Changing Places

Wow, a 7.8 quake under any city would be a disaster. Living in earthquake country, it’s one of our fears here. My heart goes out to China today….

Death toll in China earthquake rises to 7,600

A massive earthquake struck central China on Monday, killing more than 7,600 people and trapping nearly 900 students under the rubble of their school, state media reported.
The official Xinhua News Agency said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan county in Sichuan province after the 7.8-magnitude quake, raising fears the overall death toll could increase sharply.

So –

Why do people pay $32 to go to a concert and then sit and drink and yack with their friends all through the entire concert??!!??

It’s really annoying to those of us who want to hear the concert we paid for, people.

Stay home to drink and yack with your friends.

I find myself wondering at times what the hell the point of anything is these days, when all our efforts seem to be overshadowed by the national sense of malaise accompanied by the idiocy of the people around us. The only folks who seem to be accomplishing anything are those who are so personally narcissistic that they can’t imagine anything else going on is important but their little piece of the world. The rest of us are too depressed by all the shit going down around us….

I mean I went to see Joe Jackson last night, and could barely enjoy it because so many people just would. not. shut. up. Ever. I can’t believe all these people think they are so important that they can’t shut their mouths for five minutes to listen to a song.

Here is the original, pre-Hallmark, Mother’s Day Proclamation, penned in Boston by Julia Ward Howe in 1870:

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears
Say firmly:
“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We women of one country
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says, “Disarm, Disarm!”
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!
Blood does not wipe out dishonor
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war.
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions.
The great and general interests of peace.

My brave girl collapsed today and made her final trip to the vet.

She was ready to go and went very quickly, and beautifully. She is at peace…..

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
- Li-Young Lee
From Blossoms

This is not one of those days for me….

Yup, had one today. Fun stuff.

So far in this year’s round of doctor’s visits all I’ve collected is an endometrial polyp. On the plus side, the opthalmologist’s visit today was good — my eye pressure is normal again now thanks to my ultra-expensive eye drops. Yay.

No more doctor days til next month’s physical.

WHOA!!

Mega Vulcanicity: When Volcanoes Spew Lightning

Several days ago, a volcano that had been dormant for 9,000 years near the coast of Chile erupted spectacularly, hurling liquified metals and lightning many miles into the sky. The results, which you see here, are called a “dirty thunderstorm,” and are quite rare. Nobody is certain what causes them, but according to National Geographic it’s believed to be “the result of rock fragments, ash, and ice particles in the plume collid[ing] to produce static charges—just as ice particles collide to create charge in regular thunderstorms.”

So Cute!!!! Via Boing Boing….

RoadkillToys.com Designer Plush Toys - Twitch (Raccoon) Plush Toy

Our Squash-plush range looks like roadkill. Feels like roadkill. And tastes like roadkill. But they’re not. They’re plush toys. Very macabre plush toys. It’s the way we make them that makes them seem so real.

The blood and guts and gore are made using the latest high-tech stuffing and plush, to give it quite a realistic squidgy effect. The body and head and legs are made from specially sourced plush material, that gives them that tactile quality of mangy fur. The body is partly stuffed with beads, to give it extra dead weight. And unlike real roadkill it’s something you’ll want to take home and arrange on your bed.

We’ve tried to make Twitch and the rest of his Squash-plush chums as life-like as possible. But at the end of the day he’s only a stuffed toy. All the plush materials and stuffing we’ve used are made from 100% polyester fibres, and are fully compliant with British safety laws.

Twitch’s body is stuffed with a mixture of beads and stuffing. The beads give the Squash-plush teddy a bit of extra weight, so he can lie spreadeagled in his blood and gut-pool. The blood and guts and gore are made using the latest, cutting edge stuffing. It’s a special new micro-bead stuffing that gives the guts and organs a more malleable, tactile effect. It makes it more squidgy. More gross-out. You can disembowel Twitch by pulling the blood and innards through the zips that line both sides of the teddy carcass.

Scientists find something good about a big bottom - Yahoo! News

A type of fat that accumulates around the hips and bottom may actually offer some protection against diabetes, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

They said subcutaneous fat, or fat that collects under the skin, helped to improve sensitivity to the hormone insulin, which regulates blood sugar.

Mice that got transplants of this type of fat deep into their abdomens lost weight and their fat cells shrank, even though they made no changes in their diet or activity levels.

“It was a surprising result,” said Dr. Ronald Kahn of Harvard Medical School in Boston, whose study appears in the journal Cell Metabolism.

“We actually found it had a beneficial effect, and it was especially true when you put it inside the abdomen,” Kahn said in a telephone interview.

Kahn said he started the study to find out why fat located in different parts of the body seems to have different risks of metabolic disease such as diabetes.

Researchers have known for some time that fat that collects in the abdomen — known as visceral fat — can raise a person’s risk of diabetes and heart disease, while people with pear-shaped bodies, with fat deposits in the buttocks and hips, are less prone to these disorders.

Now it turns out that subcutaneous fat — fat found just under the skin — may be actively protecting people from metabolic disease.

Nice thoughts on creating life versus getting stuff from Christine Kane.

Creating vs. Getting | Christine Kane

The laws of creativity apply to everything - not just to works of art.

The gift of practicing art is that it teaches the creator how to create, and how to be a creator. Over and over again, the artist learns the process of making things - including the obstacles that arise, the futility of forcing the flow, and the joy of allowing inspiration. This practice has been nothing less than revolutionary in my own life.

That’s because I grew up learning more about Getting than I did about Creating. And I’m not alone in that. Most of the life lessons we’ve all learned are about Getting.

We gotta get rich, get approved, get things from people, get a job, get a life, get laid, get publicity, get someone to do something, get approval, get high, get married, get a loan, get good grades, get a clue, get into college, get up, get down, get out.

Get it?

Getting is an epidemic. It makes us grab at life. It takes us out of the present moment. It makes us powerless. It forces us to manipulate our own spirits so that we can manipulate the situation. Getting requires that we use our precious creative power to get, rather than to use it for its primary purpose, which is to Create. When we misuse this power, we become contorted. We block the flow. The focus is on “out there” rather than “in here.”

When we become Creators, we turn the whole thing around. Everything becomes an inside job. We experience true power. We create our lives.

I didn’t know Tippi Hedren was responsible for starting the Vietnamese on the path to nail industry dominance. Interesting.

Vietnamese nail down the U.S. manicure business - Los Angeles Times

The story of how the Vietnamese fell into the nail industry is one of pure chance — of how 20 women who fled their war-torn country happened to meet a Hollywood starlet with beautiful nails.

The women were former teachers, business owners and government officials who came to America in 1975 after the fall of Saigon and landed in a tent city for Vietnamese refugees near Sacramento called Hope Village.

Actress Tippi Hedren, drawn to the plight of Vietnamese refugees, visited every few days. The Vietnamese knew little of Hollywood, so Hedren showed them Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” and pointed out her face on the screen.

Hedren was captivated by the refugees’ stories of their homeland. They were, among other things, fascinated by her nails — long, oval, the color of coral.

“I noticed that these women were very good with their hands,” said Hedren, now 78. “I thought, why couldn’t they learn how to do nails?”

So Hedren flew in her manicurist once a week to teach the women how to trim cuticles, remove calluses and perform nail wraps. She persuaded a nearby beauty school to teach the women and helped them find jobs.

Thuan Le, a high school teacher in Vietnam, passed her nail licensing exam four months after coming to Hope Village…

Hmm, interesting - guess we need to think in terms of “if-then-else” statements instead of “do-while” loops, to use the software development metaphors….

Does your brain have a mind of its own - Los Angeles Times

Even though our short-term desires are pretty good at grabbing the steering wheel of our consciousness, our more recently evolved deliberate minds are powerful enough to regain at least some measure of control. Consider, for example, the difficulty that most people having in sticking to abstract goals like “I intend to lose weight” or “I plan to finish this article before the deadline.” Nice thoughts, but not formulated in terms that your ancestral, reflexive brain might understand. The work-around? Translate those abstract goals into a form your ancestral systems — which traffic largely in dumb reflexes — can understand: if-then. If you find yourself in a particular situation, then take a specific action: “If I see French fries, then I will avoid them.” As Peter Gollwitzer, my colleague in New York University’s department of psychology, has shown, even simple changes like these can markedly increase the chances of success. Our conscious, deliberate systems will never have total control, and our memories will never be perfect, but as they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, recognition is the first step. If we come to recognize our limitations, and how they evolved, we just might be able to outwit our inner kluge.

Indeed. Gee, two oil men got in office and oil company profits all skyrocketed over the last eight years. What a surprise. And some idiots will still vote Republican…..

Hoffmania!: Simple Enough for a Non-Hoosier or a Non-Tarheel

Since the gas-tax holiday has become the cornerstone of McCain’s and Clinton’s campaigns (Clinton is flooding the airwaves with it), let’s break it down to this extremely easy-to-fathom progression of events. Please feel free to pass it along to your friends who will be voting Tuesday.

Gas drops 18c a gallon (from the tax, not oil company profit).
People drive more.
People buy more gas.
Oil companies win.

Demand goes up.
Supplies go down.
Oil companies raise prices.
Oil companies win.

Summer ends.
Gas goes back up 18c a gallon.
People still have to drive to work.
Oil companies win.

Oh, and all summer long, American bridge and road maintenance crews will be unemployed.

If that’s what you want, vote for McCain or Clinton.

“Ownership of the sublime is not like mastery. To own the sublime is not to have and to hold forever, till death do you part. Ownership of the sublime is service rather than mastery: less like the love of a possessive husband for his trophy wife, and more like the love of a mother for her children: a nurturing love, stewardship rather than dominion. This non-possessive love takes delight in the least trace of the beloved, whether the laughter of a child, received as a gift even though not given as such, or the last rays of a sunset streaming magenta over the horizon after the source is long gone.

Even death can be sublime. We would be so much less sad if we learned how to let go of the things we love. Then they might become truly ours for the first time, in this non-possessive mode that the sublime demands of us. When you go to the movies or read a novel, you invest only the tiniest fraction of what that artwork cost to create. Yet the benefit you derive is immense, despite the fact that you cannot have and hold these artworks as Howard Hughes possessed his millions and kept them from others. This nonpossessive adoration, like the love of parents for their children, combines service, nurturance, stewardship and finally a letting go.

Yes, the earth is ours, our only home. But she is not mine in a personally possessive sense. Yes, my dying friend is my friend in the most intimate and private sense. And I will miss her when she is gone. But I do not love her better while she is alive by refusing to share her with others. We would be so much less sad if we learned this letting go.”

– Living Without a Goal, James Ogilvy

McCain to Disabled Veterans — who cares what you think?

Disabled Arrested At McCain Office, 20 Protestors, Many In Wheelchairs, Seek Senator’s Support Of Expanded In-Home Care For Medicaid Recipients - CBS News

At least 20 disabled activists, most of them in wheelchairs, were arrested outside Sen. John McCain’s offices Tuesday after being refused a meeting with the GOP presidential nominee-to-be over a bill to expand Medicaid coverage to more people who want in-home care.

“If he should be president, it would be ironic that he comes from a party that talks a lot about family values,” said Bob Kafka, national organizer for ADAPT, a group advocating for passage of the bill. Without the legislation, many disabled and elderly people don’t have the choice to apply coverage to anything other than institutional care, he said.

“Families are devastated because they don’t have a choice to keep people at home,” Kafka said.

McCain was not in his office during the protest. He was campaigning Tuesday in Florida on his health care plan.

The bill, S. 799, stuck in committee since last year, would amend the Social Security Act to allow people who are eligible for Medicaid coverage of nursing home costs to spend it instead on home-based, or community care.

Sponsored by Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., it also would grant extra money to states that participate in the program, according to a summary of the bill.

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, are co-sponsors of the bill, but McCain is not.

Beltane Fire Festival

A roundup of a few Beltane posts:

Beltane is a cross-quarter day, marking the midpoint in the Sun’s progress between the vernal equinox and summer solstice. Since the Celtic year was based on both lunar and solar cycles, it is possible that the holiday was celebrated on the full moon nearest the midpoint between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice. The astronomical date for this midpoint is closer to May 5 or May 7, but this can vary from year to year.

From The Zoo:

Going A-Maying & Bringing in the May — Merry-making and Nature communion. * Midpoint between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice. * In Pagan Rome, Floralia, from April 27-May 3 was the festival of the Flower Goddess Flora and the flowering of Springtime. On May 1, offerings were made to Bona Dea (as Mother Earth), the Lares (household guardian spirits), and Maia (Goddess of Increase) from whom May gets its name. * Roman Catholic traditions of crowning statues of Mary with flowers on May 1 have Roman Pagan roots. * Marks the second half of the Celtic Year; one of the four Celtic Fire Festivals.

From Owl’s Daughter:

Beltane is a reference to ‘Bel-fire’, the fire of the Celtic God of light (Bel, Beli or Belinus). He, in turn, may be traced to the Middle Eastern God Baal.

Whatever you choose to call it, this is our celebration of the approach of Summer, when the breezes are scented and the evenings are getting warm. Today we honor and emulate the divine union of the Lord and Lady! Celebrations include the obvious pleasures of ecstatic coupling, like most all of Nature is doing around us!

We also celebrate symbolically, by weaving a web of life around the Maypole and leaping the Beltane fires for luck. Lilacs and hawthorn can be brought inside on this day, along with flowers of all kinds to represent the fertility of the earth. This is our great festival of love, lust and fertility. This Sabbat honors the great life force in all things. All life forms! All forms of love!

Pew Research Center: Gen Dems: The Party’s Advantage Among Young Voters Widens

Trends in the opinions of America’s youngest voters are often a barometer of shifting political winds. And that appears to be the case in 2008. The current generation of young voters, who came of age during the George W. Bush years, is leading the way in giving the Democrats a wide advantage in party identification, just as the previous generation of young people who grew up in the Reagan years — Generation X — fueled the Republican surge of the mid-1990’s.

In surveys conducted between October 2007 and March 2008, 58% of voters under age 30 identified or leaned toward the Democratic Party, compared with 33% who identified or leaned toward the GOP. The Democratic Party’s current lead in party identification among young voters has more than doubled since the 2004 campaign, from 11 points to 25 points.

In fact, the Democrats’ advantage among the young is now so broad-based that younger men as well as younger women favor the Democrats over the GOP — making their age category the only one in the electorate in which men are significantly more inclined to self-identify as Democrats rather than as Republicans. Use the interactive tool to track generational differences in party affiliation over time.

While more women voters in every age group affiliate with the Democratic Party rather than the GOP, the gap is particularly striking among young women voters; more than twice as many women voters under age 30 identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party as favor the Republican Party (63% vs. 28%).

Indeed.

Hoffmania! | All That’s Left! Liberal News & Free Speech

I don’t mind my president enjoying arugula.
I don’t care if he or she is smarter than the room.
I kinda like the idea of a president with big brains.

I’ll never have a beer with my president.
I don’t want to have a beer with my president.
I don’t want my president having a beer with me.
I want my president to have better things to do.

I want my president to be the brightest, the smartest, the most imaginative, the classiest, the best person we can muster. I’ll take them as big and as brainy as they can get.

I’m sick of stupid presidents.
I’m sicker of presidents who pretend to be stupider than they really are.
I’m sick of presidents who try too hard not to be presidential.

I want a president I can be proud of.

I like the idea of a president who has worked directly with the streets.
I like the idea of that person having been there.
I can live with them enjoying arugula today.

I want a goddamn president.
Not a bowling buddy.
Not a drinking buddy.
Not a hunting buddy.
Not a poker buddy.
Not someone who will put on figurative pair of overalls to show how folksy they are.
I want a president.

It’s a white collar job.
They will travel in limos.
They will travel the world.
They will meet with foreign heads of state.
They better not embarrass us by acting stupid.

This person will be my employee.
This person will be representing me on the world stage.
This person better make me look good for what I’m paying them.
This person better work their ass off.

I want a president.
I don’t think it’s asking too much.

Stop treating us like your buddy.
Start treating us with respect.

I feel my Roxie girl starting to slip away from me. Tonight, she couldn’t keep her food down, poor girl. Yet she is still so strong and brave, doesn’t let her pain keep her from being her loving self. So much to learn from her…

We’ll keep her comfortable and let go when it’s time. Brave girl…

Know the masculine, but keep to the feminine:
and become a watershed to the world.
If you embrace the world, the Tao will never leave you
and you become as a little child.
Know the white, yet keep to the black: be a model for the world.
If you are a model for the world, the Tao inside you will strengthen
and you will return whole to your eternal beginning.
Know the honorable, but do not shun the disgraced:
embracing the world as it is.
If you embrace the world with compassion,
then your virtue will return you to the Uncarved Block.
The block of wood is carved into utensils by carving void into the wood.
The Master uses the utensils, yet prefers to keep to the block
because of its limitless possibilities.
Great works do not involve discarding substance.