-The rebirth, metamorphosis, and transformation of journalism
-The evolution of the dissemination of intelligence If all the world’s problems, pain and suffering are due to ignorance then wisdom, intelligence and awareness are the solutions to all the worlds’ problems, who can deliver the solution? We have a world out of balance, who is there to bring it back into balance? It is a world of disinformation and bias, who can clarify the truth without distortion by special interest? Who is it that is defined by their intention to “make aware” and who is it that can facilitate the many to see the reality behind the appearances?
Independent Journalists and Organizations of Journalistic Endeavor
Organizations of journalists exist to achieve what no individual journalist can achieve alone. They provide collective wisdom and a large pool of knowledge and information sources combined with a little structure and discipline. The organized journalists leverage and share resources reducing costs for all the participants in the journalistic organization and the end user. A journalistic organization is a collective effort that combines areas of specialty to deliver a complete product to the organizations readers.
The role of the editor is a special one to assist the author in, identifying errors and omissions, review of the logic, analysis of the possibility and probability, determining what is known, highlighting what is unknown and needs to be known, defining the questions to be asked. For it is the question not the statement that is most powerful creating a vacuum in the mind that must be filled, and since nature abhors a vacuum it is soon answered. Spotlighting the rational and the irrational views and finding the wisdom that ends the conflict between them. The main function of the editor is to take a lot of information and detail and reduce it down to provide a concise understanding, an executive summary for today’s short attention spans.
The editor translates concepts requiring a specialty framework of knowledge into terms and examples understood within a general framework of knowledge while providing some details to validate. Those working in other vocations don’t have time to study all the detail so the value of the editor and the journalists is saving the reader the time it takes to become knowledgeable and informed, so they can make decisions. The reader with greater interest is then directed to additional detail and more information if they require it and where and when to find the follow-up on the unanswered questions and culmination of the story if it has not ended.
Time is money, time is in many contexts a limited resource; knowledge is power so this is the value generated for other economic system participants by the journalistic vocation. As such the journalistic agents should be duly rewarded by other economic system participants with a portion of the wealth they create for it is the journalist that enhances their wealth creation.
Good investigative journalism is an “effort” intensive vocation which can demand substantial resources to juice and invest in the development of the story and this creates the need for a supporting body to nurture the individual cells. Simple cut and paste is not journalism, it is propagation and validation, something we should all do. Journalism requires study, disciplined placement of attention, a discerning mind, benefited by understanding and comprehension resulting from years of experience.
Enhanced and well exercised cognitive capabilities and a sharp mind are essential to connecting disparate pieces of information and clues to form and assemble the complete picture, the whole story, and the untold story that becomes told.
The New Journalist Organization
Very efficient, advanced communications, data mining, research and collaboration tools, diversified distribution channels, and a database of contacts and the maintenance of relationships to sustain information flow. The news organization is trusted by the readers to direct “attention” to the matters, issues, and solutions in order of priority. The news organization delivers the balanced view, one resulting from the integration of contrasting perspectives to deliver one that is whole and integrated.
The new journalistic organization is not a unidirectional flow of information it is bidirectional where readers provide feedback helping to evolve understanding, pose questions, and some actually becoming sources of information in their specialty area or as a result of their direct experience and involvement in the story line.
Formats: Diversity is good, sometimes print is good on a train, a subway, a plane, at the beach, and in waiting rooms. Print does not require power or energy to read just natural light making it a green sustainable fail proof technology. Newspapers should be available in these locations. A newspaper vending machine is itself a quick informer showing the front page, and the priority stories and current state of affairs. Are things in balance or out of balance, what is being done to correct imbalance? What must be done to bring balance? The static printed medium can supply the entry points, the URLs leading to the dynamic and more expansive content.
On the other hand there is the dynamic real time need for energy efficient electronic distribution to meet the speed of change, the accelerated rate of evolution that is itself a product of the light speed information flow combined with the furthering development of the story. Also we remember there are those, a portion of us that are empowered by the simplicity of access to information provided by the printed medium.
Advertising: There is nothing wrong with advertising and marketing, and it is evolving. The new department name is the Awareness Department. No longer is it a medium of gimmick, manipulation of ego, or motivation through fear or a producer of envy. It no longer attempts to create an illusion and seduce with fictions, but portrays a reality. People want to know a service or product’s features and functions, the level of quality and intelligence that goes into it; the efficiency achieved in producing it. The consumer wants to be educated in how the product or service can benefit them and the lives of others they know. The consumer wants to be able to access the detail specifications if needed so they can compare and the various levels of need each model of product or service package can fulfill. The consumer wants to be aware of what is available as a solution to a problem or challenge they are having. The consumer wants to be able to find the information they want easily. The consumer expects to find this information linked to the channels of interest associated with the product. If one is a music connoisseur then what better to see what is newly available, the evolutions of products and services and their current status, related to their listening pleasure, while they are selecting music to listen to. Advertising and marketing is not a “push operation” it is a pull operation, not one of force, but one of gravity, and it does this by making itself intelligently available and nudging with the creation of awareness.
It is the job of the awareness department representing an organization of producers, a business, to deliver this to the right places in a concise and understandable form allowing the seeker to drill down to the detail. When the want or desire of a consumer arises it is the job of the awareness department to make sure there is a link to a path that leads to fulfillment.
News Story: the local, regional, and global scope of perspective and story are all separate areas of focus and need yet all combine to provide a holistic view. There is an understanding that the local gives rise to the regional and the regional to the global, the story lines are all connected to our Great Epic story, the story of humanity, and it is we all of us that together are writing it.
It is the job of the journalist to create awareness leading to balance in the world while promoting evolution and growth, and the ability to adapt. It is the journalists that query the technicians that can solve the problems and the experts that have the insight and understanding. It is the journalist that helps generate the impetus that comes from the people to direct the politicians to orchestrate. It is the journalist that eliminates the fictions that divide, for truth only creates unity. It is journalists that bring attention to issues and their solutions, to direct healing, repair and aid to those areas of humanity needing it, so we can all sleep soundly at night without worry, knowing that tomorrow all the children will awaken to play and pretend, and fill the air with the music of their laughter, and appease the gods so that everyone has a life worth living.
"Let it be know that when the sounds of the children’s laughter grows dim in the universe and the divine vibration is replaced with sound of crying and tears the gods will come and with their enormous might carried by vehicles of light and eliminate that which silenced the laughter."
Richard Thomas Gerber - Feb 09
This was written in response to a planned event on April 23rd some 60 journalists will be meeting to talk about the past and future in the present in the Old Detroit Free Press Building. There are still 100 potential seats available to this exclusive revolutionary media event. Those that might like to attend can send an email to freepressevent@gmail.com . It would seem that we would be talking about and forming the new news media; the core of which is simply the journalists and editors empowered by new technology, connectivity and need.
Henry M
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KCUF can now be listened to using a Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget: http://gallery.live.com/results.aspx?bt=1&q=KCUF
Welcome President Elect Barack Obama and your administration, as you align with millions of people around the world laser focused on creating a higher vibration reality! And thank you George Bush and your administration, for leading us through the dark night of Soul; inviting us to witness what we DO NOT want, causing many global communities to unite in a desire to create something better. As pioneers in the illusion of separation, human systems created in limited consciousness serving few at the expense of many are no longer sustainable. The global economic crisis, severe and threatening climate changes, escalating unemployment and chaos, signal it is time for Earthlings to consciously awaken within. In other words, it is time for humans in physical form to GRADUATE to the next planned phase of EVOLution and I suggest we are in the middle of writing our final exams now. Einstein encouraged us to go beyond the familiar when he said, ‘Problems cannot be solved at the same level of Consciousness [thinking] that caused those problems in the first place.” It is more than coincidence to learn frontier science now reveals that our inner and outer environments respond to one another. Oneness is eternal; known by many names including God, Spirit, Universe, Allah, Yahweh, Source, Consciousness, Light, Love or Other Name. Some sparks of Consciousness shine brighter than others; however there is only the One; no matter how dim lit a being appears to be or do. Ponder this ... the root cause of all pain, suffering, fear, judgment, criticism, blame, lack, limitation, war and the like is our belief in separation ... believing our body separate from Soul or spark of the One within each of us; separate from one another, Earth and other kingdoms and separate from Consciousness Itself. It is said there is no blueprint for Earth beyond 2012. I suggest in this freewill zone, we script tomorrow with every today choice. If graduation in this Uni-verse is one song in the hearts of many, or unity in conscious community, what will we choose?
The Source of Energy to power our global economy and bring distortions to lasting correction is Consciousness, creative intelligence within each of us preparing to re-member, before we take ourselves over the edge. Imagine physicality on Earth at this point in EVOLution, where we experience duality as light or dark; up or down; cold or hot. To illustrate this duality further, take a large round elastic band and twist it in the center causing an infinity symbol or number 8. Now imagine the two circles or ovals represent life in limited consciousness; high vibration light on one side and low vibration dark on the other side. Untwisting the center creates a circle of oneness, causing the light of full consciousness to transform darker limited consciousness. What if consciously embracing darkness, you know what I mean, looking at people, events and circumstances that we judge, criticize or blame when they mis-align with our belief system ... another way? Belief systems created in limited consciousness that imprison us until we choose otherwise. We do indeed reap what we sow; it is the natural law of cause and effect just like gravity. What if every time we embraced darkness we untwist the illusion of separation allowing the light of new awareness to flow into the darkness? And what if, as more of us courageously embrace dark parts of ourselves we do not yet understand, which is low vibration ENERGY in the form of limiting beliefs we inherited from past generations; absorbed from individuals we trusted and admired, or from unpleasant experiences in cellular memory causing the e-motion [energy in motion] of fear in our body ... what if loving those dark parts of us, allowed the twist to reverse a little bit more and more until there is only light? Killing in the name of limiting beliefs is a choice. The new currencies are willingness to look at what we truly are another way; courage to re-member inner truth aligning with Soul within to bring distortions to lasting correction [SOULutions] and love without conditions allowing us to go where NO HUMAN RACE HAS GONE BEFORE; loving the dark into brilliant light. When we consciously embrace all as One and reach critical mass, the tipping point or 100th Monkey, I believe our LIGHT WILL SHINE SO BRIGHTLY THAT OUR BRILLIANCE WILL CHANGE THE NATURE OF PHYSICALITY FOREVER! The HOPI prophesize, “We are the One we are waiting for.” What we truly are cannot be taught, only experienced. In the doing comes the knowing.
Many people who know me and my pioneering equality work in the UK will find this post, in particular, rather strange, and might, in fact, fall off their chairs in some surprise! But that is the beauty of evolving in life from one stage to another. If we are learning, we are always developing and always changing perspectives. If we are entrenched in what we believe and have closed minds, we've stopped learning and are in danger of solidifying into fossilised rocks of dubious certainty. It has to be far more exciting to learn!
Being on a holiday in Chicago by myself has allowed for a lot of free thinking time and I believe the most profound thought I might have had on the whole trip was triggered by a comment from a member of an online diversity group I had joined. Some members had not taken kindly to comments by two other French members and had blasted them somewhat for their views. One member, in particular was so upset by this, she wrote:
"I am very disenchanted with a group entitled Diversity for Obama that does not welcome diverse comments from its members and does not stop to think that everyone may not be familiar with email etiquette."
She had made an excellent point which immediately gave me a new insight into my own work, as I had spent the last 15 years advocating diversity in very strong terms. Retired from it now, it was easier to see the wood from the trees and appreciate that accepting true diversity, not the cosmetic form like our recent 'Black History Month' etc., actually comes with a cost for each group/individual.
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We have been holding on eight long years for the opportunity of this day. Be sure to vote twice during this election: once at the polling stations, and then again with your state of mind.
Recall the disappointment in 2000 when Al Gore lost to G.W. Bush? Can you imagine what it may have been like to have had Gore as President instead? Despite Gore's loss, look at the tremendous good Gore has done to bring a great deal of awareness to global warming over the past few years. On the contrary, Bush started his eight year run as the worst President in American history at a time when the world needed that the least.
In 2004, we had the opportunity to exit Bush out of office, yet Bush won again against John Kerry. The suspected voting suppression, manipulation, and fraud of 2000 (which many just could not quite believe could be true at that time) disuaded voters in the 2004 election, some complacency set in--and in any case, the election was stolen again. With Bush's regime, the world has been changed forever.
Now here we are in 2008 with an opportunity to exit Bush (and the policies and thematics that McCain would appear to carry forward), and more, to bring in Obama: perhaps the most progressive and liberal President any of us have seen in our life times so far. Personally, I see that Barack Obama is the best realistic candidate for American President since JFK, perhaps even Abraham Lincoln. We are blessed to have this opportunity.
Yesterday, while browsing through FaceBook.com, I was shocked to see someone in my own personal network posting a status note that made the assertion, "In this election do not vote." Complacency is one thing, yet I'm highly perplexed why anyone would make an assertion against voting. I made a reply comment, saying that this is like saying, "IN THIS MOMENT DO NOT BREATHE."
Aside from politics, candidates, and the issues--the right to vote, and the initiative to take personal action to vote--is the core and fundamental component of democracy. Each individual vote comprises a piece of the total collective body. Together we vote, together we forge our collective shape, and move forward in social evolution. While it is true that the political landscape has turned vile nearing the cusp of the 21st Century, and real crimes are being committed to deter and alter votes--we simply cannot afford to allow ourselves to become further deterred as individuals locked in complacency, depression, denial, or ungrounded idealism. If we lose our will to vote, we are losing the breath to keep our collective body alive.
The origin of the word "vote" comes from the Latin "vovere" which means "to vow". When we vote, we literally vow to participate in animating the collective spirit by our own action, and define the collective body by our individual perspective and choice.
It can be helpful and true to think about the mass population of America (and of the world) as having similar psychological and energetic constituents as an individual human being. Psychologist Carl Jung describes the fundamental psychological concept involved with the dynamics of the conscious and unconscious, which can be applied to either the individual or the collective psyche:
"The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves." (AION: 126)
The notion of the collective unconscious was introduced by Jung as a "reservoir of the experiences of our species." And Eckhart Tolle, in his book A New Earth, speaks about the "collective ego":
"A collective ego manifests the same characteristics as the personal ego, such as the need for conflict and enemies, the need for more, the need to be right against others who are wrong, and so on. Sooner or later, the collective will come into conflict with other collectives, because it unconsciously seeks conflict and it needs opposition to define its boundary and thus its identity. Its members will then experience the suffering that inevitably comes in the wake of any ego-motivated action. At that point, they may wake up and realize that their collective has a strong element of insanity."
Clearly, what we have been largely observing for the past eight years are various manifestations of the collective ego struggling against the evolutionary tide of the collective conscious as we move into higher human potentialities of a 21st Century global society. We have witnessed the collective ego emerging with it's shadowy type of power in the events around 911, the wars in the Middle East, the surmounting economic crisis, partisan politics, voting fraud, and more. The old structures do not want to give into the new change. The extremism of McCain's campaign very well characterizes this egoic manifestation by it's harsh partisan division, aggressive attack ads, impulsive recklessness, contradiction, deceit, slander, and, even in the last few weeks, the internal dissension among key members of the Republican party itself. This CNN video report of Peruvian Shamans (in majority favor of Obama) reflects a traditional awareness of the fundamental energy dynamics going on around the representatives of Obama and McCain.
The origin of the word "conspiracy" comes from Latin "con-" which means "together with", and "spirare" which means "to breathe". Although the common taken meaning of the word "conspiracy" is heavy with the extreme power dynamics of the collective ego in action, what it literally means is "to breath together". I propose that this is the true meaning of conspiracy, and that we have an opportunity to reinterpret and deepen our understanding of the greatest conspiracy that is occurring upon the cusp of the 21st century. After thousands of years of our collective's noble struggle to know ourselves within the massive backdrop of the cosmic unknown--we have come very far in our collective evolution, and are now becoming self-aware of ourselves, beginning to make a clearer distinction between our collective conscious and unconscious, our collective ego, and our collective superconscious. Yet the task is not to attempt to banish the collective ego by lashing out at it; that is simply more collective ego. As is recommended in the psychological process of individuation, the goal is to integrate and transform the ego with the authentic self. As a collective, we must recognize our collective shadow as ours, consciously and with wisdom utilize the resource of it's energy and power, and consistently aim with our highest consensus intentions to create a world that can harmoniously orchestrate all of our diversity, and continue along our pathway toward the stars.
So at this moment in history, among the shadow of the collective ego struggle--occurring right now as voter suppression and fraud--be certain to follow thru with your vote (vow) to breath into our collective body, participate in the new pronoia conspiracy to evolve everybody. If you think you may choose to not vote, consider that perhaps you are playing into subtler levels of the voter suppression dynamics that have been set forth upon the collective body. When you do vote, you are taking responsibility in activating your own individual conscious evolution, and participating in the conscious evoltion of the collective.
Psychologist Carl Jung says, "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." And spiritual pioneer Andrew Cohen reminds us that "You Are It".
No matter what happens with the results of this election, there is always the golden opportunity to choose to be present, to maintain equanimity, and to be rigorous with oneself as a conscious individual upon the collective path of evolution. This is the divine vote, your reverent vow to persist with the inherent quintessential nature as a conscious being. Above all, breathe ...
[This blog article is also posted at Michael Gaio's blog here ]
I realize this is a political hot potatoe because so many people profess a faith of some kind in the United States and throughout the world.
That said, there is a growing number of people calling for intellectual honesty. Being intellectually honest means you do not hold sacred cows, you allow all claims to be open to scrutiny. The overwhelming majority of the scientific and academic communities do not hold the Bible to be a source of anything further than myth and philosophical ideal. It is not a historical, factual account of history. It is not the basis for science. They hold that God is not an actual being. God is imaginary.
I am calling on our world leaders to stop pacifying us, telling us what they think we want to hear, and instead they need to stand up and publicly state that God is imaginary. God has no place in government. Religious superstitions and beliefs have no place in public office. They may be a source of comfort to some, but they are not real, and should be viewed as myths worthy of some ideological lessons but not historical fact or a basis for science.
Evolution happened. The earth is Billions of years old. God is imaginary. Please show the courage of integrity and truth, and dont be so afraid to tell it like it is.
"Imagine all the people living for today."
Thank YouRyan Cameron.
Considering that Sarah Palin think we should teach creationism alongside evolution in public school, she should be familiar with the half dozen or so Supreme Court Cases striking that idea down. But know, she can only name Roe v. Wade, and fails to come up with a single other Supreme Court case.
Read the full account on my blog: Failin' Palin.
Some Comments Regarding Palin's Candidacy and Positions:
A Republican insider predicted that McCain’s campaign will face a “concerted effort” by the Obama camp to “paint Palin as the next Phyllis Schlafly,” the hardline conservative activist. This source suggested that Palin’s strong views against abortion rights, while popular inside the GOP, will give Democrats an opening with independent women voters in the fall.
Palin’s conservative credentials certainly aren’t in question. Among other things, she has backed the teaching of “intelligent design” as an alternative to evolution. “I am a proponent of teaching both [evolution and intelligent design]," Palin said in a debate during her run for the governor’s office. "And, you know, I say this, too, as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject — creationism and evolution."
Does anyone have access to records of her comments and positions in her debates and campaign speeches during her race for governor?
I have been reading really inspirational and enlighted writings that suggest a quantum leap is made when the current quantum level is filled. It, I think, can be expanded to include the behavioral evolution of man.
Man has been evolving behavioral since his beginning- however you feel that began. We have been gaining knowledge and understanding at a phenomenal rate. Our behavior has been changing and evolving right alongside. It is as if we were preschoolers as far as knowledge and now have moved into maybe middle school. Our increase in knowledge has come from our curiosty and the development of technology to open new levels of understanding.
Our behavioral evolution though has come from both the increase in understanding of the roots of behavior whether genetic or learned and unexpected quantum leaps. These leaps have come from a man or woman with inspiration coupled with an open mind that leaves custom and habits and seeks new worlds of beahvior. Examples of some would be Buddha, the Biblical prophets, Jesus Christ, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, and the list goes on. They forged the path of a different way of behaving, of interacting with each other, or of seeing or visualizing God in whatever way they saw Him.
Our behavior is at the limit though now of its viability to the survival of humans. It is that we need to make another quantum leap. Surprisingly it is that we need to go backwards. We need to jump back to the nomadic cultures when man existed in a balance with his environment. We then need to leap way ahead and couple that with society today. It is the only way man will survive.
In more nomadic cultures, every individual was important. Each had a role. Each had talents and gifts that added in some way to the survival of the group. There were really no possessions but that which could be hauled with the group. That which was valued then and developed was the individual. Money or the conglomeration of 'stuff' was not even yet envisioned. No more was taken from the environmentn then was given. Man was in balance with his environment. He thrived and lived as a part of it.
When nomadic groups became stationary, it was then that the roots of possessions became to emerge and the value of the individual became slowly over hundreds of years less than the value of the currency of exchange that now measured the importance or success of an individual. Man now started to want more than he needed. His desire to gain more created cultures based on the attainment of goods, and man began to take much more from the earth than he returned.
It was not all bad. Actually the development of stationary populations opened the doors for the time to learn and seek new understanding. There was also more time to interact with each other and the accumulation of knowledge burst forward along with technology and material goods. In democratic societies free enterprise led to the pursuit of new technology to earn more money and to accumulate more goods.
However, the end result has been environmental disaster, overpopulation, and the divisions of populations into the poor, not so poor and rich. The individual has been forgotten. It is the money that propels everything. It is the greed to have more that has even initiated the destruction of morality. Thousands of individuals are totally lost. They are locked into poverty, violence or disease at birth. Thousands of people starve daily. Thousands die from lack of health care, Thousands are killed by people wanting more power so they can have more stuff. The value of a man is now how much money he has. And it is the desire to have more money that has left the environment behind. He cares not for it, but how much money he can get.
I know this sounds impossible, but the only way man can survive is if he turns everything backwards and starts to value not 'money' but individuals. In fact probably the only way we can do that is if we do away with 'money' all together. We have to make a quantum leap of gigantic proportions. But how?
I think that after following and reading Obama's speeches and views that he is one of the individuals that will be part of the next Quantum leap. At least he has a great opportunity to do that. Many of his plans are plans that actually start to value the individual and in the end the country. Maybe the leap can be in baby steps like this. However, with the state the world is in we do not have that much time. I think we will need big steps and soon.
What if we did away with 'money'? What if each individual was valued and nutured from childhood in schools and communities that developed his/her strengths and strengthened weaknesses? What if the talent and gifts of each were found and honored? What if the value of a child in high school was not what clothes he wore, car he drove, money his father/mother made but who he was? What if everything was free.? What if what was nurtured and honored were the talents of each and each became the full sum of their potential?
What would happen is that a society would emerge at a new level of behavioral evolution. We would no longer exploit the earth in our pursuit of more money. We could temper technology with wisdom. No one would pollute to 'make more money', no one would kill to get 'more money' no child would be bullied because each was so valued and nurtured by all around that instead they grew and became all their genes destined them to be. Prisons would soon become fewer and less populated because what was valued was the person. There would be no motivation for crime, no drug lords, no billionaires, improved technology would be welcomed not blocked because of 'money' made by another technology. Colleges would be open and free. It would be the value of the knowledge that individual gained and gave to his community that would be valued not whether he could afford to even go. Health care would be free because it would be of the utmost importance of society to foster and nurture the health of all its individuals because of the beauty and contribution each gave. There would be no need for wars.
I know this is simplistic. I know that it would involve much more. I know that many lock out knowledge because of religion. I know that much violence comes from the different religions that hate others. I know that there may be behaviors that are genetic that are truly destructive and hurtful to others. So money is not the only reason we are destroying ourselves. Obviously there are even more roots too such as religious beliefs and prejudices. However, some of these behaviors are learned. They are not genetic. We learn religion, culture and prejudice. We are not born that way which to me indicates that these learned behaviors must also meet the end of a quantum and leap to new levels of understanding. We do not innately 'hate' a person of another religion or race. And in a society and world that values deeply each person there would never be a need to learn destructive behaviors.
I think that Obama has the open mind, the diverse background, the vitality of understanding and the ability to inspire others to start the quantum leap. How we could do this truly I do not know. Any ideas?
As reported at the Slog blog of Seattle's The Stranger:
In 1988, cultures of E. Coli were started in media with little sugar, but much citrate. Any bacteria that could eat citrate would have a huge selective advantage. After 31,500 generations, one colony finally gained the ability to eat citrate. Going back to the freezer, and looking at the earlier colonies frozen back, it became clear that the pieces started to come together in parts at around 20,000 generations. What an amazing finding! Just by being in a selective environment, that rewarded bacteria that could learn to do a complex new task, the part could form by a series mutations and eventually be selected for. Exactly as evolution would predict—an elegant demonstration of both halves of evolution, natural selection and the arising of complex traits by random mutation. It’s a stinging slap in the face of the Intelligent Design creationists, whose entire loudly touted faith-system is based on the impossibility of this event.
In 1988, cultures of E. Coli were started in media with little sugar, but much citrate. Any bacteria that could eat citrate would have a huge selective advantage. After 31,500 generations, one colony finally gained the ability to eat citrate. Going back to the freezer, and looking at the earlier colonies frozen back, it became clear that the pieces started to come together in parts at around 20,000 generations.
The article they link to is not available online unless you've got a subscription to the journal. But this is pretty amazing. The only thing the scientists did was alter the environment. That "selected" the ability to process the citrate after over 31,000 generations.
Keep religion out of the classroom!
4/21/08
4/20/08
Dear Mr. Obama, I looked at the dunes of sand and brush and air in front of me and I thought "that second dune over there must be Mexico!" The border between Mexico and the United States of America is no longer just an artificial line in the sand, but has become a real fence that separates two worlds of thinking.
“On the one side of the fence there is Ann,” I thought, bringing back the words of Ann Coulter, defined by Wikipedia as “American lawyer, conservative columnist, political commentator and bestselling author.” She couldn’t have defined herself better if she did. She is the crème of the rightwing extreme, as loud and visible and fleeting as the foam on a beer.
4/15/08
Dear Mr. Obama,
Yesterday’s letter, I feel, needs a bit of clarification.
First, a suggestion I should have put in: When criticism sounds a little odd when you first hear it, like you ask yourself “how does this follow from what I said?” you will know that the critics are wrong and you are on the right track. They are simply unable to see your perspective. They have lived the political Status Quo for too long. Their minds are trying to brutally match their worldview with a reality that no longer is. The world has already changed, they are stuck in the old one. Only a shock can save them, one like losing your job, or your father or daughter, your pension. Or losing your health without a way to restore it and being told that “you have to work harder.” The folks you spoke to are ahead of your critics, and they will tell you this with their votes.
I belong to a number of groups and generally enjoy the listserv even though I am likely facing a couple hundred extra emails a day from it all. Granted I don't read them all with the same intensity.. but one has me a bit curious, a highly energetic debate is taking place in regards to the 'right song' for Obama.
I guess I wonder if there are any that would be better than the Beatles "Revolution". I mean, do we have any doubt that Obama was the candidate that Lennon was looking for when he did diddies like "All We Are Saying - Is Give Peace A Chance" or "Gimme Some Truth"? Granted, some people would only recall the controversial nature of Lennon and the Beatles at the time. How their liberal stance got them labeled Communists and caused many to fear them.
Revolution ultimately simply means a 'course correction'. Even Thomas Jefferson advocated a revolution every 2-3 generations for that purpose (and clearly we've never had one except perhaps the Civil War because of the course correction that resulted). It does have anything to do with riots, looting or killing or harming anyone, though of course violent revolutions (indicated by the use of the word violent) would.
Revolution is closely related to evolution.. meaning something shifts whether due to cause by man or nature. So consider some of the lyrics.
Such a discussion is probably pretty light fare for many of the agile minds on this site, but in considering it, it does beg the question of 'this movement'. What if - Obama gets the nomination and wins the White House? Do we all get drunk and party in the streets and go home and wait? Many blog about being 'part of the change'? How do you envision that manifesting? Will there be a multi-million person march in DC everytime Obama indicates support of a bill that is facing hurdles in Congress? Will we shift from phone banking and writing and going door to door to voters and start doing it to Legislators?
Now, more uncomfortable to any supporter but far more telling. What if Obama does not win the White House? Are you changed? Are you different? Can you go back to the way you did things before? Would you become more of an activist or a community organizer in your own right? Would you find yourself extending more understanding and kindness to others in your community?
I feel changed and altered...and of course, at the moment that energy is directed into the campaign but still, I find myself aware that it won't just turn off. I also think that I want to be a part in deciding how I redirect it come November.
Would be fascinated by your thoughts on the matter.
Tonight while I worked out I was able to listen to some MSNBC shows (some I liked more than others) anyway, a few things crossed my mind...and if anyone has some thoughts on them I'd like to hear them. First off, probably need to try to suspend our bias for Obama. Try to think back to the days before you heard his name or checked him out when considering some of the following.
