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Showing posts from March, 2009

abandonment

growth. i knew the word but didn't know what it meant. i was grown. done. mature. when i thought of movies, stories i wanted to tell - i could not manage character development. it was alien. instead there was just being - just events - just existence. but - somewhere somewhy somehow something is different. and. i. guess. love. lead. me. to. it. (i am more comfortable with the periods.) the conclusion is i haven't been able to acknowledge my father's abandonment (i was 8 when my parents divorced) and identify myself as a worthwhile person. so - i have broken lots (sigh! - no wonder i love Elizabeth Bishop's One Art ) of good things along the way to preserve this broken thing. but finally i am not abraham . i have sacrificed many other lives - and myself - but i can't kill my children . my love for them - meaning i want to manufacture the best possible gene delivery systems - has lead me to open doors i haven't wanted to open for 30 years. my life. tainter's w

third industrial revolution?

third industrial revolution around the corner? after reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Depression: "The Long Depression was a depression that affected much of the world and was contemporary with the Second Industrial Revolution." it made me use my magical thinking (http://warsocialism.com/e1.html) to imagine that if we are having a depression now - surely another industrial revolution will follow. what could it be? - stem cell research - renewable energy sources - nanotech and what about the unintended consequences of these? the 2nd industrial revolution did nothing to disprove malthus' dismal science - how could the 3rd industrial revolution be different? might not the third industrial revolution be the disintermediating power of the internet? the internet gives me access to the productive capacity of the worlds factories and employees.

Göbekli Tepe carvings speak to me

Göbekli Tepe carvings speak to me http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/gobekli-tepe.html?c=y&page=2 "What was so important to these early people that they gathered to build (and bury) the stone rings? The gulf that separates us from Gobekli Tepe's builders is almost unimaginable. Indeed, though I stood among the looming megaliths eager to take in their meaning, they didn't speak to me. They were utterly foreign, placed there by people who saw the world in a way I will never comprehend. There are no sources to explain what the symbols might mean." Can't understand?? We are still the same - our need for symbols is the same. The symbols are even the same - The Chicago Bulls? The American Eagle? Puma Brand running shoes? The astrologers predictions are still printed daily in newspapers for Taurus the Bull. Read "where the wild things are" by maurice sendak. a boy is sent to bed without supper. in his imagination he becomes king of the wild t

the beginning of civilisation - Göbekli Tepe

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/gobekli-tepe.html?c=y&page=1 'To Schmidt and others, these new findings suggest a novel theory of civilization. Scholars have long believed that only after people learned to farm and live in settled communities did they have the time, organization and resources to construct temples and support complicated social structures. But Schmidt argues it was the other way around: the extensive, coordinated effort to build the monoliths literally laid the groundwork for the development of complex societies.' Interesting theory - but why? What was the problem building temples solved? Why was building temples cheaper than the alternative? what was that alternative? 'Hodder is fascinated that Gobekli Tepe's pillar carvings are dominated not by edible prey like deer and cattle but by menacing creatures such as lions, spiders, snakes and scorpions. "It's a scary, fantastic world of nasty-looking beasts," he muses. Whi

pictures of Göbekli Tepe

pictures: http://www.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/turkey.html http://www.panoramio.com/map/#lt=37.223003&ln=38.922364&z=4&k=2&a=1 http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/1029 Videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU2qwoMfq-U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBfxUq6Z1KM

Where is Göbekli Tepe?

My map here http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid= 112331474791804750058.00046445566d01d5487be The Google Earth/World Atlas users find the site at 37.223300N, 38.922400E. There are also photos accessible through the Google Earth interface). http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=37.222653,38.922082&spn=0.002332,0.004629&t=h&z=18&msid=112331474791804750058.00046445566d01d5487be

Göbekli Tepe

Göbekli Tepe Klaus Schmidt: http://www.dainst.org/index_642_en.html EDEN? http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/449/gobekli_tepe_paradise_regained.html 'Gobekli Tepe is staggeringly ancient. Carbon dating of organic matter adhering to the megaliths shows that the complex is 12,000 years old. That is to say, it was built around 10,000–9,000 BC. By comparison, Stonehenge was built around 2,000–2,500 BC. Prior to the discovery and dating of Gobekli Tepe, the most ancient megalithic complex was thought to be in Malta, dated around 3,500BC." Schmidt’s thesis has supporting data. In the latest season of digging, his team have found human bones in soils that once filled the niches behind the megaliths. “I believe the ancient hunters brought the corpses of relatives here, and installed them in the open niches by the stones. The corpses were then excarnated: picked clean by wild animals.' 'There is more evidence that Gobekli had a religious purpose: the circular arrange