of a revelation as the new conductor took the 47-member chorus through seven brief 20th and 21st century originals (plus one from the early 1890s*) and arrangements, that stretched into every technically challenging corner of the choral arts. Indeed, from the start the chorus never sounded more polished or self-assured.

And that was just the first half; though I had to leave at the intermission, it was enough to make vividly clear Lehmkuhl’s impact, which has been in development only since he came on board last summer. Lehmkuhl’s impact on the audience was equal, thanks to his illuminating and often personal program notes.

The concert began with “Consecrate this Place and Day,” Andrew Marvell’s 17th century verse celebrating Saint Cecelia and her feast day in a bracing a cappella 1969 setting by American composer Lloyd Pfautsch, This was followed by four “Songs of Devotion” and “Two Folk Songs from the Isles.”

The first set opened with Charles Villiers Stanford’s *”Beati quorum via” (Blessed are they whose road is straight, who walk in the law of the Lord) from Psalm 119, chosen here for “these turbulent political times with its call for integrity (‘integra’).” This is music of transparent purity but also demands that its contrapuntal lines remain in good balance.

Gwyneth Walker’s 2000 setting of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Crossing the Bar, in memory of her mother, is a heartfelt utterance with textures from simple to complex and rich diatonic harmonies. The poem is a metaphor of life passing over the ‘sandbar’ into the unknown. With Pauline Troia at the piano, and using dynamic contrasts with skill, Lehmkuhl drew a passionate performance from his singers. Troia continued in Morten Lauridsen’s popular and widely-performed Prayer, of 2012, to a touching poem by California Poet Laurate Dana Gioia in memory of his infant son. The poem is filled with impressionistic imagery, the music tender and quietly exalted.

With drum and tambourine, the chorus then introduced Zikr (“devotion”) by AR Rahman, written for a documentary film, implicitly echoing Lehmkuhl’s nine years teaching choral and vocal music in India. Rahman scored the well-known Slumdog Millionaire, in which Lehmkuhl had a small role. The vivid text and energetic setting extol the virtues of devotion in Islamic terms generally and Sufism in particular, as the dervishes whirl. The audience, which had warmly rewarded each foregoing piece, erupted in cheers at this one. Safe to say nothing like it had been heard in this venue before.

The first of the two isle folk songs was Canadian composer Stephen Hatfield’s arrangement of the Cuban folksong Son de Camaguey, full of Afro-Cuban rhythms and declamatory vocal writing and rosewood claves that celebrate the Camaguey province in all its natural color and ambience. Then American composer Randy Haldeman’s arrangement of Verduron, in the French dialect of the English Channel islands off the coast of Normandy and Brittany. This charming flirtation tells of a young maid who has fallen into a tight spot and needs help to be retrieved, offered by young men who want only a kiss for their trouble. Once more, Troia gave support from the keyboard, playing the dance tune Dans Loudieg, while the music gained boisterous energy and the chorus kept the tricky rhythms clear with clapping hands. No small counterpoint added to the enriching texture.

While the second part of the program contained a Magnificat by Francesco Durante, a contemporary of JS Bach, and a Christmas cantata by Michael Haydn, in which the chorus was accompanied by the Monterey String Quartet, the first half gave plentiful evidence that I Cantori now sounds ready to tackle and master any challenge thrown at them.

Hidden Valley Strings

By Scott MacClelland

IT HAS TO BE THAT SUPERMOON. Without cold or dark, it was night nevertheless on Saturday afternoon at Hidden Valley Theatre in Carmel Valley. Stewart Robertson introduced a program of nocturnal music and Roy Malan led his band of 15 crack string players—16 including Malan as concertmaster—into a mystical world of dreams and visions, culminating in the great Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured Night”) of 1899 by Arnold Schoenberg. That 30-minute work which began life as a sextet for violins, violas and cellos is better known in the version heard here, the second revision (1943) of the original. In the late romantic style, part Wagner and part Brahms, it is eminently coherent in both form, tonality (D Major and Minor) and narrative, making it both a “tone poem” in the manner of Liszt and a classical sonata.

Schoenberg’s mastery of tonal relationships gave him the sure hand he needed to ‘translate’ the German poet Richard Dehmel’s rhyming verse into a soaring, arching musical meditation. The text deals with a betrothed couple on an evening stroll during which the woman confesses that she is pregnant by another man and berates herself for her “sin.” In a clumsy translation from the German, the fiancé says to her, “May the child you conceived be no burden to your soul. Just see how brightly the universe is gleaming! There’s a glow around everything; you are floating with me on a cold ocean, but a special warmth flickers from you into me, from me into you. It will transfigure the strange man’s child. You will bear the child for me, as if it were mine.” You can hear all of it in the music, the distress, the tension, the magical transfiguration and resolution.

Malan’s orchestra is, if anything, better than ever. His wife Polly is a terrific principal violist. The principal second violin, Susan Freier, another strong presence. He has recruited Rebecca Jackson, the Santa Cruz violinist who founded her own Music in May chamber music festival and is active on the San Francisco musical scene. Jonah Kim, the new principal cellist of the Santa Cruz Symphony is also on board. I do injustice to the others by not naming them; suffice to say this is a first-rate ensemble.

To open the program Grant Jean Paul Bogart’s recent arrangement of Debussy’s Clair de lune cast a spell. Then came the first and third movements of Manuel Ponce’s Estampas nocturnas (Nocturnal prints) of 1923, respectively La noche, a darkly ominous mood, and Arrulladora, a lullaby. (Robertson had warned that some of this music might be sleep-inducing.) And just before intermission, the familiar Notturno from Alexander Borodin’s String Quartet in D.

Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik would have provided a more familiar touchstone but the large audience turnout suggested an appetite for something rarer.


2. Ground-based remote sensing

2.1. Background, motivation and state of the science

Ground-based lidars have been used since the early 1970s to quantitatively monitor the stratospheric aerosol layer. In some cases they have measured plumes from volcanic eruptions in remote locations on earth before the eruptions were identified. They provide a relatively inexpensive method to regularly measure the stratospheric layer from a given site with high altitude resolution (tens or hundreds of meters) and time resolution (tens of minutes). The fundamental quantity measured is backscattered light. Multiple laser wavelengths can be used to infer particle size and polarization effects can used to infer non-spherical particle shape.

2.2. Role within SSiRC

Long-term monitoring of the stratospheric layer by lidars has been very valuable in tracking the dispersion and decay of eruption plumes. The same is true for smoke injected into the stratosphere by large forest fires. Each event is a potential natural experiment to compare the measured aerosol with model calculations of transport and evolution of the aerosol. The long-term records have also been used to characterize transport effects such as the quasibiennial oscillation (QBO) and tropospheric-stratospheric exchange.

Besides long-term monitoring, ground-based lidar measurements can complement the SSiRC objectives by providing aerosol profiles before, during, and after campaigns. Balloon and aircraft measurements allow far more detailed measurements of aerosols than the lidar, but coverage in time provided by the lidar can often be very useful in interpreting the cloud and aerosol conditions present during the flights.

2.3. Activities

2.3.1. Long-term, regular monitoring and campaign support

There are many lidars in operation around the world with most in the northern hemisphere. Many participate in networks, some of which are listed below:

Of these, the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC), formerly the Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change, has historically made the most contribution to stratospheric aerosol research. The lidar programs (aerosol, ozone, and temperature) have participated in calibration and validation activities specifically to promote reliable and accurate measurements. The data is readily available in Ames format files from primary and complementary sites around the world. The instruments tend to be funded for regular monitoring, but might need additional funds to support an intensive campaign.

The other networks tend to be aimed more towards tropospheric aerosols, but many would easily retrieve eruption plumes in the stratosphere. The funding and schedule of observations vary widely for the various lidar groups.

2.3.2.Comparison of lidar aerosol profiles

The NASA CALIOP space-based lidar is currently being used to compare NDACC lidars at locations around the world. This will lead to more consistant datasets that can be used to quantitatively compare aerosol loading in the stratosphere.

2.4. Gaps in current research plan


Interview by Veronica Roberts
. . .
Ã¾ilvinas kempinas, tube, 2008, videotape, plywood

In May, New York-based Lithuanian artist Ã½ilvinas Kempinas held an open house at the Atelier Calder, an event that concluded his six-month residency in the studio that Alexander Calder built for himself on a hilltop in SachÃ©, a small village in the French countryside with a view of BalzacÃ¢s house. I attended the event directly after seeing Richard SerraÃ¢s Promenade (2008) at the Grand Palais in Paris. Despite seeing the shows in direct succession, I didnÃ¢t initially connect the work of these artists: Serra is one of sculptureÃ¢s leading elder statesmen, while Kempinas is only in his late thirties. Furthermore, the disparity in their working materials could not be more pronounced: to move Cor-ten steel, SerraÃ¢s signature material, requires the herculean efforts of steel mills, transatlantic transport by ship, and the careful choreography of skilled riggers. By contrast, a single strand of loose, unspooled videotape, KempinasÃ¢ signature material, doesnÃ¢t even register on a bathroom scale. After experiencing Promenade and KempinasÃ¢ work in SachÃ©, however, I was struck by their shared dedication to creating sculptural experiences rather than objects. While sculpture is traditionally thought of as a noun, Kempinas and Serra both treat it as a verb. Like Serra, Kempinas has foregone the sculptural tradition of producing contained, isolated objects on pedestals in favor of creating active spaces in which the visitorÃ¢s experience of walking and looking is as crucial as the object itself.

The centerpiece of KempinasÃ¢ open house at the Atelier Calder was a large work called Tube (2008). As I walked through the front door of the studio and approached the piece from its side, my field of vision was filled with fluttering, horizontal, black-and-white stripes. The encounter completely disoriented me. Even knowing that Kempinas works with videotape, it took me a moment to register the shiny, black bands for what they were. It was also difficult to gauge how far the bands were from where I was standing. My ability to perceive depth and distance was temporarily suspended, producing a spatial discombobulation that felt like some sort of earthly counterpart to the zero-gravity phenomenon experienced by astronauts.

One of the most compelling aspects of walking through Tube came from the way that light activated the material and the space. Indelibly associated with film as an essential ingredient to the formation of the photographic image, light operates in KempinasÃ¢ work in more unexpected ways. As I entered the tunnel of tape, the work resembled a giant sunburst; in sections of the sculpture, the light reflected so brightly that the tape disappeared. From other vantage points, light appeared to bounce off of the strands of videotape as it would off of water, transforming the strips into shimmering artificial waves.

Veronica Roberts: How did you arrive at the decision to make sculpture out of videotape?

Ã½ILVINAS KEMPINAS: The first piece that I did with tape actually used microfilm, not videotape. There was a scientific/technical library in Vilnius, and they were getting rid of microfilmÃ¢just throwing it out. I liked how the material was translucent, and I was attracted to its snake-like shape. I was also drawn to the fact that microfilm is an obsolete material. The information contained in the microfilm was presumably very important at one point, but it had become just a strange leftover artifact, a kind of industrial fossil. So I used it as a sculptural material in a couple of works in 1992. Later, I used a large quantity of 35-millimeter film rolls that were thrown away after a movie production to make my first full-room installation, Painting from Nature (1994), at the Contemporary Art Center in Vilnius. I arranged large rolls of film on the floor in a grid and carefully pulled the central part of each roll out and up. This simple gesture transformed the rolls into something unusual: they looked like a forest of gigantic worms, translucent and shimmering, with perfectly smooth shapes. You could actually see images on each frame if you studied them up close. But if you stepped back, this micro-world of images turned into abstract forms, perfect spirals. They looked alive and dead at the same time, like coral. Movies are time-based mediaÃ¢they rely on a certain length of time to be perceived, but here, the film was deprived of this essential element. Time was frozen into these celluloid stalagmites.

Ã¾ilvinas kempinas, painting from nature, 1994, mixed media

Roberts: And after working with microfilm and 35-millimeter film, what made you shift to your current practice of using videotape?

KEMPINAS: One day, I pulled tape out of a VHS cassette because I suspected that it might be a very interesting material to work with: itÃ¢s super thin, super light, and totally black, so you can perceive it as an abstract line. Since you can create many different drawings with a single line, I figured that I could use this material to make different three-dimensional installations. At the same time, tape is a data carrier. Hypothetically you can have all the colors and sounds of the world in it. So, it has this capacity, this potential, just like 35-millimeter film rolls, but itÃ¢s more abstract and simpler. And then, of course, videotape is so flexible and so light that it can be set in motion using air circulation, which becomes an invisible carrier for the sculpture.

Ã¾ilvinas kempinas, columns, 2006, videotape, plywood, nails

Roberts: When did that inspiration strike? When did you first use fans to lift videotape into the air?

KEMPINAS: I experimented with videotape as an art student at Hunter College. After I realized its flexibility, I made four arches out of tape, one for each wall of the room, with four fans in the center. The arches werenÃ¢t attached to the floor or the ceilingÃ¢there were just a couple of small tacks on the end of each arch for weight. The wind lifted the arches up and down along the wall. Sometimes just one side would rise, and other times, the whole arch would fly up in the air. They became live sculptures: light sparkled on the tape, there was the sound of the fans, and the arches went up and down. On the one hand, they were free objectsÃ¢free from the wall and the floor, but on the other hand, they were caught by the wind of fans and looked like they were struggling to fly. I realized that after all these years of intense studies, nothing made me happier than having this silly strip of tape going up and down the wall. Then, I wanted to make the tape fly.

Ã¾ilvinas kempinas, flying tape, 2004, videotape, fans

Roberts: And thatÃ¢s what led to Flying Tape (2004)?

KEMPINAS: Exactly. Flying Tape is one gigantic loop the size of the room, capable of levitating in midair, held up by the wind of several industrial fans. ItÃ¢s a self-balancing sculpture that constantly changes its shape but without ever losing its circular structure. ItÃ¢s a sculpture without a pedestal, and itÃ¢s not hanging from the ceiling or standing on the floor. ItÃ¢s carried by an invisible elementÃ¢currents of air.

Roberts: How do Flying Tape and your other kinetic sculptures reflect your ideas about the relationship between sculpture and space?

KEMPINAS: I didnÃ¢t want to build anything meaningful when I created Flying Tape. I didnÃ¢t have any story to tell, and I didnÃ¢t want to critique or comment on anything. I just wanted to activate space in a room. Somehow. Anyhow. And preferably without spending much money! I used gravity as a force, but instead of playing along with it, I was intrigued by the idea of fighting it, using these banal materials of unspooled VHS tape and industrial fans.

Ã¾ilvinas kempinas, double o, 2008, videotape, fans

Roberts: IÃ¢d like to discuss the role that shadows play in your work. When I looked at Link at SFMoMA, I noticed that people were drawn to the crisscrossed pattern of shadows that the strands of videotape cast on the wall. It struck me that people might also be looking to try to make better sense of what the work is made out of and make sense of the space that the work occupies.

KEMPINAS: Yes, shadows help us to perceive three-dimensional form. But I see my work as being about light more than it is about shadows. For example, there is one piece called 186,000 miles/second (2004). I wanted to make a piece that would be entirely about light. I wanted to use the casual gallery light like it was a sculptural material, like clay or wood. The work that I made looks like a net of thin pencil lines drawn onto the wall. The lines are actually shadows cast by small needles mounted onto the wall and painted white like the wall. I mounted needles into the wall, starting at seven feet above the floor, and I extended their shadows all the way to the floor. There were two existing conventional gallery lamps by the ceiling, nothing unusual. Their light created a diamond-shaped pattern of shadows along the wall, which was sharper at the top (where it was closer to the light source) than it was at the bottom. Since the painted needles were barely visible, this net of shadows became the predominant visual element. The light cast onto the wall was no longer just a simple, passive lightÃ¢it became a form. 186,000 miles/second was visible during the day, when the museum was open to the public and the lights were on. But at night, this piece did not exist at all. At the end of every day, it would disappear with a click of an electric switch, at the speed of light, literally. I donÃ¢t often use shadows because I want to avoid the theatricality often associated with them. But sometimes they are just unavoidable, and itÃ¢s better that I make them contribute to the piece. Social Outbreak . Link is a good example of this kind of collaboration: the lines of the shadows on the wall cast by the videotape visually overlap with the black lines of the tape coming off of the wall. This overlap creates a subtle optical effect as you approach the workÃ¢the surface of the work starts to look like ripples. The viewerÃ¢s physical movements optically animate the piece. But, for Still, I used fluorescent tubes, which donÃ¢t cast shadows in the same way that regular electric bulbs do, so their light is very even, and there are barely any shadows on the walls. It looks like the piece is floating.

Ã¾ilvinas kempinas, still, 2003, videotape

Roberts: Both Link and Still feature long, curved strands of videotape that drape from the walls, and yet, as you point out, they have very different visual effects. Part of that comes from the fact that light affects them differently, as you explained, but it also seems like your spacing of tape has a big impact. Can you explain how you determine how much space you want between the pieces of tape and also what the relationship is between the parts and the whole in works like these?

KEMPINAS: The proportions of Link are 1 to 1.5; if the tape is 1, the gap between the tapes is 1.5. If you change these proportions, you will lose the visual effect. Link is very optical and more visually aggressive than Still because the tape has a tighter arrangement. And Still has very different features. However, there are a few things that they share that interest me, such as the way in which the strands of tape donÃ¢t read as separate elements. In both Still and Link, they become a single shape, a unified form. And itÃ¢s because of this that the work actually has a monumental presence, despite the ephemeral quality of the material of which it is made.

Ã¾ilvinas kempinas, tripods, 2008, aluminum

Roberts: What led you to make your first outdoor sculpture, Tripods (2008), during your residency at Atelier Calder in SachÃ©? Do you see it as more of a departure from the other works you made there, or as a continuation of your ideas and interests?

KEMPINAS: Tripods seems far away from the tape works, but itÃ¢s not as far as it looks. ItÃ¢s about light, or to be more precise, about catching sunlight. I live in New York where I canÃ¢t do outdoor sculpture easily. But in SachÃ©, I had such a great space. I was also inspired by the fact that Calder made outdoor sculptures when he was working there. So, I decided to make an outdoor piece. I wanted to do something relatively light but strong enough to withstand tests of nature. With Tripods, I used aluminum rods, which I bent and curved a little, so they looked more organic. I put all of the rods in clusters of three, joining each trio at the top so that they became tripods, standing on three Ã¢feet.Ã¢ I made a hundred of these tripods and had them intersect along the bottom. Like my work with videotape, Tripods is fragile and durable at the same time: the rods are only fifteen millimeters in diameter, but the way that they were joined allowed them to stand strong. Several impressive storms passed by, and nothing happened! Tripods, to me, is like a happy marriage of the artificial and the natural. ItÃ¢s artificial because itÃ¢s aluminum, an unusual thing to see in a field in the countryside, but it has natural curves, which reflect sunlight and catch oneÃ¢s attention from a distance, like a lighthouse. There is something slightly alien-futuristic about them, but at the same time archaic and primitive, almost tribal.

Roberts: Yes, and I think that where you placed the work on the property in SachÃ©, nestled in a grove of trees, heightened the juxtaposition of natural and artificial elements.

KEMPINAS: At the beginning, I thought that I might assemble them in front of the building on the large stone platform where Calder often placed his works. But when I brought a few elements outdoors to see how tall they were and how they worked with sunlight, I placed them on the other side of the building and decided to just leave them there.

Roberts: IÃ¢m curious about when you first learned about CalderÃ¢s work and what about his work you find most compelling.

KEMPINAS: Calder was always so big that even the Soviets didnÃ¢t know what to do with him. DalÃ and Warhol were crucified, and Duchamp was totally ignored, but Calder was present. So I knew about him early on, through books. Initially, I wouldnÃ¢t say that he was an inspiration to me because at that time, I was suspicious about everything that Soviets didnÃ¢t condemn. And later in school, I was drawn to the bad boys. But recently, because of the Calder Prize, naturally, I have been studying his work more closely than ever, reading books and seeing his works every chance I get. I was surprised by many things about him, and his works resonate with my own sense of art and art-making. I can now see that I share some similarities with Calder in my approach, even though I arrived at my work from a different direction.

Roberts: Martin Puryear recently made the following observation: Ã¢The most interesting art for me retains a flickering quality, where opposed ideas can be held in tense coexistence.Ã¢ This statement resonated for me, as contradictions are such an intrinsic part of our daily lives, and they also seem to animate your work. Is that a fair assessment, do you think?

KEMPINAS: I could not agree more. I see art as an accumulation of energy, and this energy is often generated by the intensity of opposites. In fact, opposites are at the very core of art-making. Traditional painting combines hot and cool colors, music uses high and low notes, architecture uses volumes and voids, poetry combines contrasting words, and so on. I am attracted to things that are capable of transcending their own banality and materiality to become something else, something more. I like the way that videotape is simultaneously delicate and durable, since itÃ¢s meant to last. I can rip it easily with my hands because itÃ¢s so thin, but I can also stretch it. Videotape is made to present the world in color, but it appears purely black. ItÃ¢s supposed to be this safe container of the past, but it is destined to vanish like a dinosaur, to become obsolete, pushed away by new technologies. ItÃ¢s a familiar mass-produced commodity, but it can be surprisingly sensual and can look almost alive if set in motion. It can be seen as a solid, thick, black line, but it can also disappear right in front of your eyes if itÃ¢s turned on its side. So, to me, itÃ¢s not just VHS tape but a rich sculptural material. Loose Diamonds . It allows me to achieve subtle perceptual effects, which I simply would not be able to achieve with steel, stone, or any other material. I also like the play of the artificial and the natural. Denver Used Cars . Even though my work is made of industrial materials, displayed under artificial light, and sometimes uses artificial wind and electricity, I am going for something fundamentally natural. Looking at one of my works can, I hope, be like watching a flame or a running river. I want people to forget for a second what they are looking at and inhabit a parallel world, where abstract things make perfect sense as long as you are willing to take the time to look.

* This article was re-published in Tube (2009), the catalogue for Kempinas’ exhibition at the Lithuania Pavilion of the 53rd Venice Biennale.

. . .


Jam tracks tips

Use these tips to navigate our bonus backing tracks.

Guitar Techniques - - Intro -

1. Bluesy shuffle in A

This is a repeating 12 bar quick change blues in A with a soft shuffle feel. Try A minor pentatonic (A C D E G) throughout, using some slight bends on the C to hint at a C# over the A chord (C# is A major’s major 3rd interval).

2. Latin groove in D minor

3. Rock and Roll in E

4. Moody A minor blues

This features two chord progressions; Dm7-Em7b5-A7 and Bbmaj7-Am7 with Bbmaj7-Bb/C to end. Use D minor pentatonic (D F G A C) for the first and Bb major pentatonic (Bb C D F G) over the second. This has a repeating 20 bar progression; E (8 bars), A (4 bars), E (4 bars) then 4bars containing G-A-C-B7. E minor pentatonic (E G A B D) will get you through it all but consider going to A major pentatonic (A B C# E F#) for the A chord that lasts for four bars. To raise your game, aim to include G# notes over the E chord (major third of chord) and some chord tones to acknowledge the climatic B7 chord (B, D#, F#, A). With only three chords featured (Am, Dm and Em) your task is to soak up the moody vibe and play melodic phrases using A blues scale (A C D Eb E G). For added sophistication, add a B note (stable pretty much over every chord) and an F note on the IV chord of D minor.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Australia

© PressReader. All rights reserved.


Z Towers: An Apocalyptic Plague, Made in the USA

In an attempt to survive, he and a few colleagues clumsily navigate their way through a maze of deadly encounters with infected, flesh hungry co-workers. As they try to escape the clutches of death, they unwittingly discover that the infecting agent was intentionally unleashed to cover up a controversial weapons program which was secretly being developed inside the building’s laboratory.

Join Tyson and his friends on their terrifying and emotional quest for justice and freedom as they make their way through Z Towers!


hey there today i talked about the Causes of Major wars and World Wars? for example ancient battles, WW1 and WW2 what lesson to be learnt will they be a world war three?

the images of the world wars and ancient battles are from google images commons.

the music for the intro is by the permission i can use of :Derek Fiechter
Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vslsS-Uu5x4

perhaps leave a comment, subscribe and like !
i hope you all have enjoyed stay groovy.
follow me : https://twitter.com/GroovyHistorian


WEATHER: Today’s forecast for the East Midlands

Weather forecast.
Weather forecast.

Here is the weather forecast for Saturday, June 10.

It will be cloudy and breezy, with outbreaks of rain likely though the morning, perhaps heavy before gradually easing through the afternoon.

However, southeastern parts could stay dry and bright throughout.

The maximum temperature will be 24 °C.


ACTA Launches a Series of Online Dialogues about Cultural Equity

ACTA - Posted on 14 May 2010

Share this

Hirokazu Kosaka and Anna Beatrice Scott at ACTA's cultural equity forumWhat does cultural equity mean from your point of view?  What actions need to be taken to change systems resulting in cultural equity in its broadest sense?

On February 11, 2010, the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) hosted a community forum, Building Cultural Equity through the Traditional Arts, facilitated by Jerry Yoshitomi of Meaning Matters LLC, in Los Angeles, raising these questions to a group of traditional artists, arts funders, community leaders, and cultural equity advocates.  The result was a rich, broad-ranging discussion about cultural equity from diverse perspectives.  Personal stories and challenges were shared, along with questions, and ultimately, a call to action.

Building on this effort, ACTA is now working to expand and deepen this conversation.  Over the next four months, we present four different topics related to cultural equity – Leadership, Media, Artistic Marginalization, and Sustainability one each month.  We will post comments and discussion from the community forum in Los Angeles.  We then invite you to think about this topic and post your own comments and stories.  Our hope is to develop an online community dialogue across California, and beyond – expanding and building on this topic.

The topic for May is Leadership.  Please click the Read More link below to follow the discussion as it began in February and post your comments on this topic.

Jerry Yoshitomi, Meaning Matters LLC
How can communities better prepare cultural leaders? What training opportunities exist or can be developed informally or formally? Through the work of cultural transmission? Or through training in institutions for administrators, technicians, producers, writers, funders, etc.? Is the development of networks an important strategy? If so, what kinds of networks would support leadership development in folk & traditional arts?

Leslie Ito, Program Officer, Arts, California Community Foundation
In thinking about leadership in this particular part of the ecosystem, I really want to think about re-centering our thinking and really looking towards folk and traditional arts to help guide our larger arts and cultural field to think about both leadership development and leadership succession. I really want to explore how the larger field can learn from traditional and folk culture and apply this to an organizational structure. So for instance, how are leaders groomed within the folk and traditional sense? And even more important to me is, what is the role of our elders in this process? Because I think that for leadership, in the larger arts and cultural context, we're really sort of stuck on this point. We're developing new leaders. Where are the current leaders? What are the roles and responsibilities for those current leaders?

So I think that in looking at folk and traditional, there's a path and a way of thinking from which we can really learn. And I think this is a way for the folk and traditional to really position itself as a leader, as the center. Not as the peripheral, but really taking the lead in terms of, we have ideas and ways of working that have been working for hundreds and hundreds of years. And everybody else can learn from this. And I think it could have a major impact on not just the arts and culture but the larger non-profit field and how leadership is developed and what those roles are.

My other thought around leadership is that as folk and traditional and marginalized cultures, we need to have a seat at the table, whatever that table is. To have a voice and be able to put our experiences out there. But once we have this seat at the table, we also need to be able to train our folks at the table how to find their voice. I don't know how many times I've been at the table where I'm wearing multiple marginal hats. I'm the only West Coast representative. I'm the only under-forty representative. I'm the only media arts, or Asian American. And that's a lot of pressure to wear. And so, how do you break beyond that and find your voice? And I've learned how to advocate in an effective and efficient way.

Danielle Brazell, Executive Director, Arts for LA

I'd like to speak to what Leslie has said. I love this idea of using existing ways and traditions that have been passed on for generations upon generations, and to infuse that within the succession planning for new leaders. It's really such an exciting concept. I'm such a structural person—I think it's the Virgo in me. But I immediately think, well how does that work when more non-profits within our non-profit structures are moving to that very hierarchical kind of business model? And how do we maintain that adaptability within that framework?

The other piece that resonates with me in doing advocacy work is finding one’s voice at the table. How do we nurture the diverse voices of our field to really effectively advocate and claim their space at the table? Those are two pieces that really resonate for me.

Hirokazu Kosaka, Artistic Director, Japanese American Cultural & Community Center

I think I need to question that question first. The word leader from the Japanese idea of leader is a form of vertical space, if you will. It is an accumulation of accomplishments. And the question before, the word interdependent, it originates from this kind of an interdependency. That leader, perhaps, is a follower. Both words are conjoined, rather than separate. In the Japanese language and traditions of language, there is not conjunction between two words. For example, space and time, you and I, leader and followers—there is no a-n-d between two words in the Japanese language. They all are conjoined. So it's interdependent.

And I think to me, again, that question is a vertical question. It's this accumulation of accomplishments that builds in vertical space. In traditional Japanese language, it's more a horizontal space. One example is looking at the Japanese garden that we have at our JACC. There is no such thing as water fountain, because water flows vertically. And everything flows. Again, it's a Buddhist term—the impermanence of all things. So I think my question is to question that question. That is my answer.

Cindi Alvitre, (Tongva), PhD Candidate, UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures

I understand what you're saying. And I'm going from this space that you put me in, which is vertical space. I would also call that dimensional space. And in particular with leadership, especially when we're dealing with culture, with cultural people, you have to have a leader who has—to borrow from Ozanne Hinari, a Maori scholar—wakadowooa. Wakadowooa. In many indigenous cultures and within the Maori, we have two dreamtimes. The one dreamtime for cultural people who are inserted into the reality of who we are is the constant conversations we have with our ancestors. Whether it's your grandmother, whoever. Mother Earth, the spirits, whatever.

The other one in our bi-cultural competency is switching into this mode of the way we are now. It's like multi-lingualism that you're switching, constantly switching the way you articulate. And leadership requires people who are versed in that, who can define where they're inserted within their culture and be able to switch out. And it is an interconnectedness, it is a relative. But the term wakadowooa has a significant meaning in this.

Gema Sandoval, Founder and Artistic Director, Danza Floricanto/USA
The concept of leadership and the concept of bi-culturalism is something that I finally understood within the last ten years or so. Only then do I think I became a better leader for my community. That is because within my community, the concept of a woman leader has many forms.  And it is not until you reach a certain point in your life, where it is not important whether you are a leader or not but that you follow your heart in what you're doing, that I think you become a real leader. And that takes years.

So, I would say that in terms of creating leadership, it really has to go hand-in-hand with the multi communities that we have, and not violate that. In terms of being a leader outside of the community, that becomes secondary and almost as if the old are not important. Because if you are a real leader in your community, that other part will happen, possibly not for you, but for the next generation. The impact that my work had on my community after I left, I suppose, was a leadership role.

Karina Muñiz, Community Outreach Coordinator, Los Angeles Conservancy
I want to respond to what both of you were saying about the concept of understanding leadership in vertical terms, and then bringing more people to the table. I see a true leader as someone who serves. And so, the leader serves. The whole idea is serving, so that as we have more stakeholders at the table, we’re not marginalized voices out there. To me, as I'm sure most of us have heard before, true leadership is serving. So if we're in certain places because we've had access to certain privileges or power, how then do we use that to bring in more people and continue to use that voice?

ACTA's Comment Disclaimer

Our cultures and traditions have survived thousands of years under sometimes dire and difficult circumstances.  And communities have stepped forward to ensure that survival and to imbed our cultures and traditions very strongly within our daily lives.

For me, one of the several important take home messages is that regarding leadership, other arts and cultural organizations have much to learn from the Folk and Traditional Arts.  We may not be the biggest or best known to the general public, but we will continue to be strong and provide important cultural continuation resources to our communities and people.

Leaders come in many forms and sizes and situations. It's been attested that if materials to build a house/s or a bridge or something is put in front of a group of people that have been given no instruction, that a leader will emerge. No one voted for this person, no was born to this position, they just know what to do. The leader goes into action you might say, he/she picks up the hammer (or cause) and nails and puts on the carpenters belt. He/she grades wood and starts to frame the house, others see whats happening and decide to pitch in. It doesn't matter what the project is, be it a bridge to get to the other side or building a village or a rocket to the stars.

There are natural leaders you might say, everyone likes them, they have a great smile, they make you feel comfortable and maybe charismatic. so they make you feel good. There are leaders that are born to a position of authority, we might call these people of royalty or people that have been privileged with the silver spoon. We have leaders that have been appointed or voted upon to accomplish certain task as a representative. We also have the reluctant leaders, the ones that want "nothing to do with it" (what ever that might be), yet they know the task that must be done.

Spiritual leaders, a calling from the creator?  A special person indeed. Is that person a Christ, a Buddha, a Ghundi, or are they your next door neighbor or perhaps your grandmother/grandfather.

Be that as it may, a gifted leader has certain qualities, the most important is inspiration, the most addicting drug on the planet. Be it good bad or ugly, people will follow. It doesn't matter if the leader is of a gang, a chief of village or president of a country. "INSPIRATION", skillfully handled, to have vision to see into the future by understanding the past, who has experience, wisdom, sympathy and that uncanny ability to truly listen to the people, the creator.

Elders in the village would often times see talents of the young ones and help guide the future of the youth and allow those natural abilities to emerge. Now we live in age of being led by Ad agencies and propaganda that fill the air, that see people as sheep or cattle that need to led into their corrals. Schools, churches that have you seat while they explain the universals to you from a pulpit,  never seeing inside the needs of the people.

Leaders are inspired and the ability to inspire others, the best ones are following a truth that comes from and thru the heart! "The quiet understandings that it is the right thing to do or that lightning bolt that hits every nerve in your body to do what needs to be done."

As stated above who will pick up the hammer and nail first and who will follow? There's your leaders and your followers.

I think we need to build our own tables and chairs, stop looking for other to give to us.  We need to empower ourselves and stop giving the power to others to control us. Become your own leader, follow your heart!

They say, Elites rule by agreeing on more things than they disagree on. Building a consensus you might say for accomplishing any need or task.

Hopefully with wisdom, vision and understanding anything can be done. Lots of prayers doesn't hurt, many blessings to all.

Post new comment

By submitting this form, you accept the Mollom privacy policy.


Belinda Sykes & JOGLARESA

The Scimitar and the Sword

Muslim, Jewish and Christian music from all sides of the Crusade Wars

"a felicitous exchange of ideas between Christian Europe and the Muslim Middle East" The Guardian

"providing untypical perspectives on early Arabic culture and the influence of Western Christian Invaders.... disturbingly contemporary-sounding concerns for life, liberty and justice" The Independent

A Radical reworking of the Crusades theme - Joglaresa perform songs and poetry directly related to the Crusade Wars by medieval Arabs, Jews and Christians. Laments to touch the soul and pierce the heart, subtly interweaved with lighter anecdotes by the sharp-witted Arab chroniclers. This is the first time any early music group has researched such a programme, and represents the first modern performance of these songs!

Luto carens

Richard the Lionheart's 'Ja nun hons pris'
Ire si vis

BBC Television's Crusades Documentary:


A five paragraph essay

grade 1 anterolisthesis cause
writing a thesis for an informative essay
holt algebra 1 homework help

A classic format for compositions is the five-paragraph essay. It is not the only format for writing an essay, of course, but it is a useful model for you to keep in mind, especially as you begin to fie your composition skills. The following material is adapted from a handout prepared by Harry Livermore for easay high school English classes at Cook High School in Adel, Georgia. It is used here with his permission.Introduction: Introductory ParagraphSee, first, Writing Introductory Paragraphs for different ways of getting your reader involved in your essay.The introductory paragraph should also include the thesis statement, a kind of mini-outline for the paper: it tells the reader what the essay is about.

Here is a simple outline of how to write an effective essay to impress your teachers. Set the tone and hook your audience in. The opening line of your introduction must immediately engage your audience. This opening line could be a generalization about life that pertains to your topic, a quotation, or a little anecdote. This allows the student to answer the exam prompt quickly and efficiently. The best aspect of a five paragraph essay 5 paragraph essay is its plasticity in terms of different essay styles.

Itcould have been given for an important occasion or justfor no reason at all. Tell us about the present and whyit was memThis article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2014) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)The five-paragraph essay is a format of essay having five paragraphs: one introductory paragraph, a five paragraph essay body paragraphs with support and development, and one concluding paragraph.

Because of this structure, it is also known as a hamburger algebra 1 practice test with answers pdf, one three one, or a three-tier essay. Tell us about the present and whyit was memA classic format for esay is the five-paragraph essay. Any parwgraph you have to write a timed essay, you should begin with a frame based on the parts below.Of course, essays play a big role a five paragraph essay the college application process, as well. Luckily, you can learn to craft a great UpdatedNovember 21, 201.DefinitionA five-paragraph essay is a prose composition that follows a prescribed format of an introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph.

A five paragraph essay with exploratory essay.The five-paragraph essay (or theme) is an artificial genre often practiced in schools and required on standardized tive. See Methods and Observations below. To write a five-paragraph essay, begin a five paragraph essay an introductory paragraph, elaborate with three body paragraphs and conclude with a closing paragraph.

writing paper with handwriting lines
Copyright 2010 - 2017 | kurskie-roditeli.ru


Walter Cronkite on the War

Walter Cronkite has commented on the Iraq war in a recent interview:
Cronkite, 90, was in San Jose, Calif., on Friday addressing the Commonwealth Club. In an exclusive interview with CBS station KPIX-TV of San Francisco, he weighed in on the situation in Iraq.

“We should have gotten out a long time ago. This is a mistake, this entire war there, it’s a disaster. And the earlier we get out the better,” Cronkite said. “It’s a terrible disaster. Look at the loss of lives of our young Americans there and those who have been maimed for life, for what purpose? No purpose we can define.”

What’s more, he says, America will pay a future price for going into Iraq.

KPIX-TV asked Cronkite if Americans were any safer because of the Iraq war.

“No, I don’t think so. I think were probably less safe,” he said. “The entire Arab world has now put us down as an enemy. It’s going to be a long time for us to take back any suggestion of friendship with those nations.”

KPIX-TV then asked if his strong words against the Iraq war would have the same impact as his words against the Vietnam War.

“Well, I think it’s a little late for that now,” Cronkite said. “I would like to think it would be helpful in getting us out of there. Anybody who can put another match to that fire, to get us out would be, I think, welcome”

Posted in Iraq, News Media. Tags: . No Comments »

Conservatives Dominated by Flat Earth Mentality

A couple of weeks ago I had a post on how the right wing “determines” the truth based upon political ideology as opposed to an objective search for knowledge. At the time there was a news account reporting a claim that “that cosmic rays from outer space play a far greater role in changing the Earth’s climate than global warming experts previously thought.” Conservatives jumped on this as a way to “refute” established scientific views on global warming. Now there’s an article from National Geographic reporting one Russian scientist’s view that global warming is caused by the sun as opposed to human activity.

Not surprisingly, within a short time after being posted at Memeorandum there are already two conservative blogs (here and here) quoting this article as evidence against the established scientific viewpoint. National Geographic notes that this belief is not accepted by other scientists and provides a long discussion of the flaws in this idea:

“His views are completely at odds with the mainstream scientific opinion,” said Colin Wilson, a planetary physicist at England’s Oxford University. “And they contradict the extensive evidence presented in the most recent IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report.” (Related: “Global Warming ‘Very Likely’ Caused by Humans, World Climate Experts Say” [February 2, 2007].)

Amato Evan, a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, added that “the idea just isn’t supported by the theory or by the observations.”

Planets’ Wobbles

The conventional theory is that climate changes on Mars can be explained primarily by small alterations in the planet’s orbit and tilt, not by changes in the sun.

“Wobbles in the orbit of Mars are the main cause of its climate change in the current era,” Oxford’s Wilson explained. (Related: “Don’t Blame Sun for Global Warming, Study Says” [September 13, 2006].)

All planets experience a few wobbles as they make their journey around the sun. Earth’s wobbles are known as Milankovitch cycles and occur on time scales of between 20,000 and 100,000 years.

These fluctuations change the tilt of Earth’s axis and its distance from the sun and are thought to be responsible for the waxing and waning of ice ages on Earth.

Mars and Earth wobble in different ways, and most scientists think it is pure coincidence that both planets are between ice ages right now.

“Mars has no moon, which makes its wobbles much larger, and hence the swings in climate are greater too,” Wilson said.

No Greenhouse

Perhaps the biggest stumbling block in Abdussamatov’s theory is his dismissal of the greenhouse effect, in which atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide help keep heat trapped near the planet’s surface.

He claims that carbon dioxide has only a small influence on Earth’s climate and virtually no influence on Mars.

But “without the greenhouse effect there would be very little, if any, life on Earth, since our planet would pretty much be a big ball of ice,” said Evan, of the University of Wisconsin.

Most scientists now fear that the massive amount of carbon dioxide humans are pumping into the air will lead to a catastrophic rise in Earth’s temperatures, dramatically raising sea levels as glaciers melt and leading to extreme weather worldwide.

The anti-scientific conservatives come to a conclusion first, and then seek out whatever evidence they can to try to prove it. Real science works the other way. You review the facts first and then reach a conclusion. Science is also determined by works in peer-reviewed journals, including discussion by experts in a field as to the validity of a controversial idea. Grabbing a flawed and easily disputed idea from the internet is not the way to make a scientific point.

The influence of human activity on climate change is the consensus scientific viewpoint, This won’t change regardless of how much conservatives search out a rare theory to the contrary, how much they pretend that there is a controversy over this, or how much they smear Al Gore. There will always be people who claim that human activity isn’t responsible for climate change, that evolution isn’t the accepted explanation for the development of complex organisms, or even that the earth is flat. None of their claims changes reality. As long as ignoring reality and opposing science remains a hallmark of conservative ideology they have little chance of regaining power, especially as this same denial of reality was commonly seen in their political policies.

How Conservatives Oppose Wars and Avoid the Draft (On Tactical and Strategic Grounds)

Democrats who opposed Vietnam were draft dodgers, and those who oppose the Iraq War are unpatriotic and are rooting for the terrorists if you listen to the right wing noise machine. Just like Dick Cheney, who had “other priorities” at the time of the Vietnam War, Rudy Giuliani has his own euphemism. The Examiner reports:

“Any suggestion that he was dodging the draft is totally, factually inaccurate,” said a senior Giuliani campaign adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. “He opposed the war on tactical and strategic grounds.”

They speculate that this could be a political liability running against John McCain:

Still, Giuliani has always been politically sensitive to the issue. During his 1993 mayoral campaign, he commissioned a “vulnerability study” that listed “draft dodger” as one of the epithets that might be hurled against him.

In blunt language, the consultants who prepared the study articulated how adversaries might frame the issue.

“Giuliani received special treatment from a friendly federal judge to avoid military service during the Vietnam war, when thousands of less fortunate people were dying,” they wrote. “Then, as a member of the Justice Department, he hypocritically prosecuted draft dodgers.”

Apparently it’s ok for Republicans to oppose the war but not for Democrats. They compared the political implications for Giuliani to the attacks Kerry received by the Swift Boat Liars. To the conservative mind it is ok for Bush, Cheney, and Giuliani to avoid military service as they limit their attacks to John Kerry:

Swift Boats co-founder John O’Neill said the only reason Vietnam became a major issue in 2004 was that Kerry kept bringing it up.

“I do think Kerry was a special case,” O’Neill said. “Whatever Rudy Giuliani or the rest of these people did or didn’t do in terms of the Vietnam War, I don’t think that’s a legitimate issue in the presidential campaign of 2008.”

Kerry’s a special case all right. He’s a Democrat, which makes him a target for attacks, even if fictitious, despite the fact that he fought in Vietnam while the Republican heroes did not.

Virtual Attack on John Edwards

There is a certain irony is how I have one post today on the desire of voters to see less dirty fighting between the parties which is surrounded by posts related to dishonest attacks against both John Kerry and Al Gore. Conservatives have taken this to a new level–attacking the virtual campaign headquarters of the Edwards campaign in Second Life. From the Edwards blog:

Shakespeare’s Sister, who has some personal experience in the hatred of the right wing, writes:

I’m so utterly sick of there being not the teensiest wee shred of “live and let live” among the worst elements of the rightwing—they’ve got to silence and destroy everything and anyone who disagrees with them. They live to ruin and demolish and spoil—and if anyone different than them has the temerity to be having fun or feeling good for one bloody second, the sorry blighters can’t resist swooping in to piss all over the parade, then revel in their own success. Bullies—all of them.

Gore Responds To Mass Media’s Coverage of Climate Change

After Al Gore won the Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth right wing groups tried to blunt the inevitable increase in public discussion of climate change by floating bogus charges against Gore. As right wing ditto heads commented at various blogs and newspapers there were multiple comments from uninformed conservatives making claims such as that “no reputable scientist agrees with Gore.” These mistaken beliefs are sometimes the fault of the news media, which prefers to dwell on political attacks and present conservative beliefs as a legitimate side of the debate.

Rather than dwelling on the ridiculous attacks Gore returned to the central issue, including how the media portrays a false sense that there is a real debate over climate change:

Back in Tennessee on Tuesday, Gore told a crowd of about 50 people at the U.S. Media Ethics Summit II that the presentation’s single most provocative slide was one that contrasts results of two long-term studies. A 10-year University of California study found that essentially zero percent of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles disagreed that global warming exists, whereas, another study found that 53 percent of mainstream newspaper articles disagreed the global warming premise.

“I believe that is one of the principal reasons why political leaders around the world have not yet taken action,” Gore said. “There are many reasons, but one of the principal reasons in my view is more than half of the mainstream media have rejected the scientific consensus implicitly — and I say ‘rejected,’ perhaps it’s the wrong word. They have failed to report that it is the consensus and instead have chosen … balance as bias.

“I don’t think that any of the editors or reporters responsible for one of these stories saying, ‘It may be real, it may not be real,’ is unethical. But I think they made the wrong choice, and I think the consequences are severe.

Recent attacks on Gore falsely portrayed a right wing group with ties to the energy industry as a nonpartisan think tank. The attacks called Gore a hypocrite for his energy use by confusing reality with right wing stereotypes of environmentalists as advocating a drastic change in our life styles. Gore has been advocating far less Draconian restrictions and his personal conservation efforts, including the purchase of carbon offsets for the energy he uses, are consistent with his public statements. Gore can hardly be called a hypocrite when he carries out the same actions he actually advocates. In contrast, there is a certain hypocrisy to conservatives who both deny the dangers of global warming but also claim that Gore’s measures such as purchasing carbon offsets are insufficient. You can’t have it both ways in claiming both that there is no problem and in saying Gore is not doing enough personally.

Related Story: The Swift Boating of Al Gore

Is the Middle Really Just a Myth?

A column in the Washington Post reviews some polling data and concludes that the desire for middle of the road solutions is a myth. They make some valid points, but the issue is far more complex. They review the findings of the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) which surveyed more than 24,000 Americans who voted in 2006:

This is consistent with previous posts where I’ve looked at the differences between left and right and found that social issues on Iraq have replaced economic issues as the major divisions between the parties. This also places into doubt the value of efforts such as Unity08 to promote a more centrist ticket. Voters are unhappy with the current political atmosphere, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the solution is always somewhere in the middle of the views of the parties.

Polling has also showed that when asked about a generic moderate versus liberal or conservative, the gut reaction of many voters is to pick the moderate. George Bush ran in 2000 claiming to be a compassionate conservative, knowing that while he needed the conservative base he could not win a first term if the middle realized how conservative he was. If not for exploiting 9/11, he most likely would have been a one-term President, with many who voted for him in 2004 now regreting their decision. Republicans ran against Kerry by misrepresenting Congressional voting records to claim Kerry had the most liberal voting record in the Senate. This was done both to fire up the base against him, as well as as an attempt to attract moderate voters who would object to the “most liberal” member while failing to realize how far right the GOP has moved.

It makes sense that there is polarity over the issues they quote in the column. You can either agree or disagree that invading Iraq was a mistake, with the number believing it was a mistake growing to include both liberals and those mythical moderates. Despite attempts to blur the distinction by some politicians, ultimately you either believe that a woman has the right to control her own body or that abortion is murder and there is no real center ground on this. (more…)

Kerry Called Hero By Swiftie Backer

Since yesterday’s post, more information has come out on John Kerry’s questioning of Sam Fox, the nominee for Ambassador to Belgium who had also contributed money to the Swift Boat liars. Mary Ann Akers quotes Fox as calling Kerry a hero:

Fox replied that he was “very concerned” that politics have become too “mean and destructive,” especially with the participation of independent 527 groups. He subtly alluded to the Swift Boat campaign against Kerry and not-so-subtly tried to redirect Kerry’s line of questioning by saying (with a straight face) to Kerry, “Senator, you’re a hero,” adding that no 527 group “can take that away from you.”

In the comments to the previous post, MBK reports having watched the video of the hearings found that the mainstream media had ignored another important aspect of the story. She reports, “the first part of Sen. Kerry’s interrogation covered the nominee’s qualifications, or, more accurately, his utter LACK of qualifications, to be ambassador of Belgium. Kerry eviscerated this guy slowly, calmly, devastatingly. Kerry’s knowledge of Belgium exceeded Fox’s by about 10,000 times.”

John Kerry’s blog lists several blog posts on this story.


An avocado and banana a day keep heart disease away!

A bunch of bananas

Researchers have discovered a new way of keeping heart disease at bay.

Regularly eating bananas and avocados can do wonders for your heart and arteries, scientists say. This is major risk factor for. They said the hardening of the arteries is significantly correlated to a diet based on potassium.

As humans get older, arteries stiffen and can cause heart problems. In atherosclerosis, deposits of fat, and other substances accumulate in the arteries, forming what is referred to as "plaque".

The new research from Prof.

"Reduced dietary potassium intake has been linked to the pathogenesis of a variety of human diseases, including atherosclerosis, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease", the study said.

The vital mineral - which spuds, broccoli and sprouts are also rich in - was found to aid blood flow to the heart and brain and reduce the risk of clots, reports The Sun.

The UAB researchers also found that increased dietary potassium levels lessened vascular calcification and aortic stiffness.

They conducted a study on mice, who were at-risk of heart disease were fed a high-fat diet. The first group received a high-potassium diet, the second one a menu with a medium quantity of potassium, and the third one had to consume low-potassium foods. In contrast, the mice fed a high-potassium diet had markedly inhibited vascular calcification. Thus, autophagy plays an important role in mediating calcification of vascular smooth muscle cells induced by the low-potassium condition.

The researchers believe potassium regulates genes that maintain artery flexibility. Increasing potassium levels, however, could reduce these effects. According to Paul Sander, the co-author of this study, their "findings have important translational potential".

The researchers performed the tests on mice to find which levels of potassium such as high, normal and low were good for them.

Other news


begins somewhere along a winding dirt road in rural western Kenya. Afternoon equatorial heat and a heavy backpack full of gear… muddy boots and a new feeling…

I’d traveled to Kenya to create a video for a small non-profit building schools in the region. What I found were kids carrying bricks up a hillside one by one to help build their new classroom. I found Americans who had made it their life’s work to make sure the project was nurtured. I found a world of unimaginable challenges and a community of people crazy and passionate enough to tackle them… with all their hearts.

Walking on that Kenyan road I was filled with the feeling that I wanted to be one of those people… that there was work to be done telling these stories. Not just documenting atrocities and celebrating victories, but using the potential of our eyes and ears to engage us in the creative do-gooding that exists in nooks and crannies all over the world.

So I came back and started Good Eye Video, a company solely devoted to the incredible challenge of using video to tell the story of non-profits, educators and communities. Our company has sprouted from that sense of awe at the creative ways individuals and non-profits go about changing the little piece of the world they care about.

We’ve watched communities in the Bronx reclaim their river and Brazilians provide a fresh start for their orphans. We’ve seen exchange students bridge cultures and Somali refugees make new homes. It’s been just the adventure I thought it would be starting out on that Kenyan afternoon. And I believe we’re just getting started…

Dan Lane
Founder, Good Eye Video


A humble salad bowl has sold for a world record £173,000.

The porcelain dish painted with blue lines was produced almost 40 years ago by famed British potter Lucie Rie.

Seven years after it left the kiln it was bought by a private collector who kept it for the next 30 years.

In that time Rie’s reputation soared and her work is now highly sought after.

The white flaring bowl had an estimated price of £30,000 for the New York auction but ended up selling for £138,000.

With fees added, the anonymous collector paid a total of £173,000. A similar sized bowl can be bought for £4 in Ikea.

Dame Lucie Rie

It is the second time in three months that a record price has been paid for a Lucie Rie piece. In September a 1976 conical form bowl of hers sold for £85,000.

Rie was born in Austria in 1902 and set up a studio in Vienna in the 1920s.

In 1938 she fled to England to escape the Nazis and opened a studio in Central London. She died in 1995 aged 93.

A spokesman for Phillips auctioneers, which handled the latest sale, said: “Lucie Rie is one of the most important figures in 20th century studio pottery. Collectors are eager to acquire her most impressive pieces and this is just such an example.

“It’s executed in exquisite detail and is one of only a handful of similar examples decorated in a matte white glaze with concentric blue lines.

“It’s also in perfect condition, with no damage or restoration.”


The 2017 NBA playoffs are in full swing and I have been a fan of basketball since I was a child. I prefer to watch basketball than play it. Mostly because I’m terrible at it and there’s too much running involved for my enjoyment.

I love the intangibles of NBA Playoff basketball. The intensity, the heart, the drive, and the effort of each player seems to be ramped up beyond maximum levels. Regardless of league rankings, every team is fighting for the ultimate prize of a bringing the coveted NBA Championship trophy back to their city.

It was Game 1, and the Warriors are beginning their Playoff run by defending Oracle Arena against the Portland Trailblazers. As Stephen Curry, the Warriors’ superstar point guard, and the Dubs were in their warm up clothes, they were taking shots from various locations – mid-range jump shots, layups, dunks, and 3-point bombs. The demeanor of the Warriors appeared to be light, fun, exciting and overall joyous, despite the seriousness of the situation.

Golden State Warriors’ starting point guard, Stephen Curry has a home court tradition of draining a long-distance shot from the player entrance tunnel during his warm up. Source The Mercury News

Then as it nears start time and the two largest players square off for the tip-off, a switch flips and the competitor in each of the players shines through. While witnessing that shift in mentalities from the lighthearted warm ups to the game-time fierceness, I realized that I can learn something new from this game…

Everyone needs to warm up.

A warm up should be a series of light movements or exercises to help prime your mind and your body. These activities are milder in intensity, but specifically designed to help you perform at peak efficiency.

There are plenty of other activities, outside of sports that require a warm up for optimal results. While the activities vary in terms of physical and mental demand, the benefits are the same. Let’s dive deeper into three reasons why I think warming up can be beneficial for you.

Get your body ready to perform

In sports, working out,  dance or other physical activity, a warm up has physiological benefits. A warm up primes the body for the upcoming intensity in the near future.

It increases blood flow to the muscles, it loosens the joints, and it readies the heart for the cardiovascular output it’s about to undergo.It serves as a physical signal for the body to prepare for the strain it is about to experience.

Warming up is essential to turning on the muscles that you need to recruit for your specific functions, ensuring your body can keep up with the physical demands, and can decrease your risk of injury.

Boost the mind-body connection

There’s also a mental component to performing a warm up. Whether or not you are competing, it’s important to be mentally focused as well in your physical activity. You shouldn’t be “going through the motions” of your movements.

For optimized results and an enhanced experience, it would behoove you to be mindful of how your body is operating during your exercise or function, i.e. which muscles need to be firing during a jump shot or which muscles are required to speak loudly.

While I’m sure that somewhere out in the world, there exist a small population of people who can generate laser-like focus instantaneously, I’m willing to bet that most of us need to warm up our minds for such a mental demand.

Warming up serves as mental dynamic stretch the mind-body connection. It also allows you to perform the movements or actions in a safer setting. There’s no pressure during the warm up. You’re able to execute your actions without fear of messing up. If there’s a time to mess up and make minuscule mistakes, it’s during your warm up.

Be clear for your path to success

Along with mentally priming the “mind-body” connection, warming up helps build up your focus. Ultimately, you’re aiming for the bigger picture.

If you’re the Warriors, it’s winning the NBA Championship.

If you’re a presenter, it’s giving a highly-engaging and unforgettable speech.

If you’re about to workout, it’s pushing your body past its limits for the gains.

It’s absolutely necessary to remember your goal. That’s your motivation to exert maximum effort and to perform at your highest abilities.

Every major win is a summation of smaller wins. You cannot achieve your goal without succeeding at the little things first. During a warm up, you have the ability to remember your objective and envision the stages in between simultaneously.

It’s easy to focus on the end goal. It’s what you desire with a burning passion.  Being aware of the end goal is great, but you cannot lose sight of the pathway to your success.
Warming up allows you time to position your focus towards that final prize. It helps clear your mind of the dispensable and counterproductive thoughts that are currently irrelevant and focus on the immediate tasks at hand.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has a series of videos where he will yell “FOCUS” out into the distance as he is working out. Warming up can help you have the same intense, warrior-like focus as “The People’s Champ.” Source: Instagram @therock

Warming up is unique to you

You should have a warm up routine that works best for you, but it might take a few iterations to find your favorite routine. One piece of advice I have is to see how other experts warm up.

For example, before every weightlifting workout I have, I NEED to warm up. Otherwise, my joints hurt, my muscles feel weak, my timing feels off, and my mental fortitude is weaker than wet toilet paper. I use a full-body dynamic warm up routine I found on online from a reputable weightlifting coach and I’ve made some modifications to focus more on my hips.

Coach Greg Everett demonstrates a dynamic warm up routine that his athletes use before they workout. Source Catalyst Athletics

Another example of warming up helps me write. Before I write an article, I warm up my brain simply by journaling. This method came from a professional blogger and he recommends it to help get the creative juices flowing.

On the days I am feeling extra creative, I will warm up my writing skills with more imaginative writing prompts. Recently, I wrote a eulogy for a sandwich I recently consumed. R.I.P.

You don’t have to warm up. I completely understand. Some days it feels like a waste of time. However, I am certain to that you’ll notice a significant increase in your own performance and a more enjoyable experience by implementing the right routine for you.

Readers, what are ways that you warm up for your activities?


Cosmetic Brow Tattooing Brisbane

Cosmetic Brow Tattooing

The Fiori Institute of Skin and Body employs Brisbane’s most experienced brow technicians.

Cosmetic Brow Tattooing

Watch a 1 minute video explaining the Cosmetic Brow Tattooing procedure.

Our brow experts provide both traditional cosmetic brow tattooing and the newest in Feather Touch cosmetic tattoo brow etching to enhance the brow, increase volume and frame the eyes.*

What is cosmetic tattooing?

Cosmetic tattooing is a technique that predates the newer Feather Touch technique, but both use the same concept of cosmetic tattooing using various inks to develop the brow line. Both procedures can redraw the brow line at different heights and widths to give symmetry to the face as well as frame the eyes.*

With cosmetic tattooing the difference is that this is undertaken with a digital tattooing device much like a superficial tattoo gun. This differs from the Feather Touch technique where the brows are shaped with oblique micro-blading. We find that this newer technique gives a more natural look, with enhanced brow volume.*

Cosmetic Brow Tattooing Before & Afters

How can cosmetic tattooing provide brow rejuvenation?

Cosmetic tattooing refers to the use of a digital cosmetic tattooing device, which can provide eyebrow definition as well as eyeliner and lip liner. In the context of eye rejuvenation, it provides more well-defined and properly structured. Cosmetic tattooing can reposition brows to sit higher, with a perfectly placed ‘peak’ and ‘tail’.*

Why is it important to have an expert perform my cosmetic brow tattooing procedure?

Not only do brows need to be drawn in the perfect position, and the correct amount of volume added, but the colour also needs to be taken into consideration. Cosmetic tattoos contain various oxides namely titanium dioxide and iron oxide in various shades of brown and black.

The exact placement of the ink into the dermal layers of the eyebrow skin is vitally important. A superficial placement will result in brows that may not last as long as they should (for certain techniques we expect these to be semipermanent and last 18 months). If pigmentation is placed too deeply in the eyebrows, it can lead to deep dermal tattooing, which can result in a greyish appearance.

The new form of Feather Touch cosmetic brow tattooing has largely replaced traditional cosmetic tattooing. Feather Touch adds volume and provides a more natural looking eyebrow.*

How long does the procedure take to perform?

Brow tattooing typically takes from 45 to 90 minutes, depending on the complexity and volume needed to shape your brow. Our brow specialists are absolutely meticulous!*

Is cosmetic brow tattooing painful?

No, we use the very latest in a specialised numbing cream so treatments are entirely painless.*

How do the cosmetic tattooing and Feather Touch techniques differ?

Both techniques use a hypoallergenic tattoo pigment which is implanted into the skin. Depending on the level of implementation of the pigment, both procedures may last up to 18 months to two years (resulted will vary depending on the client’s exposure to sun, individual factors and resistance to pigment).

Where the procedures differ is in the technique. Cosmetic tattooing uses a digital tattoo, while the very latest in Feather Touch Brow tattooing uses a custom-made metal hand-tool with fine needles to create fine hair strokes.

Both techniques can yield excellent results; however, the Feather Touch’s hair stroke technique provides more natural results. This technique also adds brow volume that is not visible with two-dimensional cosmetic tattooing.*

Are you interested in learning if
Feather Touch Cosmetic Brow tattooing is right for you?

Book your FREE consultation
with one of our brow specialists.