Well, it certainly has been a while hasn’t it. You see, this whole “blog” began because a few friends wanted to do at least something to help influence their world for the better. We had some things to say, we had interests we wanted to share, and we wanted an excuse to do some digging, researching, and uncovering. And in todays world its ever easier to share oneself with the rest of the world. If you have access to a computer and the internet, you can acquire everything you need to publish your own book, or even movie…

Open Office:
” alt=”Open Office” />

first, lose the old Microsoft Office programs you may be using and download yourself the OpenOffice Suite here. Open office contains a powerpoint type program, an spreadsheet program, but more importantly, a nice MS Word compatable word-processing program. Use this free program to write that amazing book you’ve been putting off…but you’re going to need some images won’t you?

Gimp:
” alt=”The Gimp” />

Next, download Gimp here. Gimp is a great image manipulation program that is extremely versatile and comparable to photoshop, and possibly illustrator. It can save in both raster and vector formats, and I’ve used it to make animated gifs for my own website

Now that you’ve written your book, and created all the images necessary, you’re going to have to put it together in a publishable format…

Scribus:
” alt=”Scribus” />

Now, just download Scribus here. Scribus is an open source free desktop publisher, which helps you layout your book in a nice professional way. I’ve used Scribus to put together a couple of my small comics…One of which is here.
” alt=”Genesis” />
But wait, where are you going to publish this book, and how are you going to get an ISBN and all that stuff?

Lulu:
” alt=”Lulu” />

Lulu is a great way for you to publish that book. It’s an online on-demand publisher that even helps set you up with an official ISBN and barcode for the cover.

Well, now that you’ve written your book, complete with graphics, and published it on Lulu, all that’s left is for everyone to buy it and learn everything you have to offer. Thanks for being so great.

Lucy.

Since I made that wild and ambiguous claim that there was going to be some breakthrough in the science world that would change the way we look at everything, I have been waiting to receive a beacon from NPR or where ever that will blow my mind away. Lucy, that is a pretty amazing find and the video is awesome!
As you may or may not know, I am getting married in 1 day less than a month. I am so excited about the event and my partner, with whom I am about to celebrate my life. The Very Reverend Jorge’ has been so amazing in this process, meeting with us as a true friend, mediator, and relationship councilor. No only is he preparing a beautiful ceremony with us, but he has brought some really important questions to the surface about what our hearts believe, which has allowed her and me (that’s the King’s English believe it or not) to take a step back and really discuss areas of our lives that we have chosen to stuff in a dark corner of our selves. What came out of this, has been an unexpected closeness and a window, if not a door opened, into the emotions of the other person. I feel that I know myself better and my future wife a lot better because of our spiritual catalyst, Jorge’.

In the mean time, the last several weeks have been weeks of sincere enlightenment for me. I have been bombarded with interesting theories, as if I have been given an invisible syllabus to follow from some metaphysical course. I have accepted my determination to understand our existence not only on Earth but also the existence within ourselves and because of this simple pledge to myself, I have been given signs from every direction that this is worth pursuing. The thing is, I don’t intend to be a part of the answer, just a part of the mystery.

The Course all started when I was finally able to procure a copy of The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge. This book is a gem for a student of Anthropology and Biology, both of which I studied extensively in school. Among the amazing conclusions Narby draws that indicate human knowledge was initially attained by cultures entering altered states of consciousness and allowing information to be passed from the one material that binds all life on earth: DNA. This explains how indigenous cultures have been able to survive thousands of years creating complex chemical concoctions from their environment. It also gives examples of how this method of attaining knowledge has transcended cultures across the globe until very recent time.

DNA is a single molecule with a double helix structure; it is two complementary versions of the same “text” wrapped around each other; this allows it to unwind and make copies of itself: twins! This twinning mechanism is at the heart of life since it began. Without it, one cell could not become two, and life would not exist. And, from one generation to the next, the DNA text can also be modified, so it allows both constancy and transformation. This means that beings can be the same and not the same. One of the mysteries is what drives the changes in the DNA text in evolution. DNA has apparently been around for billions of years in its current form in virtually all forms of life. The old theory—random accumulation of errors combined with natural selection—does not fully explain the data currently generated by genome sequencing. The question is wide open.
People spend hours each day thinking non-rationally. Our emotional brain treats all the information we receive before our neo-cortex does. Scientists are forever making discoveries as they daydream, take a bath, go for a run, lay in bed, and so on.
Both shamans and molecular biologists agree that there is a hidden unity under the surface of life’s diversity; both associate this unity with the double helix shape (or two entwined serpents, a twisted ladder, a spiral staircase, two vines wrapped around each other); both consider that one must deal with this level of reality in order to heal. One can fill a book with correspondences between shamanism and molecular biology.
I think we should attend to the words we use. “Consciousness” carries different baggage than “intelligence.” Many would define human consciousness as different from, say, animal consciousness, because humans are conscious of being conscious. But how do we know that dolphins don’t think about being dolphins? I do not know whether there is a “consciousness” inside our cells; for now, the question seems out of reach; we have a hard enough time understanding our own consciousness—though we use it most of the time. I propose the concept of “intelligence” to describe what proteins and cells do, simply because it makes the data more comprehensible. This concept will require at least a decade or two for biologists to consider and test. Then, we might be able to move along and consider the idea of a “cellular consciousness.”

The other point Narby makes, is how both biology and anthropology have reached a fuzzy point in their development where both are afraid and abstain from experimenting with intangible metaphysics. He states that this is where science ends and until we can get off our anthro-centric high horse and sit down with the few of these people that have not been absorbed into the material world, listen to what they have to say as face-value (as opposed to interpretation), we will begin to understand what these cultures have been trying to explain to us since the science of anthropology was developed a few hundred years ago.

More to come next week.

A few weeks ago, I got real stubborn and stamped my feel like a child because I did not want to go to a restaurant that I know serves conventional food and [more than likely] uses hydrogenated oils as the base for their fry grease. So we had that great reunion of friends and I began explaining what hydrogenated oils were, only to realize two things: 1. I did not know exactly what they were, nor how to explain them coherently, and 2. My audience knows me well enough to know when I am bullshitting an answer.
Unfortunately, it was both cases.
It was a New Years resolution of mine to avoid “trans-fats” as much as possible and have been very good about doing so. Along with this, my fiancée and I have stopped shopping at conventional grocery stores, where it is impossible to have a pleasant experience, especially while having to read all the ingredients on the back of over-processed food just to see whether or not they were living up to my new standards. Fortunately, we have a wonderful Co-op right down the street that does significant research into every product they put on their shelves, weeding out the majority of the stuff one doesn’t want in processed and unprocessed food. (I say majority because they do still serve junk food, but it’s Kind Hippy Junk Food. We don’t buy that crap either.

“By our most conservative estimate, replacement of partially hydrogenated fat in the U.S. diet with natural unhydrogenated vegetable oils would prevent approximately 30,000 premature coronary deaths per year, and epidemiologic evidence suggests this number is closer to 100,000 premature deaths annually.”

What this comes down to, is much more than just changing one’s diet to become healthier. What needs to happen in our society if we expect a change, is to dangle our dollars like carrots in front of a burro to guide companies into more responsible practices. Some people claim that companies control the consumers, but on the contrary I believe that if people consistently buy products and support services that are transparent and prove their dedication to health and the environment, global well-being and economic responsibility, companies will listen change. They have to, if they want to survive. For instance, look how many grocery stores now are carrying organic lines than were 5 years ago. Money is the honey and it speaks all languages. A consumer revolution might not be the end-all answer, but it could get us on a more worthy track.

So here is the answer to why this stuff is the devil.
link
link
link
link
link

This may be old news, but in checking out Slingshot’s story from last night, it turns out that the great Mosquito Ringtone story is actually true.

In that old battle of the wills between young people and their keepers, the young have found a new weapon that could change the balance of power on the cellphone front: a ring tone that many adults cannot hear.

The technology, which relies on the fact that most adults gradually lose the ability to hear high-pitched sounds, was developed in Britain but has only recently spread to America — by Internet, of course.

[snip]

The cellphone ring tone was the offshoot of an invention called the Mosquito, developed last year by a Welsh security company to annoy teenagers and gratify adults, not the other way around.

It was marketed as an ultrasonic teenager repellent, an ear-splitting 17-kilohertz buzzer designed to help shopkeepers disperse young people loitering in front of their stores while leaving adults unaffected.

So I can hear it, but I would be very interested to perform my own study with different people on different computers or cell phones. At any rate, this brings up a couple questions for me:

1) Is the technology gap between generations widening at such a pace that could threaten the status quo and bolster Teen Revolt?

2) What else are humans doing with sound frequency that may be less innocent than discouraging loitering teens or sneaking text messages by aged teachers?

Also, I have to say that I’d much rather kids set their ringer to mosquito than have to hear Super Mario Brothers one more time. Not to mention more inappropriate choices.

Ah, for the days of good old-fashioned wholesome ringtones like these:

Licking an Envelope Ringtone—Again, playing on nostalgia, a real tear-tugger for the baby boomers. The lick-lick sound, then the kweek sound of folding the paper over. I can clearly imagine a cell phone ringing and a stranger nearby saying, “God, is someone actually performing that ancient domestic art of licking an envelope?”

The annual Webby Awards were a few days ago. It’s kind of like the Oscars for the Internet and is pretty extensive, though only seems to cover American websites. I really like looking at these sites from a design perspective, not necessarily for what they have to say, but the Remember Segregation site is pretty powerful. I found a few that I thought were interesting, but check out the whole awards site to see the winners. Enjoy.

http://www.remembersegregation.org/

http://www.bigfatinstitute.org/

http://youthink.worldbank.org/

http://www.experiencewonderyou.co.uk/

http://www.bookofcool.com/index_flash_content.htm
http://www.bebopjeans.com/

Jorge couldn’t post yesterday because his computer blew up. Cross your fingers that he is able to retrieve all that stuff.

Keep on, Jorge!

Last weekend, Steven Colbert was asked to speak at the White House Correspondants Dinner, an affair that includes the entire Washington press corps, the Presdient, family, and other influential people. Whoever booked him to speak at the event had either a great sense of humor, or was looking for a way to get fired and wanted to go out with a bang.
He gave an amazing performance– roasting Bush, identifying how rediculous the administration conducts itself, and then turns the speech on various members of the press for not questioning the legitamacy of Bush’s actions. It was a brilliant display of true American free speech, right in front of the Prez (though he did look annoyed during the entire talk) This was broadcasted nationally, if not internationally on Cspan.

However, I find it amazing how little coverage this bold move got from the media, after the fact. There is little, to no ripple when Colbert just laid it out there for the general public to view. Reminds me of the little boy who exclaimed that the emperor had no clothes, except the people look at him and say, “but he said he does! Emperors don’t lie!”

Here’s a video of the performance and an article about the lack of media interest.

ps, you may not be able to watch the video anymore because the powers that be seem to have taken it off the net!

Update check this out. Turns out I wasn’t the only one who noticed it was taken off the internet!

Two interesting conferences/gatherings coming up on opposite ends of the US of A:

HOPE 6: July 21, 22, 23 2006
New York City, NY
Hotel Pennsylvania

“HOPE” stands for “Hackers On Planet Earth” and their conference is once every two years. I went to the last one with my wife and it was the best 50 bucks I ever spent. It all starts Friday evening and goes non-stop, 24-7 till Sunday night. With two main conference rooms and a third for spontaneous events, as well as workshops mixed in wherever there’s carpet space, this conference is a must for anyone interested in computers, phones, technology, and most other things too.

For something completely different:

Feral Visions: August 4th - 13, 2006
Either in Arizona or New Mexico (site still being determined…)

Our goal is to help bring people into a wild environment, to break down mediation between oursleves and our world, and to encourage active participation with it. As in the past, the gathering will provide an introduction to the various strands of anti-civilization thought, as well as being an in-depth forum for discussing and developing theoretical and practical aspects of green anarchy.

Just to add a new twist to the whole Google/Yahoo/China thingy…On Valentine’s Day, the US Secretary of State established a “task force” to protect “internet freedom.”

God bless America! And God bless the Internet! And God bless those who are going to protect the right to free speech in some areas and not in others and so on and so forth….

Love,

Johnny Palmetto

Mind Control may be weirder than you think:

Half of the world’s human population is infected with Toxoplasma. Parasites in the body - and the brain. Remember that. Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite found in the guts of cats; it sheds eggs that are picked up by rats and other animals that are eaten by cats. Toxoplasma forms cysts in the bodies of the intermediate rat hosts, including the brain. Since cats don’t want to eat dead, decaying prey, Toxoplasma takes the evolutionarily sound course of being a “good” parasite, leaving the rats perfectly healthy. Or are they?

Oxford scientists discovered that the minds of the infected rats have been subtly altered. In a series of experiments, they demonstrated that healthy rats will prudently avoid areas that have been doused with cat urine. In fact, when scientists test anti-anxiety drugs on rats, they use a whiff of cat urine to induce neurochemical panic. However, it turns out that Toxoplasma-ridden rats show no such reaction. In fact, some of the infected rats actually seek out the cat urine-marked areas again and again. The parasite alters the mind (and thus the behavior) of the rat for its own benefit.

If the parasite can alter rat behavior, does it have any effect on humans? Dr. E. Fuller Torrey (Associate Director for Laboratory Research at the Stanley Medical Research Institute) noticed links between Toxoplasma and schizophrenia in human beings, approximately three billion of whom are infected with T. gondii

read more

And there’s more news on weather altering science:

If you have ever seen a mysterious ball of lightning chasing a cow or flying through your window during a thunderstorm, take comfort from the fact that you have witnessed a very rare phenomenon. Indeed, ball lightning — a slow-moving ball of light that is occasionally seen at ground level during storms — has puzzled scientists for centuries. Now, however, researchers in Israel have built a system that can create lightning balls in the lab. The work may not only help us to understand ball lightning but could even lead to practical applications that make use of these artificial balls (Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 045002).

read more

Someday the U.S. military could drive a trailer to a spot just beyond insurgent fighting and, within minutes, reconfigure part of the atmosphere, blocking an enemy’s ability to receive satellite signals, even as U.S. troops are able to see into the area with radar.

read more

And see what Wired said about my favorite radio show, Coast to Coast:

An estimated 4.5 million listeners tune in to Coast to Coast each night, reportedly making the show No. 1 in its time slot in cities from Los Angeles to Albuquerque (where it gets a whopping 22 percent of the audience) to San Diego (where it attracts more listeners than the next two most popular stations combined).

One might assume mainstream scientists would steer clear of the show’s guest list of astrologers and psychics. In fact, many gainfully employed scientists and doctors make regular appearances.

Read More

Busy with errands and the kids, Louise needed more room in her vehicle.
Louise says, “Thank God for my forklift. In my Suburban, I had to take multiple trips to get the groceries and drive the kids to soccer practice. Now, I just stack the groceries over the base of the fork, and pile the kids on top. Wow, that thing can carry a lot! And it’s so easy to load. But most importantly, the kids love riding on it, and that’s what counts.”

Today, I thought I’d talk about our “addiction to oil“, and what a ridiculous reality check the Bush administration thought they were giving the American people, like it was some new idea. Since President Carter, every US president has commented at some point that we need to rid our dependence on foreign oil. So why is Bush’s take on our situation so publicized? Perhaps it’s because it was one of the only strong points of his speech.
BUSH: Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.

BUSH:

The best way to break this addiction is through technology. Since 2001, we have spent nearly $10 billion to develop cleaner, cheaper and more reliable alternative energy sources. And we are on the threshold of incredible advances.
So tonight I announce the Advanced Energy Initiative — a 22 percent increase in clean-energy research at the Department of Energy to push for breakthroughs in two vital areas. To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants; revolutionary solar and wind technologies; and clean, safe nuclear energy.

(APPLAUSE)

BUSH: We must also change how we power our automobiles. We will increase our research in better batteries for hybrid and electric cars and in pollution-free cars that run on hydrogen. We will also fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn but from wood chips and stalks or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years.

(APPLAUSE)

BUSH: Breakthroughs on this and other new technologies will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum- based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past.

Ugh, I can actually hear him talking in my head! When Capt. Obvious stated what his plan was to rid our dependence on foreign oil, there was an instant outcry from the Saudis. The Administration has spent the last few days assuring the Royal family that he “didn’t mean it.”

What I’m getting at, is that we can’t sit and wait for our government to introduce new energy-saving strategies and incentives. Oil is just too profitable right now, and the companies are even admitting it. If you want to make a difference, instead of waiting for the tax credit, do it now. As far as fuel goes, Biodiesel isn’t the final answer but it is slowly bringing awareness to the public of their options. Besides lowering particulate emissions, purchasing biodiesel/biofuel is currently helping local economies as it is not yet made on a national scale.
I believe we are the generation of change. It is up to us to make the difference that our world is pleading for right now. I honestly believe that if other countries saw a peaceful revolution kindling among America’s energetic and unbelievably creative youth, any support they expressed would catalyze a positive change in our country.
This brings me to my next topic: Buying Local, Eating Local, but that will have to wait until next week

6 Feb 2056 - Now that all the fossil fuels are definitely gone for good, get used to seeing more of these, our clean and cheap energy future!

Fortunately, our Chairman at Sky WindPower, Australian Professor Bryan Roberts has long been aware of the wind facts and material improvement trends, and convinced that, by application of an appropriate technology, this high altitude wind energy can be captured. He set out to prove that long ago, and has demonstrated that Flying Electric Generator(FEG) technology is practical and should work at high altitudes. This is the “Flying Windmills” technology you may have read about first in the Canadian “National Post”, and since then in major newspapers overseas and many U.S. publications other than newspapers.

[via]

When I was 5 years old I devised the idea of Eugenics to deal with the hungry and poor of Ethiopia. Luckily my mom told me that idea was horrible (hey, I was a kid, what did I know). In high school, I came up with an idea of government that my friend told me already existed: Communism. Now I’m older and I have better ideas, but they always seem to have already been done or invented. Here’s two of my original ideas that turns our are already being done. One new, one old:

Floating Island:

Since there are no parcels in the ocean, one could theoretically live on a boat. And if that boat had soil to grow food, one would never have to buy food. Combine this with the idea that many people throughout the world pay good money to visit beaches on tropical islands, and you come to the conclusion that Living on a floating island is the best idea in the world. I imagined that you’d have to grow it out of some type of moss, like how bogs are formed, then slowly add soil, beach grasses and then eventually to fruit trees. Swing up a hammock, bring a couple of squirrels aboard to continue the meat supply, and voila, permanent vacation. Or you could do it this way:

this man, Reishee Sowa of Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, apparently grew tired of trying to live self-sufficiently on dry land, and did what any of us would have done. He built his own island out of used pop bottles. 250,000 of them, plus some construction leftovers and bags of leaves, make up “his island,” though he’s quick to point out that it’s technically not an island by traditional standards.

read more . . . and more

Or this one:

The Floating Islands of Uros are made from the Totora reed. These reeds are stacked one on top of the other until there is a platform. People live on these island as they float around hunting for fish, birds and more Totora reeds. Well at least that is the way it used to be. Today people still live on these islands, but tourism is the main source of livelihood. Even though the islands are very touristy, I still recommend a visit to them.

read more . . . and more

Geodesic Tree House:

Looking up on my friend’s property one day, I noticed that the trees in his yard soared upwards to about 5 or 6 times taller than his house. “All that wasted space,” I thought. “Wouldn’t it be better if we lived in the trees?” Then I realized that columns we use to build our houses are made out of dead trees cut into teeny weeny pieces. Think of how useful an alive tree would be as a column. Then I thought that using geodesics to build in trees would free you from the 90 degree constraints of modern building: geodesics would fully utilize the 3D arena of tree dwelling. As I designed and crafted a couple versions of my idea, I found these:

Mitchell Joachim, part of the MIT Media Lab’s Smart Cities Group, along with ecological engineer Lara Greden and architect Javier Arbona, propose a home that is actually an ecosystem.
The Fab Tree Hab goes beyond sustainable housing and so-called green design — building with materials that have a low impact on the environment and human health.

read more

So that’s it. I’m not telling any more people any of my ideas until I actually get to finish one.

There have been a lot of crappy movies gracing our theaters lately. Big budgets and crafty hype have slapped out McDonalds-style flicks that do nothing to the moviegoer, except maybe a mild headache from the MTV jerky camera and lightning scene sequences that are nothing more than a desperate attempt to keep the viewer from realizing how crappy the plots and acting really are. Whew!
I enjoy going to a theater and looking at the expressions old people make when they are zapped with pop camera angles and impossible stunts. Some are desensitized to it by now (because all they do is watch TV), but then there are those with less faculties who catch only a percentage of what is actually fluttering in front of them. Those are the ones to watch! It reminds me of that scene in A Clockwork Orange where the ministry is attempting to cleanse Alex’s nihilistic habits. They clip open his eyelids so he cannot refuse to watch the horror in front of him. Yeah, I can’t put eyedrops in my eyes because of this traumatic scene.

I degress. So as my entree for the week, I shall introduce a handfull of upcoming films that seem worth the dollar they will cost at the dollar theater in H-ville. (which just opened by the way) Enjoy!

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

Hoot

Thank You for Smoking

Apocalypto

End of the Spear

And a last one for Jorge

Dear Once-a-Day Readers:

Google is fighting the department of justice. Good for them. The Department of Justice says they need to investigate Google searches in order to fight child porn. Hmmm…I kinda sort of doubt that.

Note that Yahoo complied.

Yet another reason why Google is google-icious.

Love,

Johnny Palmetto

PS: How long do you think they’ll be able to hold off Bush and Company?