Saturday, October 18, 2008

this thing

I grew up as a variant of soft right-winger. I started reading Time magazine when I was ten and went on subscribe for decades. To a greater or lesser degree its world view was mine - Vietnam was lost because of the protest movement; Palestinians were wicked troublemakers; WWII was a good war; coloured people couldn't organise a shitfight in a brewery and were responsible for their own woes; white people were good and made the world a better place, etc etc.


But I've come a long way since then. As have we all. If you are here, you have travelled this path. This was not by some random series of footfalls. You were drawn. Once we were weary, beset by confusion, and wishing merely for some honesty. It's this honesty that drew us. That it exists at all comes as something of a surprise. As we slough off the crust and filth of the lies we've been told for our whole lives, we find new energy. We find ourselves anew. And we do this by means of nothing more than the written word.

Forget me and this blog. I am merely a body drawn by a gravity. The gravity belongs to Les Visible. But I don't want to talk about Les. I, like most of us, have never met him. Were I to jabber away I'd be giving voice to my imagination as much as anything. And I ain't much given to hagiography regardless. (Hey Les, how you doing?) For the purpose of this exercise let's view Les' blogs, and those circling it (like this one) as a collective, a meeting of minds, a thing comprised of all who participate in it.

In addressing this we must acknowledge the medium in which it takes place. There has never been a thing quite like it, this internet thing. It's so singular, one struggles for metaphors to describe it. Words like 'web', or 'net' are the merest of thumbnails barely hinting at the possibilities of what it means. But regardless of its potential, it is a cacophony, a white noise, an everything all at once.

But mayhem aside, it is a place in which one may seek. In my own attempts at this, I participated in various forums having 'discussions' with people who lied like they blinked. It was not uncommon to find single individuals who would pretend to be a dozen people. A given individual would attack someone 'en masse' each voice in agreement. Invariably they'd compliment each other on what great thinkers they were. What the hell is that? What sort of a sick freak would do that? Why should I participate in such idiocy? These were not discussions, they were the opposite. And I'm not here to play a part in some self-obsessed individual's bullshit charade. I just want to know where the grown-ups were at.


This thing we have comprises that place for grown-ups. It's for people who are seeking, and wish to do so honestly. It is a place to cast off confusion. If this involves stepping beyond the artificial boundaries on what constitutes acceptable thought then so be it. We wish to view the world clearly. Sure enough, we do this with the written word. If this is not served by the usual style-less newspaper prose, then we will embrace metaphor, poetry, the metaphysical, whatever. With the aforementioned newspapers having failed us so abysmally, why not?

We are all of us in the gutter,
But some of us aren't distracted by the movie stars.
(excellent base line follows, and apologies to the Pretenders)


Leaping now - We are all of us in the labyrinth. But some of us have grasped that the labyrinth is also the library of Alexandria. We are the scenario of a movie. We're a band of the curious, separately wandering through the library pursuing lines of enquiry. We meet and swap tales, we wonder, we posit. We are men and women, young and old, rich and poor, the beset and the free, possessed of belief and not, and all here in the same spirit. We are here for the same purpose, with the same attitude of honest inquiry, and with a desire to truthfully describe this world and its possibilities.

This is the ideal in this gathering, or perhaps an idealised default position. Frequently the thing that exists here is riled with discord. These eddies in the stream can be stirred up, people baited, arguments started and egged on (I've done it myself, sure) but ultimately the stream we are in, is flowing in a direction we all agree upon. None of us knows, or can say definitively, what the precise destination of the stream is. It is enough that it leads away from confusion and towards clarity, truth, mindfulness and compassion. (We could call this 'love' but since it's me writing, I have to say I don't much care for that word. It carries too much soppy baggage. But some people really like that word and if you're one of them, don't let me stop you.)

If a place, or a meeting of people, is devoted to the truth, harmony will be that place's equilibrium, the state towards which it will naturally tend. It's my opinion that humans when not in a state of confusion will naturally seek harmony with each other. Forget Hollywood's fights for no reason. The real world is invariably much duller. And much friendlier.

Thinking about that stream - what if we were to expand the metaphor? Are other people not in the stream? Are there lots of streams? Where do they go? Is this metaphor falling apart? Maybe not. Clearly the majority of people are floundering in an ugly cross-grained ocean beset by the elements and struggling to keep their heads above water.


The stream of before is a metaphor of the micro. What is this water in the macro? Perhaps we could call it chi, or existence, or the zeitgeist, or the collective mind, or the spirit of the times - whatever suits really. You may call it anything you like. And that's the thing. You can call it. Others will attempt to call it too. They will bring wind and rain and every confusion they can think of. But here, we attempt to cast off the distractions; to know them for what they are; to name the riddle rather than dwell in its complications. We decide that we are flowing in a stream and we decide where it is flowing to.

Each of us on our own might qualify as a rivulet, a pool, a billabong, a creek, a cascade, but together we will make something bigger than ourselves, something that will flow and cannot be stopped. Think of the name of a great river. Consider the regard in which each is held and why. Let's declare, that none of us at Smoking Mirrors seek this regard. A river does not seek its worthiness. It merely is.

And truth be known, we are not a great river. We're just a stream. But for mine, we're a stream possessed of an irresistible nature. Those waking up to their confusion and grasping at each piece of truth, continue to find their way here. The frank discussions they find come as solace, a freedom, a cleansing. Where we are going and the way we're going there is a trip any right-thinking person would choose. Only those who have black holes for hearts, who would walk upon the bodies of the drowning would choose not to join. We are not them.


So, this place, these minds, this style of thought, this quest - Is it nothing? Is it something? Certainly between us and the bullshit media, it is the smallest thing imaginable. So let's think small. Perhaps we are a 19th century coffee klatsch transported in time. But just like then, it was less about the venue than it was about the conversation. Here we are geographically unbound, our societies disparate, and very few of us will ever meet. But it doesn't matter. Our conversation is not less real.

Nor does it matter that this thing is evanescent and will change and cease to be. The thing we are an alternative to is subject to the same realities. Meanwhile we are an alternative. We are not driven by ambition, desire, or fear. We shed these things as prisoners might shed their fetters. We seek truth, clarity and compassion. Nothing is simple, clear or obvious. But never mind. Each of us provides small inspirations for the others. Together we create - we create who we are. We are not owned. We are for ourselves. We are for each other. We are for all.

In this world of darkness where even the stars have been digitally blacked out, we make a flickering light, a sparkling scintilla of possibility and hope. We hold to this thing and we cherish it. It's not nothing. It's something. It's this thing that we share.


Thanks Les.

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some remarks from a grain of sand in the river:
1. The internet is a gestalt brother as I understand the word and the internet.
2. Truthify- what a word; we're here to truthify things!
Tony

Rights of Man said...

"esta cosa"

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph...Noby.(<-pun) That built to a crescendo like the best of Hollywood film speeches.

Es muy increible, senor. <-see...I'm speaking in tongues!

You're a brilliant mind; no doubt, but that was the most amazing thing I've read from you thus far.

We - who have gone to "THAT" place, truly are - an expression of universal truth. We; are a mind of the world...and we will not be silenced! Young, old, rich, poor, religious, atheistic, monotheistic, pluralistic...

Doctor, Lawyer, Mechanic, Ad-Man, Banker, business man, convict.... the truth CAN NOT BE STOPPED!!!

We will not be silenced. If the world is on it's way to higher consciousness...count me in. I want to sell the tickets (since I probably won't be there...)



-notamobster

the Silverfish said...

Oh one of many words, now yuh gone and done it, . You've gone and put it in a nut shell. Not only that but you've brought a tear to this ole curmudgeons eye, very unfair my friend as I have little indulgence for the mush stuff , perhaps for the most part simply because I don’t handle it all that well.

So here I sit surrounded by Twelve computers, study results read printouts and graphs then write my crap assed text for twenty fucking hours a day, that which few besides some wannabe students of Radio Biology in some crap assed university will ever read and when read will probably never be heeded. After all who but a very few could possibly be interested in or hear the quite roar of the beast that is the Tetragenicity of Depleted Uranium. Surely not the tens of thousands nay Millions of innocent victims exposed to it. Surely not.

However we all have our crosses to bear and this just happens to be mine at least for a short while longer then it’s off to the bush to live out the rest of my life without the stench of what has become civilization. You have spoken of doing it, I however have been preparing for it for the last five years and now it’s almost time.

This place of which you so eloquently speak, this place of Truth , this place of Camaraderie, this place of Shared thoughts, Ideas and Ideals has become for me a cherished and a warm glowing ember in an otherwise stormy and frigid sea. Your posts normally appear here around midnight my time ( hate time zones) and I do so look forward to reading them for all of the reasons stated in your last missive. Yourself, Les and the rest of the flotsam circling this small gravity well make me think and give me pause to reflect , time to think that perhaps I was wrong and that not every person on this goddamn planet is an asshole. For this I thank you all.

Always remember. Let the battles come as they may, and smile gently with a sword in your hand.


Also could Yuh email me at my home base and let me know what Saturday was like. If it’s a real stinker I’ll just stay in bed with a bottle of scotch and pretend it never happened. I really could use a break

kikz said...

a meeting of the minds...

beautiful effort noby:)

thanks to you both.. noby & les.

i smile every time i think about it, this net this thing this world... begun by talent utilized first by scientists in the employ of DARPA, the military for its purposes...

the morph which has occurred is testament to the ingenuity of man...thoughts, images and sounds able to flash around the world in an instant...controlled by no centralized power...truly the genie is out of the bottle...surely gutenberg is somewhere giggling :)

this is the medium of 'our' new renaissance...
our library of alexandria, our oracle of delphi, our scrying crystal...our mirror of erised (desire)...

the potentiality is awe inspiring - math; zero's and ones ...light; particle and wave... electricity and sound harnessed and set free... artworks, comprised of atoms etched in metal and glass...angels dancing on the head of a pin.........a universe that concurrently is and is not... :)

it's so nice to've found y'all wanderin' here :) thanks for the vox.

kikz said...

oh and.. sidebar..
speakin of time mag...
dilorenzo has a short article in his archives :)

http://www.lewrockwell
.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo148.html

nobody said...

Thanks folks,

Well I'm glad people grooved on it. I wondered if I wasn't being a bit hyperbolic. But it was the way my thoughts were flowing with me just shoving them around on the screen to make them less nonsensical.

What was that python quote? "We've got all the words, now we just have to get them in the right order..."

notamobster said...

Noby, kikz, and Silverfish... I would be absolutely honored, nay, enamored, if you folks would write an essay for the brushfire. Thus far, I'm the only one to have supplied an entry. Whatever you feel could be useful to mankind. (just click the "rights of man" up there, and email- I will give the userid/pword or just email and it'll be posted and credited to you...if you wish to, no hard feelings, if not)

I would find myself eternally in your debt.

Kiks - I would so love to see more of your writing. Do you have a blog somewhere, that you're hiding from the world? Some esoteric scribblings by which we might light our path?

Thanks again Noby, you're a gem, sir.

Anonymous said...

A long time I ago I made a comment somewhere, most likely on SmoMi, and said the way things were going, there would be another Haight Ashbury and sure enough, fast forward to the present and we don't actually need to do that, we're safer in our foxholes with our connections. Easier to stay on topic, too. And if you need to take a break, you don't have to go looking for the apolitical doughnut shop. It is interesting how "this thing" came about so fast. Here, most people we know were blogging all along and all it took was one cool dude deciding to act as the catalyst. That's taking matters into your own hands! I am thinking next month anybody who can do it might want to send him some change for his capacity fees. If he spends it on mystical experiences, that makes it all the more interesting, doesn't it?

Wonderful piece Noby.
Thank you, nina

the Silverfish said...

Oh and by the by Notamobster the best email addy would be swallow_22us@hotmail.com that way I am sort of maybe sure to get it along with some 800 others perday that I seem to be required to read.
gmail really sucks.

Anonymous said...

This thing we share is a microcosm of the universe, in it's own über-limited man-made way. It is a community of ghosts, transient souls making their way cautiously -- or not so -- forward through the ether, seeking those very things which humanity has always sought in whatever milieu our once-nomadic kind have found themselves immersed.

It rose unbidden from the bowels of defense development and became the greatest library the world has ever seen, build entirely of black boxes and coiling wires and invisible bits. There are no books to burn, no librarian to raise on a pike outside the front doors as a warning to those who would follow the path of knowledge that may lead us to wisdom, should our eyes and hearts be open and accepting of ideas other than the archetypes and architecture of the well-framed shadows flitting about the living, breathing neural net within.

And that's where the singularists and techno-utopians fall down, imagining a world where we can be reduced to bits and bytes and memory chips and processing power. Until we can define the soul, how can we hope to synthesize a vessel to contain it?

It is a vision of techno-vampirism, to create a soulless husk containing what exactly? Basic emotions? Complex ideas? Diamonds in the sky? Where does the body begin and the soul end? Are we just clever monkeys clattering away at the universal typewriter or is there some larger purpose? Ad infinitum.

All the hypothetical holes in the facade of the dreamscapes and arguments fed to the brainwashed intellectual class by the High Priests of Science reveal not just the rickety nature of the logic beneath their own cogitations; they also offer a glimpse beyond the wet paper sack they would wrap around the complicit and the unconscious.

That we gravitate to a place such as this is as much an indication of where we are in our personal journey of awareness, as what it is we seek -- or how and why.

That tired cliche "you can't go home again" -- and its various cognates -- is in actuality a shining pearl of sublime wisdom masquerading as a dull old crosscut saw hanging in life's cluttered tool shed. At once it reflects the nature of our linear lives, revealing the limitations of experience with no reverse gears. Memory may provide us a rear view mirror, but as any one who's driven an automobile knows, it is very difficult to operate a vehicle if you never take your eyes off the mirrors. And each time we attempt to back up, to reverse course, we discover the truth of our uni-directional human gearbox.

So, if we can not go back -- at least while still constrained to the biological realm (if it truly is a constraint) -- we eventually realize we must focus intently on moving forward. Wisdom or common sense? What exactly is the difference between these two expressions? Both are essentially reductive in nature, and buried at the center of this observation we find an important clue: reduction is simplification. The process of human thought is largely the act of deconstruction and reconstruction of mental frames of references.

While this may seem like a major "Master of the Obvious" statement, unpacking it begins to reveal the threads that have surely dominated the inquisitive mind for as long as such minds have existed. Using an ever-larger box of unsorted mental LEGO blocks, we build -- and if we are truly open to new ideas, tear down or modify -- the ghostly templates and ethereal structures that we use to attempt sense as the flow existence washes over us as the cycle of tides.

Time itself is one of these constructs. We have come to depend on the safety of its regimentation to package the flux and flow into bite-sized pieces that are easier to hold up to the light and observe. To staunch the vast river like a stubborn piece of schist with its tip just above waterline. When the water rises and we slip beneath the rippling surface, when we truly unhinge from the habit of time, a door of revelation opens before us.

Seeing the world without the filter of a time-centric view allows us an increased field of vision into the structures of the micro- and macro-environments that we label universe, existence, the opposite of Void. Patterns and relationships once clearly explained and comprehensible become fuzzy at the edges; formerly opaque and invisible phenomena begin to coalesce. It is from this realm that we gain those experiences often best described in religious or metaphysical terms: insight, inspiration, illumination.

Each connected intrinsically with that amorphous characteristic that we describe with a powerful magic word: wisdom. Without these glimpses behind the curtain, or in the most extreme cases tearing down the veil entirely, where would we be today?

The techno-utopians would have us focus on the minutae. They would have us believe that the method contains the madness, and that if we just deconstruct and mimic the clockwork down to the Nth detail and squirt a digital simulacrum into the resulting physical matrix we will have created something resembling life. Whatever.

The entire singularity argument is one giant intellectual honeypot, designed to keep the well-trained brains most capable of expanding our greater awareness frittering away their acumen on questions of little actual value. At once, they stoke the fires of religious fervor, as the honeypot that is institutionalized religion charges their shock troops with visions of blasphemy against the one true somethingoranother. These outward manifestations are yet another false flag, a dancing monkey shrieking "look at me", to keep our consciousness -- individual and collective -- from being oriented in a more productive direction: inward.

And this is where the wheel of confusion comes back around to places like the Church of Nobody: it is an outward manifestation of an inwardly focused process.

Therein lies the appeal, the value and the risk. Invest too much time and energy constructing soaring word castles to contain the airy notions you would show to others and you neglect the very processes that delivered unto you the wisdom you would impart. Give too little and all those frequent flyer miles from the void will never transcend the ethereal and enter the physical plane -- at least not through you.

And there it is: the real singularity staring us all dead in the face. Religion calls it "God" and tells you to look up in the sky or bow down before the appropriate altar. It was the first great decoy, this towering misdirection that sought to explain our connectivity to each other and the physical world surrounding us by inverting and sublimating our direct connection to something that may or may not be divine, but certainly exists in the vast interstitial spaces between the tiny ideas we think define what we actually know. There is a reason that poor misinterpreted prophet from Nazareth asked to look into our own hearts, and it had nothing to do with finding him -- but rather ourselves and that which connects us all -- beating away against the chaos. We are not a stone in the river, we ARE the river.

If we are all water molecules in this conceptual river I've constructed to explain myself, perhaps we should begin looking at the behavior of energy in fluid systems for analogies that begin to explain the sort of collective phenomena discussed by fellows like Rupert Sheldrake with his theory of biomorphic fields. We stand alone with our thoughts. We are all connected, but not in a direct and physical way that makes sense in our three-dimensional existence.

And when we connect here in a calm and thoughtful way, this dichotomy begins to merge into something we would describe as "social" at the most banal level. But when we move beyond the banality, we begin to perform a class of acts which nearly all great thinkers have eventually explored down through the millenia: Magick.

No matter the ideas in play or the word play affected to contain them, every author is ultimately a magician, creating from whole cloth a THING which then makes its way out into the world -- dissapating or magnifying, illuminating or obscuring -- a mental homonculus struggling to do that which its master has bidden.

These gatherings of incorporeal souls, playing at symbolic word magic within the confines of a fragile technological universe, are but transient pools and eddies along the most remote edges of a great fluid Ouroboros, pouring from before into after and back again. That such gatherings help us to join forces in making sense of our ethereal journey only reinforces the collective aspect of our existence. And they are just as temporal and temporary as the construct of time.

In the end, we may come to realize that the source of the wisdom is not so important as the wisdom, a counter-intuitive notion in this day and age of infinite specialization, the ascendant era of science and reason, the new gods of modern humanity. And there's the crux of the bisquit: just as individuals can seek and find, so can collaboration deliver us unto the even greater levels insight intrinsic to that form of informed awareness we refer to as wisdom.

While the devil is definitely in the details, it isn't until we embrace both the devil and the deep blue sea that we begin to understand what we truly are.

kikz said...

wow silver.

heavy job you have. DU238? my kids already understand what little i know of it. health physics isn't my forte, but shit.. even i can understand a half=life of over a million yrs! HOT is HOT.
retained in the lungs during in-theatre exposure and excreted thru urine for life, returning to local water supplies.

DU tetragenicity - passage frm mother/placenta/fetus or baby/breastmilk - mother can be exposed secondarily by the father... thru sex/semen? correct?

every so often my kids' ele school trots out the returning youngbloods to foster patriotism/pride...i was there for one of these dog/pony shows, and of course gave the kid ...my version of a 'thousand yard stare'.

i got a moment alone w/him, and ask'd him, had he been tested for DU exposure, he nodded no... told him the VA won't test you, get a private dr.
he seemed to understand on some level. poor fool, i hope he stored sperm b4 his TOD.. this kid 'was' the prodigal son of his family.

my children understand that not only have we destroyed huge swaths of the mid-east thru both campaigns I & II - we have destroyed it and its people for all time. that.. is genocide on a grand scale. not only that, but they understand that the deadly payload returns home w/those exposed, they also know that the trade winds carry it round the world.

what madmen would allow, much less encourage this?

wish i knew whom to attribute it to? i dunno who's authorization allowed for the DU munitions...
they are a travesty against all life on earth.

if the truth of DU were widely known, there would be no more war. who would enlist?

take heart silver..
maybe someday your research will be used at the hague to try these bastards for crimes against humanity.

kikz said...

nota, thanks.. i've not made it over to the brushfire yet. i do intend to.

i might consider contribution... i gotta warn ya.. i tend to ramble >:) and my muse is unreliable. :)


blog? ahahah.. no :)
i'm just a middle aged crazy lady.. wanderin the net, mumbling to myself :) kind of like the streeturchin bagladies pushing grocery carts of belongings and garbage - you see carryin on conversations w/invisible entities:) although, i'm not homeless, as of yet....

i'll consider it :)

you are too kind.

my best advice... study the perennial philo's, the kybalion & unc' al.. they'll put'cha on the path.. if ya need bookmarks, lemme know :)


nina - you were right :)
wish i could oblige w/funding...all i can offer are thoughts and words.

Anonymous said...

This idiot (Keelty) is at it again
We must be following the American methodology of placing nincompoops in key bureaucratic positions
Tony

nobody said...

Thanks folks, I feel like I should be spending more time here or something. Or perhaps I just feel guilty that I get so many great comments and I'm not doing my bit. Anyway it's terrific. And Miraculix, your's shines, as ever.

And NaM, um, gee, I have a tough enough time getting pieces up in here, ha ha. I'm pretty slack and idle and I only seem to be posting weekly or so. Les, meanwhile, sets a cracking pace of every three days or so. Otherwise if something grabs you and you want to post it, feel free. Mind you, is there any sense in that? ...since the same people will probably be reading there and here anyway. Up to you matey...

kikz said...

wow mira, what can i say.. most eloquent :)

k*


noby, don't feel quilty... you hava full plate hon ;)

nobody said...

Quilty? It's been on my mind, but I do my best to blanket. Groan.

Randall said...

Great writing man.

notamobster said...

Noby, et al... No worries if you don't. I understand being busy.
I hold no ill-will, ever. (It'll eat you up).

Miraculix- beautiful, graceful, succinctly spoken. It is with utmost adoration for your eloquence, that I extend the offer/request to you, as well. Simply phenominal.

Noby- you have the most inciteful readers. I can only hope to one day have a fraction of their/your mastery of language.

Nota

kikz said...

heehee, typo :P)))

groan...eyeroll :)

Penny said...

wow, you read time magazine at 10?
really? just can't get my head around that one?

It is interesting that you note, Time magazines view was your view, in other words, your thoughts were influenced by what was in the media.

I wonder how many people stop and actually really think about that?

How influenced we are to have certain "ideas", accepted ideas, sometimes even state enforced ideas ( terrorism, war on terrorism, bad arabs). Thoughts on varying subjects, that are not really our own. Would we have held these thoughts or beleifs, had they not been packaged and presented to us?

What would we have thought about WW2, for example if not for the mainstream medias telling us, it was the "good war". Won by America, who saved the world.

Never mind that it was the Russians that were kicking ass!

I found that out much later, but I digress............




"But mayhem aside, it is a place in which one may seek."

I do like that.
Indeed one may seek many things on the internet. Not all of them positive, in the sense that they elevate humanity, to a loftier goal then that of the grunting, tv addict.

It is true though, we can find people of like mind, who are questioning everything. Though not all people question the same things, in the same way.

And sometimes, though of like or similar mind, we even question the thinking of our cohorts.

That is all good though because, it can open another line of thinking. Another perspective that hadn't entered ones own thoughts?

"Love, carries to much soppy baggage?"

Just the word, not the actual emotion or feeling.
Love is it, no soppy baggage necessary.
Love has carried me through many a tough day.
Love gave me strength when I was terrified.
Looking into the eyes of the people you love, and who love you, it really does touch the soul.
It is instantaneous communication.

Or hell maybe that is just me.
nice post, enjoyable read.

Penny said...

kikz: hey answering from the other post:
etobicoke a burb of TO,
hubby went a long way from home to find you, adorable.
Yet it must be hard to have family far away?

My daughter, lives farther away then I like, and I hate it, that is the selfish mom in me, that wants to see her everyday.

The realistic mom in me, knows she is old enough to live where she chooses, since it is her life.

Lately her and boyfriend have been talking about going to Australia, NO!
I'll cry my eyes out...(selfish mom) Her bf's family is from Australia, on the mom's side, the family still have a home there, along with relatives. Apparently they can live in the home.
Hoping it's just talk, but whatever? She'll do what she wants.
She was always a stubborn sort of single minded kid.

As for the no confidence vote,(canadian election) I am pretty sure the other parties have to have a hand in that, and there isn't a way in heck they will do that.

The economy is tanking, maybe they will leave Harper out to dry. I don't know.


Speaking of Australia in general, nobody, I saw this show on all the parrots in Australia.
Hordes of them, colourful, bright, flying around. What a sight!
Though some farmers seemed less then impressed.
And these black cockatoos, big, and chatty, they say hello, and do elaborate rituals, including using a stick to make music.
all very interesting.

What was amazing to me, was to see these birds outdoors, flying freely.
These are the kinds of birds you see here in the pet stores, in bird cages etc.
different

the Silverfish said...

Ty Kiks,
Life’s a bitch but it seems some of us have to play our part, at least till the curtain comes down. Now as some of you might know I was forced into a sort of maybe sometimes early retirement due to health reasons, guess the powers that be thought it best not to have someone going to sleep while mixing hot sauce but that is of little matter as I was growing weary of the game anyway.

I now work with Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a specialist on Nuclear Medicine, and who established the Uranium Medical Research Center, which is an independent research agency based in Canada, which is one of Three count em Three such agency’s world wide, the other two are in New Zealand and the Netherlands. Kind of sad when Yuh think about it. Although I no longer have a hands on, I still do most of the computing for the research center, that is I do the projections and analysis from their data, if for no other reason than I have more computing power here courtesy of my stint working for Cal Tech than most agencies could dream of. It allows me to work at my own pace and timeframe, so that is good. As well I still write my gibberish for those who are willing to learn.

As to your question on the Teratogenicity of Depleted Uranium you are correct in part but it really goes much deeper. In 2004, after the Iraqi War, we detected depleted uranium from the urine of 4 out of 9 US soldiers who were stationed to keep peace and order in Samawa after the Iraqi War, and returned home due to bad physical condition after complaining of chronic migraine, nausea, bloody urine, partial hearing and vision impairment, etc. by 2007 that number had risen to 6 out of 9 returning veterans.

Ironically we have found that the highest incidents are from veterans who have worked as Mechanics and Corpsmen . At first this fact seemed somewhat strange as many of these personel were not involved in direct combat, it was strange until we found the correlation between the two. I’ll leave you to figure it out, if You can.

Sadly your young GI Joe even if he were tested, and I say were as there are very few Dr.’s in the US that will do the testing even if they knew how to do it, for fear of reprisal by the Government ,and even if done and found to have levels that were unacceptable, there is little or nothing that can be done . There are some chelating therapies but even they are woefully inadequate. Mostly it’s just a matter of give them a note from their Dr. and send them home. The helplessness is really the saddest part of this work. The Madding part is that the VA will NOT admit that there is a problem.

Also the half life of Uranium is not One million years as it stays Radioactive for 4.5 Billion years, but if one says Tamato or Tomato it’s still a Very long time. As well the Radon daughters that are bi-products of Uranium are much worse than the Uranium itself, these are truly to be feared.

So at last estimate the US, and Briton had dumped some 4.8 million pounds of this waste product in the Balkans and Middle East. I guess it’s better to use your garbage to kill everything and everyone than to store it at home which would be Sooo Expensive. It is after all Radioactive Nuclear Waste and if stored at home must be handled carefully, but if put into bombs and shells it’s ok so no worries.

kikz said...

hmmmmm. mechanics & corpsmen.

i did know it was involved in the first war.

also, the tank crews get it bad, as well as foot soldiers.

tank crews/ enclosed space w/the firing of the DU laden ordinance.

and.. the boots on the ground, kick it up.

the mechanics, i'd imagine, get it frm what i'd imagine huge deposits in the airfilters?

dust of death....


ya know, i've seen tanks and other personnel carriers on open flatbed railcars come thru dallas enroute to one of the reclamation/storage areas out west... completly open. open.

4.5b... i guess i'd known that number awhile bak. i loose so many details w/the brainfarts these daZe..

sigh...

nobody said...

Silverfish, do my head in mate. Who in their right mind would want to irradiate great swathes of the earth's surface? Sure enough, somebody out there is doing it deliberately. Most wickedness makes sense to me but this is real madness.

And ta Pen, as for Time, well I started with the movie reviews you know... And if you were to ask me to pinpoint a single thing around which all our troubles turn, it'd have to be the media. Did anyone read a thing from the independant about the introduction of television to Bhutan? It was unbelievable and for mine, perfect proof of what I'm on about. I'll have to have a spray about it shortly.

And parrots? Good God! The only place with more parrots than Oz is Brazil. Rainbow lorikeets here are as common as muck. And just yesterday I was watching two yellow-tailed black cockatoos chewing on some banksia seeds. I like cockatoos because they fly like they're drunk and have a mad screeching call. Sorry folks, if you want to distract me just mention birds.

Hey NaM, was that my swell head going 'pop'? Ha ha ha. If I ever think I'm getting good at writing, Patrick O'Brian instantly cures me of it. And speaking of Miraculix - Mate, you might just top the list of 'man who needs a forum better than this one'. I'm sure the thought has occurred to you. I shall remain curious as to where you go with that.

And thank you Randall. I only got over to the Great Linking for Peace Project just the other day. And lo and behold you had a piece that wasn't a million miles from this one. Great minds, blah blah blah.

Les' act of linking to his longtimer's blogs has been a real fillip on my end. Hits are up and it feels like we're on the edge of something. I don't know about other people but I'm grooving on it. Very vibey.

Rights of Man said...

Noby - the hits are way up. Went from 100+ to almost 600 in a week - just on all-enemies.

Amazing :)

I even got hatemail from that blithering baboon, apple onion. He wrote a blog (title/date stamp/ the whole ball of wax). He titled it "Nota": he who will die for his "morality" or somesuch. He then went on a 500 word tirade against jews. Even called me a jew for my religion. I don't even have a religion! What a riot that slobbering jackass can be... My life threatened by a faceless, nameless coward in the basement on his mom's computer. A shame really, he could probably contribute some brilliant incite(to the world) if he wasn't such a racist, hate-monger.

nobody said...

Ha ha ha, welcome to his nightmare. The only advice I would offer is to not bother reading him. I never did. As for his mother's basement, check your statcounter and see if he isn't at Alamo Community College in San Antonio. That's where I've got him placed. Could be wrong of course...

kikz said...

pfffft!

san anton...community college... oh my...
texASS... that so figures... (snickerz)


pen, noby.. i saw the birds show on pbs, sun. nite :)

having owned a budgie once, loved him, he was great :) even taught him to talk.. but en masse, i can totally understand the obnoxious factor.

also, had a molluccan for a few years, vampire eyed thing.. OMG never again.. the destruction, the noise..the mess... the carcinogenic dust... they are beyond destructive. we finally gave him to a breeder. his 'moon screechings' at 3am were louder than a house security alarm!
needless ta say, he's happy now.. and so are we.....(shudder) i haven't missed him once!

i'm sure those farmers consider them, winged rats.

already knew, but still am amazed by the flora that must have fire to drop seed, finish its cycle.

oz is so intriguing, but bushfire, and all the venomous snakes, kinda give me the williez... havin grown up next to a swamp, gators i can handle, so crocs wouldn't be a stretch... but so many vipers and arachnids...ew.ew.eww.

funnel webs, and mambas...oh my!


noby :) i second the nod.. for mira's forum :) great idea.. hope he's not too terribly busy :)

notamobster said...

Alamo Community College... I'll be damned. He must be the janitor. :0

Anonymous said...

have you all seen this? I always thought that Australia and Canada were two different countries but it looks as if somebody has a degree of control over both...

nobody said...

Hey John, yeah that's a laugh isn't it. The spin on the story was that Harper copied Howard. My spin was that they were both given the same script both those tasked with ensuring that the puppets were on message. Howard just happened to read his first.

And for foreigners everywhere convinced Australia is full of creatures waiting to eat you - Aargh! It's not true! Australians are emphatically not terrified of the environment they live in. Certainly there are crocs in the North. Simple rule - pay attention to signs and don't camp close to water. Otherwise if you see a snake (and that's a big if) it will almost certainly be heading away from you. Wherever you are, they don't want to be there. And spiders? Good luck seeing anything other than harmless Huntsman spiders.

Otherwise pet stores and birds in cages break my heart. And that time I was in this bird market in Shanghai and I see a sulphur crested cockatoo in a cage... desolation.

Anonymous said...

In the beginning the Great Spirit said to his minions "Let us create mortal beings on this Blue World and see if they find me." So he gave his new ceatures all that is necessary for mortality to live for a time, and then gave them consciousness.
And so it was done but over the course of the millenia, the creatures merely stumbled and were lost. So the great spirit ended the epoch with volcanic upheavals and all perished.
After 26,000 orbits of the blue planet around the star, the Great Spirit said, "Lets also give new creatures intelligence"; and so the earth was re-populated. But the creatures merely built all manner of thought and things to no purpose; and so the great spirit ended the epoch with a great flood and all perished.
When the next epoch arrived the Great Spirit said "Let us give them reason"; but this too ended, this time in mighty wars that destroyed all, and all perished.
Finally in the new epoch the Great Spirit said, let us give them the Internet....

Anonymous said...

I'm working on it ladies and gents, and yes, I am WAY too busy; but who isn't?

After a couple years of "detox" from my last bits of paying client work -- which had devolved in writing/editing variations on the theme of "things that go BOOM! and the engineers who love them", I am finally starting to feel like a "writer" again.

Much self-exorcism ensued, largely channeled through dealing with a thirty-year-old mountain of someone else's garbage -- from diesel engines to cat skeletons between the decking -- by way of clearing the old stables here in my foreign country home and beginning the act of creation anew, renewing the wife's modest ancestral family property (existing house c.1751, on paper to 1085!) so it might survive another hundred years or so into an uncertain future.

In the last month or so I've been kick-starting my writing career in a completely new genre (music). And talking to a couple old clients about new projects so I can keep buying bricks and mortar and thermal-pane windows (necessary evil). And feeding my head with good and useful substances (zero TV). And feeding the body with good and useful substances (gardens, greenhouse, orchard, hedges, forests -- ALL requiring regular upkeep). And even occasionally giving something back of actual value in the very few places out here in the ether that I find any consistent value (that's the highest compliment I've got mate).

Despite all of this, such an online place will soon exist. I've already begun the process; I just need to finish it is all -- like so many other sticks already smoldering away in the creative fire here in my adopted Eifel.

For what it's worth, music has long been the one etheric substance capable of healing my damaged soul after doing battle with the world or authority down through the years, which is why I'm finally taking the leap and writing about it -- because I'm fortunate enough to have the freedom now to do so.

Made my first "business" pilgrimage south to Luxembourg's new Rockhal, about which I will be penning a trade feature in the next couple months, last Friday. Met with the Mktg. Director and a luminary of the country's formative music scene, who was one of the champions of the venue, working there after finally seeing it constructed as a result of twenty-five years of hard work and unflagging effort.

Now there's a life lesson if I've ever seen one: Persistence, patience and personal investment will go a very long way in this world if consistently applied.

I was also there that night to see Porcupine Tree, who are a favorite recently won via the advice of other music fiends I also count as friends. Well before the show, I was upstairs in the offices shaking the obligatory hands, and upon retreating (to let the venue guys to do some necessary work) I went looking for PT's Tour Manager, as I'd been working to arrange an interview with the band via management back in NYC, which didn't entirely work out (but it did in other ways, another definite lesson).

Enjoyed PT's soundcheck, at the end of which he (TM) and a gal who turned out to be his S.O. and the TM for the "special guest" opener, emerged from sidestage making ready to set up the merch area. Greetings were made, and I also asked after the special guest, which the S.O./TM was only happy to oblige. As a result, I purchased a copy of their disc ("The Dark Third") on trust, based entirely on the production backstory, and had my trust confirmed like thunder when they took the stage. The band: Pure Reason Revolution; fast becoming (are) my new obsession.

Post-show, while talking to the band, I discovered they were headlining a mini-festival up at our "local" club up in Verviers (Belgium) two nights later, closing a serendipitous mental loop in a rather humorous way: I had been there on Wednesday to met with blues/fusion legend Robben Ford's TM to setup an interview at the end of the tour in Koblenz. While there, I remember noticing the band's name (PRR) on a schedule posted above the pisser in the men's and thinking to myself, "that's an unusual name for a band".

Two days later, I was transported to a new realm of musical enjoyment and wonder by that very band in Esch-Belval (Lux). The universe does communicate to us, if we choose to listen in the right ways. Their TM loved the backstory, and she generously promised to place me & my music-loving wife on the guest list for Verviers. After two days spent digesting their album, my wife was also smitten with their extravagant use of vocal harmony and the pure drama of their music. The visit to Verviers also explained to my wife (without a single word, which is rare for me) why I was so utterly taken by both the band -- and their bass player Chloe Alper in particular... =)

A glorious melange of styles and influences with a legitimate literary take on things musical, I enjoyed the band the second time in an intimate club atmosphere, dead center down front with my exuberant partner -- who landed us the best spot in the place. Yet another good reason to love the wife. Even more so because she knew full well that about my "smiting" in Luxembourg (I told her myself) by the band's most delicious bass player/singer/keyboardist. He is a lucky man who discovers more than one muse in this world, in this life. He is luckier still if these fair partners of fate and folly willingly tolerate each other, or even better get along.

Over those same two days I also started digging into the existing press about the band, and while practical, mechanical descriptions like "the Beach Boys playing Nirvana" or "Pink Floyd goes raving in prog metal go-go boots" go some way toward explaining their sound, I haven't yet found a metaphor which does Jon's compositions and the entire band's theatrical performance of them the proper justice. But believe me, I'm hard at work on creating a few right now.

I'm currently nailing down an interview slot for the 25th in the hours ahead of their Rockpalast shoot with the TM, having gained management sign-off. These guys (and gals) have a bright future, of that I have no doubt; I intend to do my part in helping them get there. I haven't fallen this hard for a band -- or a bass player -- in a long, long time.

So, until I burn the midnight oil for an evening or two and finish scratching my web presence together in an aesthetic form that pleases me, you'll just have to take what you can get here at the Church of Nobody...

Penny said...

hey kikz; that was the same show, and yah, the brush burning was really something.
I have been trying to recall the name of the black cockatoos at the end of the show, the ones with the stick??

I was going to read up on them, but, I can't recall the name. I suppose if I google black cockatoo australia, I would find them.

The whole using the stick impressed me, and those birds live to be like 90 yrs old???
I just didn't think it possible for birds to live so long???

nobody: I hear ya, on the birds in cages, but here where it is already cold.
Birds like that would starve. But, I saw a show once on how they capture all these exotic parrots to sell and how many of them die, in the process, and it was quite awful, and put me off ever getting on as a pet, besides I have a cat, that still kills things, like mice.

notamobster said...

Finally in the new epoch the Great Spirit said, let us give them the Internet....

...that they may watch porn without shame and mask their identities behind funny plays on words. And he saw that it was goooood! (not a fan of porn, but the joke works...I think?)

nobody said...

Yeah NaM, my brain turned that way too, ha ha.

And Pen, I think there's only five black cockatoos in Oz. Yellow-tailed (common), red-tailed, palm, glossy. Wait, there's six - long-billed and short-billed.

And thanks Miraculix. I just read up about them. Definitely my ballpark. And a female base player! Don't we love them! Fuzzy memories of Kim Deal, Kim Gordon, and Melissa Auf Du Mer. I always grooved on oomphy chicks!

Penny said...

thanks nobody, and it was the palm cockatoo, once I read it, I knew it was the right one.

I loved the 'hello'

and found it here
http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/images/stories/education_resources/cockatoo_island/palmcocky.mp3

Have you ever seen/heard them?

nobody said...

Hi Pen, no I've only seen one in an aviary at Sydney's Taronga zoo. Good aviary, but if I don't see a bird in the wild, I don't put it on my 'list'. Palm cockatoos are waaay North, at least a thousand clicks from here.

And if you ever see a cockatoo in a cage be careful. They bite. And I can't say I blame 'em, neither. But they can also be affectionate and might like it when you scratch their neck. It depends on how well adjusted (= well treated) they are.

D-unit said...

Great article.
Something that I have been thinking about for a while now.
Lately, maybe over the course of the last 6 months or so, something has begun to happen. I start to think about an issue, breaking it down to its roots as we all like to do, and then an article will pop up that reiterates my thoughts pretty accurately. I'm not sure why this happens, there are probably many rational explanations, but it definitely feels like I am plugged into something. Perhaps a collective consciousness if you will. I assume that this happens because we are seeking the truth, which leads the uncompromising seeker in only one direction. Not sure what it is, but it is something.

I wonder if Neo-Cons or others experience this in a deluded group think way? Maybe? My minds running again.

Anyway,
My journey started by reading an article called: Where does money come from?

That led me to watch the video: Money as Debt

Then Loose Change

Then Freedom to Fascism

Then to Alex Jones, SOTT, Les, and so on. If everything goes as planned, it will lead me to Peru in a couple months. I'm sure we all have different paths. I'm sure we've all had our "oh shit, now that makes sense" moments. I think it would be interesting to see how others have gotten here.

It is comforting to know that there are others out there.

Thank you all.

nobody said...

Thanks D. By the by, have you seen The Money Masters on googlevideo? I think it's the best of those.

Funnily enough I 'arrived' after watching the BBC's Dead in the Water about the USS Liberty. That was when I realised that 'they' (our own governments) were only too happy to kill their own citizens. And all for the sake of some 'shitty little country'. And then there's the BBC's Sacrifice at Pearl Harbour. You seen that one? The 'good war', um... 'not'.

Anyway nice of you to pop in. Ciao.

kikz said...

hey mira :)

PPR's got some very interesting lyrics.. haven't gotten to listen to too much of the music.. but i'm impressed w/the lyrics :) thanks for the headsup..