Saturday, May 29, 2004
I DO! [.j.evonne.]
After a long wedding weekend in Vermont my email box is overflowing with VITAL INFORMATION. READ ME NOW! it says, be aware before it's too late! There's terrorist threats and political shenanigans and environmental woes, oh my!
Mark Morford at the Gate has a discerning eye and razor-sharp mouse...this week aimed at petroleum products and disposable culture. After scrubbing Satan's toilet with a magic wand he delightfully dances with the devil in our drawers.
Another email touts the new attack warnings as Ashcroft scare tactics. When I saw the bombastic headlines all over Boston my first thought that the warning was so vague and Patriot Act era definitions of terrorism are so broad that handing out the Bill of Rights in the approved protest areas for the DNC or RNC could be considered threatening. Maybe we're the terrorists, blogging here right now....asking difficult QUESTIONS about liquor chapels and questionable philosophers.
Phooey. I'm just an artist who wants to play with this.
Posted on
7:00 PM
BLOG TO THE FUTURE [coolmel]
for those who think blogging is just a fad, or a waste of time, or a hobby for losers and slackers, all i can say is that i pity them. for they can't see into the future.
Posted on
12:33 AM
Friday, May 28, 2004
SCIENCE AND FICTION? [Chris]
The Day After Tomorrow... jokes about accuracy aside that 'tomorrow never comes,' there's quite a stir about the science behind the film down here in Oz too. Here's a short, but informative interview with the guy who's theories have been exaggerated for the common folks (like me;) to get the message in an entertaining dystopian way that we Westerner's seem to love to so much... Transcript / Windows Media / Real Player
Surf's up!
Here's another take on the issues involved with world renowned futurist Peter Schwartz who was the chief of the 'Pentagon Report' on the global warming threat... Transcript / Windows Media / Real Player
Posted on
7:57 PM
THE CONSPIRACY AFTER TOMORROW [Paul]
Super fun-pack of weirdness going on this week, what with the release of Richard Hoagland's Enterprise Mission's response to The Day After Tomorrow, a vicious look at Christian Dominionism on Counterpunch, and the Village Voice telling us "There's No Such Thing as Paranoia". In short: there IS weird shit going on, insane Christians are taking over the government, and the way out is hyperdimensional physics. Sweet....
Posted on
1:44 PM
CATHOLIC MYSTICS ROCK [coolmel]
the East does NOT have a monopoly on mysticism. the Catholic tradition can be as hardcore when it comes to Divine Union. exoteric Catholicism may suck, but its esoteric heritage rocks!
Posted on
11:04 AM
OHNO! [.j.evonne.]
Worldchanging has a great interview with Doug Randall, author of the "Pentagon study" on abrupt global climate change. In light of the Day After Tomorrow and relevant discussions on how climate change will shape our future, this interview is blah blah blah.....
Posted on
8:24 AM
Thursday, May 27, 2004
THE MISSING FACTOR [Meera]
Math. The neglected field. It's only an irrational prejudice that convinces people that math is painful; nonetheless, many in the spiritual community in particular hold this prejudice: "I hate math", says my ex guru, of the field. Little does he--or anyone else seem to know--but math is going to prove integral; how can one claim to study the entire Kosmos while leaving out math? Sure, it's a human invention, but so are archetypes and language and a lot of other subjective stuff that gets quite a bit of attention.
It's only fear that keeps people away from math. Math is not painful though, or boring. Math is fun.
Posted on
2:53 PM
YOUR POLITICS SUCKS! [coolmel]
you think politics in the U.S. sucks? hah! think again you First World spoiled brats.
Posted on
10:50 AM
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
VOTE DAMN YOU [Chris]
Well, there's no way in hell I'm an American, but since some of you nice guys and gals are, and, well, whatever your president does in the world has MAJOR consequences for my personal sense of just how the world is doing at any given moment (and likely to do for the rest of life!) I think it important to share my little bit of unconsidered political insight for those within voting rights of the American Presidency this year...
"I sincerely hope that through these essays, there will be no doubt left in the minds of anyone "on the fence" that John Kerry is THE ONLY candidate to vote for in November. If I do as well as I hope, even conservatives will be led to do a little pondering on the subject, and perhaps even begin to consider the benefits of voting for a Democrat, if only once." ~ Alan Blevins
Go on, get another perspective if you're getting splinters on the fence, piles from intending to be apathetic, or are even lucky enough to have a centre of gravity stuck at republican... at least with titles like How Fucked We are Right Now it should be entertaining;)
Posted on
4:46 AM
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
THE BUILDING DID IT! [Paul]
It's enough to make a grown 27-year-old break down on his knees and move to Canada: George W., bless his tiny little fundamentalist heart, is going to make the Iraqi prison abuse scandal all better by, get this: tearing down the prison! That's what he said in his speech the other day, and it makes total sense: people will never again torture prisoners once the building they did it in is gone! That's like Al Qaeda making up for the Nick Berg decapitation by banning machetes, or Kobe Bryant redeeming his alleged sexual abuse of a minor by burning down the hotel the dirty deed took place in! Man, if only human moral transformation were that easy....
Posted on
11:56 PM
LOLLYPOPOOOOOZBA [.j.evonne.]
Screw the music festivals....I'm gonna sit at home and play on the Kurzweil all summer. If you're going, check out The Dresden Dolls, dear friends from Boston who just hit MTV with a damn fine video by Michael Pope of Neovoxer. Wheat, another band o' friends from Boston produced by the Flaming Lips, are also on the Lolly bill. Have fun banging your head kids.
Posted on
8:21 PM
KEEP IT SHORT, DORK [coolmel]
ah, the Aquarian
age of harmony and time
to disrobe and gloat.
Posted on
1:00 AM
Monday, May 24, 2004
Dharmapalooza vs The Perry Farrell incident [Jason]
Has anyone gotten a look at the awesome line-up for this years Lollapalooza?
It's the best I've seen in years. I don't know though it might just be the second best "palooza" happening this summer.
June 25-28 Dharmapalooza hits Boulder for 3 nights! That's right Farrell, our form meets formless gathering beats your weak ass two day festival in length and performers called Let's Fuhq. And although it's only act is certain lanky fellow with a language called IS it's schedule does feature dinners at exotic locales and impromptu visits to porn stores. I don't expect things to be different this year.
Last night I rented Shattered Glass.
Shattered Glass is a film about former associate editor of "the in-flight magazine of Airforce one" otherwise known as the ultra smug The New Republic;. Stephen Glass was fired in May of 1998 after Forbes online uncovered that Glass had fabricated his May 1998 article "Hack heaven". The film follows these chain of events in very straight forward even dull manner. What saves this film is Darth Vader to be and Canadian Hayden Christensen's portrayal of Glass as a paranoid and emotionally distraught young guy who gets wrapped up in his own lies. Although the film is told in such a manner that it's main interest might be journalism teachers looking to teach students what can happen if you "cook" an article; Christensen makes this film succeed on his own by adding an amazing amount of depth to a character and indeed a film that gives barely any background on anyone. Glass is hardly a guy you would empathize with; a bright educated guy who fabricated 27 of his 41 articles for TNR just to advance his career. Christensen is so convincing and his attention to detail so nuanced at films end I even had a mild empathy for Glass. What is so intriguing though is the entertaining personality of Glass so lulled his associates at TNR that they overlooked so many questionable factual inaccuracies for such a long time and these are very good editors too!
Stephen Glass, now 30, has published his first novel, the Fabulist which is about a reporter named Stephen Glass who works at TNR and fabricates articles in order to further his career. Hmm... I haven't ever heard of a novelist using a younger version of themselves as the main character in first novel before. Interesting concept, ahem*Boomeritis*ahem hahaha
Sorry fellow TM drinkers that this post ran so long.
Posted on
11:45 PM
I'M NOT AN INTEGRAL YES-MAN [coolmel]
NOTE: i would like to apologize to our fearless TDH editor and my fellow blogging dream-team; first, for posting more than once in day; second, for posting longer than a couple of paragraphs, and third, for mentioning the dreaded "I" word yet again. but i do think that it is important to share this information, even if this blogsite has nothing to do with "integral" (do'h! there i go again).
i would've gladly just linked to the article, but it's not yet posted, so i'll quote a couple of paragraphs for the benefit of those who are not subscribed to Frank Visser's newsletter --.
Since Wilber posted his "A Suggestion for Reading the Criticisms of My Work on Frank Visser's 'World of Ken Wilber' Site", many have asked me what i thought of it. Allow me to voice some personal comments -- for the first time in 120 Newsletters.
Judging from the "dialogue" with a "critic" Wilber presented as exemplary, it appears as if only Wilber represents the True Integral Perspective, and any deviation from this is explained as misrepresentation, or unclarity on the part of the critic. In my view, this would effectively end all critical debate, for the essence of that would be the exchange of different and differing perspectives on the same topic. Misrepresentation is allways possible, but then again, that's how intellectual life is. Did Wilber "dialogue" with the many authors he has criticized, often sharply? Of course not. That's not how science or philosophy proceeds, nor should it. It proceeds by critically examining the views of others, and developing new views in the process.
Can different views on integralism be sustained within the Integral Institute? I sincerely hope so. But it also looks like we need something like a Journal of Integral Theory, where integral concepts are discussed from different angles, topics suggested by Wilber (on anthropology, development, psychology of mysticism, philosophy of science, postmodernism) are fleshed out by specialists within these fields -- both pro and contra Wilber --, and "oppositional" views are especially welcomed. We need Integral Conferences, where we can meet and talk freely about how Integralism is to be (or can be!) understood and how it relates (or could relate!) to present world issues. We do not need an Integral Catechism ("How may [many] quadrants are there?", "Four", "Well said"). To me, Wilber's dialogue example had a disturbing similarity to exactly that.
in my opinion, i think Frank (and other critics) have excellent points. and i agree with them. i think the Integral Theory needs to get hammered in the arena of public/mainstream/reductionist/boomeritis debate. but then again, i also hate to see the Integral Vision reduced to something like an Integral C-SPAN. only time will tell if the "integral revolution" is for better or for worse. but Frank is right, it is indeed "hard to argue with visionaries."
Posted on
4:29 PM
D.C. SMAHO [.j.evonne.]
At the Billionaires for Bush Ball this weekend in NYC we enjoyed a music video on Diebold's CEO promising to deliver Ohio's votes to GWB. If you're not in the loop, Diebold produces touch-screen voting machines used in many states, including Ohio and California. No paper trail will be required for these machines until 2006, which leaves a huge credibility gap for this fall's election in Ohio, one of the key battleground states.
B4B's music video plays like old Weird Al, a combo of satire, synthesized pop and goofy graphics. They have two CD's available on the their website, along with a must-have undergarment for any billionaire babe: "Give Bush the Finger".
Posted on
1:03 PM
DO YOU HAVE A BLOG IN YOU? [coolmel]
um, i think i do. now if i can only blog a book too...
so what about the picture with this post? nothin'. just thought it was funny.
Posted on
12:01 PM
DRAFTEE USA POLICY [Chris]
Um, hey, you American type young people. Are you aware that you could be about to face the draft into the USA's armed forces? Like as early as Spring 2005???
"$28 million has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System (SSS) budget to prepare for a military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005. Selective Service must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation. (You can check it in the SSS (?!) annual performance plan for 2004.
The pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide. Though this is an unpopular election year topic, military experts and influential members of congress are suggesting that if Rumsfeld's prediction of a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan [and a permanent state of war on "terrorism"] proves accurate, the U.S. may have no choice but to draft."
See Congress.org for more information… YIKES!!!
Posted on
12:11 AM
A NESTED HEIRARCHY... IN SPACE [Paul]
Wholes within wholes within wholes-- oh my! Sorry Coolmel, I had to beat you to it. Here's a brand-new photo fresh from NASA of the mysterious "Red Rectangle" nebula originally discovered in the 1970s. Add the holon aesthetic to this booze-friendly quote from Hans Van Winckel of the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium and you've got the perfect TM blog post!
"The structure of the Red Rectangle revealed by Hubble is surprisingly complex. The features that impress me most look like the rungs of a ladder, although they are actually gas cones, like a series of nested wine glasses filled to their brim with gas and seen from the side."
Posted on
12:06 AM
Sunday, May 23, 2004
WELCOME NEW DRINKERS! [Matthew]
I wanted to give a welcome to Chris Stewart and Jason Motley as they join us for drinks at this here integral pub. Slam a couple back, guys. This round is on me!
Posted on
10:40 PM
BARTENDER'S ADVICE [wrench]
How the masculine type (that typically means us, men) finds joy, peace, and happiness (quoted from Men's Health):
"Work--even stupid work--is the most powerful engine of self-expression, because to work is to exercise that Man who resides in each of us, and if he's up and about and feeling his own power, well then, there's nobody else he wants to be."
Posted on
9:59 PM
CHRIS ENTERS THE BAR [Chris]
Hey people, my first post -- best to stick with quoting someone I think is onto something: "Capitalism, Socialism, and Marxism were invented for 19th century problems - we need a philosophy for our own times." ~ Margaret Mead
Posted on
4:03 PM
BLOGGERBOT [coolmel]
a cool new way to share photos with Blogger. nice.
When you use BloggerBot to send a picture to your blog it gets automatically resized, your caption gets added, and your blog is updated with the new photo-post. You don't have to resize the picture, fiddle around with file transfer, format HTML, or worry about the hosting. It's all done in seconds with a simple drag-and-drop. So the blog post looks great and your readers can click the picture to see the bigger version.
Posted on
1:05 AM
