Hopefully a collection of the Eclectic Mostly safe for work- but then again~ if you are reading this-?You are not working.
326 posts
Politicalsamurai - Purity Of Purpose - Tumblr Blog
I kindly disagree w/Owen.
Kindness is a default -you are not superior, nor do you deserve a Reward for Kindness…
It IS basic. -GOOD.
RUDE is Blatant Disregard for Kindness.
"Being rude is easy. It does not take any effort and is a sign of weakness and insecurity. Kindness shows great self-discipline and strong self-esteem. Being kind is not always easy when dealing with rude people. Kindness is a sign of a person who has done a lot of personal work and has come to a great self-understanding and wisdom. Choose to be kind over being right, and you’ll be right every time because kindness is a sign of strength." U.N. Owen.
BELOVED MASTER, IN YOUR PROPHETIC VISION, WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE?
Raju Bharathi, I have no prophetic vision. I am not a prophet -- I am not that old-fashioned at all. Do you think I am coming out of the Old Testament?
I am a twentieth-century man and still fully alive, and I don't care a bit about the future; neither do I care about the past. My whole concern is the present, because only the present exists. The past is no more, the future is not yet. Both are non-existential. Those prophets must have been mad who were concerned about the future. They were always talking about the future.
There are only two types of mad people in the world: a few who are always talking about the past, and a few who are always talking about the future. The people who are talking about the past are the historians, archaeologists, etcetera. And the people who are talking about the future are the prophets, visionaries, poets. I am neither.
My whole concern is this moment… now… here.
So drop that idea, Raju. Raju is a scientist, and naturally he is interested in the future of science. I am not a prophet, but one thing I can say, and it has nothing to do with the future really. It is happening right now. Because people are blind they cannot see it. I can see it. It has already become a reality.
The greatest thing that is happening -- which will be understood only later on -- is the meeting of science and religion, is the meeting of East and West, is the meeting of materialism and spiritualism, is the meeting of the outer and the inner, is the meeting of the extrovert and the introvert. But that is happening right now. It will grow in the future, but my concern is the present. And I am tremendously happy that something of great importance is on the way.
The seed has sprouted. You are so much concerned with the past or with the future that you can't see the small sprout that is growing right now. Here, under your eyes… the meeting of the opposites -- the opposites are turning into complementaries.
Science alone is only half and cannot be a fulfilment for man. It can give you a better body, it can give you better health, longer life. It can give you more comforts, more luxury. I am not against any of these. I am not an ascetic, I am not that stupid at all. But it can only give you things of the outer world -- which are beautiful in themselves. I would like everyone to live in more comfort, in more luxury, in better health, better nourished, better fed, better educated. But that's not all -- that is only the circumference of life, not the centre.
Religion provides the centre. It gives you a soul. Without it science is a corpse -- a beautiful corpse maybe. You can paint the corpse, you can wash the corpse and put beautiful garments on it, but a corpse is a corpse! And, remember, the same is the case with religion. Religion alone is not enough at all. Religion alone makes you a ghost, maybe a holy ghost, but it makes you a ghost.
You can see this happening in India. The whole country has become a holy ghost -- the body has disappeared, the physical health has disappeared, the material wealth has disappeared. And when there is no body to support a soul, you are simply talking nonsense. You can go on talking about the Brahman -- the ultimate reality -- but on a hungry stomach it does not work. It may be just an escape from reality.
If religion itself is not realistic it becomes an escape from reality. If religion is not materialistic enough it becomes an escape, it becomes a dream world, a Disneyland. That's what has happened in the East: we talked too much of the spirit and forgot all about the reality that surrounds us. We became introverts, too much concerned about ourselves. We forgot all about the beauties of the trees and the mountains and the sun and the moon and the stars. Humanity in the East became ugly. It has a centre but no circumference. Everything has shrunk to the centre.
The West has a circumference but no centre. People have everything, but something essential is missing.
Science and religion are becoming one. They are already becoming one. I am not saying they will become one, they are already becoming one. All the greatest scientists -- Eddington, Planck, Einstein -- people of the highest calibre in the world of science, became aware that science alone is not enough. There is something far more mysterious which cannot be grasped only through scientific methodology and means, something which needs a different approach, which needs more meditative awareness.
Eddington says in his autobiography, "When I started my career as a scientist I used to think that the world consisted of things, but as I grow old I am becoming more and more aware that the world does not consist of things but of thoughts."
Reality is far closer to thoughts than to things. Reality is far more mysterious than you can weigh, measure, than you can experiment with. Reality is not only objective but also subjective. Reality is not only content but also consciousness. And the greatest religious people, like J. Krishnamurti, are aware that religion cannot exist anymore as it has existed up to now. Something of a radical change is needed.
My own approach is that we have to create Zorba the Buddha. Today, just by coincidence, is Buddha's birthday, also his enlightenment day, and also the day of his death. He was born on this day, he became enlightened on this day, he died on this day. Today's full moon belongs to him. It is a strange coincidence that this long series of Buddha lectures -- one hundred and twenty-six lectures in all… when I started I had no idea that it would end today.
Just the other night Laxmi told me, "Tomorrow is Buddha Purnima" -- Buddha's full moon.
Let this day also be the birth of a new Buddha. The new Buddha will be a synthesis of Zorba the Greek and Gautama the Buddha. He cannot be just Zorba, and he cannot be just Buddha.
And that's my whole effort here, Raju, to create a bridge between Zorba and Buddha -- to create a bridge, a golden bridge, or a rainbow bridge, between the earth, this shore, and the farther shore, the beyond. It is happening here! You can't see it happening anywhere else….
We have all kinds of scientists here. Now, Raju himself has become a Sannyassin. He has great scientific intelligence. He is young, but of tremendous intelligence. He is one of those scientists who put the first man on the moon -- he belongs to that project. There are so many other scientists here. There are poets and musicians, painters -- all kinds of people, and they have all joined together in one great effort: meditation. There is only one meeting-point here and that is meditation. Only on one point do they meet; otherwise they all have their own individualities. Out of this meeting a tremendous explosion is possible. It is already happening. Those who have eyes can see it happening.
This may be the only place on the earth where all the countries are represented. We were missing Russians but now I am happy to say that they are also here. All the races are meeting here, all the religions are meeting here. This is a miniature universe, a small world, and we are all meeting here as human beings. Nobody is a Christian, Hindu or Mohammedan. Nobody knows who is a scientist, who is a musician, who is a painter, who is a famous actor. Nobody even tells….
Just the other day I came across the news: one of our Sannyassins has won a great, world-famous prize. She has been here, she was here for months, but she never told anyone that she is a great actress. And now she is world-famous; she is now thought to be one of the most serious contenders for the highest award. But she never told anybody anything.
There are musicians of great calibre, poets, authors, painters, sculptors, magicians… all kinds of people are here. And they have all met in a deep merging. Their only meeting-point is meditation -- and their love for their master.
A totally new science is bound to arrive. It will be both science and religion, only then can it be total. It will be science both of the inner and the outer. In fact, the days of religion are over, just science will do, one word will do. 'Science' is a beautiful word; it means knowing, wisdom.
Science should be divided in two categories: objective science -- chemistry, physics, mathematics, etcetera -- and subjective science. Then there is no need to divide religion and science. And the meeting of religion and science in one whole will create for the first time a whole man on the earth. Otherwise, up to now humanity has been schizophrenic, split, insane, divided.
I am all for the whole man, because to me the whole man is the holy man.
Osho
The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 12 Chapter #10 Chapter title: Forget all about it.
*Actually millions would die if 30 million humans “stopped participating by not going to work” etc.
What we need to do:
Is flip the script-
No holidays or weekends off, Ever- for banks or stock market or DMVs or for All Corporate and Government Agencies. Employ American Humans, who can freely choose their hours and shifts, available 24 hours a day. Pay Americas 25-40% interest to their Savings accounts.
Stop charging them outrageous interest on everything they buy through “credit”.
—Get rid of “rewards points” !!
Create 1 even ~set tax~ across the board, for every “consumer”; One that is simple, and literally affordable.
Stop Paying insane costs for communications and Cable TV.
Get rid of all junk mail and junk e-mail so the Post Office and all computers run effectively.
This Will All Come to an End When We Stand Together - Billy Carson
Paper or Plastic— ma’am?
—Shhee-itt… —I’ll take Titanium!!!
The Runabout, GM's 1964 concept car with three wheels and two built-in shopping carts for trips to the mall of the future.
Censored 9/11 footage 🤔
“I don’t think we should go back there-“
“-ME NEITHER…!” 👍
An unusually large eruption of one of Yellowstone’s geysers occurred at Biscuit Basin moments ago. 🤔
“I counted my years and found that I have less time to live from here on than I have lived up to now. I feel like that child who won a packet of sweets: he ate the first with pleasure, but when he realized that there were few left, he began to enjoy them intensely. I no longer have time for endless meetings where statutes, rules, procedures and internal regulations are discussed, knowing that nothing will be achieved. I no longer have time to support the absurd people who, despite their chronological age, haven't grown up. My time is too short: I want the essence, my soul is in a hurry. I don't have many sweets in the package anymore. I want to live next to human people, very human, who know how to laugh at their mistakes and who are not inflated by their triumphs and who take on their responsibilities. Thus human dignity is defended and we move towards truth and honesty It is the essential that makes life worth living. I want to surround myself with people who know how to touch hearts, people who have been taught by the hard blows of life to grow with gentle touches of the soul. Yes, I'm in a hurry, I'm in a hurry to live with the intensity that only maturity can give. I don't intend to waste any of the leftover sweets. I am sure they will be delicious, much more than what I have eaten so far. My goal is to reach the end satisfied and at peace with my loved ones and my conscience. We have two lives and the second begins when you realize you only have one. " "My Soul is in a Hurry", by Mario de Andrade
Land of the midnight Sun
Churchill, Manitoba
stephenwilkes
Engineers send 3D printer into space
Imagine a crew of astronauts headed to Mars. About 140 million miles away from Earth, they discover their spacecraft has a cracked O-ring. But instead of relying on a dwindling cache of spare parts, what if they could simply fabricate any part they needed on demand?
A team of Berkeley researchers, led by Ph.D. student Taylor Waddell, may have taken a giant leap toward making this option a reality. On June 8, they sent their 3D printing technology to space for the first time as part of the Virgin Galactic 07 mission.
Their next-generation microgravity printer—dubbed SpaceCAL—spent 140 seconds in suborbital space while aboard the VSS Unity space plane. In that short time span, it autonomously printed and post-processed a total of four test parts, including space shuttles and benchy figurines from a liquid plastic called PEGDA.
"SpaceCAL performed well under microgravity conditions in past tests aboard parabolic flights, but it still had something to prove," said Waddell. "This latest mission ... allowed us to validate the readiness of this 3D printing technology for space travel."
He added, "We hope that someday it may be used to manufacture everything from parts and tools for spacecraft to new contact lenses and dental crowns for crew members."
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, has evolved considerably since it was first patented in the 1980s. Hayden Taylor, associate professor of mechanical engineering, led a team of UC Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers that invented Computed Axial Lithography (CAL) technology in 2017.
This new type of additive manufacturing, which uses light to shape solid objects out of a viscous liquid, expanded the range of printable geometries and significantly increased the speed at which 3D parts could be printed. And it functioned well in microgravity conditions, opening the door to applications related to space exploration.
CAL technology is also what brought Waddell to Berkeley to pursue his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. As an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a Pathways Engineer at NASA, Waddell became captivated by 3D printing—from its seemingly magical ability to transform an idea into a physical form, to its affordability and accessibility.
Upon learning about CAL, he reached out to Taylor and soon found himself at Berkeley. There, he spent countless hours in Taylor's lab, working with other student researchers on new ways to leverage this technology for the greater good.
Reaching new heights
CAL stands apart from other 3D printing technologies because of its incredible speed—creating parts in as little as 20 seconds—and efficiency. By enabling astronauts to print parts quickly in an emergency and on demand, CAL potentially eliminates the need to bring thousands of spare parts on long-duration space missions.
"You can reduce that upmass, make these missions go faster and reduce risk by bringing manufacturing technologies with you," said Waddell.
In addition, CAL's unique ability to print well in microgravity conditions allows engineers to explore the limits of 3D printing from space.
"With CAL, we were able to demonstrate—first on those zero-G[ravity] missions and now on this spaceflight—that we can print parts in microgravity that are not possible on Earth," said Waddell.
To date, CAL has shown that it can successfully print with more than 60 different materials on Earth, such as silicons, glass composites and biomaterials. According to Waddell, this versatility could come in handy for both the cabin and the crew.
"So, with the cabin, if your spacecraft is breaking down, you can print O-rings or mechanical mounts or even tools," he said. "But CAL is also capable of repairing the crew. We can print dental replacements, skin grafts or lenses, or things personalized in emergency medicine for astronauts, which is very important in these missions, too."
Someday, CAL may be used to print even more sophisticated parts, such as human organs. LLNL has received a grant from NASA to test this technology on the International Space Station.
"They're going to basically do bioprinting on the Space Station," said Waddell. "And the long, long-term goal is to print organs up in space with CAL, then bring them back down to Earth."
Next, Waddell and his colleagues hope to begin work with NASA on developing and validating a single object that could support crew health and wellness, like a dental crown for an astronaut or a surgical wound closure tool.
"These experiments are really focused on pushing technology for the betterment of everyone," said Waddell. "Even though it's for space, there are always tons of ways it can benefit people back here on Earth."
It's also the type of technology that the Berkeley Space Center envisions being developed at its new 36-acre campus currently under development. The Berkeley Space Center will be a home for innovation and entrepreneurship, bringing together technologies developed by NASA and UC Berkeley, and commercialized through private industry.
"Imagine a place where private companies can take inventions like those created by Taylor Waddell and make it possible for these important discoveries to break out of the lab and into the public realm," said Darek DeFreece, a regent emeritus of the University of California and the head of UC Berkeley's efforts to develop the Berkeley Space Center. "We were cheering as we watched the historic Virgin Galactic 07 flight."
A collaborative effort
In many ways, the June 8 space mission was a culmination of years of research by all the students in Hayden Taylor's nanoscale manufacturing lab. Together, they are pushing the boundaries of a relatively new technology to see what is possible.
"This project is built on a team of many, many people," said Waddell, including student researchers Dillon Balk, Skyler Chan, Sean Chu, Brian Chung, Ameera Elgonemy, Jacob Gottesman, Anthony Moody, Jake Nickel, Dylan Potter, Austin Portinause, Anusri Sreenath and Audrey Young.
He also credits his advisor for providing critical support and the opportunity to take an active role in the evolution of CAL technology.
"Hayden is one of the best PIs out there. He gives me the responsibility to choose where I want to push this research," said Waddell. "With his last three SpaceCAL missions, he lets me lead them, from deciding who to hire and what we want to research to planning the whole trip. He really lets me be where I'm most passionate and use him as the resource to make that happen."
Virgin Galactic played a pivotal role in taking this project to the next level. "The team at Virgin Galactic helped us each step of the way, especially during the week preparing for the rocket launch," said Waddell.
"There were a lot of excellent engineers and passionate people who wanted to make sure that we were successful."
IMAGE: SpaceCAL 3D printer on VSS Unity, awaiting launch on June 8, 2024. Credit: Virgin Galactic
''The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power'' by Shoshana Zuboff, 2018 "I define surveillance capitalism as the unilateral claiming of private human experience as free raw material for translation into behavioral data. These data are then computed and packaged as prediction products and sold into behavioral futures markets — business customers with a commercial interest in knowing what we will do now, soon, and later. It was Google that first learned how to capture surplus behavioral data, more than what they needed for services, and used it to compute prediction products that they could sell to their business customers, in this case advertisers. But I argue that surveillance capitalism is no more restricted to that initial context than, for example, mass production was restricted to the fabrication of Model T’s. Right from the start at Google it was understood that users were unlikely to agree to this unilateral claiming of their experience and its translation into behavioral data. It was understood that these methods had to be undetectable. So from the start the logic reflected the social relations of the one-way mirror. They were able to see and to take — and to do this in a way that we could not contest because we had no way to know what was happening. We rushed to the internet expecting empowerment, the democratization of knowledge, and help with real problems, but surveillance capitalism really was just too lucrative to resist. This economic logic has now spread beyond the tech companies to new surveillance–based ecosystems in virtually every economic sector, from insurance to automobiles to health, education, finance, to every product described as “smart” and every service described as “personalized.” By now it’s very difficult to participate effectively in society without interfacing with these same channels that are supply chains for surveillance capitalism’s data flows." from an interview with Shoshana Zuboff in the Harvard Gazette in March of 2019. It's an interesting interview that I suggest you peruse.
Aaaaand.. gone
You know what? I don't want to change my VPN every six months cause it was caught selling information. I don't want to go deep into the settings of every website I so much as look at. I don't want my internet browsing to be a constant leap through hoops so that companies can't do things which should be illegal anyway. I want privacy to be the default and for it to be difficult to take it away, not the other way around. Is that too much to ask?
Greedflation is manifest.
I met Him- We both just happened to be in Manila~ Philippines, at the same time.
He was doing His Show- & I was working on a documentary about global warming/coral bleaching at the time.
“I’m a big believer in winging it. I’m a big believer that you’re never going to find perfect city travel experience or the perfect meal without a constant willingness to experience a bad one. Letting the happy accident happen is what a lot of vacation itineraries miss, I think, and I’m always trying to push people to allow those things to happen rather than stick to some rigid itinerary.”
— Anthony Bourdain (via wanderologie-)
All together now:
This jungle ride in Indonesia | source