Rising Scip

Vast Ye! Auld dubh swann
offer reminders of swid hiconde
time-bound sweorcan
trough and peak my morgen sweg
magnify, modify, enhance swol drior
Scur heard broadcast truth;
rewriting time.

Things to think about 06-16-11

If one can say unequivically that everything is interconnected the following quotations take on profound meanings when examined in relation to each other...Cy

"The convoluted wording of legalisms
grew up around the necessity to hide from ourselves
the violence we intend toward each other.
Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and
depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree.
You have done violence to him, consumed his energy."
-- Frank Herbert
(1920-1986)
Source: Dune, 1965
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Frank.Herbert.Quote.406D


For the eminent psychotherapist, Carl Rogers,
most problems of human suffering are caused by a lack of self-regard.8
Self-regard is natural, argued Rogers; it is there from birth. However,
our problems stem from living in a world where others’ regard is always
conditional. “I love you only if you do...” In a world where conditions are
placed on our value, we come to evaluate ourselves conditionally, proposes
Rogers. The result is constant self-doubt, an inability to be open and loving with others, and the erection of numerous defenses. The therapist’s task is primarily that of giving the client unconditional regard. By prizing the client in spite of failings, he or she will be restored to fullness. Much the same message is evidenced in the longstanding


From a study unit on the biological Making of Individual Differences, “The developing organism is nudged onto different developmental paths by the environment in which it finds itself.”

FiOs.

Today's Completed Reading - June 9 2011

I worked my way through two texts today...one of which I've read before but thought I'd review it once more.

Full text: Supra Earth affairs, by Mazlan Othman
Text type - Discussion:
o Mazlan Othman
Supra-Earth affairs Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A February 13, 2011 369 (1936) 693-699; doi:10.1098/rsta.2010.0311
o Abstract
o Full Text
o Full Text (PDF)
o Audio Supplement

The abstract states the following about the full text:

The United Nations briefly considered the issue of extra-terrestrial intelligence at the 32nd session of the General Assembly in 1977. As a result, the Office of Outer Space Affairs was tasked to prepare a document on issues related to ‘messages to extra-terrestrial civilizations’, but this area has not been followed through in more recent times. This discussion paper describes the United Nations’ activities in the field of near-Earth objects in some detail, and suggests that this might be used as a model of how Member States could proceed with dealing with this issue in case the existence of extra-terrestrial life/intelligence is established.

******

The second text is as follows:

Martin Dominik andJohn C. Zarnecki
The detection of extra-terrestrial life and the consequences for science and society
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A February 13, 2011 369 (1936) 499-507; doi:10.1098/rsta.2010.0236
Abstract
Full Text
Full Text (PDF)
Audio Supplement

The abstract states the following about the text:

Astronomers are now able to detect planets orbiting stars other than the Sun where life may exist, and living generations could see the signatures of extra-terrestrial life being detected. Should it turn out that we are not alone in the Universe, it will fundamentally affect how humanity understands itself—and we need to be prepared for the consequences. A Discussion Meeting held at the Royal Society in London, 6–9 Carlton House Terrace, on 25–26 January 2010, addressed not only the scientific but also the societal agenda, with presentations covering a large diversity of topics.

Decided I like Filk Music

I've come to the conclusion that I very much enjoy filk music. For anyone who does not know what it is, well, filk music ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filk_music ) is a basically genre of folk music (but not limited to folk) entailing science fiction or fantasy themes and is often humorous, whimsical, imaginative, or even instructive. There is often a very developed meaning incorporated into the individual pieces of music which is delivered in a figurative way within the context of the genre but having a wider destination determined for it.

The type of music is very appealing to a listenership who is thoughtful, imaginative, and endowed with a fine sense of humor. I enjoy it as a pleasant change from the usual musical forms of which are more often of late an exercise in listening to the same old thing but in a slightly different flavor.

Cy Thinking on Jeff Peckman for Denver Mayor

I agree with Larry Bryant. I support Jeff Peckman's launch onto the campaign trail. And those who are not comfortable with the paradigm shift in human awareness about Contact will just have to sit back and enjoy the ride. We've had to put up with their obstinancy for years....now its their turn. Turn about IS fair play.

QUOTE:
subjectLWB Comment Posted upon the Web Site of the Denver Post Newspaper
mailed-bycavtel.net

hide details 8:01 PM (17 hours ago)


TO SEE several posted comments from others (incuding one from
Jeffrey), click on this link and scroll down to the comments section:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17367474

[b]== Peckman as Cosmic Pathfinder ==[/b]

Judging from Peckman's phenomenal success in raising Denverites' UFO-E.T.
awareness with the recent ballot-initiative campaign, how can we doubt that
his mayoral candidacy constitutes a natural progression of that awareness?
See his platform details at http://www.extracampaign.org .

At the very least, his entering the race cannot but enliven what otherwise
would be a boring exercise in politcs as usual. If you've yet to experience
his keen sense of humor and civic-mindedness that matches it, then you're in
for a solid, practical glimpse of what he offers for Denver's citizenry of
this decade. Welcome aboard the UFO-E.T.-awareness train, now building up
a full head of steam to depart upon the campaign trail -- with or without
those who, right now, feel threatened by the paradigm shift it brings to us.
-- Larry W. Bryant (13 Feb 11)

DESTROYING AMERICA: GLOBALISM, SOCIALISM, MORAL VIRTUE & LEGAL PLUNDER

DESTROYING AMERICA: GLOBALISM, SOCIALISM, MORAL VIRTUE & LEGAL PLUNDER
By Cyrellys Geibhendach
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Source: http://hubpages.com/hub/Destroying-America-Globalism-Socialism-Moral-Virtue-Legal-Plunder

American’s are experiencing the destruction of the nation through a sojourn in socialism which is a communist philosophy of equal sharing. This new form of socialism has grown among us under the guise of globalism and a desire to concentrate processes, policies, and managerial structures into a form of cohesion which is capable of interfacing to a corresponding global governance system and has been sold to the people in the form of promised guarantees such as protection against terrorism, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, ethical mandates, wealth redistribution, guaranteed jobs, higher minimum wages, and endless more.

This negative globalism can be ascertained in our current paradigm as socialistic policies, draconian controls, or feudalism which operates on a global scale to infiltrate and modify, global and local, social structures to the purposes of self-benefit to participating organizations (many of whom are corporations or doctrinal think tanks). Arguments rage over perpetuation of socialistic doctrines rather than in contrast, intellectual virtues or excellence such as wisdom and intelligence; the rational part of the human soul as defined by Aristotle, possessing its own reason and perfection through contemplation and experience.

Aristotle tells us that good character or moral virtue can be dictated. People of this century understand via direct experience an influencing power can dictate moral virtue or the irrational side of the soul through mandating (doctrine) in some way, “the habitual performance of right acts until the power of doing them freely and willingly becomes second nature,”1 supplanting natural rights and intellectual reason and responsibility. Intellectual giants within our culture of reason lay under siege: property rights, water rights, gun culture, states rights, structural limitations, checks & balances, environmental responsibility and stewardship, just to name a few. All of these have been set upon by socialistic policy makers mandating moral virtue doctrines which are only compatible with their own belief system rather than the central population.


Two Sides of the Same Coin

The secret of the black fox teaches us that you shall have the chase you seek when you curse Nature. And you shall chase him over the valleys and over the fields...but ne'er shall he yield...and he's jumped into the water and swum to the other side....and he's laughed so loud the Greenwood shook and then he's turned to the huntsman and he's cried! Ride on my gallant huntsman, when must I come again? For you should never want for a fox to chase all over the glen....and when your need is greatest just call upon my name and I will come and you shall have the best of sport and game! (from Heather Dale's song The Secret of the Black Fox, included http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDqLvt4LRVs )

Doctrine: [dok’ trin] noun a tenet, a principle of faith or religion….a type of thinking entailing absolutes; one or a set of principles which mandate adherence and are based on belief rather than reason.

Philosophy: [fa las o fi] noun an all-inclusive pattern of related and unrelated experiences continually re-woven logically together for consistency in a more or less satisfying way that helps us to understand our lives and our relationship of meaning with existence offered to us through a gradual process of growth.


A global way of life: legal plunder

There are many ways of mandating moral virtue. This can be through laws, policies treated as laws, or through the forum of public opinion and sentiment which is highly moldable when the public is operating in a state which is no longer self-reliant. Socialism or Globalism mandating Doctrine through the many possible applications and control of moral virtue is one way of defining a form of Legal Plunder. Legal plunder has become a favorite tool of globals through organizing and organizations which operate solely under the heading of social or societal construction formulating a new system of being which does not include happiness or intellectualism or natural rights.

“The present day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it.” ~ Frederic Bastiat, The Law

So how is legal plunder being organized? What are we calling it? How do we recognize it? Legal plunder carries many names. Bastiat tells us that it can be: “tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit,” and many others.

Bastiat equated Legal Plunder as an instrument of Socialism. Why? Well because, he explains that in regards to Socialism, it is upon law that the doctrines of socialism depend. Socialism uses doctrine to ‘divert laws’ from their true purpose. Mr. Bastiat tells us that Socialists, “like all monopolists, desire to make the law their own weapon. And when once the law is on the side of socialism, how can it be used against socialism? For when plunder is abetted by the law, it does not fear your courts, your gendarmes, and your prisons. Rather it may call upon them for help.”

So how is legal plunder by Socialists used today and has the law already been diverted from their true purposes? Are they already being twisted to perform the work required to further socialism doctrines in our society? Is this really what we want or is this what we are willing to tolerate without reaction or action to restrict it?

All these questions go back to our roots as a nation. But first lets take a look at a recent example:

In the Friday, February 11, 2011 issue of Great Falls Tribune runs a front page article by Associated Press’s Ben Evans titled: Watchdog group shines critical light on Capitol complex’s office sleepers. The article might cause you to say well here’s an organization that is looking out for the public, making sure our politicians are behaving to our expectations. Many readers might not read the whole article but simply make a few intended assumptions based on the first paragraph and then move on with their thinking having been successfully manipulated by the author and the organization described in it. Few readers will read further or read deeper, seeing the layers of real story unspoken existing between the lines. Let’s practice:

WASHINGTON – A Washington ethics watchdog says it’s time for Congress to crackdown on lawmakers who sleep in their offices rather than pay for a place to live.
Reacting to a surge in congressmen bunking down in their workspaces, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) wants the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether the politicians are getting an unfair tax break and violating their own rules by making personal use of public resources.

“House office buildings are not dorms or frat houses,” Melanie Sloan, the group’s executive director, said Thursday. “If members didn’t want to find housing in Washington, they shouldn’t have run for Congress in the first place.”
For years, at least a few lawmakers have slept on couches and cots in their offices to avoid….

Photo Insert with caption: Rep. Dennis Rehberg, R-Mont., has been known to sleep in his office while in Washingon for convenience. Now Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is asking for an investigation into the personal use of office space, which the group says, could violate rules or amount to an unfair tax break.

Article continues: …long commutes or pricey Washington rent payments. Some see it as a badge of honor, a commitment to frugality and hard work and a reminder to constituents they don’t consider Washington home.

CREW cited media reports that more than 30 lawmakers, all men, are now doing it. Sloan thinks the real total could be as many as 40 or 50 after a wave of budget-conscious, anti-Washington freshmen won seats in November.

Rep. Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, has slept in his office for years. Ryan R-Wis, brushed aside questions about the complaint.

“People have been doing it for decades,” he said. “I work until midnight every night. I get up at six every morning.”

Another longtime office sleeper, Rep. Luis Gutierrez D-Ill., said he’ll move out if the rules change. But he said it is more convenient for him to stay in the Capitol complex.

A spokesman for the Office of Congressional Ethics declined to comment except to say that the office had received CREW’s letter, which maintains that the free living arrangements amount to a taxable benefit that should be reported to the IRS. Several congressional officials said they weren’t aware of any rules or guidance specifically addressing the matter.

Sloan said that aside from the legal and rules questions, she has heard reports from congressional staffers about uncomfortable work environments.

“Especially if you’re a woman and you’re working late and your boss is there getting ready for bed, that seems designed for discomfort,” she said.

Besides, she added, “who wants to run into a member of Congress in need of a shower wandering the halls in sweats and a robe?”

Ok so let’s pick this article apart so that what is happening here is more understandable. Here we have an organization who is not a part of publically controlled government, who implies through its name that it is Ethically endowed itself, at least enough to pass judgment on others.

So what is an organization which is not governmental? It is a NGO: a non-governmental organization. It is a consequence of someone’s idealistic intent to influence and since it is in the public – private partnership business that makes it also identifiable as a special interest group. Question is whose interests?
(CREW) wants the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether the politicians are getting an unfair tax break and violating their own rules by making personal use of public resources.

The article thus describes an intent to cause control or harm through the diverting of laws from their true purpose. What are the true purpose of laws? Well if we were to go back and look a moment at one of our founding documents (which thoroughly defined the purpose for acting against injustice by creating a new nation based on our common principles) The Declaration of Independence which defines the purpose of government and through it, our laws, we would find the passage which tells us: “Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their (the Peoples) Safety and Happiness.”

Effect means to cause. We are all familiar with the term safety, and happiness I will reacquaint you with in short order below.

“House office buildings are not dorms or frat houses,” Melanie Sloan, the group’s executive director, said Thursday. “If members didn’t want to find housing in Washington, they shouldn’t have run for Congress in the first place.”

To continue we see a person who is supplanting the prime directive purpose of law with her own ideas about the value of a public representative. For her socialistic behavior has greater value than the purposes imbued in a representative by its constituency. This is socialism.

…in regards to Socialism, it is upon law that the doctrines of socialism depend. Socialism uses doctrine to ‘divert laws’ from their true purpose. Mr. Bastiat tells us that Socialists, “like all monopolists, desire to make the law their own weapon. And when once the law is on the side of socialism, how can it be used against socialism? For when plunder is abetted by the law, it does not fear your courts, your gendarmes, and your prisons. Rather it may call upon them for help.” ~ Bastiat

Socialism does not respect the people or the people’s priorities. Is it in the people’s priorities to dictate where a man may or may not lay his tired head? Or are they more focused that he is available and taking action upon their concerns? This is an example of legislating through the forum of public opinion for control by a special interest group. Changes here then would be for the benefit of this groups idealistic ideas (socialism/globalism) rather than for the people. Are we not still a government for the People and By the People? Or are we a government for the Special Interest Groups and By the Special Interest Groups?

Photo Insert with caption: Rep. Dennis Rehberg, R-Mont., has been known to sleep in his office while in Washingon for convenience. Now Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is asking for an investigation into the personal use of office space, which the group says, could violate rules or amount to an unfair tax break.

The article lambastes Rehberg by singling him out. Which for this week in where the publicly identified globals have been routinely hammering on him their socialistic doctrines, it’s not exactly surprising. Here’s the background on some of it from my personal notes:

• hmmm, so what's this about the Chinese buying up all the gold on the open market...might make sound money policy & infrastructure changes at the state level difficult if there's no precious metals available...montana...can you say saphire?

• The Montana Patriot community has three concerns right now open for discussion. One being sound money policy in which Montana disconnects from the fiat system and enters one based on real asset values such as precious metals. Another is States Rights. These are subjects which those who are not nation dismantling globals, participate in.

• Senator Tester MT (co-author healthcare bill a globalist/socialist initiative) was running a radio ad this week saying he was campaigning against secrecy & secret meetings in DC and seeking public support in this. That we the public should be concerned when the shoe is now on the other foot...Oh really? Wow imagine that...a globalist barred from something or not controlling something in DC. Must be a little unsettling for him.

• Speaking of Tester, here's how globals talk to nationalists: this same week he and other Dems try to take Denny Rehberg to task for speaking to MT State Legislature in Helena about States Rights. Tester & Cohorts say "it was an inappropriate venue for what they described as a divisive partisan speech." According to Tester & Cohorts, Rehberg should instead be focusing on guaranteeing jobs.

• Translation: Rehberg sit down, stf up and be a good sheep. Courtesy of Great Falls Tribune article by Matt Gouras Associated Press, plastered top of front page. Globals find checks and balances on power as scary as the Boogy Man....tell their children horror stories about Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness defined by Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics

• Ok so what constitutes an appropriate venue for discussion on States Rights with the peoples Representatives if not their own State Legislature?

• “Globals or Socialists fear all liberties…Clearly then, the conscience of the social democrats cannot permit persons to have any liberty because they believe that the nature of mankind tends always toward every kind of degradation and disaster.” ~ Bastiat, The Law

• Am I a degradation or disaster by definition of being a member of mankind? Are you?


To answer these questions for ourselves let us first look at the definition of the proper function of man. Aristotle first defined this for us. He taught us that the function of man is to seek good. He explained in the Nicomachean Ethics that the good for man is a goal which is always chosen for its own sake; that this good is, by human agreement in all walks of life, referred to as happiness.

Aristotle said, “the aim of politics is the highest good attainable by action….the highest attainable good attainable by action is happiness.” Being happy is definable, according to the great philosopher, as the ability of and opportunity for “living well” and “doing well” (success in life in whatever way an individual may define success for him or herself)
The inheritance of the United States of America includes and recognizes these definitions of politics and happiness within The Declaration of Independence which reads:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. –

Today we experience organizations practicing this socialism in opposition to our natural definitions of politics and happiness. Most of of these organizations are not even portions of our recognized government and they are attempting to legislate from the forum of public sentiment using legal plunder as a dual weapon; a means to quell their opposition and to modify human society in such a way that public sentiment and then following law becomes diverted from their true purposes.

Bastiat suggests that the “politician should ask himself whether this state of affairs has not been caused by old conquests and lootings and by more recent legal plunder. Perhaps he should consider this proposition: Since all persons seek well-being (pursuit of happiness) and perfection (excellence or virtue), would not a condition of justice be sufficient to cause the greatest efforts toward progress, and the greatest possible equality that is compatible with individual responsibility? Would not this be in accord with the concept of individual responsibility which God has willed in order that mankind may have the choice between vice and virtue, and the resulting punishment and reward? But the politician never gives this a thought. His mind turns to organizations, combinations and arrangements – legal or apparently illegal. He attempts to remedy the evil by increasing and perpetuating the very thing that caused the evil in the first place: legal plunder.”

While Bastiat considered justice a negative concept due to the thorough infiltration of legal plunder in all aspects of human society, I would instead suggest that justice is relative. Its perception of negativity or positivity being reliant upon the situational paradigm and the application upon the intent of those employing legal plunder.

Legislating from the forum of public sentiment and situational ignorance is a form of legal plunder and unethical by the current definition of good character. Human kind are susceptible to understandings sweetened with carefully crafted words contrived from the sentiments of the “irrational side of the soul that is emotional but not vegetative,”2 quick to judge but slow to think and reliant on habits of mandated moral virtues rather than real reason and intellect applied.

A socialist can imply to you that it is irresponsible or unethical for a public servant to sleep on a couch in his office. Yet the public falls to reliance on the habits of dependency on familiar sources of information for an easy truth; a truth which they may then apply toward an easily attainable end. Socialism is manipulative and deceptive. The people thus susceptible to being manipulated become a tool to legislate upon or maneuvered for desired changes in society thru the alterations in public perception: a form of legal plunder.

The public is being subjected by organizations like the CREW to all manners of transformative manipulations to conform to socialistic Doctrine. CREW tells us in the story above that women well versed in a branch of society which routinely functions under the effects of exhaustion are still uncomfortable with someone seeking rest in their location or imply that such women have no regard for the fiscal responsibilities of representatives placed upon them by their constituency of origin.

We are told things like if we participate in our gun culture, we are extremists by the group Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) who was caught acting in a governmental capacity just this January despite a long history of professing that it is not.

See this speech by Stewart Rhodes on responsibility in the face of these attacks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS3H6Cakwpw

We are told that the police are all criminal creating a rift between those the socialists want to use to control the population and those whom they want to control and mold to be more compatible with their doctrinal operating principles. We are depicted as potential terrorists for our political views by infiltrated or saturated organizations such as DHS. These are all patterns of legal plunder made upon the people by the new socialism we call Globalism. This ideology operates by force, dishonesty, and violations of their oaths where oaths have been taken, routinely following unlawful orders to create this new social governance paradigm. And to compound the problem, we are willing to stand by and let these psychotic & neurotic special interest groups and nongovernmental organizations (ngo’s) spewing the new religion of fear-twisted and non-representative globalism, create a global governance through the destruction of this Republic? This goes against all intellectual powers of reason.

Whilst the various players duc it out in every venue imaginable, the public sits comatose; does not ask why a person or group would desire to cause the public to see or believe something a certain way. The public does not ask, what is the history of the individual or group who desires to use them to legislate through the forum of public opinion consequently using law or policy to legally plunder another group or individual. The public does not seek to understand who or what funds such groups. The public does not habitually seek to identify the nature or degree of sameness of this person or group who would use them to modify collective societal behaviors. The public has lost the habit of thinking for itself. It hasdeveloped a new habit; a dependence on perceived authority. They have become sheep in every sense of the term. Therefore the public is not, by their own choice, capable of understanding the plays of power or changes in policies, or modifications to the processes of society around them. The public through their habitual intellectual ignorance will shoot one of their own in the foot….thinking they are justified in supporting a stance or an action because they have been informed by an illicit authority they do not understand, that there is a reason to be concerned or have it investigated.

These are unhealthy habits and are a means to destabilize and destroy a nation from within. What better way to subjugate a people but through modification of their every behavior? What better way to institute long reaching control for little investment than through teaching the Peoples Representatives and through them the people, how and when to breathe or where they are allowed to sleep? Many decent individuals have died in the public political arena by friendly fire. It’s not the weapon…it’s the Foolish, the Ignorant, and the Unconcerned behind the trigger.

Bibliography:

1 Nels M Bailkey, Nicomachean Ethics: Moral Virtue and the Doctrine of the Mean.

2 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics: Intellectual and Moral Virtue

Source: http://hubpages.com/hub/Destroying-America-Globalism-Socialism-Moral-Virtue-Legal-Plunder

Read more by this author: http://hubpages.com/profile/Cyrellys

FiOs.

Roundup 2010 Hubpages Cyrellys

Homeschool Curriculum Review: the Robinson Curriculum
The curriculum is comprised primarily of the three R's Mathematics, Reading, and Writing. Science is introduced later. All the usual skills and subjects like English, Spelling, Vocabulary, Grammar, History, and Science is enmeshed in the three R's mentioned above. Record keeping requirements were minimal both for the curriculum and for the state which we lived in. There was a form available from an associated website which worked well for keeping basic track of what had been completed each day. The virtual books on the disks include a set of 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica and a 400,000 word Websters Dictionary as well as historical illustrations and current Caltech 101 Science Texts. There are also worksheets for vocabulary and a quizing program for practicing the words. It even has flash cards to print for phonics, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Most of the language arts in the program is learned through study in the McGuffey Reader book series and through the extensive reading in some 250 high quality classical literature books which are all on the disks. http://hubpages.com/hub/Homeschool-Curriculum-Review-the-Robinson-Curriculum

Porno Scopes Being Installed In US Airports
The US Government has been known to skim money off of legitimate programs for use in the world of black budget projects or military-industrial special access projects. Research has also been done showing that the three letter acronym agencies have at times been involved in drug running as an additional source of income to fund the black world which has had an ever increasing appetite for funding. Now we hear that full body scanners are being prepared for installation in all US airports. Not only are the frequencies these machines operate on harmful to the long-term health of the human body but now there is also an open opportunity for our bodies to be recorded and digitally sold on the foreign sex markets. Men, women, and children all imaged in graphic detail will have to traverse these machines in order to obtain the right of air travel. Those who refuse on the grounds of health, safety, and right to privacy will be relagated to the position of second class citizens for their unwillingness to be used as a monetary means of existence by the same deeply buried world which harbors humanity's true history of extra-terrestrial contact and also for their unwillingness for their image to become a tool of sexual gratification for unknown personages sold such images on an overseas black market. http://hubpages.com/hub/bodyscannersinairports

Why You Might Choose To Go Gem Shopping Today
Could Gemstones Be A Support to Gold During a Banking Collapse?
Why might I consider gem shopping today? Is there a need or a purpose beyond traditional investment in gemstones? It goes without saying that our economy despite its better moments is in real trouble. We've already lost 81 banks this year according to John Kanas, a CEO of a private equity firm, and according to him we'll likely lose another 1,000 banks in the next two years! This particularly impacts many small businesses and families who are heavily tied to smaller at risk banks. Our dollar is in danger according to various economic talking heads. On August 25th, The Hill's Blog reported that Senator Chuck Grassley (IA) warned Tuesday, that the economy could spiral into hyperinflation not seen since the early 1980s if the Federal Reserve does not tighten its monetary policy soon. So what do we do if the worst case senario were ever to happen? What if the economy went belly up and the dollar basically died on the operating table. Sure the grand schemers in D.C. would come up with something but what do us smaller fish do in the mean time? Many financial experts talk about gold but is gold a savior for the average individual or family? What about the small business? http://hubpages.com/hub/Why-You-Might-Choose-To-Go-Gem-Shopping-Today

Homeschooling Philosophy Curriculum
The following is a series of home school units on Philosophy which my children are using. I am offering it to other home schooling families for their own use. It includes roughly three to four years worth of in depth study in the subject for the average student. A more advanced student might work through it at a faster rate. The material takes the student through an introduction to classical philosophy and the theories which impacted the world. Exposure to a good range of theorists is included. I would recommend coupling this subject alongside a couple years of world history to assist with the context of the development of understanding philosophical theory. http://hubpages.com/hub/Philosophy-For-Home-School-Students


Fearless Thinking

Classical Philosophy gives us context to help us understand the "Why" in History. Philosophy Strand I: The Human Condition
** Introduction to Philosophy: Student will explore philosophy and establish it as a discipline which attempts to explain the human condition.

** Student will define Ethics and examine ethical theories and representative theorists.

Study topics:

Theorist: Plato

Theorist: Aristotle

Theory: Hedonism (Theorist: Epicurus)

Theory: Stoicism (Theorists: Epictetus & Marcus Aurelius)

Theory: Relativism (Theorist: Spinoza)

Theory: Utilitarianism (Theorist: Mill)

Theory: Naturalism (Theorist: Rousseau)

Theory: Pragmatism (Theorist: Dewey)

Theory: Existentialism (Theorist: Sartre, Confucius)

Questions to be Studied:

What is a Good Life?

How should a man behave?

What is a Good Society?

Which is the higher virtue – Truth or Justice?

Upon What premise do each of the philosophers base their conclusion?

Reading for Philosophy I includes:

(the following resources can be obtained online for free)


The Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers, By SE Frost Jr.

Ch 1 The Nature of the Universe

Ch 2 Man’s Place in the Universe

Ch 3 What is Good and what is Evil?

The Socratic Dialogs, by Plato

Socratic Method? By Morris B. Kaplan

Crito, by Plato

Nicomachean Ethics, by Aristotle, William David Ross, David Ross, JL Ackrill, JO Urmson.

Epicurus on Happiness (series) youtube.com video

1 of 3

2 of 3

3 of 3

Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life, by A.A. Long

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus (audio – learnoutloud.com)

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (LibriVox – audio recording)

Spinoza: Practical Philosophy, by Gilles Deleuze

Utilitarianism, by John Stuart Mill (http://www.utilitarianism.com/mill1.htm )

Discourse on Inequality, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (audio – learnoutloud.com)

The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (audio – Ejunto.org)

John Dewey: Pragmatism (http://great-philosophers.suite101.com/article.cfm/john_dewey_pragmatism )

Habits and Will (Excerpt from Human Nature & Conduct), By John Dewey (http://www.alexandercenter.com/jd/johndeweyhabits.html )

Sartre’s Existentialism (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - http://www.iep.utm.edu/sartre-ex/ )

Existentialism & Sartre (http://www.sartre.org/existentialism.htm )

The Sayings of Confucius, Confucious (audio – learnoutloud.com)


A Reflection on Two Sentient Species Co-existing
If you have never explored the subject of Exopolitics you might take a moment to google it. It has been defined a number of different ways but one that I personally like is the study of the politics of extraterrestrial contact and the, '"dynamics of the interactions between ET races and their interactions with earth humanity," as given by Ed Komarek a exopolitician with well over 15 years in the field. I mention it because I was wondering just what it might be like to co-exist with someone not like us, perhaps someone from out there however that might be defined. What if such a someone chose to live with a human or a human family here on Earth? What would life be like? On immediate example sprang to mind. How many of you have ever lived with a cat? If you have or do then you may percieve just how unique and remarkable an experience that really is. For those of you who have never experienced life with a cat, you might be rolling your eyes at me right now. But wait just one minute, I have a point here. You see cats have independent, intelligent natures. They co-exist with us, not be owned by us. If a cat don't like you he won't stick around. And every once in a while you run across one with a real doozy of a personality...had a maine coon that qualified there....never a dull moment around with that fuzzy fellow. He would go out and catch birds to proudly parade around the house before leaving it for me on the floor in front of the stove....what was that? Just cat behavior you say, nothing special you say, but what if it was something like taking care of his 'human' partner? I often wondered as he'd stare at me from the farside of the kitchen even years afterwards, if I was expected to cook the the carcass, it was a weird feeling at the time that he'd be quite satisfied if I did. http://hubpages.com/hub/A-Reflection-on-Two-Sentient-Species-Co-existing

The Life Between Absolutism and Democracy
Our lives have been hijacked. We find ourselves enmeshed in a running knife fight whose nature has revisited us innumerous times throughout the history of humankind. It has snuck in through a back window of our lives and crept down our hallways to crouch behind our sofa where it peers from the depths of shadow upon us. We have barely begun to notice it, our awareness of it fresh as an early spring morning with a late winter storm bearing down from the north and just topping the crest of our moment where like a deer in headlights we have frozen to stare in its blaze. It is an old story of conflict which ever dramatic, captures not only whole countries of people but of their very ideas and cultures. From the shadows it emerges griping us with a disciplined despotism reaching out and smiting our freedoms and notions of democracy, representation, and ethical conduct. It seems to espouse a mutual hatred for all life as it bears no tolerance toward any man, woman, or child. This beast is absolute. And it has stalked us and our democratic republic over many generations. http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Life-Between-Absolutism-and-Democracy

The Depth of Changes Rolling Out With Global Governance and The Contact Paradigm
I just ran across something interesting today. And the first thing that popped up in my head when reading it was to wonder if the Vatican who is supporting extraterrestrial contact Disclosure and evolution to an ET integrated reality recieved certain concessions in exchange for their support....so called "payment" for the "costs" of disclosure? Title: Texas Yanks Thomas Jefferson From Teaching Standard Quote: That emphasis did not sit well with board member Cynthia Dunbar, who, during Friday's meeting, explained the rationale for changing it. "The Enlightenment was not the only philosophy on which these revolutions were based," Dunbar said. The new standard, passed at the meeting in a 10-5 vote, now reads, "Explain the impact of the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and Sir William Blackstone." By dropping mention of revolution, and substituting figures such as Aquinas and Calvin for Jefferson, Texas Freedom Network argues, the board had chosen to embrace religious teachings over those of Jefferson, the man who coined the phrase "separation between church and state." End Quote. The individuals listed were all philosophers...like Thomas Aquinas who was considered one of the greatest of the Schoolmen. Schoolmen were philosophers who attempted to reconcile the beliefs of the Christian church and the ideas which had come down to them from the Greeks - philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and others who are fathers of modern science (philosophies which then had been long in exile as threats to the Roman Church). Aquinas was the one who is credited with working out the relationship between Christian beliefs and those forms of Greek philosophy. He was one of the Realists and endeavored to show that universals were real. In agreeing with Christian tradition he held that all universals existed in the mind of God. He followed Aristotle in introducing matter as that upon which universals work. Nature, for him was a union of universals and matter. For Thomas, God created the world out of nothing. He was the cause of both matter and the universals and that creation is going on all the time around us. Jean Jacques Rousseau believed man was not a machine, part of the mechanical universe. Rather, man was a thing of feeling, sentiment. Science, culture, had bound man in chains which were destroying all that was really human. Rousseau proposed to cast off this shell of civilization and free man for the full development of all his capacities. Rousseau believed science had isolated man from nature and that man's salvation lay in an escape from the bonds of science and a return to nature. Hobbes was a materialist with the idea that everything in the universe is in motion, even God. http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Depth-of-Changes-Rolling-Out-With-Global-Governance-and-The-Contact-Paradigm

Thoughts On Liberty & Contact Disclosure
One of the greatest issues in extraterrestrial contact disclosure is that the mentality and policies of secrecy are so entrenched in our society that any pro-disclosure faction in government, military, or corporations would be faced with opposing standing national security policy. Among those who are anti-disclosure minded, they are more concerned with maintaining a semblence of control than they are with constitutional operation or the will of the people whom they are employed to serve. As a consequence a social facade has grown around the subject in which an unmoveably biased derision is attached to any journalistic approach and handling of the subject. So, to what media or surface level governmental official would any pro-disclosure group go with proof or claims of contact activity? I would ask you dear reader, which news media would you feel is trustworthy to the extent it is not so under the thumb of corporations or the three letter acronyms groups or other parties which benefit or fear changes in our planetary paradigm, that you could get more than a five second obscure blurb about it meant to do more than pacify but not reveal? Any reporter proof or not would likely get dropped like a hot potato if it didn't take no or a rewrite of their submission for an answer. The operative issue here is a mutual corruption and control of both the public and private sectares which make any attempt of public revelation which is in opposition of "policy" controlled by factions which despise true transparancy or public influence/control/command. To Disclose about Contact in a non-dislosure environment or where the current federal & state governments are puppets or face-plates for the real managers and the real controllers means being in the oppositions eyes, subversives. http://hubpages.com/hub/Thoughts-On-Liberty-Contact-Disclosure

The Last Unicorn, I'm Alive!

http://www.dizzler.com/music/America/The_Last_Unicorn
(Jimmy Webb)
When the last eagle flies over the last crumbling mountain
And the last lion roars at the last dusty fountain
In the shadow of the forest though she may be old and worn
They will stare unbelieving at the last unicorn

I'm alive, I'm alive!

When the first breath of winter through the flowers is icing
And you look to the north and a pale moon is rising
And it seems like all is dying and would leave the world to mourn
In the distance hear the laughter of the last unicorn

I'm alive, I'm alive!

When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning
And the future has passed without even a last desperate warning
Then look into the sky where through the clouds a path is torn
Look and see her how she sparkles, it's the last unicorn

I'm alive, I'm alive!

Mental Notes July 24 2009

the ambiguous past

decadence

work ethic

technological evolution

philosophical evolution

financial evolution & adapation

synthesis

constituting the new frontier

hopes, dreams, and adventure in the unknown

envisioning tomorrows people

the sickness of fear run amok

survival versus living

stepping beyond nutshells


**********************************************

Kenneth Burke's Pentad

5 basic components for seeking motives

1. The act: What was done?
2. The actor: Who did it?
3. The agency: What means did the person use to make it happen?
4. The scene: Where & when did the act happen and in what circumstances?
5. The purpose or motive for acting: What could have made the person do it?

**********************************************

What features would appear strange to the Old Ones?

**********************************************

Quote: "Out of the melting pot emerges a race which hates Beauty as it hates Truth." - H. L. Mencken, 1920s, pg 404

**********************************************

What devices may create coherence?

**********************************************

ordinary or typical?

what changed?

not tolerable...

when was withdrawl?

silence

protest vs dialog

emotion & feeling

identity

*********************************************


video-logic: Jeffrey Moritz

recent evolution of logic?

compliance?
complimentary?

*********************************************

Article: "The American Revolution Considered As An Intellectual Movement" by Edmund S. Morgan

Question:
What fundamental event is producing the leaders to carry forward the strands?
Which strand is being carried forward with greater certainty?

- evidenced by what opposition or support arises promptly and spontaneously

What more completely unites than anything which follows?

Quote: "They who are from the first so fully aware where the logic of their position could lead them but keep their peace..." Morgan

Quote: "The growing conflict was not irretrievable, but that to retrieve it would have required an understanding on each side of the exact limits of the other's claims." Morgan

Illustrating degree of spirit involved:
Quote: "The American Revolution must also be seen in the context of the history of political ideas. Never before in modern times had a colony revolted against the mother country and survived; never before had it, after physical survival, embarked on a republican experiment in government; and never before had it dared to risk such an experiment on so vast and scattered a territory as did the United States." Esmond Wright, Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution.

Quote: "The transforming radicalism of the American Revolution.....above all else an ideological-constitutional struggle and not primarily a controversy between social groups under taken to force changes in the organization of society"(p. viii) and that, "the fear of a comprehensive conspiracy against liberty through out the English speaking world....lay at the heart of the revolutionary movement."(p. x)

hmmm, we've come round the circle once again....and how many returned among us with it?

through debate and dialog on the issues of the time between 1776 and 1787 a singular people emerged.

Question: wondering how many people today have read the Federalist Papers as part of education? not many imo

all that with an uncanny familiarity afoot perused. Two strands split by perspective when one vision was not shared; including a break in distinctive values & experiences. Same as today. But in this case there is also two broad social groups involved, one of which is forcing sweeping changes in the fabric of society....the fears confirmed have established a heart for movement in at least one of the strands.

- capacity to draw upon dreams of the higher self
- the tidal movement of inclinations
- laments vs purposeful weavings of values, vitality, & positive intent.

Question: is the circle bringing back into synchronistic action a new version of the concern over "human depravity and divine perfection" ?

My Recent Reading List

Well here is my current reading list. I have several questions in mind while reading. Those questions are what is the depth of differences in thought process Today versus the common processes of the past. Why in our wealth of knowledge and maneuverability today is there an ignorance involving the fundamental principles that America is about? Why do common individuals take for granted the sacrifices that their parents, grandparents, etc made to build and achieve today's prosperity? Why is there a lack of concern or initiative to react to today's dive from prosperity when there are things which could be done?

Online Video & Audio: Gerald Celente
Online Blog Follow: Catherine Austin Fitts

Book: A Pocket History of the United States; Authors Allan Nevins, Henry Steele Commager, with Jeffery Morris

Book: Born On The Fourth of July; by Ron Kovic

Book: Cultures In Conversation; by Donal Carbaugh

Book: Common Ground: Reading and Writing about America's Cultures; by Laurie G Kirszner and Stephen R Mandall

Book: All I Really Need to Know I Learned In Kindergarten - Uncommon Thoughts On Common Things; by Robert Fulghum

Book: Causes and Consequences of American Revolution; Edited by Esmond Wright

Book: The Civil War: A History; by Harry Hansen

Book: Out Of Many: A History Of The American People; By Faragher, Buhle, Czitrom, & Armitage

Article: The Haves and the Have-Nots, by LynNell Hancock

Evidence of the Inequities Within Human History

They're Baaaaack!

They're Baaaack!
Both of them!
The gophers and the Yuppies.









Well the west coast yuppie rich friends are back in Montana! They spend boatloads of money flying out to Great Falls and renting a mini-van or truck to visit our ranch to shoot gophers every year. They spend all day at it too.

The gopher terrorists....their guns are high powered and have scopes....so you can imagine just what that does to bulls-eye gopher, a synonym for exploding gophers? I don't know.

I do know I don't like the fact I have so many my prime pastures look like the ground is moving in the morning and the pasture grass I seeded last year isn't getting a chance to grow because of them. So west coast yuppie rich friends...have at it! Enjoy.

That which tickles some turkeys is an onerous chore to others. I need a few more west coast yuppie rich friends and maybe I'd have perfect pastures and fat sheep.

lol, Cy




For more information about the notorious Montana Gopher... aka Ground Squirrel:


http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=2420





.

Someone Had An Awful Lot Of Time On Their Hands

As my friend Jeff Adams puts it, "Even if I bought one of these, I wouldn't be able to find ammo for it...ha ha."

.

Me, I just peel myself off the ceiling laughing like a loon. Boy, do I love human creativity....my question: Is it operational? Say yes, please. I wanna see it work. Cy

.

.

(five days later the owner blew his two story barn to into smithereens, testing it, because he needed a new one anyway and he didn't feel like taking it apart board-by-board......just joking, of course, its a man's grill of the bbq variety.)

Cyrellys ni Geibhendach

Blogs & Sites

Exopolitics - Manifesting a New Paradigm
http://exopoliticsparadigm.blogspot.com/

An Explosion of Fish
http://anexplosionoffish.blogspot.com/

Contributor:
Open Minds Forum - United Nations Secret UFO Meetings
http://lucianarchy.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=unitednations

Contributor:
http://theresajthurmondmorris.blogspot.com/

Contributor/Moderator:
http://www.thesealedvault.com/

Administrator/Webmaster:
Compass Morainn - An Association of Exopolitical Mediators
http://compassmorainn.webs.com/

Administrator:
Compass Morainn Forum
http://compassmorainn.proboards.com/

Contributor/Editor:
Compass Morainn Journal
http://compassmorainn.blogspot.com/

It's Garden Craze Time

Spring has finally rolled into Central Montana after a final winter blast that laid three feet of heavy snow across the land. In my hand rattle my seed packets itching to slip into the cool soil where nature and germination create their yearly miracle.

I've blue corn to plant this year but that will have to wait one more month....after the holiday, around the first of June. Right now it is endless rounds of potatoes into the ground. The soil has been dormant all winter under a thick layer of compost.

At the end of the growing year the barns are cleaned and all the old footing goes to the garden to refurbish the soil over the winter months. The soil underneath stays loose and airy aided by earthworms and other microorganisms.

Today I added something new, raspberries and blackberries...they come as inauspicous looking twigs tied to a support pole of bamboo stuck into a pot of soil....a 1x1 hole in the ground and firmed soil around the wood-be plant an it is ready to begin its future. I've a nice straight row of them now...only thing left to do is water and wait....

There is a spiritual affirmation to working with the elements of soil, sun, water, and seed. It is true that when you focus on the individual plants over their growth that they seem to grow greener, healthier, and tastier. I know this because one year I experimented with it. The ones I left to fend for themselves seemed a poor shadow of the ones given the greater attention.

This year is going to be a year of expansion....I'm going to grow the garden itself by a few think....musing this over daily is becoming a hobby. Like furnature in the house, constantly rearranging the mental picture of what I want where, and what I'm hoping it to look like in full bloom. I think I've moved the onions two dozen times already...when I seed them at last then I shall be satisfied per force.

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is A Straight Line

http://boldt.us/humor/no_parking_fire_hydrant_bmw_windows.jpg.html

I'd love to have been a bug on the wall in the Insurance Company Agent Office when the owner of the car tried to explain this one.

The Truth of Fish is Less Than The Failure of Leadership

When we fear truth and profound discoveries we fail ourselves. Our personal definitions grow dimmer. We open ourselves to ill repute. The ladder of Excellence becomes that much longer for now we add ill currents which must be traversed before we can reach our potential....

Rejection of the wonder which is reality breeds disillusion with leadership....it is a mortgage placed upon tommorrow whose balloon payment none can make.


Mars Anomalies, Water, Plants, Life! HD

Mind Is Not Limited to Time, Space, or Place...New Gains On An Old Idea

Is Quantum Mechanics Controlling Your Thoughts?

Science's weirdest realm may be responsible for photosynthesis, our sense of smell, and even consciousness itself.

by Mark Anderson

published online January 13, 2009

A sea slug neuron may tap quantum forces to process information. In humans quantum physics may be integral to thought.

Dylan Burnette/Olympus Bioscapes Imaging Competition

Graham Fleming sits down at an L-shaped lab bench, occupying a footprint about the size of two parking spaces. Alongside him, a couple of off-the-shelf lasers spit out pulses of light just millionths of a billionth of a second long. After snaking through a jagged path of mirrors and lenses, these minus­cule flashes disappear into a smoky black box containing proteins from green sulfur bacteria, which ordinarily obtain their energy and nourishment from the sun. Inside the black box, optics manufactured to billionths-of-a-meter precision detect something extraordinary: Within the bacterial proteins, dancing electrons make seemingly impossible leaps and appear to inhabit multiple places at once.

Peering deep into these proteins, Fleming and his colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley and at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered the driving engine of a key step in photosynthesis, the process by which plants and some microorganisms convert water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight into oxygen and carbohydrates. More efficient by far in its ability to convert energy than any operation devised by man, this cascade helps drive almost all life on earth. Remarkably, photosynthesis appears to derive its ferocious efficiency not from the familiar physical laws that govern the visible world but from the seemingly exotic rules of quantum mechanics, the physics of the subatomic world. Somehow, in every green plant or photosynthetic bacterium, the two disparate realms of physics not only meet but mesh harmoniously. Welcome to the strange new world of quantum biology.

Green algae may rely on quantum computing to turn sunlight into food.

On the face of things, quantum mechanics and the biological sciences do not mix. Biology focuses on larger-scale processes, from molecular interactions between proteins and DNA up to the behavior of organisms as a whole; quantum mechanics describes the often-strange nature of electrons, protons, muons, and quarks—the smallest of the small. Many events in biology are considered straightforward, with one reaction begetting another in a linear, predictable way. By contrast, quantum mechanics is fuzzy because when the world is observed at the subatomic scale, it is apparent that particles are also waves: A dancing electron is both a tangible nugget and an oscillation of energy. (Larger objects also exist in particle and wave form, but the effect is not noticeable in the macroscopic world.)

Quantum mechanics holds that any given particle has a chance of being in a whole range of locations and, in a sense, occupies all those places at once. Physicists describe quantum reality in an equation they call the wave function, which reflects all the potential ways a system can evolve. Until a scientist measures the system, a particle exists in its multitude of locations. But at the time of measurement, the particle has to “choose” just a single spot. At that point, quantum physicists say, probability narrows to a single outcome and the wave function “collapses,” sending ripples of certainty through space-time. Imposing certainty on one particle could alter the characteristics of any others it has been connected with, even if those particles are now light-years away. (This process of influence at a distance is what physicists call entanglement.) As in a game of dominoes, alteration of one particle affects the next one, and so on.

The olfactory bulb of an adult mouse (seen here at 800x magnification)may provide its sense of smell via quantum vibrations.

Dr Adam Puche/Olympus Bioscapes Imaging Competition

From tunneling to entanglement, the special properties of the quantum realm allow events to unfold at speeds and efficiencies that would be unachievable with classical physics alone. Could quantum mechanisms be driving some of the most elegant and inexplicable processes of life? For years experts doubted it: Quantum phenomena typically reveal themselves only in lab settings, in vacuum chambers chilled to near absolute zero. Biological systems are warm and wet. Most researchers thought the thermal noise of life would drown out any quantum weirdness that might rear its head.

Yet new experiments keep finding quan­­tum processes at play in biological systems, says Christopher Altman, a researcher at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience in the Netherlands. With the advent of powerful new tools like femtosecond (10-15 second) lasers and nanoscale-precision positioning, life’s quantum dance is finally coming into view.

INTO THE LIGHT

One of the most significant quantum observations in the life sciences comes from Fleming and his collaborators. Their study of photosynthesis in green sulfur bacteria, published in 2007 in Nature [subscription required], tracked the detailed chemical steps that allow plants to harness sunlight and use it to convert simple raw materials into the oxygen we breathe and the carbohydrates we eat. Specifically, the team examined the protein scaffold connecting the bacteria’s external solar collectors, called the chlorosome, to reaction centers deep inside the cells. Unlike electric power lines, which lose as much as 20 percent of energy in transmission, these bacteria transmit energy at a staggering efficiency rate of 95 percent or better.

The secret, Fleming and his colleagues found, is quantum physics.

To unearth the bacteria’s inner workings, the researchers zapped the connective proteins with multiple ultrafast laser pulses. Over a span of femto­seconds, they followed the light energy through the scaffolding to the cellular reaction centers where energy conversion takes place.

Then came the revelation: Instead of haphazardly moving from one connective channel to the next, as might be seen in classical physics, energy traveled in several directions at the same time. The researchers theorized that only when the energy had reached the end of the series of connections could an efficient pathway retroactively be found. At that point, the quantum process collapsed, and the electrons’ energy followed that single, most effective path.

Electrons moving through a leaf or a green sulfur bacterial bloom are effectively performing a quantum “random walk”—a sort of primitive quantum computation—to seek out the optimum transmission route for the solar energy they carry. “We have shown that this quantum random-walk stuff really exists,” Fleming says. “Have we absolutely demonstrated that it improves the efficiency? Not yet. But that’s our conjecture. And a lot of people agree with it.”

Elated by the finding, researchers are looking to mimic nature’s quantum ability to build solar energy collectors that work with near-photosynthetic efficiency. Alán Aspuru-Guzik, an assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University, heads a team that is researching ways to incorporate the quantum lessons of photosynthesis into organic photovoltaic solar cells. This research is in only the earliest stages, but Aspuru-Guzik believes that Fleming’s work will be applicable in the race to manufacture cheap, efficient solar power cells out of organic molecules.

TUNNELING FOR SMELL

Quantum physics may explain the mysterious biological process of smell, too, says biophysicist Luca Turin, who first published his controversial hypothesis in 1996 while teaching at University College London. Then, as now, the prevailing notion was that the sensation of different smells is triggered when molecules called odorants fit into receptors in our nostrils like three-dimensional puzzle pieces snapping into place. The glitch here, for Turin, was that molecules with similar shapes do not necessarily smell anything like one another. Pinanethiol [C10H18S] has a strong grapefruit odor, for instance, while its near-twin pinanol [C10H18O] smells of pine needles. Smell must be triggered, he concluded, by some criteria other than an odorant’s shape alone.

What is really happening, Turin posited, is that the approximately 350 types of human smell receptors perform an act of quantum tunneling when a new odorant enters the nostril and reaches the olfactory nerve. After the odorant attaches to one of the nerve’s receptors, electrons from that receptor tunnel through the odorant, jiggling it back and forth. In this view, the odorant’s unique pattern of vibration is what makes a rose smell rosy and a wet dog smell wet-doggy.

In 2007 Turin (who is now chief technical officer of the odorant-designing company Flexitral in Chantilly, Virginia) and his hypothesis received support from a paper by four physicists at University College London. That work, published in the journal Physical Review Letters [subscription required], showed how the smell-tunneling process may operate. As an odorant approaches, electrons released from one side of a receptor quantum-mechanically tunnel through the odorant to the opposite side of the receptor. Exposed to this electric current, the heavier pinanethiol would vibrate differently from the lighter but similarly shaped pinanol.

“I call it the ‘swipe-card model,’?” says coauthor A. Marshall Stoneham, an emeritus professor of physics. “The card’s got to be a good enough shape to swipe through one of the receptors.” But it is the frequency of vibration, not the shape, that determines the scent of a molecule.

THE GREEN TEA PARTY

Even green tea may tie into subtle subatomic processes. In 2007 four biochemists from the Auton­omous University of Barcelona announced that the secret to green tea’s effectiveness as an anti-oxidant—a substance that neutralizes the harmful free radicals that can damage cells—may also be quantum mechanical. Publishing their findings in the Journal of the American Chemical Society [subscription required], the group reported that antioxidants called catechins act like fishing trollers in the human body. (Catechins are among the chief organic compounds found in tea, wine, and some fruits and vegetables.)

Free radical molecules, by-products of the body’s breakdown of food or environmental toxins, have a spare electron. That extra electron makes free radicals reactive, and hence dangerous as they travel through the bloodstream. But an electron from the catechin can make use of quantum mechanics to tunnel across the gap to the free radical. Suddenly the catechin has chemically bound up the free radical, preventing it from interacting with and damaging cells in the body.

Quantum tunneling has also been observed in enzymes, the proteins that facilitate molecular reactions within cells. Two studies, one published in Science in 2006 and the other in Biophysical Journal in 2007, have found that some enzymes appear to lack the energy to complete the reactions they ultimately propel; the enzyme’s success, it now seems, could be explained only through quantum means.

QUANTUM TO THE CORE

Stuart Hameroff, an anesthesiologist and director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, argues that the highest function of life—consciousness—is likely a quantum phenomenon too. This is illustrated, he says, through anesthetics. The brain of a patient under anesthesia continues to operate actively, but without a conscious mind at work. What enables anesthetics such as xenon or isoflurane gas to switch off the conscious mind?

Hameroff speculates that anesthetics “interrupt a delicate quantum process” within the neurons of the brain. Each neuron contains hundreds of long, cylindrical protein structures, called microtubules, that serve as scaffolding. Anesthetics, Hameroff says, dissolve inside tiny oily regions of the microtubules, affecting how some electrons inside these regions behave.

He speculates that the action unfolds like this: When certain key electrons are in one “place,” call it to the “left,” part of the microtubule is squashed; when the electrons fall to the “right,” the section is elongated. But the laws of quantum mechanics allow for electrons to be both “left” and “right” at the same time, and thus for the micro­tubules to be both elongated and squashed at once. Each section of the constantly shifting system has an impact on other sections, potentially via quantum entanglement, leading to a dynamic quantum-mechanical dance.

It is in this faster-than-light subatomic communication, Hameroff says, that consciousness is born. Anesthetics get in the way of the dancing electrons and stop the gyration at its quantum-mechanical core; that is how they are able to switch consciousness off.

It is still a long way from Hameroff’s hypo­thetical (and experimentally unproven) quantum neurons to a sentient, conscious human brain. But many human experiences, Hameroff says, from dreams to subconscious emotions to fuzzy memory, seem closer to the Alice in Wonderland rules governing the quantum world than to the cut-and-dried reality that classical physics suggests. Discovering a quantum portal within every neuron in your head might be the ultimate trip through the looking glass.

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/feb/13-is-quantum-mechanics-controlling-your-thoughts

.

Here kitty, kitty, kitty...

I really like cats...all sorts. I like their independent self-confident nature. The few I have known in life make their own decisions, know what they want and when they want it, and are competent enough to take care of themselves with no help from people if push comes to shove. In my experience house cats hang with us because they want to not because they have to...and they seem to view us people with resigned patience and a bit of humor...If' you have a cat in your home you probably know exactly what I mean.

Ran across an article on the Sun online news source that claims Britains big cats have been confirmed in the wild....go to website for a terrific pic of a black panther snarling.

FEROCIOUS big cats DO live in Britain — after being seen by Forestry Commission rangers.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2100752.ece

Oh yeah!

Score one more for kitty.

Good Advice From America's Past

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. ~ George S. Patton

I've been comparing this idea with things for the last couple of days....and he's right the results are surprising.

I've also learned that when you spend most of your time doing big, complicated things then the mundane becomes not so simple after all....like being a retired steep slope roofer who's never fallen off a roof but crash & burns big time just trying to get over a baby gate, or smashing a finger hammering in a fencing brad, or making a pizza and then wearing flour in places it really is obnoxious to clean up like in ones eyes for instance. It's been an interesting week so far and its only Thursday. So what's next on the 'to do' list? I don't advise getting between me and whatever I'm doing...it could be hazardous.