NIKON D90
ƒ/2.8
50 mm
1/60
640
These photos just in from Moscow, where I spoke earlier this week. (video)
75 responses to “Digital October”
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[http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson] German makes it sound much more cold fact scientific: Alle unsere Religionen sind in reine essenz kerne von Voodoo.
German gets you extra punchline oooomph gestalt with requisite wolfman growl hate and dread not possible in English, scientific matter of fact….essenz kerne…….shocked surprise dread…. Vooonn Voooooodooooo! or quizzical von voodoooooo? Alle unsere Religionen? Nein, nicht die schwarzen Künste!
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[http://www.flickr.com/photos/24270806@N06] Magical reality is one of the best Latin American responses to being dominated by positivism or having all cultures destroyed by the reaction of being civilized. The non linear time sense and moving around in it like you are in a chaotic swirl or popping in and out of time context frame sink holes, it is all there and what I find true about it. Dona Flor gets two husbands but one of them is a macumba inccubus and this is part of the normal fabric of life in her community. It is perfectly natural too that Colonel Aureliano Buendía recalls discovering ice many years later when he is facing the firing squad. Likewise, I don’t think it really matters what time frame la noche boca arriba ends in. That is one thing that is so good about it.
Oh yeah, funny that "schwarzen Künste" black art (s) in German goes way back to a term they used for the printing pressmen. White art for paper making. So big surprise if they were printing Gutenberg Bibles….Was ist das?
"Alle unsere Religionen sind in reine essenz kerne von Voodoo."
Alle unsere Religionen von Voodoo? Nein, nicht die schwarzen Künste!
Zur Hölle mit euch Gunther! Hexerei sex Praxis Bücher auf unserer neuen Druckmaschine? Hans Sie sind in großen Schwierigkeiten!
Bitte Herr Professor, beruhigen sie sich. Es ist nur literatur von unserem neuen amerikanischen missionaren. Wir werden es mit großer sorgfalt bearbeitet -
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson] It is a mistake to conflate things like Santa, Fairies, Leprechauns, orbital teakettles, pasta monsters, etc with a serious unknown like souls which you can not dismiss on the same fictional basis. If you do dismiss things like souls the same way you dismiss fiction and afterlife states then you are making a theological equivalent dogmatic assertion. If you maintain that it is pointless to speculate about it then you are approaching a MU condition without the wisdom of being a Zen philosopher priest or a yoga guru. That MU is a major thing in both Chinese and Indian things like Tai Chi, Yoga, Zen and more. I can tell you the first Patanjali yoga sutra and the first mumonkan koan are both about the same primary thing. If you want to dismiss all of that as mumbo jumbo then you are making multiple mistakes in everything from embracing close minded bigotry- what could you possibly have to learn from yoga texts or Chinese riddles?- to an untenable absurd position of denial of any knowledge that transcends rationality, words, logic and science. Plus, it is not any news that what is being touted as new atheism has already been dealt with and discarded logically for things like nihilism against which it is defenseless. Also highly problematic from a scientific atheist standpoint are basic things like individual eschatology. If we leave it to science then we come up quite reasonably with all forms of Soylent Green-its not just for people now- as the most beneficial and outlaw all graveyards.
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[http://www.flickr.com/photos/24270806@N06] Here is a great kid art video and soundtrack of what I mean about Latin American lit. if you have not been exposed to it. Hard to find any redeeming value in John Updike, John Cheever, John Grisham, John John etc. after you read some modern Spanish masters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Iy-0PMCSI&feature=player_em...
William Burroughs is different….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgpfmehW7iE -
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/24270806@N06] Well the topics are the supernatural, the limits of science, cash rewards, mystic knowledge, and more. All of which bind well with a general state of confusion-much like many large religions – along with a wide variety of other con arts, god men, ramtha women, and many more that the thread readers here would no doubt find of great interest. However, I am concerned more with the real thing.
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I agree that not all philosophies and in-depth attempts of understanding of human nature and soul are mumbo jumbo and fairytales only… although even fairytales and symbols have a right to exist since they speak to our subconscious mind or whatever else we can call this mysterious part of us that is deep like artesian well… not sure what words or allegories or symbols are more appropriate, it depends on one’s culture… have no problem with both atheist or religion if both approaches are open-minded… I strangely can relate well to both – one from the thinking point of view and other from the feeling… although I understand that passionate atheists and passionate religious approaches do not mix together at all..
I really feel more like a student all my life in this area and keep learning, do not feel like I am ready to preach anything… or do not feel like judging anybody… and have some hope for immortal soul one way or another… like many humans on this planet.. I think this quest for immortality and continuous self-improvement which lead to transformation of humanity into a new non-biological form is at the core of science and the reason for religion to exist at the same time… as for imagination goes in this area, my new year thought is that I would love to transform into fairy or elf with wings made of light or something like it (there is probably no word for it yet)… nothing is really impossible here:)
Technology is catching up with our imagination… so dream your own life… we are in the 21st century… just wait for more ordinary miracles…
I got book on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (reading it now)… his “reality distortion field” and also page 48 – the search – Job’s interest in eastern philosophies and Zen Buddhism and his quote where he speaks again about intuition, intuitive wisdom, “as a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect” … which also had a large impact on his work… and the fact that western civilization has incredible intellectual power but lack this “power of intuition and experiential wisdom”. And furthermore – “coming after seven months in Indian villages, I saw the craziness of the Western world as well as its capacity for rational thought. If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse… but overtime it does, there is room to her more subtle things – that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more… Zen has been a deep influence in my life ever since..” and about his teacher… meeting a right teacher is really a key here… I guess one has to find one…
Thus I would say that the cake got to be based on science but sprinkles on a cake might come from the east, not from west and from more feminine approach, not masculine… things got to be balanced. Again it is an allegory of the moment… might be not the best one. -
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/solerena] For Steve Jobs I like the crack about him being "a refugee from the human race" when he shows up ragged sporting Ho Chi Min beard and sandals to meet with an up and tightish VC guy. They get the quote wrong here:
http://www.mac-history.net/the-history-of-the-apple-macintosh/ho... "renegade from the human race" does not make sense and I recall some interview where the guy who made the remark repeats it with Jobs there laughing about it in retrospect.
Jobs also made a good example of classic stoic memento mori for a Stanford grad address, “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool — to help me make the big choices in life. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose."
What you quote him saying about Zen and wandering around ashrams in India doing yoga, observing his restless mind is exactly that core MU of Zen, Tai Chi, Yoga as #1 sutra the "Yogash Chita Vritti Nirodha", which is a pretty famed opening line. Calming fluctuation of mind. People tend to fixate on the mind part as it is really calming, falling away of both mind and body. I talk to people who get upset about this as practices that destroy your individuality, acting against reason, you are becoming a Zen zombie(!) (to use the Chris Hitchens about how much he hated it) etc. Well, hello, yes you are dropping all that mental drama that stars yourself, your wants, your needs, obsessions, you, you, you … If you go further for the Yoga viewpoint your entire identity is arbitrary and fiction compared to your yoga bigger identity, the Paramatmane. Tai Chi, Taoist does not go there, having nothing in particular to say other than it moves with nameless formless Tao, like water, very basic stuff. Definitely works. Taoist do not have that huge depth of literature that you get out of yoga. Just the Gita alone is huge. Talk about another celebrated opening line. People tend to miss that one too. The entire Gita is a a vision from meditation. If you ever tried to read it pay close attention to the very beginning context. Sanjaya is the court visionary yogic seer and the question is "what did you see?" "what happen out there on the dharma battle field?" That is one heck of a yoga hermeneutic. -
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/solerena] People are crazy period. Not to mention irrational, superstitious, easily deluded, prone to violence, criminality and worse – like when they fall in love with their own local versions of Hitler. People going cult crazy like Aum Shinrikyo, if you recall the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack, are not representative of Zen any more than Rajneesh Oregon commune wakos trying to take over the county with bioterror are representative of Yoga. Rajneesh is a great example of a litmus test when someone you are talking with, who seems reasonable otherwise, casually tosses out how much they admire the works of Osho. If you do admire the works of Osho I think you need to read a bit more to say the least.
For one answer to the is there anything good and real in the world question you seen more inclined to yoga where you can then become declined, inverted, and more with it. I can tell you BKS Iyengar is my top ideal of the world’s leading Yoga guru for a system that is authentic and adaptable to all levels. Some of the systems get way too demanding, turn it into some kind of calisthenic competition or the same as aerobics. In my case I learned about yoga very young from local Vedanta swamis and that has nothing to do with any asana. I got to my inner Faust in a hurry as a kid. Having no magic lore and necromancy texts handy for the Drum hab ich mich der Magie ergeben, all purloined and destroyed by the church no doubt, I turned to readily available Hindu classics. Sanskrit does in fact have plenty of Magie ergeben too without having to make any deals with Satan. -
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/solerena] With yoga I’m not sure what to call it when a good hatha yogin, in my case yogini, gets the xray 3d vision thing going where they know where you are just a bit off or what you need to adjust with your body/muscle groups even when they are not looking at you. That is not power of suggestion either. Not something they can get paid for by a Mr. Brighty Randi cash challenge if he decided to loosen up the old stiffy body. That creation of internal space and the energy flows really get me. That is where you benefit from the class and the suggestive guidance. Mr. Randi should go mystic powers of Kung Fu debunking too and see how well that goes. That is where the traditional indian yoga is much more easy to deal with. You don’t have to feel uncomfortable about how many people the master has quickly dispatched with this or that particular mystic enlightenment powers technique. To be fair some of the things like pranayama breathing do get very psych power spooky in that Indian kind of way.
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[http://www.flickr.com/photos/solerena] Sure. For Iyengar: http://www.bksiyengar.com/
He really is a scientist, artist, guru and more. My instructor spent some time with him for training in India. I think on his 80th or 90th birthday. He goes back to training artists like Yehudi Menuhin if you recall his classic East meets West album with Ravi Shankar. Iyengar is very different from a Maharishi Mahesh Yogi that is for sure. In Tai Chi this woman is a full master++ of the forms, like this basic Yang 8 which I really like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Z4sQNQtJM&feature=related Of course this is not something you can learn just from books, videos and your own insightful brilliant notions of movement, dance and healing energetics. The large part of all this stuff is knowing who is for real and who the con artists, frauds and knaves are. In other words any Osho ashram training would require recertification to put it mildly.
Anyway, when you look at an advanced pose like this you can see why some MDs are opposed to it:
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Thank you, i love Iyengar moto: "when I practice, I am a philosopher, when I teach, i am a scientist, when i demonstrate, I am an artist" – here it is a gateway to new synthesis… absolutely perfect! This is what I like flickr for.
three approaches… probably three different brainwaves, dimensions or whatever is the right word for it… the point is three ways of looking at the world… combined in one… from the very surface of it… -
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/solerena] Iyengar and his guru Krishnamacharya are certainly famous for good reasons. Krishnamacharya was in incredible physical shape and powerful by any standard you could come up with, physical, mental, etc. Lived to be 100 or so. What I like is these guys do not present yoga in any way as some kind of non sectarian general physical practice making it more appealing for a new global order by getting rid of the real Hindu core, making it some kind of new age feel good practice. Not Deepak Chopra shows you seven spiritual laws of yoga in other words, or David Caradine teaches Tai Chi health, well being and erotic asphyxia workout videos. Deepak Chopra doesn’t know anything more as an expert in Yoga than he does when he blubbers on and on about evolutionary biology. Real yoga experts are people like Iyengar and Vivekananda. That entire new age MD spiritual healer category is an easy one for debunking if that is what you enjoy as a pastime to return to thread topic. Indeed, Richard Dawkins, a credible person in evolutionary biology, gets close to full yogic bliss taking on someone like Deepak Chopra, which is about as fair and interesting a matching as a professional wrestling bout. No disrespect intended to pro wrestling.
Chopra is a good in some aspects as a clearinghouse and guide to major new age self absorbed pop author bs… “Ken Wilber is one of the most important pioneers in
the field of consciousness in this country. I regard
him as my mentor. He is the source of inspiration and
insight to all of us. Read everything he writes —
it will change your life.”
~Deepak Chopra, M.D.
Unreal how vast, vapid and vacuous some of this is:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”—-from A Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson.
If you like the paragraph, you’ll love the book…!"
Yes Marianne my deepest fear is my power beyond measure.I often find myself in the mirror asking: "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Why do men run away from me?" Who the hell buys this stuff?
http://www.marianne.com/
I am 100% confident I can compu generate content indistinguishable from Deepak, Marianne and Ken. I suspect some of it already is. We did this with finance newsletters as a joke pre internet with optional rap or redneck rant color commentator modes and it has only become easier.
Ahh Haa! I should have known this, Oprah.They are all followers of SATAN: http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/oprah-damnable.htm looks like yet another atheist parody site but still amusing in a frat boy kind of way. -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-tMPDMq7Dg For the next Mr. Randi fest.
Note the name of the USAF spokesman. Catch 22 revisited.
http://www.space.com/13763-x37b-sercret-air-force-space-plane-re... -
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson] Vivisection and animal experimentation concerns go farther back than the 1800s such as this famous work featuring the travelling scientist: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/joseph-wright-of-der...
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cid-classification/classificat...
Raising religious practices of the past as justification or counterpoint is using a strawman’s ghost argument which is also non sequitur, What exactly do religions sacrificing animals in the past, or humans for that matter, have to do with ongoing animal experimentation? Mark Twain still has the best statement about it. Fantasizing scientists in the role of a virtuous priesthood is just that, fantasy. Now, thinking forward, what are we going to call it when we create new sentient and suffering life forms to serve our purposes? Oooops, that batch of puppies did not turn out too well, dispose of all of them right away Murphy. Murphy, and his eponymous laws, of course being faithful yet error prone lab flunkies in these arguments. Fortunately he does not suffer from problems of evil or madness. Those cases are likewise easy to come up with like the odd hitchiker picked up by the van of the well intentioned scientific expedition, Nazi scientists of all types, impaired physicians (I love that medical term for out of control MDs who of course must police themselves when it comes to felony narcotics abuse) and many many more. -
Sorry, but I just have to revisit this with a Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Therefore everyone is brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous. This is way beyond Lake Wobegon where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average. This is all humanity, everyone with the right and capability to liberate others to that same state of brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous. You create your own fictional image and others believe and buy into it too, that IS miraculous. This begs the dual question now doesn’t it? What if I really am average or worse? What if I am nasty, brutish, ignorant, don’t believe in God, fat, and working powerlessly like a slave? Like the late Sam Kinison for example, Eff you Marianne Williamson and all your other brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous effing Williamson people who are so insecure and neurotic you can’t exercise in your true fabulous yoga tights because you don’t want us staring at you! We are staring because you are nucking futz, think a bunch of new age palaver is profundity and get offended if anybody points that out.
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Steve, more sad news from Russia…Putin and his circle is worth 130 billion dollars, he is the wealthiest person on this planet, furthermore add Alisher Usmanov and Abramovich ( wealthiest is Great Britain) and other club members, plus all their affiliations…add this all…we could be taking about trillion/s…this cancer is global, it is a serious threat… Opposition showed this evil that there are some boundaries temporary…what mafia can and will do next, who really understand the scope of the problem? I just want to share this concern… Most people think only in terms of their stock or their stake…they do not see a bigger picture on time…
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[http://www.flickr.com/photos/solerena] As much as I slam RT news on a regular basis I’m afraid to go visit in-laws in Lithuania. RT has been completely vile in what they put out about Syria for one current example. Despicable as Hillary Clinton puts it. I really marvel at how a group like RT gets people to lie like that. At least they could put up some money for college level English editors and writers to make more believable fiction. The RT news history channel is a good one too. How the Nazis forced Estonians and Latvians to fight Zionists and the motherland in the waffen SS.
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Alisher Usmanov is Putin’s right hand, he is the second wealthiest men in Great Britain…these people are not the brightest but the amount of potential damage they can do to the world is a real concern with these amounts of money and KGB skill set…a very large percent of intellectual gifted created Russians are against putinism. They are still fighting lies on TV, there is a whole campaign now to boycott NTV channel for putting blatant lies recently about protesters. Many people decided to put pressure where needed by boycotting the sponsors of NTV…unfortunately, mafia/government started harassing those involved in protests…arrests, threats, people getting fired etc.
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[http://www.flickr.com/photos/solerena] Putin was on a PR image upgrade campaign in London last month to coincide with his new book release. I don’t think he gets to meet HRH which says alot. Teatime with HRH and Vladimir not a good idea. Teatime with anybody and Vladimir not a good idea if you recall that famous case. SJ & co probably have done some kind of super science work with polonium-210 but not in the lab tearoom. Princess Anne seems to trust him
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everything is big in Texas:D – great talk by a very young person about the recent events in Russia and history:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ3Oo_YGZnc&feature=share
Ilya Yashin’s Talk on Russian Politics at The University of Texas at Austin on April 2, 2012 -
Not knowing where else to put this kind of thing, in a thread relevant sense, for all those interested in the wide wide world of debunk/o, I did not realize how big the NDE business has become:
http://www.amazon.com/Moments-Ordinary-Spiritually-Transformativ...
"Nancy Clark’s life was transformed forever by a near-death and a near-death-like experience" Ahhh yes, here is the really interesting part where you generalize real near death experiences to the "near-death-like." This makes it more accessible to the general public and allows you to make all kinds of nebulous religious and mystic linkages to your BS near-death-like general philosophy. Of course this debases the value of all real near death experience – which is just as well since they are now firmly in the realms of satire. How about some "near-combat-like" near death experiences and profiles in courage and bravery for that matter? Not to cast any generalized new age debasements in the direction of all those fighting and dying for our freedoms of course. Or throw some "near-sex-like" experience in there not to leave out that big group that refuses to let go of the need for satisfaction beyond the mystical. I was getting a bit fatigued with the typical warm fuzzy mystical light, happy god family beyond the grave NDE; curious about those visions of hell, aliens, sci fi, extra terrestial and otherwise not very happy in the good vibe mystical best selling, soon to be a Julia Roberts major film version of NDE. And indeed: Here is a guy with alot of them: http://www.near-death.com/nothing_better_than_death.html
http://www.near-death.com/differences.html
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research14.htmlt
A negative review: "The reason I didn’t like this book that much is because instead of the people talking about Jesus, they talk about other kinds of religions like Islam, Buddah, etc. When I first bought the book, I thought it would it was Christian NDE’s. I thought it would talk about how people who almost died, saw Jesus and would explain their experiences. But I was wrong. I don’t recommend this book to Christians. You will be dissapointed. The author of the book declares that "all" religions are the truth" and that no one way is the right way. He also says a lot of things are acceptable that the Bible says isn’t like homosexuality. This just wasn’t that good of a book. Sure, some of the NDE’s were good because Jesus was actually talked about, but don’t waste your time with this one, unless you have the same viewpoints of the author and think "everything" is the truth. NOTE: John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the WAY and the TRUTH and the LIFE. No one comes to the Father except through me."
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