The world changed today as I turned on my TV.
There were random acts of kindness all over the screen.
For the first time in history these things became news for me.
An eagle scout built a nature trail in a local park close by.

A family adopted a child, and gave her a new start and home.
A father was laid off, and was able to start his dream job instead
Where he teaches local teens the values he wishes we all had.
An Israeli and Palestinian family live side by side in peace.

Volunteering has become America’s favorite past time, over sports.
Bike commuting has turned into a movement all over the world.
Healthy fast food joints are being built to fight our junk food courts.
And not a word was reported about spree killings, rapists or pedophiles.

These random acts of kindness were broadcast for all to see.
A new school was built in a village in Africa for girls to get a degree.
Fresh clean water is now available in the countries we made free.
Cancer research is advancing with the use of nanotechnology.

Different religions all over the world are living in peace and harmony.
Hard to believe these examples I’ve shown, but indeed it’s a reality.
Global initiatives on climate change, policy united
from every land to every sea.

Random acts of kindness have begun to be reported today.
To seek out the love and turn away from the hate.
To seek out forgiveness and turn away from vengeance.
To not focus on the fear injected into our culture for ratings.

Random acts of kindness, happen everyday and go unreported.
News media began to focus on the love and forgiveness that we can achieve.
So we may remember the good in life that is happening everyday.
Of course this is a fantasy, but one I’d rather live in and believe.

This is the End
Army psychologists shooting up the soldiers.
Bodies found in pedophiles house.
Office shoot em up, days apart.
Society is coming undone.
When a government practices systematized indifference to people’s suffering, inevitably already unstable people will utilize the abundant weaponry to inflict pain on others.
This is the End (Read the Lyrics)

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I’ll never look into your eyes…again
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need…of some…stranger’s hand
In a…desperate land
Lost in a Roman…wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah
There’s danger on the edge of town
Ride the King’s highway, baby
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby
Ride the snake, ride the snake
To the lake, the ancient lake, baby
The snake is long, seven miles
Ride the snake…he’s old, and his skin is cold
The west is the best
The west is the best
Get here, and we’ll do the rest
The blue bus is callin’ us
The blue bus is callin’ us
Driver, where you taken’ us
The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall
He went into the room where his sister lived, and…then he
Paid a visit to his brother, and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
And he came to a door…and he looked inside
Father, yes son, I want to kill you
Mother…I want to…WAAAAAA
C’mon baby,——— No “take a chance with us”
C’mon baby, take a chance with us
C’mon baby, take a chance with us
And meet me at the back of the blue bus
Doin’ a blue rock
On a blue bus
Doin’ a blue rock
C’mon, yeah
Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill
This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
It hurts to set you free
But you’ll never follow me
The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die
This is the end

Moments in time like quick footsteps.
Flying by throughout your mind and sometimes
One must look back and think of
the path they have taken and what was learned.

I have lived recklessly and taken chances.
I have not treated my body like a temple.
I have been close to the edge and found my footing.
I have lived with no heat and not much to eat.

I have been part of the dot com boom.
Thrown myself under the dot com bust.
Raised my hand after 911 and made an oath
and was willing to die for vengeance and lust.

Lost my father and found my wife
who has birthed us two delights.
And through it all I have learned that
there is no destination to this journey.

That friends and family are all you really have.
That material wealth and fame will kill happiness.
That technology and data can enslave the mind.
That freedom is a luxury that is sold as a commodity.

That it’s okay to be wrong and apologize.
That listening is a virtue that is not valued enough.
That a position of strength need not be defended.
That it is okay to show all your cards and let down your guard.

That you can grow stronger from sickness.
That when life gives you ivory build a tower.
That lifelong learning is our obligation to living.
That accepting ignorance is the first step towards knowledge.

I have been twice broken and learned to walk again.
I have lost my faith and sanity and found it countless times.
I have seen death and learned to live with it as a companion.
I have greeted life and believe in you and me and all of humanity.

Before proceeding, I feel compelled to make a very important distinction between what is really meant by “climate-change.” I believe what we actually mean is, “anthropogentic climate forcing” or how much does human activity directly or indirectly affect the changes in the earth’s climate. This is very different from climate change; climate change is natural and has occurred throughout history. Many pundits can confuse the general public by making this claim as long as our society continues to adopt a misnomer for the world’s leading environmental topic.

Speaking of pundits, let’s consider another leading counter point towards the argument that the climate evolves without human forcing: climate model data. Basically, scientists attempt to resolve the future state of the earth’s climate based on complex computer simulations (programs that can take months to compile on some of the world’s fastest computers). From a previous posting we can remember that environmental data (surface temperature, atmospheric pressure, winds, sea surface temperatures, etc…) is developed by assimilating coarse spatial scale data on a gridded surface that is meant to represent the surface of the planet. While it is not perfect, it is all that we have.  There comes a point where fine resolution data becomes impossible to use anyway, as it would exceed the computational capacity of the supercomputers that operate many of the climate models.

Technically there are two popular scientific obstacles to directly declaring “mission accomplished” on climate change: rhetoric and computing. The indirect effects are byproducts of the two obstacles, mainly via feedback mechanisms. How will the clouds respond? How will the thermo-haline circulation respond? How will ocean currents respond?……

This brings me to my primary concern. What are the anthropogenic forces that may effect climate change and why are they so hard to reverse? Most agree that atmospheric emissions are the leading cause of climate change. These emissions originate from industrial to personal consumption, airline travel, and even bovine flatulence (methane). Many have pointed out we should just pollute less. Wow! What a concept, but why is the effort not placed in this domain? The answer involves the negative economic impact that less consumption (both personal and industrial) would create. Therefore, we are taught to believe that “I” am not the problem, but factories, jet liners, cows, and other face-less entities are responsible. At that point accepting personal responsibility is impossible. Instead we point fingers at industry (that we use), cows (that we eat), cars (that we drive), and jets (that we fly). Imagine if we attacked the issue by looking in the mirror. Not only would we begin to make positive steps towards a sustainable way of living, but we would also become healthier while doing it: eat better, drive less, consume less.

            In my opinion, we are investing too much money in the wrong direction. We spend millions on computing, satellites, fuels efficiency, and policy that represent the faceless entity. Imagine for a second that we invested that money in subsidized organic gardens, real public transport, sustainable urban planning, and safe and isolated bike paths. That would force a change that would not only decrease the threat of anthropogenically forced climate change, but it would make us healthier and happier at the same time; a technical term us scientists like to call a “twofer.”

            To summarize, our fixation with solving the climate puzzle is misguided because we avoid taking personal responsibility. Therefore, in my opinion, this potential crisis is best described as a social disorder in which the solutions continue to be misdirected. Change the actions from those who contribute to this mess and voila! Invest the money in in us in practical and highly effective solutions. (OK…you may be outraged at the fact that I am imposing an unrealistic constraint on developing nations. But, is it really them that needs to accept the majority of the blame? Shouldn’t the major polluters (you and me) accept the lion’s share of responsibility and commit to making a change?)

            But, this still does not answer the question of whether I agree or disagree that “climate change” is real and needs to be addressed. This link summarizes my outlook in a much more eloquently presented style than what I am capable of communicating through a blog:

Carpe November!

 METEOS

Maximize CHOICE!

The Soul of Mankind
Hangs from a line
That is held in place by you and me.
As it floats in the eternal sea.

The rock that it uses as a boat
Is floating through our universe.
This soul is the only thing we have
As we argue over the words we see.

There can’t be a God.
There can’t be a soul.
These words are outdated.
And totally inflated.

You must buy more Gold.
The dollar is devalued.
We must have freedom for all indeed.
This is the mold we cast.

Our soul is dying inside when
We have nothing but arguing.
Man is now dying as God has done.
When we could bring him back to be.

Our facts are just symbols
We place in a temple.
As we raise them up we deny ourselves
The mystery inside of we.

You are a miracle
Made from stardust floating through space
With all the potential you want to be.
If only we could see this miracle

Inside ourselves and believe.
This miracle connects us to the everything.
Apart but together. Separate but whole.
You are the soul of infinity.

Nobody talks more about God than an atheist.

As I sit in my Ivory Tower
I think of all the lost potential.
How this term is thrown around loosely
To apply to anyone searching for sequential

Logical ties that bind us to our
ongoing social issues. That can help us grow
Out of the cycles of the abuse of power and money.
Dissent is in our blood in this tower

As we look down upon the mess that
Should be cleaned up before we are blessed.
The expanse for which we can see is infinite
Because we can humbly call a lie a lie.

Seeking truth we rely on our instinct
That this world would like to make extinct.
The gut feelings that something is wrong
With the machine we grease each day.

As we take on our mortgages and leases
We dismiss the Ivory Tower and its intellect
As just simply over-thinking mundane issues
That we should be trying to solve before our pay.

So as I sit here in my Ivory Tower.
And I think of the future of mankind.
I know when the missiles DO ascend
That from this tower I will watch it ALL end.

To the false idol of the dollar
And what we think it is worth.
Binary code floats through our space
Hoping to make its place.

Into our virtual bank accounts of Hope.
We have nothing but today, and yet
We throw it all away for the fear of not
living to see our children grow old.

As our dollar becomes devalued.
As our debt grows greater each day, we must
remember when it was all just a concept.
That currency was supposed to grow Trust.

Now with the Big Banks set in place.
After having robbed us of our space.
Above any law that keeps them fair.
We can remember Hamilton’s folly.

We cam remember how we were
Not going to be owned by anyone ever again.
But that lasted all of  few years before
There was no food or water to volley.

In God We Trust is the myth of this currency.
That security could be bought and sold.
That we might mold our futures out of pure Gold.
And as time has progressed we have only continued to regress.

I want to believe in community just as you.
I want it to be a part of our liberty to discuss.
Our ideas freely among people’s passions.
Whose only focus is not just beer and fashion.

But as we seek the virtues on which our country was founded
I happily welcome community into this duality.
I must say I wonder how to attain such a thing
As it seems to be utterly fleeting in this virtuality.

Our culture is gigabytes grown in digital farms
As we obsessively write status updates of our lives.
But as I write you, there is no physicality to this reality.
Our reality is watching others fight for their utter finality.

As I cherish our missions of past and think of future endeavors
I wonder about the Globatron soldiers who have passed.
I think often of the comments that were sand blasted into my heart.
How everything was Relative and yet some things became Sacred.

I look forward to the correspondence before us.
I have hope that this will continue to grow and flourish.
That we may one day build this community for which we seek
And a peace within our hearts, too weak to do it all alone.

Dear Citizens, in an effort to respond to the garishness and offensiveness of Damien Hirst’s work For the Love of God, a platinum human skull covered in 26 million dollars worth of diamonds, selling for 100 million dollars, Globatron is releasing this limited edition of 5 glitter covered skulls, bought for a dollar a piece, whose purchase would be a symbolic rebellion against a work that hides behind irony to revel in ostentatiousness in an age of starvation and oppression.  It is time we stop hiding behind the safety net of irony, a device used to justify an elitism that much of the 20th century struggle engaged in destabalizing, and resuscitate a more pointed irony, like the one you will find in these beautiful skulls, that we are offering.  Each skull is marked up by 1000 percent, and thus increases the wager set by Mr. Hirst by a factor of 250.  For $1000 you can have one of these pieces of history, signed by both Akbar and G-tron, and make your mark in a public criticism of that kind of art that is heartless, base and ultimately a desperate attempt to hold onto a pop sensibility in a time of growing concern about our fellows.  What better way to humble that fame-lusting prima donna than to outmaneuver him with a one-dollar item.  Finally, every bit of the thousand dollars you spend on this item will go into production costs of this site, and help continue our quest for truth and reconciliation in the arts and philosophy.

Happy Hollow Weening!

Akbar Lightning

skull1

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Dear Friend,

Your letter so affected me that I was stunned for a while, forced to surrender to its superior quality.  I smiled, as I do when I encounter something surprising and great.  If there is one advantage to the additional years we now share it is this ability to recognize greatness in others and submit to it in order to grow, as opposed to the way younger men do who are threatened by the creative leaps taken by their colleagues.  It is this virtue, that is easily taught to children but has lapsed from being done so, that is the foundation of a thriving community, and my friend, this is what has been on my mind of late, the longing we all have for just this, community.

Men such as we, who embark on a mission for truth, are always tasked by the continuous process of reduction that occurs when particular prejudices come to light and unfounded passions and certainties get turned inside out as a result of the very process that binds us.  And with every step closer to the light we find ourselves less able to understand the darkness and we lose that which makes men practical or common, and so lose a bit of our humanity too.  There is no path in life that comes without a cost, and we are all called to make a choice.

But I digress…as we have made our choices, as we have committed ourselves to this course, I ought not bore you with what you know, with the pain of trying to live in progress.  It has become a tedious topic between us, this longing for fellows, this desire to expand the league of gentlemen and gentlewomen who are capable of such a rigor, that kind that is emancipated from any thoughts of authorship or pride, but which hungers only for truth regardless of its originator or creator, for such people have come to the liberating conclusion that the source of greatness is too vast to reside behind a single person.  In fact, I offer, that the only greatness is to be found in those efforts that come from collaboration.

This my dear friend I offer as a tonic for this pain of isolation that haunts us in our journey now, at its beginning, that the collaboration between us, the magic of a joint expression is the highest aim of any human endeavor, for it conquers the plague of separateness that we are born to as creatures, and that grows daily in our post-modern world.  Community is the ends and the means of this project of ours I declare to you, I posit, as my current thesis.  There is art, to be sure, there is science too, these things are but hammers and nails laid on the ground next to the great monument of a new culture, a world renewed in enthusiasm for collaborative coexistence.

It has pained both of us, we need not hide it, to have seen so many come and go.  When I first landed on Globatron, alive with wonder and enthusiasm for this place where I could share my insights without that self-editing that strips the purity from my daily encounters, I remember the difficulty I had at first, in defending my rights to speak my mind.  There were some here who had grown accustomed to thinking of this place as something local, something playful, a diversion, if you will.  And I had no ill will toward that position, in fact, I often supported it, as I felt that diversity was a self-evident virtue.  However, when challenged, when my diverse opinions and positions were criticized I asked only that the charges be dealt with in a Socratic fashion, I asked that the terms of reproach be brought to scrutiny.  And above all else, it is this I believe, led to the inevitable schism that leaves us now Mr. Adams, in our current state of isolation.  For what was ignoble in my person was not necessarily the subject of my postings but the means by which I wished to engage in defending them.

You see my friend, as I posited earlier, the methodology that guides us in our collaboration is one where our egos must always submit to the better idea.  This is an activity that takes a particular strength of character, and my own virtue will be measured by this, by my continuing willingness to accede to the superior motion even if I discover that I am destined to follow, for what better to follow than that which is true?  This, in my humble opinion, is what gives the creative life a scientific character, or let me call it a rational one.  Without this, what grounds do we have to negotiate the tension that comes between our prejudices?  Nothing, without a rational and civil means to settle differences it can be argued that we have lost our human connection, our sense of community.

As you brought us back to life Mr. Adams, as you took me, the icon of Thomas Jefferson, and gave him a new driving soul in this work, I cannot help but think of my original revolution, and the founding of a new constitution based on a systematic structure that would allow rational men to argue passionately for their position.  You see, the checks and balances of the American system of government were a redundancy meant to provide the security to allow men the freedom, the liberty to do what it is we are doing here, to surrender, to give up their constituency’s prejudices, if in the due course of exchange a higher truth was revealed.  This is the wisdom of our founding ideals as a country and only one thing can destroy such a refined system, and that is the obstinate defense of a position that someone knows to be false, a lie.  As we saw in The Chicken Wire Project, and The Laws, when people were unwilling to engage in a discussion of personal terms, because they were holding onto unfounded prejudices, we were unable to negotiate the terms of community and the ideal of diversity died as a result of my unwillingness to acquiesce to propriety and their refusal to provide grounds for their attack.

And so Mr. Adams, as a result of your sound judgment and your consistent support of healthy dialogue, we saw that when people are challenged to dismantle the prejudices that keep them separate, they often act out in destructive ways, and as a result we became co-revolutionaries and gave Globatron a new start, one unshackled by minor local concerns, not boxed in by singular terms such as art or education; we embarked on a mission of purpose with no definable goal, other than perhaps great glory and adventure, fed by a willingness to pursue any position to its logical end, or as far as we could make our way.

If it were merely the comfort of company driving my desire for new members I would abandon it, but my passion for outreach is driven by my thesis that community building is at the heart of the truth, of that constellation of righteousness that will provide the backlight for the legends to come in the 21^st century.  If you and I Mr. Adams are the only ones in this world of 6.5 billion human beings who understand what we know but cannot describe, the way of Globatron, then I say every possible activity is then equally futile, for civilization depends upon what it is we know how to do, disregard authorship and copyright in favor of the joy of discovery.  Without a return to this kind of trust, a faith in one another, the kind that allows for a passionate argument, we won’t make it through the coming turmoil.  But in response to your wonderful letter, if we don’t make it, I am so grateful to have at least had your friendship, for without it I would most certainly be mad.

To conclude my verbose response, the search for a third, even though he/she might never be found, has a symbolic importance, as it helps us maintain the hope and elude the bitterness that can afflict men of ideas.  Mr. Adams, we were not born to suffer, but to transcend the challenges that we are born to face.  This is the great middle passage of our revolution, and there will be many setbacks to be sure, but alas, before long we will tire from the negotiation that having a community demands, and so for now my friend, I will enjoy this time, this pregnancy, the calm days of ideals, forging of them a living breathing body of wisdom that will help us in the next stage of our lives when we must transition from men of action to men of service, humbly maintaining whatever it is that we are building.

I hope this letter finds you well, and that it honors you the way your letter honored me.

With admiration and respect,

The criticism aimed at Freud, the claims that his work is affected by his own psychology has itself a psychological motivation.  In other words, the criticism of Freud’s personal psychology derives from a particular psychological perspective.  Any engagement in this matter demands that a person wrestle with the underlying question of sanity, and whether or not such a thing can be defined.  Without an adequate answer to this question, any criticism of Freud is as unconscious as many say his work is.  Although he used some provocative metaphors to describe developmental processes, anybody who has taken the time to read his work will find that they are dealing with a very rich mind, one that should not be dismissed due to cultural memes gone out of control.

We were young men back then and we wanted
so much change. You were always able to hold
your tongue as I grew more than one.
Because I wanted all to know that all we have is now.

That the truths are not self evident that you proclaimed.
That freedoms are won by the blood of man’s destiny.
And yet we sit here, our revolution seemingly won.
Grown gray we have and yet we stay on.

In the fight for what we know to be true
That we should wake each day and be in tune.
With our right to care and want better for our grandchildren.
To seek the truths from which the lot seem to be immune.

I write to you, dearest of Friends so that we might
amend the legacy before our pens. We were blessed
to have met through this challenge again. It would have been
a fallacy not to continue to seek truth after all our strife.

So as I sit here writing you today. I want you to know
that if it was all for this friendship then it was enough for me.
We might not see liberty or justice in our short lifetimes.
But we have sought it and to me that is fine.

As I think of you and all you have achieved
I remember the young man I met when we were learning to see.
For the rights of our citizenry. For the rights of humanity.
May we cherish the truth seeking yet to be.

the following post is not meant really to express an environmental concern, it is a metaphor.  bees are insects that exhibit many of the traits of civilization, they have division of labor, they build colonies, they work collaboratively toward goals, they have architecture.  the reading below is from Harper’s Magazine Findings section.  when I read this I think about human beings, i think about chemicals and warfare and artificial systems, and then I think about our ability to remain organized toward survival.  i wonder a bit if we are not experiencing this, this Colony Collapse Disorder.

as far as our environment goes, perhaps the environment is and always will be a reflection of how human beings are treating one another.  perhaps our planet is like the colony, and when we are sick, the colony, the environment, the air, the water, exhibits signs of our inability to work collaboratively.  my thinking about the environment has always been that it must start with a spiritual revolution, that human beings have to be inspired to work collaboratively, build up the idea of community once again, perhaps put aside the notion of freedom and work instead on interdependence, and then, when we feel safe and a part of a world again, we might care about that world, we might return to our colony day after day and keep it from collapsing.

From Harper’s Magazine:

As honeybees continued to vanish from their hives, researchers supported by the National Honey Board pointed to pesticide accumulation in beeswax as a contributing factor in Colony Collapse Disorder. The researchers, who also found that beeswax loses half its accumulated mite-killing pesticides when subjected to Cobalt 60 gamma radiation, suggested that beekeepers change their honeycombs more often. Bee inbreeding was rising as populations shrank, leading to freak male bees with excessive chromosomes, lower fertility, and bad work habits. Scottish beekeepers reported the appearance of American Foul Brood (which, unlike European Foul Brood, is incurable), and Cape honeybees breached the Capensis Line, which South Africa’s government maintains to prevent the spread of AFB to African honeybees. In Britain, where the countryside was plagued by bee thefts, authorities planned to reintroduce, from New Zealand, the locally extinct shorthaired bumblebee; U.S. entomologists hoped to offset honeybee declines by promoting the solitary blue orchard bee, which can live in Styrofoam. It was discovered that America once had its own native honey-bee, Apis nearctica. Scientists found that forcing forager bees to undertake nursing tasks makes them less likely to grow stupid with age, that baby bees’ immune systems are less active if their hives are coated in antimicrobial bee resin, that male orchid bees stick out their legs to remain stable in high winds, and that bumble-bees stay aloft through brute force.

Notice the stories before and after the bee story in the first video:

Sex offenders five miles from my home.

When no one is looking and no one is around.
Walking home from school, at home, at a game or around town.
Our children disappear in a second and are never to be heard from again.
If we are lucky they are found in a few years after having lived through hell.

These predators are all around the places we live.
Stalking our children and making us live
In a state of paranoia not able to trust
Our own neighbors or family that we know the best.

These cases seem to be increasing at a very rapid rate.
Sometimes, it’s even the parents that become part of the case.
Our children are our most precious commodity for sure.
More precious than stocks or gold because they can not be replaced.

As we speak, registered sex offenders live next to us.
Surrounding our homes and doing their thing.
It’s not odd to have a hundred living right around your home.
So when a child gets snatched it should be no surprise.

Our culture has grown a sickness inside.
The predator’s hunger grows with each day they hide.
Some say they are rehabilitated and want to start anew.
Some have never struck and are just waiting for their first time.

Our hearts go out each time, to the parents and families
Of these missing children who now must live with this curse.
Many unsolved mysteries of kidnappings will continue.
Until we realize why this sickness is growing all around us.

What part of our culture grows this disease?
Why would a person want to commit such an atrocity?
What do we do with them after they have served their time?
Is it possible to know who might strike before a crime?

As a father, it is my worst nightmare indeed.
To think that someone could snatch what is dearest to me.
I want to fix this problem for all of humanity
Before it happens to one more child and family.

My closest neighborhood predators…

Another example of how your rights to privacy are continuing to be distorted by those who protect your right to own and use semi-automatic weapons. …gotta love our constitutional interpretations.

In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead. In the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.