childlike faith	Dec 11, 2:55pm
by: kira-kira
topic: Advice
Responsibility... It's a word taught to us from elementary school all the way up through life. You have to be responsible for your homework, for remembering to tell your parents that your teacher wants to have a meeting, for getting yourself a job, a scholarship, a career, a life. As you get older, responsibility becomes greater and greater. You are responsible to make money to pay rent and bills and you're responsible to get those bills paid on time and you're responsible to keep your own home and a family. Responsibility. It's a word that children fear. Kids are always so eager to grow up but they are afraid of the responsibility that must come with growing up. But life is not about responsibility. It is about children. It's about kids. Inside, you should never grow up. Think about it for a moment. As you get older, you become less open to experience and more conscientious and more agreeable and conformed. You lose childish joy in the small and simple things. You no longer smile at a bird sitting in a tree that is trilling a beautiful song. You realize that "adults" are not entertained by staring at the people driving the cars that you are passing. It's about joy, hope, and faith. As we grow older, it is harder to hold onto these. Essentially as we get older, we tend to think of ourselves as more and more experienced or wise. But are we really? What more do we really know that we didn't know as children? As children, we knew that friends mean more than anything else. As children, we knew that smiles can be found anywhere and any situations can be made funny in some way. As children, we dared to hope and dream that the world is ours. When we are old, we cherish memories instead of the present, we tend to see the darker side of the world, and we realize that we have little to no impact on the world. So we begin living like the past is more important, that the world is dark and evil, and that we can't make a difference. But if we think like children, we live like we can make a difference and change things and then we do. We can. Everyone grows old at some point. Life is cut short and we end up realizing that there are so many things we wish we could have done but didn't end up doing. We all get sucked into thinking that the world is black and that we are just one person who has no say in what is happening and has no power in the big picture. Never lose the child inside of you or you will live without hope and without joy. That is a life I never want to live.
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Blood, Sweat, and Acid: Shamanism In Popular Music	Dec 2, 2:53pm
by: Ozymandias
topic: Philosophy
Pop music, when properly employed, can be an invaluable spiritual tool, at least as effective as meditation or prayer. Let me here note that the term “pop music”, as it will be used in this essay, does not refer to music that is necessarily commercial or adolescent in nature, but any music that does not qualify as classical, folk, or world music. The music itself, in its purest form, is primal and rhythm-based, recalling the tribal rhythms of the ancients, used to call forth spirits. It is not the music, however, with which this paper will concern itself, but rather the element of performance, the delivery of the music. It is my view that the most sublime, spiritual aspect of the music is its delivery; however, performance is typically viewed as secondary to music, and even effort is put into the act of performing, it is typically nothing more than dead, hackneyed dance moves and vapid, uninspiring gestures. A true pop concert should be less a revue and more a drama. In order to convey my point, I will have to give a brief review of several concepts in aesthetics and spirituality which are essential to my argument. Theatre itself was created by the Greeks in order to celebrate and connect with Dionysus, the anarchic deity of wine and revelry. However, since its inception, theatre has slowly devolved into a simple pastime, a form of mild entertainment, which seems to be the fate of all art forms. At its height, however, it was an opportunity for worshippers to heal themselves and become one with the divine, to heal themselves of spiritual and psychic affliction. (Nietzsche) Theatre, or its primitive equivalent, has existed in other cultures for identical purposes. In other cultures, however, this primitive theatre is generally referred to as shamanism. The image of Native American medicine men, African witch-doctors, and Asian shamans, masked and dancing, is a familiar one. The shaman’s purpose is to enter into a trance, by means of psychedelic drugs, dancing, chanting, music, and dressing in elaborate costumes. During this trance, he journeys to the spirit world, where he (and, by proxy, the entire tribe) is healed. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche identified two distinct drives in theatre (and in art in general), which he labeled the “Dionysiac” and the “Apolline”. Dionysiac art, says Nietzsche, is drawn from a primal, spiritual region of the mind, and is ecstatic and mystical in nature. Apolline art is deliberate, refined, and harmonious. Imagine, for instance, the difference between a Native American war chant and a painting of a fruit basket. Nietzsche claimed that theatre has degenerated from its original Dionysiac state to a form of Apolline art, and a return to its original form is necessary. (Nietzsche, p. 14-21) One of the first to recognize the necessity of a primal mysticism in art was the poet Arthur Rimbaud. He wrote feverish, hallucinatory poems that explored the darker, primal regions of the human psyche, made plain to Rimbaud through the frequent, immoderate consumption of alcohol and hashish. Rimbaud said, “The poet makes himself a seer by an immense, long, deliberate derangement of all the senses.”, an idea that brings to mind the medicine man’s frenetic peyote trance. Rimbaud’s work would inspire innumerable successors in all different fields of art. One notable group of Rimbaud’s aesthetic offspring were the surrealists, a movement composed of many artists of diverse media, all devoted to the same ideal; tapping into and expressing the subconscious mind via art. Of the surrealists, there was one man who did more to re-introduce the Dionysiac into theatre than anyone before or since. This man was Antonin Artaud, a French aesthetic philosopher, playwright, actor, filmmaker, and photographer. In his theatrical manifesto, the Theatre and its Double, Artaud likened the theatre to the plague, a violent purgation of the decadent and sickly aspects of our being, and to alchemy, wherein the practitioner/actor is metaphorically transformed from base metal into gold. His theatrical ideas were heavily influenced by the shamanic practices of Mexican natives and the mystical theatre of Asia, particularly Bali. He recognizes the transcendent spiritual experience that is true theatre, and explains how to attain it. He stresses the importance of the non-literary aspects of the theatre: pantomime, music, dance, set, and intonation. Essentially, he claimed that theatre should be a spatial, performance-based art form, rather than a literary one. He referred to his brand of theatre as “Theatre of Cruelty”, in reference to his ideas about using borderline obscenity in order to shock the audience out of its complacency. Now, we come to the essence of this paper; popular music. 1967, a man named Jim Morrison rose to international prominence as a performer, the singer of the rock group the Doors. Morrison was a student of Artaud, Nietzsche, and Rimbaud, and had a deep interest in shamanism, particularly that of Native American cultures. He applied these studies to his performances, and is widely recognized as the first to introduce theatre into rock n’ roll music. His shows included intuitive, primitive dancing, poetic and musical improvisation, intentional provocation of the audience through obscenity, and simple, but poignant theatrical gestures. These included Jim falling to the stage floor and writhing as if in pain at climactic moments in songs, rubbing the microphone stand against his genitals in order to make himself erect, and even a somewhat complicated routine which involved Jim being mock-executed. All of these were performed under the influence of massive doses of psychotropics, primarily LSD, marijuana, and alcohol. (Davis) As important and revolutionary as Jim Morrison was, his innovation was only a stepping stone for the man known as Iggy Pop. Pop took Morrison’s relatively tame antics to a whole new level with his prot-punk rock group, the Stooges. Pop was known to mutilate himself with whatever was at hand, cover himself in peanut butter and raw meat, expose himself onstage, and roll around on top of shattered glass. Pop is famous for having invented the “stage dive”, wherein the performer leaps into the audience. Pop was a musical and theatrical pioneer, and his work has inspired countless imitators in the form of the punk rock movement that began in New York in the early Seventies. The punk rockers were another group of artists with a mind for apocalyptic, energetic pop music with stage shows that grew increasingly outrageous, violent, and brilliant as the decade wore on, culminating the antics of hardcore musicians like Darby Crash and Black Flag.(Ambrose) Despite these explorations into the theatrical possibilities of pop music, I believe that the true extent of pop theatre has not been realized. In a sense, pop music has an inherently shamanic quality, in that it is primitive and rhythmic and provides catharsis for the performer and listener, but this is potential that can be expanded on. The aforementioned performers (and many others) have explored the theatrical, shamanic possibilities of pop, but only in a rough, experimental fashion. There is no extensive body of theory from which performers may draw, only a handful of video clips and biographies. This stems from the idea that pop music is more a form of entertainment than of art, an idea I find absurd. Music, in pop theatre, holds essentially the same place as literature in Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty; it is not the centerpiece of the performance, but rather a prop, a mere element of the theatrical whole. The music is by no means inessential or unimportant, but it is not central. It provides an aural counterpart to the spatial action taking place onstage. This spatial action should coincide with the music, and music with the action. For instance, during a gentler part of the performance, the band might play a somber jazz ballad while the performer stands completely immobile at the microphone stand, delivering his lines with a downcast expression. During a more energetic moment, however, the band might play a rousing punk rock song, filled with feedback, dissonant howls and clashing instruments, and insistent, tribal drumming, while the performer slashes his chest open with a broken bottle and urinates on a bandmate. No extreme should be shied away from; only pure, unmitigated expression can truly fulfill the potential of pop theatre. It often happens that the vilest of actions are the ones most capable of bringing on spiritual awareness, of shocking the performer and the audience out of spiritual and psychic slumber. This, however, is where many artists stray- they treat the audience as a woman to be seduced, they attempt to “win over the crowd”. I can conceive of no greater artistic sin. It is not impermissible to include the audience in the performance, but the object of the performance should never be to elicit a response from the audience, only to free the spirit of the performer. If the audience is a woman, then it is a whore, to be used for the performer’s own ends. This is a point at which I diverge with Artaud; he believed that the audience should factor into the performance, whereas I believe they should be disregarded entirely. The most important device available to the performer is delirium. There are many ways to attain a delirious state- meditation, intensive dancing, even fasting- but the most potent, and easiest, is the use of drugs. The most effective drugs for this purpose are psychedelics such as cannabis, LSD, and mescaline, as well as alcohol. These drugs lower mental inhibitions, allowing the performer freer expression than a sober, restrained mind might. Psychotropic drugs have been used since the dawn of man to transcend normal patterns of thought and attain the divine, and serve the same purpose in pop theatre. Many would say that pop music is a form of entertainment; that it’s purpose is relaxation and pleasure. Many would say that the sort of performance I have proposed here is vile and obscene. I would say that they are wrong. The great performers have never been entertainers- they have been men who sought catharsis through music and performance. Pop music is ultimately derived from the tribal rhythms of Africa and from black spirituals, neither of which was a form of entertainment or relaxation, by any stretch of the imagination; their purpose was spiritual catharsis, as is the purpose of pop music. Since pop’s inception, it has been denigrated by the Establishment as obscene, vile, and a deleterious influence on the youth and the culture in general. Countless attempts have been made to suppress and censor the music and the performances, from Elvis Presley’s first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show being censored due to perceived sexual posturing all the way up to modern times, where we find hip-hop music heavily criticized as being misogynistic and immoral, the same charges brought against many earlier genres and artists. In conclusion, popular music is an art form that has been left relatively unexplored in terms of its spiritual and theatrical potential. The intensive aesthetic theory that is developed for other art forms has rarely been considered in the case of pop music, and I believe that it is important that it is. Ambrose, Joe. Gimme Danger: The Iggy Pop Story. New York: Omnibus, 2008. Artaud, Antonin. The Theatre and its Double. New York: Grove Press, 1958. Davis, Stephen. Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend. New York: Gotham Books, 2005. Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy. New York: Penguin, 1993. Rimbaud, Jean Nicholas Arthur. Selected Letters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
[reply] [22 comments]

Animal Intelligence	Nov 3, 12:51pm
by: MissMonster
topic: Essays
You wake up, ruffle your hair, and look in the mirror. Half awake, you stumble into the kitchen and look at an assortment of brightly colored cereal boxes, picking out your favorite brand. After pouring it into a bowl along with milk, you begin to shovel spoonfuls into your mouth. Your roommate, finished frying eggs, offers you one, which you decline with a hand motion. All these actions and the skills that go along with them seem to be human in nature, but what if you found out that they weren’t? Elephants have what’s called “self-recognition”, and understand that they are looking at a reflection of themselves when looking into a mirror. Alex, an African gray parrot used in animal intellect studies, can sort and differentiate between colors and shapes, just like you sorted out your favorite cereal by the color of the box. Chimpanzees use a number of different tools to eat termites, just like you use a spoon or a fork. And even further, dolphins have been able to correctly interpret and act upon a hand-signal language invented for them by trainers, just as you motioned that you didn’t want an egg. As animals are subjected to new tests, scientists are finding that animals have many of the cognitive skills that were once thought to be exclusive to human beings. But how much intelligence do animals really have? Do different species have different amounts of intelligence? These questions are hard to answer, and usually the answer isn’t agreed upon. I first became interested in this question a few years ago, on a student-volunteer trip to the Amazon rainforest of Peru. One of the places my student group volunteered at was an animal sanctuary, a home for injured animals to be nursed back to health. Among the large number of native animals helped at the sanctuary were several species of monkey, including red howler, capuchin, and red-faced uakaris. After interacting with my fellow primates, it became increasingly apparent to me how human they were, or perhaps how monkeyish I was. They laughed, made crying noises, smiled, grunted, and a red-faced uakari even insisted on styling my hair. The most surprising moment was when a capuchin climbed on my back, covered my eyes with his tiny hands, and started shrieking with laughter as I spun around in confusion. The boundary between humans and other animals suddenly became very blurred for me. How could we see these animals as entirely unintelligent, without emotion? It was another year before I seriously considered this question again, when I stumbled upon a National Geographic article titled “Minds of their Own: Animals are Smarter than you Think”. Before we get into numerous articles, case studies, and experiment reports, it’s only fair that I examine my own bias. I by no means was raised on a farm or by wolves, but I did grow up with a domestic cat that seemed to read my mind from the time I was three until she died just a year ago. I have always had a love for every type of animal, and as a child spent countless hours at the zoo and in museums. I had every “Zoo Books” animal file, was subscribed to “Ranger Rick” (a sort of National Geographic for children), and watched the “Eye Witness” television program every morning before school. However, none of these sources ever claimed that animals had any sort of deep intelligence or emotion. There were other sources, however, that could have affected my notion of animal intelligence. “Rocko’s Modern Life”, “Scooby Doo”, and “The Angry Beavers” were all television shows I watched which anthromorphized animals into speaking, thinking, emotional characters that wore clothing and lived in human homes. Beyond that, books such as C.S. Lewis’s “The Witch in the Wardrobe” provided animal characters that were just as intelligent and civilized as their human companions. However, it’s hard to say that any of these children’s cartoons or books really influenced me into thinking animals had any true intelligence. As I grew older, I accepted that these characters were imaginary. If anything, these shows and novels made me wish animals were intelligent enough for me to interact with them. With a deep love of animals and having interacted with non-human primates, my initial opinion on the matter was very liberal minded; yes, at least some animals are more intelligent than we give them credit for, and yes they have emotions. The first article I read supported this idea. “Minds of their Own” , an article published in National Geographic by Virginia Morell, is based upon the very question I am posing, “How intelligent are animals, really?” The first case Morell uses is that of an African gray parrot named Alex. Bought in a pet shop by Harvard graduate Irene Pepperberg, Alex had been learning the English language and showing Pepperberg how he saw the world for over 30 years, before he died in September of 2007. Pepperberg’s work with Alex showed that as a parrot he could count to seven, pick out what was different in a group of items, and perform several other tasks most people would put beyond his intelligence. When shown an assortment of objects and asked to count how many were a certain color and texture, Alex counted correctly 9 out of 10 times. In the article, Pepperberg went on to explain why birds might need such cognate skills. “They need to be able to distinguish colors to know when a fruit is ripe or unripe. They need to categorize things – what’s edible, what isn’t – and to know the shapes of predators. ( . . . ) For a long-lived bird, you can’t do all of this with instinct; cognition must be involved” (Morell, 3) Other case studies Morell uses include accounts of a dog that can remember the names for 300 individual objects, a crow that can bend wire to make a hook tool, and even scrub jays that hide their food from thieves. Particularly noted for their intelligence are dolphins, who in Louis Herman’s study learned to understand a language of hand signals complete with simple grammar. Herman describes dolphins as similar to humans in their highly social life style as well as their tendency to be very vocal. Morell concludes her article with a glimpse of Herman’s relationship with the dolphins he worked with, describing it as; “I loved our dolphins, as I’m sure you love your pets. But it was more than that, more than the love you have for a pet. The dolphins were our colleagues. That’s the only word that fits. They were our partners in research, guiding us into all the capabilities of their minds. When they died, it was like losing our children.” (Morell, 8) Morell’s finishing lines are touching, describing Herman and the dolphins he worked with having like minds. When I first read this article I whole-heartedly agreed with it. Having done no previous research on the subject, I wanted to believe that animals really were intelligent, deeply emotional beings, which humans simply have a hard time communicating with. Further in my research, however, I began to question the simplicity of this article. No counter-argument was made, and no human controls were compared to the experiments with animals. Though I liked the article, especially because it was written in English and not in scientific mumbo-jumbo, I found it simplistic and lacking. This lead me to the next article, “Animals, Humans and X-Men: Human Uniqueness and the Meaning of Personhood” by Christopher L. Fisher. “Animals, Humans and X-Men” by Christopher L. Fisher proved to be the exact opposite of “Animal Minds. Fisher argues that the difference between human and animal intelligence is not just quantity but quality; that humans have a mindset and emotional depth completely alien from animals’. This argument is made by four main points, consisting of chimps’ lack of in depth language skills, chimps’ lack of “theory of mind”, lack of culture in Neanderthal artifacts, and the denial of morals or ethics in animals. Several case studies are quoted from both sides of the spectrum, including radical ideas that “personhood” should be redefined to include animals, and conservative ideas that animals lack all emotive qualities. In the case of language skills, Fisher claims that chimps do not fully grasp language or have the intelligence to so, because they largely make demands rather than state observations. “Even claims about Kanzi’s ability to enter ‘‘real conversation’’ seem somewhat overdone, since the actual research publications show that these comprise only about 4% of his communication.” (Fisher, 294) His next argumentis that chimpanzees lack a “theory of mind”, the concept that other beings think as they do, and the ability to predict their intentions. Fisher’s 3rd argument is the lack of culture found in Neanderthal artifacts. Evidence is given for this in the sense that ancient human artifacts often include art and complex burial sites. Neanderthals, however, don’t show such artifacts, and burial sites are usually simple. The final argument for the lack of emotion and intelligence in animals is that other species do not have a sense of morals or ethics. Fisher states that all observations of animal emotion or ethics are due to anthromorphism. “Michael Leahy notes that we sometimes attribute to animals purely human characteristics, leading to confusion about their capacities. Dogs are said to look guilty or sycophantic, foxes sly, owls wise, and apes cheeky. This is Wittgensteinian linguistic fuzziness, which leads to wrong conclusions about the subjects of discussion.” (Fisher, 304) On a final note, Fisher uses the fact that in conversations with chimps, they have not had a concept of God. Once again, I was skeptical. Fisher only seemed to strengthen his articles by quoting extremely radical stances. Also, I had to consider the source, “Theology and Science”. With such a source, it is a fair assumption that it’s writers are at least somewhat religious. In such a case, it’s possible that Fisher is biased by his religion, most of which put humans up above other species, especially in Western religions. Also, Fisher seems to imply that chimps are unintelligent partly because they lack language skills. However, it’s it true that humans lack fluent language skills until several years of age? Even then, it takes years for humans to attain correct grammar. Further more, I don’t really understand why he brought Neanderthals into the picture. While it is safe to say our extinct cousins of sorts were not as intelligent as humans are today, it’s very hard to make a claim abut them on account evidence is scarce. After all, it’s not as if we can run them through tests and experiences. While I found several points Fisher made to be worth considering, I generally found his paper to disagree with my thoughts and lacking in relevant evidence. Finding the first article too liberal and the second to conservative, I felt like Goldilocks searching for a middle position. I found this in the article “Animal Intelligence” by David P. Barash . In the article “Animal Intelligence” Barash argues that intelligence and emotional depth are both present in animals, but not to the extent that they are near human levels. Barash also uses the examples of Alex the English speaking African gray parrot and Rico the toy-identifying dog. However, Barash states that while these feats are amazing, they don’t exactly show that animals are capable of human-like thought. He also warns that all too often people misinterpret animal actions. “Caution is called for when assessing claims of remarkable animal cognitive skills. It is one thing to be generous in interpreting the behavior of other animals, quite another to be taken in.” (Barash, 1) Also stressed is the concept that intelligence is based not only on an animal’s genetics but also on their experience. Chimpanzees raised by scientists are much more likely to understand simple language, and chimpanzees raised in the wild are much more likely to know where the best place to find food is and how to obtain it. Over all, Barash takes a middle stance, stating that while the intellect levels animals show are amazing, assuming that animals are nearly human in nature is far fetching. After my own experiences, reading the previously mentioned articles and several more, and looking at the results from various tests and experiments, my viewpoint is firmly placed in the middle, perhaps leaning slightly to the liberal side. I believe that animals can be intelligent, have emotional depth, and use skills once thought to be exclusive to humans. However, I do not believe that animals have the same intelligence or mind-set that humans have. Sources: Morell, Virginia. "Minds of their Own." National Geographic Mar. 2008. Animal Minds - National Geographic. Mar. 2008. National Geographic. 20 Oct. 2008 . Fisher, Christopher L. "Animals, humans and x-men: Human uniqueness and the meaning of personhood." Theology & Science 3.3 (Nov. 2005): 291-314. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Morgan Library], [Fort Collins], [CO]. 25 Oct. 2008 . Barash, David P. "Animal Intelligence." Chronicle of Higher Education 53.50 (17 Aug. 2007): 54-54. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 27 Oct. 2008 .
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The Unaffected	Oct 29, 4:53pm
by: k1llurid0l
topic: Current Events
It’s late October, and apparently there’s an election right around the corner. I admit I haven’t been paying much attention. Personally, I don’t see anything of substance that either inspires my allegiance or incurs my wrath. What I do see, however, is the same old left wing/right wing paradigm that feels more like a re-run of The West Wing than a real political discourse, and I am not alone: Republican vs. Democrat, Tax & Spend Liberalism vs. Fiscal Conservatism and so on and so forth - ad nauseam. The basic political landscape hasn’t changed since the implementation of The New Deal, and I wouldn’t hold my breath for any future modifications. With that said, let’s take a look at the candidates. John McCain is about as fresh and invigorating as a Vera Lynn retrospective, without any of Ms. Lynn’s potential for nostalgic appeal. Also, his eroded reputation as a “Maverick” was never convincing to me in the least. You can’t be a senator as long as he has and be anything other than a Washington insider. Moreover, his choice of a running mate is absolutely mystifying. Palin has made a habit of saying things she has to explain or otherwise qualify soon thereafter. She is a clumsy, unseasoned political novice who transforms an uphill battle into Mission Impossible. It’s almost like he’s trying to lose. By contrast, Barrack Obama is tailor-made for the current social climate. After eight years of blatant lying, fear-mongering, curtailing of civil liberties, and a complete lack of consideration for the actual concerns of the people, the eloquence expressed within his confident public persona and youthful mannerisms make it easy for an angry, cynical, and demoralized electorate to digest his bullshit. Obama affords an opportunity for the one thing America needs at this point in her history – a suspension of disbelief. These things considered it doesn’t matter who wins. Politicians are like pro-wrestlers – they’re only adversaries when the cameras are rolling. At the end of the day, when the curtain falls, they’re all actors sharing the stage and the spotlight. In short, they’re co-workers who see past their occasional personal conflicts and ego-clashes to further the common good – which is, or course, their own advancement. This brings us to the other half of the equation – the American people. I haven’t watched a single debate; I didn’t watch a single episode of Hardball w/Chris Matthews or Meet the Press (R.I.P. Mr. Russert). I don’t need to know what the issues are, because I know what the issue always is – money. The truth is, people only think about the war in Iraq when compelled to give an opinion on it, and the ongoing war in Afghanistan is our generation’s forgotten conflict. Unless you are a veteran, or have a friend or loved one serving in the military in either of these godforsaken regions, you seldom if ever think about it – despite all your guilt-ridden protests to the contrary. This is the reason why McCain’s “War-Hero” aesthetic should have been re-examined and largely cashiered in lieu of a more immediate, relevant and marketable election-year image. Here’s the bottom line: We live in a completely transactional culture where everything has a finite value and intangibles are relegated to something akin to a childish ideal - a country divided along an innumerable set of sociological, economic, racial, religious and philosophical lines that simply categorizing us as “Haves and Have-nots” is insufficient and obsolete. A national body consisting of self-centered, myopic, media-saturated pseudo-humans who speak of compassion, honor, loyalty and family-values and live in a completely contradictory fashion. Have you ever noticed how politicians reference us not by our national identity, but the services we provide? We are consumers, constituents, voters or taxpayers – never citizens. When is the last time you heard a politician refer to us as citizens? We have absolutely no right to complain about this, because through their exploitation, deception and misdirection they are not betraying us – they are reflecting us. I know what some of you people are thinking, so let me save you the wasted effort. I (and people like me) are not “Disaffected”, so do not label us as such because it is dismissive and condescending. We are UNAFFECTED, and there’s a big difference.
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Can you be fat and fit?	Oct 22, 12:52am
by: bloodyXtears
topic: Various
Men and women who are judged fit on a treadmill test but who are overweight or obese have a lower risk of death than those of appropriate weight but have low fitness levels. In a study published in the Journal of The American Medical Association researcher and exercise physiologist Steven Blair of the University of South Carolina tracked 2,600 people over age 60 years to determine how physical fitness and body fat affected their death rates over a period of 12 years. Blair found that those in the lowest 5th of fitness levels were four times more likely to die than those in the top 5th of fitness levels. This level of fitness provided protection against death whether an individual was of normal weight, overweight, or obese. Blair thinks his findings are important because people in the US and many other countries are increasingly inactive and obesity rates are high, and at the same time many of these countries populations are aging. "We should not ignore obesity," Blair said. "But what happens all too often is we focus nearly exclusively on obesity and forget the activity and fitness part." Blair's team assessed participants' fitness using a treadmill test, seeing how long they could walk while the treadmill's workout increased in intensity. They measured body mass index (BMI) a figure that is calculated from a person's height and weight, as well as waist circumference and percent body fat. Their results showed that even a small effort to improve fitness levels provides a health benefit and that people who are sedentary now don't need to take drastic steps in exercise frequency or intensity to make gains. "If you're overweight or obese and you're sedentary and unfit and you start taking three 10-minute walks a day and you do that at least five days a week, you're not going to lose an enormous amount of weight," Blair said. "You're going to still be heavy. But you're going to be much healthier if you do that," Blair said. Blair also recommends healthy eating patterns, including lots of fruit, vegetables, and whole grains. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), more than 1/3 of the US adult population is obese; obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), some types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes. The CDC has also found that more than 1/2 of adults in the US do not participate in regular physical activity. Exercise can cut your risk of dying from CVD, as well as lowering your risk of stroke, colon cancer, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes. (I did not write any of this. found here
[reply] [89 comments]

On observing articles come and go...	Sep 29, 11:59pm
by: Herm
topic: Philosophy
On observing articles come and go I've watched several start with a good idea, continue well and then deteriorate into the same old self-righteous garbage every angst-ridden teen tries (And usually fails) to spout. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all the people who write these articles are angst-ridden teens. Far from it. I'm just saying that this is the sort of stuff teens wish they could come up with. Sometimes these article authors just sound like grown men and women who never grew out of being an angst-ridden teen, and now have the vocabulary to express their stunted views. At the same time I've seen many well-written and well-established articles detailing some interesting and challenging ideas, only to be shot down by the idiocy that is "You suck, this is gay" comments every article seems to attract. My point is simply this, and it's not a statement more than it is a question: Why is it that almost all good ideas are demolished by ignorance? This doesn't necessarily have to be just about articles, this is a wide-reaching inquiry. Debate at your leisure.
[reply] [49 comments]

Got Purpose	Sep 18, 5:05pm
by: my_little_pony
topic: Rants
I haven't written anything mind opening lately. I like to explore my thoughts and have anyone who reads respond. Not that I think my thoughts are going to change the world or anything, but they certainly affect who I am, and that matters a lot to me. I guess something I've learned lately is that every day should have a purpose. It feels great knowing that every day I need to drag my ass out of bed and haul it to work. You know why ir feels so fantastic? Because I am needed there, they need me and it feels good. Serving humanity daily, if only in a small way, is good soul food in my opinion. If you don't have a purpose then what is the point of living? If your purpose is finding a purpose higher other than feeding your own basic needs then I think that's fine, as long as you are happy. Some days my purpose is to do my job well, some days it's to make others happy, and some days it's to relax and serve myself so that I may help others in a better way. I don't think that anyone REALLY knows what they are here for. This could be heaven or this could be hell. This could be the only rock in the universe that we are ever going to live on and we should make our time on it as great as possible, because what else is there to do if you really don't know what comes after this place? Often I find myself wanting to see what's next, right now, because I am overfilled with curiosity about what could happen and what may not. I ponder this for a moment and realize that it would be a total waste, because I know that I'm not going to live forever and I will eventually find out what's next. It could be nothing, it could be everything. How do you know that your time here isn't up yet? You're still here. Make it a good one.
[reply] [35 comments]

Blood Of The Gods/RH-Negative Blood Factor	Aug 31, 4:55pm
by: Poe
topic: Various
My blood type is O RH Negative, that is just a blood type, right? Well, it was to me too until a few weeks ago when my mother was saying something about our blood type being,"Blood Of The Gods". I thought she was just being a weirdo until she brought up some information on the internet regarding our blood type. So I sat down and started to read all about this Blood Of The Gods ordeal. ( Most of this information I gathered from sites here and there. I will quote what I have copied and pasted. ) The RH Negative Factor: Many years scientists and the general public have been trying to prove that Earth was visited by extraterrestrial beings. Bringing up questions such as: Are they Real?, Who are they?, Where did they come from?, How did they get here?, When did they leave?, Did they leave? Many people and scientists believe that we evolved from primates( Rhesus monkey and Chimpanzees). They have more than enough proof to back up their theories on this topic." Modern blood analysis and comparative studies modern man and lower anthripoids." People have been able to prove that 85% of humans have a blood factor common with the Rhesus Monkey. " This is called positive blood. Usually shortened to Rh positive. This factor is completely independent from the A, B, 0 blood types." So, this is strange, right? How did I get to have O RH negative blood if we evolved from primates, such as that friggen monkey? "I have searched, in vain, for scientific proof that the Rh negative blood was a natural Earthly occurrence. Instead I have found proof that the Rh negative had not evolved on Earth in the natural course of events." Another strange fact is that, while my mother was pregnant with my sister, she had to get a rhogam shot. A rhogam shot is used to make my mother's body accept the being. This is done so that my mother's body does not reconize the baby as an invader, attack, then kill. The baby is an invader because it has a postive blood type and the mother has a negative blood type. Which is weird in the long run seeing they're both human beings, correct?("All animals and other living creatures known to man can breed with any other of their species. Relative size and color makes no difference. Why does infant's haemolytic disease occur in humans if all humans are the same species? Haemolytic disease is the allergic reaction that occurs when an Rh negative mother is carrying a Rh positive child. Her blood builds up antibodies to destroy an ALIEN substance (the same way it would a virus), thereby destroying the infant. Why would a mother's body reject her own offspring? Nowhere else in nature does this occur naturally. This same problem does occur in mules - a cross between a horse and donkey. This fact alone points to the distinct possibility of a cross-breeding between two similar but genetically different species. ")This process is known as red cell alloimmunization. I have indulged in stories online with men/woman conversing in how they have different traits from the people who are positive. Such as: Bigger heads, bigger eyes, An EXTRA-Vertebra (a "Tail Bone")....some are born with a tail called a "Cauda", Lower than normal body temperator, hyper vison and other senses, higher IQs, different mind patterns, psychic experiances, and being matured at an earlier age than the rest of most people. I find my eyes are large, Lower than normal temperator, I have a high IQ and I have had one or two psychic experiances(maybe?), Or maybe it was just a coincidence? <><>There has been no explaination where us Rh Negs' came from. . .<><> >.> Here's a little chart showing the world's population of blood types: O Rh-positive 37 percent A Rh-positive 36 percent B Rh-positive 9 percent AB Rh-positive 3 percent O Rh-negative 7 percent A Rh-negative 6 percent B Rh-negative 1 percent AB Rh-negative 1 percent ( This survey was completed with the help of the world's blood donors. ) I have come to an understanding that people who are O-Negative have "universal blood", meaning that anyone's blood type will be in sync with the O-Negative blood donated to them. Causing no transfusion reactions. :) I've been studying this topic ever since my mother has brought it to my attention, so any questions I am willing to answer. ( I could have kept going on and on, but I wanted it short and straight to the point.) Also, if there is anything you would like to add, be my guest. This whole ordeal has given a new breath of air to everything I've ever believed in.
[reply] [96 comments]

The Etiology of the Pyramids and Sunburns on White People	Jul 24, 10:29am
by: quirky_one
topic: Life
A long time ago in a galaxy very, very near here there was the Earth. Of course Earth is in our galaxy but it was named Dirt World at the time so it is kind of different. At the time (the time being the somewhat less than definitive "long time ago") humans had just finished evolving from dinosaurs and were really tired. While they lay down to take a nap, aliens came and started poking around the Earth (still at this time named "Dirt World"). They were employees of an intergalactic real estate firm looking to buy up planets that had been foreclosed on. They apparently liked what they saw because they bought it despite the price being significantly higher than they expected. Needless to say, the newly evolved humans were quite shocked to awaken to aliens moving all their stuff around. The aliens were equally surprised to find that the humans had not gotten the eviction notice. Of course Earth had gotten the notice but at the time everyone had been dinosaurs and nobody could read. The aliens, already upset at the Earth's steep price, held a meeting to decide what to about the humans. After digging up some violent dinosaur footage meant strictly for home viewing, it was deemed convenient to label them as "savages" and have them placed into reeducation camps were they would be forced to watch reruns of pro-alien films like E.T. and My Favorite Martian. The aliens couldn't have expected better results. Stephen Spielberg was nominated for best director and violent xenophobic uprisings dropped by 90%. Unfortunately the good times came to an end when a bootleg copy of Alien III fell into the human's hands. Public opinion polls showed a marked decrease in the alien approval rating. People began questioning the laser force field prisons and soon angry youths were throwing rocks and calling the aliens hurtful names. Meanwhile, intellectuals huddled in coffee shops and wrote petition letters to the ISCS (redundantly named "The Intergalactic Space Congress of Space" in true bureaucratic style). The letters didn't seem to have any effect and the authors got old and died. Tensions continued to get worse and soon human forces under the command of Dan Quail's distant ancestor, Steve Quail, drove the aliens from the Earth (now no longer named Dirt World but actually named Earth). In response, the hard line intergalactic government under pressure from real-estate special interest groups launched an invasion fleet to Earth. The original name of the operation was dropped by the administration in fear that "Operation Earth Smash" gave the mission an overtly aggressive feel. The newly named "Operation Earth Hug" deployed on Stardate <*<>* (which admittedly means very little to anyone who doesn't run on Northern Quadrant Sector 5112A Standard Time). Congress however only approved a single landing zone just west of the Nile River. Having found this information by looking at the ISCS's user friendly website, the human decided to build up defenses in the area. After reviewing several promising designs, a brilliant defense was selected. The pyramid provided a perfect anti-landing device and humans began building them all over the useless alien landing strip now called Egypt. When the aliens arrived and tried to land, the pyramids kept poking the bottom of their spaceships. It was very frustrating. They sent an appeal to the Intergalactic Space Congress of Space for a new landing zone but by the time the Bylotar Opposition Party exhausted its filibuster, their attempt at landing in central Mexico had been thwarted as well. On Stardate <*<<* Grommela Purgonotte, the first female Fishmander to become President, came to power. It had generally been forgotten that a Starfleet had continually circled Earth (still often referred to as "Dirt World" in a derogatory sense) for over a thousand years. The gas prices at the time induced severe budget cuts and the fleet was recalled. After several days of drunken street celebrations, mankind received its many political prisoners who had been held on Pluto for around eighty generations. The result however was a gangly race with a pale, snow-like complexion. The new arrivals found that rather than returning to a glorious homecoming, they were made fun of by their peers. As if that was not enough, the sun that had provided their ancestors with sustenance now burnt their skin and turned it unattractive shades of red. They appealed to a now much more sympathetic ISCS which granted them compensation for their unjust treatment and minimal exposure to sunlight as part of "alternative interrogating techniques". The ghostly white humans received an oddly timed outpouring of alien sympathy because the now two thousand year old "laser force field prison notes" that had only recently been leaked to the press. The result was that whites in return for their suffering were given three eternal gifts: sunscreen, really big shade hats, and Europe. Of course the Palestinians who were given a small arid region along the Mediterranean in return for the Continent were not pleased but they were given strong assurances that their new home would remain theirs forever.
[reply] [40 comments]

An argument against humanism	Jun 25, 4:24pm
by: pineme
topic: Philosophy
We are tiny little blobs of organized dust orbiting a dull and boring ball of hydrogen, and yet you have the audacity to think there is a universal methodology concerning what is right and wrong? Humans are small, tiny, ridiculously absurd creatures who generally don't know shit about their environments. Why would we presume it's possible that an idea of morality is suddenly some universal entity? That there is a true right and wrong? We're machines. we eat and shit and process chemicals to crawl around on a peck of dust. Given that, what is right and wrong? There is no pattern to human behaviour. There is no underlying method to the madness of human movement except physics and force and particles. They are the gods of all of us. And all of it together, the touch of a loved one, the drum of war, the scraping of two galaxies together, a flood, a colony of ants, a hurricane, a lie, a song, a storm on Jupiter, murder, passion, rape, affection, are equally indistinguishable.
[reply] [112 comments]

Have yourselves a good one.	Dec 24, 8:05pm
by: eon
I think I would be remiss as a webmaster if I did not wish the entire site a wonderful and joyous holiday season. And since I live in unmitigated, abject terror of the possibility of being remiss: Have yourselves a wonderful and joyous holiday season. I hope your Christmas is the best fucking Christmas ever and that your New Year ain't too shabby either. All I ask is that you find yourself a mistletoe to share with someone or just do something really nice and unexpected for someone for whom you might otherwise not. One or the other, it's your choice. ILUGUIZE, be good and be safe.
[reply] [38 comments]

A few small things.	Nov 23, 1:46pm
by: eon
Just a few small updates to the site today: 1. Image uploading. a. It is now possible to upload an image from a URL. For example, if there is a picture you have already uploaded to photobucket or some other site, you will now find a place where you can enter the address and it will be copied over to your gallery on DarkStarlings. This saves you the step of having to download and then re-upload images that you find on the web. b. Previously, there was a 2 MB limit on the file size of the images that you could upload. In consideration of growing file sizes (and lazy people) I have upped the limitation to 5 MB. Note, this will have no effect on the final image which appears in your gallery. This simply makes it easier for you to upload images if you have large file sizes. (Normally, you'd need to resize or compress a large image before uploading, now you may be able to upload it directly.) 2. Friends. a. You will now receive a notice in your comments when someone has added you to their friends list. In the notice, if you have not already added that person to your own list, you will have links to easily add them back or (if they're really gross and ugly) to remove yourself from their list. b. When browsing your "friends of" list (the list showing people who have added you to their friends list), you will now have a convenient link to add people back if you haven't already done so. This will make it easy to quickly scan for people who have added you, who you haven't added back and allow you to easily add them or remove yourself from their list. As always, watch out for any creepy-crawlies and enjoy...
[reply] [13 comments]

Forum and Group Updates	Aug 2, 7:51pm
by: eon
I've made a series of small updates and refinements to the forum / group platform. While small, some of these changes will make things a lot easier or more interesting to use. Updates: 1. Video posts, BBCodes and you: It is now possible to display YouTube, Google and MySpace videos directly inside of forum and group posts. Previously, if you tried to do this, the embed code would be stripped out (for security reasons) and the video would not appear. Well, if you use an embed code it will still be stripped out, but I've introduced new BBCodes which will allow you to do this safely (and more quickly and easily). It's as simple as taking the address of the video page and putting it inside of the correct BBCode tag. As an example, you could post a YouTube video with a code like this: [tube]Address to YouTube video page goes here[/tube] In addition, when you post videos this way, a 5-star rating icon will appear, allowing viewers to rate the video. These ratings will be unique to DS (separate from the video site where the video is hosted). To view the guide to the new BBCodes, click the New Post link and then click the link for BBCodes. Or just edit any post and scroll down a bit. There are other newly added BBCodes which will make it easier to add links, images and other things to your posts. 2. Search functions. Searching in forums and groups has been updated to include two new fields. One will limit the age of posts you search (so you can narrow down your results if you only want more recent posts). The other will let you display search results as either 'Topics' or 'Messages'. Previous search results have all been in 'Topic' format. That is, when you search for a certain keyword, you just get a list of topics containing posts which match, and you need to go hunting through them to find whatever you're looking for. Now, if you set results to 'Messages' you'll get to see a preview of each individual post which contains the keyword you searched, as well as a link directly to that post. In most cases, this makes it much easier to find what you're looking for. Try it! 3. Andromeda signatures in forum and group posts. The optional 10 rotating signatures that are available to Andromeda members will now appear in forum and group posts. This is significant because images are allowed in these signatures (they are not allowed in regular signatures). Previously, my concern here was that I didn't want the forums cluttered with too many large or obnoxious images that are repeatedly posted in sigs. To help keep our forums and groups from being cluttered this way, I have set a limit on the size of images which may be posted inside of these signatures. That limit is 400 pixels wide by 100 pixels high. 4. Refinements and bug fixes. I've made a number of other small refinements and bug fixes to the forums and groups. For example, signatures and "updated by" notices are now stored separately in the database from the actual messages. What this means is that when you quote posts, the sigs and "updated" notices will no longer appear in the quoted text. They will also be absent from search results. This will reduce clutter overall and make things easier to read. I fixed quite a few pesky bugs as well, many of which were long standing. So if you had any favorites, they are probably gone now. (Sorry.) This is all a part of my overall plan to modernize our forum/group platform to increase it's features and ease of use. There will be more to come in this department (eventually). For now: Enjoy...
[reply] [6 comments]

A Bunch of Updates	Jun 29, 11:19pm
by: eon
I've completed work on an assortment of little updates to the site which I will detail here: 1. Polls: You now have the ability to post polls both in the site forums and in groups. To post a poll inside of a group or forum topic, click the 'New Post' link and then click the 'Post a Poll' link. As some have suggested, this may change the social dynamics a bit. I'm going to see how this goes and I may consider adding in some controls to help keep things from getting too crazy (if indeed they do.) 2. Easier group invites: You can now invite someone to your group by clicking a link directly from their profile. To find the link, scroll down to the section of their profile where you normally find links to see what groups they are a member of, add them as a friend, etc.. I have also upped the maximum group invitations to 30 per day. 3. Blog comment notifications: You will now receive a notification when someone posts a new comment to your blog (in the same place as the 'New Comments' notification). When you click the link, you will have a display of your blog entries where only the entries with new comments will show up. You will also find some new links to toggle between different ways of viewing your blog entries. 4. Only display pics with new comments: Similar to the new viewing options for blogs, when you click your 'New Pic Comments' notification, you will now see a page which only shows your pics which have new comments. You'll have links to toggle between these views. This should come in super handy for you Andromeda people who have like 80 pictures and have to go hunting for which ones have new comments every time you get a notice. 5. There is also something new in the forums which you may or may not find. If you do find it, I hope you like it. As always, be on the lookout for any bugs which have been introduced. I've tested everything pretty well, but a few always sneak in somehow. And: Enjoy...
[reply] [13 comments]

A Few Updates	May 18, 10:40pm
by: eon
A few small updates have been added: 1. In the forums, you will now be able to see a list of the last 10 people to view any thread. To find the list, just go to any thread and scroll to the bottom, where you will find a table with the spiffy new info. 2. In groups, a feature has been added allowing you to block specific people from your group. Previously, to block people from your group, you had to set the group up to require an application and then not accept anyone who you didn't want to allow in. This works fine as long as you want to require applications/invites. If you wanted to run an open group, however, there previously was no way to keep the troublemakers out. This will also come in handy for blocking people who pester you by repeatedly applying to your group despite repeated rejections. Look at the 'manage members' section of your group control panel to find the new feature. 3. Andromeda members will now be able to see a list of the last 20 people to view any picture in their pic gallery. To see the list, just view any picture and look for a table with this info. If there have been any viewers, the table will appear above the picture comments. Keep in mind, since the featue has just been added, the lists haven't had much time to accumulate views, so it's likely you won't find much right away. I may add the same feature for Starling members (with a reduced number of people saved on the list). Currently, I am testing to see whether or not this is practical and what limitations I'll need to set. Find out more about Andromeda Thank you. And, Enjoy...
[reply] [18 comments]

New Feature: Site Themes	Feb 20, 6:23pm
by: eon
Check out your Control Panel under 'Edit Profile' for a new option: Site Themes. It's pretty straight forward. Pick a color you like and all of the site backgrounds, links, borders, etc., will be changed to suit your taste. This is good if you'd like a break from the site layout we've had for the past... oh... 3 years or so. Currently available: Original, Green, Blue, Orange, Pink and Grey. You might find some sections of the site that are not covered by the themes. IE, you might select the 'Green' theme and at some point find a page somewhere on the site that has not been changed to green (it would still have the original look). If you find such pages, let me know. There are quite a few I've had to link up and I've covered most of them but I'm sure I've missed a few. Thanks and... Enjoy.
[reply] [58 comments]

Site Poll: Tools or Rules?	Jan 13, 3:40pm
by: eon
The poll I'm going to link here addresses an issue that has come up many times in the history of this site, starting with the introduction of our forums and then continuing with the addition of Groups. Although this poll asks a question about the way groups and forums are used, the answer could have an impact site wide. So I'd like everyone to please take a few minutes and help out in settling this long time, hotly debated issue. The poll pretty much explains everything, so please carefully read the background section of the poll and give it some thought before voting: Take the poll: Tools or Rules? Again, I think this is something that could effect everyone, so I would encourage you all to vote! Thank you for making your voice heard.
[reply] [22 comments]

CSS Changes Affecting Groups	Nov 18, 12:21am
by: eon
In working on new features for the site, I'm having to update the CSS a bit. Some of these changes will affect those of you who have done customized group layouts. I'm going to keep an ongoing log of my changes in the following forum thread: CSS Changes Affecting Groups In the end, I hope this will make the CSS a bit more flexible and also a bit more organized. I'm not for sure how long I'll be making changes which will affect groups, but the above thread will be the place to go if something changes in your layout and you want to get a quick idea of what to do about it. Thank you for your patience . . .
[reply] [8 comments]

Happy Halloween... and stuff.	Oct 31, 11:36am
by: eon
I believe the recent server troubles have finally been resolved, as we've held steady for a few days now. *knocks on wood* As a side effect of all the work I did in tracking down the glitch, some helpful refinements were made in the code and in the way the server is set up. Ultimately, this has resulted in slightly smoother operation of the site. So smooth, it's scaaaaaary! Eh hem. So I hope you guys have a great Halloween. Have fun, keep it safe and watch out for the zombies and rabid chipmunks which are almost certain to be on the prowl tonight . . . Muah-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa!!
[reply] [19 comments]

Outages	Oct 14, 10:21pm
by: eon
The site was intermittently accessible and extremely slow for much of the day, today. This was due to a network failure at our webhost that has been addressed. They've informed me that we should no longer be affected by the issue. However, this issue was not related to the series of outages we've had over the past few days, which have run anywhere from a few hours to many hours in length. These outages are due to a problem actually somewhere on our server that I am still tracking. Basically, something is hanging the server up at random times, seemingly every 24 hours or so. I'm addressing this by setting up log files to monitor different things that might be related. After each crash, I'm going back through log files, looking for the cause and potentially setting up new logs to track other potential causes. Unfortunately, since the crashes happen without warning and at any given time, there's always the chance one will happen while I'm away. In which case, the server will be down for X amount of hours. Bear with me, I'm trying to check more frequently to reduce downtimes (though I do have to sleep occasionally!) and hopefully I will be able to track down the source of the failure soon. I'm also looking into some automated process to monitor the server and automatically reboot when it crashes. Additionally, I will be running some maintenance soon, sometime in the next few days. This will tie things up for hopefully no more than 2-3 hours. Thank you for your patience.
[reply] [13 comments]