ThansCorner

Upon the shores of an endless sea
rests noble Thomas, a honey bee
whose thirst is for the finer fruit-
riches like tunes from the gentlest flute.

Though large the span, no awful feat
for the small one to grasp such things so sweet
at the horizon’s edge for him to see,
a modest contented honey bee.

To his loyal peers, taking pause,
he speaks his joy, such urgent cause
of things to see, to know, to do
just beyond the rolling blue.

I’ll have you know, he booked a flight
and gathered those fellows without a fight.
They all were strapped in good and tight
and arrived contented that evening.

“Life is bitter, sweet and tough.”
Why believe that sour bluff?
Things are ours to love or hate.
Why turn down a happier state?

Living on a college campus and walking to class puts me outdoors a fair amount in a given day. So naturally, I’m one of those people who checks the weather forecast each morning as I get dressed.

For me, though, the actual forecasted highs and lows mean very little without some context. Is 60 degrees (F) warm enough for a t-shirt? Do I need to break out my winter coat? It’s all relative. Take a look at a comparison between today and yesterday, the idea being that I was outdoors yesterday, I know what the felt like.

Yesterday vs. Today Back to Back

Have you ever found yourself sitting in class, or reclining on a hillside beneath a beautiful sunny day, and realized the depth of things within which you were immersed? Walking along, deep in thought or worry about the difficulties of the day, it’s pretty easy to walk along a path or through a front yard, lost in the list of things to do.

But sitting among blades of grass spiraling up out of the earth, I look out around me and open my eyes. Life is sorted into layers upon layers; first details of the grass, before the grass itself, before blades together composing the field into which each is lost. Beyond that are the hills whose curves the field blankets before reaching to the trees just over the ridge, where shadows from clouds in the sky lazily skim across the horizon before getting lost in the curature of the earth itself.

What could be sorrowful in a world such as this? I imagine sitting there, camera raised up before my eye. I slowly cycle the lens, focusing close up and slowly panning out until those things nearby are lost in blurred fuzziness and the horizon is framed in crisp detail.

Does a stream of consciousness need explanation? Does an article need a title? Stop for a moment and try a new lens. There’s so much to see.

Perth Fun: The Right Brain vs Left Brain test

A friend of mine pointed out the above article about testing left-brain/right-brain dominance. The idea is that judgments can be made about hemispherical dominance according to which way someone perceives the spinning of the dancer. Those who see it as a clockwise rotation are right-brain dominant (feeling and big picture oriented) and those who see it as counter-clockwise are left-brain dominant (logical and detail oriented).

The thing I wonder about is the fact that throughout the course of reading the article, I found myself seeing it both ways, clockwise and counterclockwise. I really wish this article would provide more evidence for the claims it makes about the relationship between this image and right/left-brain dominance. If it’s true, it’s a pretty cool way to see how your mind works. Either way, though, it’s an interesting exercise to try switching back and forth between directions. (Hint: Cover most of the image and focus on her spinning leg)

Check out these two articles in that order. It’s amazing what people can do to science.

Junk Science: Hey Al Gore, We Want a Refund!

vs.

An ‘error’ is not the same thing as an error

London Justice Burton heard a case regarding the problems with presenting Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth to classrooms across the UK. The justice acknowledged the value of the film as professionally produced and well-meaning but struck down 9 major errors in the presentation. These pertained to Hurricane Katrina’s path of destruction, melting snow on Mount Kilimanjaro and the loss of fish communities dependent on coral reefs, among other things.

In none of these cases does the justice find Al Gore’s assertions to be false. Rather, the claims he finds have to do with a lack of sufficient comprehensive evidence for global warming as a cause, and possible other factors potentially responsible for the discussed climate changes.

Frankly, Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Prize this past week not for incredible scientific discoveries on his part. He’s a smart guy but not by any means a leading expert in every one of these areas. The value of this film doesn’t depend on the simple mass of how many proofs it can come up with to advocate global warming. Global warming is almost universally recognized by the scientific community as a very real and important factor in how we interact with the environment around us. This film takes this absolute truth and portrays it in a way individuals can relate to. A film like this is important because it helps the public throw away the unsupported statements and censored reports coming out of the Bush administration.

Justice Burton didn’t call Gore’s statements untruths, simply not fully and completely proven so far, and even at that, the justice was only citing inconsistencies between the film and the current formally accepted body of scientific research. That’s a lot more than we can say for most of the arguments against global warming.

Justice Burton’s Judgement

Ok, so I hate to simply post links to things I find on Lifehacker quite this much, but some things are just too good to let go. Everything Finance did an analysis on the cheapest days to shop for certain types of things including books, plane tickets, hotel rooms, cars, clothing….you get the idea. It’s definitely worth checking out, if only because it’s an idea I think we could all wish we’d thought of.

For the Frugal Mind: Cheapest Days to Shop

The Washington Post Article by the same title represents what we can safely consider to be the general United States perspective on the matter. The approval of the “Tratado de Libre Comercio” by 51.5% of the Costa Rican voting public represents the culmination of several years of debate over the issue and it’s many ramifications.  In one sense, this is in fact a victory for Costa Rica to the degree that it will probably encourage better economic growth as generally accompanies open trade and stimulated industry. Just so, however, with the capitalistic focus of commercialism, comes a blow to the small community, the traditional Costa Rican family, and the unique qualities that make up the rich culture.

As things stand prior to the TLC, Costa Rican quality of life is fairly good. Education, government, environmental consideration, social life, and family life are all fairly high above our general stereotypes of what it means to live in a Latin American country.  As reasonable as some of these changes are as the logical progression of a small country in the modern globally connected world, it’s somewhat sad to think about the effects it will have on the country as a whole. This sort of thing is happening all over, as the pursuit of money and physical wealth dominates political and social thought.

Of course the article reads “Victory for Costa Rica.” The culture of our country is so completely dominated by commercialism that we cannot logical consider it in any other way. The World Bank recommends this course of action. Of course it must be right. But the thing we’re missing here is a consideration of the effects on the culture of every society it touches.

I spent a month in Costa Rica last year and I was struck most by was the strange ability of the Ticos to be simply content and happy with their lot in life. There isn’t the same drive to succeed and accomplish and accumulate wealth that dictates every aspect of American life. Connections to family and friends far outweigh career accomplishments. Happiness and success are related but not the same.

This victory for Costa Rican commerce and economy takes a step in the direction of sacrificing that Costa Rican ease of living. There is so much more to life than succeeding. It saddens me when the American way of life finds ways to corrupt the peace of such thoroughly advanced and sophisticated communities.

Check out articles and editorials in the national newspaper, LA NACIÓN for more perspectives on the issue. 51.1% is not unanimous.

Lost in a world, fresh and vivid, the weary and seeking mind of a man beneath the blossom of branches and colored leaves begins a journey. The novel, whose pages flutter like the leaves above on the autumn breeze, could be a calculus text, or a romance novel, or a simple story with plot and climax. Vast bookshelves whirl past the imagination with the endless possibilities and collections and genres.

Yet, tossed among the rising seas of published knowledge, this book rests on the surface with few others worthy of our adoration. The young man passing his autumn afternoon in the cradling comfort of nature’s vitality could memorize a text book or skim the cliff notes of every honored classic. Educating himself thus he might be called learned; seen as respectable. He may claim this knowledge as his, but he does not absorb it; cannot so easily integrate the lessons into his flesh and soul.

There are those we encounter passing on the road who radiate wisdom. there are these who care in face more about the process of exploring and learning for the sake of itself than the information obtained. The wise need not speak, but embody themselves the wisdom they’ve gained.

Human life shuffles along in ebbs and flows while maneuver highs and lows as each soul searches for meaning and purpose. We cannot navigate struggle by simply grasping for achievement, in the same way success in knowledge doesn’t come from equations and aggregation of detached facts. A human soul embodying curiosity, a seeking consciousness and a loving heart, resting against the trunk of a solid oak doesn’t need the half-truths of ’success’.

By 12:30 p.m., hundreds of monks, students, and other Rangoon residents approached the police, stood in the road and began to pray. Then the soldiers and police began pulling monks from the crowd, targeting the leaders, striking both monks and ordinary people with canes. Several smoke bombs exploded and the riot police charged. The monks and others fought back with sticks and rocks. Many others ran, perhaps four or five of them bleeding from minor head wounds. A car was set alight — by the soldiers, some protesters claimed — and then there was the unmistakable crack of live ammunition: the soldiers were shooting into the air.

TIME Exclusive

BBC Report

I am by no means an expert on the situation in Burma, but I am familiar with a sense of decency. Nonviolent protest and the idea of calm prayerful opposition don’t warrant a violent response. Praying monks do not deserve a club to the back or a rifle-butt to the head. The image of a Buddhist monk’s shaved head, red with blood simply does not compute. This is not justice.

These reports are important for the fact that the correspondents feeding the information are doing so secretly under penalty of prosecution themselves. No one can get in to tell the world about events within this region.

The details described in article sound pretty bad. Worse, though, is the fact that these few bits of information are the only thing out there. Any situation in which the governing body is driven to covering up and keeping secrets cannot be good. 1o,000 monks and civilians are silently speaking out. Will we hear? And will we listen?

BBC: Accounts From Inside Burma

Skimming through my daily set of blogs this afternoon, I encountered one of the many productivity posts out there, outlining a system for organizing your life, managing time and getting things done in an orderly and effective manner. These things pop up all over in different forms all over the web, appealing to our universal desire to live better and easier lives.

The ideas are good, like classifying tasks by importance, limiting email to a certain block of time, or restricting aspects of your life that eat away time. I feel, however, that, though implicit in these suggestions for life management, the most important message is missing.

We are independent beings, aware and in control of what we do and don’t do. Simple, right? Except that when you start running through your day-to-day actions and interactions, you begin to notice thoughts such as, “I can’t believe he’s making me do this.” or “if only I could sleep in a few more minutes.” We deceive ourselves, essentially shifting the blame for unpleasant realities upon the shoulders of other individuals, circumstances and fate…when really each and every bit of our lives is a choice made consciously or unconsciously by us.

Now, consider the potential liberty and empowerment accompanying this newfound power. Say you’re daydreaming in class because I’m tired and don’t want to be there. If I consciously engage in these moments and recognize that it is by my choice, not someone else’s, that I’m here, it becomes my time and my thing to be made the most of.

Daydreaming becomes time to process some interesting piece of the lecture, or planning time for the rest of the week. Hours stuck in traffic, related to my choice to drive to work (I could have biked, quit my job, or previously sought a job for which telecommuting was an option) becomes a time to mentally go through a presentation I’m giving that morning, a chance to get up to date on world affairs on the radio or podcast, or a time to get back in touch with friends and family.

We always have a choice. Let’s own these day-to-day choices and turn a dreadfully dull or painful experience into something that can enrich the day and teach something new.