Feeding Thanksgiving Dinner TO The Turkeys
We have been reminiscing about a previous Thanksgiving trip; we traveled to Farm Sanctuary in northern California that rescues animals like cows, goats, turkeys, pigs, rabbits, and others that are often found on farms. Farm Sanctuary is safe place though where animals live long lives and die of old age, not by man’s hand. On that trip we sat down with a flock of turkeys and fed a Thanksgiving dinner to them. To see these turkeys approach us unafraid seemed remarkable in itself. To sit on the earth with them, reach out, and hand feed them cooked squash and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and watch them enjoy it filled our hearts. Feeding dinner to the turkeys was an incredibly soul-cleansing experience in compassion. Moments like this are what I am especially thankful for this time of year.
Net Neutrality
John McCain is the senator for my area and unfortunately is not a supporter of Net Neutrality. I sent him the following letter:
Senator,
As the people of Arizona struggle to recover economically, our ability to obtain information, to communicate, and to market small businesses becomes more and more vital.
Just as every citizen has equal access to the information available in libraries, every citizen also has equal access to the information available on the internet. When I walk into the library, there is generally a table full of recommended books. While I appreciate the recommendations of highly read individuals, I may have come to the library looking for a specific book or a specific subject matter that wasn’t even available among the recommended books. I smile at the recommended books, say “no thanks,” and enter the rest of the library.
Should I be penalized for not checking out one of the recommended books? Should the library force me to do so? Maybe the library would allow only one person at a time past the recommended reading table, so a long line develops. Or maybe no books other than the recommended reading ones can be checked out, meaning that I am forced to read the entire book while I am there in the library. Or, perhaps the books can be checked out but for only overnight, and the late fine is $1000 per day.
In such a situation it is clear that the library wants to control what I am reading. It may have many incentives to do so, but by enacting such a policy would be removing a freedom from Arizona citizens.
Communications companies such as telephone companies, cable companies, and internet service providers propose policies like this library situation be applied to the internet. The internet freedom now enjoyed by Arizona citizens is referred to as Net Neutrality, and this means that the companies that bring Arizona the internet should not censor its content nor manipulate its delivery so that some sites get preferential treatment.
I understand that you have publicly criticized Net Neutrality, and I find this extremely disappointing. Arizonans are relying on the internet more than ever; to allow its content to be censored or its delivery unfairly manipulated sounds more like something I might expect of a one party third world government.
Consider for a moment the freedoms that you have fought for, and that many other Arizonans have also fought for. Stand up for Net Neutrality. Do not allow communications companies to turn Arizona into China or Iran. Free people, free press, free internet.
Whatever else we have to say about McCain, at least he acknowledges. I’ve written to him plenty of times and his staffers have sent his snail mail form letter replies on several occasions. That’s far more than most politicians. I doubt he will change his mind on Net Neutrality though; one web site says he has received more than 800K in contributions from communications companies. That much money is probably very persuasive.
Leaves
People went to universities, learned how to be successful in various professions, and developed plans for their futures. Accomplished businesspeople hired accomplished architects who hired accomplished engineers, and it wasn’t long before a thriving city was built on this once natural spot. Millions of tons of steel, glass and concrete now hide the earth underneath. We occasionally allow small signs of nature to poke through the concrete and into the city. This is permitted only in designated places and even there it is tightly controlled; cities tend to treat nature in much the same way that they treat smokers.
I was very happy to see the bright colors and smell the earthiness of these leaves on the street. They served as a beautiful reminder of the natural ingredients of life that lay just inches under the concrete, and that surround us in the air. When combined the two create things that easily surpass the beauty of even man’s grandest accomplishments.
2006, December the 2nd
San Francisco was still hibernating through a long cold night I had just left my hotel on Market Street and was wandering half asleep following lines in the cold concrete occasionally looking up at darkened windows and closed doors my hands were planted deeply in my pockets so I probably walked a little robotically the icy wind blew in off the Pacific and the tall buildings downtown accelerated it like a luge I cheered the occasional piece of paper racing along and wished I had an alpine bell to ring in encouragement it was sunrise on a Saturday morning and as the sole representative of our species in the vicinity I took a moment to thank the air the buildings the streets the lights basically everything I could see for making San Francisco what it is I was disappointed though by the lack of coffee houses in other cities you can’t extend your arm without touching one but here in San Francisco they must have an unusually healthy respect for sleep it’s highly likely that all I needed to do was walk knight to king’s bishop three and some wonderfully grotty all-nighter would have greeted me with stained doors flung open and a chipped mug already filled I heard a streetcar in the distance and then was gratified to see another member of our species sleepily stumbling her way through the cold dawn this meant there was the potential for something to be open early nearby I just hoped it wouldn’t be an electronics retailer or a Fisherman’s Wharf tourist junk emporium I walked a block in the same direction south I think and saw an open door on a side street it was a little hole in the wall vendor that sold pastries some were recognizable but most were unusual Asian varieties they were really weird and fascinating and I asked the vendor what they were she had a difficult time explaining so we mainly just smiled at each other I ordered the largest hottest coffee available she served it to me in a big styrofoam cup with a complicated plastic lid that my frozen hands broke almost immediately I spent the next glorious half hour standing on a variety of street corners warming my hands on the cup blowing steam off the coffee and taking gulps just big enough to warm my luxurious interior without scalding my mouth
Advernet
As we all know, change is the only constant. Those who cling to the past are almost inevitably disappointed with the present and may perish sooner; those who adapt to change are more likely to thrive and remain longer.
When MySpace was founded in 2003 it was a blogging site used by a wide variety of individuals and organizations. After the site’s purchase by Fox in 2005 the dominant user demographic became teens and twenty-somethings. Now MySpace seems to be used almost exclusively by young people and musicians, and what may have seemed like the devolution of a blogging site has instead become ground zero for the evolution of the recording industry. Generally, the only audience those musicians reach though are teens and twenty-somethings.
YouTube is a more recent phenomenon. Before it was created by former PayPal employees in early 2005 it was often difficult to locate video clips online. YouTube became an intelligent way to both post and collect short videos. Many of the clips originally found were educational in nature, but YouTube clearly had potential as an excellent promotional tool. About eighteen months after going live the site was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion. Just as the user demographic changed on MySpace after its purchase by Fox, the user demographic on YouTube has also changed after that site’s purchase by Google. As an example, earlier today I watched a video promoting awareness of the harsh chemical nature of most commonly sold household cleaners. I posted a comment as follows:
“Excellent awareness builder. Manmade chemicals are often harsh, toxic and non-biodegradable. Natural alternatives exist that do as good a job (particularly when used with an appropriate applicator, e.g. a scrubber sponge rather than a paper towel) and will not poison our water, soil, or air, or potentially poison people or other animals.
Beyond the direct impact of the chemicals, also consider that the plastic containers they are sold in can take 3,000 years to break down in landfills.”
A reply was received almost immediately as follows:
“hey dumbass, where do you think all of these ‘harsh chemicals’ come from? outer f***ing space? if you are so concernd about the enviroment you would kill yourself and your children because all you do is consume and waste. i bet 90% of the products in your house are made from chinese plastic and other non bio degradables that are stripmined and hual from the earth.”
I thanked the user for this intelligent response and moved on. Google is capitalizing on YouTube’s potential as a promotional tool, and as a result YouTube’s user demographic has shifted. The comment above is just one of many that lead me to believe YouTube has evolved into the video version of MySpace.
As long as internet sites derive incomes from advertising, their content will increasingly need to reflect the demographic groups being targeted by the advertisers. Television and radio news has degraded in recent years for similar reasons, and our alternative, the internet, is also largely reliant on advertising. The changes we have seen in sites like MySpace and YouTube are occurring on other sites too. Because change is the only constant we can expect the content of many sites to increasingly reflect specific demographics. Many users found it disappointing recently to see that BBC News had begun allowing advertising on their website; it does lead to questions regarding the potential for bias in their news coverage.
The internet is perhaps the greatest democracy; it allows everyone a voice. People who may otherwise feel voiceless can address millions. People who may otherwise feel powerless can speak out. People who want to change the world can address it. Organizations that want to sell to the world can pitch to it. And because everyone has a voice, we hear from the young and old, the informed and uninformed, the open-minded and the highly opinionated, in short at least a little bit of everybody. The evolution of sites like MySpace, YouTube, and now even BBC News may give us the impression that the internet has become more a source of annoying Flash-based advertising than of information. What this means though is that along with everything else that changes, so must that little list of sites that we users regularly visit. Find new sites that better address your needs and say goodbye to ones that no longer suit you.
The Bear Essentials
Nice to have this bruin looking out for you. I like to see touches like this on older buildings. This one was seen outside the Hotel St. Michael in Prescott, Arizona.
The name St Michael reminded me of St. Michael’s Mount, a beautiful little island and castle off the coast of Cornwall, England. At one time I worked in Praze-An-Beeble, a tiny village very close to St. Michael’s Mount. If you have a chance to visit this area please do so; it’s full of friendly people, beautiful scenery, and fascinating history. This is where you will find places with names like Land’s End, Penzance, and Tintagel – the birthplace of King Arthur.
It’s All Your Fault
You probably don’t remember the moment. It was just a few weeks ago, but the timing doesn’t really matter. You thought it was so innocent, and maybe even a bit exciting. You heard or read somewhere that the morning wouldn’t be as warm as the afternoon, and when standing naked in your closet you thought “I think I’ll put on this heavier shirt today.” That little sign of weakness was all winter needed, and now look what has happened. Leaves have fallen off trees, animals have hibernated, birds have flown south, women have put away their sun dresses, men have put away their shorts, and when I enter the kitchen for my coffee each morning my feet are shocked by the cold tile. On behalf of the flora and fauna of our hemisphere I wanted to pass along to you this nice big bowl of moldy raspberries, and our request that next year you please wear your summery clothes longer.
Convolutions
“The mind is like a richly woven tapestry in which the colors are distilled from the experiences of the senses, and the design drawn from the convolutions of the intellect.”
- Carson McCullers
Private Island
Each morning I go for a swim in the sky
I float on the currents of comets
and bask in the warm glow of a million suns
the occasional meteor shower doesn’t get me down
because I know that I too was once a rock
hurtling through the sky to some unknown destination
only to millions of years later find myself here
as the sand crunches beneath my feet
and the solar wind rustles my hair
I wonder who and what that meteor will one day become
Treasure Silence
“Remember always that you are just a visitor here, a traveler passing through. Your stay is but short and the moment of your departure unknown. None can live without toil, and a craft that provides your needs is a blessing indeed. But if you toil without rest, fatigue and weariness will overtake you, and you will denied the joy that comes from labor’s end. Speak quietly and kindly and be not forward with either opinions or advice. If you talk much, this will make you deaf to what others say, and you should know that there are few so wise that they cannot learn from others. Be near when help is needed, but far when praise and thanks are being offered. Take small account of might, wealth and fame, for they soon pass and are forgotten. Instead, nurture love within you and and strive to be a friend to all. Truly, compassion is a balm for many wounds. Treasure silence when you find it, and while being mindful of your duties, set time aside, to be alone with yourself. Cast off pretense and self-deception and see yourself as you really are.”
- Dhammavadaka
Do Not Speak, Unless It Improves On Silence
“Do not speak, unless it improves on silence” (Buddhist saying)
(Photo shot from Yarnell Hill Lookout Point along AZ Highway 89 at about 4:30 Saturday afternoon)
You Have Already Arrived
People tend to recognize that “living in the past” distracts people from finding happiness in their lives. In much the same way, “living in the future” can also distract people from finding happiness in their lives. When we focus on reaching out for things that existed in the past – or that may or may not exist in the future – we risk missing out on beautiful things that surround us right now. Every life is a journey, and each moment is its own destination. You have already arrived.
If You Died Right Now
I saw a bumper sticker today that asked “if you died right now would you go to heaven or hell?” My simple answer: no.
Cancer Protein ‘Can Be Disarmed’
Interesting health news: BBC News reports today that “cancer protein ‘can be disarmed.’ Scientists have found a way to disarm a protein thought to play a key role in leukaemia and other cancers… The protein [referred to as "Notch"] is one of the body’s transcription factors, which turn genes on or off and set in motion genetic cascades that control how cells grow and develop. They also help fuel the growth of tumours.”
Cancer is one of the two most frequent causes of death in the United States, so eliminating cancer is a wonderful goal. I worry though that research like this treats the symptom rather than the cause. This type of therapy allows the cause of the cancer to continue unabated, allowing the number of cancer patients to remain constant rather than decline. What will potentially be caused is an increase in the number of cancer survivors, which of course is good. While preventing the spread of cancer within a patient’s body is admirable, preventing someone from becoming a cancer patient in the first place is an even better idea.
If there was still lead in drinking water and asbestos in building material we could use the therapy described above to treat the cancer cases and could then continue to use lead and asbestos. The root cause of the cancer would not be addressed. People would continue to get sick and would be treated. Problem solved?
A cure for cancer does not involve gene therapy to build our resistance, or to weaken cancer’s ability to spread. A cure for cancer involves us changing the conditions that lead to our developing the disease. This usually means changes in industry, changes in environmental policies and practices, and changes in diet. As individuals we ourselves therefore have a huge amount of control over our own cures for cancer. It is only a matter of change.
Autumn’s Colors
A nice audio slideshow found on the BBC this morning. It doesn’t feel like Autumn here in central Arizona, so this is a nice reminder that odd concepts such as seasons still exist elsewhere. Excerpts from The Autumn, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, read by Peter Donaldson; excerpts from Autumn, by John Clare, read by Charlotte Green.
Imagination
“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Building Fertile Soil
Arizona desert soil doesn’t have many nutrients, is heavily alkaline, and is hard clay caliche. This makes it difficult to grow the things that most people like to eat. For sixty years or so our modern solution has been to truck food here from other places, or to grow it here using dangerous chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. For centuries prior to that we were able to grow food here in central Arizona by cooperating with nature rather than hopelessly trying to control it.
In order to grow food here you need soil that will sustain more than saguaro and tumble weeds. An easy way to build that soil is a layering technique called lasagna gardening. People in cooler climates can do this above ground, but here in Arizona we know that raised garden beds dry out quickly in our intense heat. This spring I cordoned off about a third of the back yard and over the next several months dug out six garden beds.
Bed One: 40′ long x 2′ wide x 3′ deep
Beds Two and Three: 17′ x 3′9″ x 3′
Bed Four: 17′ x 3′9″ x 2′
Bed Five: 5′ x 3′9″ x 3′
Bed Six: 5′ x 3′9″ x 2′
The strange width of 3′9″ for most of the beds came about simply because I used a broken broom handle to measure out the yard before digging. It was very handy to lay that on the ground, make a few cuts with the shovel, and move it along. The walkways between the beds are also 3′9″ wide.
All the hard clay caliche earth was dug out by softening it with water then digging it out with a hand shovel. This has been a long, slow, difficult process, and gave me tremendous respect for the Native Americans and pioneer farmers who worked this land before me. I piled the earth I dug out onto the walkway spaces between the beds, which raised the walkways and will cause rain (yes, someday it will rain) to roll down into the beds. Some of the caliche was also used to create a sloping berm (see upper left of photo) which runs the length of the 40′ bed. This will catch rain too, but it also serves as a deterrent for our dog. I don’t need her assistance either digging or fertilizing!
You may be able to see some tree leaves poking out of one of the beds to the right of the photo; that’s where I’m composting tree trimmings from the front yard. In another bed I’m composting waste from our rabbit friend. In two separate bins I’m composting kitchen waste (we’re vegan so all the kitchen waste – except anything not organic – is very earth friendly).
I’m in the process now of building new soil in two of the beds using the “lasagna” technique. This process has begun in the bed at the front of this photo and the one to the left of the tree. Once they are productive I’ll then have more mulch and compost to use for building soil in the other beds – and the building soil cycle will continue.
This much planting space should allow me to grow a lot, so we hope to be canning and freezing large quantities, rather than traveling to the store and buying large quantities in plastic bags.
It’s Never Too Late For A Picnic
It doesn’t seem like autumn at all, except for that unique sepia tint to the light in the sky. The weather today was beautiful and sunny; the temperature hit 86F / 30C degrees, and I spent a great deal of time working outside. Did we change hemispheres?
An Englishman’s Home Is His Castle
In Medieval Europe, politics often involved a monarchy that controlled their territory through agreements with regional warrior nobility, who then controlled the local people. The warrior nobility lived in castles and took elaborate steps to protect themselves from competing warrior nobility, from the local people in case they might rise against them, and even from the monarch. The only safe place for the warrior nobles was inside their castles; the warrior noble could do as he pleased in his own castle, and entering it uninvited was considered a potential act of war.
There was a large income disparity between warrior nobility and the local people (peasants, serfs, etc). Writings from the late 1500s indicated the common belief the everyone’s home was in effect their castle; people were free to live without the constant watch of the warrior nobles in their own home (no matter its size) and entering uninvited was not to be done. In his 1581 work “The Stage of Popish Toyes: conteining both tragicall and comicall partes” Henri Estienne states that “youre house is youre Castell.” In the same year, Richard Mulcaster wrote in “Positions, which are necessarie for the training up of children” that “He (the householder) is the appointer of his owne circumstance, and his house is his castle.” Within your home, you have the right to expect privacy.
In 1604 the “castle” terminology was first written into law by Sir Edward Coke, then the Attorney General of England. Sir Edward wrote in Semayne’s Case (77 Eng. Rep. 194; 5 Co. Rep. 91) that “the house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose.” He added “in all cases when the King is party, the sheriff may break the party’s house, either to arrest him, or to do other execution of the K(ing)’s process, if otherwise he cannot enter. But before he breaks it, he ought to signify the cause of his coming, and to make request to open doors.”
Sir Edward Coke’s writing in Semayne’s Case became an important factor in English law, and its concepts later became the basis of the knock-and-announce principle in American law and more importantly of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Fourth Amendment states “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” There is no King or warrior noble now; in America the federal government or its agencies should not invade your home or your privacy without probable cause and without a warrant.
The Fourth Amendment was one of the Bill of Rights, written by James Madison in 1789 and passed into law in 1791. At that time a primary concern of warrants and seizures in the colonies had been the home invasions and seizing of colonists’ property by British government tax collectors. In the mid 1700s this had been a huge problem, and in 1761 a five hour court petition by James Otis Jr. passionately denouncing British government and government agent practices made him such a hero that he was later elected to the Massachusetts General Assembly. John Adams was in the room at the time and concurred with Otis, labeling the events Otis described “as the spark in which originated the American Revolution.” Later, with the revolution finally won, an American’s home would be his or her castle too, and Americans would have the right to expect privacy when inside their homes.
Two hundred years later America still has the Fourth Amendment, but it is being interpreted in entirely new ways. Kings, warrior nobles, tax collectors or government agencies no longer have to knock down your door in order to invade your castle. Instead, they record your internet traffic, list your credit card purchases, tape your telephone calls, copy your bank records, and film and photograph you day and night. “Reasonable search” and “probable cause” are also open to interpretation. On October 28, 2009 the New York Times quoted Valerie Caproni, the F.B.I.’s general counsel as stating “Those who say the F.B.I. should not collect information on a person or group unless there is a specific reason to suspect that the target is up to no good seriously miss the mark… The F.B.I. has been told that we need to determine who poses a threat to the national security — not simply to investigate persons who have come onto our radar screen.” In other words, investigate everyone until you find someone suspicious.
This is the nature of the Patriot Act, which was signed into law on October 26th, 2001 by George W. Bush. This legislation was rushed through Congress in the six weeks immediately following 9/11 and was passed though some Senators and Representatives openly admitted having not read it. Such was the need at that moment to quickly do something, anything to heal.
What happened on 9/11 was so counter-intuitive that our normal emergency responses might not have been effective. We knew how to address the immediate impact, but were confused by the twisted minds of those who had caused the event. How could we bring justice? As people tried to figure this out some action taken was heroic, and other action was ineffective and occasionally contemptible. In hindsight the spirit of Patriot Act is admirable and gives greater power to those who are supposed to protect us. The Patriot Act clearly allows liberties to be trampled though. Denying the liberties of American people in order to protect the liberties of American people makes no sense whatsoever. Liberty is not a three dimensional object; it is not something that can be cordoned off and stored in a secure facility while criminals are caught. Liberty is a concept, is lived as an experience, and is expressed through actions. Liberty comes with risks. It sounded risky to King George III, who used his military against American colonists, and it sounded risky to George W. Bush, who in signing the Patriot Act began to use the FBI and other government agencies against American citizens.
The USA Patriot Act is still law now, and has come back into the news again because the FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide has been made public. This Guide shows us the criteria the FBI uses to determine which Americans should be considered potential suspects, and therefore targets for spying. Originally, reasonable suspicion and a warrant were necessary in order to invade the home of a suspect. Now, the FBI appears to be suspicious of all Americans, and warrants may or may not even be needed for the spying to begin.
It has now been eight years since 9/11, and eight years since the Patriot Act began formally allowing for our privacy to be invaded. My sincere hope is that our newly elected officials will revise the Patriot Act so that it respects the liberties guaranteed to American citizens in our Constitution. My gut feeling though is that after eight years of invading our castles, our government is highly unlikely to pull its eyes and ears out of our bank accounts and bedrooms and every single other nook and cranny of what we thought were our personal lives.
