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This is the weblog of
Raymond Powers.
Here I will be sharing what I find of import, humor, concern, inspiration and on the transformational edge
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A Quote:
No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place. --Zen
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Raymond lives in Ojai, where the time now is:
12:55PM
Unique Readers:
Primarily
Public Domain
Everything I've written here, except my copyrighted
essays, poetry, lyrics, and music is hereby placed in the public
domain. The quotes from other people's writings, and the pictures
used might or might not be copyrighted, but are considered fair
use. Thus the license here would best be described as:
Primarily Public
Domain.
Please ask permission if there is any question in
regards to public domain usage.
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| Saturday, April 5, 2003 |  |
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5 Apr 2003 @ 11:45
A friend of mine whom I rarely dialogue with asked me what I think about what's happening in the world? My first thought was "which happening?" I thought I would give myself a challenge to answer something to her since I was inclined just to stay silent. Here's what filtered through into the email I sent back to her.
"Which part of the world? Lot's happening everywhere.
Finding a connecting point in a relationship of diversity is a challenge. I say continue to question authority, demand truth, and support all Beings inalienable right to freedom. Live by example. Teach our children non-violent methods for problem solving. Educate ourselves.
Be willing to admit the most subtle traces of racism,classism that lurk within us. Celebrate our cultural differences. Peace does not necessarily mean the absence of violence, but a balance of power. Unzip the trousers of patriarchy and kick it in the balls. Use our natural innate gifts to ground a new vision into reality.
Live lightly on the land, practice sustainability and support only those corporations that give more than they take. Be rigorous with ourselves, where are we as individuals not at peace. What is happening in the world is happening inside of us." More >
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| Friday, April 4, 2003 | |
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 4 Apr 2003 @ 19:40
This appeared on Snopes and Yahoo
'TIME-TRAVELER' BUSTED FOR INSIDER TRADING
Wednesday March 19, 2003
By CHAD KULTGEN
NEW YORK -- Federal investigators have arrested an enigmatic Wall Street wiz on insider-trading charges -- and incredibly, he claims to be a time-traveler from the year 2256!
Sources at the Security and Exchange Commission confirm that 44-year-old Andrew Carlssin offered the bizarre explanation for his uncanny success in the stock market after being led off in handcuffs on January 28.
"We don't believe this guy's story -- he's either a lunatic or a pathological liar," says an SEC insider.
"But the fact is, with an initial investment of only $800, in two weeks' time he had a portfolio valued at over $350 million. Every trade he made capitalized on unexpected business developments, which simply can't be pure luck.
"The only way he could pull it off is with illegal inside information. He's going to sit in a jail cell on Rikers Island until he agrees to give up his sources."
The past year of nose-diving stock prices has left most investors crying in their beer. So when Carlssin made a flurry of 126 high-risk trades and came out the winner every time, it raised the eyebrows of Wall Street watchdogs.
"If a company's stock rose due to a merger or technological breakthrough that was supposed to be secret, Mr. Carlssin somehow knew about it in advance," says the SEC source close to the hush-hush, ongoing investigation.
When investigators hauled Carlssin in for questioning, they got more than they bargained for: A mind-boggling four-hour confession.
Carlssin declared that he had traveled back in time from over 200 years in the future, when it is common knowledge that our era experienced one of the worst stock plunges in history. Yet anyone armed with knowledge of the handful of stocks destined to go through the roof could make a fortune.
"It was just too tempting to resist," Carlssin allegedly said in his videotaped confession. "I had planned to make it look natural, you know, lose a little here and there so it doesn't look too perfect. But I just got caught in the moment."
In a bid for leniency, Carlssin has reportedly offered to divulge "historical facts" such as the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden and a cure for AIDS.
All he wants is to be allowed to return to the future in his "time craft."
However, he refuses to reveal the location of the machine or discuss how it works, supposedly out of fear the technology could "fall into the wrong hands."
Officials are quite confident the "time-traveler's" claims are bogus. Yet the SEC source admits, "No one can find any record of any Andrew Carlssin existing anywhere before December 2002."
Weekly World News will continue to follow this story as it unfolds. Keep watching for further developments. More >
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4 Apr 2003 @ 19:30
Insects thrive on GM 'pest-killing' crops
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
30 March 2003
Genetically modified crops specially engineered to kill pests in fact nourish them, startling new research has revealed.
The research – which has taken even the most ardent opponents of GM crops by surprise – radically undermines one of the key benefits claimed for them. And it suggests that they may be an even greater threat to organic farming than has been envisaged.
It strikes at the heart of one of the main lines of current genetic engineering in agriculture: breeding crops that come equipped with their own pesticide.
Biotech companies have added genes from a naturally occurring poison, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is widely used as a pesticide by organic farmers. The engineered crops have spread fast. The amount of land planted with them worldwide grew more than 25-fold – from four million acres in 1996 to well over 100 million acres (44.2m hectares) in 2000 – and the global market is expected to be worth $25bn (£16bn) by 2010.
Drawbacks have already emerged, with pests becoming resistant to the toxin. Environmentalists say that resistance develops all the faster because the insects are constantly exposed to it in the plants, rather than being subject to occasional spraying.
But the new research – by scientists at Imperial College London and the Universidad Simon Rodrigues in Caracas, Venezuela – adds an alarming new twist, suggesting that pests can actually use the poison as a food and that the crops, rather than automatically controlling them, can actually help them to thrive.
They fed resistant larvae of the diamondback moth – an increasingly troublesome pest in the southern US and in the tropics – on normal cabbage leaves and ones that had been treated with a Bt toxin. The larvae eating the treated leaves grew much faster and bigger – with a 56 per cent higher growth rate.
They found that the larvae "are able to digest and utilise" the toxin and may be using it as a "supplementary food", adding that the presence of the poison "could have modified the nutritional balance in plants" for them.
And they conclude: "Bt transgenic crops could therefore have unanticipated nutritionally favourable effects, increasing the fitness of resistant populations."
Pete Riley, food campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said last night: "This is just another example of the unexpected harmful effects of GM crops.
"If Friends of the Earth had come up with the suggestion that crops engineered to kill pests could make them bigger and healthier instead, we would have been laughed out of court.
From the Independent
"It destroys the industry's entire case that insect-resistant GM crops can have anything to do with sustainable farming."
Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, said it showed that GM crops posed an even "worse threat to organic farming than had previously been imagined". Breed- ing resistance to the Bt insecticide sometimes used by organic farmers was bad enough, but problems would become even greater if pests treated it as "a high-protein diet".
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 4 Apr 2003 @ 19:20
Get Ready for PATRIOT II
By Matt Welch, AlterNet
April 2, 2003
The "fog of war" obscures more than just news from the battlefield. It also provides cover for radical domestic legislation, especially ill-considered liberty-for-security swaps, which have been historically popular at the onset of major conflicts.
The last time allied bombs fell over a foreign capital, the Bush Administration rammed through the USA PATRIOT Act, a clever acronym for maximum with-us-or-against-us leverage (the full name is "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism").
Remarkably, this 342-page law was written, passed (by a 98-1 vote in the U.S. Senate) and signed into law within seven weeks of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. As a result, the government gained new power to wiretap phones, confiscate property of suspected terrorists, spy on its own citizens without judicial review, conduct secret searches, snoop on the reading habits of library users, and so General John Ashcroft wants to finish the job. On Jan. 10, 2003, he sent around a draft of PATRIOT II; this time, called "The Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003." The more than 100 new provisions, Justice Department spokesperson Mark Corallo told the Village Voice recently, "will be filling in the holes" of PATRIOT I, "refining things that will enable us to do our job."
Though Ashcroft and his mouthpieces have issued repeated denials that the draft represents anything like a finished proposal, the Voice reported that: "Corallo confirmed ... that such measures were coming soon."
You can read the entire 87-page draft here. Constitutional watchdog Nat Hentoff has called it "the most radical government plan in our history to remove from Americans their liberties under the Bill of Rights." Some of DSEA's more draconian provisions:
Americans could have their citizenship revoked, if found to have contributed "material support" to organizations deemed by the government, even retroactively, to be "terrorist." As Hentoff wrote in the Feb. 28 Village Voice: "Until now, in our law, an American could only lose his or her citizenship by declaring a clear intent to abandon it. But – and read this carefully from the new bill – 'the intent to relinquish nationality need not be manifested in words, but can be inferred from conduct.'" (Italics Hentoff's.)
Legal permanent residents (like, say, my French wife), could be deported instantaneously, without a criminal charge or even evidence, if the Attorney General considers them a threat to national security. If they commit minor, non-terrorist offenses, they can still be booted out, without so much as a day in court, because the law would exempt habeas corpus review in some cases. As the American Civil Liberties Union stated in its long brief against the DSEA, "Congress has not exempted any person from habeas corpus – a protection guaranteed by the Constitution – since the Civil War."
The government would be instructed to build a mammoth database of citizen DNA information, aimed at "detecting, investigating, prosecuting, preventing or responding to terrorist activities." Samples could be collected without a court order; one need only be suspected of wrongdoing by a law enforcement officer. Those refusing the cheek-swab could be fined $200,000 and jailed for a year. "Because no federal genetic privacy law regulates DNA databases, privacy advocates fear that the data they contain could be misused," Wired News reported March 31. "People with 'flawed' DNA have already suffered genetic discrimination at the hands of employers, insurance companies and the government."
Authorities could wiretap anybody for 15 days, and snoop on anyone's Internet usage (including chat and email), all without obtaining a warrant.
The government would be specifically instructed not to release any information about detainees held on suspicion of terrorist activities, until they are actually charged with a crime. Or, as Hentoff put it, "for the first time in U.S. history, secret arrests will be specifically permitted."
Businesses that rat on their customers to the Feds – even if the information violates privacy agreements, or is, in fact, dead wrong – would be granted immunity. "Such immunity," the ACLU contended, "could provide an incentive for neighbor to spy on neighbor and pose problems similar to those inherent in Attorney General Ashcroft's Operation TIPS."
Police officers carrying out illegal searches would also be granted legal immunity if they were just carrying out orders.
Federal "consent decrees" limiting local law enforcement agencies' abilities to spy on citizens in their jurisdiction would be rolled back. As Howard Simon, executive director of Florida's ACLU, noted in a March 19 column in the Sarasota Herald Tribune: "The restrictions on political surveillance were hard-fought victories for civil liberties during the 1970s."
American citizens could be subject to secret surveillance by their own government on behalf of foreign countries, including dictatorships.
The death penalty would be expanded to cover 15 new offenses.
And many of PATRIOT I's "sunset provisions" – stipulating that the expanded new enforcement powers would be rescinded in 2005 – would be erased from the books, cementing Ashcroft's rushed legislation in the law books. As UPI noted March 10, "These sunset provisions were a concession to critics of the bill in Congress."
I wouldn't be writing this article today had an alarmed Justice Department staffer not leaked the draft to the Center for Public Integrity in early February. Ashcroft, up to that point, had repeatedly refused to even discuss what his lawyers might be cooking up. But if 10,000 residents of Los Angeles had been vaporized by a "suitcase nuke" in late January, it is reasonable to assume that the then-secret proposal would have been speed-delivered for a congressional vote, even though Congress has not so far participated in drafting the legislation (which is, after all, its Constitutional role).
As a result of the leak, and the ensuing bad press, opposition to the measure has had time to gather momentum before the first bomb was dropped on Saddam's bunker. Some of the criticism has originated from the right side of the political spectrum – a March 17 open letter to Congress was signed not only by the ACLU and People for the American Way, but the cultural-conservative think tank Free Congress Foundation, the Gun Owners of America, the American Conservative Union, and more.
One does not have to believe that Ashcroft is a Constitution-shredding ghoul to find these measures alarming, improper and possibly illegal. Glancing over the list above, and at the other DSEA literature, I can see multiple ways in which a Fed with a grudge could legally ruin my life. Removing checks and balances on law enforcement assumes perfect behavior on the part of the police.
Safeguarding civil liberties is an unpopular project in the most placid of times. Since Sept. 11, the Bush Administration has shown that it will push the envelope on nearly every restriction it considers to be impeding its prosecution of the war on terrorism. This single-minded drive requires extreme vigilance, before the fog of war becomes toxic.
Detailed critiques of the Patriot II draft have been prepared by the ACLU and the Center for Public Integrity. The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights also has a useful 98-page report on post-Sept. 11 civil liberties, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center maintains an outstanding PATRIOT-related site.
Matt Welch is the Los Angeles correspondent for the National Post, and an editor of the L.A. Examiner. He also maintains a weblog about current events. More >
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4 Apr 2003 @ 18:25
Late Night Comments Re: War
BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
BuzzFlash Note: This collection of jokes was compiled by Daniel Kurtzman and can be found, with updates, here.
"The United States Central Command of the Armed Forces has asked Geraldo Rivera to leave Iraq. It should also be noted that the only three other people that the U.S. military has asked to leave Iraq are Saddam Hussein and his two sons." —Jon Stewart
"Iraq's elite Republican Guard is doing so badly they're changing their name to the Democratic Guard."
—David Letterman
"President Bush said this Iraq situation looks like 'the rerun of a bad movie.' Well sure, there's a Bush in the White House, the economy's going to hell, we're going to war over oil. I've seen this movie, haven't I?"
-- Jay Leno
"President Bush has said that he does not need approval from the UN to wage war, and I'm thinking, well, hell, he didn't need the approval of the American voters to become president, either."
-- David Letterman
"In a speech earlier today President Bush said if Iraq gets rid of Saddam Hussein, he will help the Iraqi people with food, medicine, supplies, housing, education – anything that's needed. Isn't that amazing? He finally comes up with a domestic agenda – and it's for Iraq. Maybe we could bring
that here if it works out."
-- Jay Leno
"President Bush announced tonight that he believes in democracy and that democracy can exist in Iraq. They can have a strong economy, they can have a good health care plan, and they can have a free and fair voting. Iraq? We can't even get this in Florida."
-- Jay Leno
"Democrats were quick to point out that President Bush's budget creates a 1 trillion dollar deficit. The White House quickly responded with 'Hey, look over there, it's Saddam Hussein.'"
-- Craig Kilborn
"We have it. The smoking gun. The evidence. The potential weapon of mass destruction we have been looking for as our pretext of invading Iraq. There's just one problem -- it's in North Korea."
-- Jon Stewart
"War continues in Iraq. They're calling it Operation Iraqi Freedom. They were going to call it Operation Iraqi Liberation until they realized that spells 'OIL.'"
-- Jay Leno
"CNN said that after the war, there is a plan to divide Iraq into three parts... regular, premium and unleaded."
-- Jay Leno
"Iraq began destroying those missiles they don't have over the weekend. See, President Bush may be the smartest military president in history. First, he gets Iraq to destroy all of their own weapons. Then he declares war."
-- Jay Leno
"Many of our soldiers are stationed at Camp Coyote just south of the Iraqi border. This is how you know we have a strong army, when you can actually tell your enemy exactly where your camp is and what its name is."
-- Jon Stewart
"The Pentagon still has not given a name to the Iraqi war. Somehow 'Operation Re-elect Bush' doesn't seem to be
popular."
-- Jay Leno
"The president boasted at the top of his press conference that we have the support now of Britain and Spain for our attack on Iraq. You know, when you want to make it perfectly clear to the world that you're not an imperialist, the people you want in your corner are Britain and Spain."
-- Bill Maher
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4 Apr 2003 @ 18:19
Though this is common knowledge to some, I am happy to see that the possibility has come to the fore again. When I was a teenager a friend of mine had some plans from the same era which he built and I saw work. Though it ran very hot, he was able to get close to 100 mpg on the Cadillac he installed it in.
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This comes from Times Online
The original blueprints for a device that could have revolutionised the motor car have been discovered in the secret compartment of a tool box.
A carburettor that would allow a car to travel 200 miles on a gallon of fuel caused oil stocks to crash when it was announced by its Canadian inventor Charles Nelson Pogue in the 1930s.
But the carburettor was never produced and, mysteriously, Pogue went overnight from impoverished inventor to the manager of a successful factory making oil filters for the motor industry. Ever since, suspicion has lingered that oil companies and car manufacturers colluded to bury Pogue’s invention.
Now a retired Cornish mechanic has enlisted the help of the University of Plymouth to rebuild Pogue’s revolutionary carburettor, known as the Winnipeg, from blueprints he found hidden beneath a sheet of plywood in the box.
The controversial plans once caused panic among oil companies and rocked the Toronto Stock Exchange when tests carried out on the carburettor in the 1930s proved that it worked.
Patrick Davies, 72, from St Austell, had owned the tool box for 40 years but only recently decided to clean it out. As well as drawings of the carburettor, the envelope contained two pages of plans, three test reports and six pages of notes written by Pogue.
They included a report of a test that Pogue had done on his lawnmower, which showed that he had managed to make the engine run for seven days on a quart (just under a litre) of petrol.
The documents also described how the machine worked by turning petrol into a vapour before it entered the cylinder chamber, reducing the amount of fuel needed for combustion.
Mr Davies has had the patent number on the plans authenticated, proving that they are genuine documents.
He said: “I couldn’t believe what I saw. I used to be a motor mechanic and I knew this was something else altogether. I was given the tool box by a friend after I helped to paint her house in 1964. Her husband had spent a lot of time in Canada.”
The announcement of Pogue’s invention caused enormous excitement in the American motor industry in 1933, when he drove 200 miles on one gallon of fuel in a Ford V8. However, the Winnipeg was never manufactured commercially and after 1936 it disappeared altogether amid allegations of a political cover-up.
Dr Murray Bell, of the University of Plymouth’s department of mechanical and marine engineering, said he would consider trying to build a model of the Pogue carburettor.
Engineers who have tried in the past to build a carburettor using Pogue’s theories have found the results less than satisfactory. Charles Friend, of Canada’s National Research Council, told Marketplace, a consumer affairs programme: “You can get fantastic mileage if you’re prepared to de-rate the vehicle to a point where, for example, it might take you ten minutes to accelerate from 0 to 30 miles an hour.” More >
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4 Apr 2003 @ 09:54
I'm a BIG fan of TechTV and especially the ScreenSavers show.
Recently they mentioned a blog called More Stuff 4 Less that gives a daily list of comparative technology prices. This includes special offers , rebates, re-furb etc. I don't purchase a lot of things but this looks like a great resource to check for all things computer, digital and electronic.
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4 Apr 2003 @ 09:37
For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives...
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon".
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept
this.
4. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive -but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10.You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off. More >
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| Tuesday, April 1, 2003 | |
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 1 Apr 2003 @ 09:32
Ideas are the most powerful thing on the planet. --
David Crosby More >
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 1 Apr 2003 @ 09:25
Berry is a strong defender of family, rural communities, and traditional family farms. He has developed 17 rules for the healthy functioning of sustainable local communities. The underlying principles could be described as 'the preservation of ecological diversity and integrity, and the renewal, on sound cultural and ecological principles, of local economies and local communities':
1. Always ask of any proposed change or innovation: What will this do to our community? How will this affect our common wealth.
2. Always include local nature - the land, the water, the air, the native creatures - within the membership of the community.
3. Always ask how local needs might be supplied from local sources, including the mutual help of neighbours.
4. Always supply local needs first (and only then think of exporting products - first to nearby cities, then to others).
5. Understand the ultimate unsoundness of the industrial doctrine of 'labour saving' if that implies poor work, unemployment, or any kind of pollution or contamination.
6. Develop properly scaled value-adding industries for local products to ensure that the community does not become merely a colony of national or global economy.
7. Develop small-scale industries and businesses to support the local farm and/or forest economy.
8. Strive to supply as mush of the community's own energy as possible.
9. Strive to increase earnings (in whatever form) within the community for as long as possible before they are paid out.
10. Make sure that money paid into the local economy circulates within the community and decrease expenditures outside the community.
11. Make the community able to invest in itself by maintaining its properties, keeping itself clean (without dirtying some other place), caring for its old people, and teaching its children.
12. Sees that the old and young take care of one another. The young must learn from the old, not necessarily, and not always in school. There must be no institutionalised childcare and no homes for the aged. The community knows and remembers itself by the association of old and young.
13. Account for costs now conventionally hidden or externalised. Whenever possible, these must be debited against monetary income.
14. Looks into the possible uses of local currency, community-funded loan programmes, systems of barter, and the like.
15. Always be aware of the economic value of neighbourly acts. In our time, the costs of living are greatly increased by the loss of neighbourhood, which leaves people to face their calamities alone.
16. A rural community should always be acquainted and interconnected with community-minded people in nearby towns and cities.
17. A sustainable rural economy will depend on urban consumers loyal to local products. Therefore, we are talking about an economy that will always be more cooperative than competitive.
From Heureka More >
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 1 Apr 2003 @ 09:10
The Lovers
will drink wine night and day.
They will drink until they can
tear away the veils of intellect and
melt away the layers of shame and modesty.
When in Love,
body, mind, heart and soul don't even exist.
Become this,
fall in Love,
and you will not be separated again.
*****************
Love rests on no foundation.
It is an endless ocean,
with no beginning or end.
Imagine,
a suspended ocean,
riding on a cushion of ancient secrets.
All souls have drowned in it,
and now dwell there.
One drop of that ocean is hope,
and the rest is fear.
****************
Love came,
and became like blood in my body.
It rushed through my veins and
encircled my heart.
Everywhere I looked,
I saw one thing.
The Beloved's name written
on my limbs,
on my left palm,
on my forehead,
on the back of my neck,
on my right big toe…
Oh, my friend,
all that you see of me
is just a shell,
and the rest belongs to the Beloved.
Poems from Rumi Network More >
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| Monday, March 31, 2003 | |
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 31 Mar 2003 @ 16:50
The National Wildlife Federation provides a resource, E-Nature, free of charge, to share your wildlife backyard habitat. You can include your design plan, photo album and species list.
It's a really fun on going project.
Letecia and I began ours last year. We live in beautiful Ojai, California about 4.5 miles into the Los Padres National Forest. We, along with two housemates, have an organic garden, about 35 rare and common fruit trees, an invigorating creek, local hotsprings and an abundance of wildlife.
Check out Our Little Paradise on E-Nature to learn more. More >
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| Sunday, March 30, 2003 | |
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 30 Mar 2003 @ 16:43
This is from James Twyman. He is an internationally renowned author and “Peace Troubadour” who has a reputation for drawing millions of people together in prayer to influence events of world crisis. In 1995 he had an experience in the mountains of Croatia that led to his best-selling book “Emissary of Light,” called “the second coming of the Celestine Prophesy” by Variety Magazine. His six books have been translated into over a dozen languages, and his cd’s are distributed around the world.
James has been invited by world leaders to countries like Iraq, Northern Ireland, Israel, South Africa and Serbia to offer his insights on peace and perform the “Peace Concert,” often while conflicts have raged in those countries. He has performed twice at the United Nations in New York, as well as the US Capitol and the US Pentagon. His peace projects, including the "Cloth of Many Colors", have inspired millions of people around the world.
His letter reads:
Last weekend 600 people gathered on the Big Island of Hawaii to listen to the messages of peace from several of the Psychic Children we have been working with over the past year. I believe it was one of the most profound
experiences any of us have ever had, and the Children themselves were overjoyed with the opportunity. In fact, during a panel discussion on Sunday, they presented their idea of a world wide prayer vigil that they believe would have a profound effect on the current crisis in Iraq. Its simplicity and wisdom is overwhelming, and the fact that the idea comes from children makes it irresistible.
They want to call this:
A Prayer Vigil for George Bush
They explained that there is so much energy against President Bush that we are not helping him make decisions for the highest good of every person on the planet. The more we focus on what we don't like, the more it increases. They suggest that we See him as God would, and focus on the Light in the President, thereby amplifying the Light. The children believe that if hundreds of thousands of people do this at the same moment, then the effect on his consciousness would be profound. I have to agree.
Therefore, we have decided to conduct an emergency "Great Experiment IV" and are asking all the Spiritual Peacemakers around the world to join us in this important project.
Here are the details:
April 1, 2003, 11 AM New York time, 8 AM California Time (determine your own time zone based on this) Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, will join together for fifteen minutes as one mind and pray for President
Bush (and all those who influence his decision making) to make all his decisions based on the highest good of all beings on earth. The Children suggested that we begin by imagining him as a little boy, and use our energy to empower his heart. They say that the boy is still within him, though he is very afraid. He doesn't need to be attacked for what he is doing, but loved, not for his actions, but for the Truth within him. We call this: "Seeing as God Sees and Loving as God Loves." If possible, gather with other people during this vigil, and please pass this E-mail on to as many people as you can to help spread the word.
Hundreds of people will be joining together in Washington, DC to anchor these important prayers. We are in the process of securing a permit for a location as close to the White House as possible, and will have children present a section of the "Children's Cloth of Many Colors" at the White House that same day. (The Children's Cloth of Many Colors is over one-third of a mile long, and is made up of pieces of cloth that have been infused with the energy of peace from tens of thousands of children from around the world. It came from the original "Cloth of Many Colors" peace project I started in 1999 which has been presented at the UN in New York, the US Capitol, the Pentagon, and many other places around the world.) If you live in the Washington area and would like to join the group praying near the White House, send an E-mail. You will receive a reply as soon as the location has been secured.
The Children wanted me to stress that this has nothing to do with agreeing or disagreeing with President Bush in regard to the war in Iraq. They say that in order to be Spiritual Peacemakers we must release our judgment and focus only on the higher good. George Bush has the power to effect the lives of so many people, and we pray that he will do so with compassion and peace. The intention of this vigil is to break down the walls of fear and increase the love in his heart. It is the gift of the children. Please join us.
Once again, April 1, 11 AM EST, fifteen minutes sending George Bush all the love you have in your heart. And tell the whole world. More >
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30 Mar 2003 @ 16:16
Here are a couple of fun, informative sites about urban legends.
Snopes
Scambusters
I wonder if there is a resource for suburban and rural legends. (: More >
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 30 Mar 2003 @ 12:04
Do I dare admit that I am a WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), formerly WWF, fan?
Wrestlemania was tonight and
Here Are The Results.
No, I didn't go or buy a pay-per-view so I guess I'm not that much of a die hard and... but the results are in and it looked like a great show.
Sport, reality TV, soap opera, and social commentary all rolled into one. More >
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 30 Mar 2003 @ 11:12
This is a lyric I wrote for a project called Sirius Bliss.
Sirius Bliss is a story of unity...transcendent of duality and dichotomy. A story told through the flow of love; harnessed with rhythm and rhyme.
The nature of Sirius Bliss reflects inherent, yet forgotten expressions of our sacred marriage. Ancient and Future.
The marriage of gender, earth and sky, sun and moon, thought and emotion,logic and creativity.
Touch Me
Listen to the music
Sometimes you go too far,
and there's no turning back now,
walking the razors edge.
Giving more than you take,
taking just what you need,
and needing to be close to you.
Touch me,
Come on and touch me,
taste my breath inside your breath,
raise my hands up to heaven,
raise my hands to your heart,
raise my hands to your heart.
I feel so much love for you,
I feel so much love for you.
Like the the water to the cliff,
River to the sea,
Flowers to the fragrance,
Fruit to the trees.
I feel so much love for you.
Too much conversation,
so much self control.
too much excitation,
burning in your soul,
too much confrontation,
pounding in your head,
shaking with sensation,
drop the skin,
drop the skin you shed.
Sometimes you go too far,
and there's no turning back now,
walking the razors edge.
Giving more than you take,
taking just what you need,
and needing to be close to you.
I feel so much love for you,
I feel so much love for you,
taste my breath inside your breath,
raise my hands up to heaven,
raise my hands to your heart,
I feel so much love for you. More >
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30 Mar 2003 @ 10:50
Check out Letecia Layson's blog article about the affects of geomagnetic, sun spots and solar flares on biological sytems, i.e. terrestial life. This is one of the first evidentiary studies that I have seen that clearly explains some of the whole body/mind xhanges that cyle periodically.
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| Friday, March 28, 2003 | |
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 28 Mar 2003 @ 20:49
Hemp is among the oldest industries on the planet, going back more than 10,000 years to the beginnings of pottery. The Columbia History of the World states that the oldest relic of human industry is a bit of hemp fabric dating back to approximately 8,000 BC.
Presidents Washington and Jefferson both grew hemp. Americans were legally bound to grow hemp during the Colonial Era and Early Republic.
Read more about the History of Hemp.
Stay on DEA Rule Continues; Hemp Industry Confident DEA
Harassment to End Soon
March 28, 2003
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - U.S. COURT of APPEALS for the NINTH CIRCUIT On March 21, while most Americans were captivated by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) published their final rules on hemp foods. The new "Final Rule" essentially bans the sale of all hemp food products by April 21, 2003 and is virtually identical to an "Interpretive Rule" issued on October 9,2001 that never went into effect because of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Stay issued on March 7, 2002. Today, the Hemp Industries Association (HIA) and several hemp food and cosmetic manufacturers will petition the Ninth Circuit to once again prevent the DEA from ending the legal sale of hemp seed and oil in the U.S..
"The DEA's charade of supposedly protecting the public from safe and nutritious hemp food is finally going to end," says David Bronner, Chairman of the HIA's Food and Oil Committee. "The Court is currently hearing a substantive challenge to the 'Interpretive Rule,' and in light of the announcement of the 'Final Rule,' the hemp industry is optimistic that the Court will ultimately invalidate the DEA's rule, as one of the prime criteria in granting the Stay was whether the hemp industry is likely to ultimately prevail on the merits of the case," adds Bronner.
*** Background on the DEA Hemp Food Fight ***
Because trace infinitesimal THC (an active ingredient in marihuana) in hemp seed is non-psychoactive and insignificant, the U.S. Congress exempted non-viable hemp seed and oil from control under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) (see 21 U.S.C. §802(16)), just as Congress exempted poppy seeds from the CSA, although they contain trace opiates otherwise subject to control. Hemp seed has a well-balanced protein content and the highest amount of essential fatty acids (EFAs) of any oil in nature: EFAs are the "good fats" that, like vitamins, the body does not produce and requires for good health. Dr. Udo Erasmus, an internationally recognized nutritional authority on fats and oils, writes in Fats that Heal - Fats that Kill: "Hemp seed oil may be nature's most perfectly balanced oil." Not surprisingly, shelled hemp seed and oil are increasingly used in natural food products, such as corn chips, frozen waffles, nutrition bars, hummus, nondairy milks, breads and cereals. In the last few years, the hemp foods industry has grown from less than $1 million to over $6 million in annual retail sales.
DEA attempts to ban hemp foods prompted a major public outcry. Over 115,000 public comments were submitted to the DEA against their new rules. On December 4, 2001, Vote Hemp, working with students, nutritionists and hemp manufacturers, organized the first ever "DEA Taste Tests" at DEA offices and natural food stores in 76 cities around the country to educate the public. In 2002, 22 members of Congress wrote the DEA telling the agency that their "Interpretive Rule" that bans edible hemp seed or oil items that contain "any THC"
is "overly restrictive."
Unlike the U.S., other Western countries (such as Canada, Germany and Australia) have adopted rational THC limits for foods, similar to those voluntarily observed by North American hemp food companies which protect consumers with a wide margin of safety from any psychoactive effects or workplace drug-testing interference (see hemp industry standards regarding trace THC). The 14-year-old global hemp market is a thriving commercial success. Unfortunately, because DEA's drug-war paranoia has confused non-psychoactive industrial hemp varieties of cannabis with psychoactive "marijuana" varieties, the U.S. is the only major industrialized nation to prohibit the growing and processing of industrial hemp.
Download a PDF copy of the Urgent Motion for Stay.
Visit the Vote Hemp news page for news stories and past press
releases at. More >
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 28 Mar 2003 @ 20:37
Thu Mar 27, 6:22 AM ET
By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - The music industry said on Thursday it had begun cascading pamphlets on universities across the globe in its latest blitz against online piracy.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a global trade group representing major and independent music labels and publishers, said it had begun issuing brochures to universities in 29 countries in Europe, South America, Asia and Australia spelling out the legal and technological snares of online file-sharing networks.
"In Canada and Europe we have found institutions where users are uploading thousands of files using university computer networks," said Allen Dixon, general counsel at IFPI in London. "At times, you can't even get on the Internet in some places because P2P (file-sharing) traffic is hogging the bandwidth."
The music industry blames peer-to-peer networks for part of the decline in recorded music sales, a slump some predict will continue for years, eating further into sales.
Online file-sharing networks such as Kazaa and iMesh attract millions of consumers daily who swap all manner of music, film and software, drawing the wrath of copyright holders everywhere.
University computers tend to be connected to high-speed networks and have ample storage space, two essentials for downloading large music and movie files.
IT experts warn that such connections can greatly slow network speeds and leave vast computer networks vulnerable to viruses and other digital intrusions.
In addition to technological risks, unauthorized copying is illegal in many countries, a point the IFPI intends to make clear in its brochures. A month ago, the music industry conducted a similar anti-piracy effort targeting corporations.
The IFPI, which represents majors Warner Music, Universal Music, EMI, Sony Music and BMG, has vowed to fight piracy on all fronts.
In addition to education initiatives, the group has stepped up lobbying efforts and has urged music labels to develop more compelling commercial download services.
The trade body said American universities, which have been targeted by U.S. music labels for the past two years, would not be included in this round of pamphleting. More >
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 28 Mar 2003 @ 20:30
" To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American
public." --Theodore Roosevelt More >
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 28 Mar 2003 @ 20:26
From Liberty Think website.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The future of surveillance aircraft will take off next Saturday from a small hayfield in northern Florida, but observers will have to look hard to see it. The next generation of spy planes will be small--perhaps less than 6 inches in diameter--and agile as a hummingbird.
Seeking to capitalize on the ability to put a TV camera on a chip and other shrinking components, university and Navy researchers will try their wings near here during a micro-aerial-vehicles (MAV) competition sponsored by the International Society for Structural and Multidisciplinary Organization (ISSMO). More >
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 28 Mar 2003 @ 20:21
Experts: Northwest quake under way taking weeks, not seconds
Wednesday, March 26, 2003
©2003 Associated Press
(03-26) 13:36 PST PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) --
A widespread earthquake is taking place beneath the Northwest, slowly unleashing energy that may be equivalent to the magnitude 6.7 Nisqually quake that rocked the region two years ago, experts say.
But the so-called "silent" or "slow" earthquake is releasing that energy over weeks rather than in the sharp, seconds-long jolts of a typical quake. No one can feel it.
The event started Feb. 26 and seems to be sputtering to a halt far beneath northwest Washington and southwest British Columbia. The quake originated beneath the Strait of Juan de Fuca near Friday Harbor, Wash., and Victoria, British Columbia.
Recently discovered silent quakes, which can only be detected with sensitive instruments, aren't as harmless as they may seem.
Scientists say they may be adding to the tremendous pressure in an area where the brittle rocks of two tectonic plates are locked offshore.
Evidence shows that every few hundred years, the jammed plates release that stress in huge magnitude 8 or 9 earthquakes that can rattle the entire Northwest coast and generate lethal tsunamis. The last such powerful subduction-zone quake occurred about 300 years ago.
"These slow slips aren't reducing the stress on the locked zone," said Herb Dragert, a research scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada in Sidney, British Columbia. "They're actually, in little pulses, adding a tiny bit of stress to the locked zone."
About every 14 to 15 months, the slow-motion earthquakes are generated about 15 to 30 miles deep at the interface of the lower Juan de Fuca tectonic plate and the upper North American plate.
In that area, called the "slip" zone, the rocks are hotter and more flexible than in the locked zone 30 to 60 miles farther west, allowing the plates to pass each other more easily.
"What is going on for those 14 to 15 months is that things are stickier in the slip zone," Dragert said. "Then the slip happens -- the sticky portion is released -- which adds stress to the locked zone" as the North American plate shifts westward toward it.
The locked zone is causing the western edge of the normally westward-moving North American plate to compress and be shoved eastward about a half inch each year along the coast. However, each slow earthquake reverses that eastward motion, allowing the North American plate to rebound westward by about 0.08 to 0.16 inches during the course of the quake.
The earthquakes weren't detected until data was obtained from the global positioning system, or GPS, a network of 24 orbiting satellites with instruments that can measure tiny movements of ground-based stations.
Scientists have found that the silent earthquakes' signals show up on seismographs, but until recently they were overlooked because they don't look similar to the signals from regular earthquakes.
The discovery of the silent quakes provides a new tool for monitoring the fault zone that could rupture into a powerful subduction zone earthquake, an event that occurs near the coast on average about every 500 years. More >
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| Thursday, March 27, 2003 | |
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27 Mar 2003 @ 12:43
MOAWW is a fairly comprehensive website that provides streams from international news feeds.
A lot of these audio/video streams are either bogged down, or entirely down, or this site is overloaded, but a friend WAS able to watch a little Bahrain TV.
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 27 Mar 2003 @ 10:02
Some friends of mine have developed an amazing dance ,movement, music technology they call Light Dancer
I've spent some time on this myself and it is really a lot of fun, multi-sensory and dissolves the boundaries between performers and audiences I see lots of different applications for this software/hardware invention.
In brief The LightDancerTM is a full-body, non-contact, mistake-free interactive music and visual media instrument. It can be configured either as permanently in-floor, or as a 1.5-inch thick, multi-hexagon platform.
First-time, casual players can effortlessly play real music,
while creating spectacular immersive and 3D interactive visuals.Spontaneously control lasers, or intelligent robotic lighting.
You can animate incredible 3D computer graphics, with the
3dMaxMedia Zuma Visualizer and...
groups of people can play simultaneously and in perfect harmony and rhythm,while creating huge overhead visuals in the forthcoming:Laserium Cyberdome More >
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 27 Mar 2003 @ 09:36
Help support and realize inexpensive free energy so we don't have to read articles like this one any longer.
By Mark Sherman
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal energy regulators said Wednesday that their investigation found widespread manipulation of natural gas and electricity prices and supplies in California.
Pat Wood, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said that as a result of the manipulation California would receive more than the $1.8 billion in refunds recommended by a FERC judge in December.
The exact amount is to be determined in the coming months, but FERC spokesman Kevin Cadden estimated that the total would be $3.3 billion. California is seeking $9 billion.
The FERC singled out seven subsidiaries of bankrupt Enron Corp. and five other companies for taking advantage of a dysfunctional market and reaping millions of dollars in unjust profits.
"The price gouging abounded," Commissioner William Massey said. He said he regretted that FERC did not intervene earlier to police the newly deregulated power market in California.
California Gov. Gray Davis said the ruling confirms "there was widespread market manipulation and a massive ripoff of California ratepayers. Now the question is whether the FERC commissioners will have the grit to order the remedies that are necessary."
The agency is considering placing limits on the profits of four marketers of wholesale power and banning eight gas companies from selling natural gas in California, Wood said.
The power marketers are Enron Power Marketing Inc., Enron Energy Services Inc., Reliant Energy Services Inc., and BP Energy Company.
The natural gas companies are Bridgeline Gas Marketing LLC, Citrus Trading Corp., ENA Upstream Company, Enron Canada Corp., Enron Compression Services Company, Enron Energy Services Inc., Enron MW LLC and Enron North America Corp.
The investigation also found a close link between natural gas and electricity prices. Gas is the fuel at many power plants.
After a 13-month investigation, FERC concluded "that many trading strategies employed by Enron and other companies violated the anti-gaming provisions" of marketing rules.
READ ON More >
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Sounding Circle implies the cycles, spirals and symbols of our thought, our culture, our lineage and our imagination.
A place to share ideas, create community, and give voice to our muse.
"Giving more than we take, taking just what we need."
"The universe is music connecting 10th dimensional hyperspace".
Prof. Michio Kaku, Phd. |
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"It's not what you think, it's what you think about."
- lyric from You Can't Turn Back (But You Can Turn Back On) |
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Sounding Circle
