12/16/2010
Preview of Fast Five; XXX rant
Hey, mister director of XXX who went with someone else for the second movie. Guess what, Vin Diesel has another multi-movie deal. Your series is wack now. I watched half a movie without Vin. And I even like Ice Cube but he's not a super hero in a Viper he should have a six-fo with fo-fo and sixteen. Now he's doin' Christmas movies cause of yo ass. Bond did that shwag in a 68 Maserati what's wrong with a Galaxy anyway?
12/02/2010
Self-Reliance and Mutual Aid
Self-reliance and mutual aid.
Thoreau was a transcendentalist born in 1817. Transcendentalism is a belief in a soul, an infinite link to the universe that is based on intuition. A gut feeling is the best guide to living happily and wholesomely. Thoreau is most famous for two of his long essays: Civil Disobedience and Walden. These works is one of the key philosophical building blocks of the free thinking society we enjoy today in America and indeed around the world. He encouraged peaceful means of protest by refusing to obey the laws that are contrary to proper morals. He entertained that there are evil laws which are meant only to fleece the public and restrict freedom. Thoreau is also attributed to conceiving many of the core ideas surrounding the anarchist movement lasting from after the Civil War and becoming democratically impotent by the end of World War I. Famous figures from this time included Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin and Emma Goldman.
Anarchism is a belief that the best government is none at all. Each person is left to their own devices to fend for themselves. Anarchists believe in an innate goodness of humans, that we are all born in our most perfect state. Civilization is oppressive and creates a class system. The theory postulates that utter repulsion of a government will create a utopia of free expression. I believe that civilization necessarily implies government.
To this end Kropotkin wrote a treatise on evolution entitled, "Mutual Aid". He elucidates a recurring theme throughout the essay. It begins with the colonies of ants and sequentially introduces more highly complex organisms, finally concluding with human cities. He contends that animals which band together increase the success of rearing young by sharing responsibility. In other essays he then contends that laws are unnecessary, because they serve no purpose. They serve no purpose because it is the nature of humans by their evolution to be kind and sharing to one another. The class system would dismantle itself if humans were kinder to eachother. Laws maintain the class system and so they must be abolished.
I do not agree with the Nihilist contention that a property of an object should in all cases be elevated to consideration as being object of itself. Instead, I offer that there are objects, which are separate from actions. There are objects which perform actions and it is the 'how' of the relationship between objects and the respective actions which the idea of these properties relate. When X does Y it is by the property Z of object X that action Y is possible from X. It is by the degree of Z, positive, nil, or negative that we know the quality and quantity of Y-effect produced by X.
A primary theme in Thoreau's work is responsibility. Responsibility is reaction to duties. To some degree a person is responsible to others through duty to react to challenges of belonging to a community. In a community, respect depends to a great extent upon responsibility. Without community, as when a man lives far from civilization, responsibility is to survival of the one man himself. It is in the spirit of responsibility that Thoreau proffers the essence of civil disobedience. A responsible individual will disobey the law when it is his moral obligation to do so. The moral obligation to disobey occurs when a law is unjust.
Honor and duty are part of a legacy which extends beyond mortality. Our work can be
useful to others posthumously. A legacy is an attribute which is very different in the context of men as humans from men as animals because evolution is not concerned with honor. Thoreau's work is more relevant to the human experience because it addresses issues more specific to the human experience. Animals do not leave a legacy as do humans. There are myths and legends of animals and there are even animal celebrities. Though, even these examples are really a fiction created by some anonymous human narration.
There is very little in these essays about love and friendship so I will inject a poem I wrote in 2004 called “But to Be a Better Friend.”
But to Be a Better Friend
She said she's so sultry
Why whisper wanton wailings?
Open up Oppenheimer
No offense no confidence
My confidante
My sycophant
My reeling irrelevant
Mind spinning
Synchronistically
Two possibities
One rogue singularity
Love is love's fate
Love is love's fault
Love is love's fake
Love is due result
I wonder will I
Be deposed of will I
Hold my soul high
Holed my sole high
Well does she expect me
To stick around lovesick
With my heart broke
And breaking more fragile
Everyday she wants friendship
But to be a better friend
I would be a lover-friend
The part of me that stays behind when I fly
Feels the way I do about you
Does it knot when I'm crying I'm dying?
Dying for what I believe in, it's you and I
To protect her interests
Divested from my friend
To rend her gently to
My center of being
Freeing her from having to be
Someone she doesn't want to be
If she wants to be with me?
If you were shy I would take it on high
To save you drowning and towel to dry
Yield the pill I will adroitly poison deny
Though your beautiful lips don't try
My poem explicitly addresses the quandary of the difference between love and friendship. I eventually engaged to the subject of the poem, but I could not convince her to marry me despite years of faithfulness. To clarify the boundary between friendship and love. I apposite the title proposition of a song by gangsta rap group TRU who went on individually to sell over 25 million albums: “Would you take a bullet for your homie? I got trust up in myself 'cause most of these fools are living phoney.”
When I met Karen she was a strumpet, a young woman who ran away from her foster family to live with her biological family when she was 17. She was beautiful, confused and homeless. I was homeless, too, but I was ambitious at 25 and in a decent college, but also homeless. When we got together we were really good when it was good and really bad when it was not good. It was interesting enough to keep us together. When she had Zach's baby, (notice the spelling, my name is Zak) my grandmother kicked us out. It was my friend, Cosmo who gave us and Jonathan a place to stay.
There is a boundary between love and friendship that is certainly fuzzy in practical application. I mean, who honestly can love someone without making concessions? A melding of two realities occurs where the two parts cannot be said to be different, in feeling. When one party is in pain, someway, even distantly, the other is aware of pain. When one is wandering in search of the other, the other is somehow alert to this and wends their way to the first. There is some knowledge of eachother which seems to occur preternaturally. There is some sense of having been lovers in a past-life or having some predetermined meaning in the relationship.
Predetermination is a feeling of destiny or divine intervention or fate. Preternatural refers to sensations attributed to be outside of the time-space of one's sensational experience. There may be some existential device upon which this occurs. It could be the electron knowledge of our brains which, in expectation, derive the whereabouts of electrons in another mind through some quantum mechanical fealty of spiritual cross-linkage. It could just as well be neutrinos or tachyons, but there are properties of quantum specie which betray the willful observer and whereupon the expectation of the observer is found. There is some vehicle of which humankind has been scientifically unable to define and yet we wreck the world in order to make our material desires known by a more efficient technology.
As humans, we want other people to know directly of what we are feeling and yet the mass of men deny the form of intimacy known as a meeting of the minds, perhaps I do not use this term in the traditional sense. What I mean by a 'meeting of the minds' is an experience which is indistinguishable from internal dialogue but so closely resembles a 'sixth sense' of objective dialogue, as to be obfuscated as separate properties of a common phenomenon. The Atharva Veda relates this phenomenon as being “like hairs on the back of the Brahma bull”, so these ideas are hardly groundbreaking except to grasp at the concretion of modern physics as a possible cohesion of metaphysical theory.
What all this means in regard to the topic. Kropotkin's ideas of Darwinism can be used to defeat itself. There are numerous species which are extremely abundant which are solitary. It doesn't explain, regardless of special colonialism, the cannibalism of some species. Even in the ant which so much as becomes a foundation of his line of reasoning, will cannibalize the genetically defective members to enhance the strong. As a general rule, mutual aid among successful species is notable but also exceptional. His line of reasoning relies upon suspension of disbelief, the melodrama of special circumstances and the fallacy of emotional attribution. The fallacy of emotional attribution is like the woman who says, “Where O where did my dog get her personality?!?!” It is false attribution of human emotions to animals which is really a reflection of the observer's subconscious desires. A person cannot be a non-human, therefore a personality is an attribute of humans only.
People are intricately connected together. From an evolutionary standpoint having people dedicated to caring for children is a boon. Self-reliance takes on a different meaning once a person has young to raise. As a bachelor I only had myself to look after, now I must rear my child. My survival is contingent on protecting my child as well as protecting my capacity to have more children. My attention is divided between the relative certainty of the conceived and the yet-to-be. My strongest Malthusian strength is not raising children so I leave that to others by virtue of risk management. (If the legal hurdles of my new show “Survivor: Family Edition” were negligible the role of child supervisor would be highly sought, I presume.)
People naturally fall into social roles, some are agitators like Thoreau. There is some preternatural emotions which draw people together. There are attributed emotions in animals. Some of our social roles are analogous to colonial behavior in animals. Whether spirit or evolution have a causal relationship to society is vague, though symbolic relationship is evidently common. A “lone wolf” I therefore contend is filling a social role, a view of self in relation to others. A continuance of the boundary of the egoist self contrasting with the collectivist society.
Thoreau was a transcendentalist born in 1817. Transcendentalism is a belief in a soul, an infinite link to the universe that is based on intuition. A gut feeling is the best guide to living happily and wholesomely. Thoreau is most famous for two of his long essays: Civil Disobedience and Walden. These works is one of the key philosophical building blocks of the free thinking society we enjoy today in America and indeed around the world. He encouraged peaceful means of protest by refusing to obey the laws that are contrary to proper morals. He entertained that there are evil laws which are meant only to fleece the public and restrict freedom. Thoreau is also attributed to conceiving many of the core ideas surrounding the anarchist movement lasting from after the Civil War and becoming democratically impotent by the end of World War I. Famous figures from this time included Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin and Emma Goldman.
Anarchism is a belief that the best government is none at all. Each person is left to their own devices to fend for themselves. Anarchists believe in an innate goodness of humans, that we are all born in our most perfect state. Civilization is oppressive and creates a class system. The theory postulates that utter repulsion of a government will create a utopia of free expression. I believe that civilization necessarily implies government.
To this end Kropotkin wrote a treatise on evolution entitled, "Mutual Aid". He elucidates a recurring theme throughout the essay. It begins with the colonies of ants and sequentially introduces more highly complex organisms, finally concluding with human cities. He contends that animals which band together increase the success of rearing young by sharing responsibility. In other essays he then contends that laws are unnecessary, because they serve no purpose. They serve no purpose because it is the nature of humans by their evolution to be kind and sharing to one another. The class system would dismantle itself if humans were kinder to eachother. Laws maintain the class system and so they must be abolished.
I do not agree with the Nihilist contention that a property of an object should in all cases be elevated to consideration as being object of itself. Instead, I offer that there are objects, which are separate from actions. There are objects which perform actions and it is the 'how' of the relationship between objects and the respective actions which the idea of these properties relate. When X does Y it is by the property Z of object X that action Y is possible from X. It is by the degree of Z, positive, nil, or negative that we know the quality and quantity of Y-effect produced by X.
A primary theme in Thoreau's work is responsibility. Responsibility is reaction to duties. To some degree a person is responsible to others through duty to react to challenges of belonging to a community. In a community, respect depends to a great extent upon responsibility. Without community, as when a man lives far from civilization, responsibility is to survival of the one man himself. It is in the spirit of responsibility that Thoreau proffers the essence of civil disobedience. A responsible individual will disobey the law when it is his moral obligation to do so. The moral obligation to disobey occurs when a law is unjust.
Honor and duty are part of a legacy which extends beyond mortality. Our work can be
useful to others posthumously. A legacy is an attribute which is very different in the context of men as humans from men as animals because evolution is not concerned with honor. Thoreau's work is more relevant to the human experience because it addresses issues more specific to the human experience. Animals do not leave a legacy as do humans. There are myths and legends of animals and there are even animal celebrities. Though, even these examples are really a fiction created by some anonymous human narration.
There is very little in these essays about love and friendship so I will inject a poem I wrote in 2004 called “But to Be a Better Friend.”
But to Be a Better Friend
She said she's so sultry
Why whisper wanton wailings?
Open up Oppenheimer
No offense no confidence
My confidante
My sycophant
My reeling irrelevant
Mind spinning
Synchronistically
Two possibities
One rogue singularity
Love is love's fate
Love is love's fault
Love is love's fake
Love is due result
I wonder will I
Be deposed of will I
Hold my soul high
Holed my sole high
Well does she expect me
To stick around lovesick
With my heart broke
And breaking more fragile
Everyday she wants friendship
But to be a better friend
I would be a lover-friend
The part of me that stays behind when I fly
Feels the way I do about you
Does it knot when I'm crying I'm dying?
Dying for what I believe in, it's you and I
To protect her interests
Divested from my friend
To rend her gently to
My center of being
Freeing her from having to be
Someone she doesn't want to be
If she wants to be with me?
If you were shy I would take it on high
To save you drowning and towel to dry
Yield the pill I will adroitly poison deny
Though your beautiful lips don't try
My poem explicitly addresses the quandary of the difference between love and friendship. I eventually engaged to the subject of the poem, but I could not convince her to marry me despite years of faithfulness. To clarify the boundary between friendship and love. I apposite the title proposition of a song by gangsta rap group TRU who went on individually to sell over 25 million albums: “Would you take a bullet for your homie? I got trust up in myself 'cause most of these fools are living phoney.”
When I met Karen she was a strumpet, a young woman who ran away from her foster family to live with her biological family when she was 17. She was beautiful, confused and homeless. I was homeless, too, but I was ambitious at 25 and in a decent college, but also homeless. When we got together we were really good when it was good and really bad when it was not good. It was interesting enough to keep us together. When she had Zach's baby, (notice the spelling, my name is Zak) my grandmother kicked us out. It was my friend, Cosmo who gave us and Jonathan a place to stay.
There is a boundary between love and friendship that is certainly fuzzy in practical application. I mean, who honestly can love someone without making concessions? A melding of two realities occurs where the two parts cannot be said to be different, in feeling. When one party is in pain, someway, even distantly, the other is aware of pain. When one is wandering in search of the other, the other is somehow alert to this and wends their way to the first. There is some knowledge of eachother which seems to occur preternaturally. There is some sense of having been lovers in a past-life or having some predetermined meaning in the relationship.
Predetermination is a feeling of destiny or divine intervention or fate. Preternatural refers to sensations attributed to be outside of the time-space of one's sensational experience. There may be some existential device upon which this occurs. It could be the electron knowledge of our brains which, in expectation, derive the whereabouts of electrons in another mind through some quantum mechanical fealty of spiritual cross-linkage. It could just as well be neutrinos or tachyons, but there are properties of quantum specie which betray the willful observer and whereupon the expectation of the observer is found. There is some vehicle of which humankind has been scientifically unable to define and yet we wreck the world in order to make our material desires known by a more efficient technology.
As humans, we want other people to know directly of what we are feeling and yet the mass of men deny the form of intimacy known as a meeting of the minds, perhaps I do not use this term in the traditional sense. What I mean by a 'meeting of the minds' is an experience which is indistinguishable from internal dialogue but so closely resembles a 'sixth sense' of objective dialogue, as to be obfuscated as separate properties of a common phenomenon. The Atharva Veda relates this phenomenon as being “like hairs on the back of the Brahma bull”, so these ideas are hardly groundbreaking except to grasp at the concretion of modern physics as a possible cohesion of metaphysical theory.
What all this means in regard to the topic. Kropotkin's ideas of Darwinism can be used to defeat itself. There are numerous species which are extremely abundant which are solitary. It doesn't explain, regardless of special colonialism, the cannibalism of some species. Even in the ant which so much as becomes a foundation of his line of reasoning, will cannibalize the genetically defective members to enhance the strong. As a general rule, mutual aid among successful species is notable but also exceptional. His line of reasoning relies upon suspension of disbelief, the melodrama of special circumstances and the fallacy of emotional attribution. The fallacy of emotional attribution is like the woman who says, “Where O where did my dog get her personality?!?!” It is false attribution of human emotions to animals which is really a reflection of the observer's subconscious desires. A person cannot be a non-human, therefore a personality is an attribute of humans only.
People are intricately connected together. From an evolutionary standpoint having people dedicated to caring for children is a boon. Self-reliance takes on a different meaning once a person has young to raise. As a bachelor I only had myself to look after, now I must rear my child. My survival is contingent on protecting my child as well as protecting my capacity to have more children. My attention is divided between the relative certainty of the conceived and the yet-to-be. My strongest Malthusian strength is not raising children so I leave that to others by virtue of risk management. (If the legal hurdles of my new show “Survivor: Family Edition” were negligible the role of child supervisor would be highly sought, I presume.)
People naturally fall into social roles, some are agitators like Thoreau. There is some preternatural emotions which draw people together. There are attributed emotions in animals. Some of our social roles are analogous to colonial behavior in animals. Whether spirit or evolution have a causal relationship to society is vague, though symbolic relationship is evidently common. A “lone wolf” I therefore contend is filling a social role, a view of self in relation to others. A continuance of the boundary of the egoist self contrasting with the collectivist society.
11/30/2010
The Five Pointed Blessing
May God bless every stone you walk upon. May God bless every stone you throw.
May God bless every fire that heats you. May God bless every heated fire with wisdom.
May God bless every river to bring you home. May God bless your ideas to flow like a river.
May God bless every breath you breathe to be wind in your sails. May all wind blow you true.
May God bless your spirit. May your spirit be richer than gold.
May God bless every fire that heats you. May God bless every heated fire with wisdom.
May God bless every river to bring you home. May God bless your ideas to flow like a river.
May God bless every breath you breathe to be wind in your sails. May all wind blow you true.
May God bless your spirit. May your spirit be richer than gold.
My favorite trip (katakana)
The Price is Right:
ザクリ ニーボーン
わたしのトリップだいすきをいきました。
わたしは じゅうくさい でした、メキシコに とても だいたのしかったです トリップをいきましたよ。 はじめて ひこうくに のりました。 わたしのホテルは となりのうみべ でした。 ピンク と おおきかったです。 てんきは いつも あつかったです、 でも かぜは よかったです。 わたしのへやは ちいさかったです と やさしかったです。 だれは とうぎゅう を みました。 ダウンタウンに かいもの を いきました。 メダルのシルバー と ひまきのキュバ を かいました。 うみに ふね を いきました。 じょうだまのカナダ を あいました。 わたしは メキシコ また を りょこいますから。
The most fun trip I ever took was a trip to Mexico when I was 19. I rode a plane for the first time. The hotel was on the beach. It was huge and pink. The weather was always hot but there was a nice breeze from the sea. Our room was small but comfortable. While there, I went to see a bull-fight. I went downtown to shop. I bought a silver medallion and Cuban cigars. I met a beautiful woman from Canada. I went out to sea on a boat. I will possibly to travel to Mexico again.
ザクリ ニーボーン
わたしのトリップだいすきをいきました。
わたしは じゅうくさい でした、メキシコに とても だいたのしかったです トリップをいきましたよ。 はじめて ひこうくに のりました。 わたしのホテルは となりのうみべ でした。 ピンク と おおきかったです。 てんきは いつも あつかったです、 でも かぜは よかったです。 わたしのへやは ちいさかったです と やさしかったです。 だれは とうぎゅう を みました。 ダウンタウンに かいもの を いきました。 メダルのシルバー と ひまきのキュバ を かいました。 うみに ふね を いきました。 じょうだまのカナダ を あいました。 わたしは メキシコ また を りょこいますから。
The most fun trip I ever took was a trip to Mexico when I was 19. I rode a plane for the first time. The hotel was on the beach. It was huge and pink. The weather was always hot but there was a nice breeze from the sea. Our room was small but comfortable. While there, I went to see a bull-fight. I went downtown to shop. I bought a silver medallion and Cuban cigars. I met a beautiful woman from Canada. I went out to sea on a boat. I will possibly to travel to Mexico again.
11/14/2010
On Descartes' First and Third Meditations
- Existence of Self
- Define Rationalism
- Rationalism is the use of reason to ascertain knowledge.
- Define Empiricism
- Empiricism is the use of senses and measurement to ascertain knowledge.
- Descartes' view of the self
- Descartes believed that thinking logically necessitates a thing which is doing the thinking. “Cogito ergo sum”, is the crux of his argument regarding the existence of self which is a latin phrase roughly equivalent to: “I think therefore I am.”
- Arguments: To be able to consider my non-existence, I must necessarily exist. To be deceived, I must exist. Thought and existence are dependent provident of eachother. He then claims “I am the thing that is thinking.” This is intended to prove existence of self.
- Descartes believed that thinking logically necessitates a thing which is doing the thinking. “Cogito ergo sum”, is the crux of his argument regarding the existence of self which is a latin phrase roughly equivalent to: “I think therefore I am.”
- Hume's arguments
- Hume differentiated between an idea and an impression. An impression is an inexact copy of an object stimulating the senses. An idea as related by Hume means an arbitrary unit of thought. An impression is formed by abstracting ideas from a stimulus (what he refered to as esse.) This abstraction in other words is the imperfect copying in action. He tries turning the cogito on it's head, so to speak, by asserting that all experience lies within the mind rather than a substratum. Substratum are the words represented by an idea (or, alternatively: representing an idea). Hume refers to “frames”, or specific points of time. Each passing moment is one of these frames and each frame is at least a little different from all the others in a person's life.
- Kant's critique of Hume
- Transcendental Argument:
- The transcendental argument of Kant and others is similar to the cogito, he states that knowledge presupposes the existence of God: If there were no God, then there could be no knowledge. There is knowledge. Therefore God exists. There is very little difference in the essences of the transcendental argument and the cogito. In fact, the transcendental argument strengthens the cogito.
- The transcendental argument of Kant and others is similar to the cogito, he states that knowledge presupposes the existence of God: If there were no God, then there could be no knowledge. There is knowledge. Therefore God exists. There is very little difference in the essences of the transcendental argument and the cogito. In fact, the transcendental argument strengthens the cogito.
- Transcendental Argument:
- Soundness of Hume
- The use of 'framing' is a valid argument. However, I view impressions as a subset of ideas. A refutation of a subset does not refute the whole set. I agree with Descartes that all ideas are affected by judgement. I also agree with Hume that that an idea has a name does not give it a factual basis.
- He does not consider time as a continuum. This is evident in quantum theory, a model of physics. Specifically, the Planck constant which proves mathematically there exists a size so small that it is physically equivalent to zero size. And partly derived from this is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which proves mathematically that objects at such a small magnitude can have an undefined state where it is simultaneously in multiple states such as radioactivity. I think that Hume would reject my argument because he stated that numbers are to him an invalid proof of existence.
- Define Rationalism
- Does God exist?
- Descartes' Ontological Argument
- What I perceive clearly and distinctly must be true.
- What I experience through senses are ideas of material objects themselves.
- Judgement is driven by impulse and impulse is frequently inaccurate, so judgement is an imperfect faculty of the mind.
- I am not perfect.
- What I am calling God is the perfect cause of all things.
- The more I give my attention to a thing, the less it seems likely to be internal.
- An effect cannot be more perfect than it's cause.
- Perfection is a positive quality to its highest degree.
- That I make false judgements proves there is something more true than my idea that is the cause of my idea. This I call substance.
- There are two types of things that exist.
- Things that think: minds.
- Things that have substance: bodies.
- If I were the cause of myself I would be perfect.
- If I were God I would know myself to be God.
- The fact that I doubt myself is an imperfection.
- I must have been caused by some thing more perfect than myself.
- The thing that is the cause of all is all-perfect.
- God is a thing that exists in substance.
- Descartes' Ontological Argument
10/31/2010
Vibishana
The Price is Right:
Username:i1abnrk
Name: Vibishana
Race: Rakshasa
Age: 300 (looks 30)
Gender: male
Position: magic teacher
Personality: Vibishana is very even-tempered and coolheaded. He
projects a dignity that is slightly bourgoisie. He is happy to
have so many bright students to carry on the legacy
Weapon: his natural weapons, enormous sharp claws and teeth;
the rakshasa tradition of archery was taught to him from the age
he learned to play hopscotch, he has a soulbound magic bow
that appears when he says the magic word.
Powers: Shape-shifting, celerity, prismatic magic, magic movie
Bio: Vibishana is a rakshasa, which is an ancient race of
blood-thirsty cat demons from the land of Lanka. When he was 12
he chose to leave his jungle home to earn an education to the
mainland. He often entertains at parties with his magic light
shows and teaches class with his magic movie spell. His immensity
forces him to duck under doorways all over campus. His favorite
form for shapeshifting is a lion, one of his two natural forms
beside the upright humanoid form he goes about his daily routine
in.
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
Have you invited your Buddies: yes
Have you uploaded 5 Pictures:
approved
School Sign Up
Username: i1abnrk
Name: Vibishana
Age: 300
Gender: Male
Student or Teacher: Teacher
School Year: Masters Degree in Cosmology from Sacred Forest Polytechnic Institute, 120 years ago.
School House: Cross Academy, Room 205; Office in Magic Dept.
Have you invited your Buddies: Y
Have you uploaded 5 Pictures: Y?
approved
Username:i1abnrk
Name: Vibishana
Race: Rakshasa
Age: 300 (looks 30)
Gender: male
Position: magic teacher
Personality: Vibishana is very even-tempered and coolheaded. He
projects a dignity that is slightly bourgoisie. He is happy to
have so many bright students to carry on the legacy
Weapon: his natural weapons, enormous sharp claws and teeth;
the rakshasa tradition of archery was taught to him from the age
he learned to play hopscotch, he has a soulbound magic bow
that appears when he says the magic word.
Powers: Shape-shifting, celerity, prismatic magic, magic movie
Bio: Vibishana is a rakshasa, which is an ancient race of
blood-thirsty cat demons from the land of Lanka. When he was 12
he chose to leave his jungle home to earn an education to the
mainland. He often entertains at parties with his magic light
shows and teaches class with his magic movie spell. His immensity
forces him to duck under doorways all over campus. His favorite
form for shapeshifting is a lion, one of his two natural forms
beside the upright humanoid form he goes about his daily routine
in.
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
Have you invited your Buddies: yes
Have you uploaded 5 Pictures:
approved
School Sign Up
Username: i1abnrk
Name: Vibishana
Age: 300
Gender: Male
Student or Teacher: Teacher
School Year: Masters Degree in Cosmology from Sacred Forest Polytechnic Institute, 120 years ago.
School House: Cross Academy, Room 205; Office in Magic Dept.
Have you invited your Buddies: Y
Have you uploaded 5 Pictures: Y?
approved
10/07/2010
Globalization
Globalization is a trend toward unification of the world economies. Two pros discussed in the chapter are Transnational Advocacy Networks (TANs) and merchandise trade. Two cons are cultural amalgamation and the per capita gap. Communications and transportation have facilitated the advancement of globalization.
In the last 150 years the capacity and ease of communications and transportation have, to use an idiom, made the world a smaller place. In the early 19th century a message or package from Boston to Beijing (then known as Peking) would take many, many months. Keeping in mind there were no good harbors on the West Coast, the package would go by ship around the Tierra del Fuego. And then, across the Pacific and then north along Australasia and finally through the South China Sea and Sea of Japan. Today ordinary citizens fly and send packages likewise in a matter of hours and days. Communications are now facilitated by the internet and satellite communications with a latency of about 800 miliseconds to just about anywhere in the world. (Zhang, et. al, 1997)The shattering speed of these new technologies have created a framework for improved merchandise trade and Transnational Advocacy Networks.
Anyone can join a TAN on Facebook or begin a trade relationship with someone in the Czech Republic, for instances. Last night I was looking for a platform for my mobile app and I came across a company in the Czech Republic that already makes exactly what I need. I sent them an email about a liscensing arrangement. Likewise, I joined the Facebook group for Doctors Without Borders a week ago. It was the first I had heard about the free trade agreement between the EEC and India and how it was going to impact the prices of the AIDS medicine they ship to Africa. I shared the article with my friends.
This is an effect of the per-capita disparity of EDCs and LDCs. If the large multinational pharmaceutical corporations in Europe made their medicines more affordable (to LDCs especially,) then Doctors Without Borders would not be buying black-market drugs from India. These drugs are unaffordable in Africa to families who make dollars a day.
When I was in Mexico the poolboy at the hotel offered me $50 for the shirt off my back. I paid $30 for it out-of-season and he would have paid $100 for the same brand in the store. Cultural amalgamation is Tommy Hilfiger in Mexico. It is McWorld, as the text calls it.
External links
Satellite Communications in the Global Internet: Issues, Pitfalls, and Potential. Yongguang Zhang, Dante De Lucia, Bo Ryu, Son K. Dao. Hughes Research Laboratories, USA. Retrieved from www.isoc.org/inet97/proceedings/F5/F5_1.HTM
In the last 150 years the capacity and ease of communications and transportation have, to use an idiom, made the world a smaller place. In the early 19th century a message or package from Boston to Beijing (then known as Peking) would take many, many months. Keeping in mind there were no good harbors on the West Coast, the package would go by ship around the Tierra del Fuego. And then, across the Pacific and then north along Australasia and finally through the South China Sea and Sea of Japan. Today ordinary citizens fly and send packages likewise in a matter of hours and days. Communications are now facilitated by the internet and satellite communications with a latency of about 800 miliseconds to just about anywhere in the world. (Zhang, et. al, 1997)The shattering speed of these new technologies have created a framework for improved merchandise trade and Transnational Advocacy Networks.
Anyone can join a TAN on Facebook or begin a trade relationship with someone in the Czech Republic, for instances. Last night I was looking for a platform for my mobile app and I came across a company in the Czech Republic that already makes exactly what I need. I sent them an email about a liscensing arrangement. Likewise, I joined the Facebook group for Doctors Without Borders a week ago. It was the first I had heard about the free trade agreement between the EEC and India and how it was going to impact the prices of the AIDS medicine they ship to Africa. I shared the article with my friends.
This is an effect of the per-capita disparity of EDCs and LDCs. If the large multinational pharmaceutical corporations in Europe made their medicines more affordable (to LDCs especially,) then Doctors Without Borders would not be buying black-market drugs from India. These drugs are unaffordable in Africa to families who make dollars a day.
When I was in Mexico the poolboy at the hotel offered me $50 for the shirt off my back. I paid $30 for it out-of-season and he would have paid $100 for the same brand in the store. Cultural amalgamation is Tommy Hilfiger in Mexico. It is McWorld, as the text calls it.
External links
Satellite Communications in the Global Internet: Issues, Pitfalls, and Potential. Yongguang Zhang, Dante De Lucia, Bo Ryu, Son K. Dao. Hughes Research Laboratories, USA. Retrieved from www.isoc.org/inet97/proceedings/F5/F5_1.HTM
Today's World Governments
The two major types of government in the world today are authoritarian and democratic. Authoritarian governments typically view the population as subjects, whereas the democratic governments tend to view the population as citizens.
Communism is the most popular modern form of authoriatarian government. Modern examples are predominantly the Maoist states of East Asia: China, Myanmar and North Korea, et al. And also, the single-party states of Central Asia: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, et. al. The monarchical form of government is still common in middle eastern countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. as well as the small independant city-states of Europe like Monaco and Leichtenstein.
All of the G-20 states are democracies, except for China and Saudi Arabia. China is evolving into a capitalist-communist composite state. (Hsu, 2007) Saudi Arabia is a monarchy. The remainder of the world's communist states nor of the Middle Eastern monarchies are not considered EDCs. The UAE could be considered an NIC.
External references
Hsu, Robert C. (October 1, 2007). The political economy of guidance planning in Post-Mao China. Review of World Economics.
Communism is the most popular modern form of authoriatarian government. Modern examples are predominantly the Maoist states of East Asia: China, Myanmar and North Korea, et al. And also, the single-party states of Central Asia: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, et. al. The monarchical form of government is still common in middle eastern countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. as well as the small independant city-states of Europe like Monaco and Leichtenstein.
All of the G-20 states are democracies, except for China and Saudi Arabia. China is evolving into a capitalist-communist composite state. (Hsu, 2007) Saudi Arabia is a monarchy. The remainder of the world's communist states nor of the Middle Eastern monarchies are not considered EDCs. The UAE could be considered an NIC.
External references
Hsu, Robert C. (October 1, 2007). The political economy of guidance planning in Post-Mao China. Review of World Economics.
9/26/2010
On Apology
Notes on Plato's Apology
by Zakri Kneebone
Intro to Philosophy, Fall '10, MW 3:15pm
Socrates is speaking at his trial and facing his accusers who he claims have accused him on false pretenses. There is very little grounds to ascertain whether indeed his claim is true because nothing is directly quoted of the plaintiffs. (Linder 2002 states that there is no known record of the plaintiffs' arguments.) However he makes valid arguments to nullify the charges against him.
Socrates stands accused of heresy, that is to say, speaking against the gods of Athens. He claims that his accusers are corrupt and malicious. He says his philosophy was a duty to the gods as he was told there was no one wiser than he by the Oracle. He decided therefore he must seek out and find someone who was wiser than he and it was on this quest that he insulted people of wealth and renown and it is for this he was being persecuted.
Socrates was also accused of teaching his heretical ways to others. He answered this charge by saying that he took no money and thus he could not be considered a teacher. The people who did follow him were doing so of their own volition. They would harass those whom he chastised. In fact, though his followers forged two brutal and attritious coup d'etats that are considered anti-democratic. However, Socrates pointed to his resistance of the Thirty Tyrants at the trial as evidence in his favor. (Linder, 2002)
Here I will diagram Socrates' argument. The legend is as follows: Corruption of the accusers (1), Duty to the Oracle (2), He did not teach (3), Resistance to wrong-doing (4) and finally, Conclusion of innocence (5). Points 2, 3 and 4 converge to tout his virtue, while point 1 attacks the virtue of the plaintiffs.
Bibliography
The Trial of Socrates by Douglas O. Linder, J.D., Professor of Law, UMKC School of Law, 2002. Self-published on www.umkc.edu as part of his Famous Trials series, retrieved on September 26, 2010 from http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/socrates/socratesaccount.html
by Zakri Kneebone
Intro to Philosophy, Fall '10, MW 3:15pm
Socrates is speaking at his trial and facing his accusers who he claims have accused him on false pretenses. There is very little grounds to ascertain whether indeed his claim is true because nothing is directly quoted of the plaintiffs. (Linder 2002 states that there is no known record of the plaintiffs' arguments.) However he makes valid arguments to nullify the charges against him.
Socrates stands accused of heresy, that is to say, speaking against the gods of Athens. He claims that his accusers are corrupt and malicious. He says his philosophy was a duty to the gods as he was told there was no one wiser than he by the Oracle. He decided therefore he must seek out and find someone who was wiser than he and it was on this quest that he insulted people of wealth and renown and it is for this he was being persecuted.
Socrates was also accused of teaching his heretical ways to others. He answered this charge by saying that he took no money and thus he could not be considered a teacher. The people who did follow him were doing so of their own volition. They would harass those whom he chastised. In fact, though his followers forged two brutal and attritious coup d'etats that are considered anti-democratic. However, Socrates pointed to his resistance of the Thirty Tyrants at the trial as evidence in his favor. (Linder, 2002)
Here I will diagram Socrates' argument. The legend is as follows: Corruption of the accusers (1), Duty to the Oracle (2), He did not teach (3), Resistance to wrong-doing (4) and finally, Conclusion of innocence (5). Points 2, 3 and 4 converge to tout his virtue, while point 1 attacks the virtue of the plaintiffs.
Bibliography
The Trial of Socrates by Douglas O. Linder, J.D., Professor of Law, UMKC School of Law, 2002. Self-published on www.umkc.edu as part of his Famous Trials series, retrieved on September 26, 2010 from http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/socrates/socratesaccount.html
9/25/2010
Nationalism
Nationalism is a sense of belonging to a physical nation state. It is in this spirit that patriotism is born. Nationalism has had some dangerous consequences because it is commonly used as propaganda during war time. However it is also used to bring communities together to help each other like when there is a pressing natural disaster. However it is also a sense of Nationalism in exceptionalism, which can prevent people from helping people who don't conform to ones view of national identity. Nationalism seems to be an outdated concept as the nations are trending to economic codependancy though on the territory side they are trending to fragmentation. It seems inevitable for personal success in business to break through such invisible barriers as national borders in order to create a world better than the sum of its parts.
9/17/2010
Westernization
Westernization
Zakri Kneebone Sep 18, 2010 1:56 AM
The current world system is one of Westernization. This term refers to the fact that the most powerful "first-world states" are concentrated in North America and Western Europe, politically known as the West. The general traits of these states are industrialized and democratic. The West assists other states to develop economically and has preference to help states with preference to states which have adopted western values. Some states believe this is a continuation of imperialism. (Mugabe, 2008; Morales, 2009)
Imperialism was a policy by Western countries beginning in the Renaissance and continuing through the Industrial Revolution which was a sustained effort at forceful colonization and requisition of natural and human resouces. (Rourke, p.42) This was followed by the gradual formation of human rights pioneered by Britain and the US through the 19th and 20th centuries. It was this budding ideal of equality and balance of power which met head on with imperialism in the two world wars.
In the interest of equality and the prevention of future world wars that the League of Nations and later the UN were created. However the competition between capitalism and democracy with socialism, communism and fascism which became the Cold War. This ultimately lead to invasion of Eastern Asia by the US and Western Europe in the second half of the 20th century which the book calls containment doctrine. (Rourke, p. 46)
The last 20 years has been marked by US-led NATO invasions into the Middle East to prevent atrocities such as to guard Isreal from Islamic jihadism and to prevent nuclear proliferation. (Rourke, pg. 49)
Independant references:
(Amanpour Interviews Mugabe, CNN, 2008) Retrieved from YouTube 8/18/2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svXCf6W_Kfo
(Evo Morales, Copenhagen Conference, 2009) Reproduced and translated by Democracy Now!, 2009; Retrieved from YouTube 8/18/2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhOMWEDiKvw
Zakri Kneebone Sep 18, 2010 1:56 AM
The current world system is one of Westernization. This term refers to the fact that the most powerful "first-world states" are concentrated in North America and Western Europe, politically known as the West. The general traits of these states are industrialized and democratic. The West assists other states to develop economically and has preference to help states with preference to states which have adopted western values. Some states believe this is a continuation of imperialism. (Mugabe, 2008; Morales, 2009)
Imperialism was a policy by Western countries beginning in the Renaissance and continuing through the Industrial Revolution which was a sustained effort at forceful colonization and requisition of natural and human resouces. (Rourke, p.42) This was followed by the gradual formation of human rights pioneered by Britain and the US through the 19th and 20th centuries. It was this budding ideal of equality and balance of power which met head on with imperialism in the two world wars.
In the interest of equality and the prevention of future world wars that the League of Nations and later the UN were created. However the competition between capitalism and democracy with socialism, communism and fascism which became the Cold War. This ultimately lead to invasion of Eastern Asia by the US and Western Europe in the second half of the 20th century which the book calls containment doctrine. (Rourke, p. 46)
The last 20 years has been marked by US-led NATO invasions into the Middle East to prevent atrocities such as to guard Isreal from Islamic jihadism and to prevent nuclear proliferation. (Rourke, pg. 49)
Independant references:
(Amanpour Interviews Mugabe, CNN, 2008) Retrieved from YouTube 8/18/2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svXCf6W_Kfo
(Evo Morales, Copenhagen Conference, 2009) Reproduced and translated by Democracy Now!, 2009; Retrieved from YouTube 8/18/2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhOMWEDiKvw
9/09/2010
My Role In World Politics Comes From My Origin
I feel my role in world politics is one of tolerence, peaceful resistance, compassion and financial support through charity. I grew up in Madison and I was born a Nichiren Shoshu buddhist. When I was young my mother encouraged me to explore exogenous cultures and I myself grew up in a bi-racial family.
Madison is the quintessential American melting pot. (Antonio Puglieli, 2009) People from every part of the globe wind up there and stay because of the tolerance of the ruling political body there. While I was a youth, the neighboorhood I lived in changed from being a white neighboorhood with blacks to a mostly black neighboorhood.
When I was growing up, most of my friends were of a different race and religeon. From this background I feel I have a responsibility to promote religeous and racial tolerance. What then is my vehicle? Common sense dictates I should use my strengths to obtain my ends. I am in the MCS (Management Computer Systems) program because I have always had a fascination with computers and thus, in and of itself a comprehension of computer programming has been the result of my childhood obsession.
Like many programmers I have become involved the open source community. By becoming involved in the open source community I have met many international programmers. And the goal of the open source initiative is to make free software by and for the world. (Open Source Initiative, 2010) My vehicle therefore is to write free, open source software to unite with international programmers and then use the donations to my projects to raise money for conforming Non-governmental charitable organizations.
Madison is the quintessential American melting pot. (Antonio Puglieli, 2009) People from every part of the globe wind up there and stay because of the tolerance of the ruling political body there. While I was a youth, the neighboorhood I lived in changed from being a white neighboorhood with blacks to a mostly black neighboorhood.
When I was growing up, most of my friends were of a different race and religeon. From this background I feel I have a responsibility to promote religeous and racial tolerance. What then is my vehicle? Common sense dictates I should use my strengths to obtain my ends. I am in the MCS (Management Computer Systems) program because I have always had a fascination with computers and thus, in and of itself a comprehension of computer programming has been the result of my childhood obsession.
Like many programmers I have become involved the open source community. By becoming involved in the open source community I have met many international programmers. And the goal of the open source initiative is to make free software by and for the world. (Open Source Initiative, 2010) My vehicle therefore is to write free, open source software to unite with international programmers and then use the donations to my projects to raise money for conforming Non-governmental charitable organizations.
3/01/2010
My Stew
In concert. In swell.
The caring chill it's confusing but
When one holds someone dear
They tend toward dependance
Toward they tend to taking advantage
To taking for granted ward they tend
Ward the bell, the ringer, the shonen
The signal blasts out for
The kotsu, the nijishin
When the bell-warden sleeps
The city, does it disintegrate?
Order requires one soldier
Above all combustible
When powerful change must ensue
Then perhaps it's time to rusticate
To dwell in the the mind in a torchlit cave
On a dew-dripping fortitudinal mount
Half-down where the nightingales's melody
Compliments the spatter of condensation off the stalactites
And albino arthropodae actuate averse of the alien ambient heat.
Give him lots of kisses for me she said
Like kisses for chocolate
Like chocolate kisses
Like chocolate exchanged in a kiss
The dripping of stalactites
The chirp of a defensive starling or piper
The majestic fuzzy pile of the blanket I sit upon
Near the spine of the island
Now it's time for lunch
In the sunlight the noontime sun
Has excited vapor effervescing warmth
Like a vast transgalactic empire
Colonizing the Magellenic Clouds
Like dark matter in the Horsehead Nebula
A steamy cascade ineffably lifts off the treeline
Chamomile sprigs and crabapple twigs
Bear flowers and wild onion roots
And lichen makes a stew,
Sparse but bitterly medicinal.
The city glows brighter
My beard has grown gray
But the bitterness of my stew
Is yet stark and fresh.
Since then
But with the fire wrought
I stay warm
In an impression
I lay calmly and watch as the smoke clears.
The caring chill it's confusing but
When one holds someone dear
They tend toward dependance
Toward they tend to taking advantage
To taking for granted ward they tend
Ward the bell, the ringer, the shonen
The signal blasts out for
The kotsu, the nijishin
When the bell-warden sleeps
The city, does it disintegrate?
Order requires one soldier
Above all combustible
When powerful change must ensue
Then perhaps it's time to rusticate
To dwell in the the mind in a torchlit cave
On a dew-dripping fortitudinal mount
Half-down where the nightingales's melody
Compliments the spatter of condensation off the stalactites
And albino arthropodae actuate averse of the alien ambient heat.
Give him lots of kisses for me she said
Like kisses for chocolate
Like chocolate kisses
Like chocolate exchanged in a kiss
The dripping of stalactites
The chirp of a defensive starling or piper
The majestic fuzzy pile of the blanket I sit upon
Near the spine of the island
Now it's time for lunch
In the sunlight the noontime sun
Has excited vapor effervescing warmth
Like a vast transgalactic empire
Colonizing the Magellenic Clouds
Like dark matter in the Horsehead Nebula
A steamy cascade ineffably lifts off the treeline
Chamomile sprigs and crabapple twigs
Bear flowers and wild onion roots
And lichen makes a stew,
Sparse but bitterly medicinal.
The city glows brighter
My beard has grown gray
But the bitterness of my stew
Is yet stark and fresh.
Since then
But with the fire wrought
I stay warm
In an impression
I lay calmly and watch as the smoke clears.
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