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?