Daylight Savings Time Lied and People Died

Just when the drive to work was not extrutiating because the sun was not directly on the horizon, the government messes with time and voila, there is the sun sitting on the horizon blinding millions of workers for another month or so. Statistics? Oh I don't know, lets ascribe 1000 deaths and 10,000 injuries and several billion dollars in damages.

Not to mention the tremendous cost of energy as certain places in the highway slow to a crawl once again. Site some data, you say? Why? In a day when the political correctness picks and chooses and makes up it statistics (I won't mention names, Al, so don't worry). The people that decided that DST saves energy I am sure made up the stats just as badly as I am only they may have taken the time to find a few others that agreed with there sentiments.

But I am sure they did not do the obvious. You know, the unbiased thing: measure actual energy consumption in places where DST is done and where it is not.

Art in the making

I wanted to show my daughter this picture I took in Hawaii, so I am going to make that event a little more public than sending her an email. I find it interesting that we, as a global society, are becoming more open with what used to be considered private. We talk on the phone in public, blog about our days, twitter about the most inane things and put photos up for all to see of our family vacations.

Personally, I believe it is mostly a healthy thing, but I also don't think that many (especially the younger crowd) realize just how public it is and how embarrassingly universal it can get in the blink of an eye....

Anyway, this is one of the pictures I took while in Hawaii (when I was worried about the entire planet being gobbled up in a man made black hole - thanks again, Josheem). I watched for the entire drawing of this young lady (about an hour).

I was fascinated to watch art being performed in real time. To me, the piece of art is only a piece of the story. It is, of course, the most lasting piece but then again Picasso had a knack for making the performance and the lasting piece one and the same.

Does any body else get a pang in their stomach or a gasp in their lungs when they see something truly artistic? 

I attribute that to the gap between what we expected to see/feel and the thing that the artist makes us see/feel. 

And I can not tell you what art is but I can tell you when I see it.

Watching this artist perform left me with a bigger place in my mind for interaction with the world and I am in debt to him for that. 

I don't know if the picture would be considered "Art" - remember, I think a particular cameo (on the side of this page) is Art, so I may not be a good judge - But I am willing to say that the experience of watching had an aesthetic quality that I would identify as Art.

Tornado watch

Roseri and Shira take focus off their other worldly concerns to watch for a tornado in ours. No tornado this time but the clouds were amazing. (They are looking toward Greeley where the real weather action always goes.)

Talena, of course, has seen many a tornado in this region and wasn't worried that it would happen tonight.

Virtual Desktops

It just occurred to me what is the most frustrating thing about the state of computers these days. We all know that Microsoft has stifled the progress that we would have had if they were not around by at least 10 years if not15 at this point. That is old news and rather like spilt milk.

We all know what a piece of junk DOS was and how every release of Windows seems to get bigger and klutzier without offering anything truly innovative. But I got to thinking about where we might be if they had not bullied, stifled, bought out and sat on the real innovations of the past 25 years.

What should our operating systems be doing in the year 2008?

They should be managing the hardware. I know, I know, that sounds so obvious and besides isn't that what they do now. After all, isn't windows our interface to the CPU, Hard Drives and Graphics cards?

Yes, it is but it pretends to do so much more. Windows pretends to be our software! We have allowed MS, in typical MS fashion, to bully its way into our applications. If you look at almost any piece of software, part of it is in the windows system directory, configs are in the registry and other pieces are in areas spread about on the main drive.

You can't change the bath water, the bath tub or the bathroom without destroying the baby.

So what's the answer? Applications (the few that are not MS) need to stop loading ANYTHING in the registry, Program Files or the Windows directory. Everything must be able to be loaded on a separate drive. USB or flash is a must.

Picture this:
"Oh no, my computer just crashed!!!!! Oh well, no big deal, I will just reload my OS and in the meantime I will take all of my applications and documents on my USB drive and plug it into my wife's (or kid's or secondary) computer and just keep on working. When the new OS is fresh and clean after a complete format and load with the latest OS, I will take all my stuff and go back to my other machine."

or picture this:
"I have to give my presentation to the group in Atlanta on Monday and I did all the work on my desktop - what to do? what to do?! (this guy talks to himself a lot). Oh, wait, no big deal, my whole presentation and all of the programs I need, are on a USB drive. I will take that, plug into one of their OS machines and presto!"

or this:
"Oh dear, I only have one license and between work, home and my laptop I will have to get two more licenses; I can't afford that! Oh, what am I thinking, I will just load it on my flash drive and plug it into my 3 different machines...."

This is not too far away from what Google is doing with their Google Apps. Can we take it one step more and get ALL of our applications and documents out of the OS and make computers what they should be - truly versatile? I don't necessarily like the idea of having all of my applications and documents in the "cloud" but some can be there and the rest can be on various portable storage devices (which I will backup often - I'm sure).

Hey, Google, what about a little bit of both? syncing applications and documents between my removable storage and the cloud?

280 Slides has a nice little cloud app. I put down some of my thoughts

Banana peels on a merry-go-round

I ask Sheneal (the Time Keeper) again to explain how faeries can move up and down through time. She grinned and said, "if a faerie flies really, really fast and then shoots out a blinding flash of light, how fast is the light from her flash going?"

"The speed of light plus her speed? No, wait... Nothing travels faster than light..."

I guess I looked lost enough that she finally rescued me, "There is a ceiling to speed. The faster you go the less time you use up until you are traveling at the speed of time."

"I always heard that as the 'Speed of Light'"

"So you did. Einstein's Faerie was more clever then we sometimes give her credit for. She revealed the secret but hid it behind mushroom soup. The real equation is: Energy equals Mass in proportion to the speed of Time."

A small light bulb came on in my head: "So Mass is Energy trapped in Time?"

Sheneal smiled impishly, "And conversely, Energy is not trapped in Time."

"So Faeries simply turn into pure energy to escape Time?"

"Exactly right, if you consider completely wrong to be exactly right. In Faeries's default mode as Energy we are not in Time. You may have noticed that Faeries have a tendency to be a little transparent. That is because, for us to stay in one place, we need to apply some Mass to our Energy. "

"So that you will slow down?" I was beginning to feel like I was understanding some of the concepts.

"Aaa... No... Your are the ones that are moving. Time and Energy are standing still. You Mass-ive beings are falling at the speed of Time. Light (being pure energy) is standing still. That is why nothing can move faster than the speed of light. Because nothing can go slower than stopped."

I sighed. Once again everything got turned upside down and inside out. I started pacing (a habit I have when my mind is racing and I want to get somewhere but I am stuck where I am for whatever reason).

I stopped in front of Shira. She was staring at her "imaginary" world, totally engrossed in the events happening in front of her. I noticed that she flickered as if she was in a movie but only on every other frame.

I asked Sheneal about this flickering. She said, "What Shira is doing is so far above your level of understanding that you should not try to think about it. But I can say that the principles that allow her to be here and in that other world at the same "Time" are the same principles that we are talking about. Her Mass is anchored in both worlds."

"But, getting back to basics, I, Sheneal Gwyndistanie, am fully here, at least as much as a Faerie can be fully anywhere in your world. I have adjusted my Mass such that I am falling at the same rate as you. I may appear to fly at times but that is simply the fact that I control my Energy to have the precise Mass that mimics the apparent fall. It is kind of like a shortcut. You are falling in a kind of circular way which gives the impression of gravity. I am in the middle of your circle falling at the same speed but not taking the same circuitous route."

Now that was truly revealing! I was trying very hard to keep my head from exploding as I pictured myself swirling around on a merry-go-round, holding on desperately to keep from flying off, while Sheneal stood in the center unconcerned. "Hey, I said, how come you don't get dizzy?"

"I will admit the first time I actually tried talking with a human, I did get a little dizzy. I tried staying in contact the whole "Time" and found myself mimicking the circular fall through Time. But I soon learned to wait for the human to come back to my focus of attention before continuing. It is a little "choppy" but can be quite invigorating, especially when the human is affected by Gravity in between the waits. You should see yourselves from our perspective when you trip and fall. Between the waiting for you to come back and then to see you totally undone on the next turn of the wheel... it is quite funny."

She was on the verge of Unifying Energy, Mass, Time, Space and Gravity in one simple idea and all she could think about was a Vaudevillian slippery banana peel!

Blog before I Fog

Shaneal and I have been talking about a few things and I thought that I should put down some of the conversations before I forget. It seems that every time we try to "pick up where we left off" I forget half the things she has told me.



"Think of it like a three dimensional movie film with the screen built into the camera," Shaneal was saying.

"I would, if I could," I said.

Shaneal grinned a little at my furrowed brow and motioned that I could take a potty break if I needed. I told her I was fine and stopped trying to picture a trillion little cameras with the screens inside them, making up her tiny body.

"We'll come back to that later than, for now it is important that you understand the basics."

"I do understand the basics," I protested, "E=MC2, Mass is latent energy at a rate that is proportional to the speed of light."

"That will do for a start, but the part that you humans haven't come to grips with yet is the speed part. You know, the Time part. Mass is Energy trapped in Time. That's the important part of that equation."

"So Energy is Timeless," I attempted.

"Timeless, All-Time, Time-Neutral - what does it matter? Oops, I didn't mean the pun."

"That's all right. Ok, so what if I said it this way: Mass is the only 'Place' where Time Matters. Pun intended."

"Well," she thought for a while, this time her little forehead was lined, "that actually comes pretty close. You're not so bad," of course she had to add, "...for a human."

"So, pure energy does not feel the effects of Time?" I felt like I was getting the hang of it now.

"That part you humans have figured out. Ol' what's-his-name...."

"Einstein?"

"Yeah, that dude. His faerie went a little far with him but really, how was she to know that a little patent clerk would be taken seriously. We give clues about this stuff all the time but no one takes us seriously. Seems you humans only want to believe what makes you feel comfortable. I can't stop chuckling about the Four Elephants and the Turtle."

"That was you?"

"I said it as part joke, part illustration. But I say a lot of things. You remember about the black hole and the end of the earth, right?"

"How could I forget- ruined my whole vacation."

"So basically we take the tactic of 'Dazzle them with your Brilliance AND Baffle them with your Mushroom Soup'"

"That's not the way I remember that phrase."

"Again, you see, we say things lots of different ways. Some are brilliant and some are mushroom soup. You humans picked up the vulgar phrase that makes no sense, and rejected the poetic one that makes all the sense in the world. Everyone knows what mushroom soup can do to the mind. I challenge you to baffle anyone with the excrement of bull!"

The Faes take a bath seat

Once again the faes have to take a back seat. Not that they mind all that much. They have their own lives too, it's just that they are a little put out when they are not the center of attention.

I sent my daughter to Hawaii to see my other daughter. And you know how dads are when they send their children away for week or three. You know it, I am going to totally mess with her environment.

The problem is that most of the good pranks have already been done - everything but the mattress taken out of the bedroom, renting out their room, putting iron bars on the windows, stapling all their clothes to the ceiling (this really messes with them, they wake up thinking they are on the ceiling because the floor usually has the clothes spread all over).

But I had to do something. So after much pondering I realized that my daughter talks about living "green" but doesn't do much about it. She leaves lights on, we have to drive her all over creation, she will wash one pair of jeans instead of trying to make a full load. I am seriously worried about her growing up to be another Al Gore - talk green, walk (what color is outrageous waste of resources?).

So I decided to help her out. I invented the Tublet (toilet in the tub). The Tublet has many advantages: -

- it will save room in houses: smaller is better

- it only uses one drain pipe - saving precious resources

- and best of all: no need for even one square of toilet paper! move over Sheryl Crow.

Just one problem, I am still working out how to take a full bath (foot baths are no problem).

So, honey, I ripped out the toilet and now I have to cover that ugly hole in the floor. Do you think you could pick between these two tiles? Go ahead and click on them to get a larger pic. The top one has some nice texture that is a little hard to see in this picture.

Sun spots and black holes

This probably looks to you like someone vacationing in Hawaii. In actuality it is, however, the bottom half of a sentient creature contemplating the utter destruction of its species and the planet they rode in on.
***
But, seriously, what could be as bad as all that? Well, according to Josheem - you remember - the guarder of the Fae Realm - the one with the "fleur-de-lis kabob". According to Josheem we are about to enter a new dimension (did I just hear Rod Serling's voice?). And we are not going to like the journey although if we were able to survive the journey we would enjoy the destination.
***
So why would I be thinking about the annihilation of our planet when I am in one of the most beautiful places on said planet? Because just before I left on vacation (just after buying the nice comfy sandals that gave me that band aid) Josheem told me that we are soon to be swallowed up in a man made quantum black hole. And ever since I heard about it, all of the articles I seem to be reading, as well as the book I am listening to, seem be about mankind's great adventure into making quantum black holes.
***
A week spent worrying about the erasure of mankind's past, present and future while looking at volcanic fed vegetation and more water than we could possibly ever use. (By the way, how can we truly consider ourselves at any kind of technological pinnacle when we can't even figure out how to extract pure water out of the ocean inexpensively enough that we couldn't simply irrigate, lets say, the Sahara? Hmmm?)
***
My wife and I watched my daughter graduate with honors. We wandered through stores and I wondered who the people were who would pay $3,000 for a dress and thanked my lucky stars that I married a woman who gets buyer's remorse before she buys. We rented an umbrella (with money that could have gone toward housing a whole village in Africa) and laid around for at least a couple of hours a day thinking about the end of everything.
***
And I sculpted! As I mentioned before in these writings, I sculpt just about everywhere I go. The people in Hawaii have wonderfully diverse faces and I learned much about recognizing features. And yet the end of the world weighed heavy on my mind. What could I do? How can we stop the inevitable?
***
I guess it would be not so bad if it was just the annihilation of the human race. At least then the planet would still be around and there would be the possibility of some creature - from another planet, or dimension or from our planet at a later time - running across our fossilized remains and piecing our history together. Maybe the future creatures would marvel at our art, our music or simply be intrigued by our stubbornness or diversity. Something, anything to keep our memories alive in the universe.
***
But, to have it all end up with a tiny vacuum cleaner coming by and sucking us up into oblivion, leaving no trace whatever - we were never here. We never existed. ... it was just too horrible to think about! I guess that would explain why there are no aliens waving flags out their in the stars: intelligent species all over the universe get to a spot in their evolution where they discover how to create a black hole and BAM! the universe has one less trouble maker to worry about.
***
When I arrived home I confronted Josheem and pleaded with her to tell me some way that we might avert our fate. She said "huh?" I said: "you, know, the annihilation of the whole planet in a man made black whole". "Oh, that," she looked a little sheepish, "I was just kidding. Your species goes on for a very long time - although there are times I think they would rather not"
***
"What??? How could you do that to me?" Josheem simply said "Well, you humans rarely take what we say seriously. You always stubbornly hold on to your hopes and little paradigms of reality... we say things like that all the time and you guys never really hear us. If you are actually going to listen to me you should at least warn me so I can be more careful with my words."
***
After awhile I calmed down and told her that I was listening and would like to know the truth about the quantum black holes that we seem so bent on creating. And that is when I learned that she was only partly kidding. There are Faeries all over the world saying that the world will end if we create quantum black holes - it is there standard response to the subject.
***
Even though they know they can't change the course of fustory - (her word for future history) - they still can't help but throw in the jab about the end of the world. Kind of like when we know we have lost an argument and we can't help but mutter under our breath "but I don't have to like it" or "so's your mother" or some other rebellion against the inevitable.
***
Josheem says that in fustory we develop a tiny quantum black hole that manages to stay intact for a few minutes. After pouring over the results for decades it is generally accepted that the black hole had burrowed a small hole into another dimension. It takes scientists another couple of centuries to burrow through with anything bigger than a few molecules, but once they do, humans soon flood the other dimensions and the Fae Realm is tainted forever.
***
They don't like that part of fustory but they know it well happen and they know that we will not be able to find which dimension they fled to for many thousands of years. And by then humans are a much less aggressive species so it all works out in the end.
***
And of course, Josheem doesn't mind me telling you this because she knows (for a fact) that no one takes these blogs seriously. Just as well....you deserve a worry free vacation.

'E Time is Now!

Update: 4-23-8. I have created a Google Gadget for this clock and placed it at the bottom of these blog pages
****
I finally got a working eTime clock! I have to admit that I thought we were talking a little graphics and some javascript here. But the task was a bit more daunting than I thought it would be.
***
There is a picture of the clock to the right. I tried make it work on the blogger pages but there is some "fixing" that this software does that I don't understand yet so the javascript breaks. I set up the working clock on my Comcast page because it let me upload my html file without interpretation.
***
It is version 1.0 and I will be updating it over the next few weeks. But it should show you how your local clock will look. Mine (because I am in Mountain Daylight Time) has the "A" on the night time 6:00 position. Yours will be somewhere else depending on your local time.
***
The point being, Sheneal instructed me, that when we are scheduling a cross-time-zone event (webcast, conference call, group discussion, whatever....) all we need to do is look at our local eTime clock and speak the letters. We will automatically think the numbers because we have been doing it for years. Some watches and clocks don't even have numbers on them (little jewels or dots do just as well).
***
The conversation will go something like this: "Is G:30 ok with you?"; "Well, I usually eat lunch at G'o'clock, can we make it I:30?" "I:30 is a little too close to my quitting time - tell you what, this should only take us 45 minutes so can we make it I:15?" "Perfect"
***
Each person will be looking at their own clocks and thinking 12:30 - 12:00 - 2:30 - 2:15 for the one in MDT and 2:30 - 2:00 - 4:30 - 4:15 for the one in EDT but speaking a common language out loud.
***
The best use of the new way of "telling" time will be on the internet. "Webcast at B'o'clock" - with an eTime clock on the site - no confusion. Later when Google puts it on the main page as a standard widget we will truly be able to communicate about time without any translation at all.
***
A short note about the 5 to 6 hours. Sheneal explained to me that most global clocks that they deal with in the other worlds are in the shape of our figure eight, either on its side or on straight up. One of the circles is general night time and the other is daytime.
***
I told her that most people in this world would not feel comfortable with that right away and that we need a transitional clock that looks mostly like our current clocks.
***
We went back and forth on this. She kept telling me to "turn it in on itself". For some reason I could not understand what she was saying until I remembered a thing called a Mobius Strip. She said "yes, finally, that's it; fold it, tighten it up and you can make the clock." It was a simple idea but have you ever looked in your favorite graphics program for the "Mobius Strip" icon? No such beast. In the end I was able to make the current version using Bryce and Paintshop and my not-so-favorite program: Lots-o-time.

Time to agree

You may remember from an earlier post that "Sheneal is the time keeper, not like a watch keeps time but like a dam keeps a river". She is trying to teach me to see time the way that faes view time.
***
I have to admit that it is beyond me. It seems that the future is more like a different place than it is a different time as we see it. In our view there is only Now. But because the faerie realm spans much of our time and they can travel back and forth, our past and future are places they can pop into and experience for a while.
***
Much of what we consider faerie magic is simply their ability to travel in time. But I digress. The main reason for this entry is to discuss something that Sheneal is trying to enlighten me on which may come in handy if we use it in our dimension.
***
It seems that the faes can be in 2 times "at once" but they can only be in one place in one time. Once they enter in one of our Nows they may not return to it in a different place - they may return in the same place and relive the same moment in that place - but they may not return to the same time in a different place.
***
What does this have to do with us? The Now that they visit us in - the one that we are trapped in - has a naming convention. It has to do with major events in the timeline, almost like chapters of a huge novel. I am having a fair amount of trouble understanding the system.
***
The point is, Sheneal insists, that we have 24 (or 25) different names for the current Now. She says that it is nice to have a sense of where the sun is and all that, but converting from their system and then dividing by the rotation angle of Earth in juxtaposition to our Sun is a little bit of a chore.
***
So she was wondering if we could adopt a nice little plan that she came up with so that the faes would not have to do the "Angle of the Sun Conversion." She says that it would greatly benefit us also when we are trying to arrange meetings and gatherings around world.
***
She says that our current system puts too much emphasis on the position of the sun. And while she does admit that it is handy to know that it is 2 hours until bed time, or that it is almost time for lunch, or that school is almost over. That is not the whole story. If I am trying to arrange for a world wide event on the net or even to simply call my daughter in Hawaii I need to establish a local time reference point and then everyone has to convert their local time to the anchor local time.
***
Even using Greenwich Mean Time only confuses things because it is actually just another local time. And using it you not only have to convert the event to GMT but you have to convert your own local time to GMT! So now you have 3 numbers to juggle!
***
So how do you get around not having to convert? Sheneal says that it is very simple and very doable, it would cost next to nothing and the whole world (except a small portion of India) could adopt it over night.
***
The Plan
Sheneal suggests that we keep the local time (the one used for meals and bedtime) on the face of an analog clock. We could even decorate the clock to show local sun positioning. But since no one actually needs the numbers of the clock (many watches and clocks simply do not bother putting the numbers on any way), we should simply replace the numbers with letters.
***
How does that help? you say. Well, the letters are not in the same place on the clock for everyone. People in New York would have the "A" at the bottom of their clock perhaps and the people in California would have the "A" at the 90 degree position. Such that when the New Yorker and the Californian look at their own clocks (while not being able to agree on anything else) would be able to agree that it is "A-O'Clock" even though the hour hand was saying 6:00 and 3:00 respectively.
***
I asked: What about Daylight savings time and 12 hour clocks vs 24 hour time scales and digital clocks and the French? Sheneal frowned and asked me what the French had to do with it. And I explained that if it is an idea that does not come from France, they will never adopt it. She said there are some faeries in Paris that are already convincing some French people and that the only debate will be that the French will claim that they thought of it first. As will just about every other culture.
***
She said that the debate will get so intense that Egyptian and Sanskrit writings will be used to show that their culture had already thought of it eons ago. Finally the French will point out that the Cave of Lascaux had drawings of a global time (see graphic above) when other civilizations were still getting squashed by woolly mammoths.
***
Sheneal smiles coyly and says that of course it shows up in all those places - the faes have been trying to teach us this simple trick for a very long time. She says that it will now happen because the Internet will make it possible and compelling.
***
I will post the plan in the next blog as I will have to put some graphics together....

Painting a wall

I have asked Shira and Roseri to help me see what they are looking at. After much back and forth they have agreed to guide me through a painting exercise.

***

I chose a wall in the den. The first thing that they said to do was to put some clouds on the wall. So I did and took them pictures. "Too fluffy", "not stormy enough", "too high", "too dark", they would say after each iteration.

***

This is the 14th iteration and they say that I am getting close. A little more white in some spots and a little more dark in other spots.

***

My concern is that the clouds look too low in the scene. The clouds should be higher so that the scene can take up more of the view don't you think? I know I don't have any readers (sorry, I guess I have one - you) but I will put the question out there anyway to all of my painter friends and critics: "isn't the perspective wrong?"

The world melts and faeries mobilize

Fanle is worried about the current batch of humans. She always thought that we liked the same basic things: green grass, tall trees, furry animals... She new that some humans had priorities that sometimes harmed these things but she always felt that deep down humans were in favor of life.
***
But recently she saw something that has her very concerned. It was an article in a science magazine. The story was the usual drivel about the planet going to hell because of car exhausts. What concerns her is the obvious prejudice against green things and the desire to fill the planet with barren rock.
***

When Muir Glacier in Alaska was photographed by William Field in 1941 (left), parts of it were more than 200 feet thick. Since then it has retreated more than 12 miles. A photograph taken at the same spot by Bruce Molnia in 2004 (right) shows that the melted glacier's once-barren banks are now covered with trees and other vegetation.
***
Fanle thought at first that the black and white picture on the left was what the humans were warning against. When it finally sunk in that the picture of the lake and trees was the one that humans were worried about, she almost threw up.
***
After all these centuries could she have been so wrong about humans? Could it be that humans are from an alien world of ice and are actually warring against the faeries by cutting down the trees and pouring cement on the land. Could the faeries have been so fooled by the humans' talk?
***
Were the humans finally revealing their true intentions? Was it really an accident that they grew so much in numbers and strength in the last ice age? Is it possible that they thrive in an environment that is covered with glaciers? Could it be that the basic nature of the human is such that when it looks at a barren wasteland of rock and ice that its bosom longs for home?
***
It never crossed Fanle's mind that the humans could be of such a nature. And now that she has thought the thought I can not banish it from her mind. From her point of view every word out of my mouth is designed to lull her into a hypnotic acceptance that humans enjoy green things and furry animals.
***
She has the phrase: "the melted glacier's once-barren banks are now covered with trees and other vegetation." ingrained in her mind. It haunts her dreams. She can just hear the grotesque disappointment at all of that cold and lifeless ice being overtaken by "trees and other vegetation".
***
I'm afraid she is rallying the troops. Even dwarfs and ogres prefer green things over miles of ice and she is not having any difficulty getting the the faerie realm up in arms. There seems to be many that do not believe her wild tales but "the truth is out" she says handing out copies of the article.
***
I am going to have to admit that I am beginning to wonder myself. I have shown the article to humans expecting some simple explanation but it appears that there is real concern among the masses that ice and barrenness will soon be "covered with trees and other vegetation".
***
The full article is here: The World Melts and the Masses Mobilize

Blog On, Fellow Conspirators

There is a story going around the Internet and email about the differences between the homes of Bush and Gore. One of Bush's homes (don't know if it is his main home or not) is as environmentally friendly as you could hope for and Gore's main home is the opposite of environmentally friendly.
***
It is the kind of thing that will not be considered news by big media. Neither will Gore's private jet fuel consumption be compared to our paltry car exhaust. But you can bet that if Bush farts you will see headlines of "Bush destroys planet!"
***
So here's the funny thing – back in the 70’s I got my news from alternative sources because I could not believe the conservative big media machine. 30 some years later I get my news from alternative sources because I can not believe the liberal big media machine.
***
So as the pendulum swings: what changes and what stays the same?
***
Anyone read Animal Farm lately? Of course we all know that the revolutionaries adopt the bad qualities of the people that they overthrew. It is a simple lesson: power corrupts.
***
There is a second lesson - one that would be spelled out more clearly in Animal Farm Revisited or Animal Farm IV. The second lesson is that the community that grows out of the resistance to the corruption of power is where the vibrancy is.
***
Long live alternative media! Blog on, fellow conspirators!
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Giafae

I would like to have met the artist that sculpted the original of this cameo. I do, of course, realize that much of the beauty of the piece comes from stylized techniques of a certain period in jewelry making history and that the author probably borrowed from other pieces considerably.
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But somewhere along the line I have heard that art is about how a piece makes you feel. If someone can pee in a jar or throw colors at a canvas and call it art then I am going to assume (no, demand) that the definition of art is broad enough to include the application of truly remarkable skill and technique to produce a piece that stirs me every time I look at it.
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I don't really want to attempt to explain what it is that I feel when I look at this cameo. To do that I would have to have felt everything I am going to feel. And I certainly don't want the freshness to stop. But I will say that I see Innocence, Friendship, Joy, Beauty, Playfulness among other fresh and alive qualities.... and a strength that comes from these qualities that would not be tainted by the filth that tries desperately to invade our lives.
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Giafae (not her real name) would not have to run or hide from it because it has no part in her - there is nothing for it to tug at.
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After all, isn't the power that filth has over us, that it lures parts of ourselves that we try to hide from others? To Giafae the stuff that seduces us is as mud on a kitchen floor, interesting enough to wipe up and put in the trash but certainly has no allure.
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The faerie in this cameo has always been somewhat of a disappointment. I suppose that the detail that I desire is just too much for the medium but still...
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The fact that the faerie is a disappointment, however, does not diminish the piece. It is as if the faerie is out of focus and so it draws me to the girl where the real story is anyway.
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An artist throws a glob of red at a canvas and a splotch shows up randomly in the right corner - someone says "magnifique" - I say "bravo" to the fact that the medium was not strong enough to lure me into concentrating on the faerie (which is what I would have done) and to focus on the object of the faerie's musing.
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So the cameo has become my logo for this blog.
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I will probably never know anything about the artist of the cameo. It is an odd thing to me that someone could have lived and created such an inspiration (product of its time or not) and not have gotten any credit for it. But that is a blog of another day.
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A caterpillar learns to dance

It is time for the butterfly to tell history. As was stated previously, Lilinih is three times on the arbor. She is special in many ways.
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She is the first - the first to be brought into the house and the first to be crafted into the fence.
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She is my muse. She continually inspires me to reach for more, to go beyond the "safe" boundaries that basically say "don't be silly". Funny how circumstances don't confine a person as much as the feeling that if you do something out of "the norm" someone will think you are silly. There is a song that I keep forgetting that I like:
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I want to live like there’s no tomorrow
I want to dance like no one’s around
I want to sing like nobody’s listening
Before I lay my body down
I want to give like I have plenty
I want to love like I’m not afraid
I want to be the man I was meant to be
I want to be the way I was made

- Chris Tomlin

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And she herself has a muse. Her muse, a butterfly, is named Chomp. At this point you are probably asking yourself "don't butterflies have whimsical names?" Yes butterflies take on whimsical names when they transform. But Chomp has decided to keep his caterpillar name as a kind of muse, an inspiration if you will.
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You see Chomp was very famous. When Chomp was a caterpillar he wanted more than anything to be recognized as special. So he set out do something that no other caterpillar had ever done. As you can imagine there are many, many things that no caterpillar has ever done, so Chomp just had to choose something that was on the list but not completely beyond his reach.
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He crossed off: going to the moon (no way to prove it), writing the great American novel (no other caterpillar can read), learning to play basketball (more like learning to be squished), being in the movies (overdone), becoming a rock star (he actually did this and had one song (Caterpillar Song - Korpus Kristy and the Skinwalkers also did a version) but the other caterpillars were not impressed - seems that their little ears just don't have a very wide range).
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Finally he hit on something he might be able to do that would possibly impress his peers: dancing. You may think that all those legs would be hard to control and indeed they are (myself, I get confused with 2 legs and a line dance). But once they all get going in rhythm it is actually quite impressive.
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Chomp became very famous. Every little pillar had to learn the moves, "rolling and flailing", "kicking and tapping" and of course the "chorus line". He started a craze in spite of the older caterpillars chiding them with words like "shameful", "oh, grow up" and worst of all "silly pillars".
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And then it happened. Everyone knew it was coming but somehow it seemed that Chomp would never have to go into the cocoon (they call it "going dark"). The days went by and all the little pillars waited for Chomp to emerge.
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When he did they all cheered and danced vigorously showing Chomp the latest new steps - the fanciest one they named after him: "ChompDown". He laughed and jumped onto a leaf to give them a little thrill with his dancing. But to every one's horror, his feet did not respond the same, he stumbled,he swayed, he fell over... he was all wings.
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Disheartened, the pillars wandered away one by one with grumbles of "What's the point", "I guess I should grow up", "I'm just a silly pillar". Tears ran down Chomps face. All the practice, all the struggle and sacrifice for naught. Chomp had gone from champ to chump.
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Chomp wandered away, ashamed to face his fans. He flew far, he flew where no caterpillar could find him - high in the Rockies where no trees grow. It was there he had his mountain top experience - where else?
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Up there without trees he found that he was very visible to birds. They swooped and dived at him. But he found that if he lifted a leg here, swiveled a segment there, dance motions he had taught himself, he could fly in such a way that the birds could not guess which way he would go next.
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He flew back to his friends to share his discovery. Most ignored him, having been assimilated into the more practical "live to eat" philosophy. To the few who did listen, he told them that there are things that carry over into the next life and that it is in the caterpillar stage that they need to learn to dance because it cannot be learned in the air.
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They listened but when he tried to teach them the steps, they saw how clumsy he was and proceeded to eat the leaf out from under him. Chomp tried many times in many ways after that but always it would come down to a demonstration, at which point they would laugh at him and go back to eating leaves.
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These days Chomp wanders around avoiding birds and looking for any sign that a caterpillar might have an "inkling" - a bouncy step, a rhythmic sway. It is then that he gently persuades the young pillar to take another step, and another.
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Lilinih has learned well from Chomp. She saw the little steps I had taken, a little carving here, a doodle there and whispered in my ear to try some more - "sure they will think you are silly but seriously, what does that matter in the grandest scheme of things?".
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We muse each other into being all that we can be. And Lilinih tells me that even though there is no welding in the spiritual realm - allowing the muse to grow will come in very handy.

Parts and Partial

Parts
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Some inquiring minds have wanted to know how I make an iron fae. I suppose a brief explanation is in order for those who are not familiar with this ancient art.
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The first step is to cut out the faerie parts from various sizes of iron stock.
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Then start up your mig welder and connect at the joints. Sometimes you will need a few clamps to hold her in position depending on the pose you have chosen.
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At first, when putting on the clothes or the hair, I tried thin sheets of metal but I found that it just does not hold up to the welding and grinding process. So now, when I need to build up a part, I build up the weld in that area.
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Putting on the hair in this way is especially gratifying as her whole head turns a bright, bright red from the tremendous heat. They actually don't mind this very much, as a matter of fact one of the faes - Fanle, if I remember correctly - asked if I could make her hair that color permanently. I told her I would try but that it is a very special kind of red that is usually only seen when the temperature rises above 700 degrees. "So..?" was her response. Faes are so impractical!
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Partial
Once there is enough weld and raw iron stock in place, the grinding starts. At first a regular grinder can be used but faes are so delicate that they quickly demand diamond.
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When I first started, I used carbide Dremel tools. They worked very well but I found that I was forever digging little slivers of iron out of my hands, feet and face. (ok, ok, in the summer I weld and grind in my bare feet or sandals - kids, don't do this, it is wrong).
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Then I found diamond. The faes like the feel of diamond on their skin and so do I - much gentler!
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So I clamp the iron fae in a vice and position the model - Talena in this photo. She is headless here because I usually put the head on later so that I can drape the hair over the finished body and clothes.
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I use a magnifying head band visor (don't get the lighted ones - it just adds weight and the light will not be in the place you want it). This gives me eye protection, allows me to see tiny detail and it does not interfere with my Bose noise cancelling headphones.
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With all that whining from the Dremel tools you will need a good set of headphones. But between you and me, that is just an excuse, the real joy of faerie grinding is having an excuse to listen to great music. I have not filled up my 60 gig iPod yet but I am working on it.

Vastly Intricate

Shira may be the last Fae to be blogged but she is certainly not least. She and Roseri are friends. They sit together, albeit on separate gates. Shira and Roseri go on and on all day about something. I don't know what because they clam up as soon as I get within earshot.

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I don't believe it is gossip and I don't think they are scheming. Quite frankly I am puzzled at what they could be discussing at such length. I guess it just goes to show that there is much about faeries that I do not understand.

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I get the feeling that they both are some kind of royalty. Not that they look down on others or expect to be waited on. They just seem to be intertwined with great destinies. They seem to expect that their lives mean something, that just being themselves and doing what they must is part of some grand story.

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If I watch them for any length of time I can almost identify separate threads, or story lines. And occasionally they will flinch as if they were surprised by what just happened. There is, of course, no TV screen or crystal ball in front of them but the way they go on you would think that the mushrooms they are sitting on were their private little theatre seats floating around, giving them the best view on the most important events in a world of vastly intricate stories.

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One day, as I watched, Roseri put her head on her knees and covered the back of her head with her hands. Shira stood up and shielded her eyes. Her hair and wings rippled as if in a strong wind. When they finally resumed their positions of intimate conversation they were quiet for a very long time, only breaking the silence with a little humming, sometimes singing bits of songs.

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A few days later they were talking and singing again almost like before but they seemed a little older - if you can judge age by less frivolous joy. Before when they were happy they would cover their mouths, hide their eyes and giggle. Now when they are happy their smiles are open and broad, their eyes are wide open, sometimes with tears overflowing onto their cheeks. It is almost as if whatever happened had an unexpected good result. No, not good: Great - wonderful - fantastic.

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I suppose that is the way of all the great stories. We are drawn in to care and when we could care no more our love, our hope, our dreams are completely destroyed. We are crushed, lost. And then, somehow, beyond hope, beyond any audacity to ask, our love, our dreams are restored. The emptiness that was created when our soul was crushed is filled with a joy and love that flows like a river continuously filling a lake to overflowing.

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I don't know what happened in their world but when I look to my world I realize that I would expect any vision of the universe to have these elements in them. If I were brought up in a world view that did not have a story line like this, I would know that it could not be true. The universe is pregnant with this stuff and humans were made to go through this transformation. It would be like saying that we are more intelligent than the universe.

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No, no one reading this will find that sentence odd because we have all been indoctrinated into thinking that we are more intelligent than the universe. I suppose to get around the blinders that our current generation has, I should say: "it would be like saying that we are the pinnacle of love - that we made up the concept of love and we are dragging the universe into a more loving state whether it wants to go there or not". How absurd does that sound? Same thing, though.

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Think of the most desirable qualities: love, hope, trust, courage, joy, self sacrifice, patience... and you will readily admit that we are not the authors of those things. We have to be taught them. Events carve them into our being in spite of our efforts to avoid them. The universe is pregnant with the events that build character into individuals.

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I am glad for Shira and Roseri. They have faced a great loss and have been restored. I am not so glad for me, knowing that the process is necessary. Once again I have proved to myself that I am not the author of the process, I would avoid the process if I could. And yet, I will have loss and on the other side there will be joy and love and peace ....

One step closer

I have an update on Penore's little Panamanian project. I just got home from the bookstore after picking up my favorite magazines. On the cover of one of them was the headline "Panama's Megaproject". Seems they think it is time to expand the canal. It is only a doubling but I believe for a few year's work on Penore's part, that's quite a good start.

I am betting that by the time they actually start blasting someone will say: "you know, as long as we are here, why don't we just double the strength of the TNT."

You do, of course realize that they are digging very close to the intersection of two tectonic plates. Penore's real plan is for a massive earthquake between the two plates.

As seen in the map on the right, 14 million years ago Panama was under water and the Cocos plate, Nazca plate and Caribbean plate were in a three way waltz.

What is not realized is that there is a massive empty hole under the canal that was left when the Nazca plate moved under the Caribbean plate.

Penore has calculated the correct amount of earth removal and explosive power to make the plates split and the Pacific to rush into the empty cavity causing erosion on a scale unseen in the modern era.

Penore doesn't mind me telling you this because she knows you won't believe it.

How it started

It was 6 years ago. We were on our way to pick up our new dog. She was waiting for us in Lincoln Nebraska. She was and is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Why she needs four names I don't know, but we just call her Zoe.

Anyway we were on our way to pick her up from the breeder (all the good Cavalier breeders seem to be 500 miles from here. Our other Cavalier hails from Montana). It was about the middle of Nebraska when my daughter found a faerie at a truck stop.

My daughter was looking for a "trinket" to remind her of Nebraska. I told her she could buy something if it was just a few bucks. When she pointed out the faerie I tried to tell her how it really wasn't the kind of thing we were looking for. It should be more like a key chain or a shot glass or an ash tray (yes, I realize how ridiculous that is now - she was eight, of course she was looking at faerie rather than a shot glass - but that's what people are suppose to get when traveling aren't they?) But the more I looked at the little faerie, the more I thought that 20 bucks was really not that much to spend and besides she was kind of cute and every little girl should have a faerie....

Well, I succeeded in convincing myself but the more I look back I wonder if I even had a chance at saying no. I have stopped collecting shot glasses, ash trays and key chains and have a rather impressive collection of faeries. My wife puts up with them all over the house. They move around the rooms of the house having discussions, causing mischief, watching, waiting, thinking... They occupy every nook and cranny and sometimes we go out and buy new nooks and crannies just so we have room for more faeries.

Occasionally I struggle with the fact that most people don't consider faerie collecting to be a very manly past time. But me getting bitten by the faerie bug really isn't all that surprising when I think about it. Faeries play with time and space and are cute but not controllable. They are the stuff of imagination and muse. My goal now is to reach into time and space and either pull out a faerie or put one there - it matters not which.

Her name is Lilinih (Le-lee'-nah). She is three times on the gate - twice on the arbor and once on the gate. She is holding a butterfly (an iron butterfly come to think of it). The butterfly is her muse. She and her friends are my muse.

These boots are made for dancing

I should probably get a better picture of Fanle. You can hardly tell that she is lacing up her calf high mocassin-boots. She is proud of them and would not be happy to know that the picture I took didn't show them off.

If you don't mind, I would appreciate if you would click on the picture to get a little larger view. If you could make a note that the boots hug her legs and feet like a second skin, and if you ever come to see the gate in person, just give her a little complement about that fact, she would like that. I guess girls are girls even when they are faeries?

Fanle is the dancer of the bunch. Not that the others can't or don't dance, it's just that Fanle dances everywhere she goes. I have heard the others whisper that they don't think she knows how to walk or run. Even when she flies, it's a dance. I've seen butterflies swoon with motion-sickness just watching her.

I suppose you might wonder why she is so happy that she continually dances. She, of course, would laugh if you asked her. She knows that humans have most logic upside down but this one always sets her to giggling uncontrollably.

Fanle does not dance because she is happy, she is happy because she is dancing, silly human.

That reminds me about the book that I am reading: "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." The author puts forth several exercises to put the reader in a place to use the right side of the brain for drawing rather than the left.

The left side is the one that thinks about things in a serial fashion (one thought and then the other). The right side is the one that thinks about things in parallel (everything at once). One of the exercises is to copy a drawing upside down. The object is to demonstrate that it is the left side of the brain (the one that names things) that can't draw and that if it is somehow taken out of the equation that we inherently know how to draw (our right side that is). In doing the exercise I found that if I named the feature I was copying (i.e. face or hand) I did not do as well as if I simply replicated the lines that were there without naming them.

Fanle would agree whole-heartedly (of course she does everything whole-heartedly or not at all). She would say that it is the logical side of the brain (the one that names things, remember the fish in Little Mermaid "This is this and that is that....") that keeps us from being happy. Dance with your heart and stop listening to the noise from the serial joy killer.

Serial thought sees one thing happening and then another and another... and so on.. and then you die. Well no wonder serial thinking is such a killer: one of those things that happens has to be fatal. Will it be the next thing? no, must be the next thing? no, well my luck is running thin it must be the next thing.....

Fanle's brain (and your right brain) works differently. Basically it says "it's all good". One little incident can't spoil the painting. The painting is too rich and beautiful. The painting is a whole. The left brain screams "oh, I hope it isn't yellow next!" and the right brain says "huh? what are you talking about, the painting is what it is and if it that spot is yellow, than yellow is wonderful because the painting is wonderful"

I like Fanle most of the time. Sometimes my brain says "someday she will become disillusioned" and she laughs at me and says "no, that doesn't happen, but if it did..." she dances away without finishing her sentence.