A Spring Outing

In an episode of a series my husband and I love one of the main characters, an accomplished diplomat, is trying to establish relations with another woman who is antagonistic. To establish an emotional bond she tells the second woman a deeply personal and painful story. She then concludes, "I don't usually lead with that."

Nearly 50 years ago I had sex reassignment surgery. "I don't usually lead with that." In fact, I really don't consider it a stranger's business. Unfortunately the Trump administration, as one wit put it, " wants to make the federal government just small enuff to fit under bedroom doors."  

So, with all the misogynistic misinformation abou "trans" on the media now, I feel compelled to try and correct at little of it. Despite reticence about discussing anything to do with sex in this schizo purient/prudish society  I feel compelled to have a spring outing. This is not to say that I ever hid my situation before, I didn't. Nor is it to say that my opinion represents any other than my own. Indeed, I often find myself at odds with my sisters and brothers particularly over perceived injustices which often have more to do with the perpetrators. 

Time after time people and the media want to paint me as a victim. I am not a victim. I am a survivor. Have I been discriminated against? Undoubtedly: foolish bigotry is ubiquitous. I paid my dues in pain & humiliation:

   We had finished migrant work picking apples and were in Bellingham,             Washington looking for a shelter. My companion found lodging that cold        night in a men's shelter. When I went to find a bed at a "Christian" shelter      the matron made sure to humiliate me as much as pssible by having me        completely strip before throwing me out. 

This pales against the organised bigotry of the Trump administration that is trying to dehumanize all of women differing from a 1950's American ideal housewife.

 It's not, and never has been about "men in women's sports" it is very much about the neo-nazi "Christians" taking charge of women's bodies. The Trump agenda aligns with Margret Atwood's distopian *The Handmaid's Tale*. 

Trump's idea of a woman is Karolyn Leavett. Frankly, I pity her. Poor girl is a two dimensional cardboard cut out. Stand Barbie behind the podium and pull her string.  Trump doesn't want to see women who think for themselves. This makes trans folks a big problem for him because we felt so impelled by biological imperatives that we defied social mores. I have not followed closely but there was evidence that trans brains are wired diferently. For myself I felt I had three options:

          suicide, self Mutilation, or surgery

I call myself a follower of Christ and when I considered how I wanted to meet my maker, the choice was obvious. Yes, for me there was a very spiritual component to my decision. "If thine eye offend thee..." What would Barbie do?

So, maybe a little insight into my decision process. Over the years people with different gender/sex issues have asked me for advice or insight. I help what little I can but never would I recommend anyone do anything without serious soul searching and professional counseling. The path I have chosen is not particularly smooth and I don't recommend it except in extreme circumstances. Why there seem to be so many surgeries these days I can only speculate. At the time I had mine I was the only person I knew in Colorado Springs going thru the transition. There was no "trans community". The condition is not associated with being homosexual. The only " trans communities " I know of are online. I know of no army of trans coming to convert your boys  (or girls). When I go to the bathroom, I'm going to the bathroom. (As a side note, I'm a big gal and have defended other women from agression more than once so lady's rooms with me in them are safer than usual). Fear of me is wasted energy. Besides, you can be sure I'm going to be a little bit afraid of you.

I'd like to address the silly issue of "trans men" in women's sports. "It's unfair for men to compete against women." Unfair. Trans people know about unfair. Trans folk know that the world is intrinsically unfair on an individual level. Athletes know it too. The  inspiring Olympic star,  Mary Lou Retton , would have done poorly in women's distance running. Long, lanky runners don't compete in gymnastics.  Different bodies by nature. Different inherited DNA. 

So what is it that is so unfair? And who's damn business is it? Two choices:

1)The athletes and organizers decide amongst themselves who participates

2) The government intervenes

 We will never have a sensible government as long as we fail to make all attempts arbitrate social policy from at the lowest possible level. Just as the Republicans corporate greed threatens economic chaos on all our social programs to provide for the "common welfare" (Constitution), so does a forced authority without inclusion threaten emotional chaos. 

Who claims the wisdom of Solomon? Apparently California Governor Gavin Newsome claim's to be as wise. As a California progressive,  I am incised by Gov. Newsome's actions. Here in one case presents the Democratic party policy approach that illustrates their hypocrisy. Here is a chief reason conservatives hate the Democrats. Incessent attempts to mandate social policy from on high. Who asked for Newsome's intervention? What a cheap trick to gain a few votes. Newsome promotes bigotry which puts me (in a ruby red county) in physical danger. It also violates the basic  principles of democracy by failing to give us equal protection under the law. Let the relevant parties decide. Newsome, stay the F out, you cheap ... My better angels tell me to mitigate my anger. Bless you hypocrite.

And I can only hope I never need to address these issues again. I don't usually lead with them.

E Pluribus Unum

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union...

This holiday weekend our country celebrates its two hundred forty seventh birthday. The grand experiment in democracy continues. Yet, the edifice is beginning to show cracks. Demagogues of all political persuasions are attempting to divide us into waring camps. These fractures, particularly those which throw our election process into doubt, threaten our ability to function as a society at the very time we most need some cohesion to face global challenges.

Each of us who served have faced the challenges of working with others of quite different backgrounds than our own and each of us have overcome those challenges. I believe in the Spirit of democracy. I believe that group decisions can be wrong but that we do strive "to form a more perfect union." I believe participation in a functional democracy means each must continue that effort. 

There was a time when I quit voting because the system was flawed. I requested an absentee ballot while I was overseas. The administrative structure of the Army found it was too much trouble and I never got my ballot, so in a childish fit, I quit voting. I see now that I was wrong. I was demanding perfection. We human beings don't make perfect institutions. No election is ever likely to be perfect. We've seen what happens in other countries when the citizens failed in their duties to participate. Our democracy is imperfect because we are still in the process of forming a more perfect union. With intractable party politics the democratic spirit of compromise threatening our government, let's take a step away from partisanship.

What can we do to face the challenges of divisiveness? I think the first thing is that we need to stop and listen. 95% of the people I've met want the same thing: to have a peaceful and prosperous life for themselves and their own. What always seems to set people against each other is fear. The shrinks say that fear of loss is more motivating for humans than hope of gain. With so many changes hitting the world fear of loss has become a kind of group paranoia. We can't afford it. When I try to talk to friends with very different politics, I hear what those fears are. I can then reassure them that their fears or unfounded or I can accept their viewpoint and begin to try and figure how the issues they express can be addressed.

 When I first joined the women's veteran group, I was cautioned about expressing political views. I can understand that. I'm a bit strange already and looking for an argument would be pretty stupid on my part.

 Nonetheless, I think we should exercise adult discussion on politics. We've handled differences between us before. Each of us has some sense of service and of duty. I believe it is our duty to talk calmly about our differences. In this way we can continue our service to protect the goal of forming a more perfect union. E Pluribus Unum. One out of many - because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY.🇺🇸

Dear Viet Nam,

It's been many years since we've spoken. I hope you can forgive me. I was wrong. I owe the Buddhist master in the flames a debt. Perhaps, somewhen I can humbly offer my apologies in person. I will not say that my naive ignorance mitigates my error but I can say that I believe I've grown since then. That I was deceived is an explanation, not a justification.

To Screaming Man

I met a man that screamed at things

That none the rest of us could see

So little could I give to him

For all I had was sympathy

I tried to tell him all is well

He barely could respond to me

But for a moment thru his eyes -

A  glimpse to his infinity

A window to another world

This frightening reality

In revelation then I knew

That All depends on point of view

 

And all the terrors that he gave voice

Had come to him by his own choice.

Iniyat Kahn

Foundational principlesEdit

Ten principles, known as the Ten Sufi Thoughts, enunciate the universal spiritual values that are foundational to Inayat Khan's mystical philosophy.

1. There is One God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none exists save God.
2. There is One Master, the Guiding Spirit of all Souls, Who constantly leads followers towards the light.
3. There is One Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader.
4. There is One Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfills the life's purpose of every soul.
5. There is One Law, the law of reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice.
6. There is One Brotherhood and Sisterhood, the human brotherhood and sisterhood, which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the Parenthood of God.
7. There is One Moral, the love which springs forth from self-denial, and blooms in deeds of beneficence.
8. There is One Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshippers through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
9. There is One Truth, the true knowledge of our being, within and without, which is the essence of all wisdom.
10. There is One Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality, and in which resides all perfection.^[13]

Merry Yule, year end update

I find it difficult to report unfavorable news. Adding negativity to the world is the opposite of my intent. Nonetheless, I haven't reported on our situation here at Lidster South for some time and that may be more negative at some point than no news. So, we're doing OK but it has been a hard year.

As another year ticks off the calendar it's time to at least get a mass mailing off. We had a low key but pleasant Christmas day. Watched "Hogfather", our Christmas tradition, a movie from author Terry Pratchett's Disc World series. I gave up and ordered a whole case of Quorn roasts. Fixed two turkey style for pur dinner, a quiche for breakfast & a mincemeat pie for dessert. I can't recommend the Quorn enuff as a vegetarian turkey substitute. It is so superior to the usual to turkey it's like comparing roast beef to bologna. Problem is that few know about it so the stores don't carry it. So, I had to order an entire case & now need to figure out how to preserve the rest of them. Its been cold & snowy which helps.

We both caught serious head colds two weeks ago and are on a slow mend. Most of last week was spent in hibernaton.

In brief, this past year has been a ruff one for us. Both of our cats died. Nellie was over fifteen and went blind in June. She just wandered off one night. Noel, the kitten who showed up on our doorstep Christmas day 5 years ago came home sick one evening and died in my arms in April after a day of struggling. I buried him in the back yard & marked the grave with a piece of silver for the fair folk. For myself, the year has seen a decrease in energy level. I tire very easily and there has been a lot of back pain.

On a more positive note we have two new wonderful cats. Nellie & El (named shortened to avoid confusion with "no") were both long hair. Apache is a white Japanese Bob trail with tan markings who became family after El died in April. Lexus was 6 weeks old when we adopted her at the end of August. She's more active, curious, and into everything. My nickname for her is " Princess Pounce". I  think the two cats are one of the main things that keeps me going. They get along well and seem happy.

I feel my own days shortening like the year. This bothers me little as I'm ready for the next big adventure. I'd hoped to see the 1st contact scenario with the galactics I hypothesize but that now seems unlikely. My primary concern is the family, Vincent & the kitties. Hope they're looked after. Don't really expect to have one of these missives next year but who knows.

We are wishing everyone a happy holiday season and best wishes for the new year. One day of joy and love at a time.

REMF Correspondent

As I have discussed elsewhere, I believe that the Russia Ukraine War is indicative of a greater struggle for the mind of humanity leading to a greater awareness on the part if its members . As such I have monitored this situation closely and repeatedly found noteworthy observations that I have not seen reflected in other media. To this end, I'm starting this blog entry to chronicle some of them. 

221104:

Conflicting reports are coming out concerning the current situation in the Kherson region.  Both reinforcements from and withdrawals to the western bank of the Dinipro river have been reported. Ukrainian sources have concluded this is arise to draw their forces into a "trap". My conclusions are somewhat different.

Russian units on the  eastern bank are some of their best, including the airborne units that initially assaulted the airport outside Kiev. A number of intercepted phone calls from Russian troops indicate that the troops moving in are " mobics",  untrained, poorly equiped, recently mobilized troops. Meanwhile, interdiction on the Andropov bridge and ferries continue. The bridge itself appears to have been heavily damaged.  This has been the main corridor onto the west bank for Russia for some time but is not adequate for removal of heavy equipment as the pontoon bridge constructed in its (Andropov bridge) shadow can't support a 70+ ton T-62 tank. 

I surmise that the mobics are being moved into Kherson as a "canon fodder" covering force to protect the withdrawal of elite Russian regulars. I doubt that Russia expects to hold Kherson or that it is a trap. It's simply a mechanism for Russia to recover as much of its heavy equipment & as many of its best regular  troops as possible.

221104:

It's been reported on multiple sources that Russian troops have moved into neighboring Belarus while at least 100 tanks have been moved from Belarus to Russia. This has raised concerns that Belarus may join the war with an attack on Ukraine's northern border. These apparently contradictory moves seem confusing to western media. I believe that these are strategic political moves with the intent of 1) causing a relocation of Ukrainian troops from frontline area to defend against the possible threat & 2) providing a military force to prop-up Lukashenko's unpopular regime. IMO, an attack along the difficult terrain of the northern Ukrainian border is very unlikely.

221108:

"Owner" of the Russian Wagner mercenary group, Pergozhin, has twice complimented the Ukrainians in the last week. He complimented the Ukrainian defense of Bakhmut where his group is taking massive casualties [small strategic but large propognda value].  He also complimented Zelinsky's leadership. This is completely out of line with the official rhetoric that the Ukrainians are "satanists".  I venture that, as Zelensky has stated that he won't deal with Putin, Pergozhin is positioning for a takeover bid in the wake of Putin's failures. Not an improvement as he appears even more rabid.

The Churn

 The Churn

The character Amos in the science fiction series "The Expanse" called it "the churn". In the common vernacular it's "when the shit hits the fan". The American west burns while Florida floods. Chaos reigns in the Ukraine. The specter of nuclear war threatens us again. Friends, it's hit the fan. 

Prostulated

It is my proposal in this article that 

1)the accelerating pace of societal challenges facing humanity is currently at an " inflection point ", a crux, a crossroad in evolution = evolve or die

2)the same problems threatening the human condition are also an impetus to solve them

3)these problems are of a serious enuff nature that they affect everyone on the planet

4)that one of the ways this occurs is thru the (Jungian) collective (sub)conscious

5)that the Ukrainian situation is symptomatic of these types of problems and represents a collective focus

6) that the solution to these problems lies in a shift in the collective conscious

7) that understanding this shift from a scientific viewpoint requires better maps of how the collective consciousness progresses

8) that these two problems of understanding  and bringing about positive shift are entertwined

9) that a good approach to understanding this collective phenomenon is an intuitive approach to fractal graphics which also provides potential for mapping the phenomenon of a more analytical nature

10) that a good approach to bringing  this about is to use our empathy to radiate love on all available channels

Modeling World Consciousness

I've been interested in some time in the flow of consciousness. As some of you know, I've dedicated myself to an eclectic attempt to promote a "quantum leap" in human evolution (process theology). The flow of thought, the stream of consciousness is going over the rapids. Mathematician Rene Thom's  called his model of over the rapids, when a system goes thru an abrupt state change, "Catastrophe Theory". The simplest visualization of this is to double fold a sheet of paper in an "S" shape. Now draw a line over the folded part. When unfolded, the line is broken by a gap. The original path is discontinuous, broken. Think of a river tumbling over a cliff into a frothing pool below. 

Similarly, the war in the Ukraine has broken the peace of our world and our thoughts whirl around it. Jung's collective subconscious is  resonating with a shock to the Ucrainium (pun intended). Everyone's emotions are somewhat frayed even if we are not directly involved in any way. I wager that even those far from any conscious knowledge of the conflict still feel a general foreboding that is related to it. I advise my audiance and myself that this is happening on such a huge scale that we must each be gentle with each other and ourselves so as to observe but not be swept away by these currents. I propose that this turbulence is reflected thru out current human experience in many ways.

As few times before, the sympathy of the entire world is focused on the Ukraine. I think of only thrice in my life when there was a comparable concentration of world wide attention: the Cuban missle crisis, Apollo 11, and Apollo 13 when (I'm convinced) the power of world wide prayer helped bring the crew of astronauts home.    Everyone's emotions are somewhat frayed even if we are not directly involved in any way. I wager that even those far from any conscious knowledge of the conflict still feel a general foreboding that is related to it. 

The way the conflict draws our stream of consciousness, the flow of thoughts, is known as an " attractor " in chaos theory. Strange attractors are patterns within a fractal mathematical object that congregate around a specific point in phase space. I propose that these concepts can best be understood graphically & thru the use  of fractals.

From this point, I can't precisely describe what I'm talking about. I'm letting my intuition guide me. My experience in math tells me that visualizing an abstract space in mathematics is a very intuitive process. If I could pass on anything that I learned from my professors (e.g. Dr. James Modeer) I would point out that the process mathematics has little to do with the equations written down to finalize math insights. I hope you follow along with me in my explorations especially if it seems like anything to do with math might be challenging. I think that's mostly so because the intuitive side is hard to teach.  

I'm beginning by looking up a few definitions in Wolfram Alpha (I highly recommend their app if one needs a technical science reference).

attractor

2 | noun | (physics) a point in the ideal multidimensional phase space that is used to describe a system toward which the system tends to evolve regardless of the starting conditions of the system

OK, I grok. An attractor would be like a drain in the bathtub. That's where all the water goes - is attracted. 

phase space

So what's "phase space" ? To convey this idea is going to require an intuitive approach again. Let's temporarily drop the association of "phase" with electromagnetic phenomena and take a more abstract approach. Suppose an object (such as a thought) can take on a group of attributes (values). Then the set, or group, of all of those possibilities as it developes thru time is its phase space. Here examples will be illustrative. Let's consider a phase space of hard candies. It's might consist of values of sweetness, of sourness, of bitterness, and of saltiness. Note that I intentionally chose very abstract dimensions to this space to which numeric values would be difficult to assign though relative sweetness between two pieces of candy, data points in this "flavor space" should be subjectively determinable. So I think I can generalize here to say that a phase space is the space of possible values for the properties of an object.

fractals

When I first started working with fractals in the early '90s, it immediately occurred to me that (particularly with respect to color cycling) the diagrams of their phase spaces, such as that of "The Churn" pictured, have a living feel to them. I like very visual explanations, hence "The Churn" picture of a fractal in Ukrainian hues. Note that "The Churn" generates many mini-churns spinning off from it.

 Similarly Benoit Mandelbrot, accredited with having first developed the idea, said that his inspiration came from trying to understand how to mathematically describe the natural (living) processes which gave rise to coastlines. 

Mandelbrot's work had two relevant results:

1) fractals are self-similar on all scales (as above so below for those familiar with Hermetic principles)

2) the best mathematical modeling of these objects involves the use of imaginary numbers

I'm not going to digress further into imaginary numbers here except to briefly note the self-reference in the terminology "imaginary". Hardly coincidence in my opinion. What does need to be briefly addressed is that consciousness itself incorporates these properties. Thinking about thinking (about thinking). When considering consciousness I am often reminded of a small cartoon in George Gamow's (an original proponent of the "big bang theory") 1,2,3 - Infinity  which showed Buddha sitting under the Boddhi tree with a thought bubble (which showed Buddha sitting under the Boddhi tree with a thought bubble (which showed Buddha sitting under the Boddhi tree with a thought bubble (which showed Buddha sitting under the Boddhi tree with a thought bubble ...))). It seems to me that consciousness is fractal ( self referential) in nature. Consciousness is self-referential.

And, in synchronicity with this proposition is that our best models of flow {of thought} are also fractal in nature. The  butterfly effect was discovered by Lorentz [not to be confused with the Lorentz of the famous space/time transformation] when imperceptible fluctuations in the input of a computer model of weather flow generated wildly fluctuating patterns of output.

So, I hope I've given some understandable basis for why I think using fractals can lead to important insights into the flow of human consciousness and why I think the world changing crisis in the Ukraine is important to human consciousness when considering its evolution.

Proceeding with my "artistic" side, the blue and yellow whirlpool in "The Churn" is my envisionment of the flow of earthly consciosness at our current "cusp". A whirling vortex is focused on the Ukraine. This artwork is of a fractal space. A vortex. A turbulent flow.

Vincent just reminded me of a past confluence that illustrates what I mean when I'm referring to the flow of consciousness. It was the sexual revolution of the sixties. While braless love children were celebrating flower power, television was celebrating the wonder bra. This was a marked change from the fifties when the tv and real life couple of Lucille Ball & Desi Arness weren't allowed to share the same bed on camera. The attractor of the sexual revolution was spinning off numerous little concentrations of specific social changes around its center.

Nor is the war itself but the first of the chaotic whirlpools that threaten to engulf us. We already had the first horseman , pestilence from a microscopic burr. Now the horseman of war. Spinning off from the eminent failure of a successful Ukrainian grain harvest is the vortex of eminent starvation. The pattern here is one of the things that adds evidence to the idea I'm proposing the flow of thought is potentially map-able via fractal visualizations. 

More than any of the other immediate global problems we face as a species right now, Ukraine is a focal point. The war there has the greatest implications for humanity for ill and GOOD.

Turbulent Flow Generates  Useable Energy

Here's an ideogramatic representation for decision point, crux, crossroad. It's subject to interpretation, but a Taoist view is that its  composed of danger and opportunity.

As few times before, the sympathy of the entire world is focused on the Ukraine. I think of only thrice in my life when there was a comparable concentration of world wide attention: the Cuban missle crisis, Apollo 11, and Apollo 13 when (I'm convinced) the power of world wide prayer helped bring the crew of astronauts home.  Jung's collective subconscious is  resonating with the shock to the Ucrainium. Everyone's emotions are somewhat frayed even if we are not directly involved in any way. I wager that even those far from any conscious knowledge of the conflict still feel a general foreboding that is related to it. 

Vincent has a dictum that I like a lot: "Apocalyptic visions are dangerous!" This  fine mess Stanley got us into (I'm thinking of the pie fight in "The Great Race" with T. Curtis & J.Lemon) offers hope if not laffs. Yet, this strange attractor of my attention is a cusp that provides an opportunity for human consciousness to 'quantum leap' to a higher stage of evolution. 

As evidenced by the power Hurricane Ian tearing its way thru the southeastern U.S. right now, this type of turbulent flow can generate huge amounts of energy. I propose that we use the focal point of the Ukraine to generate huge amounts of mental/psychic energy to address the problem of humanity's fragmentation.

"Change possible only at crossroads"

[G.I. Gurdjieff as edited by P.D. Oespenski]

So what's going on? What can be learned from this fine mess? What can I and my readers do?

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff talked about the necessity for [external] "additional shocks" to the psyche to boost its evolution. It is my thesis that the current crisis represents a powerful additional shock to the collective psyche that can be used by each and all of us to advance our personal and collective consciousness. A shock to wake us to Divine possibilities. A shock which will aid us in our contact with galactic civilizations.

I have written elsewhere on why I believe that the emissaries of the galactics are already here (Fermi's Paradox) and why I think I am in telepathic contact with them (a variety of precedents for this operating hypothesis ). I surmise that they are engaged in what author David Brin called uplift. The galactics are interested in us because many flavors of mind are needed to solve galactic problems (such as the collision with the M31 galaxy in Andromeda in a few million years). They recognize the validity of the observer phenomena (ya can't help from cheering when you watch your team) so the moral dictum is that of Hippocrates, first do no harm. Therefore their actions are slow and deliberate. Their influence is thru mechanisms like distributing ideas (mostly unconscious, often in sleep). This form of subtle education is best seen in mass media particularly in fiction.

Alien assistance or not, I cannot but believe (I choose to believe) that our species is on the cusp of a breakthru  to a wiser state of consciousness. A more empathic state of consciousness seems to me necessary if we are to survive our adolescence. My experience tells me that to develops this empathy some sacred sacrifice is necessary. Sacrifice helps teach empathy.  The poet Kahil Gibran said that the house of love has corridors of pain. Neither science nor politics are capable of solving the problems of world wide complexity. They are rooted in a more spiritual realm. Let me be specific here in stating that this has to do people's character and not their religion. I postulate empathy is the first step in bridging the communication gap between souls. Suppose one could consciously feel another's emotions. Suppose one could consciously share another's emotions. Would that not lead to more harmonious relations? Rachel Maddock said the Ukrainian people are teaching us a lesson in bravery. I'll get back to this but I would add a lesson in compassion as well. Recently  the Finnish President was asked in an interview about the hardships the global energy shortage would bring his people. He immediately responded that they were small in comparison with those of the Ukrainian people I honor.

I can not help but feel for the Ukrainian people. I can not help but feel for the Russian soldiers dumped into a senseless war as I once was.  I can not help but feel for the Russian people.  I can not help but feel for Vladimir Putin an ex KGB? spook who grew afraid of his own shadow. (I had thought that Russia would join NATO!) I weep. Baldur was the brightest shining of the Norse gods. Loki contrived to assassinate him. The other gods found Loki out when he was the only one who wouldn't weep. I think those who read this weep with me as well. The churn stirs my compassion. A tear for Baldur. 

With perspective, it may be seen that the events in the Ukraine are helping teach empathy as a step toward better communication. The *galactics tell me that their form of governance is reliant on a profound empathic connection between them. An emotional consensus is reached in a kind of democracy where not only is each individual's opinion is considered but also the passion with which it is felt. We will achieve the same state of resonance. Empathy is the precursor to telepathy.

To achieve that state for the compassionate also requires one to be fearless. The one thing that paralizes empathy is fear. One must sacrifice one's fears to open oneself to the vulnerability of telepathy. Who's thought's are we thinking any way? If our thoughts are not our own, who's are they? The universe is mental is the Hermitic principle. Ultimately all thoughts process from the mind of "god" or at least a higher order of mentation than we can normally access. It is not random chance that Newton and Liebnitz developed forms of calculus simultaneously. Their papers show that Minkowski and Einstein were both exploring similar ideas on the nature of space time prior to the publication of the special theory of relativity. A higher order of thought processes was at work here. To access it these men had to allow them selves a degree of vulnerability. They had to be fearless.

The word awesome is misused these days. Awe used to have a flavor of trepidation. The idea that All ideas are from the Divine ought raise a little trepidation but a little faith overcomes that fear. I've heard that you only need as much as a mustard seed. A mustard seed is smaller than a peppercorn. Even I can manage that much faith.

So, fear not. What's the worst that can happen? Nuclear fireworks? I've  had a vision of dozens of galaxies  self immolate in incredible explosions of celebratory fireworks. Whole civilizations who's deneuma was to provide a work of art rejoicing in that moment of accomplishment. What's to fear? Nothing? Why be afraid of nothing? Let us use that poor, deluded man (reported to have poured over Omar Gaddafhi's degraded demise for hours) as an object lesson. Let us examine our own fears with an end to them.

Oh, and yes. In the end, the churn in the James S. Corey S.F. series yields gateways to other worlds.

Persist in your vision of a more beautiful world.

To Russia With Love

KONSTANTIN@INSIDE_RUSSIA author of the excellent YouTube channel 

Dear Constantine, [Tchaikowsky, Boradin, Stravinsky, Chekov, Dostoevsky, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, Oespensky & Gurdjieff,  Liebow, Tsiolkovsky, Gargarin, & so many other Russians who have brought illumination to my life]

I have been watching your Youtube channel with delighted interest since February. I have concluded that you are very astute in grasping the "big" picture", the overview, by looking at the details. You have mentioned your faith and suggested that the angels ("St. Michael") are coming to assist. I'd like to suggest, as a citizen of humanity, that the big picture includes all of humanity. I have some information for you along that theme. So, I'm getting prompted to make sure this message is passed on by temporary sponsorship of your vlog. 

Let me first introduce myself so that you have an idea that I might have an insight or two. I have a degree in applied math with minors in history & philosophy. My professional career was centered around the computer industry of the 70's & 80's. I worked on software for the North American Air Defense Command as well as highly technical R&D software design for real-time simulation & real time monitoring of sulfur  dioxcide emissions. Some of the ideas I'm going to present are radical so I'm giving you this background to indicate that I have an analytical & thotful approach to my ideas.

It seems clear that the most severe problems facing humanity today are of a global nature and require global cooperation to be solved. It seems quite clear that these problems cannot be solved by current institutions political or scientific (or religious). The objects space ship earth is about to collide with (climate change, depletion of natural resources, famine...) will require an unprecedented planetary cooperation to avoid by instituting a course change. That it can be achieved was shown by the success of  yesterday's DART mission. If you haven't heard, an international mission made a successful deflection of an asteroid as the first step in building a system that will defend Earth from events like the one that contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs (& possibly the Tunguska event). It is in that spirit I want to pass on this info. 

As a physics major, scheduling made it easier to get a math degree than physics but the problem of first contact was my chief interest and has remained so. The physicist Fermi [developed 1st working reactor at University of Chicago] asked the question which has come to be known as "Fermi's Paradox". In essence the question is [given the math of the "Drake Equation"] where are they? Modern science indicates that the universe should have many worlds older and wiser than ours. Given the very short time in cosmological terms that humanity took to reach our current state of evolution it would be easy for those other worlds to have visited. Where are they? It is my opinion that Fermi's paradox is quite simple: they're already here. I shall return to this idea shortly.

Returning to the theme of global problems (I'm going to show possible relationship here) my conclusion has been that an elevation of the consciousness of humanities members seems necessary to solve them. Humanity needs to make a quantum leap in wisdom. Currents stir in the global brain connected by the internet that can lead to that leap in human empathy & awareness. My operating hypothesis is that this process is occurring and that it is being assisted by non-human intelligences. 

OK, there it is. I am convinced that Others, be they aliens or angels, are in telepathic contact. Yes, I too think this opinion is a little crazy, at least at first. I'd also like to think I have  sense of humor about my participation. I'm not saying it's a joke or a hoax, just recognizing (with a smile) how outrageous the claim seems.

 I think you have been called to aid in this process. You have consistently shown an understanding of how details lead to a bigger picture and indicated your recognition of the importance of a spiritual underpinning for your posts. My husband and I join in your prayers. So in a spirit of loving harmony. I pass on these thots to you.

1) Continue to the best of your ability to concentrate on the positive possibilities in your situation and that of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples.

2) Remember that the current chaos contains the energy for great changes to the joint good. Those of us praying for the world are a powerful force.

3) Put on the golden armor of love and fear not. Fear is the common enemy. Fear of loss of control is what drove Russia's leader to his current self defeating posture.

4) Prepare for the time when Russia and its people rejoin the world community. You, should you so choose, will have the opportunity to become a great leader of your people. How will you mend the fences with your Ukrainian neighbors & help repair the horrific damages done to both your countries?

5) Never forget that there are those of us all over the world with a broader perspective who support, not the Russian state, but you & the Russian peoples.

On a more personal note hubby & I pray for your joy (to share with others), your rapid reunion with your wife&family (best wishes to Natasha), & the rapid defeat of the Russian troops in the war (so the boys can go home to their families in one piece & help rebuild the mess that's been made).Your current situation reminds me of that faced by Solzhenitsyn and I anticipate an even more rapid resolution for you. Additionally, please let the misinformed older folk my age know that thinking people in the U.S. have no wish for suffering or conquest of anybody else. I had thot that it was likely Russia might actually join NATO at some point in the future. 

 I would welcome more communication on these subjects should you be interested. I'm on Facebook. My blog with essays on some  of thse subjects is janimue.blogspot.com. It lists (at top) my email address. I have a second blog on matters of faith in relation to making a better world: janimuefaith.blogspot.com. My attempt at transforming some of the spiritual work to technological tools is on the janimue YouTube channel.

With love & respect,

Janet Norman-Lidster and Vincent Lidster

The Flow of (TD)ao

 21/05/01

V& I know a great story about a Taoist sage.  I'm missing the source so here is my retelling - respect is meant for the characters and culture.

{Image courtesy oor https://www.firmani.com/uncategorized/crisis-in-chinese/}

For the past seven years the river had flooded the fields to the point of washing out the dikes between the pattys and washing away some of the tender, young rice shoots. The rice yield fell by a third. Once a prosperous community, the village was now on hard times. Something had to be done. 

The headman called a group together & strengthened the dikes. It didn't work. The emperor's tax collectors called in the emperor's  engineers. The next year the flooding was even worse.  The emperor's advisors proposed solutions but none could be found that calmed the river. Finally, in desparation, one of the younger  advisors said he knew of a Taoist magician who might be able to help. He was summoned immediately and brought to the village.

The next morning the village awake to find the magician gone. "Ahh, another charlatan who could not help us", they thot and resigned themselves to their misery. But, no! He was soon found nearby sitting and gazing at the river. " He's on the problem now!" they thot.  All day he sat and watched the river. That evening he came in collected a meal, then a bedroll and went to sleep in a peaceful corner of the head man's house. "Well," they thot. "He's tired from his journey yesterday. He needed to rest up." 

Next morning they again woke to find him lazing by the river. And again on the third morning.  On the forth morning the sage slept until the noon meal, ate, and wandered off until the small hours of the morning. As the days passed the pattern varied but the touted wizard could always be found helping himself to someone's meal, curled asleep in a comfortable corner of someone's house, or lazing by the river.

Grumbling was heard. "We are poor. Why are we wasting our food on this useless old trickster? The monsoon will soon be here. Our crops will be lost again. Our homes will be flooded and our live stock washed away. People may drown. We must appeal to the emperor again." 

The very next day the mandarin himself came on born on his litter. They spotted the old man gazing at the river. As the madarin's litter approached the sage ( with some fear as he knew more of the sorceror's reputation than most knew) the old man waved them off. He stood with his staff and waded into the river. Up to his elbows in water he planted his staff with great force  just upstream from a small islet. Silt began to accumulate immediately. Steadily the river split into two channels. 

The village never flooded again.

This story is a great application of practical chaos theory. A tiny change in additional conditions ( the staff) affected outcomes ( flooding) to such an extent that it improved and even saved peoples lives. The more chaotic the situation, the more opportunity for change. As the article accompanying it describes, the ideogram above also represents the concept of crux - crucial point - cusp. Covid, civil unrest, rapidly changing climate, economies, and social values all point to such a decision cusp for humanity. Mystic teacher G.I. Gurdjieff thot change was only possible at crossroads and (in my interpretation) the " midst of mass madness " was the best time to make a profit. When the branch is tender and puts forth leaves (Matthew 24:32). Rejoice! Great reward awaits for the grasping of this moment! Its the crux of the matter!

    

The Influence of Science Fiction on Consciosness

It is an iconic image.The serene and stately Michael Renee raises his hand in greeting to the circle of soldiers surrounding his  flying saucer.  It is particularly poignant moment for me because it's one of the few times I remember really connecting emotionaly with my father. We both sat in wonder at the possibilities of the universe. On the remote chance that you have never seen "The Day the Earth Stood Still", you owe yourself a favor..Please do. It's delightfully dated but the message is still relevant. Renee's character stoically presents an ultimatum and an opportunity to mankind - get your act together or face horrific consequences. For me it's more.  Today, contact experiences report receiving an almost identical message from many NHI sources. It's a movie that has entered into the collective consciousness.

Science fiction entered my consciousness several years after my first contact experiences and well before "Day". At age nine the older cousin I looked up to got me to read Robert Heinlein 's The Starbeast about a boy making friends with a large reptillian. This was in 1956. I was hooked on first contact. All the way to the  late 60s I was a nerd for s.f. It painted exciting possibilites for seeing the universe thru an entirely different set of perceptual filters. Other movies slowly followed from Hollywood, most notibly "Forbidden Planet" where a scientist grapples with monsters of his own subconscious made manifest by ancient alien technology, but this was a rare gem. Most Hollywood productions promoted  fear of the unknown somewhat like the grays have been said to do as a a control mechanism.

Meanwhile television, being a newer media, was more exploritory. Serlings "Twilight Zone", then "Outer Limits" led to "Star Trek". "There is nothing wrong with your television set" began Outer Limits, which then proceded to convince me that if I went outside I would see them landing. "Star Trek", despite a poor initial audience, went on to spawn one of the biggest francises ever with a new spin off currently airing on CBS. For the first time in mass media contact was shown as a phenomena as likely to be mutually beneficial as hostile.

Written science fiction was way ahead. Not only did it presage contacts of multiple types, it also delved deeply into questions about the process of consciousness.  Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination went further into the exploration of consciousness when he tryed to describe in prose the phenomenon of synesthesia wherein sensory input is scrambled so that vision becomes smell and touch becomes taste etc. As far as I know the idea of "telepathy" was primarily restricted to science fiction as in A.E.van Vogt's Slan. Mass media was still far behind but the cadre of nerds like myself who read s.f. had been inculcated with the virus.

Then came 2001. Overnight college populations began to read s.f. It became a respectable subject in college literature courses. It entered the minds of the intelligencia. On the screen most s.f. was monsters and dystopia, but the idea of communicating with  other beings in a meaningful wayhad arrived.

 At the end of 2001 is  a light show that left the audience stunned and ecstatic or confused. Ask yourself, just in speculation, isn't it possible that the lighshow at the end was a visual "download. "- A form of telepathy?

Hollywood as a whole still had not caught up. S.F. was still not popular with a large audience. That is until "Star Wars.- A New Hope" in 1977. There rapidly followed a series of movies promoting the possiblilities of beneficial contact: "E.T. - the Extraterrestrial", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (which envisioned using music as a common language) "Cocoon" (which had glowing golden NHIs similar to many contactee reports) and others less noteworthy.

 As was reported of popular science fiction author, Philip K. Dick, the weave between the open minds of creative minds of extra-terrestrial contactees and science fiction continue.  In my mind they are becoming indistiguishable. I am convinced I am in telepathic contact with extraterrestrial entities. As with Russian philosopher of  science, P.D. Oespensky in his description of "mental conversations with G[urdjieff - ed.] I am simultaneously elated and abashed that the information is recieved in such a subjective manner. I can't prove a word of it, much less meet Carl Sagan's criteria that it should require extraordinary proof. Yet, the synchronicity of serendiptous correlations grows in my conscioussness and, siren-like, beckons my curiousity forward with a caution "Beware of Mind Fields."  Am I to be proven a ludicrous loon should I continue my exploration?

The recent (five star in my book) s.f. movie "Arrival" strikes me as a far more likely first contact scenario than those traditionaly posited by traditional contact. The suggestion that the aliens in the movie percieve time in a non-linear way fits well with information I have. Further, the idea that the visitors are all humanoid is a sticking point for me. Nature is wonderfully imaginative and prolific. If I can imagine a eight foot high semi-liquid intelligent block of jello that knows how to manipulate electro-static fields thru the movement of its organelles inside the cell membrane, why would I expect mother nature to send only humanoids to visit us? I think these objections can be ultimately explained but I'm disturbed by generally the human-centric view of NHI experiences. Has the cosmic mind begun injecting a more generalized view of intelligent beings into Jung's collective subconscious?

The night I began writing this post, Julian May's "Intervention" was playing on an Alexis audiobook:

""Do you know that walnut trees will not bear fruit in the tropics? They need the winter. In the old days, they needed it twice! Once to stimulate the fruit to form, and again to rot the thick husks so that the inner nut would be set free to germinate. Our human cycle is much longer, but we, too, have passed through our first great winter and attained the power of self-reflection. Over the ages our minds have ripened slowly, giving us greater and greater mastery over the physical world, and over our lower nature.”

 

“Oh, very good! And now I suppose the superior nuts are ready to fall! The winter of nuclear war that threatens—is this what will bring about your mental revolution? Are we to look forward to supermen levitating over glowing ashes, singing telepathic dirges?" 

 

“It might work out that way,” the old man admitted. “But think: One doesn’t have to wait for the walnut husks to rot naturally, not if one is determined—and not afraid of stained hands.”""

I think a mass revelation/disclosure is upon us It should be interesting. Hell, I think it will be great fun. It will almost certainly be different than expected. But, I've been known to be wrong.

Service for Citizenship

The 11th of November is set aside in the U.S. for honoring those who are veterans of U.S. military service. My military service proved an invaluable experience for me. It's been over fifty years since  I slogged thru Southeast Asian mud so thick that we had to call in a huey (UH-1D helicopter) to pull the machine gunner out of where he had become stuck. Yet that experience still informs my thoughts on how to structure a compassionate and just society. We made mistakes. Undoubtedly we'll make them again. Still, I am proud that I did my best to represent the highest ideals of  our democracy  to the world by presenting a compassionate face to those I met as do U.S. servicemen all over the world today.

The pre-amble of Constitution of the United States of America defines its intent to include "promote the general welfare". Thus, our the founding fathers saw one intent of our government was to aid its citizens. This half of the relationship between citizen and government seems clear. It proposes that government has an obligation to its citizens. In the years I have been formulating my political philosophy, it has become clear to me that, for a citizen to contribute to the society as a whole, each of those citizens must have the necessary conditions to do so. It seems self evident these necessary conditions include food, shelter, and mental and physical health. For this reason I have long supported the idea of a guaranteed national income (what has become known as universal basic income - this could be supported by a Universal Transaction Tax in lieu of all other forms of tax.)

Yet the other half of the relationship between society and citizen, the responsibility of that citizen to the state (as administrated by the government) is not directly mentioned in our constitution. This is a serious, perhaps even fatal, lapse of rigor. There is, however, a proposed principle which could equitably rectify this lapse.

In his science fiction book, Starship Troopers, author and U.S. Navy vet Robert A. Heinlein postulated a society in which democratic participation is contingent upon (military) service. If you don't serve, you don't get to vote. Hear, hear! 

I don't expect to see even referendums disenfranchising voters any time soon. At the very least, measures requiring voters be veterans would have to be gradual. Yet veterans are the only group to have demonstrated their worthiness to vote by the reciprocal action in their relationship to the state of providing their service. We are the only ones who have proven our right by our service.

I don't propose that this service require willingness to bare arms. During the Viet Nam era in which I served, I greatly admired those of conscience who refused combat on grounds of personal conviction. I will always admire with gratitude the service of one of the medics in my unit who refused to carry weapons. Military service need not require a willingness to fight. Yet, for several reasons, I think that the obligation of an individual's service to society at large is best attained thru military service. Military service provides a common background of discipline,duty, and honor to all vets.

My service eventually provided me with the tools to participate more fully in our democracy. It gave me the confidence to assert my own path in life. It have me a broader view of the world by taking me places that introduced cultures different from my own. It gave me a broader view of the composition of my own society by introducing me to individuals, both admirable and not, of very different socio-economic backgrounds than my own. Eventually, my service helped secure an advanced education, a home, and ongoing medical care. These days, it also provides sufficient to give me have a low income, low impact, but desirable lifestyle.

It's currently considered good form to thank vets for their service. It always embarrasses me slightly as completely unnecessary. I am grateful for the experiences of my military service and for the benefits it accrued. I am convinced I am better, more informed citizen from my military experience. We vets earned the right to participate in our democracy. I think every one else should earn theirs too for their own benefit as well as societies. I support Universal Service. On this day of remembrance and re-dedication I commend this thought to all the men and women who honor their oath to the Constitution by their service past, present and future.









 

Patriotism

Yesterday I received an award for "California Patriot of the Year - 2015" from the Coalition to Honor America's Heroes. I have no idea why I was picked for this honor: somehow I got on their "one born every minute" mailing list. I know nothing about their organization. I suspect that they might think many of my views to be unpatriotic.

Nonetheless, it prompted me to scribe some thoughts I've had recently on the subjects of patriotism and heroism. I think Kipling gave the best definition of what society calls a hero in his poem if:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs...  (full poem @: "If," A Poem by Rudyard Kipling)

I don't think that doing your job in a stressful, possibly life-threatening situation is particularly heroic. In the case where I received an army award for valor I simply kept my cool while others were losing theirs. No bravery was involved, just simple self preservation. Those things which for which I was proud of my courage were small and went unnoticed at large. To me a hero is someone who puts himself on the line when he or she doesn't have to without expectation of reward or recognition.

But what I really wanted to address was the subject of "patriotism". In my experience 90% of what is called "patriotism" in the United States is not. It is jingoism. It is: let's jump on the band wagon and pound our chests while loudly proclaiming our tribe is better than anyone else's: "Our country (state,county, city, township), love it or leave it". While regional pride is a fine thing, this nonsense (I and my tribe are better than you and your tribe) is dangerous. To me, a true patriot opposes this type of thinking.

The true patriot is one who acts in a heroic manner for the good of their tribe. Especially those who sacrifice to that end. Most especially those who go oppose the mob opinion. I served in Viet Nam without regret. I laud those who throughout our history have given of themselves, perhaps risking their lives for their country.  I respect those who left the U.S. to evade the Viet Nam war but those who stayed behind and fought it were, in my book the at least as TRUE patriots.

For a democracy to function it is absolutely necessary that unpopular opinions be heard lest the democratic process be overwhelmed by the "tyranny of the majority". To publicly express an unpopular opinion requires courage. To be a heroic patriot means standing up to the crowd and saying "you're wrong" and "here's why."

Four Steps to a Rational Society

Four Steps to a Rational Society

    What does the obligation of the individual to society? What is the obligation of society to the individual?  In order to determine what a rational structure for a society might be, one must first ask what the function of that society is. In a democracy it seems clear that that function is to provide for the welfare of its members. When a society fails to provide the necessities of life for a member, that member is no longer capable of participating in the society. Thus food, shelter, clothing and health, both physical and mental are obligations of society.  Further when the society fulfills that obligation it seems only reasonable that the individual owes service of some form to that society.
    These conclusions lead to the first two of the four steps to a rational society:
1) UBI - Universal Basic Income (Guaranteed Income)
    The simplest way for a society to meet it's obligation of providing for the welfare of its members on an individual basis is what I originally called a guaranteed national income and has now come to be called "Universal Basic Income". This is a rational approach to equality under the law.
2) USvc - Universal Service (a universal draft)
    Any citizen not willing to provide service to the society in which they live is not worthy of that society. The mechanisms for providing that service under law must be, of necessity, of some complexity. However as a first pass it seems to this author that, as the working life of an adult is approximately 50 years, a draft for all citizens of 5 years service (10%h of adult working life) is not unreasonable.
    How then may the funds necessary to support step 1) and other public works be raised in an equitable? This leads to the second two steps:
3) Transaction Tax - a tax on all public exchanges of goods and services to the exclusion of all other taxes
    Providing the extensive funds necessary to finance UBI may best be achieved by a transaction tax in the absence of all other forms of taxation. The society provides the means for the transition to take place so ethical grounds for its taxation are established. The current system of taxation is so grossly unfair that it is laughable. The middle class experiences higher, & higher tax rates, while trillion dollar corporations use tax shelters to avoid paying. In the U.S. approximately 5 billion dollars in transactions occur every day. A 10% tax on these transitions would provide enough in a single day to yield over a thousand dollars for every U.S. citizen. Further, this would, in all likely-hood, result in a bureaucracy  greatly reduced from the current kludge. An old rule in design is "KISS: keep it simple, stupid." Simple is fairer.
4) Tax Use Choice - implementation of the citizen's right to determine how  his taxes are used.
    In today's society, an option that has never before been available is available: the choice of which public works (aside from the given UBI) to which the citizen's tax dollars are spent. The use of computers makes this possible. Every citizen should be able to say where their tax dollars are put to work. As an example, I am a proponent of space exploration. Many I know are not. I should be able to put my tax dollars into this public work while my neighbor, who supports better street lightening (which I think superfluous) puts their money into the lighting.
    Obviously, there are details to be worked out here should such a utopian scheme ever be adopted. Let me warn here that adoption of a 1)UBI without some form of 2)universal service can not work and I would oppose it. Today's political realities may prevent such a scheme from being adopted especially with regard to step 3) transition tax.  I am not holding my breath. . Further, there would be many technological challenges to implementing 4)a tax use choice though they are tech implementation problems, not theoretical limitations.
     Perfection is a goal that is likely unattainable practically yet should be the goal towards which we strive. I hope we have the wisdom to continue to do so.

Homecoming

Homecoming

    Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Clarke Down Station.  I am Dr. Pamela Diaz-Singh and on the behalf of Sol-Synch and Eden-Earth  I have the honor of  giving you your Earth-side orientation this morning. The Eden-Earth Corporation currently leases Clark Down for the administration of all visitors to planet-side. This gives Eden-Earth lobby influence in the Sol-Synch democracy process according to the performance of their contractual obligations.

    I want to take just a few minutes to review the briefing you received yesterday at Up Station. The crew of the Colony Research Vessel Hudson is the third to complete the return voyage to Earth.  We have found that short term memory loss  is significant for round trip passengers using cryopods. Be assured, your memory functions will soon return to normal. To assist in that, clean out remaining toxins, and rebuild muscle and bone loss for a terrestrial gravity environment you were injected yesterday with nanys. You'll probably experience some discomfort over the next couple of days so we recommend that you take it easy and rest in the guest quarters assigned you here at Clarke Down when not attending seminars. You may run slight fevers. Starting Thursday you will probably feel up to using Eden-Earth facilities and will be given passes to go any where you wish planet-side. Transport to a point within about a hundred kilometers of any destination on the planet via Entanglement Pads will be made available. Just use your ID badge at the EPad kiosk.

    As you've been told, your voyage from Bernard's Star has been highly successful. There was a 97% recovery rate. We sincerely regret the loss of  the Hudson's junior communications officer Lawrence Kelsey. There will be a memorial service in the Clarke Down chapel at 16:30 this afternoon.  Directions are in your handouts and will also be available  through the link.

    I know you were all hoping to make an important contribution to mankind's knowledge of possible human colony habitats but, as you were told yesterday, the scientific information you brought back with you is obsolete. A practical model of the Alcubierre drive was perfected 73 years after the Hudson left Earth. The SSV John Muir arrived at Benard's Star about 3 years into your return home. The information you carried including sample materials was brought here over 56 years ago by the Muir. All of this information will be available to you over the link as your nanys come on line over the day or so. We've scheduled a seminar on link use for 13:00 this afternoon in this conference room. Rest assured that your sacrifices have not gone in vain. As your individual nanys become operative (they will tell you when they are ready) we'd like you to spend an hour resting in your assigned quarters. At that time your subjective experiences will be added to the link models of many different fields including cryo-biology,  planetary formation, inter-stellar vehicle design, exo-zoology, and so on.

    I want to spend a few moments  in refresher on the salient points of earth history in the 172 years since the Hudson left Earth can be enumerated as follows:
1) At the time of the Hudson's departure increasing planetary temperature had released a number of extremely virulent pathogens from Antarctic ice where they'd been frozen since the age of the dinosaurs
2) Over 80% of Earth's human population was affected and unprecedented mass extinctions occurred in species world-wide
3) The development of successful nany technology in 2137, some fourteen years into the Hudson's outbound journey,  provided the mechanism for the inoculation of human and many other key species.
4) One specific type of nany with the ability to manipulate it's directional opacity provided for a mechanism clouds of nanys to  regulate the Earth's weather. The mean terrestrial  temperature has been reduced by 4 degrees since your departure.
5) The completion of the 5th beanstalk in Kiribati in 2142 provided sufficient orbital lift capability that mass migrations off planet to the O'Neill habitats, Luna, Mars, the belt and the outer planets began shorly afterwords.
6) During this entire time span incremental breakthroughs in chaos engineering provided the understanding to model and restore terrestrial eco-systems to park like conditions.

    Most of you will be concerned that your qualifications for employment are obsolete. While this is true, let be assure you that it is no cause for concern. First of all, no one in the Sol system needs to work unless they desire to do so.  As you have now discovered goods and services in the Sol system are not acquired by any medium of exchange.  What was called "money" no longer exists in any form as the nanys can manufacture any conceivable object on demand. However, most residents thru out the system do find some form of work fulfilling and over 98% are engaged in some employment. Should you find any field of employment that interests you, you can learn all the necessary skills for an apprentice position thru the link in a week or less. An increasing portion of Sol system population is currently engaged in arts and crafts. This form of employment now occupies over 50% of the population. I know you heard all of this yesterday at Up so forgive any boring repetition.

    Sol-Synch has automatically granted all of you citizenship for the duration of your stay in system should that be for a short time or in perpetuity. More on that in two seminars tomorrow on the Sol-Synch democratic process and on Corporate Entities such as Eden-Earth.

    I'm excited to tell you now of my own job. I'm one of the few thousand lucky people who currently have permanent residence planet-side. My job allows me Down residence and though any Sol-Synch citizen is welcome to come Down,  most only come for brief visits.

    I am, what would be called in your departure era, an ecologist.  My actual title when such rarely used things come into play is Senior System Ecological Engineer for the Greater  Grand Teton Area. It's located in the northwestern corner of what was Wyoming, U.S.A. My officious title is pretty pedantic.  I think a much more accurate description would be gardener or steward. I am happy to be one of half a dozen workers in the Grand Tetons area.

    As I said, I'm honored to have been selected to give you this briefing on the mores you'll be expected to follow while Down. Most of these involve mitigating interference with the control structures used downside and most are self evident. Firstly listen to the cautions given to you over the link. Don't kill, obstruct, or otherwise intentionally interfere with any life form. This includes things like swatting mosquitoes. For the first few days of your visit you will probably be bitten when you go outside in many areas. We are initially monitoring your blood chemistry thru the link. Some area's are fallow areas and you won't be allowed to enter them without prior approval. Some technological devices are proscribed in certain areas. As an example of this, my husband, who works in undersea engineering, is not permitted to use SONAR in several places even tho it would aid in his work.  We think that it's most unlikely but should you choose to intentionally disregard link cautions the link will, depending on circumstances, prompt you to exit Down. We haven't had a case of forcible ejection for over 30 years.

    While I was thinking of how to give this presentation on how we administrate Down, and why we do have some control restrictions,  I concluded the best way would be to give you a journal of a typical day for me. This is my story for June 23rd, three days ago local time.

    I began my day at 0700. Chandra, my husband, was already up and had made coffee for me. A quick kiss goodbye and he was off to work via telefactor. He's currently installing geothermal generators for the Eastern Pacific in the Marianas Trench. We're close enough that the machinery Moon, my husband, works with is not affected by lag and we're able to live at a nice location on Jenny Lake in the Tetons.

    While I was in the kitchen for my coffee that morning,  I noticed that a number of ants had exceeded the bounds of the desired attractor orbital and were crawling on my counter-top rather than scavinging at night on the floor. So I began my work day in my office by reprogramming the nanys I use to talk to the queen of the nearby ant mound. I instructed her via link to slightly adjust the amino acid ratios in her eggs. This caused the resulting workers to give a greater precedence to chem trails in the plane of the mound rather than chem trails in the up direction. By six that evening all of the ants had left the counter. Altogether this took about an hour and a half. I then uplinked the updated code to Sol-Synch. It will be then sent to a number of O'Neill habitats where it can be used as needed in their control systems.

    I then ran my daily monitor survey looking for any indicators of out of constraint parameters thruout the Jackson Hole area. Most everything was well within acceptable constraints but there was a minor problem with bighorn sheep over-grazing several meadows to the southeast of Mt. Moran. About two hours modeling told me that this was likely related to a lightening strike that caused a 20 acre burn-off on Paintbrush Divide two months ago. Since it wasn't a fault in the control structures for the sheep, I didn't do anything to change the programming of their nanys. We prefer to use minimal technological interferance  and completely organic controls whenever possible. This is why the burn had occurred in the first place. If you are at all familiar with chaotic systems, you will know that slight changes in initial conditions can cascade into unexpected consequences. This is not to say that chaotic systems are random, they're not. They still tend to stabilize around strange attractors. My task was to introduce the minimum control to re-stabilize the grazing of this particular herd of bighorn. I could have overlooked the over-grazing but we've been trying to reintroduce a spectacular extinct species of wild flower, the wood lily, to that area and I wanted to cut the possibility of seedlings or mature flowers being trampled by the sheep.

    As I mentioned, the preferred method of our management program is to use organic controls. It's an art form as much as a science. I decided that the best option I had to stop the over-grazing was to introduce another predator into the area. This would thin the herd slightly and could also be used as an incentive for the herd to re-adjust its grazing pattern to the southwest where there was more forage available. It's quite common to use apex predators in this manner as they are generally more intelligent individually and easier to communicate with.

    To this end I contacted an old friend. Felix is an eleven year old mountain lion whose range was centered 20 kilometers north of the area where the overgrazing had occurred. His ancestors were successfully re-introduced to the Grand Teton area around eighty years ago from frozen ARK stock. Felix had just finished siring two cubs with Felicity. Having an overlapping range with a nursing female would soon begin to cause problems anyway (as mountain lions tend to be solitary) so it was time to move him. I should mention at this point that, should you choose to visit our area, you can observe Felicity's cubs from an excellent maximal stealth vantage a quarter mile off the Whatever Ridge Trail. They are adorable and will remain with their mother in the area thruout the next year.

    I contacted Felix thru the link. I found him napping in a shaded niche between three granite boulders about 4 kilometers from Felicity's den. I began with a link to his audio nerve. I told him I wanted him to move and gave the direction south. Cats are a quite independent family of creatures but quite capable of understanding simple verbal instructions. Felix  was in a restless mood due partially to his instinct to move farther away from the den. Naturally, he balked at following instructions but I was quite ready for this. I used the nanys to stimulate hormone secretions in his brain increasing his desire to move while reinforcing the verbal connection to the direction south. I then triggered previously mapped brain areas that contained memories of our bonding sessions so that he associated these commands with a positive experience. For anyone interested in these bonding sessions feel free to join me this afternoon. I'm going to be working with a pair of black bear cubs in Paintbrush Canyon while their mother takes a siesta. I'll leave here for home via Epad at 15:00 and take a stealth lift into the canyon from there. The bonding session will finish around 17:30.

    Around 11:30 on the day I'm describing I broke for lunch with Moon and a short nap for myself. At 14:00 we both went back to work. I checked to see that Felix was, indeed, traveling to the southwest. I linked with my assistant Josh Spears who was camping near Holly lake while gathering data for wood rat modeling and asked him to keep an eye out for Felix later that night.

    Around 16:00  Moon and I took a tea break. At 16:30 we went for  short hike past Hidden Falls and up Cascade Canyon. I noticed  a large build up of downed aspen from beaver harvesting in the area and sent a link mail request to Josh that he look into that problem when he returned while I was here at Clark Down. Moon and I  returned home about 18:30 for a light meal. We spent about 2 and a half hours in and interactive fantasy VR that we both enjoy.  Around 22:00  I spent an hour analyzing the day's nany data and another half an hour uplinking all the results to Eden-Earth headquarters and to Sol-Synch. Then off to a good night's sleep. Which concludes the story of my day and my part of this seminar. I can't tell you how much I love my work and life. I assure you that such opportunities are available to each of you as are opportunities in larger, more human interactive projects such as my husbands.

    Thank you for your attention during this presentation.I hope it's given you something of an overview on how our home planet is currently managed and hope you've enjoyed it. I'm now going to turn you over to my apprentice, Will Carol, for a brief question and answer period to be followed by lunch.

    Again, on behalf of Eden Earth, welcome to paradise.

    Welcome home.

Our Patriotic Duty

Our Patriotic Duty

On Dissent

Here it is again, that day when United States citizen's celebrate thumbing our nose at an insane British monarch (George the Third, talking about the British monarch not the one we had a few years ago, ended up standing in a corner of Winsor palace thinking he was a clock (according to one source)) . There will be parades and, of course, fireworks, cheerful explosions of color to light up night skies and make every red blooded American celebrate his independence. Sorry Canada, Mexico, Belize, El Salvador,  Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama did you think you were Americans?. Sorry everybody south of there - the only real America is North America. And as for you, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and all you little island folk, we don't even know what to make of you. We're talking about America here. So we will enjoy our Jingoistic celebration without a thought of you unless somebody mentions building a wall to keep you out and then we'll probably add a few gunshot wounds to our celebration.

Now, I do like an occasional fireworks display. Not so hot on parades because I don't like crowds, and I honor the memory of all the women and men who have given of themselves in service to try and protect this fragile edifice called democracy. Some of them were my closest friends and I think they would be horrified.

In the United States it is not only fragile, it is in grave danger. Should current trends continue calling ourselves a democracy will only be lying to ourselves. The so called "Patriot Act" is the most heinous piece of tyrannical legislation imposed on the U.S. citizenry since - well maybe ever. We can credit our George III and the cowardice of congress ("Those who exchange freedom for security deserve neither."- Ben Franklin -apocryphal ). Patriotism requires courage. There will always be crazies and laws are not going to get rid of them nor protect us from them. Only continuous, directed, cognizant empathy and education can do that. Those who exchange promises of security for freedom will get neither.

The recent supreme court decisions granting even further "rights" to corporations (the same ones which we bail out again and again with taxpayer money because no individual can be held accountable for corporate actions and who's CEOs sail golden parachutes to private luxury retirement) are Machiavellian (see NPR's article When Companies Became People. Facebook has censored ISIS and ABC is censoring an unpopular opinions so the writing is in the wind..Thanks be we still have (for now) that most American of rights: the Right of Dissent.

In my opinion It is far more patriotic to burn a flag than it is to wave one. Waving one is easy. Standing up in the face of mindless Jingoism to burn a flag in protest an outrageous (real or perceived) affront to democracy shows the courage of one's convictions. I don't think ABC should censor Tim Allen's attacks on liberals. I don't even think that Facebook should censor whatever the flavor of  Islamic extremists for the week. Democracy at its very core requires dissent. It is more than a right, it is a duty. Are you listening NSA? Up yours!

I believe in the spirit of democracy. The power to govern ultimately resides in the hands of the people. We're going to make mistakes (like George the Third, ours not theirs) but it's still the best over-all form of governance that anybody's come up with and, if not in the United States, the idea will prevail. Dissent will see to it. Dissent is our patriotic duty.

Somebody famous once said "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it." That's the American spirit I'm going to be celebrating.

Better GMAIL Management

 I test a lot of programs and occasionally subscribe to newsletters or feeds. This results in a bunch of stuff I don't want to look at showing up in my gmail inbox. I recently discovered a neat trick around this that  adds email aliases to gmail . You can use the alias addresses  to auto filter  incoming mail to various labels:



Official Gmail Blog: 2 hidden ways to get more from your Gmail address

Politically Incorrect

Where I come from, being called "dude" was a double insult. A "dude" was a greenhorn likely to try & mount the wrong side of his horse. A male (I'm female) tourista wearing a cowboy hat. It was obvious that he was a tourista because his cowboy hat was clean and a real cowboy's seldom is. A "dude" was a "drugstore cowboy" I was miffed when someone called me a dude.

 But, times have changed and so has society's lexicon. We've changed "disrespect" from a noun to a verb.  Far worse in my mind, ignorant national newscasters have made "an historical occasion" instead of  "a historical occasion" the accepted phrase. The guiding rule had been "an" before a noun beginning with a vowel and "a" before a noun beginning with a consonant. The letter "h" is a consonant. ( My English teachers would have been horrified.) English is a living language, not some static thing carved in stone.

The Japanese (those from Nippon) use to call Caucasians "gaijen" meaning "foreign devil". For westerners being offended would have disrupted commerce. During the era of the civil rights movement it became polite to call a Negro person "black". This was to avoid the slurs associated with the word "nigger". Negro is a the correct English word used by ethnologists to refer to a specific race. It comes from the Spanish "negra" (meaning black) as many of the Muslim Moors were dark skinned. Likewise, the confusion of Columbus gave us the confused racial name of "Indian" for the natives that he found in the Americas.

The black (negro) folks I know are not really black. They are various shades of chocolate brown. Actually, I'm not white. I'm sort of salmon pink. Imagine the Klu Klux Klan wearing pink sheets to their meetings! Personally, I think referring to the two main divisions of race in the United States as "chocolate" and "vanilla" would be rather cool. We could throw in "strawberry" and "butterscotch" to cover the whole field.

Don't get me started on "Native American". Oops, too late. I'm a native American. The flesh of my flesh came from America. The bones of my bones are made from the calcium of American soil. To disparage this in any way disconnects me from the environment in which I live (and we're beginning to see where that leads, aren't we?).

 I used to try to refer to the peoples who's land the European settlers took as "first peoples" to try to show some respect but that's too big a mouthful.  "Indian" (still use it occasionally as old habits die hard) doesn't show that respect and is totally confusing. After 400 years we should have come up with something better but then we in the United States are still using the size of some king's foot as our standard of measurement. As far as I know,  name of the king is lost in antiquity. These days I try to remember to change the "Indian" misnomer to "Amerind". Intent seems to me to be the most element in referring to an ethic group and hopefully this is both meaningful and respectful.

I recently saw a public broadcast where a guest on an interview called out another guest for using the 60's term "black" to refer to an ethnicity. "You're supposed to say 'African American'". What complete bullsquat. This politically correct nonsense has gone too far. I had a friend who's ethnicity origin was Mexico. I called him a "chicano" as was the politically correct term at the time. "I AM not a chicano I'm a MEXCAN", was his response tho he was born in the US. Another friend of mixed Amerind & Spanish origin I frequently teased by calling a "wetback" referring to the idea that immigrants from the south often cross the border by swimming across the Rio Grande or the All-American Canal. He knew that  I was well aware that his ancestors had settled nearby long before any Europeans had even explored the area. I was teasingly acknowledging that fact and showing appreciation for the contribution his culture had made to mine.

In some communities I have seen friends of all races affectionately referring to each other as "nigger" in the same vein as "dude" is often used today. No offense is meant. I'll start saying "African American" and "Asian American" when people start calling me an "European American". I'd much rather be actually correct than be politically correct.

I don't want to go around feeling offended when the person calling me a "dude" mean no offense. So, if I say something off the cuff that offends you, please ignore it. I hardly ever mean to offend anyone and if I do I can just about guarantee that you'll know it. And, I promise I won't take offense when someone calls me a "dude" or just about anything else that's in their personal lexicon.

Let's all be more civil to each other by making this promise to ourselves: "Don't take offense where none is meant".  To do so not only hurts ourselves, it's just plain silly.

 And, always be sure to - "smile when you say that, stranger."