discoveries from the internets and some stuff I wrote too
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recent quotes i like
"Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words." - ? | | | | | | |
"If there is anything I have learned from liberals and conservatives, it's that you can have great answers and still be mean... and that just as important as being right is being nice. " - shane claiborne | | | | | | |
"If Liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." --George Orwell ||||||
"On Facebook, no one can hear you scream." - I dont know ||||||
"The reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries, who have the laws in their favor; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it." - Machiavelli ||||||
Chest of Drawers
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This chest of drawers is to replace the cheap stand (with no storage) that
was previously holding up our parrot's travel cage. She only lives with us
a few...
An important message from Consumer Reports
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This is our last post on Consumerist.com. We’re deeply proud of all the
work we’ve done on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by
secretive ...
My Milk Toof Travel Update
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*Dear International readers from Southeast France!*
ickle, Lardee & myself will be traveling around the southeast of France
area from 06/02-06/20. If anyo...
The Years Of Writing Dangerously
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Thirteen years ago, as I was starting to experiment with this blogging
thing, I wrote the following: [T]he speed with which an idea in your head
reaches th...
Saint Francis of Assisi
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… everyone who follows Christ receives true peace, the peace that Christ
alone can give, a peace which the world cannot give. Many people, when they
think ...
X-Factor Auditions, Part Two: The registration...
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Kind of creepy to be walking around White Plains at 4:30 in the morning. No
lights on, no cars, no people. I felt like I was in a zombie movie. And,
really...
this, surprisingly is not from the onion, but real:
"Man sues Burger King over pickles MTRO
A man in America is suing Burger King for failing to remove the pickles from a burger he bought two years ago.
Dairus Dugger is seeking $100,000 in damages after alleging that the restaurant in James City County, Virginia, failed to heed his 'specific request for the omission of onions, pickles and tomatoes.'
He says that he took a bite from the sandwich before realising that it still had pickles tomatoes and onions in it."
Recycled and renewable resource materials. Energy efficient, including solar panels and a system to catch all the rainwater and use it for irrigation and other purposes. Bamboo floors. IKEA furnishings. It’s as green as it gets with solar panels that could keep monthly energy costs as low as $28—perfect for lower income singles.
"Most people who practise Indian martial arts nowadays are simply learning the toned down exhibition styles that were allowed by the British," he says. "Unless we start teaching the original fighting styles they will be extinct within 50 years. I want to find two or three sensible, intelligent and tolerant young apprentices who can pass on what I've learned to future generations."
That a British citizen is trying to resurrect shastar vidiya by teaching it to young British Asians is more than a little ironic given the history.
Although shastar vidiya was widely practised across the subcontinent long before the emergence of Sikhism in the mid-16th century, it was the Sikh tribes of the Punjab that came to be the true masters of this particular fighting style.
Seneca: "There is no great genius without a tincture of madness."
At first glance, Einstein, Salvador Dali, Tony Hancock, and Beach Boy Brian Wilson would seem to have little in common. Their areas of physics, modern art, comedy, and rock music, are light years apart. So what, if anything, could possibly link minds that gave the world the theory of relativity, great surreal art, iconic comedy, and songs about surfing?
According to new research, psychosis could be the answer. Creative minds in all kinds of areas, from science to poetry, and mathematics to humour, may have traits associated with psychosis. Such traits may allow the unusual and sometimes bizarre thought processes associated with mental illness to fuel creativity. The theory is based on the idea that there is no clear dividing line between the healthy and the mentally ill. Rather, there is a continuum, with some people having psychotic traits without having the debilitating symptoms.
Guess the man, or at least his political party. Hint: don't go by the present fox news/cnn political divide or you may be surprised:
He was a Progressive reformer ... He distrusted wealthy businessmen and dissolved monopolistic corporations. He was clear, however, to show that he did not disagree with trusts and capitalism in principle, but was only against corrupt, illegal practices. His ... (administration)... promised a fair shake for both the average citizen (through regulation and pure food and drugs) and the businessmen. He called for universal health care and national health insurance. He promoted the conservation movement, emphasizing efficient use of natural resources.
"what is straight? a line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it is curved like a road through the mountains." - Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
the term "folk therapist" might be a bit off as i hope to study mainstream scientific approaches to therapy but i also would like to incorporate some of the other schools of thought mentioned:
Babaylan is a term identifying an indigenous Filipino religious leader, who functions as a healer... Although the role and function of a babaylan is open to both sexes, most babaylans from the pre-hispanic era are female....
"The babaylan in Filipino indigenous tradition is a person who is gifted to heal the spirit and the body; a woman who serves the community through her role as a folk therapist, wisdom-keeper and philosopher; a woman who provides stability to the community’s social structure; a woman who can access the spirit realm and other states of consciousness and traffic easily in and out of these worlds; a woman who has vast knowledge of healing therapies".[1] In addition to this, a babaylan is someone who "intercedes for the community and individuals" and is also someone who "serves." ...
The babaylan, predominantly women (men had to be like women to perform this societal function), was the "specialist in the fields of culture, religion, medicine and all kinds of theoretical knowledge about the phenomenon of nature....a pro(to)-scientist..." Prior to, during and after the Philippine Revolution of 1896-1898, the male babaylans of Dios Buhawi and Papa Isio of Negros Occidental participated in the struggle to throw off the Spanish yoke. Their primary agenda was religious freedom and agrarian reform...
In 1986, Guantanamo became host to Cuba's first and only McDonald's restaurant, as well as a Subway.[23] These fast food restaurants are on base, and not accessible to Cubans. It has been reported that prisoners cooperating with interrogations have been rewarded with Happy Meals from the McDonald's located on the mainside of the base.[24]
In 2004, Guantanamo opened a combined KFC & A&W restaurants at the bowling alley and a Pizza Hut Express at the Windjammer Restaurant.[25] There is also a Taco Bell, and an ice cream shop that sells Starbucks coffee.
Over the past year, syndicated columnist Lenore Skenazy, 49, has become something of a heretic. She's an American mother of two boys, now 11 and 13, who dares to suggest that today's kids aren't growing up in constant state of near peril... So why does shooing the kids outside and telling them to have fun and be home by dark seem irresponsible to so many middle-class parents today? ...Skenazy suggests that many American parents are in the grips of a national hysteria about child safety, which is fed by sensationalistic media coverage of child abductions, safety tips from alarmist parenting mags, and companies marketing products that promise to protect tykes from every possible danger. She by no means recommends that mom and dad chuck the car seats, but says that trying to fend off every possible risk, however remote, holds its own unfortunate, unintended consequences... Not only that they're incompetent. It says to them that they're in danger.
You want kids to feel like the world isn't so dangerous. You want to teach them how to cross the street safely. You want to teach them that you never go off with a stranger. You teach them what to do in an emergency, and then you assume that generally emergencies don't happen, but they're prepared if they do. Then, you let them go out.
The fun of childhood is not holding your mom's hand. The fun of childhood is when you don't have to hold your mom's hand, when you've done something that you can feel proud of.
andrew sullivan quotes someone else's rundown of the history:
The story goes like this: in February 1976, a soldier at Fort Dix died of the virus, and the Ford Administration, fearful of an outbreak, ordered immunization of the entire American population (only the United States chose this course of action, rather than “watching and waiting”). The Centers for Disease Control got to work immediately, manufacturing enough vaccine to begin inoculation by the end of the year, but, essentially, no one showed up. Fears arose as to possible debilitating side effects of the vaccine (some claimed that it caused a neurological condition called Guillain-Barré syndrome), and the government proved unable to offer reassurance (you can watch amazingly propagandist public-service commercials—from both camps—on YouTube). The affair ended ironically—swine flu never materialized in the general population.
