So, the other day I was catching up on some reading. I was beginning the Summer 2006 issue of Tricycle magazine (yes, I know, that is old, but I don't have much time for reading these days. Besides, that means there will still be a pile of magazines for me to take to Thailand in a few months, when I will have time to read) and I came across a concept that has not let go of me since. It was in an article by Neil D. Theise.

The article mentioned, almost in passing, about how ant colonies are self-organizing. To paraphrase, there's no one in charge of an ant colony, it really relies on emergent self-organization. Mr. Theise posits that there are 4 rules pertaining to this concept:

1. It requires numerous individuals. The example cited is that a village is organized differently than a city, and there would need to be a critical mass before this will work.
2. Individuals must interact with each other and their environment, and the system must contain negative feedback loops.
3. Individuals must respond to local environmental conditions without monitoring the larger group.
4. There must be a small randomness, referred to as "quenched disorder".

I've been looking for a political subset to accompany my spiritual viewpoint. I believe that everyone wants to do good at some depth of their soul. Some are more cognizant of this fact, or rather act on it more frequently, than others. If everyone were to tap into the One of which we are, the right action would be apparent. the above precepts of emergent self-organization seem to be another way of describing what I seek. By interacting with others and the local environment, we intuitively recognize what the right course of action is for any situation. there is no need for a 'minder' to observe or control, or manage: the group will do what is right without interference. The ultimate decentralization. Think universally, but help your neighbor. And rely on the quenched disorder to make things interesting!

So I was looking up "quenched disorder" and I went to a site (not Wikipedia) and there were half a dozen sponsored links, 3 for bipolar remedies and 3 for ADD remedies. Commentary on where this train of thought will take me? 

Happy trails to Amanda and 'Bella....I feel blessed to have known you, and hope one day to take the 7 hour flight from Bangkok to Australia and see your new life. May your dreams come true.

Every tree is different, yet all reach for the same light. 

After ranting about how hard it is becoming to be an American overseas, I ran across the following paragraph in an article from the San Francisco Chronicle on 19 February. I must admit, having spent several months in Mississippi and Alabama the last few years, I was still unprepared for the idiocy displayed in this article. I know from my time in the South, we are still a racist society. No one wants to admit to being a bigot, but when presented with a black man running for President, the true colors show, and as#$oles will obviously grab at any straw to keep white men in power:

You have got to be kidding me. I am embarrassed that an American newspaper can print a statement like this on the front page and not have a riot on their doorstep. It is unconscionable both that race is such an important topic for discussion in a Presidential race, not the actual vision a candidate might hold for our country, and that some of the people who will vote for our next leader are so ignorant (or blatantly racist). Does anyone question that John McCain might not be “man enough” to run as a “male” for President?

I thought not…..

Link

You must realize, that because of the internet, events in one part of the world DO affect other parts. And if you believe in majority rule, as most Americans profess to do, then you need to pay attention to the worldwide polls, not just the polls in your own back yard:

As the United States government prepares to send a further 21,500 troops to Iraq, the survey reveals that three in four (73%) disapprove of how the US government has dealt with Iraq.

The poll shows that in the 18 countries that were previously polled, the average percentage saying that the United States is having a mainly positive influence in the world has dropped seven points from a year ago--from 36 percent to 29 percent—after having already dropped four points the year before. Across all 25 countries polled, one citizen in two (49%) now says the US is playing a mainly negative role in the world.

Over two-thirds (68%) believe the US military presence in the Middle East provokes more conflict than it prevents and only 17 percent believes US troops there are a stabilizing force.

The poll shows that world citizens disapprove of the way the US government has handled all six of the foreign policy areas explored. After the Iraq war (73% disapproval), majorities across the 25 countries also disapprove of US handling of Guantanamo detainees (67%), the Israeli-Hezbollah war (65%), Iran’s nuclear program (60%), global warming (56%), and North Korea’s nuclear program (54%).

Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes comments, “According to world public opinion, these days the US government hardly seems to be able to do anything right.”

Link

It's getting harder and harder to travel abroad as an American, without drawing the ire of others. Few draw a distinction between the actions of our President and the average (me) Joe, believing all the propaganda that he was actually elected to represent us. Not only do I have to explain that I didn't vote for him, but that the majority of folks didn't either, yet he's in power anyway! That certainly doesn't help to make us friends either!

Chinese New Year, the most important festival in China, fell on Feb. 18. The 7-day holiday will give people a chance to get together with family and have a good rest. Please see how common people have common ways to enjoy the holiday:

Link 

The John Frum Movement worships a mysterious spirit that urged them to reject the teachings of the Church and maintain their traditional customs.

The cult was reinforced during WWII, when US forces landed with huge amounts of cargo - weapons, food and medicine.

Villagers believe that their messiah was responsible for sending the generous US military and its cargo to them.

Speaking in local pidgin, the movement's head, Chief Isaac Wan, said that John Frum was a god who would one day return. He's "our God, our Jesus," he said.

Islanders are convinced that John Frum was an American. Every year they parade in home-made US army uniforms beneath the Stars and Stripes.

They hope one day to entice another delivery of cargo.

Link 

Are you sure your religion is better than this one?

be deployed with his unit to Iraq.

Boy, I'd rather fall on my sword, than be the officer in charge of THAT Next-of-Kin NotificationTeam, should the worst happen..... 

In “The End of Faith”, author Sam Harris makes the argument that there is little difference between religious moderates and religious fundamentalists. They both claim to follow a book written by the Creator of the Known Universe, only moderates are more particular about which specific passages they choose to believe, and they exclude more of the book than fundamentalists.

The problem that they cause, which dooms us to war eternal, is their belief that their way, their book, is the only “Chosen Path”. Any non-believer is an impediment to their belief system taking total and complete control of the universe. For some believers, this equates to giving them a license to kill. At the very least, it allows believers to sanction killing of non-believers in their name.

This is why religion, as we have known it, must end.

Note, if you are still reading, I did not say “Spirituality must end.” Nor did I say “Ethical behavior must end.” Indeed, both spirituality and ethical behavior transcend religion, and are to be pursued by all. But I agree with Mr. Harris, it is foolish to tolerate other religions, when all religions are part of the problem. I particularly enjoyed his rhetorical question: Would you think it sane if, 2000 years from now, people were fighting and dying to defend different interpretations of the movie “Star Wars”? Probably not. But how is that different from today, when people fight and die defending different interpretations of the book written by “the Creator” (the Bible and the Koran)?

I say again: Religion, as we have known it, must end.

Today the Chinese are reaching for the moon. The first step, the launching of an unmanned lunar orbiter, is tentatively scheduled for April 17. A three-man mission will orbit the Earth later this year, and a spacewalk is planned for next year. Two years after that, the plan is to put down a lunar rover, followed in 2020 by a craft that will collect lunar samples and bring them home. Eventually Beijing wants to put people on the moon, although the target date remains undisclosed. "Their timetable is absolutely realistic," says Jim Benson, president of SpaceDev, a private space-exploration company in Poway, Calif. "Some of it actually seems a little conservative."

National pride is a big force behind China's moon program, but not the only one. The Chinese are aiming to do more than "just set up a flag or pick up a piece of rock," says Ye Zili of China's Space Science Society. What are they after? A limitless source of clean, safe energy to feed their voracious economy.

from an article posted on msnbc.com and picked up by the China Digital Times

link 

I’m one of the “late boomers”. Born at the end of the boomer generation, one of the last. But boomer? You betcha.

I was there for the tail end of the anti-war movement. Did some rallies, the Angela Davis Defense Committee, paid some dues and moved on. Grow.

I left behind the vision of world peace, and for what? Some sort of dream of financial security? It’s all a dream. Trust.

Got security. Now it’s time to reach out and touch someone. Change takes neighbors helping neighbors, personal interaction and understanding. Today, just you and me, tomorrow……who knows? Family.

Got family. Back to the vision, beyond family, an Awareness of the One. This is the time. Start now. Consciousness.

Seriously, folks. When I heard the news networks reporting Sen. Barack Obama’s comments that our troops need to be home by March of 2008, and calling it the main platform in his bid for the Presidency, I was struck that he is presenting a goal that needs to be achieved even before many of the primaries next year. Then it dawned on me: Who better to elect as President, but someone who manages to bring enough public pressure to bear, that the war IS ended before the November election.  No need to wait, my friends. The anti-war movement needs a leader. We need someone who can lead us out of the past bungled five years.  Let’s end this thing now and get on with the next century….. a century of compassion and awakening, of discovery of our own true nature in this Universe.

“It’s on It’s way…..”

I've been saying for years, if China ever decides to stop funding the war in Iraq, we'll have problems. Here's another voice saying the same thing:

The latest twitch took the form of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao making the apparently tepid remark that his country would "actively explore and expand the channels and methods for using foreign-exchange reserves." The underlying meaning may not be so tepid, for Wen appears to be saying that the day may not be so far off when China is going to slow down giving American consumers credit for merchandise purchases.

Another way of looking at this would be that China may be losing its taste for lending the United States money that indirectly helps America to fight its ever-lengthening series of Middle Eastern wars. Every year America goes a couple of hundred billion bucks deeper into hock to the dragon.

No sooner had the dragon twitched once than it twitched again a few days later at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where the world's fattest money bags annually meet up with big-time politicians, whatever celebrities happen to be hot at the moment, chittering economists and enough journalists to make sure anything of moment is recorded. It was not the place you would expect to find a Chinese dragon, but the scaly fellow, this time in the person of Madame Wu Xiaoling, the deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said that holding a trillion dollars' worth of another country's money was enough.

the whole article can be found at:

I spend a good portion of each year in Thailand,because my wife is Thai. I've often been asked these last few months about the coup that happened in 2006. Here's an example of what I've tried to say in response:

So where ARE the million and a half people who are full-time military? On today's front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, we find out that:

Soldiers of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division had so little time between deployments to Iraq they had to cram more than a year's worth of training into four months. And some soldiers were assigned to the brigade so late that they had no time to train in the United States at all. Instead of the yearlong training recommended prior to deployment, they prepared for war during the two weeks they spent in Kuwait, en route to Anbar, Iraq's deadliest province. Some had only a few days to learn how to fire their new rifles before they deployed to Iraq -- for the third time -- last month.

Whether you agree with the 'surge' or not, this smacks of criminal negligence at best. Why are we sending poorly or even untrained people into a war they know nothing about? They don't know the language or the culture that surrounds them,and no one, from the President on down. seems to think this is wrong. Do we also issue our troops a blindfold and a last cigarette?

here's the link to the entire article: 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/04/MNG9ONUKVT1.DTL&hw=anna+badkhen&sn=001&sc=1000

to think that we can stop a volcano... 

first, the proposal is: 

A plan to drop concrete balls into the mouth of a "mud volcano" in East Java to stem its flow should go into action next week, Indonesian scientists say.

you hear right.... 

Hot mud and gas have been spewing out of the ground since May 2006; experts warn the torrent could continue for months, if not years, to come. But the government-approved scheme could halt the flow within two to three months, the team behind the plan says.

Engineers will drop 1,000 1.5m-long metal chains into the mouth of the mud leak. Each chain has four concrete balls suspended from it; two with a 20cm diameter and two with a 40cm diameter.

They will begin slowly, Dr Fauzi explained; perhaps dropping five to 10 chains on the first day, then slowly increasing the number until they insert up to 50 chains per day.

and just in case you think we're joking: 

The concrete balls method would cost less than other proposed schemes to halt the mud volcano, Dr Fauzi said. Brian Simpson, an engineer from Arup Geotechnics, said the plan was a "long shot" and would have to overcome many difficulties.

surely, you jest! Stop a volcano? The nerve of some people. This plan is a long shot?  REALLY??!

here's the link to the entire article: