Zen es mismo macho, ese

They say when you go to a Zen Temple, don't expect people to be nice. They are not there to be nice, they are there to do work.

Zen monks are like a bunch of rocks: at first each rock has a lot of sharp edges, but those are worn away by time and the other rocks.

In Zen there is hitting:

When the jikido sets the stick on your right shoulder, lower your head to the left. This is to avoid being hit on the ear and to make it easier to hit the shoulder muscles. Continue to gassho. After the jikido hits your shoulder, straighten your head again and bow.

See what I mean?

In other words, it is the perfect balance for a musician's personality.

Leonard Cohen, Stuart Davis etc.....

Meditation

I started doing TM when I was 15 or 16 years old. It made quite an impact on me, apparently. Once I started to meditate for 20 minutes twice a day, my mother noticed a change in me within a short time. She actively encouraged me, even reminded me when my mind was elsewhere. Being a catholic all of her life, this Indian meditation was strange to her, but she was also very pragmatic and liked what was happening with me. What was happening with me? Beats me... it seems impossible to notice our own changes, at least while they are happening - much easier to notice change outside rather than inside.

I continued to meditate regularly into my twenties. Then came short and long periods of procrastination. My days were so crammed with bike-messengering, rehearsing my band, performing and recording that I somehow lost track. Lost in Life. Lost in the details. I have always been a bad scheduler.

A couple of years ago I returned to meditating with any regularity. This year I made the big switch from TM to Zen Meditation. That meant switching from meditating with closed eyes and repeating a Mantra (sound) in my mind, to meditating with open eyes and no mantra. Sounds easy, but took me a while. My eyes kept wanting to close... Well, I have mentioned before that I think ears (receptacles) are female and eyes are male (scanners), and so moving from mantra/sound with eyes closed to no mantra with eyes open felt like quite a change.

Squid biomass exceeds human biomass

Squid biomass exceeds human biomass

Squids thrive in a global-warming world, and the biomass of squid has now exceeded the biomass of humans.
Link
(via Plastic Bag)"
(Via BoingBoing.)

Can a Hollywood movie be far behind? Squid Attack

Optimism of Uncertainty

I am totally confident not that the world will get better, but that we should not give up the game before all the cards have been played. The metaphor is deliberate; life is a gamble. Not to play is to foreclose any chance of winning. To play, to act, is to create at least a possibility of changing the world.

There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people's thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible.
(Via The Inner-net.)

Wave Length

There is no harm in sometimes dropping to a level where communication and understanding is possible. A good example would be the patience most of us display in communicating with our infants and children. So I don't think it is really impossible to practice the same with other individuals. Thus the wave length and connection can be made at all levels.

Sure, there is no harm in dropping a level or two or three in order to communicate. Indeed it is most necessary on a daily basis. And certainly we can use some patience.

But just because we can display patience with a child, to use your example, and would indeed enjoy communicating with him/her, does not mean that there is any way s/he could understand what we are saying - if we are talking about complex matters requiring knowledge and experience. S/he hears the words... but would never grasp the whole meaning.

No, I believe a true meeting of the minds, or hitting a wavelength together, is only possible when neither person talks up or down too much, when two individuals are close enough in understanding - to hear each other.

I think this is something musicians understand... it's great to make music with somebody who is better than us, because it can pull us up to their level. It can be a lot of fun to play with someone, who isn't very good because they might have an enthusiasm that is contagious. But only certain people can work together in a band.

This is encouraging and depressing at the same time. The optimistic side of me hopes to find people of a like mind and enjoy time with them. The pessimistic side thinks that I’ll never find the connection I’m looking for. Hopefully I can keep these two feelings properly balanced and remain alert to those around me, not retreating into myself because I’ve lost hope.

It's like walking into a bar with a Miles Davis or Kurt Cobain T-shirt... some other fan is bound to recognize it and say something to you, yes? Similarly, living your life a certain way attracts like-minded people... might just take a while...

Do “second tier” people want to isolate themselves from “first tier” people because, “I’ve got nothing to learn from you.”?

Most certainly not. Second tier thinking means understanding that all of the first tier stages of development are necessary. Every human starts from scratch.

America - world leader in technology

America -- world leader in technology: "

But thirteenth in broadband adoption.
(Via Lessig Blog.)

The Whole World

Alex Steffen Speaks At Poptech: Question: can a talk that begins "Ladies and Gentlemen: we're screwed!" leave one feeling hopeful? Answer: when it's given by our own Alex Steffen, it..."
(Via Another World Is Here.)

Stream or download for free and listen! Do not hesitate, do it today.
Here is a link to Transmaterial, which is not found at transmaterial.com as the speaker suggests.

Community

The higher you reach, the less span you encounter. In other words, as you push upward, there will be less people on your "wavelength". If someone is two or more levels from your thinking, they will not understand your thinking, unless you find a way to address their level. And that's just a versation, not a conversation. So?

Well, it seems to me that community becomes ever more important as we push upward, that is, finding people who understand us and encourage us. Instead of people who go "Huh? What the hell?"

Otherwise we feel isolated, and lonely.

Choices, choices, choices?

Fear, gated compound, private club, giant SUV, barbed wire, Military Might, closed society, lead by force, and more fear...

Trust, neighborhood, community, sensible car, white picket fence, Education Excellence, open society, lead by example, and no fear....

I don't think this is a political question. I don't even think this choice is offered up on the menu by any party at present. I think of it as a personal question. It is a how-would-you-like-to-live-your-life question.

The optimist, the pessimist + the engineer

The optimist, the pessimist and the engineer: "

The optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
(Via Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent.)

To which I want to add something attributed to Colin Chapman, designer of Lotus F-1 race cars - and I paraphrase:

Ideally a race car should fall apart right after the finish line - or it was built too heavy.

What's changed - only interior...

The man behind the bandages was an artisan, named Harwa, who lived in the XXII or XXIII dynasty (945-715 B.C.). The virtual unwrapping, described in this month's issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology, revealed an individual who was about 45 years old at the time of his death.

From an article by the Scientific American. This guy is about 3,000 years old. Looks like he could walk among us. Pretty good looking fellow, too. Was he average? Or was he part of an elite? I guess the mere fact that he was mummyfied must mean he was of a special class, or did mummyfication come in a kit that could be purchased at the Egyptian version of a Walmart? Would he be impressed, if he could experience our world? Our gadgets would impress him, but would we? Hey, 3000 years of evolution, check it out!

Sarah McLachlan - World On Fire

Watch the video! It's brilliant! And check out the donations from this video.

via Critical Selection

Click on that

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman.

It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising!

Here's the web site.

P.R.

In fact, I'm so cheered up generally that I'll actually talk about something other than politics for a minute: the proposed film of Pattern Recognition.

Where this stands at the moment, and literally all I know about it: Peter Weir (of whom I have been a huge fan since age twenty or so, so that's very nice indeed) wants to direct it, there's an option deal in place, and Weir has a contract with Warner to...well, not to go ahead and shoot it, but to go forward toward that end. Toward which he's hired a screenwriter -- whose name I've forgotten (which is actually a good sign with regard to Weir's choice) -- and has gone to London, Tokyo and Moscow to look at locations.

Absolutely nothing else known by me as to casting or anything else.

Though I should warn you, should you happen to bump into me in the meantime, that I don't regard films of novels as being the ultimate form in which a novel may be lucky enough to manifest. I regard *the novel* as the ultimate form in which the novel manifests. And if I should suspect that you think otherwise, I'm liable to snap at you."
(Gibson Blog.)

You mean like *music* is the ultimate form of music and not *video*? And likewise as a movie is only loosely based on a novel, we should think of a video as only loosely based on music? Yeah, I think that's it.

Boulder kinda Sunday

Arrived in Boulder at the crack of dawn, maybe earlier, but I was asleep. Bus was parked on Spruce next to the theater as always. Four of us were at Lucille's for breakfast when they opened at 8AM. I love their food, but their portions are soooo huge. Too much. I had a beignet and the oatmeal. Forgot to order the half-portion and had to leave a bunch on my plate, which I hate to do. My parents experienced WW2 full on, and as a result finishing your plate was always a big deal in my family. At 9AM Stuart picked me up at the theater and we drove to Denver to hang with Ken. Three and a half hours went by in a flash and I had a great time.

Soundcheck at the Boulder Theater started at 3:30PM, and our performance started at 7:00PM. We played two songs, La Luna and Heart Still/Beating and then I had a nice chat with the host of the etown program. Then another song, Carrousel, and then a 45 minute break while Eliza performed. Then Nick, the host, announced our second set of music as "Nuevo Flamenco". I shook my head, and he tried "Nouvelle Flamenco" and then we gave up and I gave a nod to Ron to start Snakecharmer, which we performed without the Kora intro to the intro to the intro, without the Berimbau intro to the intro and without the electric guitar intro to the song - we had to leave our beautiful digital console on the trailer and had to use their console, and since they have a house band as well there were simply not enough channels available for Berimbau and Kora. Our last song was the UnderWorld/Cocteau medley.

An hour later we were on our way back to Santa Fe.

more dialog

The intention of state to protect Muslim girls from being oppressed can only work, if the Muslim girls don't wish to be oppressed... may be they prefer to be oppressed.

And if a 14 year old wants to be in porn movies, she should be able to? The State forbids tobacco sales to minors. Children are not allowed to smoke cigarettes at that age! Should children choose here as well? Shouldn't the State protect children from this kind of extremism if it indeed leads girls to depression and suicide? Let's find some independent studies about this subject.

It seems to me that parents can choose to send children to public school and abide by society's ideals - or stay outside society by either home-schooling or sending children to a private religious school. That is always an option.

I don't like sounding like I am anti religion in general and Islam specifically, because I am not. I am just searching for that border, that line that separates what one can do with children, and what should be out of the question HERE in this country and in Europe. What some tribe somewhere on another continent does, is not up for debate here.

I think teaching a child a specific religion is fine, but there is a line somewhere and that's what I am trying to explore and define for myself. Certainly it is a moving line, changing and somewhat flexible... but I am really astonished at how easily y'all side with people who force little girls to wear a Hijab here or in Europe. What about Female Genital Mutilation?

The operation is forced on approximately 6,000 girls per day, worldwide -- about one every 15 seconds. Since FGM is practiced when the girls are young, they are unable to give their informed consent.

Do you find that acceptable? Do you think American, or European doctors should be ordered to do perform that operation because, hey, it's the immigrant's culture?

Where do you draw the line?

Dialog

The most controversial part of this, in my mind, should be the fact that the issue of children wearing these religious items (as you said), while adults can do what they'd like.

In Germany the official age of religious freedom is 16. At 16 one can also enter a bar and drink. Makes sense to me.

Now, about the Sikh dagger example, that's something that OBVIOUSLY can't be allowed (lol can you imagine the chaos that would happen if a Sikh, who many of the less informed Americans would likely mistake for a Muslim, sat down on a plane with a dagger?), but then to compare this to wearing a headgarb is, I think, a pretty big jump.

Why is that a big jump? They are both articles of faith, in fact the dagger is contained in the Sikh scripture, while it seems that the Hijab is not mentioned in the Koran. Where would you draw the line? If you are willing to draw the line at danger to society - dagger, why not draw the line at danger to the wearer - Hijab causing depression and suicide?

Now, I personally don't see a big deal with covering one's face in public, but to insist on wearing it for a driver's license or passport photo, for example, is totally unreasonable.

Exactly, and so insisting on wearing it at an airport security check point would be unreasonable as well, yes?

And I can completely understand the hijab being such a serious problem in Iran, but not just because it's the hijab, but because it's Iran! Not to say that the hijab always represents something positive in the West, either, but it is not nearly a symbols of oppression as it is in a country like Iran.

In fact it is more of a problem in the West, because the West has promised to separate Church from State, while Iran has a religious government. The West has to uphold that promise.

You R missing the point?

I wrote:

But if a Texan has to take off his cowboy hat at security, why should a Sikh not have to lift his turban or an Islamic woman have to lift her veil? What do you think?

I read in the comments that some are saying everyone has the right to cover their face or wear any items dictated by their religious scriptures.

I would like to raise a couple of points:

1. As I understand from a couple of months I spent in a Sikh temple in Hongkong in 1978, Sikhs are to wear three items: the turban to cover their uncut hair, a bracelet, and a dagger. Would you really allow a Sikh to carry a foot-long dagger onto a plane or into a bank, simply because his religion demands it? BTW, nowadays most Sikhs wear small items of jewelry in the shape of a dagger, rather than carrying the real item.

2. What would you say if the hijab was invented only 30 years ago and was not part of the Koran or other Islamic scriptures? In other words should any religion be aloud to come up with new items to be worn or carried by believers.

Another thing to consider is that

Last year, the Islamist regime authorized a number of girl colleges in Tehran to allow students to discard the hijab while inside school buildings. The experiment was launched after a government study identified the hijab as the cause of "widespread depression and falling academic standards" and even suicide among teenage girls.

The Ministry of Education in Tehran has just announced that the experiment will be extended to other girls schools next month when the new academic year begins. Schools where the hijab was discarded have shown "real improvements" in academic standards reflected in a 30 percent rise in the number of students obtaining the highest grades.

I ask you this, before you continue to defend this headgear, doesn't a European country have the right, maybe even the duty, to make sure that females can receive the best education possible, regardless of their PARENTS' beliefs? If wearing the hijab causes widespread depression and falling academic standards among female students in Iran, how much more so in Italy or France?

In the USA it is called separation of Church and State. Have you heard that expression? If you go to a public school - State - instead of a private school - Church - I believe you must abide by the State rules, i.e. not wear the headgear.

For that reason I believe that Italy and France are absolutely correct in their right to prevent girls from wearing the hijab in public schools. I would also defend their right to wear the head gear in any private school that allows it.

I do not care if an adult chooses to wear the hijab, but I mind if parents force their children to do something that is potentially so dangerous - widespread depression and falling academic standards" and even suicide among teenage girls is SERIOUS!

I feel feisty today.... bring it on!!

Answer

Boris racks up the points.

You were right on the first three pairs. But regarding the fourth pair, the tempi are slightly different. The instrumentation is also different etc. Dig the Wonderland is 116BPM and Like Water for the Desert is 112BPM.

Not bad though, I am impressed. You came from nowhere to lead the Q&A with 60 points!

Boris - 60 points
Victor - 40 points
Carol - 35 point
Suzanne - 25 points
Vincent - 13 pointss
Yumiko - 5 points
Brad - 5 points
Tomita - 5 points
Eric N. - 5 points

Muslim convert's veil sparks couture controversy in Italy

As Bruce Sterling recently asked on his blog -- "Milan or Tehran?" Well -- neither. Drezzo, Italy, where an Italian mother of four who converted to Islam has been fined $100 for wearing a veil that hides her face. Sabrina Varroni's case has inspired a dispute between politicians, civil liberties advocates, and fashion designer Giorgio Armani.
Link to NYT article (Thanks, Jose Marquez)"
(Via BoingBoing.)

Read this article which appeared in the New York Post on August 15, 2003, and in the National Post in Canada on August 19, 2003. Does anybody know more about the history of this veil? Is it a tradition that is indeed only 30 years old? All of this arguing and fighting over a 30 year old veil that was inspired by the headgear of Lebanese Catholic nuns?

Even today, less than 1 percent of Muslim women wear the hijab that has bewitched some Western liberals as a symbol of multicultural diversity. The hijab debate in Europe and the United States comes at a time when the controversial headgear is seriously questioned in Iran, the only country to impose it by law.

See, I think anybody should wear anything they want, from a veil to a turban to a cowboy hat or a beanie. But if a Texan has to take off his cowboy hat at security, why should a Sikh not have to lift his turban or an Islamic woman have to lift her veil? What do you think? Let me remind you, if you argue that the Sikh and Muslim headgear is based on religious scripture, that it will take only weeks or months until somebody founds a new church in the USA, a new religion that demands that its members wear cowboy hats at all times...

X-Prize for world's 'Holy Grails'

X-Prize for world's 'Holy Grails': "X-Prizes for breakthroughs in science or technology that solve the world's greatest challenges are planned."
(Via BBC | TECH.)

Casa de Retiro Espiritual

House in Cordoba, Spain, by Emilio Ambasz. Designed for private clients in 1975. More on the house and the architect here.

Question #8

This question popped into my head today. I think it is a good one, since it cannot be answered by Google...

For 20 points per song-pair - which songs on christmas + santa fe and Little Wing share some of the same rhythm tracks? I recorded both albums at the same time and in the tradition of Zappa there might have been some overlapping of tracks....

Answer

I always thought I saw Santana in Cologne in the year 1974, but just to make sure, I checked his tour calendar and set the parameters from Jan. 01, 1973 to Jan. 01, 1976... and sure enough, I had been wrong and the only concert in Cologne in those three years had been on September 23rd of 1975. And that Christmas I received the triple album "Lotus" which had been recorded live in Japan, and which he signed for me in 1996.

The points go to Carol.

Victor - 40 points
Carol - 35 point
Suzanne - 25 points
Vincent - 13 pointss
Yumiko - 5 points
Brad - 5 points
Tomita - 5 points
Eric N. - 5 points

Boy-Girl / Boy-Boy / Girl-Girl duvets

Fitzsu sells duvet covers and pillow shams with bathroom-door style silhouettes of boys and girls on them. Match your duvet to suit your lifestyle (boy-girl, boy-boy, girl-girl) or your single status (solo boy, solo girl). Polyamorous home decorators will note that not every lifestyle is included -- unfortunately, there's no boy-girl-girl-girl edition.
Link (via funfurde)
[BoingBoing]

For people who like their life as organized as possible. Or, who like the look of airport signage... Honestly, how many women wear skirts like that these days?

Santana Question

Hint: my memory failed me and I apparently did not see Santana/Earth Wind & Fire when I thought I did.

iDebate/Preaching

HappyGoLarry
Via vedana.net

This hilarious picture (who has the time to do stuff like this?) made me think that it would be a great idea for preachers. They could listen to hip-hop beats while delivering a slamming sermon to their church. It would be a serious improvement over the current TV evangelists' speech rhythm!

Inheritance

Isn't it funny that if your mother is catholic and your father is jewish you are neither, but if your father is catholic and your mother is jewish you are both?

Speaking of religious inheritance: my father was double-christened. Apparently my grandfather decided to take him to a protestant priest in Tientsin, China, when dad was about 6 weeks old. Upon his return the wife freaked and, muttering and screaming about the child having to go to hell, she rushed my dad to a catholic priest the same day to get christened again. Did she tell the catholic priest that my dad had already been christened? Was he a protestant because that was the first christening, or do they go by the latest and newest christening?

Answer + Question

I am giving the 25 points to Victor. Here are the current standings:

Victor - 40 points
Suzanne - 25 points
Vincent - 13 points
Carol - 10 points
Yumiko - 5 points
Brad - 5 points
Tomita - 5 points
Eric N. - 5 points

And here is a new question which will be a little harder to research on the net:

For 25 points: which year did little Ottmar see Santana live?

Question #7

For 20 points: Where was the accordion invented? For an extra 5 points - when?

Also, see this post regarding Roland trying to update the accordion.

By accordion don't mean the button accordion or bandoneon, I mean the modern version of the accordion with a keyboard as seen in the photo of the other post. My fault - I should have clarified that earlier.

InterNet

What if Consciousness is external and not internal to us... what if it surrounds us, like the air - or like the internet... some people are not connected at all, some are on dial-up, some have cable or DSL and some have a really FAT pipe to Consciousness...

You have to diversify, son!

Specializing in the Ministries of Jesus Christ, Largemouth Bass Fishing, and Wild Game Hunting

Seen on the back of a pick-up truck in Alabama. Now that's an enterprising fellow! Kill, bless, kill, bless. kill, kill, bless....

Sterling: the UN + the Net

Bruce Sterling is guestblogging on Worldchanging this week. His first provocative post is called "Marry the UN and the Net."

Logically, there ought to be some inventive way to cross-breed the grass-rootsy cheapness, energy and immediacy of the Net with the magisterial though cumbersome, crotchety, crooked and opaque United Nations. Then bride and groom would unite their virtues and overcome those gloomy vices gnawing at their vitals. The global worldchanging multitudes could beat back the darkness of the gathering New World Disorder while swiftly improving the cramped lives of the planet's majority in a beneficent orgy of networked interdependence! Wow!

Link [BoingBoing]

Antimatter bomb program at US Air force

The US Air Force is looking into making bombs out of anti-matter. I want a key ring with a speck of it!

One millionth of a gram of positrons contain as much energy as 37.8 kilograms (83 pounds) of TNT, according to Edwards' March speech. A simple calculation, then, shows that about 50-millionths of a gram could generate a blast equal to the explosion (roughly 4,000 pounds of TNT, according to the FBI) at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

Link

UPDATE:Tom sez: Anti-matter is easier to come by than one might think. 22Sodium isotope naturally emits positrons and this property is used in many nuclear metrology applications (PET scans, positron annihilation spectroscopy, etc.). So a bit of isotope table salt might fit nicely in Mark's ring.
Link to PDF file [BoingBoing]

For some reason that sounds even scarier than nuclear bombs to me... must be all those Sci-Fi movies with anti-matter accidents I have seen...

Rigpa: On Meditation

In the ancient meditation instructions, it is said that at the beginning, thoughts will arrive one on top of another, uninterrupted, like a steep mountain waterfall. Gradually, as you perfect meditation, thoughts become like the water in a deep, narrow gorge, then a great river slowly winding its way down to the sea, and finally the mind becomes like a still and placid ocean, ruffled by only the occasional ripple or wave. - Glimpse @ Rigpa

[Coolmel]

Beautifully said. Thanks!