Moo gua Neo Nai and the world wide Charles

Moo gua Neo Nai
Originally uploaded by newmania.

check out the other photos at Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nsl555/

Charles Cummings!

My friend, Charles, is having a birthday. He could be 21 or 15 or ageless. He is one for the ages and as genuine of a guy as you likely ever to meet. He does have a firm view of Heaven and can guarantee that there is an unlimited supply of chocolate milk. In Charles we Trust!


Charles, I miss our Napoli Tuesday nights (the best place in all of Taiwan) and our 3rd Floor office at San Ming (Do you have the grade 2 lesson plans ready?) and I miss you. Hope that this Birthday is bright and hopeful.
Ni xie huan Moo Gua Neo Nai ma?

:::...Lebowski Fest...:::"The dude abides"

:::...Lebowski Fest...:::: "What exactly is Lebowski Fest?

Lebowski Fest is a bowling event celebrating all things relating to the Coen Brothers 1998 film, The Big Lebowski. It can be likened to a Star Trek convention in a very loose sense. The event takes place at a bowling alley and includes unlimited bowling, costume , trivia, farthest traveled, and bowling contests, prizes, and what-have-you. The friend of the Coen Brothers who inspired the main character played by Jeff Bridges, Jeff 'The Dude' Dowd has been known to make an appearance and drink some White Russians. The 1st annual occurred in Fall of 2002 in Louisville, Kentucky and the 2nd annual took place in July 2003. We then headed way out west to Las Vegas for Lebowski Fest West in Feb., 2004. The 3rd Annual Lebowski Fest in June of 2004 brought over 4000 Achievers and included an outdoor concert with My Morning Jacket. Lebowski Fest New York was held in Aug. 2004. Lebowski Fest hit a milestone in LA when Jeff Bridges came out! "

Bicycles and Icicles: Piss off, thank you

Bicycles and Icicles: Piss off, thank you: "Bicycles and Icicles

The rants, ravings and random wanderings of a bicyclist in the frigid north."

Tim is a cyclist in Anchorage and has a few points of view that I'm happy he shares with us.

This post has alot of stuff I like in a blog post - a fedEx driver, a list of stuff that's wrong (the F*&K Yous) and what's right (the Thank Yous), and a pretty girl with a nice smile. Reprinted without permission here.

AlterNet: The 14 Worst Corporate Evildoers

AlterNet: The 14 Worst Corporate Evildoers: "Monsanto is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as Roundup. Roundup is sold to small farmers as a pesticide, yet harms crops in the long run as the toxins accumulate in the soil. Plants eventually become infertile, forcing farmers to purchase genetically modified Roundup Ready Seed, a seed that resists the herbicide. This creates a cycle of dependency on Monsanto for both the weed killer and the only seed that can resist it. Both products are patented, and sold at inflated prices."

That's the capital system working for us. So clever! now the trick is to multiply by negetive one and find out how to make a cycle of good and not evil.

check out the link to find more evil corporations. Hmmm are all corporations bad. Aren't the evil do'ers, um I mean board of directors, regular Joes and Janes? I can't say for sure, but I know I wouldn't sleep so well at night if I was directing this sort of injustice.
Thanks to Dave Pollard

Make Poverty History - What We Want - Aid

Make Poverty History - What We Want - Aid: "It should no longer be conditional on recipients promising economic change like privatising or deregulating their services, cutting health and education spending, or opening up their markets. Aid should support poor countries' and communities' own plans and paths out of poverty."

check out the movie "click" if you need a reason why fair trade is important. Oh and my favorite for the Grammy set - from Sarah Mclachlan - http://www.worldonfire.ca/

No Arms Sales to Africa.

CNN.com - U.N. adviser: West killing Africa with gun sales - Feb 2, 2006

Here is a brillant observation. Stop selling guns to Africa. Why not? It's seems that the arms trade is as corrupt as it gets. Stop it. Don't make a value judgement. Don't stop selling to just the "Bad" guys. Just stop it all.

While you are at it - why not just stop selling them. period. to anyone, anywhere. Stop making them.

Oetzi could have been infertile!

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Infertility link in iceman's DNA:
I love Oetzi Man! turns out he was shooting blanks... poor Oetzi. Maybe that's why people chased him down and put an arrow in the back of his skull. poor guy

Urban Ranger: build the habit of purposeful walking

Urban Ranger: build the habit of purposeful walking: "Remember Strider, in Lord of the Rings? They didn't call him Sneaker or Sprinter or Sworder, though he possessed these skills in abundance. His distinctive quality, the important, even lethal skill, for which he was named, was that of walking rapidly and mindfully over great distances. Not only could he thus outpace his enemies, but he came to outknow them."

This is a pretty funny rant type post. It starts with a poem and that really caught my eye. He makes a couple of good points and it's worth a skim.

I'm going for a walk.

Basic Web Design

Basic Web Design: "Create your own web site incorporating text and pictures. This technology is the cutting edge to make an impact on the world wide audience of the Internet. A benefit for small business, students, families, and individuals."

A blast from the past - My "Basic Web Design" class website from Prince William Sound Community College - October 1999. Yikes! It's very scary... but not bad for '99 I think.

jerome bruner - "professed and otherwise"

jerome bruner and the process of education: "It is surely the case that schooling is only one small part of how a culture inducts the young into its canonical ways. Indeed, schooling may even be at odds with a culture's other ways of inducting the young into the requirements of communal living.... What has become increasingly clear... is that education is not just about conventional school matters like curriculum or standards or testing. What we resolve to do in school only makes sense when considered in the broader context of what the society intends to accomplish through its educational investment in the young. How one conceives of education, we have finally come to recognize, is a function of how one conceives of culture and its aims, professed and otherwise. "

Professed and otherwise - that's chilling. What is the aim of our culture? What is the professed aim and what is the "otherwise" / unstated aim? That's what makes being a disruptive educator such a problem - you are caught up in the system (you are the system!) I imagine that it is incredibly hard to balance your personal "aims" with those of the system.

I wonder if there is a big happy place where the goals of the culture completely match up with everyone within the culture... The goals of the principle and the school board match up with our disruptive educators. It sounds like Nazi Germany - maybe our democracy can't be divorced from the struggling oppostites and that we are doomed to inch along in herky jerky movements of the pendulum swing.

I see a big fight in education ahead of us. It truely is the frontline of culture. Will the students see it as a completely out of touch internment camp whose main purpose is to stupify and pacify? and whose main outcome is a distrust of leadership on one hand and blind acceptance on the other?

oh Geez, do I really want to be an educator?

I have to blame this mad ramble of a post on someone - I blame these guys - jerome bruner and Mark Wagner.

May be going to hell in a bucket... but at least I'm enjoying the ride

So more about this John Perkins guy - the economic hit man. I really have to recommend the hour long recording of the Democracy Now show. Really good.

and from my last quote - the stat about Americans as 5% of the world's population using 25% of the worlds resources. That alone doesn't bother me. "The USA is the greatest country in the world". We have all heard this quote and, if we believe it, then we don't mind using those resources.

But what if what John Perkins says is true? What if we are assassinating democratically elected officials for the reasons of maintain our hegemony? What if we are stealing from the poor to give to the rich? It's shocking. and It's grotesque. Is it right to use all the oil and cheap (slave?) labor while destroying the environment and keeping the rest of the world away from our ideals?

We are tricking the developing world into playing our game and kill them if they wise up to it. Even when they believe in our system and our ideals. It's sick to think about.

I think it's clear - the leaders of America don't believe in Democracy, unless it agrees with them, unless it plays their game, unless it continues to keep them in power.

We use the very techniques we despise. Terroism, torture, corruption. to keep us in power. And for what purpose? to sit around and watch our bank accounts grow while the rest of the world withers. And they wither without a free press, without trial by jury, without fair elections.

This isn't a idle chat. People are dying. Everyday.

Now what if we used that power to help the developing world? What if we bet on the constitution and risk losing some power? What if we listen to and respect the developing world? Let them make mistakes. Let them grow up. Let them lead themselves. The democratic, free market will find a way.

Our involvement with developing nations is deplorable and it's time to fix it. The John Perkins book gives an insight into that issue.

Democracy Now! | Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions

Democracy Now! | Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions

Listen in to Democracy Now... or search for the book on Amazon - Search John Perkins

I found a link to book review in The Guardian from 3quarksdaily blog. The book is called "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins. He details his experience (fictionalized experience) as a member of the "international banking community" or as a spook / 007 / spy / CIA, NSA, Main, the company.../ whatever. He was the guy that pressured governments to turn there back on democracy (for the people, by the people) and face the international corporate marketplace - the American interests.

When I read the review I was floored. How can this be true? I'm hoping someone will buy the book and send it to me....

"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Gary Younge: A hit man repents

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Gary Younge: A hit man repents: "'The overall scheme is not a conspiracy,' he says. 'The corporatocracy is ourselves - we make it happen - which, of course, is why most of us find it difficult to stand up and oppose it"

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Gary Younge: A hit man repents

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Gary Younge: A hit man repents: "Perkins certainly has the zeal of a convert. 'America has to change,' he says. 'The people of South America have sent a very strong message to America and to the world. Latin Americans have sent us a message. Middle Easterners have sent us a message. The voters of the US have to take the next step. It's up to us now. We must take this seriously. We're a nation of people that represents 5% of the world's population and consumes 25% of the world's resources. Simple mathematics will tell you that you can't sell that model to China or Africa or India. But we don't want to hear that. Because if you're one of the 5%, then you're leading a damned good life. Even the poorest among us are leading a much better life than the much less poor in the rest of the world.'"

Don’t drive angry - Groundhog day movie

Open Source � Blog Archive � Groundhog Day: "Don’t drive angry: pay attention to whatever it is you’re doing"

Happy Groundhog Day, People!

"Well, I'm not THE God, I'm A God." People are talking about the Movie, "Groundhog Day" - It's a classic. It's the gospel of our modern, media staturated, confederacy of spiritual ideas. It's a Bill Murray tour de force.

Netflix it now!