circle circumference come from sun dance

from The Onion (dot com)


Swaggering Down: Swaggering Down 87%


"The average stride has decreased from 2.5 feet in length to mere 11-inch shuffling steps, and the angle of a walker's torso in relation to his waist has gone from a confident 28-degree backward lean to a pitiful 67-degree bent-over slouch," Macleod said. "Perhaps most distressing is the near-total absence of Americans making imaginary guns with their fingers and 'shooting' at passersby while winking."


I remembered first love with my wife when she laid her head on my shoulder and settled there.

Today I'm in a random mood with that jumbo-tron brain screen with quantum mechanical brain cells pumping in more directions and dimensions than I'll ever have names for.

I witnessed the beauty of two people learning to form new ideas about the world and test and wrestle with and form these ideas into pyramid blocks of advanced design - meanwhile they learn tolerance and patience and fellowship.

Trampled truly are dreams of anyone plugged in enough to know fear like locking the door all the time, like folks who've never been in a fight carrying a handgun, like a man programed and damned to want only what every other man has.

Oh, to solve a Vendetta's worth of misfortune, blaming only the circumstances of history, and fulfilling a rare prophecy of reflecting back in a mirror only that which you seek to see around you, to see change, to see the special lighted pathway to turn turn turn suffering into synergy, grime into growth, mayhem into magic.

Oh, to hold it all in your head, then swing out of silent safety with actions unfolding in sequence to reset.

Space has form as a mind has form, with infinite sequences of emptiness full of emptiness counters where the sounds of silence charge the empty space, producing potential for leaps of light and energy from Lifesavers cracked in mouths to our planets pull on the fabric of the entire universe.

And outside space is where our planet has no pull, where connection is meaningless, where any wandering mind would be revoked or dissolve, since "as we know it" would cease.

And I'm pissed at the people who are afraid still; we worry ourselves to death and I want a culture of life.

And I'm pissed at the people who vote against their own true interests because they don't dig deep enough either to find true concerns or find the not-so bubble-yum bravely self-proclaimed objective and objectional rational - dare I say Enlightened? - truth out there that can only ever exist subcutaneously away from the surface scan of permanently previous epochs of progress we call the media

October Surprise Nostalgia - Dukakis in '88

Congratulations to Caleb of East High School in Anchorage for winning 2nd place in his first ever debate tournament. A real Maverick who, with little more than a few weeks of research and practice, competed and rose without a partner experienced opposition of two in Public Forum Debate at Robert W. Service High School. Honorable mention as well to Mya, who impressed judges and us, and Min-Joo and Julia our brave up and coming hopefuls who had a wonderful time. Also commendation to all the sight-impaired - were it not for our recent and fairly miraculous technologies such as glasses and contacts, we'd all be blinder.

Is October for 8 and 10 or 16 or 18? 20, 24? 26? 28-800?

anyway, Dukakis

from Wikipedia:

Dukakis had trouble with the personality that he projected to the voting public. His reserved and stoic nature was easily interpreted to be a lack of passion (which went against the ethnic stereotype of his Greek-American heritage). Dukakis was often referred to as "Zorba the Clerk." Nevertheless, Dukakis is considered to have done well in the first presidential debate with George Bush. In the second debate, Dukakis had been suffering from the flu and spent quite a bit of the day in bed. His performance was poor and played to his reputation as being cold.

During the campaign, Dukakis's mental health became an issue when he refused to release his full medical history and there were, according to The New York Times, "persistent suggestions" that he had undergone psychiatric treatment in the past. The issue even caused then-President Ronald Reagan, when asked whether the Democratic Presidential nominee should make his medical records public, to quip with a grin: "Look, I'm not going to pick on an invalid." Twenty minutes later, Reagan stated that he "attempted to make a joke in response to a question" and that "I think I was kidding, but I don't think I should have said what I said." Reagan continued, "I do believe that the medical history of a President is something that people have a right to know, and I speak from personal experience." Dr. Gerald R. Plotkin, Dukakis' physician since 1970, stated that "[Dukakis] has had no psychological symptoms, complaints or treatment."[6]

[edit] Views on capital punishment

The issue of capital punishment came up in the October 13, 1988, debate between the two presidential nominees. Because she knew the Willie Horton issue would be brought up, Dukakis's campaign manager, Susan Estrich, had prepared with Bill Clinton an answer highlighting the candidate's empathy for victims of crime, noting the beating of his father in a robbery and the death of his brother in a hit-and-run car accident. However, when Bernard Shaw, the moderator of the debate, asked Dukakis, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" Dukakis replied coolly, "No, I don't, and I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life," and explained his stance. After the debate, Dukakis told Estrich he was sorry and didn't realize it was that question[7]. Many observers felt Dukakis' answer lacked the passion one would expect of a person discussing a loved one's rape and death. Many – including the candidate himself – believe that this, in part, cost Dukakis the election, as his poll numbers dropped from 49% to 42% nationally that night. Other commentators thought the question itself was unfair, in that it injected an irrelevant emotional element into the discussion of a policy issue and forced the candidate to make a difficult choice.

08's October Surprise is More Like an Everything Bagel

re-posted from www.theonion.com

Infographic

October 15, 2008 | Issue 44•42
October Surprises In History

Many elections have been altered by an "October surprise," or a sudden revelation that casts one candidate in a bad light. Here are some of the more memorable October surprises from years past:

1816: James Monroe (Democratic-Republican) vs. Rufus King (Federalist)—The Daily Pottstown Ledger intercepts a carrier pigeon carrying erotic poetry from Sen. King to an unidentified minor

1840: William Henry Harrison (Whig) vs. Martin Van Buren (Democrat)—In one of the earliest photographs ever taken in the United States, the incumbent Van Buren is revealed to be nothing more than a topcoat stuffed with leaves

1868: Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) vs. Horatio Seymour (Democrat)—Scandal erupts when it is discovered that Seymour secretly supports polio

1924: Calvin Coolidge (Republican) vs. John W. Davis (Democrat)—Publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst releases photos of Davis dressed as a flapper

1960: John F. Kennedy (Democrat) vs. Richard Nixon (Republican)—Chicago's powerful League of Deceased Voters rescinds its endorsement of Nixon

1984: Ronald Reagan (Republican) vs. Walter Mondale (Democrat)—Ronald Reagan finds Osama bin Laden and gives him $100 million to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan

1988: George H. W. Bush (Republican) vs. Michael Dukakis (Democrat)—Voters are shocked when it is revealed that Dukakis previously slept with and impregnated his wife of many years.

Not Just Organic Food is Growing

While some markets shrink, the old-fashioned, tried and true, traditional businesses are having a hard time coping. The common belief that green technology is inaccessible due to cost (i.e. there is always a cheaper, more economical solution) will gradually become less and less correct. I guess that's the beauty of living on a single planet - with enough awareness and support from the world community, we have no choice but to be informed of every consequence of our own actions. Once the wasteful economy of the 20th century is examined in detail, its moral repugnance and the non-sense ethnocentric rationalization for the very existence of such a system will be eradicated and replaced by tributaries of our own economy which are currently rising to take its place. I cite the rising distribution of a few ideas: sustainable energy and food supply, voluntary cooperation of (especially) non-governmental organizations, and green manufacturing coupled with green living. I don't say all these things because of any radical ideology. I say them because what we experience every day (in terms of a fossil fuel based hegemonic economy) is a mere blip on the natural history radar of our home planet. Biology teaches us that consumption fuels growth. Natural History is rife with evidence that growth causes eventual decline or death. I vote for eventual decline.


re-posted from MSNBC:

More homeowners embracing conservation
In 2008, green building is expected to represent 6 percent of the industry
Green Home
updated 8:55 a.m. AKT, Sun., Aug. 3, 2008

CHICAGO - The bathroom tiles are recycled wine bottles. The hardwood floors are sustainable bamboo. And the sprawling garden gets sprinkled with rainwater collected in 300-gallon barrels.

From its recycled plastic deck to its solar-paneled roof, everything in and about the 2,500-square-foot home on exhibit just outside of the Museum of Science and Industry has been designed to show the public how easy it can be to incorporate environmental sustainability into their own abodes.

* * *

In fact, green housing is growing even while the overall housing market is suffering, said Nate Kredich, the council's vice president for residential market development.

This year, green building is expected to represent 6 percent of the residential construction industry, according to a survey conducted by McGraw-Hill Construction Research & Analytics for the U.S. Green Building Council. That's up from just 2 percent in 2005.

"It is happening. But the industry needs to do a better job of getting information into people's hands when they're looking for it," Kredich said.

Embracing conservation
The goal of the Chicago exhibit, which runs through January, is to show visitors that saving energy and conserving resources are within reach of everyone — whether it's an entire house or a single feature, museum officials said.

The modular home, which Kaufmann said uses less than half the energy and a third of the water of traditional homes, includes a kitchen with a countertop composter and a sink made from concrete and fly ash — a byproduct of burning coal. Water from the bathroom sink is diverted to the toilet, where it is used for flushing. A bicycle in the children's bedroom must be pedaled for 30 minutes to charge a battery to power video games.

Visitors receive a resource guide that tells about the function of each feature, how they're assembled and where they can be purchased. The bicycle system, for example, was homemade from parts bought on an electronics Web site.

Leapfrog China

Wouldn't it be cool if they could leap technologies too - picture a boom and cheapening in world wide sustainable agriculture and cheaper sources of energy with more efficient products to utilize it with.


from NY Times

Corporate executives from cities across China said in interviews last week at the Canton Fair in Guangzhou and the Global Sources consumer electronics show in Hong Kong that while layoffs were rising, joblessness did not yet appear to be a serious problem.

Many laid-off migrant workers in export-reliant regions like Guangdong province, next to Hong Kong, have returned to their home villages, because high food prices have made farming more remunerative. Others are finding jobs in inland cities that depend more on consumer demand within China.

Workers are not yet lining up outside factory gates in search of work, as they did a decade ago. But they are nonetheless becoming easier to find and hire, said Bill Chen, a sales manager at the Tinly Jieyang Electro-Acoustic Devices Company, which makes automotive stereo speakers in Shenzhen that recently halved its work force to 100 employees.

* * *

With less to fear from rising prices, China’s central bank has already begun reducing regulated interest rates and loosening restrictions on bank lending, even though these steps could result in an expansion of the money supply and an increase in inflationary pressures. With the government running a large budget surplus, the finance ministry has begun lowering taxes on stock market transactions.

“We expect the Chinese government to continue to loosen policies on the back of fast-slowing activity growth and dissipating inflationary pressures,” said Hong Liang, an economist in the Beijing office of Goldman Sachs, in a research note late Monday morning.

Buy American by Warren Buffet

re-posted from NY Times

Op-Ed Contributor
Buy American. I Am.

By WARREN E. BUFFETT
Published: October 16, 2008

Omaha

THE financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad. Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher. In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary.

So ... I’ve been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I’m talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities.

Why?

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful...

* * *

Let me be clear on one point: I can’t predict the short-term movements of the stock market. I haven’t the faintest idea as to whether stocks will be higher or lower a month — or a year — from now. What is likely, however, is that the market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up. So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over.

A little history here: During the Depression, the Dow hit its low, 41, on July 8, 1932. Economic conditions, though, kept deteriorating until Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933. By that time, the market had already advanced 30 percent. Or think back to the early days of World War II, when things were going badly for the United States in Europe and the Pacific. The market hit bottom in April 1942, well before Allied fortunes turned. Again, in the early 1980s, the time to buy stocks was when inflation raged and the economy was in the tank. In short, bad news is an investor’s best friend. It lets you buy a slice of America’s future at a marked-down price.

Over the long term, the stock market news will be good. In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.

* * *

Equities will almost certainly outperform cash over the next decade, probably by a substantial degree. Those investors who cling now to cash are betting they can efficiently time their move away from it later. In waiting for the comfort of good news, they are ignoring Wayne Gretzky’s advice: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.”

I don’t like to opine on the stock market, and again I emphasize that I have no idea what the market will do in the short term. Nevertheless, I’ll follow the lead of a restaurant that opened in an empty bank building and then advertised: “Put your mouth where your money was.” Today my money and my mouth both say equities.

Warren E. Buffett is the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, a diversified holding company.

Where Media Chafes

Where's the people saying the things that need to be said!

Where other than the margins!@*!

Why isn't anyone saying we should save our domestic oil resources for when our great-grandchildren might desperately need them?

How long have we known that the pharmaceutical, oil, and energy companies have been making hand over fist? and meanwhile, how many lives have been ruined by medical costs, urban pollution, and high heating/utilities costs?

Why can't science figure out a way to make dogs and cats get along together?

Why doesn't the whole nation collectively bargain to make it cheap to get a massage every week? Okay, maybe the whole State then?

Is farming really so bad that practically nobody wants to do it on a large scale other than Monsanto ilk?

Can't we teach students to spot bullshit politicians when they see them? like - "stranger, stranger"?

Why aren't the gas companies taking the Carbon out of the fuel, and using it in conjunction with green growing things to make oxygen and biofuels and leaving our cars with something cleaner to burn?

Why can't we just build a national electric car to be used by the Postal Service that anyone can buy for a minimal monthly payment with guaranteed functionality or replacement?

Do we really need all those fucking street lights everywhere? Crimeny! Have you ever flown at night? It's so damn pretty it blinds you even a quarter mile up! Can't we, I don't know, save some energy by turning the lights out? Or should we just rename the whole country "Las Vegas" or "Afraid of the Dark to the Tune of Trillions of light bulbs"?

Weren't victory gardens a great idea? And since most of the things the government declares "war" on these days - terrorism, drugs, poverty, etc. - since most of them are more like ideas than actual "things" you could make "war" on and then make them go away through your careful or feverish application of force, shouldn't we be looking at our society systematically and calling everything that has negative impacts into question? You know, like what real reform is supposed to be like? Not topical or shallow finger wagging, but regime change, paradigm change, or at the very least some kind of aggressive transparency campaign through Washingtoon.

Who decided that we need only 3 or 4 hours of Presidential Debates with only 2 candidates?

Why aren't either of the two talking about voting reform including instant run-off voting, barometer vital statistics like infant and mother mortality rates or the number of incarcerated citizens, setting records straight in regard to US domestic and foreign economic policies and partial (and temporary) usurpation of government by the industrial, financial, and political elites?

Did anyone ever get held accountable for all the crazy shit that has happened in the last 10 years? 20? 50?

Does anyone realize that the missle defense network we're setting up in key areas around the world could start another arms race with many more nuclear powers on the globe?

Didn't Dick Cheney redraw the electoral district maps in Texas personally? Meanwhile, does anyone on this planet actually trust Dick Cheney?
Shouldn't we do something like, about that, or redraw that map?
Hello?

With kids getting bigger and less healthy, isn't that kind of an emergency, and shouldn't we do something about that right now - like maybe legislate the nutritional content per dollar requirements of commercial food manufacturers?

If there aren't as many jobs and not much economic prosperity, and even though it will cause some challenges to arise here and there, shouldn't we be able to wisely reduce our economy, at home and at work, to best maintain our lifestyle and reflect our values?

Isn't it obvious that the Non-Governmental Organizations that have risen through popular grassroots support are pretty much in the lead when it comes to setting an example to the rest of us for what our goals as a human species should be?

Since the U.S. Auto Industry - regardless of who's "fault" it may have or have not been - summarily fell into top heavy failure via stagnant technologies and fell far astray of top-line thinking, shouldn't there be some kind of change in leadership or re-organization?

Shouldn't we be listening to the auto workers more, like we should listen to the teacher more, the journalist more, children more, history more, science, the triumphs and methods of other places with other cultures... more than we hear now?

Why shouldn't we do these things?

Why aren't they already happening?

Where do we go if we can't see where we are?

Did anyone in the history of the world ever imagine a place as large, diverse, and complex as the social, political, and economic landscape that we're inundated with every day as reward for waking up and getting out of bed? This place we're a part of? This place we belong to? Or should belong to.

What We Need

We need to train a generation of farmers, machinists, inventors, philosophers, preventative doctors, fitness experts, lawyers and judges, builders, teachers, professors, and most of all, leaders who also know how to follow, and who to follow.

to set an example for a generation of politicians,

to feed everyone with homespun technology

to part with daily routines as we know them

to find paths through soft terrain like money

to remove old landmines that nobody needed

to teach reason wisdom deep thought and ethics

to a generation we're too busy to take by the hand

too scared to risk reaching to hold a hand

to make damn sure we get a few things 100 % right

to as much as we'd like get together without barriers

to make hope out of harps for angels we bear

to make crops out of seasons and lay in the soil

to let affairs be few but matters be great

to make after each sentence some thought

to make better the reality everyone bought.

Some of Today's Headlines From TheOnion.com

Congress to raise Alpacas to aid struggling economy.

Recession-Plagued Nation demands new Bubble to invest in.

Bush Calls For Panic - President to Nation: 'remain nervous'

Extreme Weather Alert: Meteorologists Call for Intensely Brisk Autumn

U.S. Debt to Outgrow Debt Clock

Scott Bakula Jumps Into McCain's Body Just Before Election

Obama Under Fire For Playing T-ball During Vietnam

Breast Cancer Launches WNBA Awareness Month

stolen from wickedsunshine.com

Dear Mr. McCain

Fighting wars in other countries no longer makes us more secure.

Oh, and your father was at sea "doing our country's business"? The military is the country's business? That doesn't seem right.

and by the way, keep your steady hand off my countries' tiller.