I sincerely apologize for missing last week’s posting. I was trying to find an article I read not too long ago about scientists who believe that all of life on Earth may have actually come from Mars. Now, they don’t actually believe that’s true, but that it is possible. Well, I haven’t been able to find that story again, but I did uncover an old gem about a meteor from space, and the controversial conclusions some have come to.

In other news, we have now discovered that there are more planets than originally thought (there may be 17!). One quote by NASA scientist Donald Yeomans is strikingly telling:

The field of planetary science is currently enjoying an intense period of readjustment and discovery.

“Readjustment”? Doesn’t that just mean that we were wrong about stuff before? And “discovery” means that we are still finding things that we had no idea existed before.

So couple this news with the age old debate about Planet X. For the moment, disregard the theories about alien civilizations living on the supposed planet, and it seems as if science is claiming that just about anything is possible when it comes to our solar system regarding planets.

For a scientific article on Planet X, go here.

From the Good WikiBook:

Matthew 5:2-12
He began to teach them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

The reason, as they say, for the season.

So.. a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet up with my father’s brother, one of Donald Rumsfeld’s military advisors. He travels with “The Don”, as he referred to him, to various parts of the globe and works out of the Pentagon the rest of the time. After meeting my uncle you would agree with me that he isn’t the person you’d probably imagine working for such a cause, and I found hints that his personal beliefs on the current political situation do not exactly run parallel with that of his superiors. He wll be a good person to sit down and talk to when his stint with the Empire has expired.

When we were saying our goodbyes, he gave me an open invitation to visit him in DC and take a tour with him of the Pentagon and meet The Don. Huh?
So I’ve been ruminating on this offer for the last few weeks and I think I am going to take him up on it. What my thoughts are, is that maybe we could come together over the blog and come up with soem stuff to say to him. Not that I feel that he is going to take time from his busy war mongering to sit down with a tooth on one of his gears and quietly listen to my commentary on his foolish actions, but I might have a chance to slip in a statement that might resonate.

No honestly, if I was going to pick one of us to be the ambassador, it would not be me.
I could pick Jorge, who would sit on his little frail shoulder and whisper little, “hmmm, Donald…. do you REALLY think that is a good idea?”. Then he would light some candles and schedule some kind of mediation between Don and Osa, Don and Hugo, Don and Mahmoud, Don and Kim, Don and… well you get the idea… to work out their differences.
I could pick Lucy, who would show him videos of what REALLY happenned and he would sit back with a gasp and declare himself an anarchist. Lucy would then teach him how to separate gluten from wheat and The Don would live an extra 10 years… in jail.
I could pick Johnny Palmetto who would tease his brain into a shame spiral until he actually reads the Geneva Convention and realizes how misguided he has been.
I could pick Rib Roche, who would sit down with The Don on a comfy couch and pull a few tubes. Then Rib could commence to bewilder the Sec. with amazing stories of the universe until he says, “ENOUGH! I already know this shit!” and rips off his skin revealing the true reptilian nature of his being.
Then… I could pick Arepamonger who could explain to The Don that he really doesn’t keep up with politics and he likes that tie he’s wearing. Tobasco bottles! My dad has that one!

But, as it goes, I am the one with the opportunity to come face to face with Mr. Rumsfeld so I want it to be the most effective visit possible. What I would like to do is open up a forum for all contributers and readers with the prompt: What would you do if you met Donald Rumsfeld?

Suggestion #1 link

Johnny Palmetto is one lucky duck (sorry Lucy). While millions of New Yorkers are walking to work today, I’m at home–working–but not outside in the frigid weather trudging across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Mr. Palmetto’s take on this: strike on transit workers! Good job. Of course this sucks for lots of people, but the reality is that unions must remain strong (you like the 5 day work week don’t you?). Look around you, unions are being dismantled and workers are being screwed. If the heart of the union movement–skilled labor–cannot show its power occassionally, efforts to organize in other employment sectors will be pointless (service industry giants like Wal-Mart and Albertson’s grocery stores, etc.).

Yes, but you’re cozy and warm and I’ve got arthritis and so on and so forth…

You got me there. But I do have to escort my wife home tonight from 123rd Street in Manhattan to Brooklyn. That’s one of hell of a bike ride and then one hell of a walk. So, I share your pain.

Sign in a window across the street from my apartment building: “You look like the walking dead!”

Over and out.

Once a Day now has an email address:

onceadayorso at yahoo dot com (you would need to replace the at and dot and dispense with the spaces of course)

a Flickr photostream, and

a Clustrmap (see sidebar, updates begin tomorrow).

Go Team Once a Day!

Slingshot stole my day, which is perfectly fine, but I wanted to post this site before its taken down:

Santacon NYC took place this past Saturday, the 10th of December 2005. Lots of walking, lots of drinking, lots of good times.
Follow this link for a cheesey story and an overly cheesey video. I even appear and have a speaking role in the news footage about halfway through.

http://www.nbc6.net/news/5519071/detail.html

Now, go down to Slingshot’s articles below.

So I have been working a lot more lately, believe it or not. However, I did not get to post last week so I thought I’d combine a few different entrees into one.

The Environment. WORLD’S NEXT FUEL SOURCE COULD BE DESIGNER ORGANISMS
The scientist who cracked the human genome now hopes to exploit the properties of DNA to solve the world’s pending energy crisis. J. Craig Venter, who gained worldwide fame in 2000 when he mapped the human genetic code, is behind a new start-up called Synthetic Genomics, which plans to create new types of organisms that, ideally, would produce hydrogen, secrete nonpolluting heating oil or be able to break down greenhouse gases.
The initial focus will be on creating “biofactories” for hydrogen and ethanol, two fuels seen as playing an increasing role in powering cars in the future. Hydrogen also holds promise for heating homes and putting juice into electronic devices. The raw genetic material for these synthetic micro-organisms will come from a diverse set of genes from a variety of species, according to the company. While many of the genes will come from some of the aquatic micro-organisms that Venter and his colleagues discovered during extensive ocean voyages in the last two years, the company will also experiment with genes from large mammals such as dogs.
“Rapid advances in high throughput DNA sequencing and synthesis, as well as high performance computing and bioinformatics, now enable us to synthesize novel photosynthetic and metabolic pathways,” Venter said in a statement earlier this year. “We are in an era of rapid advances in science and are beginning the transition from being able to not only read genetic code, but are now moving to the early stages of being able to write code.”
Now, my question is, would vegans stop driving?

Peace. Peace is paying dividends in Sierra Leone. The same civil war that depleted the country of tools and work is now providing ample raw material for recovery: weapons. Enterprising blacksmiths and metal workers convert them into farm implements so that a Kalashnikov becomes hoes and axe heads and a rocket launcher transforms into pickaxes, sickles and even school bells.
The indisputable heavyweight champ is a tank (or a heavy duty 16 wheeler) that can provide a year’s work for 5 blacksmiths, turning it into 3,000 items vital to equip a farming village of 100 families. Jobs, tools, agriculture. It isn’t everyday that what you long for comes true.
link

A New Year’s Cleanse. Colon Blow

Amazing Theories that will astound anyone around a campfire. “We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for psychedelic drugs. In terms of the role of psilocybin in human evolution on the grasslands of Africa, people not on drugs were behind the curve. The fact is that, in terms of human evolution, people not on psychedelics are not fully human. They’ve fallen to a lower state, where they’re easily programmed, boundary defined, obsessed by sexual possessiveness which is transferred into fetishism and object obsession. We don’t want too many citizens asking where the power and the money really goes. Informed by psychedelics, people might stop saluting.
“Take your political party, your job, whatever, and shove it.”"
—Terence McKenna

Okay, so apparently folks are dissing Wikipedia. I love the Wiki. I love direct democracy…Textual analysis tells us all texts–meaning anything written on paper or, now, written in a digital format–are tenuous at best. Of course it’s crazy to take anything for truth that is inscribed on any surface (see, for example, the Bible, copied and copied for centuries by monks in dimly-lit, poorly ventilated rooms, with squeaky mice running around spreading the Black Plague!).

Humans make mistakes, and I’m sure hundred of humans have made mistakes within the incredible openness of Wikipedia. God bless those mistakes! And some people are jerks and they try to screw things up for everyone else. Screw ‘em.

If you’re curious about wiki, check out one of the discussions.

Or check out the entry I wrote that has recently been deemed a stub–which means that it has been monitored…

This was originally a much longer post, but is now all that’s left after an unfortunate browser error erased an hour’s worth of work.

You, the reader, instead will simply be directed here, here, and here for a glimpse into the multi-billion dollar youth marketing machine.

Wednesdays may be a conspiracy theory day, so I’d just like to take today to think about why conspiracy theories are important. I’ll be adding photos and links as the day progresses.

I recently came across a story in the Indypendent (Issue #75, August 31-September14, 2005) discussing conspiracy theories (CTs) and their role in political discourse. The title, Behold the Pale White Lie: Why Conspiracy Theories are Patriotic, got my hopes up and led me to believe that this would be about the positive role CTs play in the real world. The article instead posed arguments that I myself have heard many times, claiming how CTs are actually detrimental to finding out the truth, and not to mention racist and discriminatory.

Argument: Believing in CTs gives too much power to political figures when in reality, individuals and communities have a lot of power to change their situations. CTs take as a starting point that individuals are powerless and that there’s an ever powerful group of people pulling strings.

My response: Individuals do have a lot of power to change situations and their environments. However, in reality, there are groups of people who have an easier time doing it. One average person starting an independent television news-channel will have a much more difficult time than a Millionaire who already owns a few local newspapers, or has a parent who has a news-channel already.

Also, while one person is free to choose to live life however he or she sees fit, PEOPLE generally act in predictable ways and are therefore susceptible to outside manipulation.

Argument: CTs are inherently racist, assuming that people of color cannot influence the world, only to be controlled by the ever so powerful “West”.

My response: It’s racist to say that white, neoliberals are trying to control the world, and at the same time, its anti-semitic to claim that a group of Jewish people are trying to control the world…hmmm…something tells me a conspiracy theorist just can’t win.

Argument: CTs assume power-hungry villains who only exist to take over the world; they forget that for the most part, people are people, and deep down inside we’re all just human.

My Response: Deep down inside we’re all just human, and each one of us is just trying our hardest to provide for our family and friends and those who are important to us. This is what I believe lies at the heart of CTs, that is why people conspire to control the flow of money or power: so that their offspring and kin will be able to live a decent life.

Now let’s look at CTs and how they can help us understand major events in our lives. For instance, how many Americans think that the World Trade Center towers were actually blown up using controlled demolition? I would imagine not many. And for now, it’s considered a crazy conspiracy theory and would be judged horrific and disgusting if true. While one could theorize further and make the claim that the controlled demolition indicates that 9-11 was an inside job, for now I’m just focusing on the theory that the towers were in fact blown up by us (the US).

Larry Silverstein, owner of the World Trade Center Buildings, appeared on Frontline in the first few days after 9-11 and told interviewers (and the world) that he was asked if they should “pull” tower 7 (in other words, bring it down with a controlled demolition), and that he gave the go-ahead to have it pulled.

But what if it was? Would it do us any good to know? Obviously the American public wants to know something or else we wouldn’t have had the 9-11 commission.

I’ll leave it there for now, with only a theory that the World Trade Center towers were already rigged for demolition on the morning of September 11, based on spoken testimony of Larry Silverstein, Firefighters in the towers, Fox News accounts on the morning of the disaster, and Engineering analyses concerning jet fuel and the failing point of steel.

I won’t go so far as to say why the buildings were rigged, because we won’t know that until more people ask questions that only seem crazy until they’re on a television screen.

So I’m writing an abstract for a conference entitled “American Multiculturalism after 9/11.” Basically my proposal is to compare the PATRIOT Act to “The Negro Acts.”

PATRIOT Act: laws enacted post-9/11 that give the Federal government increased power to monitor “suspicious” activity.

Negro Acts: laws enacted in South Carolina, post-Stono Rebellion that institutionalized chattel slavery–limited movement, communication, dress, etc., of African slaves.

The question is this, what are the long-term effects of these responses to acts of public violence? Will the PATRIOT Act have a longterm influence on the US, one we cannot anticipate? Does our culture suffer? Are we really better protected? Food for thought.

Listen to this story from NPR about the treatment of human beings awaiting immigration decisions in the United States of America…

From the folks at World Against Toys Causing Harm (WATCH).

W.A.T.C.H. OUT! These oversized fists, resembling those of a popular comic book and movie character, are sold to enable six year olds to “smash!” and “crash!” just like the “super strong creature.” Remarkably, at the same time children are encouraged to engage in “clobberin time!”, parents are warned that the toy is “intended to be used only for dress-up fantasy play”, and that “serious injury could result” should it be used to strike a person or pet.

For a look back at other ill-conceived ideas for kids, also check out retroCRUSH’s Deadly Toys of Days Gone By , including everyone’s favorite, Jarts.

StumbleUpon is a way to explore new websites. Take 2 minutes to indicate what kinds of things you are interested in and then off you go. In the last 15 minutes I have seen

An AMAZING Kaleidescope
Fly Guy
European Countries Quiz (it’s hard!)
The World Sunlight Map
Steet Paintings
Play

If you like it, click the button, if not, click that you don’t. Or don’t click at all. Just go to the next site. So far I haven’t seen any that aren’t sweet.

It’s like a random channel changer for your computer except every new channel is interesting.

-from mechum.com

2003

I thought for my first posting, I’d highlight some of the recent sites I’ve come across. As it turns out, this entree already has a name.: Splog. In the process, I thought I’d dedicate a few to the fine members of Once a Day to thank them for keeping me entertained. Please feel free to visit the links all of them. I think you will find them to be quite informative.

For Rib

For Jorge

For Rib

For He Whose Name Must Not Be Spoken

For Lucy

For Everyone

For Johnny Palmetto

For Everyone

For Everyone

[Rib: What we have here is a truly excellent set of links, but not a “splog”. Once A Day has no affiliation to the sites linked above and we get nothing from you visiting them. We are a benevolent mover.]
From the Wiki:

Spam blogs, sometimes referred to by the neologism splogs, are Web Log (or “blog”) sites which the author uses only for promoting affiliated websites. The purpose is to increase the PageRank of the affiliated sites, get ad impressions from visitors, and/or use the blog as a link outlet to get new sites indexed. Content is often nonsense or text stolen from other websites with an unusually high number of links to sites associated with the splog creator which are often disreputable or otherwise useless Web sites.