Manifold: Insight

So, after putting hours into reading Stephen Baxter’s Manifold series I’ve tried to apply many of his concepts to our economic situation. Obviously we haven’t encountered an alien species that destroys our rooted ideas of keeping track of history, or giving up on R&D into continued technological advancement. Sometimes I wish those aliens would just show up. Give us a little push forward.
While crawling my RSS feeds and the New Scientist it is obvious there is not any hint of invention or innovation disappearing anytime soon. Instead I see a lack of moving beyond the first stages and pushing their ideas out into a practical use for industries.
I guess I just wish I read about more Malenfant’s and Paulis’ in our society. I admire the ideology of being not concerned on the small details and making sure that every aspect is new and expensive when designing plans to utilize resources from space.
“If it gets the job done then use it.”
Their engineering and business perspective of utilizing the information available and making the best decision possible instead of straining away for years and years just to specialize on some unoccupied technological problem. That is what we need more of.
Hold on. Let me taking a step back here and provide some context to this.
Hypothetical thought question:
Objective is to acquire resources/energy from the moon.
Is it more important to focus on the acquirement technologies needed or the transportation of these.
I know little or next to nothing on running a business, but I’d put my time and energy to acquirement. Let’s find that ability to earn a projected profit before the cost of transportation occurs.
If you mine a single carbonaceous asteroid you would literally change the global economy once your first shipment arrived.

To me this is where Baxter’s excellent ideas of the foreseeable future really hit hard to heart and mind. If I had a million dollars, I’d spend all my time connecting unconnected dots in what could become more efficient for humankind over vast sections of time and space.

Now to continue last minute shopping for more things to place on my tables.

Dinosaurs in Rocketships Series: Part 1.

Today's tables rarely have drawers

Materialism is a dominant paradigm.

More stuff means more storage.
Yet, today's tables rarely have drawers.
A Materialistic Monetary System requires competition.
"Look at all my stuff!"


Wouldn't it be nice if all our table had drawers?

Discovering Cars, Ships and Rough Times.

Notice any of this lately?

Majority of the time a Television Channel plays a show dealing with cars, from Top Gear to a Discovery Channel late night special called Ultimate Cars, the commercials have a higher rate of economic middle class geared advertisements on… well obviously, Cars.

Advertising. Bullshit Merchants everywhere, thank you for spur of an idea.Soft Targets – follow a routine day to day and are unaware of their surroundings.

No longer a soft target, aiming to be a hard target. This is a new achievable goal since the no car is needed.

Yet the fact is that Canada needs cars, its how we get around this vast and various landscape. There is such a variety of choices when buying a car, from brand spanking new swank vehicles from the dealer to old POS ones off of craigslist. The fact that it seems to be respectable to slowly introduce model after model of a more efficient car that reduces the transportation carbon imprint.

Alas, there is little coverage of the fact that ocean cruise ships consume 37.4 or 57.5 MPG on average and admittedly I’ll just have to assume that there are some that consume less and are more efficient, but there is no common forced information available. And with more and more MegaShips coming along. Ports being expand, more trucks and cranes needed, how are these being advanced? I'm unsure if they even come out with new models every 3 quarters or what.

The probability that we even come close to changing these things soon is low. Unless of coarse that shift in events finally comes to pass where the history books will tell of catastrophe times and hardships that spark that new path where the young and vital will take their abilities and work as individuals within their immediate social environments to better the whole by individual contributions that emerge as a new era.

The Venus Project needs a push that may not be all that positive.

The Naked Sun is Always Brighter in Space

Just finished reading The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov . Amazed and delighted again by the story that was revealed. The truth behind many of the ideas were well thought out and influential into many other emergent thoughts that have been implemented in my mind over the last few years.There was a speech at the end of the novel that seemed to enforce so many things about human behavior that is cumulating recently. It was stated thusly.

“We are better suited than they [the Spacers] for exploration and colonization. We have population pressures [and environmental resource pressures] to push us and a sapid turnover of generation to keep us supplied with the young and reckless.”

This seems to be a point that is missed in the current ideas of space exploration. It shall take generations and small steps for it to occur. There is a BBC Horizon Documentary called Moon For Sale which hints at the goals of some countries exploration and exploitation of the closet space rock we can get to. There is the potential that Helium 3 can provided an abundant source of energy through nuclear fusion for earth and future space endeavors.

This may all seem to be a sci-fi fans wish come true. And it is. Aren’t most scientists as children enthralled by some sort of science fiction, be it Star Trek, Asimov, or some other form. They take this childish dreams and fantasies and while there are formally specialized to their field and careers by contemporary education systems they can combine their factually knowledge with their inspirations and dreams.

The Venus Project which I’ve been looking into lately also seems to be a collection of many innovative theorists ideas molded together to forge a new society where labor, money, and suffering can be eliminated for the benefit of humankind.

I’ve heard that we shouldn’t be worrying about space until we can handle our own affairs here on earth. This seems to be a little ignorant of the fact that we as individuals are becoming more accustomed to multi-tasking. Our societies, establishments, and governments have been multi-tasking for decades now. From the Kublai Kahn admitting his faults in knowledge and asking professional consultants for advise on how to mange the whole of Asia during his reign to NASA manning mission to the moon while world politics still continued on with the economy, social ramifications, industry becoming more productive while cutting out the human factor of labor.

If we can combine both a perspective that unites the scientific and technological advances that will come from human ingenuity in dealing with arising problems in space, these in turn may be applied to situations on earth. The wind always ends up blowing both ways.

Are there any Buddhist Olympians?

So, here and there I was. Arrival home at 9pm and a need for some food. Sitting around the table eating left over rice. Some excellent Thai sweet chili sauce as the topping of choice and for the sit down. On the television was the Olympics, but of coarse, what else would be on a TV with only 36 channels on a Wednesday night.

Swimming was the main event on, with your corporate ads on in between, Canadian updates on how shitty our Olympians are doing, and back to that American’s run for 8 gold medals and his sponsor’s bonus that will follow.


This is where a thought occurred to me. Which isn’t rare, but came to become stuck in mind.

Oh, how the Olympics have become such a sham and elaboration on country propaganda, hiding the true effects that occurred from the mere presence of the event. All mostly ignored in the mainstream media coverage. The negative impacts won’t be reported on until at least a week has passed after the final ceremony.

Hell, currently all I hear is hearsay and rumors, but if even a portions of those are true, or even if many more horrible things are occurring, then why isn’t it seen in the media. CBC, ABC, Global, CanWest, they all push there own image and the talk over dinner relates to the number of medals, the sponsors, the countries, the muscles, the skill, the equipment, the player’s, etcetera, etcetera.

So, I guess my end point boils down to just more questions. Why do we even have the Olympics still continue on with its farce of an existence? Out of tradition? Out of hope? Or still out of that capacity for humans to compete, individually as much as groups, to be declared the best of the best?

Movable Workforces.

Today I heard The Honorable Jean Charest, the Premier of Quebec, speak a little news blurb on CTV after the Premiers all gathered in Quebec City and had discussed the various business and public agendas of the topics at hand. For majority of the issues they seemed to be pulled together and agreed with each other on what direction is to be taken, oh but wait. There is a conflict that arises among them. Climate change. Of coarse, the most up front ‘green’ issue that is present in today’s collective mind happens to be the one where directions are differed.
Yet, an excellent point was made in that blurb, almost in an irrelevant passing. He mentions the workforce and that citizens should “fulfill their lives to very meaningful work.” He points to the ability to move around to where work is needs to be simplified Federally, for it takes 13 municipal, provincial and federal permits for one to be an undertaker.

On the other end of the spectrum though, the Supreme Court has found that companies can enforce mandatory retirement as long as an adequate pension plan is supplied. So it stands that those who are more than willing to “fulfill their lives to very meaningful work” and continue on past their healthy 65 to add into their pension simply can do it at a new job.

Adventures in Yellowstone

Two days of driving lead up to a late arrival and adhered to surprisingly amazing scenes of sights. The eyes were tired and working forward towards that first state of relaxation. The Interagency Annual Pass seemed like an exploitable option to insure easy access to many Federal recreational lands along the way. After a climbing exposé through a valley and a stop river side to relieve the bladder with a picturesque shot awaiting, we came upon a group of fascinating specimens.

They were at first what seemed typical. A group of peds (pedestrians) standing alongside a narrow road with potential death all around. They were gathered like a lazy pack of dogs curious about some mangy new ball standing surprised and oblivious to the obvious danger that they have put themselves in. Then as we progressed my first interpretation became skewed. There was an obvious alpha male present. He was clearly marked out in a large green suit that matched his size and a brown top with a yellow crest. He was barking orders and the males took they mates close and gathered in the children. The whole excitement had to do with a grizzly bear wandering along the cliff meadow and looking confused himself in what is causing the excitement. Luckily we quickly passed and moved on towards Mammoth hot springs.

Arrival and camp setup passed. Wandering around our surroundings we found a hill and decided to stop for a well deserved puff as the sun settled. As always the mind sorted and explored and topics came to mind.

Ecology of the experience is what seemed to hit first. The drastic nature is obviously abundant here. Hell, life has been theorized to start in similar environments as the hot springs and sprung forth the diversity that is present today. No wonder this place is America’s summer hot spot for vacationer’s. The question that obviously must be put forth in this scuppy (socially constious yuppy) age is; how do we save this from our pollutants and climate change? Well, my view simply is, we can’t. So enjoy it while you can and soak it up. Find a way to adjust and live in a new environment. Because 50 years from now it will not be the same.

The debate about first nations, indians, or natives that first inhabitated this wonderful variety of landscapes. Tribes or bands? Both? A book came to provide the answers.

When morning came a more American experience could not be had been ever anticipated. While making the morning cup of coffee, it became noticed that a family of bison were wandering through the sites towards the river. With a 5 meter experience of a bull then his wives coming through our vicinity was unexpected. They passed on by for their morning drink.

The morning passed then by traveling towards a goal, again which came to be different then first planned. As most things are and end up being. Seeing obsidian cliffs, Roaring Mountain, going through Dunraven Pass towards Mount Washburn where snow still is present along the road on these summer days. The falls for lunch worked soothingly as the water carved slowly new pillars that will be gazed upon long after the river dries out.

The afternoon. It came suddenly and with a full force of nature and man kicking it lightly. Lamar Valley showed that a more American landscape could not be anywhere else, and if it was it still could probably not even compare. With Specimen Ridge and Mount Washburn in view to the southwest , and Druid Peak and Mount Norris to the east. As the walk started, we could see ahead between two hills a bison walking, which we assumed was back to the heard we had seen a few miles down the river. Over a hill and towards a nice packet of Trembling Aspen and Black Cottonwoods large boulders stuck out like pinch of nuts placed on top of a sundae. We sat on one. With harmonica and guitar in hand we jammed for the Yellowbelly Marmots. They seemed to be using the boulders as lookout points for their dens and they came to squeak along to the songs.
During a little reflective time having a Marlboro Light, I came to notice a creature coming up the creek towards us. It seemed like a coyote to me at first, as it came closer into view it was too large, maybe that man’s dog even though they were at least a mile apart. Then we chatted and it went out of view. Minutes passed and then it was trotting up the hill, it followed the crest walking slower, it stopped and looked at us standing upon the rock. It then was obvious, this was a Grey Wolf. It then must have been one of the 170 that were reintroduced into this territory as a effort to balance the ecosystem. Which I have learned that is working in more surprising ways then ever. The presence of the wolves are now keeping the deer and elk population in check, this then provides the riparian (river) species of trees more chances for their saplings to grow and provides more root systems to keep the rivers and creeks from washing out. This single wolf can be another symbol and meaning of how the top predators keep so many things in balance and how the systems work together to provide a balance. The politics of lifeform’s come to equal agreements a lot more efficiently then any modern human society ever could.

After this we walked back. Then the double shot of nature and luck showed its head again. We walk towards the car and see this all American man in front of his Ford 350 with a camo baseball cap and ‘field glasses’ aka. Binoculars staring up to the area where we just left.

He says, “You boys see that grizzly up there?”
“Nope, just was there for 2 hours and saw a wolf but no grizzly.”
“You were just up there? You boys are lucky, he is a big one and was heading right in your direction.”
“Whoa, lucky then we left when we did, being only armed with a guitar and harmonica.”

Then up pulls a Park Ranger and looks to be searching for something. He asked us if we saw anyone collecting petrified redwoods, maples, oaks, or sycamores. Those rangers do like to point out all the information they know. We didn’t see such a thing and Dom even showed him the guitar case only held beautiful shaped musical wood and strings. While this conversation ensued, up comes a mangy canine that provided even more proof that the Grey Wolf was just that. A coyote with a light brown coat and patches of loose fur from still shedding its winter wear just strolled up and picked around the fire pit and then walked by ignoring the group of men standing beside their motorized carriages.

We left the valley and continued on by Blacktail Deer Plateau to Mammoth Hot Springs. In light of a drunken viewing of Bill Nye while in Las Vegas I’ve opted to leave the Hot Springs for a separate article.

A late dinner was needed after the Hot Springs, Sheepeater Cliff seemed the perfect spot. A single fat marmot to keep us entertained and the camp stove providing the chili cheesiness that came from it.

The evening proved to be the pinnacle of the day. We returned to the site of Indian Creek. Went again for a walk and a puff. We followed the creek till we came to a nice fallen tree with a view of another family of bison, a bull and 3 sows and one calf. They grazed to a settling sun and we puffed, jammed, and relaxed. Then we walked along the river. Seeing a new set of bison, one male and two females (which I believe are the one and the same from the morning). We sat and enjoyed this truly Marlboro Country.

Then it came. Like Animal Planet was LIVE before our eyes. A youthful large Grizzly came into sight. He walked along the meadows on the hill across the creek from us. He never really paid us attention the whole time. He walked slowly, constantly stopping and looking northeast, then down, maybe following something. An interesting happened with the bison, then noticed the Grizzly when it was about a klick or two from them. The lifted their heads in the act of sniffing. Then they gathered in a little patch of Gambel Oaks and stood quietly as the Grizzly walked by. We kept following. We had to. It came to a edge of trees and stopped. It looked at the trees pondering. Which one? That’s what it was thinking. Then it picked it. It stood up and backed up to it. This scratch was a long day coming. It scratched till it was satisfied and went down, marked that tree with a piss and continued on. It wandered along the tree edge and we came upon a RV trailer site with your southern looking pack getting excited about the site of the Grizzly.

We decided to turn back and head home to leave the pack and Grizzly to continue on with their own separate nights, in where we sat around the fire, ate hot dogs, and stared at the stars that cracked the sky.

That was one of our days in Yellowstone.

Guerrilla marketing at its finest. $50,000 neg.

Salutations,

As a university student in Vancouver looking to help sustain my education, I've decided to go ahead and sell my self off.

I am offering a lifetime advertising opportunity and a great way to build brand recognition and word of mouth. This opportunity can provide a less conventional media mode to be explored and add to your brand awareness.

The whole space on my bottom left leg, from knee to ankle, is open as advertising space for a company to use by tattooing their logo and designed images related to their brand. A URL address can also make for an easy leg band.

I am willing to work with marketing department to help design a slick looking piece for my leg that both looks great and provides bright colors patterns that draw attention. Shorts are worn often, and public transportation is used daily, therefore allowing many viewings a day to occur.

As well, there are potential media contacts on the web and locally available for publicity.

If interested or have any questions, please email me for inquiry.
Alexander Lee
conscientious_lee@hotmail.com

Morality written on the arm.

Sitting in this place, this time, this reflection. Looking into the ink that was chosen. It becomes clear and concise on the past effecting the present. The image and meaning were chosen from a sense of loathing, hatred and utter despite. The now calls a new meaning upon that image and its perceived personality and direction it shows. Forewarning message for morality and sense of duty towards that which is believed to be just. Frameworks of ethics are still only a vague impression from the ideological memes of contact. Does the meaningful Godish guideline image have any precedence on the soul?

Militant Haloesque and MaidBots?

Measure of power is that by how many people you can make work for you.
That was then.
Now not so much.
How many peoples life's you can crush and the amount of production that you control, regardless of what that production entails seems more industrially appropriate.
Better than bad, good = no production costs that still brings out a profit. All economy for dummies know this, even their friends.
Digital bubbles form, creating digital money, transferred across a sea of informational servers and protected firewall barriers. That was only the beginning.
Forgetting it without people, that's never a good thing.
Manufactured machines, bacterial food production plants, cloned pets, designer babies, and MaidBots with optional SexSlave2.8 programming and parts.

Too far ahead, step back a moment, before Halo became real.
Universal political action anywhere nearer then before? Aren’t we supposed to be globally connected?
Connected to whom and for what again?
Purposes and motivations are relevant.
Conclusion, measure of power is how many networks you control, both the analog and digital.

Directionality of choice.

I personally feel that modern technology has, and is, an extremely large effect on our brains. From the individual influences of searching the internet for personal interests, to the global society and the new geometry of power that is present throughout all global networks.

Information technologies are an advancing field with new aspects emerging every day. This has caused the choices that we are thrown into to go up exponentially, no other generation before us has had to deal with such a thing. A new form of global civil society is allowing people to become self organized around the world, for both the good and the bad. A new creative class has been created and jobs in digital manipulation is another growing field.

On the individual cognitive level, many new forms and patterns are being seen. One is the new way we handle and store our information. There is less emphasis in knowing all the details, there is always Google and spell check to back you up. A holistic view is becoming more and more present in western thought as the internet gives a first hand experience of the complex connections between ideas and people through out space and time.

I was once told that the best thing to emerge out of the internet is the ability to acquire information, theory's, and conclusions that can take lifetimes to gather the data and ponder over. Once someone has presented their thoughts to a digital medium it can last as long as the satellites keep orbiting.

Then there is the biotechnologies that are creating more cures, more options, and more issues then the legal policies can keep up with. It can make the head spin sometimes.
As individuals we now have access to the evolution of the universe. The future direction of this evolution depends on the choices we, as individuals, communities, and the collective whole, are going to have to make and are making every day.

Lust and Love seeping from the pores.

There are always those girls/guys on the bus, you all know what I mean, the ones that allow you to create and imagine a whole communication and relationship in that single blink of an eye. The tender moments, the rough lust, the expression of their inner thoughts and motives that make your existence pure and unique. HA! Yet, there is no resilience in those eyes.

Quite an odd time within eyes that glitter whenever the topics of controversy are raised and heated opinions arise. Taking this and using it to one's own advantage. The how to is curious?

"The particular behavior that an animal might learn is not the direct product of natural selection, but an appreciation of natural selection and the species' evolutionary history is critical none the less. The goal in an evolutionary approach to animal learning is to understand how natural selection has shaped the mechanisms by which the animal processes information from experience and files memory adaptively. We should expect species-specific biases and limitations that reflect the species' evolutionary history. " - Animal Cognition in Nature The Convergence of Psychology and Biology in Laboratory and Field 1998, Pages 411-434

What you say during an election is not legally binding.

Leadership is that step above meditation. Similarly using the same methods. Turning the inward attention outwards and actively shaping the collective attention, to a tune which is deemed important by the leader. His aims towards the control and influence upon the publics lifestyles.

Within this broad political landscape we have become expectant that those that assume the role of representation have our best interests involved. Truthfully though, how many genuine philanthropists are actually out there, let alone running for office. Going forward with regulated eyes towards the forces of intrinsic dignity and nobility (not in the blood sense) is lacking within this society, maybe all western and developed societies.

There are a few who campaign for the betterment of all, those leaders maybe are on the right path, but what they follow and establish is only just still their beliefs, their map of their goals. A map though is not really how things are, the only true exact map is the 'plane' which it is based off.

Take this graph for example.

Focused on A and B (like the skeptics of global warming's existence most often do) it seems that natural and anthropogenic factors as individuals do not explain the results we are experiencing within the global climate. Yet when one blends the two together the points seem to connect. For another clear example check out the Inconvinent Truth, it may be political but damn Gore has some good focused issues that he tends to shape quite well collectively. Or in hindsight, it was that he realized what the collective focus was and fed upon that to utilize the populations attention.

It is more definitive. But again, only a map. Professionals within all the diverse topics involved admit that there is still much missing from the overall picture. That is because the full picture is truly not attainable. The main objective should be to the effects of choosing a direction that we are going to take and follow through with it. As long as we are attempting something full of dignity and nobility.

"Head up my boy, Look forward."

The Wilmot Clan Loves Dildos

The world seems to be getting smaller and more interesting every day. As an English student, I have the lovely honour of sitting in a small classroom in the basement of a building built around the turn of the 19th century...chalk board and drafty windows still intact. This would be the site of the 4th year seminar I must endure every Friday at the ungodly early hour of 9:30am.

Anyway, we were all discussing the Earl of Rochester's satiric poem, "Satyr Against Reason and Mankind", when out of the blue a friend of mine exclaimed "Oh yeah! I'm related to him!". This sparked a lengthy debate as to the validity of such a claim...but as Brandon explained his impressive lineage, I became convinced that he was telling the truth. Imagine! A descendant to the Earl of Rochester!

For all those who don't know this historically quirky courtier, here is a brief synopsis: He was thrown out of the English court a number of times in the late 17th and early 18th century, yet was always ushered back in since he was oh! so charming and charismatic. He was notoriously promiscuous, a regular Casanova of his time, bedding both men and women (he was a nobleman after all). His poems were as expressive and quirky as his antics in court, and he was quite outspoken with issues relating to religion, literature (pose), mankind's place in the universe, government, and of course...sex. One poem in particular, entitled "Signor Dildo" was first written in 1673, and published in 1703. I have copied it here for your enjoyment:

Signior Dildo
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester
Edited by Jack Lynch

You Ladyes all of Merry England
Who have been to kisse the Dutchesse's hand,
Pray did you lately observe in the Show
A Noble Italian call'd Signior Dildo?
The Signior was one of her Highness's Train [5]
And helpt to Conduct her over the Main,
But now she Crys out to the Duke I will go,
I have no more need for Seignior Dildo.
At the Signe of the Crosse in Saint James's Street,
When next you go thither to make your Selfes Sweet, [10]
By Buying of Powder, Gloves, Essence, or Soe
You may Chance get a Sight of Signior Dildo.
You'l take him at first for no Person of Note
Because he appears in a plain Leather Coat:
But when you his virtuous Abilities know [15]
You'll fall down and Worship Signior Dildo.
My Lady Southesk, Heav'ns prosper her for't,
First Cloath'd him in Satten, then brought him to Court;
But his Head in the Circle, he Scarcely durst Show,
So modest a Youth was Signior Dildo. [20]
The good Lady Suffolk thinking no harm,
Had got this poor Stranger hid under her Arm:
Lady Betty by Chance came the Secret to know,
And from her own Mother, Stole Signior Dildo:
The Countesse of Falmouth, of whom People tell [25]
Her Footmen wear Shirts of a Guinea an Ell:
Might Save the Expence, if she did but know
How Lusty a Swinger is Signior Dildo.
By the Help of this Gallant the Countesse of Rafe
Against the feirce Harris preserv'd her Self Safe: [30]
She Stifl'd him almost beneath her Pillow,
So Closely she imbrac'd Signior Dildo.
Our dainty fine Dutchesse's have got a Trick
To Doat on a Fool, for the Sake of his Prick,
The Fopps were undone, did their Graces but know [35]
The Discretion and vigor of Signior Dildo.
That Pattern of Virtue, her Grace of Cleaveland,
Has Swallow'd more Pricks, then the Ocean has Sand,
But by Rubbing and Scrubbing, so large it do's grow,
It is fit for just nothing but Signior Dildo. [40]
The Dutchesse of Modena, tho' she looks high,
With such a Gallant is contented to Lye:
And for fear the English her Secrets shou'd know,
For a Gentleman Usher took Signior Dildo.
The countess of the Cockpit (who knows not her Name) [45]
She's famous in Story, for a Killing Dame:
When all her old Lovers forsake her I Trow
She'l then be contented with Signior Dildo.
Red Howard, Red Sheldon, and Temple so tall
Complain of his absence so long from Whitehall: [50]
Signior Barnard has promis'd a Journy to goe,
And bring back his Countryman Signior Dildo.
Doll Howard no longer with his Highness must Range,
And therefore is profer'd this Civill Exchange:
Her Teeth being rotten, she Smells best below, [55]
And needs must be fitted for Signior Dildo.
St Albans with Wrinkles and Smiles in his Face
Whose kindnesse to Strangers, becomes his high Place,
In his Coach and Six Horses is gone to Pergo,
To take the fresh Air with Signior Dildo. [60]
Were this Signior but known to the Citizen Fopps
He'd keep their fine Wives from the Foremen of Shops,
But the Rascalls deserve their Horns shou'd Still grow,
For Burning the Pope, and his Nephew Dildo.
Tom Killigrews wife, North Hollands fine Flower, [65]
At the Sight of this Signior, did fart, and Belch Sow'r,
And her Dutch Breeding farther to Show,
Says welcome to England, myn Heer Van Dildo.
He civilly came to the Cockpitt one night,
And profer'd his Service to fair Madam Knight, [70]
Quoth she, I intrigue with Captain Cazzo
Your Nose in myne Arse good Seignior Dildo.
This Signior is sound, safe, ready, and Dumb,
As ever was Candle, Carret, or Thumb:
Then away with these nasty devices, and Show [75]
How you rate the just merits of Signior Dildo.
Count Cazzo who carryes his Nose very high,
In Passion he Swore, his Rivall shou'd Dye,
Then Shutt up himself, to let the world know,
Flesh and Blood cou'd not bear it from Signior Dildo. [80]
A Rabble of Pricks, who were welcome before,
Now finding the Porter deny'd 'em the Door,
Maliciously waited his coming below,
And inhumanely fell on Signior Dildo.
Nigh weary'd out, the poor Stranger did fly [85]
And along the Pallmall, they follow'd full Cry,
The Women concern'd from every Window,
Cry'd, Oh! for Heavn's sake save Signior Dildo.
The good Lady Sandys, burst into a Laughter
To see how the Ballocks came wobbling after, [90]
And had not their weight retarded the Fo
Indeed 't had gone hard with Signior Dildo.

Notes:

Train - "Entourage."
Soe - "So," "such."
Virtuous - "Powerful." Medicines in particular were noted for their virtues (powers).
Guinea an Ell - Guinea, twenty-one shillings (or one pound and one shilling); an ell is forty-five inches. Fabric that cost a guinea an ell would be fabulously expensive.
Gallant - "1. A gay, sprightly, airy, splendid man; 2. A whoremaster, who caresses women to debauch them" (Johnson).
Cazzo - Italian for "prick."
Pallmall - Pall Mall, a fashionable walk in london.

References:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/dildo.html
Seminar invigilated by Dr. Julie Park, McMaster University, 8 Feb. 2008

- Sara Law

Shamanism, Sacred Plants, and Altered States of Consciousness.

Essay for Anthropology of Religion

Shamanism has been around for millennia and is currently experiencing a resurgence in modern Western societies. Often known to us ‘civilized ones’ as ‘witch-doctors’ and ‘medicine-men’; in anthropological terms, a shaman is a religious specialist that deals directly with the supernatural or the transcendent present. Doing this involves the shaman going through a state of trance to reach the altered state of consciousness necessary to meet with the supernatural. Although there are many catalysts and tools that may be used to achieve trance, such as drumming, dancing, fasting, meditation and sensory deprivation; one ancient tool that is sometimes perhaps underrated and underappreciated in their importance to certain shamans and whole societies, are the sacred psychoactive plants.

Firstly, it is important to understand exactly what shamanism is and the role a shaman plays in their societies. The term shaman (usually pronounced SHAW-MEN) derives from the Tungus speaking people of Siberia, where shamanism had been first encountered and documented in modern times. Although there is significant evidence that shamanism has existed for millennia and has been found in many cultures and societies all over the world. A shaman is a type of specialist, usually in smaller-scale societies, who unlike priests and clerics who serve as intermediaries or middle-men between the laity and the supernatural having direct contact with the transcendent present. Shamanism usually encompasses multiple functions such as healing, illnesses, divination and clairvoyance; such as the power to see into the future and retrieve answers about future events; influencing natural events such as the weather and also causing illnesses to others, more commonly referred to as sorcery. Shamans are usually male, but there are also known female shamans. Typically, the position of a shaman is inherited, but there are also individuals who have received a calling to become one, depending on the specific culture.

In engaging in the supernatural realm, the shaman goes between what the anthropologist and great authority on shamanism, Micheal Harner, calls an 'ordinary state of consciousness' and a 'shamanic state of consciousness'[1]. The famous writer, Carlos Castaneda, would also similarly distinguish this as a move from 'ordinary reality' to 'non-ordinary reality' [2]. In more mainstream anthropological terms, this could be understood by the transfer between the world of humans and the transcendent present. The shaman enters a trance which gives them the essential altered state of consciousness needed for them to conduct their work. Unlike the controlled forms of altered states accessed through meditative acts and yoga in the Hindu and Buddhist religions, shamanic trance is considered an uncontrolled altered state of consciousness in that it is not as manually accessed through meditation and through concentration of one’s breath, but usually involves an external tool such as drumming or repetitious music which then produces trance that is sometimes seen as possession as an outside spirit or forces may be involved.

One of the most ancient methods of altering consciousness among shamans and the human race in general has been through the use of psychoactive plants. Psychoactive meaning that it contains certain chemical substances or 'drugs' that can alter ones consciousness upon ingestion. This method seems to make sense as for millennia; humans lived as one with natural world, particularly among hunter-gatherer societies. In Siberia, home of "classic" shamanism, there has been a close relationship between the psychoactive fly-agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria), shamans and peoples of the Koryak, Ostyak and Kamachadal tribes among others [3].

Among the Koryak, before conducting their séances, shamans eat fly-agaric to get into a state of ecstasy, where the senses become deranged, objects change in size and visions involving entities are experienced. To prolong this state, more fly-agaric is consumed and even the urine of those intoxicated on the mushroom is saved and drank. In this powerful state of trance, shamans typically encounter spirit entities that may help them heal other members of the community, teach them certain knowledge and to communicate with spirits of the dead. For the Bwiti, a tribe located in Gabon, in Western Africa, their plant sacrament ibogaine ( Tabernanthe iboga) is more than just a tool of the shaman, it is a super-conscious entity that guides all mankind. Iboga is not just restricted to their shaman, but is of importance to their whole community. The Bwiti believe that before one is initiated into an iboga ceremony, they are nothing and that only through contact with the spirit of iboga through initiation, do they become something. Once initiated, one becomes a baanzi, one who knows the 'other world'. Recent research on ibogaine has proven to be very effective in treating drug addictions and alcoholism.

In the rainforests of the Upper Amazon in South America, the strongly psychoactive brew made from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and other plants, is central in shamanic practices and lives of aboriginal Indian tribes of the area. The brew, commonly known as yagé or ayahuasca ("vine of the dead" in Quecha, pronounced AYA-WASKA), combines the Banisteriopsis vine, which contains the psychoactive beta-carbolines harmine and harmaline and other species of plants, usually psychotria viridis or chakruna which contain what is considered one of the most powerful psychoactive substances, DMT ( N, N-dimethyltryptamine) [4]. DMT is also thought to be contained in the human brain, within what French philosopher René Descartes called the 'seat of the soul', the pineal gland, also known as the area of the third eye and crown chakra in certain eastern traditions. Although the role DMT plays in our bodies is not yet fully understood, it has been linked to being involved in dreaming, mystical and near-death experiences [4]. Ironically, we are all by default carrying what is considered an illegal Schedule I drug within our own brains, which also exists among many plants in the natural world.

When DMT is ingested orally in its plant form, it is rendered inactive by the monoamine oxidase enzyme within the human digestion system, which breaks down and metabolizes the substance before it can reach the blood-brain barrier. What is fascinating, is that the Banisteriopsis vine, besides containing its own psychoactives, also works as a monoamine oxidase inhibitor, therefore allowing the DMT of the psychotria viridis or chakruna to bypass the breakdown process of the enzyme and effectively subject whoever drinks it to its intensely powerful effects.

Considering the millions of different plant species within the richly dense 'lungs of the Earth' that is the Amazonian rainforests , it's quite extraordinary that these people have found and utilized this pharmacological knowledge, especially considering MAO inhibition was not discovered or mentioned in Western science until the 1950's. When questioned by anthropologists and scientists about how this knowledge was discovered, the typical response that they receive tends to be that the ayahuasca spirit herself taught them about it. Although this may be waved off as nonsense to the empirical and rational worldview of Western science, an alternative explanation may be that these people, like scientists themselves, went through numerous experiments of trial and error that eventually produced some interesting and meaningful results. Regardless of which perspective one takes to account for this elixir, we must be able to at least appreciate that these people, who have lived directly with the land for thousands of years, have accumulated an immense amount of botanical knowledge and increased awareness of the natural world. This is somewhat negatively acknowledged in the present day by pharmaceutical companies taking an interest in finding out about traditional organic knowledge and exploiting it for profit in the West, without any given attention to the ritualized, reciprocal and respectful relationship and context traditionally used with these plants.

The ayahuasca experience tends to last four to six hours, often with themes and visions revolving around the natural world and animals such as jaguars and the great archetypal cosmic serpent. From a shamanic perspective, these animals may represent separate entities and spirit helpers or may be another shaman in shape shifted form. For shamans and cultures that practice the darker side of shamanism sometimes known as sorcery, hostile spirits and members of rival communities may send magical darts to bewitch and harm each other within the ayahuasca trance. In general however, ayahuasca seems to be considered a magical elixir, whose gentle feminine spirit generally teaches and heals. Often during the onset of the experience, many will go through la purga, the purge which usually includes intense vomiting and sometimes diarreah. This is typically seen as a normal process of the ayahuasca spirit cleansing the body of physical toxins from the body, before proceeding to cleanse and heal psychic tension and problems. Interestingly, research on this purging process has shown to be effective in combating intestinal parasites [4].

Typically when conducting a healing ceremony among ayahuasca using cultures, the shaman and patient both ingest the bitter tasting brew. The shaman is sometimes known as an ayahuasqueros, one who has memorized a large number of icaros or magical songs that are sung during the ceremony and experience. Among the Shipibo-Conibo people of Peru, these songs are vital to healing ceremonies. They have realized that the ayahuasca experience, with its intense visual nature, is quite susceptible to being driven and directed by sound, in this case the vocal sounds of the various icaros. The ayahuasqueros uses the icaros to guide the patient through the experience and to direct healing energy into their body. The songs can at one moment lead the patient through ecstatic blissful states of experience with the ayahuasca spirit, when subtly the shaman may occasionally stop their singing, which typically results in quite the opposite experience; one involving terrifying visions and haunting themes. The Shipibo ayahuasqueros say that the darker side of ‘reality’ and oneself must be experienced to fully appreciate the true nature of ayahuasca and her blissful healing states.

From a psychological standpoint, shamans can be seen as a prehistoric type of psychotherapist, using sound and suggestion to heal a patient who is in a very open and vulnerable state of mind. Indeed the shared intense mental and emotional journey, where both patient and healer are involved, requires a high level of selflessness on the shamans part, as the patient is given an ally who together with the spirit helpers can overcome illnesses and misfortune. Shamans can run the risk of contracting the patients’ illnesses if they are not powerful or trained enough. This act of self-sacrifice creates a strong emotional and spiritual bond between them, which can only help on the path to healing and regeneration. The Shipibos beliefs about experiencing the dark side of the experience also shows very close parallels to Jungian psychology and Jung’s concept of the ‘Shadow’; the darker side of one’s personality that must be confronted to complete the process of individuation, leading to harmony and unity in the balanced human being.

From the anthropological view, it seems that there isn’t as much importance and emphasis on the symbiotic relationship of shamans and sacred plants such as ayahuasca. For the Jivaro of Ecuador, ayahuasca seems to be more than just a method of trance exclusive to a shaman, but central to all members of their society and cosmology. In certain tribes such as the Jivaro, the laity may have access to the brew to obtain its sacred knowledge or receive help from the spirits. The Jivaro are also known for partaking in violent battles in the spirit realm with other communities. They tend to take an individualistic approach to taking the brew to supernaturally fight their enemies. On the other hand, the Cashinahua of eastern Peru, do not involve themselves in similar individual aggressive acts under ayahuasca, but rather take it as a group to share and experience the journey together. And of course more commonly, it is used like the Shipibo, in more personal one on one healing ceremonies, where the shaman is viewed as a doctor, leader and ally. The preceding examples show that perhaps these powerful plants in addition to being methods of trance, can also serve as rites of intensification that create a strong sense of community or reinforce certain social behaviors, cosmologies and culture as a whole. The Jivaro have a high proportion of shamans due to their individual style and open access for any of them to achieve trance through ayahuasca, perhaps showing an influence on their social structures. Indeed for the Jivaro, reality is believed to only actually be seen and experienced when using ayahuasca. ‘Ordinary reality’ is seen as an illusion and a misleading lie. The Jivaro believe there is only one single reality and that is the supernatural one experienced on ayahuasca, which shows its power to reinforce cosmology and its central role in Jivaro culture.

From a Western perspective, it seems that shamanism in general with its claim to heal or journey to other ‘worlds’ and ‘realities’ is dismissed as acts of primitive peoples who are uneducated in science. However, thanks to fields such as anthropology, our collective ethnocentrism may slowly be lifting, as a cultural relativist point of view can help us first understand and learn what shamanism means through the eyes of these other cultures. Then we may see how it may apply to us, instead of ignorantly dismissing it all as ‘primitive and uneducated’. Regarding psychoactive plants such as ayahuasca, our culture seems to be poised with what Micheal Harner calls ‘cognicentrism’, the analogue in consciousness of ethnocentrism.
Altered states of consciousness seem to have little use in Western society, where we seem to be fanatically obsessed with empiricism and rationalism as the only ways to discover truth in our current paradigms, where reality is seen as mechanistic and completely material, nothing more. Altered states of consciousness in general seem to be thought of as pathological states and indeed a shaman, one who sees and experiences other realities, would be considered schizophrenic and quite insane within this worldview.

Our collective cognicentrism, our prejudice and narrow mindedness towards different states of consciousness would seem crazy to shamanistic cultures who value the sacred knowledge they gather from these states. Harner illustrates the difference between an ordinary state of consciousness (OSC) and a shamanic or altered state of consciousness (SSC) by referring to animals. Animals considered “mythical” to us in an OSC, such as dragons and griffins are “real” in an SSC. The idea that there are “mythical” animals may be a useful and valid construct in life within an OSC, but irrelevant in an SSC experience. A person in the OSC may use the term “fantasy” for experiences of the SSC and conversely, a person in the SSC may use the term “illusion” in SSC terms, to what is experienced in the ordinary state of consciousness [1]. Therefore to view this situation whilst suspending ones cognicentrism, one may perhaps view both perspectives as the right one as they are viewed from their own specific state of consciousness.

It may be argued that shamanism is a sort of a primordial spirituality, because of its direct relationship and gnosis of the mind and ‘Other’ that has withstood the test of time. It seems to be forgotten that the many spiritual teachers such as Christ and the Buddha received their teachings or enlightenment through an altered state of consciousness and direct contact with the transcendent present. In modern times, the value of these experiences have lost their meaning as they have been put into a secondary source through books and upheld by strict dogma. So perhaps Jesus and Buddha can be considered as a type of shaman in that they may have experienced higher states of consciousness and received knowledge from them, which they then tried to use to heal their fellow people.

Perhaps the 60’s and current experimentations with psychedelic drugs is an unconscious need or yearning for spiritual fulfillment and to once again experience direct contact with alternate ‘realities’ and states of consciousness and the transcendental present, which are not encouraged or emphasized in our society, perhaps rooted in a residue of Christian colonialism where these were seen as blasphemous and demonic acts. However, resurgence in interest in shamanism may back it up as more and more people of the Western world are starting to attend ayahuasca ceremonies in their traditional context with an actual shaman. Indeed it seems that there may be some hidden knowledge contained deep within the rainforests of the Third World, that may help us solve some of our present day problems and conditions we face, from global warming to depression, as in Jungian terms, it may help us reconnect with the lost and forgotten feminine Mother Goddess archetype and the wisdom and importance of the natural world we all belong to.

In the overwhelmingly intense ayahuasca experience, which directly confronts the Western minds obsessive ego attachment and its assumptions about reality; completely in the hands of these shamans who serve as our sole guide with beautiful icaros, it seems that we are the ‘primitive, uneducated savages’ and that they are the truly ‘civilized’.

-Pedram Kianzad

References

[1] The Way of the Shaman by Micheal Harner.
[2] The Teaching of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda
[3] Hallucinogens and Shamanism by Micheal Harner.
[4] Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge by Terence McKenna.
Breaking Open the Head by Daniel Pinchbeck
Higher Wisdom by Charls S. Grob and Roger Walsh.
http://www.erowid.org
Other Worlds by Jan Kounen - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8756441303971858561

Etchings on Pulp with Carbon.

Converging Native

Guitarer

- Damoon

Ron Paul’s missed function.

According to Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, the most important aspect of Hugo Chavez's political legacy is his inclusion of Venezuela's enormous, poor, displaced, slum-dwelling population into the political realm. Regardless of one's opinions on the policies championed by the Chavez administration this fact cannot be downplayed. Millions of people who previously had no political voice are now an enormous factor in Venezuela's democratic process. During the first three years of the Chavez administration the government created a new constitution that was put out to popular vote. In Venezuela's poorest communities an unprecedented degree of political consciousness erupted. Chapters and clubs started popping up everywhere called "Bolivarian circles." The meet-ups and groups are run by citizens of Venezuela with the purpose of informing and educating people about their rights and their constitution.

Concrete proof that political consciousness and activism had reached a historic high was displayed in 2002 when a U.S. backed coup briefly threw Chavez out of power. As the self-proclaimed interim government took power and announced to Venezuelan's that their institutions where being dissolved, hundreds of thousands of people poured out of the Caracas slums and stormed upon the capital. People demanded that their president be put back in power. Film of the event showed people, from sects of society that were previously excluded from political activity, telling camera men that the president could only be taken out of office with a referendum. What more proof is needed to show that the most important aspect to maintaining a free and fair society is education and awareness?

As the 2008 U.S. presidential race approaches we should keep this in mind. Knowledge of our constitutional rights and our founding principles are at a seemingly all time low. The current mainstream national discourse is the only thing that needs to be examined to know that today's most disastrous trends will continue regardless of which “front-runner" ends up in the White House. The key issues that are affecting America and the world as we know it are not being discussed by any of the candidates. The inflationary spending and massive debt that is destroying the U.S. dollar and economy is not something that the mainstream candidates will address. State sovereignty is all but disappearing and being replaced by centralized federal policy. America's foreign policy has become more openly hostile and unprincipled than ever before and American citizens are not nearly as safe today as they feel because of it.

The American constitution is truly a revolutionary historical document. It is truly the only thing that binds Americans together. We do not share a common cultural or ethnic identity/history, we share the constitution and a belief in the principles it puts forth. Unfortunately the American constitution has been forgotten for all practical purposes. Today it functions in a similar fashion to that of Britain's Queen; People love to pay lip service to it but for political purposes it has become irrelevant. The size and power of the current federal government would be an impossible nightmare to the architects of the constitution. The constitution provides a system of checks and balances to keep any one branch of government from becoming too powerful but today we no longer have de-centralized state and local power, we have an unconstitutional income tax, we have unconstitutional undeclared wars that have thousands and thousands of innocent victims. We have a monetary and economic system that makes life harder on Americans every year. The founders of the constitution stated that the dollar must be backed by gold and silver so that the money supply could not be inflated and manipulated and today inflation is wiping out America's middle class and making the price of living skyrocket. I could keep going.

This brings me to Ron Paul. This presidential candidate is honest, principled, and still believes that the constitution should guide policy making in America. For these reasons as well as others, the 72 year old representative from Texas has no chance of being America's next president. The constitution was put in place to guarantee that no person or class of people have more influence on exercising power in America than the next one of us. Since the constitution went out the window years ago a power structure has taken control of American policy making that remains invisible to most Americans. This class of people benefit hugely by controlling American foreign and domestic policy. The same group of people also controls media and communications so that this takeover of our government remains unknown to most of us even though it’s been going on for years. Ron Paul challenges this fact not by accusations and rhetoric but by asking people to read our constitution and by pointing out the blatant and obvious contradictions of power that may have not have always been so obvious to us. Ron Paul will not be in the White House next year but his campaign is still of the upmost importance. As demonstrated in Venezuela, the only thing that can save the democratic process is knowledge and education.

A huge movement has come under way with the Ron Paul campaign. He is drawing crowds by the thousands all over the country despite being shunned by the mainstream media and people are waking up everywhere. People who had no intention of voting in America's sham elections have all of the sudden found a voice, Democrats and Republicans are uniting behind Ron Paul. America will continue down its disastrous path but finally there are seeds of hope. He is gaining popularity by the second as people discover him and his message and the consciousness that is so desperately needed to save America from oblivion is spreading. This will be Ron Paul's political legacy and hopefully one day historians will look at what is happening right now as the start of a huge and important movement that developed into a national phenomenon of Americans re-asserting their political legacy of freedom and responsibility.

Every nation is currently seeing sects of its society resisting globalization in favor or reasserting national sovereignty. This can be seen as the beginning of America's movement against the erasing of our borders and the erosion of our freedoms and when things get really bad, which they will, it will be the ideas that we remembered from now that will act as a platform for the resistance.

- Matt Owens

1:40 apres median Preaching.

Thoughts of a forgotten night.

…And as the sun rises on a lazy Sunday morning, the sounds of the heavy headed ring out. The knowledge of the alcohol drank the previous night slowly becomes apparent, as the familiar yet discomforting feelings of a hangover takes over once again. Your brain struggles to retrieve memories, based half in dream and half in a hazed reality. Unable to decipher the cruel codes that are needed to retrieve last nights memories, you struggle to stand and consume the one liquid, that given time will slowly bring you back to the land of the living. The cool water sliding down your throat is a minor consolation and your only comfort as the overbearing hangover makes its presence felt again. Your options for the day are diminished as you have delayed cognitive abilities, and the reflexes of a new born three toed sloth. As you slowly realize you've made commitments for the day, the thought of moving off the couch is physically felt by your drained and badly abused body. You conjure your beaten body off the couch and slowly collect the few remaining beers you have left. As you make your exit, the long road to recovery seems more like a superhighway.

- Jordan Wilson

In your face Evolution!

Mom always said that the key to a woman's heart was through those tender moments. Now it seems that the key to humanities heart is also within those tender moments.

We have been constantly exposed within the last few years to the ideas that humanity is on that cusp of evolutionary development, from our mutant hero's in X-Men, to Will Smith taking on genetic vampires in I Am Legend.

"In 2005, Stefansson's group at deCODE found that women with higher recombination rates had more children, suggesting that evolution has selected for molecular mechanisms that create diversity."

Wow! That's interesting. More and more I read that women are becoming a source for those natural solutions to a genetic exploration of creating the next branch outwards on the tree of Homo sapiens. It is true, super-humans are among us.

"We conclude that a small proportion of highly exposed individuals, who may have natural protective immunity to HIV-1, are resistant to HIV-1." This interpretation was found in a study done by the Department of Medical Microbiology at the University of Manitoba (Fowke et al. 1996).

There seems to be a push now towards utilizing the aspects of nature, from vegetations' chemical properties to the whole field of Biotechnology taking notes from the processes that have pushed organic life this far through earth's existence.

Of coarse, if there is anyone we should be taking notes from it should be that Mother Goddess, who as Dr. Ian Malcolm once so eloquently stated "I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way.".

On an ending note, even with these inclinations towards an ethical use of advanced science, with it's ability to further allow society to solve some of the most complex problems people have ever had to endure, we have this, porn on our cell phones.

References:

Fowke KR, Nagelkerke NJ, Kimani J, Simonsen JN, Anzala AO, Bwayo JJ, MacDonald KS, Ngugi EN, Plummer FA. Resistance to HIV-1 infection among persistently seronegative prostitutes in Nairobi, Kenya. Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. Lancet. 1996 Nov 16;348(9038):1347-51

Monkey Clones For All!

"A team in the US created dozens of cloned embryos from a 10-year-old male macaque, the journal Nature reports. This could make it easier to clone human embryos for use in research...

...Josephine Quintavalle, director of the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics (Core) told BBC News: "Bringing a clone to term is the only way to show that the cloned tissue is safe."...

...“It’s clear that humans are very different from chimpanzees on several levels, but we wanted to find out if it could be the splicing process that accounts for some of these fundamental differences,” says Blencowe, a professor with the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research and Department of Molecular Genetics. “The surprising thing we found was that six to eight per cent of the alternative splicing events we looked at were showing differences, which is quite significant. And those genes that showed differences in splicing are associated with a range of important processes, including susceptibility to certain diseases".

Noticing these differences between us and our Linnaean cousins has strong implications towards completing the database on why some diseases affect us and not others, and vise versa.

Now, ethically this seems wrong, yet, historically the treatment and advancement of medical science has always had a dark side. When the benefits come we rarely look at the process that brought them about. In the first stages though we want to fight tooth and nail against them and their barbaric methods. Reminds me of the saying "One cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs." Does it then comes down to the question of whether saving future lives are worth sacrificing some now.?

Always at odds, when weighing the factors of morality.

Rant from a night with no coffee.

Why are there no amenities for those late night hawks who dawdle around in the wee hours of the morning and are trying to find a place of peace or chaos to finish their work and enjoy their hobbies.
Of late there have been times when it is 3 am and I am writing a paper, studying for tests, researching a project, trying to compose a letter, attempting to practice an instrument, finish up a presentation, writing a blog, trying to become committed, long days at some sort of office to pay the bills. There just aren’t enough hours in the week to fit it all in.


There are those around though that thrive in the night when the majority sleep. Coffee and cigarettes, chai and sugar cookies, even mountain dew and cheetos. These supplements aid in the cycle. As a North Shore resident and CAP student I've wondered where one can go for some all night cramming, and my room mate wishes he had somewhere to practice his stand up bass at 1 am and not have the neighbors complain and look at you like some sort of demon in the morning. As for coffee shops choices are cut down to Tim Horton's, Waves, or….. I think that's about it. Wait there is Denny's as well. Ahh the joys of insomnia and a student life.
Obviously if one wants late night amenities there is always downtown, but taxis and late night long bus trips become a tad off putting.