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Musings, Ponderings, Discussion, Debate
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[08 May 2007|02:31pm] |
hey you know whats even cooler than cloudstrider on lj?
Cloudstrider on the I|\| T4R \/\/eb!
www.cloudstrider.com
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| A Society without Soul |
[30 Mar 2007|03:21pm] |
The following sentiment has been one of the subjects of discussion at cloudstrider.com recently, here, here and here; in general, the arguments that have been coming up are not only is there a general listlessness in society as we know it, but that there's also a lack of a positive-feeling consensus among those who are motivated.
We Need Soul
"The tightest, soundest arguments hold nothing to soulful, articulate, impassioned speech. This is not to advocate abandoning the former in favor of the latter. But, rather, great arguments deserve to be articulated with soul. (It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that...er, soul.) I've been thinking about this point the last couple of days because of some discussion I've had with some friends about the Christian Left. For pretty much the first century-and-a-half of American history, the Christian Left was a force to be reckoned with in American politics and society. Left-leaning Christianity formed the backbone of reform movements, culminating in the Progressive Era. They were inspired to progressive, social action based on their interpretation of the Bible. This seems foreign compared to the political discourse of our country right now. It's not that there are no left-leaning Christians; in fact, there are countless folk who identify as such. But, rather, they are not a political voice. The discourse of the country now associates devout Christianity with rightist, reactionary thought. And that's a shame.
So this discussion has combined in my head with the impression a couple of speeches that I've seen recently have left on me. One was Charlie Chaplin's big closing speech from The Great Dictator. This hit me like a hammer when I first saw it. (And it still does.) Such passion is so foreign to most of us anymore. Of course, Chaplin's passion resulted from horrendous historical circumstances, and I hope that it doesn't take something like a world war to inject soul back into society. The second speech I saw was Bono's acceptance of an award from the NAACP. The speech was fair, but it was incredibly moving compared to most things we hear these days. And it wasn't forced; it was truly felt. You can toss around all of the terrible stats concerning disease in Africa that you want, but they won't get as much attention as something said with soul. I don't mean angry shouting which only annoys most people. I mean, the soul of a preacher--an approach that inspires people. (And this is exactly what Bono did.)
Most Americans, if not most people in the so-called 'Western-world' are drugged by consumerism; we are kept preoccupied with buying things. A depressed individual is inclined to seek comfort in buying material items. Feeling blue? Just go to Walmart and buy yourself a shirt and a couple of new CDs! Well, no: Just as doing so doesn't cure an individual's depression, it also does not cure a society's listlessness. And that is what we are, listless. We need a strong new dose of spirituality, another Great Awakening. I don't mean any specific religion, denomination, or philosophy, but a wider sentiment of spiritual motivation, just as we saw in the previous Great Awakenings. Participants can range from devout believers whose faith you will never shake to outright atheists. What matters is that the new discourse needs to a be a shared, positive spirituality, focusing on hope, progress, solutions, and action, and not a reactionary, backward-looking, exclusionary movement, which, unfortunately, is what marks the mainstream right now.
We need to add soul to our logic.
Soul and brain must wed. And the message must not only be one of disgust, anger, and sadness, but also one of one of hope, inspiration, and love. Love of life, love of Earth, love of humanity. These words must be understood and not tossed off as "hippie fluff." They hold meaning. Disgust, anger, and sadness. Hope, inspiration, and love. There's a tension that comes from this mix, and that is soul itself. It's energizing, and that's something that we need."
All are welcome to discuss below or to continue conversation at cloudstrider.com, here, here and/or here.
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| The Organic Future of Technology: Swimming blimps, sugar power, computer brains, and more |
[27 Mar 2007|11:48pm] |
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The Organic Future of Technology
Originally posted here.
Future generations will look back on our era as one of clunky technology, what with our noisy machines with their unrecyclable, non-biodegradable parts and reliance on fossil fuels. Forget Al Gore and all our global warming talk, they'll just be scoffing at how barbaric our industry was! After all, scientists for generations before them have been advancing new organic technologies. These scientists, you see, have been working under the realization that Evolution has produced mighty efficient methods of energy-utilization, movement, and intelligence. As so they have been toiling frenetically as mad scientists are wont to do, trying to tap into Evolution's store of knowledge and apply their findings to their society's needs.
Although the 2000s would still fall under what they consider the era of Industrial Barbarism, they would cede that the roots of their civilization's triumphs stretch back to that earlier era. After all, that decade saw tinkering with sugar as an energy source. Our era, they would note, relied largely on finite resources whose use damaged the planet and caused diplomatic and social dissension.
Our vehicles and robots, meanwhile, were exceedingly clunky, made mobile via motor-animated wheels or propellers. Mobility lagged while noise pollution soared. Our generation saw a tiny step, the invention of a blimp that swam through the air like a fish. It never caught on, of course, as a significant mode of transportation, but to people who paid attention to it, it opened their eyes to the realization that Nature had already invented wonderful methods of mobility, and research into artificial muscles increased immensely. Without successive generations of scientists copying and tweaking these biological methods, they'd ponder, they'd be without their swimming ships and flying cars, powered not by petroleum, but from a substance they call "Nectar."
They'd go on: Our generation's computers? Based on primitive circuitry, with its reliance on metal and all. Their computers, after all, would be modeled after the brain, organic in composition and of a much more holistic circuitry. Their robots would have practical brains--providing one of the more worrisome aspects of their times.
Prosthetics would be the biggest example of our clunkiness, although we made major steps compared to our twentieth century counterparts. The old idea of replacement parts, from pirate's peg legs to the Great War's artificial faces, gave way, admittedly, to more aesthetically-pleasing replacement parts in the early 21st century. But still, a person who was in need of a new limb or organ was treated as a machine in need of a replacement part--scrap parts taken from junked machines or from machines with spares (donated organs) or they were constructed as pieces of machinery, to be connected to the person like a mechanical component (prosthetic limbs). This future generation, growing new limbs and organs (either on the body or off), would be both amused and horrified at our machinistic view of the human body.
This list could go on, but one more example will suffice for now. Far fewer animals, in this future generation's day, would be killed for food, their society relying largely on vat-grown meat. Sure, there would still be meat-eating traditions in parts of the world, some people refusing the vat-meat altogether, and others eating real meat during special observances, but, by and large, animal-meat will have been pushed to the fringes. More land, freed from the demands of ranching, would be available to 'wild nature' and to people. And, there'd be less of the damn bovines to release excess methane into the atmosphere. Stupid cows.
Conversation continues here, although you are more than welcome to post below.
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[22 Jun 2006|09:37pm] |
is it really true that their making a new national anthem in spanish so the hispanic imigrants can understand it too? not only that but their putting a rap in it? it this true? i've been hearing a lot of this lately.
i personaly think it's one thing if you translate it to spanish to the hispanics could also understand it and for a lack of better words "bond" with it, but its something else if you're putting a rap in it. that's just disgustingly stupid.
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| www.cloudstrider.com |
[30 May 2006|11:09pm] |
Howdy, Livejournal Cloudstriders.
I'd just like to take this moment to reiterate...
While the Livejournal will continue to be available and some are staying here in preference over the new site, the bulk of CS's members have migrated over to www.cloudstrider.com. I'd like to invite you folks to stop by and check it out.
The format is different (it's a forum instead of a blog), but the idea behind it remains the same. Registration is painless and takes about thirty seconds, and the forum style is easy to understand. It's just something we provide to try to make your intellectual debate a more enjoyable experience.
Rock on, and hope to see you over at the forums!
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[27 May 2006|12:43pm] |
Rockin' The Right - The 50 Greatest Conservative Songs (Of All Time)
What was this guy thinking? Besides putting The Who at #1 - who encapsulated Mod culture and were champions for so many of Britain's disaffected youth and leftist believers, he also includes The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Bob Dylan and countless other punk-influenced bands in his list of conservative anthems.
A couple favourites:
5. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” by The Beach Boys. - Pro-abstinence and pro-marriage.
28. “Janie’s Got a Gun,” by Aerosmith - How the right to bear arms can protect women from sexual predators.
Seriously, is there some hidden message I'm missing on these tracks? Maybe if i played them backwards...
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| Presidential Tournament, Finals! |
[16 May 2006|11:42pm] |
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Ladies and gentlemen, we are finally here. We began our long Presidential Tournament back in January.
In our Semifinals, Russ Feingold dominated Ralph Nader, 7-0, and Barack Obama whipped John Lewis, 6-0.
Now we are on to the Final match-up.
1. Please vote in the poll provided in this thread.
2. As always, please provide commentary on the reason you voted one way or another. More than just to simply have a tournament for political geeky fun, the point of the whole tourney was to generate discussion on a wide range of candidates, so that we'd be more familiar with all of the bozos in American politics by election time. So, as always, let's hear what you think--this time about the positives and negatives of Feingold and Obama.
3. Also, as ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) fishstix42 asked, how do these two seem as a President/Vice-President pairing?
4. Lastly, are we naive to think that either has a shot in 2008? If so, who do you consider to be more legitimate contenders, and what do you think of their merits?
Finals match-up:
(Click on this link to go and vote!)
Candidate information:
General information and pages on most of the candidates can be found here.
Russ Feingold: Issues / Senate page
Barack Obama: Issues / Senate page
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| Colbert vs. Bush, for real for real |
[07 May 2006|11:49pm] |
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i'm not sure for how long this will be up, but it's amazing.
to blatantly and shamelessly insult the president for 20 minutes while he's sitting 10 feet away...
it's deeply satisfying.
-moby
http://www.dailymotion.com/sensemilia/video/143459
stolen from moby.com, obviously
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| Hungary workers get shock at bottom of rum barrel |
[04 May 2006|07:51pm] |
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EDIT: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/cannibal/tapping.asp
An Urban Legend! (Thanks hillarygayle)
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian builders who drank their way to the bottom of a huge barrel of rum while renovating a house got a nasty surprise when a pickled corpse tumbled out of the empty barrel, a police magazine website reported.
According to online magazine www.zsaru.hu, workers in Szeged in the south of Hungary tried to move the barrel after they had drained it, only to find it was surprisingly heavy and were shocked when the body of a naked man fell out.
The website said that the body of the man had been shipped back from Jamaica 20 years ago by his wife in the barrel of rum in order to avoid the cost and paperwork of an official return.
According to the website, workers said the rum in the 300-litre barrel had a "special taste" so they even decanted a few bottles of the liquor to take home.
The wife has since died and the man was buried in a proper grave.
Original article
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| Presidential Tournament, Quarterfinals (4.b) |
[28 Apr 2006|10:41am] |
Quarterfinals continue...
Recent winners:
Russ Feingold over Wesley Clark, 6-2
John Lewis over Winona LaDuke, 6-1
Here is an updated version of the Excel spreadsheet of the tournament break-down.
Quarterfinals: Second pair of match-ups:
Poll #718654
Presidential Tournament, Quarterfinals (4.b)
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10
Match-up 2
Match-up 4
Candidate information:
General information and pages on most of the candidates can be found here.
Barack Obama: Issues / Senate page
Al Gore: Issues / Wikipedia
Ralph Nader: Issues / nader.org
Jesse Ventura: Issues / Wikipedia
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| Presidential Tournament, Quarterfinals (4.a) |
[19 Apr 2006|12:42pm] |
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We're now on to the Quarter-freakin'-finals!
Recent winners:
Barack Obama over Barbara Boxer, 5-2
Winona LaDuke over Dick Gephardt, 4-3
Jesse Ventura over Walt Brown, 4-2
Here is an updated version of the Excel spreadsheet of the tournament break-down.
Quarterfinals: First pair of match-ups:
Poll #713054
Quarterfinals 1
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8
Match-up 1
Match-up 3
Candidate information:
General information and pages on most of the candidates can be found here.
Wesley Clark: Issues / Clark '04
Russ Feingold: Issues / Senate page
John Lewis: Issues / House page
Winona LaDuke: Issues / Wikipedia
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| Maundy Thursday...in case you didn't know. |
[13 Apr 2006|01:36am] |
I've heard about 1,287,509 people ask today (er...now yesterday) "what is Maundy Thursday?" So, for your reading pleasure, ganked from wikipedia.org, the source of all quick and free knowledge:
In the Christian calendar, Maundy Thursday, also known as Holy Thursday, is the Thursday before Easter, the day on which the Last Supper is said to have occurred.
The Middle English word Maundy, used only in this context, derives from Old French mandé from Latin mandatum novum do vobis, "a new commandment I give unto you, love one another as I have loved you" (John xiii:34), words spoken by Jesus to the Apostles after washing their feet in preparation for The Last Supper. Foot washing is increasingly popular as a part of Maundy Thursday liturgies in many churches. Washing of the Feet has been a traditional component of the Armenian Orthodox Church.
The day has also been known as Sheer Thursday, due to the idea that it is the day of cleaning (schere) and because the churches themselves would switch liturgical colors from the dark tones of Lent. This name is a cognate to the word still used throughout Scandinavia, such as Swedish "Skärtorsdag", Danish "Skærtorsdag" and Norwegian "Skjærtorsdag".
In the Roman Catholic Church, it is generally referred to as Holy Thursday.
In the United Kingdom, the monarch traditionally distributes Maundy money.
In Germany, the day is referred to as "Gründonnerstag," a word built of two roots, "grün" ("green") and "Donnerstag" ("Thursday"). However, the word "grün" probably does not mean "green" in this case. While its etymology is somewhat unclear, many trace it back to "grinan" ("to wail") in Old High German, a word connected with the English "groan".
In the Philippines, a popular Maundy Thursday tradition is the Visita Iglesia (Church Visit), which involves visiting several Churches at which the faithful commemorate the vigil that the Apostles kept while Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. The last Mass before Easter is also celebrated on Maundy Thursday, usually including a reenactment of the Washing of the Feet of the Apostles; this Mass is followed by the procession of the Blessed Sacrament before it is taken to the Altar of Repose.
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| Fossil discovery fills gap in human evolution |
[12 Apr 2006|04:59pm] |
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Fossil discovery fills gap in human evolution
‘We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time’
By Seth Borenstein
Updated: 1:01 p.m. ET April 12, 2006
WASHINGTON - The latest fossil unearthed from a human ancestral hot spot in Africa allows scientists to link together the most complete chain of human evolution so far.
The 4.2 million-year-old fossil discovered in northeastern Ethiopia helps scientists fill in the gaps of how human ancestors made the giant leap from one species to another. That’s because the newest fossil, the species Australopithecus anamensis, was found in the region of the Middle Awash — where seven other human-like species spanning nearly 6 million years and three major phases of human development were previously discovered.
“We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time,” study co-author and Ethiopian anthropologist Berhane Asfaw said in a phone interview from Addis Ababa. “One form evolved to another. This is evidence of evolution in one place through time.”
The findings were reported Thursday in the scientific journal Nature.
The species anamensis is not new, but its location is what helps explain the shift from one early phase of human-like development to the next, scientists say. All eight species were within an easy day’s walk of each other.
Until now, what scientists had were snapshots of human evolution scattered around the world. Finding everything all in one general area makes those snapshots more of a mini home movie of evolution.
“It’s like 12 frames of a home movie, but a home movie covering 6 million years,” said study lead author Tim White, co-director of Human Evolution Research Center at University of California at Berkeley.
“The key here is the sequences,” White said. “It’s about a mile thickness of rocks in the Middle Awash and in it we can see all three phases of human evolution.”
Modern man belongs to the genus Homo, which is a subgroup in the family of hominids. What evolved into Homo was likely the genus Australopithecus (once called “man-ape”), which includes the famed 3.2 million-year-old “Lucy” fossil found three decades ago. A key candidate for the genus that evolved into Australopithecus is called Ardipithecus. And Thursday’s finding is important in bridging — but not completely — the gap between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus.
In 1994, a 4.4 million-year-old partial skeleton of the species Ardipithecus ramidus — the most recent Ardipithecus species — was found about six miles from the latest discovery.
“This appears to be the link between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus as two different species,” White said. The major noticeable difference between the phases of man can be seen in Australopithecus’ bigger chewing teeth to eat harder food, he said.
While it’s looking more likely, it is not a sure thing that Ardipithecus evolved into Australopithecus, he said. The finding does not completely rule out Ardipithecus dying off as a genus and Australopithecus developing independently.
The connections between Ardipithecus and Australopithecus have been theorized since an anamensis fossil was first found in Kenya 11 years ago. This draws the lines better, said Alan Walker of Penn State University, who found the first anamensis and is not part of White’s team.
Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program, agreed: “For those people who are tied up in doing the whole human family tree, being able to connect the branches is a very important thing to do.”
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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| Presidential Tournament, Round 3.b |
[01 Apr 2006|09:00am] |
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Recent match-ups:
Wesley Clark over Joe Biden, 4-2
Al Gore over Christopher Dodd, 5-1
Ralph Nader over Rebecca Rotzler, 3-2
Here is an updated version of the Excel spreadsheet of the tournament break-down. (Note that I corrected the organization of the tournament so that the top seeds don't face each other in the semifinals.)
Round 3.b:
Poll #702088
Presidential Tournament, Round 3.b
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9
Match-up 2
Match-up 5
Candidate information:
General information and pages on most of the candidates can be found here.
John Edwards: Issues / Wikipedia
Russ Feingold: Issues / Senate page
John Lewis: Issues / House page
David Cobb: Issues / 2004 election
Three more match-ups to go in Round 3--coming up next week.
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